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t980 A man was shot dead and fifteen others injured when Zambian policemen clashed with citizens rioting in protest against alleged ritual murders by a local businessman, police said Monday. U.S. President George W. Bush expressed confidence on Monday about passing an immigration bill and said a Senate vote of no-confidence in Alberto Gonzales would have no bearing on his service as attorney general. French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Tuesday in Washington that he would visit China later this month, joined by his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. These columns for release Tuesday, April 2, 2002 are moving today to clients of the New York Times News Service. Media and entertainment giant Viacom Inc. said Wednesday it may split into two divisions with one focussing on "growth" and the other, more traditional arm, aiming for "value". I don't know if ``Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'' is a good movie -- I haven't seen it. But I'm pretty certain that it shouldn't be judged as a movie at all. It is a visual representation of a book in which millions of people are Two car bombs blew up Monday in the working class town of Yehud, just hours after three Palestinian militants were killed by missiles fired by an Israeli helicopter in a pinpointed attack. Australia's farmers should remember rising fuel prices were hitting farmers worldwide and not just them, Deputy Prime Minister and National Party Leader John Anderson said Tuesday.

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t1088 Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin on Thursday proposed a three-phase solution to end the three-month-old conflict in Chechnya, starting with the declaration of demilitarised zones. Derek Jeter hit a go-ahead homer and finished with four hits, Alex Rodriguez added a home run and the New York Yankees beat the slumping Mets 11-8 Saturday. India has added almost 100 million people to its list of the poor, a move that will give a total of 372 million access to state welfare schemes and subsidies, a government official said Monday. Maybe a job applicant claims that he earned a bachelor's degree when he was actually one semester shy of graduation. Or he boasts of winning an award from a trade group that doesn't exist. Police on Wednesday handcuffed and led away three children and seven adults who tried to take water into the hospice where brain-damaged Terri Schiavo is being cared for. He was an important political figure, arrested for engaging in lewd conduct in a public men's Married, with children, he told no one. Instead he pleaded guilty without even hiring a lawyer, hoping the problem would quietly disappear. French judges investigating a scandal involving cash payments for airline tickets moved a step closer to President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday, questioning his daughter in the case that dates back to Chirac's time as Paris mayor. A book based on a cancer patient's diary, which has recorded the emotions of his last days on earth, is being printed and will hit the shelves soon, said Monday's China Daily.

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t3172 European light middleweight champion Laurent Boudouani has called off his fight with Britain's Steve Foster on April 11 after undergoing surgery for a hand injury. Two operations in a volatile southern Afghanistan province killed 26 Taliban militants, including several commanders, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Thursday. Air traffic disruption brought about by the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland is estimated to be costing airlines more than 200 million dollars per day, the International Air Transport Association said Friday. In two more indications that the ravaged telecommunications sector may yet to have hit bottom, Verizon Communications Tuesday announced it will take a $2.5 billion charge for failing wireless and optical investments, and Nortel Networks warned its first-quarter sales fell to under half of year-ago levels. Philippine share prices closed 0.80 percent lower Monday with investors quick to take profits ahead of the long upcoming Easter break, dealers said. Televisions hang on the wall these days, so why not aquariums? The AquaVista 500 is a wall-mounted, all-plastic freshwater aquarium that measures a little more than 2 feet square, and holds about 6.6 gallons. You can choose from an assortment of frame colors and styles, as well as different An Air Force pilot was killed Friday when a jet fighter crashed about 40 miles off the coast, officials said. About 600 wildlife experts from 60 countries will be gathering here for the 39th annual conference of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) from November 13 to 17, according to the WWF Nepal Office.

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t3173 Croatia has reversed its rejection of UN peacekeepers and will let a scaled-down force stay if the troops monitor Croatian borders in rebel-held regions, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said here Sunday. China criticized a climate change pact reached at last week's G-8 summit, saying Thursday that it was a good start but that more specific details are needed on how developed countries will contribute. US President Barack Obama huddled with his Afghan war cabinet on Friday, for the first full meeting since his administration publicly sparred with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The list of popularly accepted ``dangerous sports'' most often begins with football, boxing and auto racing. But in fatal injuries to young athletes, pole vaulting ranks close to the worst. Indonesia is to hike tobacco tax due to health concerns and a need for more income, a report said Monday, a week after US firm Philip Morris made a five billion-dollar bid to enter the lucrative market. Veteran Chicago rapper Common must be feeling special: He has the first No. 1 album of his career with ``Finding Forever,'' which sold 155,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Mark Mulder pitched seven perfect innings before Danny Bautista led off the eighth with Arizona's lone hit as the Oakland Athletics beat the Diamondbacks 3-0 Friday night. Five people died instantly and seven others were critically injured when two vehicles collided in eastern Uganda, Uganda's New Vision newspaper reported on Saturday.

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t3174 Palestinian police found two bombs along a road near a Jewish settlement due to be used by PLO chief Yasser Arafat returning from Egypt among seven devices discovered Sunday in Gaza. South Korea will send 350 peacekeepers to Lebanon in July, the Defense Ministry said Thursday, as part of international efforts to oversee a cease-fire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah. US conglomerate General Electric delivered an upbeat outlook on "earnings power" Friday as it reported a fall in first-quarter profit that was better than the market expected. Between Sunday night's New York opening of ``Topdog/Underdog'' and Monday afternoon's awarding of a Pulitzer Prize to Suzan-Lori Parks' play, there was a wild party, presided over by lead producer Carole Shorenstein Hays, whose first encounter with the first review _ a rave in the New York Times _ Three crewmen on a pirated Japanese tugboat were released unhurt in southern Thailand after being held captive for a week, officials said Monday. Dan Moldea has been beaten up by thugs, trashed in the press, accused of chilling free speech and threatened with prosecution. Wade Miller won his fourth straight start, and the Houston Astros rallied for five runs in the sixth inning to beat the Kansas City Royals 8-3 Friday night. This year's UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize has been awarded to French Scientist Michel Batisse for his outstanding contributions to the conservation of the earth's natural resources and the promotion of sustainable development, according to a news release by the Nairobi-based U. N. Environment Program (UNEP) available Saturday.

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t3175 British Prime Minister John Major arrived Sunday at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv becoming only the second serving British premier to visit Israel. A Filipino member of the international aid group Mercy Corps was shot in the head in eastern Sri Lanka, a spokeswoman for the group said Thursday. President Omar al-Beshir looked set to keep his grip on power as counting began on Friday in Sudan's first multi-party election in 24 years after five days of polling marred by logistical snags and charges of fraud. Between Sunday night's New York opening of ``Topdog/Underdog'' and Monday afternoon's awarding of a Pulitzer Prize to Suzan-Lori Parks' play, there was a wild party, presided over by lead producer Carole Shorenstein Hays, whose first encounter with the first review _ a rave in the New York Times _ China plans to invest 6.43 billion yuan (780 million dollars) to curb sulfur dioxide emissions spewing from the coal-fired power plants that are fueling its economic growth, state media said Monday. President Pervez Musharraf abruptly announced Wednesday he would not attend a traditional tribal council that the Pakistani leader was to have opened jointly in Afghanistan Thursday with his Afghan counterpart. New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine sent Florida's Cliff Floyd a letter Friday saying he regretted the controversy caused by not picking the Marlins' outfielder for the All-Star game. Experts from some two dozen United Nations bodies and other inter-governmental organizations are expected to meet from November 6 to 11 in Monaco to decide how to fortify international efforts to protect and sustainably use the world's oceans and coasts.

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t3176 US Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Sunday won support from the Gulf monarchies for maintaining sanctions against Iraq but also pressed them to end an embargo on Israel. Hundreds of Shiite Muslims protested across Indian-held Kashmir on Thursday against the destruction of two minarets at a revered Shiite shrine in Iraq, in a bombing blamed on al-Qaida insurgents. US conglomerate General Electric delivered an upbeat outlook on "earnings power" Friday as it reported a fall in first-quarter profit that was better than the market expected. Any citizen with a Web browser and five minutes could find out that Jane Fonda gave nearly $40,000 to Democratic Party and abortion-rights causes over the last three years. But that search of Federal Election Commission records would miss the lion's share of the famous actress's political generosity, more Rescuers searched Monday for survivors of a powerful earthquake in southern Japan that killed one woman, injured hundreds and caused several thousand people to flee their homes. If your doctor prescribed four simple pills that could reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, you would probably take them eagerly. An 8-year-old boy was in critical condition Friday after his arm was torn off by a bull shark, officials said. A team of experts organized by the U.N. Environment Program is expected to arrive in Kosovo on November 6 to assess the impact of ordnance containing depleted uranium (DU) used during last year's Balkans conflict.

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t3177 The chilly winds of post-Soviet reform and turmoil in Russia are also blowing at the Bolshoi Theatre, the famous showcase of Russian theatre and dance. British chef Gordon Ramsay's younger brother went on trial for heroin possession Thursday -- a charge that faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, court officials said. Air traffic disruption brought about by the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland is estimated to be costing airlines more than 200 million dollars per day, International Air Transport Association said Friday. A U.S. envoy is to travel to North Korea on Thursday to restart a dialogue that has been cut off for months. His visit is part of the busiest flurry of diplomatic activity here since the end of the Clinton administration. Beijing authorities plan to amend regulations that have allowed large swathes of the Chinese capital to be demolished, state media said Monday. U.S. aircraft opened fire on an east Baghdad neighborhood Wednesday, and the military later said it killed 32 members of an al-Mahdi militia offshoot in its latest strike against radical Shiite factions. Villagers angry at being expelled from their homes by a rebel advance mobbed an American diplomat _ underlining the tense atmosphere in which Western envoys are trying to transform a cease-fire into a lasting peace in Macedonia. Philadelphia 76ers remains undefeated as 76ers beat host Orlando Magic with Allen Iverson scoring 29 points and Theo Ratliff 14 points and 17 rebounds.

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t3178 Iran's official radio on Sunday urged Afghanistan's warring factions to end the fighting in Kabul following an Afghan government offensive in the capital. At least three Sunni mosques were attacked south of Baghdad on Thursday, police said, in apparent retaliation for the destruction of two minarets at the Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra a day earlier. Thailand's embattled prime minister put his army chief in charge of security in the capital Friday after a bungled raid on a hotel where leaders of the Red Shirt protest movement were holed up. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit of Turkey told a gathering of his political party last week that Israel's military incursions into the West Bank were genocide. Australia's second terrorism trial opened Monday with a court hearing that a man planned to carry out a suicide attack on government buildings to kill either intelligence or foreign affairs officers. Here are the latest data on 12th-grade achievement from the National Assessment of Educational Progress testing series known as ``the nation's report card.'' Scores are classified, in order, as showing basic, proficient or advanced levels of performance. Shawn Wooten homered and drove in three runs, helping Ramon Ortiz and the Anaheim Angels beat Mike Hampton and the Colorado Rockies 6-5 Friday night. Canadian pair skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier won the pair skating at the Skate Canada in Mississauga, Ontario on Friday, beating Russia's two-time world champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze to the second place.

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t3179 Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi turned the screws Sunday on Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, giving him two months to unite the Zulu nation or face being sidelined. Malaysia's leader promised to do everything possible to fight human trafficking, after the U.S. blacklisted the country for allegedly not doing enough about the problem. A German court fined renegade British Catholic bishop Richard Williamson for Holocaust denial Friday in a case that has deeply embarrassed the Vatican. With a crisp salute and a rousing speech, President Pervez Musharraf opened his one-man campaign on Tuesday to stay in office for five more years. A US soldier was killed in action on Sunday in Iraq's restive Al-Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the US military said Monday. U.S. forces staged a major two-pronged attack on a neighborhood controlled by Shiite militia groups Wednesday morning, killing at least 17 people, according to the military and Iraqi police. North Korea sent fighter jet pilots to combat U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, the communist state's official news media reported. Addressing more than 100 noted Chinese and Russian entrepreneurs, the prime minister urged the business people of the two countries to make joint efforts to push the two-way trade to a new high.

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t3495 Nippon Challenge came from behind at the last mark to defeat Spain's Rioja de Espana by 13 seconds and take the final position in the America's Cup challenger semifinals here Wednesday. Romania's prime minister held talks Tuesday with EU leaders on his country's troubled justice system, amid concerns that the government lacks commitment to further reforms. Next year's Six Nations will start on a Friday for the first time when Wales host England in Cardiff, organisers of Europe's leading international rugby union tournament said Wednesday. U.S. officials were scrambling Thursday to determine whether a 22-year-old captive from the war in Afghanistan is a U.S. citizen. The Ugandan army said Friday it killed seven Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters and rescued 13 children from rebel captivity in clashes with the group in the war-scarred north of the country. Even as President Bush last week named four to fill long-standing vacancies on federal appeals courts, conservative legal activists were spoiling for a fight over what they call the unfair treatment of the president's judicial nominees. Pudgy and shy, 13-year-old Matt Shafer had an outlet in rap but few to really share it with _ until a chance day he saw Bob Ritchie work the deejay's turntable. The Guatemalan government has asked a renewal of the U.N. Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), the mission said in a communique issued in Guatemala City on Saturday.

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t3790 Canada has agreed to a guaranteed quota for Australian beef imports from the beginning of 1996, Australian Trade Minister Bob McMullan said Tuesday. Australia will reject a United Nations request to send troops to the Darfur region of Sudan because the deployment would overstretch forces already committed to countries including Iraq and Afghanistan, Prime Minister John Howard said Friday. At least eight people were hurt Saturday when two bombs exploded at a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Bangalore, sparking panic among fans and stoking security fears ahead of the Commonwealth Games. A band of showers and thunderstorms will stretch from the Ohio Valley to the Southern Plains on Friday as a cold front pushes east. Ahead of the front, unseasonably mild air will surge into the Ohio Valley and interior Northeast. Temperatures will climb into the 70s across western New The China basketball league moves into its final round Wednesday, after two divisional playoffs saw defending league champion Guangdong Hongyuan win the southern division and Liaoning Panpan win the north. When the film ``Maxed Out'' arrived in theaters in March, it met with a modest reception: James Scurlock's documentary about America's debt crisis featured crisp editing, engaging stories, a poppy music score and an urgent message about Americans' addiction to credit, our alarming level of personal debt, and the Macedonia's fractious political parties resumed negotiations Monday on a new peace plan that aims to end months of clashes and instability that have threatened to plunge the country into civil war. An international festival featuring sculptures of colored sand will be held next March in Luliang County of southwest China's Yunnan province.

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t1233 Michael Johnson, who improved his own indoor 400m world record to 44.63 on Saturday, said he was heading home to Dallas, Texas, to start training for the 200m and 400m outdoors. His 200m split in his record- breaking run was 21.08. The names and faces of famous New Yorkers including Mickey Mantle, Judy Garland and Malcolm X would be protected in New York from advertising and promotion not authorized by their estates under a measure pushed by Al Pacino and Yoko Ono. A South African surfer survived a shark attack after wrestling away from the hungry predator off the country's southeastern coast, local media reported Tuesday. If you can afford club seats at Astros Field this season, you will be able to dine on pheasant quesadillas and wild-boar tamales, with a side salad of field greens in a three-pepper balsamic vinegar dressing, served in a hollowed-out multi-grain dinner roll. Police in Vietnam were investigating a man for his suspected role in distributing a pornographic film on the Internet showing him in sex acts with a noted actress, an officer said Thursday. I suppose I'll merely expose myself to harmless ridicule if I make the following assertion: George W. Bush's presidency will probably be a successful one. Republican House leaders urged the Bush administration Monday to uphold a ban on embryonic stem cell research and block any federal funding of projects that use such cells. Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik extended his lead over world chess number one Gary Kasparov in the world chess championships on Tuesday.

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t3791 Life returned to normal across Bangladesh Tuesday as an opposition- called 48-hour anti-government strike ended, but the opposition says the calm won't last long. Naomi Campbell has settled a lawsuit with a former employee who claims the British supermodel abused her verbally and physically on three continents. Rafael Nadal moved closer to his first trophy in almost a year with a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Spanish compatriot David Ferrer to reach another final of the Monte Carlo Masters on Saturday. These Sports stories for release Friday, April 12, 2002, are moving today to clients of the New York Times News Service. Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura plans to visit China next month for talks on the deteriorating relations between the Asian neighbors, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Jeffrey Blitz claims he's ``allergic'' to autobiographical films, but his latest movie, ``Rocket Science,'' which he wrote and directed, makes you wonder how much of Blitz is in the film's main character, Hal Hefner. Rain showers took aim at the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys early Monday, while thunderstorms threatened to spark across the Gulf Coast and northern Plains. China recently completed the expansion of a liquid transshipment base at its largest land port city of Manzhouli in a bid to import more crude oil from Russia.

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t3792 Tens of thousands of Tibetans, isolated without food since mid- February following the heaviest snowfalls in 50 years, had special aid packages dropped from helicopters, a government official in Lhasa said Tuesday. The architect of the business plan for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics is moving on after only 20 months in the job. Some 200,000 volunteers joined a nationwide campaign Saturday to clean up this country of two million, removing garbage that is an eyesore in many areas of EU member state Slovenia. The House on Thursday easily approved pension reform legislation proposed by President Bush to prevent disasters like the one that wiped out Enron workers' savings. By most accounts, Terri Schiavo, whose plight has triggered an unprecedented mobilization of the White House and Congress, would not have approved the fuss over her plight. Taking the concept of the antihero to extremes is ``Dexter,'' a Showtime series starring Michael C. Hall in the title role as a forensics analyst who just happens to be a serial killer in his spare time. The opposition party of former President Sali Berisha said Monday it would file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights alleging vote fraud by the Socialist-led government in weekend runoff elections. The renovation of the famous Zhongshan Warship has been completed after 10 months' work, but the plan to let the vessel sail again has been grounded, said sources form the Hubei Shipyard in central China.

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t3793 China understands the worries of Hong Kong residents about the resumption of Beijing's sovereignty over the territory in 1997, a senior Chinese official said in a rare admission. In a June 13 story about global trade talks, The Associated Press reported the World Trade Organization's top official said a new global trade pact would still be worthwhile even if it fails to lower manufacturing tariffs in countries such as Brazil, China and India. The story should have Saudi Arabia on Saturday announced plans to build a new centre for nuclear and alternative energy technologies aimed at diversifying power generation away from its oil and natural gas wealth. The House on Thursday easily approved pension reform legislation proposed by President Bush to prevent disasters like the one that wiped out Enron workers' savings. All Blacks hardman Keith Robinson has made a surprise return to contact training this week just days after being advised his career could be over because of lingering back and knee injuries. Louis Braille developed a system of printing for blind people, James Naismith invented the game of basketball, Willis Carrier gave us air conditioning (thank you, Willis!) and Russia Ball came up with the Wish Maker. President Abdurrahman Wahid warned Monday that he will declare a state of emergency and call new elections unless lawmakers drop their impeachment drive against him by July 20. The main focus of the two-day Asia Conference of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) will be identifying reasons of the fall of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Asia's developing nations, the Financial Express reported Tuesday.

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t3794 Narcotics authorities from 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region opened their first working-level talks Tuesday to cooperate in rooting out drugs from the region. A beleaguered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency and disbanded the Hamas-led unity government after the Islamic militant group vanquished its Fatah rivals and effectively took control of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitic netted twice to put Schalke 04 top of the Bundesliga in a 3-1 win over Moenchengladbach on Saturday, but Bayern Munich can retake the lead if they beat Hanover later. Whatever economic revival may be developing in the United States and elsewhere, it isn't doing much for Mexico's struggling manufacturers. Hong Kong share prices ended the morning 0.2 percent lower Tuesday as overnight Wall Street falls hit investor sentiment already dampened by expectations that a hike in US interest rates will trigger similar moves here, dealers said. Are you vacationed-out, tired of video-gaming, waterlogged by too many trips to the pool and ready to scream if you see one more ``SpongeBob'' rerun? Two men were beheaded in Riyadh on Monday for killing a man with a meat cleaver after a financial dispute. The following are exchange rates against the Pakistani rupee issued by the Treasury Management Division of the National Bank of Pakistan on Tuesday.

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t3795 A bus driver who reportedly fell asleep after 15 straight hours on the road ran his bus into a ravine Monday, killing 22 people, officials said. The violent crisis in Gaza has led the White House to reconsider tentative plans for President George W. Bush to give a major address this month on his hopes for Middle East peace. Nearly 17,000 flights in European airspace were cancelled on Saturday as a vast cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland lingered over the continent, Eurocontrol said. Secretary of State Colin Powell today (Friday) begins an excruciatingly difficult round of truce talks that could have critical consequences for the future of the Middle East. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Tuesday cut Thailand's 2005 growth forecast by 0.25 percentage points to 5.25-6.25 percent after moves to end a costly fuel subsidy scheme aimed at protecting the economy from surging world oil prices. Many of the most explosive and virulent online videos -- think: ``Star Wars Kid,'' ``Numa Numa'' and the recent interpretation of ``Thriller'' by Filipino prisoners -- manage to be at once bizarre, hypnotic and borderline upsetting. Tay Zonday's new hit YouTube song, ``Chocolate Rain,'' is no exception. Slick streets made for tricky running Monday as bulls and daredevils tumbled repeatedly during the San Fermin festival's famed morning bull run. An American and a Canadian were gored but were not seriously injured, the Red Cross said. Market forces won't be enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and regulations should be used as well, New Zealand Energy Minister Pete Hodgson Tuesday told a local business audience including most of the country's major greenhouse gas emitters.

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t3796 Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan said Monday that he would run for president in 1996 after a campaign four years ago that many saw as divisive for the Republican Party. An unseen collection of Frida Kahlo's clothing, drawings and personal keepsakes found inside trunks and a walled-up room will soon be displayed at the artist's home-turned-museum to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth. Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday the Roman Catholic Church had been wounded by sin as he flew to Malta on his first foreign trip since a wave of priest sex abuse scandals broke in Europe and the United States. China published new statistics about the severity of its AIDS epidemic on Thursday, estimating that 850,000 people had been infected with HIV by the end of 2001, up 30 per cent from government estimates released last summer. Indonesia and Malaysia on Tuesday began negotiations to settle a dispute over an oil-rich maritime area claimed by the two countries, the Indonesian foreign ministry said. Seb Hunter's ``Rock Me Amadeus'' hooked me the moment I opened it in a Manchester bookshop and saw its epigraph, a quote from Elvis: ``I don't know anything about music. In my line, you don't have to.'' An eight-member team of Indonesian police officers and prosecutors arrived in East Timor on Monday to investigate the killing of a New Zealand U.N. peacekeeper last year. Libya cherishes its relations with China and tries to promote Sino-African cooperation, said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi when meeting a delegation from the Communist Party of China (CPC) Monday in Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

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t3797 South Korea's ruling and opposition parties ended a bitter parliamentary dispute on Tuesday over a controversial election law, party officials said. The judge in Phil Spector's murder trial threatened to jail a former attorney for the record producer if she refuses to testify about possible evidence that was never given to prosecutors. Part of northern Spain's airspace was closed Saturday due to the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland but flights were being re-routed further south and are not affected, aviation authority AENA said. Xerox Corp. reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday after the agency filed a lawsuit against the company in federal court in Manhattan, accusing it of fraudulently using its accounting to ``burnish and distort'' its financial results for four years. At least ten people were killed and a dozen injured after a disturbed student shot and killed his grandparents and then went on a shooting rampage in a Minnesota high school before committing suicide, according to local media Monday. Jolee Mohr died in July at age 36 after receiving experimental treatment for arthritis. ``It was supposed to be just a simple thing,'' said her husband, Robb, but something went horribly wrong. BOSTON RED SOX_Placed LHP Pete Schourek on the 15-day disabled list. Purchased the contract of RHP Carlos Castillo from Pawtucket of the International League. Designated RHP Jin Ho Cho for assignment. AUC pledged to free five other members of parliament on Monday to put a two-week long hostage ordeal to an end.

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t3798 China indicated Tuesday it would step up moves away from the key socialist principle of free education for all, while pledging to clamp down on blatant manifestations of elite schooling. The Indy Racing League fined American driver Ed Carpenter an undisclosed amount of money on Thursday for using inappropriate language during an interview at Texas Motor Speedway last week. Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery embarked Saturday on their journey back to Earth after undocking from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said. Early on the morning of Sept. 11, I was reading a biography of Lincoln and relishing the cloistered atmosphere of the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers, tucked away on the second floor of the main research building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Around 8:50, Malaysia's richest state will rethink a four billion ringgit (1.05 billion dollar) project to turn part of its coastline into a beach paradise rivalling Australia's Gold Coast amid environmental concerns, a report said Tuesday. It wasn't built to watch the playoffs. And you can't tune it to HBO. Yet students and professors at the University of California, Irvine say they've spent some scintillating days looking at the human brain, cancer cells and weather maps. Thousands of people stacked sandbags to fight off floodwaters in southern China, where the death toll from tropical storm Utor rose to 23 on Monday, according to state media. Eight people onboard a light aircraft survived a crash Monday evening in a wooded area of Canada's western city of Winnipeg.

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t3799 Chinese investors have snapped up 30 percent of this year's crucial state treasury bonds issue, just 10 days after going on sale, the People's Daily said Tuesday. A fashion journalist who was convicted of kidnapping, robbing and sexually molesting a former co-worker while in firefighting gear has written to the judge who will sentence him Monday to ask him for leniency. Austria's air authority extended the closure of its airspace to 0000 GMT Sunday because of the cloud of volcanic ash over Europe, as airlines pushed for flights to be allowed to resume. For those who think that movies by the Farrelly brothers or Todd Solondz are the Mount Kilimanjaro of bad taste, it's time to grab your parka and goggles _ there's a new peak to climb. It's the cold, dreary oxygen-deprived wastes of ``The Sweetest Thing.'' Whatever you say about North Korea raised the stakes in the nuclear standoff on Tuesday, saying it had increased its atomic arsenal as Washington pressed Pyongyang to return to six-party talks. Atlantic's EGO Waterproof Sound Case for iPod double-dog-dares you to toss your beloved music player into the nearest swimming pool. At the old British colonial prison in Sierra Leone's war-scarred capital, a high wall, electric fence and tents full of guards armed with AK-47s separate rebel leader Foday Sankoh from the country he laid waste to for 10 years. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has approved the launch of four new life insurance companies, China Securities said today.

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t3828 Some 26 people died and 20 others were seriously injured after a passenger bus collided with a truck and plunged into a ravine in southern China, a report said Tuesday. Ruth Graham, who surrendered dreams of missionary work in Tibet to marry a suitor who became the world's most renowned evangelist, had died in North Carolina. She was 87. Britain has extended a ban on most flights in its airspace until at least 7:00 am (0600 GMT) on Sunday due to the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, air authorities announced. A persistent Da Newz reader by the name of Everett Fowler has given me a short list of Christian hip-hop artists who either have albums out now or will have in the next few weeks: China's booming economic miracle is expanding at a highly unsustainable rate, creating tremendous pressures on resources while bankrupting the environment, a leading environmentalist warned Tuesday. Excerpts from a recent Washington Post online reader chat with CollegeHumor.com editor Streeter Seidell, who took questions about what to expect when embarking to campus for the first time this fall. Rescuers pulled people from roofs and rushing water as flash floods struck southern and central West Virginia communities still trying to recover from an earlier round of high water. Chilean telecommunication company Smartcom PCS launched the first Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) mobile phone service in Chile last week, the local economic newspaper El Diario said on Monday.

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t1235 A young German violinist plans to sue the London Philharmonic Orchestra after its conductor, her nephew by adoption, cancelled her London debut on the grounds she was "not ready," the Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday. Albanian opposition parties threatened to boycott the first round of presidential elections next week because the governing party choose its own candidate without consulting the opposition, officials said Monday. India's Maoist rebels top the list of the worst human rights offenders among the myriad of insurgent groups in the country, a study on torture in the world's largest democracy said Tuesday. If you can afford club seats at Astros Field this season, you will be able to dine on pheasant quesadillas and wild-boar tamales, with a side salad of field greens in a three-pepper balsamic vinegar dressing, served in a hollowed-out multi-grain dinner roll. A Spanish businessman of Iraqi origin who was held hostage for several weeks in Iraq has been freed and brought back to Spain, the foreign ministry here announced Thursday. Farmers here call these sandblasted acacia orchards the ``gardens of our grandfathers,'' and for centuries the sticky amber sap flowing from them helped to bind civilization. Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki became the first rookie to draw the most votes and was among four Mariners elected by fans Monday to start next week's All-Star game at Safeco Field. Veteran Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands eliminated fifth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferreros of Spain 6-4, 6-3 in the opening round of the Swiss indoors tennis championships in Basle, Switzerland on Tuesday.

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t3829 Japan's crude steel production in February rose 12.3 percent from a year earlier to 8.127 million tonnes for the seventh consecutive year- on-year increase, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation said Tuesday. Age is finally catching up with West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd in the winter of his 54-year career in Congress. Airspace across northern Italy will remain closed until 0600 GMT on Sunday due to the expanding cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland, the Italian civil aviation authority ENAC said. For years, the Staples chain of office-supply stores has been assuring consumers, ``Yeah, we've got that,'' in humorously offbeat campaigns from Cliff Freeman & Partners in New York. South Korea's economy grew 4.6 percent in 2004, well short of the government's five percent target as slow domestic demand undercut robust exports, the central bank said Tuesday. Some of my favorite radio stations don't have DJs. But they do include some other features not found on FM: a button to pause playback, another to skip to the next song and, most important, a playlist I can customize. President Kim Dae-jung refused to meet a high-level Japanese delegation Monday in a show of anger over Tokyo's refusal to revise history textbooks that critics say whitewash Japan's wartime atrocities. Chile has outpaced other Latin American countries in the development of telecom industry, boasting the highest per capita investment in the region and a popularity of telephone services.

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t4638 Unexpectedly high producer price and industrial output rises fuelled fears the US economy was overheated, and that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates, sending blue chips lower Wednesday. U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill says the next round of North Korean nuclear disarmament talks could be held in early July. US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will lead mourners on Sunday at a memorial service in West Virginia for the dead of the worst US mining tragedy in decades. Digital video recorders are the rage. The picture is better, and units like the Replay TV _ which uses a hard disk instead of videotape _ have features not available with old-fashioned VCRs. European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday that maintaining an arms embargo on China is "unfair" given the changes in China since it was imposed in 1989. "Justice League of America" is exactly the kind of movie Warner Bros. loves to make. Based on the classic DC Comics series, the script is filled with a dream team of recognizable superheroes -- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash -- and could not only become its own franchise, A prosecution expert said Tuesday that a former Ku Klux Klansman is faking mental problems and is competent to stand trial for the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. A total of 2.2 billion euros ( 1.870 billion U.S. dollars) of investments departed from Portugal's stock-market from January to August this year, according to a report released by Bank of Portugal Friday.

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t5015 Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin on Thursday proposed a three-phase solution to end the three-month-old conflict in Chechnya, starting with the declaration of demilitarised zones. Derek Jeter hit a go-ahead homer and finished with four hits, Alex Rodriguez added a home run and the New York Yankees beat the slumping Mets 11-8 Saturday. India has added almost 100 million people to its list of the poor, a move that will give a total of 372 million access to state welfare schemes and subsidies, a government official said Monday. Maybe a job applicant claims that he earned a bachelor's degree when he was actually one semester shy of graduation. Or he boasts of winning an award from a trade group that doesn't exist. Police on Wednesday handcuffed and led away three children and seven adults who tried to take water into the hospice where brain-damaged Terri Schiavo is being cared for. He was an important political figure, arrested for engaging in lewd conduct in a public men's room. Married, with children, he told no one. Instead he pleaded guilty without even hiring a lawyer, hoping the problem would quietly disappear. French judges investigating a scandal involving cash payments for airline tickets moved a step closer to President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday, questioning his daughter in the case that dates back to Chirac's time as Paris mayor. A book based on a cancer patient's diary, which has recorded the emotions of his last days on earth, is being printed and will hit the shelves soon, said Monday's China Daily.

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t5201 South Africa's monetary authorities will follow a restrictive monetary policy in 1995, the governor of the central Reserve Bank, Chris Stals, told parliament Friday. Belgian state broadcaster RTBF said early predictions show French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party will win Sunday's runoff elections for parliament. Airspace in northern Italy will be closed until Tuesday at 0600 GMT due to ash from a volcano eruption in Iceland, said Italy's civil aviation authority on Monday, revising a previous statement. Lance Berkman finally got rid of the long, unkempt locks that brought him so much grief and unwanted attention at the start of the season. But his power remained perfectly intact against the Reds. The battle between the two Ambani brothers who own India's largest private sector conglomerate, the Reliance group, is on the brink of settlement, reports said Thursday. Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee will grab most of the headlines this week as he enters the race for the White House, but Mitt Romney likes where he stands in the race for the Republican nomination. The Associated Press reported erroneously July 10 the amount that Sen. John McCain wanted stripped from security preparations for the 2002 Winter Olympics and given to the military. His amendment, which failed, would have shifted $30 million, not $60 million. China's special economic zones hosted a grand gathering to mark the 20th anniversary of their founding, Tuesday in Shenzhen City, one of the zones in south China's Guangdong Province.

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t5202 South Korea accused North Korea Friday of staging its largest air exercises in years ahead of new talks on the peninsula's nuclear problem, but pressed ahead with plans to finance new reactors for its pugnacious neighbor. Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza and the leader of Burundi's holdout rebels agreed Sunday that rebel members held in Burundian prisons be released, a key issue that has slowed down implementation of a nine-month old cease-fire. Airlines want governments to reopen routes through the volcanic ash cloud over Europe, the International Air Transport Association said Monday, saying the crisis is "now greater that September 11". Aquila, formerly called UtiliCorp United Inc., said it will establish state offices to oversee its domestic gas and electric utilities, which have 1.3 million customers in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota. The NSW Waratahs may be unbeaten after a month's Super 12 rugby but tournament heavyweights Canterbury Crusaders are the favourites with bookmakers to win their sixth southern hemisphere provincial crown. Scientists have for the first time determined the order of virtually every letter of DNA code in an individual, offering an unprecedented readout of the separate genetic contributions made by that person's mother and father. You gotta like Murray Burns, the hero of Herb Gardner's 1962 comedy ``A Thousand Clowns,'' being revived on Broadway with most of its charm intact and a personable Tom Selleck in the leading role. Two swans became " distinguished" guests of a hotel in north China's Shanxi Province since they had trouble in their flying to the warm south for the winter season.

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t5203 Iran Friday opened a major rail link between the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas and the north of the country at a ceremony attended by leaders of neighbouring states in Central Asia. A shadowy group holding a British correspondent for three months threatened on Sunday to kill him, in a video broadcast by the Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel. Croatia overnight Monday reopened its airspace and the latest of its airports that were closed due to the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland which has disrupted air traffic in much of Europe. Better yet, construction of the state-of-the-art facility at the interchange of Interstate 70 and 110th Street in Kansas City, Kan., won't cost the state a dime. A Taliban militant has been killed in a firefight with US-led coalition forces in southeast Afghanistan that also left two children and a woman dead, the US military said Thursday. However, the president offered no timetable on a withdrawal and did not suggest how many troops might be involved. And he insisted that decisions on force levels should not be driven by "a nervous reaction by Washington politicians or poll results." An Oklahoma appellate court ruled Wednesday that trying Terry Nichols on state murder charges for the Oklahoma City bombing does not violate his right against being tried twice for the same offense. The Shenzhen Composite Index closed at 640.25 points Tuesday, up 0.59 percent compared with the last close. The sub-index closed at 4,927.29 points, up 0.28 percent from the last close.

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t5204 A Frenchman and an Israeli art dealer appeared in court on Friday linked with the theft of 14 masterpieces in Paris last month. U.N. peacekeeping force in South Lebanon says rocket attack on Israel is a "serious breach" of cease-fire, urges parties to exercise maximum restraint. Danish authorities reopened airspace to flights above 35,500 feet (10,670 metres) Monday, but said restrictions on flights below the limit would remain in place until 02:00 am (0000 GMT). After the Monday afternoon release of first-quarter results that beat Wall Street estimates, shares in Sprint's traditional wireline business rose 21 percent and shares in its wireless division jumped 26 percent. FON shares closed at $16.26 on Tuesday, up $2.79. PCS shares closed at $12.60, up $2.58. Australian troops will Friday leave Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province, three months after beginning their disaster relief mission in the region worst-hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Day was admitted to the hospital Aug. 22 with respiratory problems related to emphysema and died of complications of the disease, his wife, Lynn, said. A doctor said Wednesday that a Palestinian woman in labor was barred from passing an Israeli military checkpoint for an hour, giving birth in her car to a baby boy who died before reaching a medical clinic. Israel said the claim was ``unfounded.'' To increase the safety in coal mines as well as regulate the supervision over safety in coal mines, China's State Council has issued a regulation concerning safety in coal mines.

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t5205 The chairman and other officials of failed South Korean conglomerate Doksan Business Group face arrest for illegally pocketing funds before staging a bankruptcy, prosecutors said Friday. Residents emerged from their homes Sunday at the end of a four-day lockdown and found themselves caught in traffic congestion born of hundreds of new police and army checkpoints. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has approved sites for new uranium enrichment plants in Iran, a close aide of the hardliner told the ILNA news agency on Monday. Among the many lessons learned or reinforced at the 2002 Masters, this one jumps to the top of the list: Japan on Thursday called for dialogue to ease mounting tension with South Korea whose President Roh Moo-Hyun told the country to prepare for a "diplomatic war" with its neighbour. Hillary and Bill Clinton brought their traveling political road show to Iowa on Labor Day. The former first lady and the former president, by now long practiced as a political duo, continued the process of role reversal in the pursuit of a history-making presidency. Qualifier Glenn Weiner beat his doubles partner and longtime friend Andre Sa of Brazil 7-6 (3), 7-5 Wednesday in a rain-abbreviated schedule at the Hall of Fame Championships. Li Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said the Three Gorges Hydraulic Project, the world's largest of its kind, should also be the best built.

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t5207 Azerbaijani government troops crushed a coup attempt by rebel policemen and killed their leader in a bloody gun-battle Friday in the Caucasus republic's capital Baku, President Geidar Aliyev said. Defending champion Troy Bayliss of Australia won both races of the World Superbike championships Sunday and moved into second place in the title race. The ban on flights in Britain's airspace will remain in place until "at least" 1:00 am (0000 GMT) Tuesday because of the volcanic ash cloud, aviation authorities said. It might be time to harbor serious concerns about the Los Angeles Dodgers offense, because not even Coors Field is helping. A British botanist who went for a walk in a Malaysian jungle has been rescued after being lost for five days, a report said Thursday. As Sen. Barack Obama led a rowdy mob down the street here during a Labor Day parade, an organizer wearing a Mitt Romney pin stood on the sidewalk and stared in astonishment. A wall of flame crashed down on firefighters huddled in their silver emergency shelters in a narrow canyon in the north Cascade Mountains, killing four of them in the deadliest wildfire since 1994. The impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada at the Senate will begin next month and the chamber is hopeful it will be finished at the soonest possible time, newly elected Senate President Aquilino Pimentel said Tuesday.

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t5234 Alcohol does not feature much in the lives of Chechnya's primarily Moslem population, but that has not stopped the Chechens adapting the bootleggers' art to improvise oil refining in their own backyards. A shadowy group holding a British correspondent for three months threatened on Sunday to kill him, in a video broadcast by the Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel. Czech airspace has reopened for overflights above 7,450 metres (yards) although the country's airports remain closed, air-traffic controllers said on Monday. Many people think of GPS as a convenient means for getting from one place to another without having to ask strangers for directions. Armed with inexpensive receivers no bigger than cell phones, folks who are directionally challenged can tune in to a constellation of 24 Global Positioning System satellites Skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq scored a fluent 55 not out to help Pakistan survive early blows in the third and final Test against India here on Thursday. The best marching bands step together, chins high, drum line pulsing thunder, horns and woodwinds rising, dipping and swinging, a brightly plumed, brass-buttoned team united in music and movement. Police with bomb-sniffing dogs checked stadium grandstands before the Wednesday night opening of the Copa America soccer tournament, nearly suspended because of fears of political violence. The International Conference and Exhibition on Office Automation Technology, the first of its kind in China, is scheduled for November 21 to 23 in Beijing.

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t1297 Unexpectedly high producer price and industrial output rises fuelled fears the US economy was overheated, and that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates, sending blue chips lower Wednesday. U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill says the next round of North Korean nuclear disarmament talks could be held in early July. US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will lead mourners on Sunday at a service in West Virginia for the dead of the worst US mining tragedy in decades. Digital video recorders are the rage. The picture is better, and units like the Replay TV _ which uses a hard disk instead of videotape _ have features not available with old-fashioned VCRs. European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday that maintaining an arms embargo on China is "unfair" given the changes in China since it was imposed in 1989. "Justice League of America" is exactly the kind of movie Warner Bros. loves to make. Based on the classic DC Comics series, the script is filled with a dream team of recognizable superheroes -- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash -- and could not only become its own franchise, A prosecution expert said Tuesday that a former Ku Klux Klansman is faking mental problems and is competent to stand trial for the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. A total of 2.2 billion euros ( 1.870 billion U.S. dollars) of investments departed from Portugal's stock-market from January to August this year, according to a report released by Bank of Portugal Friday.

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t5248 The peseta nosedived to a new all-time low early Friday afternoon on the London forex market, hitting 93.30 to the German mark, Dresdner Bank analyst Elizabeth Legge said. Your work computer just suffered a major meltdown. Maybe the operating system failed, or a virus crashed the hard drive. News that banking giant Goldman Sachs has been charged with fraud sent Asian stocks tumbling Monday, while airlines were hit as northern European airspace was closed due to the Icelandic volcano. Stating that the ``foundation for economic expansion'' has been laid but that the strength and sustainability of the recovery is still uncertain, Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve's chairman, strongly suggested to Congress on Wednesday that monetary policy would remain unchanged for the foreseeable future. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has told US officials there is no question of freezing Israel's planned expansion of Maale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, an aide said Thursday. er, darlings -- are back where they ought to be, make sure you keep an eye on their training for fall sports. The last thing you want is to have them injured and lounging on the couch where they have spent the past three months hollering for food. The heads of the West Coast chapter of the Hollywood performer unions have submitted a tentative contract settlement for a vote by the guilds' nearly 135,000 members. Overseas direct investment in China during the first 10 months this year increased 37 percent in contractual volume from the same period last year.

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t5290 Diego Maradona, already serving a 15-month playing ban after failing a drugs test at the World Cup, was suspended from his coaching job with Racing Club by Argentina's football federation. A steely and daring young matador who mysteriously walked away at the peak of his career in 2002 made a triumphant return on Sunday, enduring a terrifying near-goring to win standing ovations, a rain of flowers and three trophies -- ears from bulls he had just slain. From flashy Hummer-like armoured utility vehicles, to sports cars and fully- equipped mobile offices, Russian-made cars motored to the front of the luxury automobile scene at this year's Top Marques Monaco exclusive car show. Lynch is a wine importer and retailer with a predilection for obscure French wines and a talent for persuading customers that Corsican wine is what their life is missing. The quirky mailers he writes for Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, his Berkeley store, have a near-cult following. And his unconventional Protestors in Kyrgyzstan's capital threw rocks at riot police and soldiers guarding the seat of government during the opposition's first massive demonstration in Bishkek over a disputed poll. Danish police arrested eight suspected Islamic militants here Tuesday, charging two with planning a terrorist attack and attempted murder in what was described as a serious plot with direct ties to al-Qaida. Puerto Rico-born Benicio Del Toro says that although Hispanics have made gains in Hollywood, more work is needed to increase the presence of people with Latin American roots. Following are the latest facts and figures about China's major export commodities to Spain in the first nine months of 2000, provided by the General Administration of Customs:

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t5291 Sinn Fein and the British government have moved a step closer to ministerial level talks with an agreement to discuss the agenda for such a meeting Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said here Friday. Real Madrid came from behind to win its 30th Spanish league title Sunday, beating Mallorca 3-1 and edging defending champion FC Barcelona on head-to-head results. Eco-friendly, more affordable furniture took centre stage at the Milan International Furniture Fair as designers sought to woo green-minded consumers with smaller budgets in tough economic times. MUST CREDIT THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Rising Stars: Five young chefs who are changing the way the Bay Area tastes Singapore share prices closed 0.30 percent higher Thursday on bargain-hunting in select blue chip stocks after sharp loses on Wednesday, dealers said. He was 74 and had been suffering from lung cancer. It was on Brandt's watch as the government's top physician that the U.S. issued its strongest reports linking smoking to cancers of the lung and other organs. He was not a smoker, however. Lisa Marie Presley cut the ribbon on the wrought-iron gates leading to Presley Place, a 12-unit, rent-free apartment building for homeless people trying to get back on their feet. Following are the latest facts and figures about China's major export commodities to Finland in the first nine months of 2000, provided by the General Administration of Customs:

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t5292 The German mark continued its seemingly inexorable advance on Friday on the London foreign exchange market, driving sterling, the peseta and the lira to record lows and forcing the Bank of Spain and the Bank of Italy to intervene on behalf of their crashing currencies. Mike Cameron hit two homers and the San Diego Padres hit a season-high five in an 11-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday. Django Reinhardt's life story is better than any fiction: a gypsy who could not read a line of music, lost the use of two fingers when he was 18, but toured the world with his classical guitar. For those who choose not to drink milk, or cannot drink it for health reasons, the natural foods industry has come up with a lot of nondairy alternatives. After soy milk, rice milk is the most prominent option in grocery stores. Ethiopia's army has committed massive human rights abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity against the indigenous Anuak population in the country's southwestern Gambella region, a leading rights watchdog charged Thursday. As Congress opened a monthlong showdown with President Bush over Iraq, Senate war critics on Tuesday demanded evidence that the security improvements claimed by the White House could be sustained once American forces handed off the task of maintaining order to Iraqi military units. Glen Campbell says he'll never forget the day his co-star John Wayne cleared a fence on horseback during the filming of 1969's ``True Grit.'' Following are the latest facts and figures on China's major export commodities to Australia from January to September this year, provided by the General Administration of Customs:

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t5293 Young members of the PLO's mainstream Fatah movement called off an unprecedented visit to the Holocaust memorial of Yad Vashem here on Friday, their Israeli hosts said. Gunfire sounded throughout the town of Agadez, in central Niger, on Sunday, residents said. It was unclear who was behind the shooting, which continued for about two hours. One photograph shows Yoco sitting naked on a bed, smiling softly as she admires her ample breasts in her cupped hands. President Bush vowed Wednesday to ``continue to lead'' efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that threatens his broader anti-terror campaign. Police authorities in the southwestern Nigerian state of Osun have sacked 10 officers and demoted four others for corruption, a spokesman said Thursday. Hurricanes swept ashore in Nicaragua and Mexico within hours of each other Tuesday, the first time Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes have made landfall on the same day since the National Hurricane Center began keeping records in the 1940s. Shares of Yahoo! Inc. soared almost 14 percent in extended trading on Wall Street after the Internet bellwether's second-quarter earnings edged past analysts' expectations. Following are the latest facts and figures on China's major export commodities to New Zealand from January to September this year, provided by the General Administration of Customs:

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t5294 Bluechip prices continued their climb at Friday's opening on Wall Street in a session that promised to be erratic due to the expiration of several quarterly stock options. With all but 36 seats left to call, official results give comfortable majority to French right, with at least 330 seats. Pleyel, the world's oldest piano firm and the last still operating in France, has stopped even trying to compete with Chinese and Korean rivals on price and now focuses instead on innovative design. Speedy pick-up trucks laden with soldiers wheel into police headquarters as if rushing to battle. The fighters are well-armed, some handling rocket-propelled grenades. A man seeking asylum in Germany and claiming to be a journalist has been taken hostage by a previously unknown group demanding the release of all Muslims in German jails, Der Spiegel reported on Thursday. A bleak portrait of the political and security situation in Iraq released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office sparked sharp protests from top U.S. military officials in Baghdad, who described it as flawed and "factually incorrect." Huntsville's David Gibralter hit a three-run homer, and Greenville's Ramon Castro followed with a two-run shot in the second inning Wednesday night as the National League defeated the American League 8-3 in the Double-A All-Star game. Following are the latest facts and figures on China's major export commodities to Canada from January to September this year, provided by the General Administration of Customs:

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t5295 At least 28 people were killed in clashes in the Azerbaijani capital Baku Thursday and Friday between government forces and rebel interior ministry police, the Azerbaijani health ministry said. Union members representing 15,000 workers at six Las Vegas casinos owned by Harrah's Entertainment Inc. voted overwhelmingly to approve a five-year contract. Britain's two main parties were turning their fire on the smaller Liberal Democrats in the general election race Monday after a huge surge in their support shook up the campaign. By gradually lifting restrictions on the ways its currency, the won, is traded and used abroad, the South Korean government hopes to advance a dream of making the country a leading Asian business hub, a top economic official said on Wednesday. Hundreds of Kyrgyz opposition supporters Thursday broke through police lines and took over a government building in the southwestern city of Batken, a witness told AFP. Less than a year before he died, an ailing, wheelchair-bound Arthur Moyer converted his $500,000 life savings into a complex investment he could not tap for a decade without incurring steep fees. Police are analyzing items they removed from Rep. Gary Condit's apartment for possible clues about the disappearance of former federal intern Chandra Levy. Following are the latest facts and figures on China's major export commodities to the United States from January to September of this year, provided by the General Administration of Customs:

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t5296 Sixteen people suspected of being behind a recent wave of Mafia killings in Sicily were arrested Friday in a widespread police operation, authorities announced. President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party won a comfortable but smaller than expected majority in France's parliamentary elections Sunday, with it and its allies getting at least 330 of the 577 National Assembly seats. Jameer Nelson scored 32 points and the Orlando Magic almost gave up a 22-point lead before beating the Charlotte Bobcats 98-89 in the opening game of their NBA playoff series Sunday. The House voted Wednesday to make it a federal crime for an adult other than a parent to accompany a pregnant minor across state lines for an abortion. Protestors in Kyrgyzstan's capital threw rocks at riot police and soldiers guarding the seat of government during the opposition's first massive demonstration in Bishkek over a disputed poll. Iran has blocked a request from the United States to allow Swiss diplomats to go to Kish Island to look for the luggage or other traces of missing former FBI agent Robert Levinson, according to U.S. officials and the Levinson family. When President Clinton repeatedly suspended part of a law aimed at pressuring Fidel Castro, Cuban-American leaders were outraged. ``Backbone of Jell-O,'' fumed a Cuban-born Republican lawmaker. Following are the latest facts and figures on China's major export commodities to Argentina from January to September of this year, provided by the General Administration of Customs:

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t5297 Spain suffered a trade deficit of 154.4 billion pesetas (1.18 billion dollars) in January, up 72.1 percent from the previous January, the Economics Ministry announced on Friday. There were no guard rails between the crowds of spectators and a public highway where a drag-racing car bolted out of control, killing six people during a charity fundraising event in Tennessee. Kobe Bryant scored 21 points and Pau Gasol added 19 as the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers defeated Oklahoma City 87-79 on Sunday in their NBA Western Conference playoff opener. All the telephones had rotary thingies that made dialing a single phone number take approximately three days. And worse, there was no such thing as e-mail. When people wanted to send messages to other people, they actually had to write on something called ``paper'' and then wait several days Four leaders from villages near the US military base in Taji, 15 kilometres north of Baghdad, met a US captain and begged him to seal off their communities with concrete blast walls and barbed wire. A crippling strike on London's subway system was suspended late Tuesday, but officials warned that it will take time to restore service after the walkout that turned the system into a maelstrom of long lines and hot, overcrowded cars. President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered the arrest Thursday of Indonesia's renegade national police chief, who has refused to stand aside after opposing a plan to declare a state of emergency ahead of Wahid's impeachment next month. Following are the latest facts and figures on China's major export commodities to Chile from January to September of 2000, provided by the General Administration of Customs:

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t5298 The dollar was mixed in New York Friday, rising against the pound and the Italian lire but falling against other European currencies and the yen. The British aid group Oxfam said Sunday it was permanently closing down its operation in Darfur's largest refugee camp because of insecurity. Next weekend's Japanese MotoGP has been postponed to October 3 because of the severe disruption of international air travel caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, organisers said Monday. Behind locked doors and armed security at the Indian Point nuclear plant, technicians in hard hats and safety glasses watch over a pair of turquoise pools that have become an interim grave for radioactive waste. Here rests all the fuel that has ever passed through the plant's two working An accused serial killer in northeastern China's Liaoning province confessed to killing up to 45 people and deserves to be sentenced to death for his lack of remorse, his lawyer said Thursday. Souhair Khatib sued in U.S. District Court here, charging that her right to practice religion was violated, causing her "extreme mental and emotional distress." Named in the complaint, filed by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, were Sheriff Michael S. Carona, the captain in charge of courtroom deputies, and The House was close to judgment on whether it would rein in runaway spending on federal elections when a last-minute dispute on terms of the debate made it uncertain the legislation would even come to a vote. Israeli forces have imposed a complete closure on areas in the West Bank which are under full Palestinian control (Area A) Monday night in response to the fatal shootings on Israelis in the territories, Israeli central command chief Yitzhak Eitan said.

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t1768 The peseta nosedived to a new all-time low early Friday afternoon on the London forex market, hitting 93.30 to the German mark, Dresdner Bank analyst Elizabeth Legge said. Your work computer just suffered a major meltdown. Maybe the operating system failed, or a virus crashed the hard drive. News that banking giant Goldman Sachs has been charged with fraud sent Asian stocks tumbling Monday, while airlines were hit as northern European airspace was closed due to the Icelandic volcano. Stating that the ``foundation for economic expansion'' has been laid but that the strength and sustainability of the recovery is still uncertain, Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve's chairman, strongly suggested to Congress on Wednesday that monetary policy would remain unchanged for the foreseeable Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has told US officials there is no question of freezing Israel's planned expansion of Maale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, an aide said Thursday. er, darlings -- are back where they ought to be, make sure you keep an eye on their training for fall sports. The last thing you want is to have them injured and lounging on the couch where they have spent the past three months hollering for food. The heads of the West Coast chapter of the Hollywood performer unions have submitted a tentative contract settlement for a vote by the guilds' nearly 135,000 members. Overseas direct investment in China during the first 10 months this year increased 37 percent in contractual volume from the same period last year.

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t5299 China is to double investment for resettlement of residents of the Three Gorges dam area in 1995, while issuing bonds to cover a capital shortfall for the massive project this year, an official said Friday. Gunfire sounded throughout the central Niger town of Agadez on Sunday, residents said. It was unclear who was behind the shooting, which continued for about two hours. Eight Pacific island nations that control an area where more a quarter of the world's tuna is caught are meeting this week with the aim of tightening conservation measures. Tavis Smiley has a considerable talent for summing up the issues of the day, and recently _ during a brief hole in his schedule at 6:30 a.m. _ he did not disappoint. The parents of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for the past 15 years, appealed late Wednesday to the US Supreme Court, seeking an order to resume their daughter's feeding through a tube, a court official said. Cheese makers claim that the current formula, changed four years ago when dairies were struggling with low milk prices, could drive smaller plants out of business because it raises the cost of making cheese in a competitive market where it is hard to recoup the added expense. Buoyed by a better than expected harvest, state agriculture officials have released a more optimistic forecast for this year's wheat crop: 327.6 million bushels. Brazil's Veteran striker Romario, who has scored seven goals in last two internationals, was forced to withdraw from their team on Monday after being injured in training in Sao Paulo.

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t5430 Bluechip stocks closed in on the 4,100-point mark this week less than a month after it broke 4,000 and amid growing confidence among investors that interest rates will not be raised in the near future. U.S.-led coalition jets bombed a compound suspected of housing al-Qaida militants in eastern Afghanistan, killing seven children and several militants, a coalition statement said Monday. Britain's Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday ordered a phased reopening of much of the country's airspace from 10:00 pm (2100 GMT). ``Cease-fire is not a relevant term at the moment,'' Powell told a news conference after a second meeting with Arafat and before boarding his plane for Washington via Cairo. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, weeks away from general elections, withstood a fresh attack Thursday over the legality of the Iraq invasion and preparations for the ensuing, bloody insurgency. Hobbled by inadequate funding, unclear priorities, continuing reorganizations and the absence of an overarching strategy, the Department of Homeland Security is failing to achieve its mission of preventing and responding to terrorist attacks or natural disasters, according to a comprehensive report by the Government Accountability Office. About 100 workers with crowbars began tearing down shacks Thursday on a tract of land near Johannesburg, which had been illegally occupied by squatters. ISLAMABAD, November 15 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Wednesday ruled out immediate possibility of reopening the Pak-Afghan border for the Afghan refugees and asked the United Nations to set camps inside Afghanistan to stop them from entering Pakistan.

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t5431 Algeria's banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) on Friday denounced the killings of "innocent civilians" and accused the government of having been responsible for such attacks. As many as 36 people were killed in a fierce battle early Monday between Shiite militiamen and British forces doing house-to-house searches south of Baghdad, Iraqi police and hospital officials said. Oil prices rose dramatically in New York trade on Tuesday, amid optimism about the state of the economy and the prospect of transatlantic air travel resuming. In what is believed to be the largest experiment in privatization ever mounted by an American school district, a state panel charged with improving the Philadelphia public school system voted Wednesday night to transfer control of 42 failing city schools to seven outside managers, including Edison Schools Inc. and Grinding poverty has been one of the main drivers of the protests in Kyrgyzstan's south, where destitute farmers and city dwellers have joined forces to topple federal representatives in the volatile region. Nearly 30 Southern Californians are suspected of dying as a result of the recent heat wave, most of them falling into familiar patterns of who dies during periods of extremely high temperatures. The Falun Gong said at least 10 of its followers were beaten to death at a labor camp in northeastern China _ the same province where other members of the spiritual group died in a labor camp under disputed circumstances earlier this month. MANILA, November 15 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government reiterated Wednesday its call to the lawmakers to speed up the impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada amid reports that the opposition may derail the process to fan public discontent.

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t5432 The Mexican Congress debated Friday an unpopular tax hike Friday with ruling party deputies insisting it was essential to restore investor confidence and prevent a currency "tobogan." North Korea plans to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in the second half of July, the Interfax news agency reported, citing an unnamed North Korean official. Norway extended the opening of its airspace until 8:00 am (0600 GMT) Wednesday, the Norwegian air authority Avinor announced late Tuesday. Watching the Bush administration struggle to respond to recent events in Venezuela, some critics have judged it too quick to accept reports of the resignation of President Hugo Chavez and too slow to defend the democratic system that elected him. Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Thursday he was considering an appeal to international and Arab bodies to determine who was behind the February 14 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. One day into her new gig on daytime talker "The View," Whoopi Goldberg already was on the defensive for saying Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback who has pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges, was raised in a culture in which dogfighting is acceptable. ``The Sopranos'' received a leading 22 Emmy nominations Thursday, the most ever in the three seasons of the cable hit about the angst-filled life of a suburban mob family. Zambia will spend 4.9 billion U. S. dollars to take measures to reduce poverty in the country, Times of Zambia reported Wednesday.

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t5433 A US government agency approved Friday a vaccine developed by pharmaceutical giant Merck against chickenpox, the nuisance disease that afflicts mostly children. Barclays Bank PLC and Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd. said Monday they agreed to sell their stakes in Intelenet Global Services Pvt Ltd. of India in a management buyout. Poland will open its airspace from 7:00 am (0500 GMT) Wednesday after improved weather conditions, the air navigation services announced. Thursday night's game will be the first in the Stanley Cup playoffs for Islanders coach Peter Laviolette. It will be the 144th for Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn. Eleven players on Toronto's roster have played in at least 50 playoff games. Only two players on the Islanders' roster have The EU is considering an Iranian proposal to allow the Islamic republic to produce enriched uranium on a small scale, despite the bloc's demand that Tehran abandon the process to guarantee it will not make atom bombs, officials and diplomats said Thursday. After months of testing the waters, former senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee jumped into the race for the Republican presidential nomination on late-night television Wednesday, as his eight rivals clashed here in a debate that featured sharp exchanges over Iraq and immigration. News that Microsoft expects to beat quarterly earnings estimates boosted stocks Thursday, allowing Wall Street to build on momentum from better-than-expected earnings results from Yahoo! and Motorola. Angolan Defense Minister General Kundy Paihama has justified the government's military option to end the civil war in Angola with the fact that all the possibilities for negotiations with the rebels led by Jonas Savimbi have exhausted, the official news agency Angop reported here on Wednesday.

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t5434 PLO leader Yasser Arafat on Friday briefed the organisation's executive committee on peace talks with Israel and encountered dissatisfaction with the pace of the discussions, a senior committee member reported. The Japanese government was expected to agree to a negotiated settlement with hundreds of former tunnel workers who contracted lung disease while working on state-ordered projects, news reports said Monday. Sudan's ruling National Congress Party and former southern rebels agreed Tuesday to accept the results of last week's elections, following US accusations the polls were not free and fair. Negotiations between the government and Arthur Andersen to settle the criminal case against the firm continued Wednesday, but some participants were beginning to worry that the talks could be approaching an impasse, people involved in the case said. At least 25 polio cases were recorded in Niger last year, a health official said Thursday, after efforts to eradicate the disease were stymied by obstruction in neighbouring Nigeria. A 22 percent drop in prescriptions for antidepressants for teens and children following government warnings about hazards of the drugs led to a sharp increase in suicides the following year, according to Chicago researchers. Second-quarter earnings at Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, fell 57 percent amid a steep drop-off in advertising. A Sino-Russia trade fair opened Wednesday in Shenyang, the capital city of northeast China' s Liaoning Province, and an old industrial base.

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t5435 Ireland won their Rugby League international debut here Friday, edging fellow neophytes from the United States 24-22 in a game both hope will be landmark for their sport. North Korea plans to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in the second half of July, the Interfax-China news agency reported, citing an unnamed North Korean official in Beijing. European aerospace giant EADS announced on Tuesday it will bid on a 35-billion- dollar contract to supply the US Air Force with new aerial refueling tankers, pitting the company against archrival Boeing. JP Morgan Chase reported an 18 percent drop in first-quarter earnings Wednesday, but they beat Wall Street expectations and offered investors some optimism for the first time after several quarters of weak results. A botched bid Sunday by a few teenagers to burn a Turkish flag during a Kurdish celebration has led to a patriotic backlash with unprecedented public displays of the national symbol. National: THOMPSON-EARLYYEARS -- LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. -- W ith a kickoff tour through early-voting Iowa on Thursday, Fred Thompson formally offers himself as a candidate for president, the highest ambition in American politics, but the one-time senator from Tennessee did not grow up with such ambition -- he married into Given a lift by the first GOP president in eight years, the Republican National Committee raised a record $48.6 million in the first half of the year. The Chinese government is fully aware of the harm caused by fake and shoddy products and will take concrete measures to eliminate such products, a senior anti-fake product official said Wednesday.

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t5436 Lydon, an assistant coach for world club champion Wigan, made his fame a decade ago and was included here for star appeal. One day after a drag-racing car careened into a crowd and killed six people, witnesses questioned why the driver was allowed to speed down a multilane highway with no guard rails, lined on both sides by hundreds of spectators. Europe eased its aerial lockdown Tuesday with almost half of its scheduled flights taking to the skies, but more ash from Iceland's billowing volcano prolonged the agony of most stranded passengers. A 44-year-old Tanzanian man was arrested this week on immigration charges in North Carolina after his name was found on a document retrieved from a cave in Afghanistan in which he was congratulated for receiving a pilot's license, government officials said on Wednesday. Former Macedonian minister Ljube Boskovski, who has been charged with war crimes committed against ethnic Albanians, has been transferred to the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague, the court said in a statement Thursday. His manager, Terri Robson, told The Associated Press in an e-mail that Pavarotti, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006, died at his home in Modena, Italy, at 5 a.m. local time Thursday. Enron Corp. reported a nearly 40 percent increase in second-quarter earnings on Thursday and beat analysts' expectations due to robust growth in its power marketing and energy management businesses in the United States and Europe. Approved by the Project Vetting Committee of the Film Development Fund, the project is "Promotion of Hong Kong Films at the Cannes Film Festival."

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t5437 First Lady Hillary Clinton begins a five-nation tour of south Asia next week to meet with key women leaders and strengthen US ties in the region, the White House said Friday. Nepal's former rebels have agreed to allow United Nations arms monitors to resume the disbanding of thousands of fighters confined in camps as part of a peace agreement, a senior government minister said Monday. Discovery made a safe return to Earth Tuesday after a two-week resupply mission to the International Space Station that broke new ground by putting four women in orbit for the first time. However, with no cease-fire in place and Israeli troops still in the West Bank, Bush reiterated many of the same demands he made almost two weeks ago when he dispatched Powell to the region. Soe Soe, a 29-year-old woman working in Myanmar's struggling garment manufacturing industry, can barely remember the last time she had a day off. Q. Can I use both Windows Media Player and iTunes with the same music collection? I have an iPod, but I can't use iTunes in my PC's Media Center interface. Convicted murderer Ira Einhorn lost what effectively was his last chance to avoid extradition to the United States, and later Thursday attempted suicide at his house in southwestern France, his lawyer said. John Tsang Chun-wah, commissioner of customs and excise of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said demands for customs services around the world have changed dramatically because of an increase in the volume of international trade and the rapid development of technology.

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t5438 Fellow villains and detectives alike expressed regret at the death Friday of East End gangster Ronnie Kray, 61 -- half of one of Britain's most notorious criminal partnerships. Dumped at this frontier outpost alongside hundreds of weary Afghan laborers, Khalil Jalil stepped out of Iran and back into Afghanistan only days after he said Iranian authorities beat him, threw him in the trunk of a car and locked him in a detention center. Agnelli family heir John Elkann said Tuesday he was "very proud and happy" to be taking up the chairman's post at Italian auto giant Fiat. In a decision likely to renew debate over the issue of executing prisoners who commit murder before the age of 18, the highest criminal court in Texas cleared the way Wednesday for a death row inmate, Napoleon Beazley, to be executed, possibly as soon as next month. Mohammed Asef takes his small daughter by the hand and walks out of Langar Khana, a small village in northern Afghanistan, through a labyrinth of mudbrick houses where small tractors from another age limp along with sorrow. On trips to Capitol Hill these days, Michael Gallagher usually has a black Nintendo DS stashed in his suit pocket. Consumers spooked by stock market volatility and company layoffs curtailed their spending once again in June, leaving the nation's largest retailers with disappointing sales. The Hang Seng Index shed 50.12 points, or 0.33 percent, to close at 15,127.4, with a thin turnover of 8.512 billion HK dollars (1.091 billion U.S. dollars).

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t1952 Nippon Challenge came from behind at the last mark to defeat Spain's Rioja de Espana by 13 seconds and take the final position in the America's Cup challenger semifinals here Wednesday. Romania's prime minister held talks Tuesday with EU leaders on his country's troubled justice system, amid concerns that the government lacks commitment to further reforms. Next year's Six Nations will start on a Friday for the first time when Wales host England in Cardiff, organisers of Europe's leading international rugby union tournament said Wednesday. U.S. officials were scrambling Thursday to determine whether a 22-year-old captive from the war in Afghanistan is a U.S. citizen. The Ugandan army said Friday it killed seven Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters and rescued 13 children from rebel captivity in clashes with the group in the war-scarred north of the country. Even as President Bush last week named four candidates to fill long-standing vacancies on federal appeals courts, conservative legal activists were spoiling for a fight over what they call the unfair treatment of the president's judicial nominees. Pudgy and shy, 13-year-old Matt Shafer had an outlet in rap but few to really share it with _ until a chance day he saw Bob Ritchie work the deejay's turntable. The Guatemalan government has asked a renewal of the U.N. Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), the mission said in a communique issued in Guatemala City on Saturday.

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t5439 President Bill Clinton played host Friday at the White House to 350 guests for a St. Patrick's Day gala attended by Irish Prime Minister John Bruton and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. More than 100 Fatah members who fled to Egypt after Gaza fell to their rivals from Hamas last week were to return home Monday, Hamas officials said. Britain's Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday ordered a phased reopening of much of the country's airspace from 10:00 pm (2100 GMT). After reviewing the findings of an independent investigation, parents of a student killed at Columbine High School in 1999 said Wednesday that they were satisfied with the conclusion that their son had been killed by a student gunman, not a police officer. Nepal's mountain guides and porters face widespread unemployment because of an expected sharp drop in trekker arrivals and mountain climbing expeditions linked to the royal takeover and ongoing Maoist rebellion. My sister Kristin is visiting and makes an offhand remark: "You should think about getting another laptop so your girls don't fight over the computer." Bill Cowher, his future as the Pittsburgh Steelers' coach seemingly in jeopardy only 18 months ago, was given a three-year contract extension Thursday. The Component Stock Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange closed at 4,915.05 points Wednesday, down 12.22 points from last close, according to the Guangfa Securities Co., Ltd.

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t6000 An indefinite curfew was imposed in an eastern Indian town on Monday after police killed two people while trying to break up clashes between Hindus and Moslems, press reports said. Mexico is talking with U.S. officials about cross-border health care for migrants, who would receive basic treatment at U.S. facilities and be treated in Mexico if they required more intensive care. Pakistan's pre-Islamic heritage is showcased in Paris from Wednesday in an exhibition of ancient Buddhist art that offers a fresh perspective on a country fraught with violence and religious unrest. A Japanese laboratory has built the world's fastest computer, a machine so powerful that it matches the raw processing power of the 20 fastest American computers combined and far outstrips the previous leader, an IBM-built machine. Sudan's former southern rebels Friday welcomed a UN decision to send 10,000 peacekeepers to secure the peace accord they signed in January with Khartoum but contentious issues remain before the force is deployed. A spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign Tuesday blamed a faulty background check for the campaign's failure to raise any questions about Norman Hsu, a previously unknown businessman who suddenly became one of its biggest fundraisers. Saying its problems from a labor dispute are subsiding, Cathay Pacific Airways announced Friday it will reduce the number of chartered aircraft it is using to combat a work slowdown by pilots. Two Palestinian police officers were killed during a shootout with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Jericho early Friday morning, Palestinian sources said.

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t6186 Russia and Ukraine signed two agreements here Monday to reschedule repayment of Ukrainian debts to Moscow totalling 4.2 billion dollars. The worst summer drought in 30 years in northeast China's Liaoning province has left more than 1.2 million people short of drinking water, state media reported Tuesday. Air traffic in Europe disrupted by the volcano eruption in Iceland is expected to return almost to normal on Thursday, the body coordinating air traffic control across the continent said. A moderately powerful earthquake rumbled up the Eastern Seaboard on Saturday, causing no injuries but damaging roads and breaking windows in upstate New York while shaking people out of sleep from Maine to Maryland. The United States announced a controversial sale of F-16 Fighting Falcon jets to Pakistan just as the US Air Force took delivery of the last of its versions of the veteran fighter. Lately, though, he's moved away from the altered body to focus on larger organisms. Now, instead of frail and pliant human bodies, it's innocent small towns and Western cities populated by ordinary, orderly people that play host to virulent foreign parasites, and the failed experiments are social. At least three for-profit companies are racing to develop large amounts of embryonic stem cells even as President Bush struggles to decide whether the government should hinder such research. Mongolia will carry out economic restructuring so as to increase its gross domestic product by 4 percent next year, Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar said Friday.

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t6521 UN mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg was due to meet Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic here on Tuesday in a second round of talks about re- deploying peacekeeping troops in Croatia. FIFA president Sepp Blatter singled out transportation as the biggest challenge facing South Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup. Airlines have lost around 1.7 billion dollars after a "week without revenue" because of the chaos caused by volcanic ash, the head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Wednesday. Democratic senators failed to meet President Bush's Monday deadline for expanding his trade negotiating authority, but a key ally for the administration said action will come soon. Four former ruling party supporters have been arrested for heckling Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika during an Easter ceremony in the capital of Lilongwe, a witness said Saturday. Retired Canadian army Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, a former U.N. commander whose warnings of Rwandan genocide in the early 1990s went unheeded by U.N. leaders, advised the newly appointed leader of U.N. forces in Darfur to expect little backing from his political masters as he struggles to halt mass With a decades-old dispute over the Kashmir region high on the agenda, the leaders of India and Pakistan began a landmark summit on Saturday aimed at smoothing stormy relations between the two nuclear rivals. Jingwei Wetland Nature Reserve will soon be built for the protection of 140 kinds of birds living in northwest China area.

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t6522 In Gaza City, neighbours of the two suspects said Farchat is a well- known HAMAS militant who regularly went to Israel without a permit. A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced four men to prison terms of between seven and 14 years for the racially motivated killing of a Congolese student two years ago. Pirates seized a Liberian-owned bulk carrier with 21 Filipino crew in the Gulf of Aden early Tuesday, the European Union's naval force in the region said. Democratic senators failed to meet President Bush's Monday deadline for expanding his trade negotiating authority, but a key ally for the administration said action will come soon. Joe Cole claimed that his match-winning performance for England against Northern Ireland is testament to his ability to play at the top level after his goal set the home side on course for a 4-0 World Cup qualifying win at Old Trafford on Saturday. DETROIT A group of dissidents in the United Auto Workers and some former top UAW officials are trying to build momentum to defeat any contracts reached between the union and the three Detroit automakers if the deals include provisions for a controversial health-care trust fund. Long before the firebombs and bricks began to fly, the blighted Roman Catholic district of Ardoyne was already a neighborhood on the boil. The Shenzhen Composite Index inched up 1.84 points or 0.29 percent to 645.82 points at Monday close, while the sub-index also rose 7.1 points or 0.14 percent to 4960.99 points.

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t6523 A Hindu militant party which stormed to power in Bombay last week wants the bustling Indian commercial capital renamed Mumbai as it was once known, a party official said Tuesday. The co-CEO of Airbus parent EADS sounded an optimistic note Tuesday on the company's restructuring efforts and said that business in the United States also is developing favorably. Malaysia's auto sales surged 25 percent year-on-year in March, an industry group said Wednesday, as consumer confidence rose in Southeast Asia's biggest passenger car market. Attorneys arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed Monday whether the outcome of an Arizona case could overturn nearly 800 death sentences in nine states. The Dale Romans-trained Roses in May became America's fifth winner in the 10 runnings of the world's richest race the 6million dollar Dubai World Cup here on Saturday. There is a new wrinkle in the long-simmering debate about the influence of television on the development of attention problems in children. A long-term study of 1,037 children published in the current issue of Pediatrics found that those who watched more television when they were 5 and 7 were Indian and Pakistani forces exchanged fire across the Kashmir cease-fire line for the first time this year Saturday, and as many as 12 people were killed in separate clashes, as the two countries began a summit to discuss the disputed area. At least two people were killed and 12 others, including children, were injured, when a bomb having been planted in an Israeli school bus went off in Gaza Strip Monday morning, Israeli Radio reported.

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t6524 Some six million people voted Tuesday in the Indian state of Bihar with at least one person killed in the last phase of provincial polls that have already dealt a crushing blow to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Two-thirds of U.S. parents said they are very concerned about sex and violence American children are exposed to in the media, and there would be broad support for new federal limits on such material on television, said a survey released Tuesday. One of Australia's largest banking groups ANZ is interested in buying a controlling stake in the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), a report said Wednesday. With some key details still to be worked out, U.S. and Canadian panels Monday began investigating why a U.S. jet pilot bombed Canadian soldiers training in Afghanistan. Three US soldiers were killed in Iraq as security forces said they had arrested 120 suspects Saturday on suspicion of planning attacks on the country's Shiite majority ahead of a major religious holiday. Following the trend set by eye-catching eyeglasses, colorful dental braces and neon casts for broken limbs, earmolds are taking the fashionista route. Used in hearing aides and as swim or hearing-protection plugs, earmolds are now available in an array of colors that the hearing impaired and those concerned about Russia has a huge advantage over China in nuclear missiles and territory, but it is in many ways the poorer nation as the two countries cement a ``strategic partnership'' during Chinese leader Jiang Zemin's visit this week. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak Monday morning voiced "profound shock" over the bombing of a bus carrying schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip and called it a " grave and extremely serious terrorist attack," Israel Radio reported.

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t6525 The European Union (EU) on Tuesday called on the Sri Lankan government and Tamil guerrillas to resume peace talks to find a speedy solution to the island's long-running ethnic conflict. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso lashed out Tuesday at Britain and Poland for staunchly opposing a proposal to salvage key parts of the European Union's aborted constitution for a new, slimmed-down EU treaty. The public rose gardens in New Zealand's capital are suffering as growing numbers of people scatter the cremated remains of loved ones over the plants, officials said Monday. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge warned Monday that the United States faces an ``enduring vulnerability'' to attack by suicide bombers. Maud Fontenoy became the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean Saturday after arriving in French Polynesia at the end of a nearly 8,000-kilometre (4,960-mile) journey that took 73 days. Accustomed to sleeping on a queen-size, 60-by-80-inch water bed at home, Elissa Robinson got a rude awakening when she headed off to college: a twin-size bed, somewhere around 38-by-75 inches, with a mattress that had seen better days. As the San Fermin fiesta nears climax, huge crowds in red and white happily fulfill their appointed tasks: reckless endangerment, public drunkenness, mass littering. Britons living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been urged to remain vigilant following a car explosion in Saudi capital Riyadh Friday which killed a British technician.

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t6526 Palestinian police have banned a planned human rights workshop in Gaza City on Tuesday, the Gaza Centre for Rights and Law said. The space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the international space station Tuesday for its trip back to Earth, concluding a nearly 10-day stay that included construction work and a computer meltdown. On a stunning night in which Inter Milan battled back to beat European champions Barcelona 3-1 in the Champions League semi-finals, there was one sour note for the Italian side. As a kid, Tobey Maguire didn't paint his face blue-and-red and run around the yard pretending to be Spider-Man. He didn't care much for superheroes, in fact, and he never read comic books. Coastal Sharks of South Africa beat ACT Brumbies of Australia 36-24 Saturday in the biggest shock so far of the Super 12 season. Among the many things to wonder about when the final shofar blast is heard after sundown on Yom Kippur, "what's for dinner" is rarely a problem. Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic beat defending champion Magnus Norman 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 Saturday to reach the final of the clay-court Swedish Open. The Philippine Senate held an opening ceremony Monday afternoon to kick off its impeachment trial against President Joseph Estrada over an illegal gambling scandal.

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t6527 Strikers at Kuwait's biggest oil company and the government refused to budge Tuesday as the crisis which threatens the emirate's crude production entered its fourth day. Indian captain Rahul Dravid said Tuesday he is keen to clinch the upcoming test series on what will be his final tour of England with the national team. Stepped up naval patrols in the Gulf of Aden have contributed to a worldwide decline in pirate attacks, although the risk of piracy off Somalia remained high, a maritime watchdog said Wednesday. Even an acknowledged musical legend sometimes sings the blues, and Ray Charles has been known to complain in recent years about what he saw as a lack of promotional support for his albums from his record companies. With his new album, however, such complaints are unlikely, because Charles is Philippines police said they defused an explosive device found near the Spanish embassy in Manila late Saturday, as security forces were on alert after warnings of attacks over the Easter period. Four years ago, outgoing Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt called his nation "the laboratory of European unification." In 1989, then-Prime Minister Wilfried Martens referred to Belgium as "the prototype of Europe." The Federal Belgian State, he proclaimed, "is a prefiguration of a Europe of peoples, united in their organized Some questions and answers about the search for former federal intern Chandra Levy, and her connection to Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif.: Japan's global merchandise trade surplus fell 40.8 percent in October from a year earlier to 692.6 billion yen (6.4 billion U.S. dollars), the Finance Ministry said Monday.

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t2023 A man was shot dead and fifteen others injured when Zambian policemen clashed with citizens rioting in protest against alleged ritual murders by a local businessman, police said Monday. U.S. President George W. Bush expressed confidence on Monday about passing an immigration bill and said a Senate vote of no-confidence in Alberto Gonzales would have no bearing on his service as attorney general. French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Tuesday in Washington that he would visit China later this month, joined by his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. These columns for release Tuesday, April 2, 2002 are moving today to clients of the New York Times News Service. Media and entertainment giant Viacom Inc. said Wednesday it may split into two divisions with one focussing on "growth" and the other, more traditional arm, aiming for "value". I don't know if ``Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'' is a good movie -- I haven't seen it. But I'm pretty certain that it shouldn't be judged as a movie at all. It is a visual representation of a book in which of people are Two car bombs blew up Monday in the working class town of Yehud, just hours after three Palestinian militants were killed by missiles fired by an Israeli helicopter in a pinpointed attack. Australia's farmers should remember rising fuel prices were hitting farmers worldwide and not just them, Deputy Prime Minister and National Party Leader John Anderson said Tuesday.

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t6528 Mad: Madagascar, Mar: Morocco, Mas: Malaysia, Maw: Malawi, Mol: Moldova, Mdv: Maldives, Mex: Mexico,Mgl: Mongolia, Mkd: Macedonia, Mol: Moldova, Mli: Mali, Mlt: Malta, Mol: Moldova, Mon: Monaco, Moz: Mozambique, Mri: Mauritius, Mtn: Mauritania, Nam: Namibia, Nca: Nicaragua, Ned: Netherlands, Nep: Nepal, Ngr: Nigeria, Nig: Niger, Nor: Norway, Nzl: New A Royal Caribbean International cruise ship resumed its voyage to Puerto Rico on Tuesday as Coast Guard crews searched for a passenger reported missing a day earlier. Fiat's board of directors on Wednesday formally named John Elkann, the grandson of historic boss Gianni Agnelli, to the chairmanship of the auto giant, the group said in a statement. To reach Studio 17, the sound stage that's home to ``Will & Grace,'' a visitor talks to the guard at the gate, who offers matter-of-fact instructions to take ``Gunsmoke'' to ``My Three Sons'' and then hang a right. James Callaghan, who died Saturday on the eve of his 93rd birthday, was the only British politician in modern times to hold all four great offices of state, serving at the Treasury and the home and foreign offices before succeeding to the premiership. Race and poverty aren't subjects Americans like to talk about. They're too loaded, too uncomfortable. But they are also too important to brush under the rug at a time when immigration issues loom large and there is greater disparity than ever between rich and poor. When Jermaine awoke to the sound of gunshots he knew exactly what to do _ grab his weapon and return fire. Exports of Thai spices are expected to reach 1.65 billion baht (38 million U.S. dollars) this year, reflecting a promising prospect for the Thai products in the international market, Thai Farmers' Bank Research Center said in a report Monday.

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t6529 A total of 200 Kurdish rebels have been killed since Turkey began its massive military sweep in northern Iraq, Defense Minister Mehmet Golhan said Tuesday. Construction of new homes in the United States fell in May as the homebuilders were battered by the crisis in subprime lending and rising mortgage rates. Stepped up naval patrols in the Gulf of Aden have contributed to a worldwide decline in pirate attacks, although the risk of piracy off Somalia remained high, a maritime watchdog said Wednesday. Researchers seeking to determine why breast cancer is diagnosed later in blacks than in whites suggest that the disparity is a result of class, not race. Australia is assured of the gold medal in the women's individual pursuit here at the world track cycling championships after Katie Mactier and Katherine Bates qualified for the final. Junot Diaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" seems poised to be the hottest debut novel of the year. Arriving after 11 years of expectation following Diaz's celebrated story collection "Drown," the novel's narrative voice evokes both the polyglot energy of Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" and the sexual China convicted an American business professor Saturday of spying for Taiwan and then ordered him deported, apparently trying to remove an irritant in relations with Washington. Afghanistan's Taliban militia burned more than 10 tons of hashish and other narcotics in Spin Boldak district in the presence of a large number of people, The News newspaper reported on Monday.

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t7072 A top Kashmiri Moslem separatist leader on Wednesday appealed for US intervention to bring Indian, Kashmiri and Pakistani representatives together to resolve the Kashmir problem through a plebiscite. Foreign donors pledged US$689 million (euro514 million) in aid for Cambodia on Wednesday, but also castigated Prime Minister Hun Sen's government for failing to tackle chronic corruption in the impoverished country. The interest rate demanded to lend money to Greece jumped above 8.5 percent on Thursday after EU data showed that the Greek public deficit last year was worse than previously estimated. The boys of summer seem to be everywhere in Pakistan these days, everywhere a bare patch of ground can accommodate a few friends with time on their hands. Senior diplomats from Japan and China held talks Monday to address a growing rift, as a Japanese government-backed report warned that Beijing's military buildup made regional security increasingly uncertain. A fter years of drifting from job to job, Frazier turned to the Internet. Marrying his politics and entrepreneurial instincts, he began selling left-leaning bumper stickers. An Okinawan court has extended by one week the deadline for prosecutors to file charges against a U.S. Air Force sergeant accused of raping a Japanese woman, officials said. Northwest China's Gansu Province has sent 12 medical teams, a total of 349 physicians, to Madagascar in the past 25 years, a provincial medical official said here Tuesday.

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t7075 Blue-chip share prices rebounded Wednesday to bring the Dow Jones industrials within a point of its record high set earlier this week. The U.S. military acknowledged "an increasing pattern of attacks" against the Green Zone, a day after a mortar barrage against the heavily fortified ara sent soldiers and contractors scrambling for cover. The new head of Afghanistan's main electoral body was sworn in Thursday, a high- profile reform that the United Nations has endorsed as a move towards free and fair elections later this year. Of the many tasks that await after a vacation, one of the most tedious is listening to a long string of voice-mail messages and sorting out the urgent ones from the hey-what's-going-on variety. The only way to do this is to play every message, at least in part, with Malaysian share prices closed 0.23 percent higher Monday, supported by mild gains in blue chips despite concern about near-record oil prices, dealers said. By July, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq should be down to about 130,000, according to the U.S. commander in Baghdad, Army Gen. David Petraeus -- about the same number as before President Bush sent additional combat forces there last spring. Businesses' inventories of unsold goods were flat in May as sales registered the biggest increase in more than a year, the government reported Monday. Research data, "observations and monitoring data on comprehensive researches of the Qinghai- Tibet Plateau", was made public by an institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) here recently.

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t7443 The United States has no plans to provide aid for China's controversial Three Gorges Dam, but US firms are free to compete for contracts on the project, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary said Thursday. U.S. Treasury bonds broke their recent winning streak Wednesday as a large amount of corporate bonds hit the market, pushing the prices of the government securities lower. Around 1,000 people rallied late Friday in the Greek capital Athens and second city Thessaloniki against the government's appeal to the EU and IMF for aid to end its debt crisis. For a long time, the greatest loss to pianists was the music of J.S. Bach. A few carried on undaunted, but since his keyboard music was mostly for harpsichord, his oeuvre became an oddity at piano events. Britain's Glastonbury rock music festival is famous for its eccentricities, and will this year unveil yet another cultural innovation -- the silent disco. The New Jersey-based company, which once rocked the real estate industry by selling homes for as little as 2 percent commission -- compared with commissions of up to 6 percent at other brokers -- said in an announcement that it is "releasing" 350 of its 380 employees "and may The wife and family of a slain local politician led 50,000 people through Pamplona Monday night to condemn the Basque separatists blamed for the killing. More than 1 million Angolan children are currently out of the educational system countrywide, accounting for 36 percent of the school-age children in Angola, the official news agency Angop reported Friday.

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t7445 Blue chip stocks hit a new record high on Wall Street Thursday, with the Dow Jones index gaining 5.18 points to reach 4,088.17 at the closing bell. MIAMI -- The U.S. government's anti-Castro radio and TV stations have improved significantly in recent years after allegations of corruption and mismanagement, according to a draft State Department review of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. A wave of attacks across Iraq including five car bombs, three as prayers finished at Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killed 58 people on Friday just days after the government said Al-Qaeda was on the run. ``Night at the Golden Eagle'' kicks off with a Tom Waits song and quickly descends into a world that even Waits, a venerable bard of the down-and-out, might find unbearably bleak. Their records only sold modestly, but 1980s British rock band The Smiths inspired unwavering loyalty from their fans -- and now, 18 years after they split, an entire academic conference devoted to their music and lyrics. But rival Microsoft Corp. countered that the future of the Internet was at stake, arguing that the deal should be stopped before Google could amass "the largest database of user information the world has ever known." Jose Rijo wants to pitch in the majors now, but the Cincinnati Reds aren't ready to give him the chance just yet. Six Chinese women soccer players have been given green light to join the Women 's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the Chinese Football Association (CFA) spokesman Feng Jianming said here on Friday.

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t8001 Less than 24-hours after crashing his Benetton-Renault into a safety barrier, Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher had another scare in practice here Saturday. General Electric Co. said Thursday it has abandoned talks with Financial Times publisher Pearson PLC about a possible bid for Dow Jones & Co., removing a potential rival to News Corp.'s $5 billion (euro3.73 billion) offer for the financial news publisher. Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned Germans to prepare for drastic economic measures over the next few years to get control of public finances, in a magazine article to appear Monday. As the Legislature this week takes up the first votes on major tax increases in a decade, signs of outrage are strangely absent from the debate. Fidel Castro's faith in Marxism has not waned, even though he has allowed his communist-led island to officially mourn the death of Pope John Paul II, whose role in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe he says has been overstated. For years, the Internet has been cutting into my television consumption. Now, though, it's made me halfway literate about the new TV season. Chris Webber is having second thoughts about returning to the Sacramento Kings, his agent said Tuesday just hours before the NBA's 2 1/2-week moratorium on free agent signings was to expire. Following are the standings of English premier league after Sunday's matches (tabulated under games played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, against and points):

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t8337 Share prices opened strongly higher on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday, with the Nikkei Stock Average rising 216.31 points, or 1.4 percent, to 15,966.08 in the first 15 minutes of trading. From the crack of dawn until late at night, stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk is at work in the lab, hoping to restore his credibility after a scandal that shocked the world. Mikel Arteta converted an injury-time penalty to give Everton a come from behind 2-1 win over Fulham at Goodison Park on Sunday to keep their slim hopes of Europa League football next season alive. ATLANTA - The series of books that make up Jean M. Auel's ``Earth's Children'' saga are nothing if not ambitious. From 1980's ``The Clan of the Cave Bear'' to the long-awaited ``The Shelters of Stone,'' Auel means to tell the story of the emergence of Cro-Magnon man and the Star investor Warren Buffett will appear before regulators on Monday as part of a probe into accounting of non-traditional products in insurance, his holding company Berkshire Hathaway said Friday. But even though network executives promise there will be a satisfying conclusion to the Patty Hewes -Arthur Frobisher showdown by the end of the season, they can't yet say as much about the fate of the series. Thousands of NATO troops launched a routine training exercise Wednesday in eastern Bosnia, where the U.N. war crimes tribunal's two most-wanted suspects are believed to be hiding. Tanzanian Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye has called on the country's public workers to stand at the forefront in the fight against corruption, the official Daily News reported on Wednesday.

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t8368 Japan's household spending fell an inflation-adjusted 4.2 percent from a year earlier for the fourth consecutive year-on-year fall, the Management and Coordination Agency said Monday. Mexican mariachi singer and actor Antonio Aguilar, who recorded more than 150 albums and began his acting career during Mexico's "Golden Era" of cinema, was buried on Thursday at his family's ranch in the northern state of Zacatecas. European Union election monitors said on Sunday they were concerned about the manual compilation of ballots by Sudan's election commission, saying it could undermine the transparency of the polls. On a recent visit to Niagara Falls, Nitin Dawda, of Hertfordshire, England, elected to stay overnight in Niagara Falls, N.Y., rather than Niagara Falls, Ontario, the bustling city on the Canadian side of the border, just a short stroll across the Rainbow Bridge. But like most visitors to either Two Italian fighter planes intercepted a suspect plane and were escorting it toward a military base near Rome, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday, as authorities patrolled a no-fly zone imposed for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. "Before the war, we were inconsequential," Armendariz told the El Paso (Texas) Times in 2005. "When we came back, we rose. We found out in the war that we had value, and we instilled that value in our people." Food, housing and health care costs ate into consumers' wallets last month, but lower energy prices helped to moderate inflation. Chinese Catholics should keep the tradition of anti-imperialism and patriotism, which the Chinese Catholic church has upheld since it won independence from the Vatican 50 years ago, said a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

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t8369 The Philippines embassy said Monday it was trying to find out how many Filipina domestic servants wanted to return home in the wake of the diplomatic crisis sparked by the hanging of a Filipina here. Members of Congress who want taxpayer dollars spent on embryonic stem cell research answered President George W. Bush's veto by advancing a spending bill that includes permission to do just that. Austrian President Heinz Fischer was headed for re-election as expected on Sunday, receiving 78 percent of votes, according to partial results published by the ARGE polling institute. A historic Lake Tahoe estate in Nevada, built by an eccentric San Francisco real estate investor who stayed there with his pet lion and pet elephant, was scheduled to open its doors for public tours this month. Having stood through Pope John Paul II's funeral and cried as his casket slipped behind the purple curtain of St Peter's Basilica, Poles in Rome raised their red and white flags Friday to honor him one last time. The moves come as Southern California is facing both a cut in water supplies from Northern California and is dealing with a major drought locally. The former chief executive of a printing company that makes stock certificates and other secure documents was charged Wednesday with securities fraud. Ariel Sharon, head of Israel's major opposition party Likud, said Wednesday he still wanted to talk with Prime Minister Ehud Barak on forming an emergency coalition after Barak agreed Tuesday night to hold new elections.

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t3170 Vandals profaned about 130 tombs at a Christian Orthodox cemetery in Macedonia's multi-ethnic town of Kumanovo, northwest of here, Macedonian television said Sunday. Visiting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called Nepal's prime minister a hero on Thursday, praising a peace process that ended a decade-old communist insurgency in the Himalayan nation. The death toll from a strong earthquake in northwestern China has risen to 1,144, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. ATLANTA - Louis Rukeyser, the business news host ousted from his throne on public broadcasting, has found a way to get on commercial TV and still have his face on public broadcasting. The dollar was higher against the yen and euro in Asian trade Monday as investors braced themselves for the likelihood the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this week, dealers said. A Washington Post opinion article misstated a measure of Japan's economy. Japan's accumulated government debt is more than 170 times its gross domestic product, not its fiscal deficit. Just hours after Fred Williams resigned as coach, the Utah Starzz snapped a three-game losing streak with a 73-69 victory over Cleveland Rockers on Friday night. The Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced Saturday that it is offering the families of passengers and crew who died in the Flight SQ 006 accident in Taipei 400,000 U.S. dollars each in compensation.

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t8470 IAEA governors met here Monday to discuss how to improve detection of clandestine atomic weapons production, following disputes over checks in Iraq and doubts on North Korea's nuclear programme, IAEA sources said. Twenty percent of East Timor's people need food aid after severe droughts and locust plagues battered crops in the troubled young nation, two U.N. food agencies said Friday. The daughter of a senior Hamas leader allowed by Israel to leave Gaza for medical treatment in Jordan is recovering in an Amman hospital, a Jordanian medical official said on Sunday. What grass remains of the fiercest tornado ever to strike Maryland is dappled with shards of glass and shredded asphalt shingles. Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh will pay a three-day visit next week to the United States aimed at further strengthening India-US ties, the foreign office said Friday. In a highly anticipated appearance, Thompson shared a Dearborn, Mich., stage with eight other candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination, giving a national audience its first opportunity to directly compare the 65-year-old former actor against other contenders for the White House. Lance Armstrong hunched over the handlebars, lowered his head and gritted his teeth as he powered up the steep mountain climb from Grenoble to Chamrousse. Gore's lawyers, whose request to count disputed ballots immediately was turned down on Tuesday by a Leon County Circuit Court judge, appealed to the First District Court of Appeals on Wednesday.

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t8474 Sierra Leone rebels Monday called on two key inter-African bodies to back their call for foreign troops to leave the ravaged country. Indonesia has demanded access to 76 of its citizens seized at a plastics factory in the United States, saying it wants to make sure they get legal assistance, a Foreign Ministry official said Friday. Search and rescue work has ended in China's Himalayan region following this month's deadly 6.9-magnitude earthquake, with the government urging greater reconstruction efforts, state media said Sunday. The fish-and-chip shop may be as ``Truly British'' as the bobbies patrolling in their pointed black helmets, but the tidy streets, royalist sentiments and low crime rate hark back to an era that faded away decades ago in Britain. The municipality of Vienna said Friday it would designate as heroes' graves the resting places of 37 prominent Jews who died here before 1945 and to "declassify" the graves of eight Nazis who were buried with this honour. The court's action, taken without comment, was a setback for civil libertarians who had hoped to win limits on the secrecy rule, a legacy of the Cold War. Supporters of U.S. fugitive Ira Einhorn joined him at home in this small French village Wednesday, chatting and sipping wine from plastic cups at a party he has called a ``Last Supper'' before his likely extradition from France. ISLAMABAD, November 29 (Xinhua) -- Terming the recent bomb blasts in Pakistan an open terrorism, a senior police officer blamed the forces "across the eastern border" for masterminding these blasts.

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t8475 Meanwhile in Spain trawler owners pressed their government to increase the number of Spanish patrol boats in the disputed area. U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said Friday that North Korea is prepared to promptly carry out a pledge to shut down its main nuclear reactor, but warned that the country's complete denuclearization will not be easy. US President Barack Obama has invited Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas to Washington in May in a fresh bid to relaunch Middle East peace talks, a Palestinian official said Sunday. What grass remains of the fiercest tornado ever to strike Maryland is dappled with shards of glass and shredded asphalt shingles. A former chef at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch told jurors on Friday that he saw the pop icon with his hand down the front of child movie star Macaulay Culkin's pants. Hearing that, Lisa Davis didn't think twice about removing the toys from her 5-year-old daughter's room and "chucking them in the trash" rather than returning the items for a replacement. Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday asked a federal appeals court to grant a rehearing on whether the company illegally bundled code for Web browsing software with that of its dominant Windows desktop operating system. About 80.4 percent of vacant jobs during the first ten months of this year were in the private sector, Romania's National Agency for Employment and Occupational Training said Wednesday.

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t8476 Sweden and Germany signed a new air and sea rescue agreement here Monday aimed at rendering rescue operations around the Baltic sea more efficient, the Swedish Transport Ministry said. From famine to feast: Portugal's capital is finally getting the modern art museum of international stature it has long craved. Leading final-round scores from the Ballantine's Championship in Jeju, South Korea, on Sunday. Tournament reduced to 54 holes due to poor weather. The tale of a group of New Jersey nursing home workers locked in a tangle of greed and betrayal over a $58.9 million share in a multistate lottery jackpot ended Monday with a wheeze. State lottery officials said the mysterious winner was neither the pool of night-shift workers who Premier League referee Mike Dean was suspended Friday for the rest of the season for "breaching the terms of his contract" because of his involvement in an online race horse syndicate. Sutherland, who plays counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer on the Fox TV show "24," was scheduled for sentencing Dec. 21 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Striking government workers and cash-strapped retirees marched by the thousands Wednesday to the seat of national power, a day after their president locked up political support for an unpopular mix of state wage and pension cuts. The Mongolian Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that Constitutional amendments adopted by the State Great Hural (parliament) of Mongolia on December 24, 1999 are null and void.

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t8477 Heavy snowfall and strong winds on Monday disrupted central city traffic and caused delays of up to 30 minutes at the Stockholm airport, airport officials said. Suspected Taliban militants attacked police posts in southern Afghanistan, sparking clashes and NATO airstrikes that left 25 civilians and 20 militants dead, a senior police officer said Friday. Unheralded Marcus Fraser landed the biggest victory of his career after he carded a final-round three-under-par 69 to win the Ballantine's Championship on Sunday. Vivendi Universal said Monday that it would ask a Paris court to annul the voting results of its shareholder meeting last Wednesday. US communications giant Motorola Inc on Friday launched an applied research laboratory in India's high-tech hub Bangalore, as part of a plan to make the growing Asian nation its center for engineering and product development. They also released a chilling timeline and grim details of Tyler Peterson pursuing his victims through his former girlfriend's house, killing one girl as she hid in a closet. Two defectors from Belarus have told U.S. officials that a death squad created by President Alexander Lukashenko's government was responsible for the disappearance of four prominent opposition figures over the past two years in Belarus, the State Department said Wednesday. Hasina who will leave here early Saturday for a three-nation Europe tour will pay an official visit to Germany from December 5 to 7 at the invitation of the Federal Chancellor.

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t8660 Striking baseball players could be on the verge of a legal victory that would end their 7 1/2-month walkout and force club owners to lock them out, shut down the sport or risk financial ruin. Look around the kitchen of Filippo La Mantia's hip restaurant in downtown Rome and you'll see oranges, leaves of fresh basil, olive oil. But no garlic. US stocks were mixed Monday, with the Dow keeping momentum from an eight-week- old rally amid upbeat earnings from bellwether stock Caterpillar and optimism over an aid plan for Greece that buoyed global markets. Watching a Woody Allen film nowadays _ especially a movie like his newest comedy, ``Hollywood Ending,'' in which the director is also the star _ is like settling down with a plate heaped with comfort food. The meat loaf, mashed potatoes and string beans may be reasonably tasty and Israeli police were out in force Saturday in Jerusalem's Old City, a day ahead of a banned protest by Jewish extremists at a holy site that could inflame the Palestinians and shatter a fragile ceasefire. Deputy District Attorney Andre Manssourian said Thursday that he gave the artist a list of options that are available to defendants ordered to perform community service. The name of the park where he will be working is not being released to prevent disruptions, Manssourian said. He will be part Jeff Bagwell hit for the cycle, homering and doubling in an eight-run fifth inning as the Houston Astros outslugged St. Louis 17-11 Wednesday night in the highest-scoring game at Enron Field. Albanian police on Wednesday brought the volatile situation in north Albania briefly under control by detaining former President Sali Berisha.

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t8661 Jacques Medecin, former mayor of Nice and once the uncrowned king of the French Riviera, goes on trial Wednesday for the first time over allegations of multi-million dollar corruption which forced him to flee to South America. Sven-Goran Eriksson is being urged to make a quick decision on whether he wants to become Manchester City's manager under proposed new owner Thaksin Shinawatra. Three other coaches are being considered for the job. The Wall Street Journal unveiled a New York edition of the newspaper on Monday as it seeks to battle The New York Times for readers and advertising dollars on its home turf. Contaminated burritos, strawberries, spaghetti and other foods on school lunch trays are posing an increasing health risk to students, a congressional investigator told a joint House-Senate panel Tuesday. Worries over public safety topped economic concerns for the first time in seven years, a government survey released Saturday said. The Turkish government warned Thursday that a congressional committee vote labeling the mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as genocide will "endanger relations" with the United States. Cuba's National Museum of Fine Arts reopened Wednesday after a rehabilitation of the three-building complex, which houses nearly 50,000 works dating back to the island's Spanish colonization. Colombian President Andres Pastrana and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, will meet in Mexico City next Friday in an effort to mend fences between the two Andean neighbors.

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t8662 The Israeli parliament defeated Monday a right-wing opposition censure motion against the government following a minister's statement forecasting the emergence of a Palestinian state. A company that sent a termination letter to an Indiana National Guardsman serving in Iraq has retracted it and apologized to his family. Famed Spanish restaurant elBulli lost its crown as the world's best in an international poll Monday after four years at the top, beaten to the number one spot by rising star Noma in Copenhagen. The Metropolitan Opera commissioned John Harbison's opera ``The Great Gatsby'' to celebrate the 25th anniversary of James Levine's company debut. Naturally, Levine, who conducted the premiere in December 1999, has strong attachments to the work. Government forces continued to hunt down rebels from the minority Zaidi community in mountains of northwest Yemen Saturday following fierce clashes that have left over 200 people dead in less than a fortnight. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, meeting his British counterpart for the fifth time since taking office last December, said Britain's decision to withdraw its forces from Basra was directly coordinated with Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. officer who commands allied troops in Iraq. Thunderstorms dumped up to 6 inches of rain on parts of southwestern Ohio, killing a man and his daughter and knocking out power to 26,000 customers. The report quoted American Airlines spokeswoman Karen Watson as saying that the plane, which was carrying 66 people, landed safely at the airport Wednesday night.

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t8664 The United States and South Korea have worked out problems concerning US access to the South Korean telecommunications market, the US Trade Representative's office said Monday. Authorities have broken up a multinational criminal gang that swiped banking information from ATMs and manufactured false bank cards, netting some US$95,000, officials said Friday. The iconic Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles has been saved from development after Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner stepped in with a 900,000-dollar donation, activists said Monday. Shares of Edison Schools, the nation's largest for-profit operator of public schools, halted a weeklong slide Tuesday that had eroded more than half the stock's value. Roman Catholic cardinals Saturday convened their first meeting after the emotional ritual of John Paul II's funeral, as the Vatican machinery rumbled on and the focus shifted to his succession. Only this: Blackwater is what America wanted. Even if few Americans had ever heard of the company until recently, most voters generally have supported the decadeslong bipartisan trend toward government downsizing, "reinvention" and outright privatization. Founded in 1997 and first funded by the Clinton administration, Blackwater, for better or Republican supporters of campaign finance legislation urged House Speaker Dennis Hastert to give them a vote on their bill while their Democratic allies prepared a petition drive to force a House vote. The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) has been looking at modifying rules and a new electronic monitoring system for race walking.

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t8665 One year after media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, a political novice, won Italy's general election, political life is becoming aggressively polarised between left and right as they give no quarter in the fight for the middle ground which used to be dominant. Much of southeastern Europe baked in record hot temperatures Friday and electricity resources were being stretched to cover heightened demand during the summer's first major heat wave. One of the best ways Brazilians can stave off chronic illness is to engage regularly in physical exercise, especially sex, Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao said Monday. A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has approved a plan for the Dee Howard Aircraft Maintenance to sell its assets to Vision Technologies Aerospace for $14.2 million. Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama called Saturday for the abolition of the death penalty and a revamp of centuries of academic-centered thinking on education to build a more "warm-hearted" world. Excerpts from a recent Washington Post online reader chat with presidential candidate Sam Brownback, a two-term Republican senator from Kansas. Tom Glavine made another stingy start in one of his favorite ballparks and Keith Lockhart hit a three-run homer Wednesday night that sent the Atlanta Braves to a rain-shortened 3-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Sepp Blatter, the president of soccer's governing body FIFA, arrived here on Wednesday to explore the possibility of developing interest in soccer on this baseball- crazy island country.

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t3171 A high society Italian dentist trying to conceal an affair with a student, sold their illegitimate baby son to an ex-convict for a reputed sum of 30,000 dollars, newspapers here said Sunday. Fiji's military ruler said Thursday he was expelling New Zealand's top diplomat, sending relations between the two South Pacific nations already strained by a coup in Fiji last year spiraling even lower. A tribal militia group on Friday freed eight Red Cross workers it has held hostage for a week in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Red Cross said. Standing before the ruins of one of the giant, ancient Buddhas that was dynamited by the Taliban last year, interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai pledged Tuesday to rebuild the statues whose destruction caused an international outcry. Hong Kong share prices closed the Monday morning session flat ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) meeting on Tuesday, when it is expected to hike interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent, dealers said. Low-skilled immigrants rarely have insurance, whether life, accident or unemployment, and sometimes when they have an emergency, friends and family members pass donation buckets in small churches or call Spanish-language radio stations conducting phone-a-thons to raise money to pay the bills. Fred Williams resigned as head coach of the Utah Starzz on Friday, saying only that it was ``time for a change.'' The runoff for the second stage of parliamentary elections in Egypt started Saturday morning, in which 232 candidates will compete for 119 seats.

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t9514 The House of Representatives rejected Wednesday proposals to limit US lawmakers' terms in office in the first defeat in the lower house for the conservative agenda championed by the Republican majority. Emirates Team New Zealand came from behind to snatch a 28-second win over defending champion Alinghi Sunday, leveling their best-of-nine America's Cup series at 1-1. Japan's ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa moved back into the firing line Tuesday over a political funds scandal but vowed not to resign ahead of crucial summer elections. Too young for the Spandex and nose candy of the disco era, and too sheltered for the decadent days of glam rock, Tjinder Singh might seem an unlikely savior of both sounds. Millions are starving in southern Sudan, including tens of thousands of returnees drawn back by the promise of peace and displaced persons fleeing Darfur in the west, according to aid workers here. Attorney Wayne Bennett doesn't make waves at his job; he makes peace. As a special master in this city's family court system, his deep, measured voice -- touched with the lilt of his native Jamaica -- has quelled hundreds of arguments over contested child support payments. Spanish teen-ager Marc Lopez, a qualifier playing his first tournament, upset countryman Alberto Martin 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 Friday to reach the semifinals of the Mercedes Cup. Manchester United, English Premiership leaders and the world's most famous football club, are planning to make a three-city Asian tour next year.

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t9516 The head of a Philippine government inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the hanging of a Filipina maid in Singapore said Thursday it had evidence that she may have been innocent. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday he received U.S. and Israeli assurances that the Jewish state was ready to make progress at an upcoming summit meeting in Egypt, the official Jordanian news agency Petra reported. A female diplomat in the Indian embassy in Islamabad has been arrested in New Delhi on charges of spying for Pakistan, reports said Tuesday. The ultimate creature of habit could not have had a more disruptive season than Nomar Garciaparra last year. There was nothing routine about the reconstructive wrist surgery he had last April on his right hand, and nothing remotely satisfying about a season in which he missed all but 21 Anti-Japanese protests in China were supported by the government but reflect genuine public hostility towards Tokyo, said analysts and protestors who jumped at the chance to demonstrate. For scientists, global warming is a disaster movie, its opening scenes set at the poles of Earth. The epic already has started. And it's not fiction. A man has admitted to building two package bombs and mailing one to his ex-wife at the plumbing supply company where she worked, federal agents said. Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province suffered from serious air pollution Tuesday, according to a daily air quality report released by the China Environmental Monitoring Center.

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t9530 Malaysian police will classify the dumping of toxic and chemical waste as manslaughter, news reports said Thursday amid mounting public concern after two alarming cases of dumping. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday welcomed what she characterized as new energy and cooperation from France to end the violence in Sudan's Darfur region. She warned Sudan's government not to put fresh conditions on peacemaking efforts. Spain's jobless rate topped 20 percent in the first quarter, its highest level since 1997, a report said Tuesday, citing figures accidentally released by statistics institute INE ahead of schedule. When Larry Zicklin, the president of the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish charity, thought in early March that he might organize a package tour to Israel, few people seemed interested. But after the Passover killings on March 27, and with reports of a rising wave of anti-Semitism in Top US military commanders believe that security improvements in Iraq can lead to significant US troop reductions by early 2006, the New York Times reported Monday. And with all that fat, ripe stuff to assault, the best they can do to "Rocky" in this "Scary Movie"-esque pastiche of sight gags is have a geriatric Balboa clone literally knocked into dust with one punch? The false teeth falling in the cup doesn't make it any better. Tiger Woods inched toward the lead with back-to-back birdies on par-5s Friday at the British Open, where crowds cheered wildly for every shot struck by Colin Montgomerie. The Component Stock Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange closed at 4,820.59 points Tuesday, down 34.63 points from last close, according to the Guangfa Securities Co., Ltd.

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t9531 The Republicans' "Contract With America" has suffered its first defeat in the House of Representatives as lawmakers rejected proposals to limite their terms in office. A long-range strike by Almukhain Ahmed gave Oman a 1-0 victory over Indonesia on Sunday as both sides warmed up for soccer's upcoming Asian Cup. France "took note" Tuesday of the re-election of Sudan's President Omar al- Beshir, while alleging the vote was tainted by fraud and repeating its support for the war crimes tribunal that indicted him. Looking enviously at Asian tigers such as Taiwan and South Korea, which have become big exporters of high-tech goods, Brazil dreams of becoming a Latin jaguar. France captain Fabien Pelous is out of Toulouse's Heineken Cup semi-final with Leicester on April 24 after the lock strained knee ligaments in a weekend club match against Bourgoin. The largest homeless-services provider in suburban Loudoun County, Va., is consolidating and upgrading its facilities, bolstering the level of care for the indigent in a growing county that will still lack a permanent shelter for homeless men. A judge refused to block the merger of Wachovia Corp. and First Union Corp., rejecting in Friday's ruling a request by rival suitor SunTrust Banks Inc. The Composite Index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange closed at 2,091.67 points Tuesday, down 0. 46 points from the last close, according to Guangfa Securities Co., Ltd.

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t9532 Japan's industrial output in February expanded by 1.9 percent over the previous month after contracting a revised 1.5 percent in January, the international trade and industry ministry said Thursday. Israel agreed Sunday to begin releasing hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen tax funds to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, part of a package of planned goodwill gestures meant to strengthen the moderate Palestinian leader in his standoff against the Islamic militant group Hamas. Bosnian Serbs will never accept that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslims was genocide, Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told a Belgrade daily in an interview published Tuesday. With apparent American acquiescence, Israel has seen off an international effort to examine its army's behavior at the Jenin refugee camp during the invasion of the Palestinian territories last month. Britain's Prince Harry, the youngest son of newlywed Prince Charles, is due in Lesotho on Monday to continue the charity work he began last year with children living with AIDS in the southern African kingdom, an embassy official said. From the Zeituna Restaurant to the Basel Furniture store, business once thrived along the road that runs through this Palestinian village, conducted in a language no longer spoken here. President Bush, arriving at the summit of industrialized nations, waved to riot police from his armored limousine Friday as he rode through streets cleared of people for security purposes. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government received information Tuesday that the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union (EU) had reached an agreement in principle to grant visa- free access to HKSAR passport holders.

95.txt

t9533 Singapore CableVision (SCV) Pte. Ltd. signed up ESPN, the world's largest cable sports network, on Thursday in another step towards bringing cable TV to households in the city-state by mid-June. Thousands of people flocked to a mock English flea market in Spain's capital on Sunday, using British currency to buy bric-a-brac and browsing antiques stalls for bargains. The Philippines saw its budget deficit rise by 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010, due to the need to spend on projects before national elections in May, the finance department said Tuesday. The prospect of outside intervention, anathema to most Israelis, is a saving grace to Palestinians. On May 2 Yasser Arafat was released from his imprisonment in Ramallah, courtesy of a model he wants applied throughout the occupied territories: the insertion of foreign security men. Any international force would have Lebanon's prime minister-designate Omar Karameh struggled Monday to form a new government amid squabbling over cabinet posts and a law to set the framework for legislative elections due next month. The package, sponsored by members including Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, would make clear that the rules applied to all key participants in making loans -- notably brokers and independent lenders who generally have been overlooked by regulators. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday he will feel a flood of emotions when he returns to Vietnam decades after serving two tours there as an army officer during the Vietnam War. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) staff around the country Tuesday walked off the job in protest over management's decision to axe core programs and sack a high-profile staff member.

96.txt

t9534 Japan's industrial production in February increased by 1.9 percent from the figure for the previous month after contracting a revised 1.5 percent in January, the International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) said on Thursday. An enormous forest fire started by tool sparks has destroyed dozens of homes and cabins on the scenic Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage. British energy giant BP said Tuesday that first-quarter profits rocketed on higher oil prices but admitted that the news was overshadowed by last week's tragic accident at a rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The man at the center of Iran's latest, incoherent bid to improve its relations with the United States was in a roughly similar position 16 years ago. The results then were unfortunate. And the results of the present confused, backbiting process look like being no less futile. Bilateral trade has been threatened by two days of protests and calls for the boycott of Japanese goods in China, but the Asian giants are bound by an economic relationship that neither can afford to break. Frederick "Ted" Bayer, 85, an emeritus curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and a deep-sea biologist who specialized in the study and classification of soft corals, died Oct. 2 at the Washington Home hospice. He had congestive heart failure. Floods that have hammered eastern India for a week worsened Friday, carrying waterborne diseases that raised the death toll to 39 and forcing the evacuation of more than a million people. Thousands of flood-affected farmers in Australia are expected to take advantage of a two-year multi-million Australian dollar help package announced Tuesday by the federal government.

97.txt

t9535 The Japanese and North Korean ruling parties signed a joint statement Thursday in Pyongyang as their first major step toward resuming stalled normalization talks, news agencies said. France won the men's European Cup competition for the second straight year by edging Germany and Russia swept its 11th consecutive women's title when the two-day competition ended Sunday. Radical US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has appeared in a video apparently produced by Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based arm, confirming his ties with the organisation, a monitoring group said on Tuesday. ``Buddy'' to all the world _ was convicted in 1984 of kidnapping his then wife's alleged lover and torturing him with lit cigarettes. But he was re-elected anyway, and is now the longest-serving big-city mayor in America. Singapore shares closed little changed Monday as the market shrugged off data showing a lacklustre performance for the city-state's economy in the first quarter of the year, dealers said. Could my son be accused of sexual harassment? He's a good boy. He likes watching "Thomas the Tank Engine" on television and playing "Simon Says." Like many 3-year-olds, he's very affectionate. Unfortunately, hugging his teacher may get him suspended from nursery school. Stock prices fell Friday on a profit warning from Microsoft, which heightened investors' fears that an economic turnaround won't happen soon. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori will face two charges by a congressional committee investigating the case of his onetime spymaster, Vladimiro Montesinos, according to local media reports on Monday.

98.txt

t9536 Turkey said Thursday it was prepared to withdraw most of its forces battling Turkish Kurd separatists in northern Iraq soon under certain conditions. Not one to doubt herself, or pay any heed to those who do, Serena Williams likes her chances as she returns to the All England Club. The Indian Premier League has a long and profitable future ahead of it but the suspension of tournament chief Lalit Modi must lead to reform, experts say. When Larry Zicklin, the president of the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish charity, thought in early March that he might organize a package tour to Israel, few people seemed interested. But after the Passover killings on March 27, and with reports of a rising wave of anti-Semitism in Up to 80 police and other officials were injured when thousands of farmers rioted in eastern China after an elderly protestor was allegedly run over and killed by a police car, witnesses said Monday. The new car will be launched with a 265-horsepower V-6 engine with direct fuel injection (into the cylinders) and fuel economy that Audi says is improved by 13 percent. It's to be paired with six-speed manual or automatic transmissions. Styling is intended to be sportier, with a shorter front Protesters hurled firebombs and stones at riot police Friday in hours of violent clashes designed to disrupt a summit of world leaders. Police wielded clubs and fired water cannons and tear gas to drive back the demonstrators. Microsoft plans to donate 100 million dollars to help create and run computer centers in Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the nation, Bill Gates announced Monday.

99.txt

t9537 A Japanese court on Monday ruled that the firing of an HIV-positive man by his employer was invalid and ordered the company to pay compensation of six million yen (67,000 dollars) and unpaid salary to him. An explosion in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel injured five U.N. peacekeepers Sunday, a leading television station here reported. Radical US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has appeared in a video apparently produced by Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based arm, confirming his ties with the organisation, a monitoring group said on Tuesday. Looking enviously at Asian tigers such as Taiwan and South Korea, which have become big exporters of high-tech goods, Brazil dreams of becoming a Latin jaguar. The Asian Development Bank said Monday it has approved 300 million dollars in its biggest ever single grant to help rehabilitate and reconstruct tsunami-ravaged areas in Indonesia. In college sports, the no man's land between professional and amateur athletics, it is no longer just the bowl games and stadiums that are for sale but even the players on the field. The killing of three Palestinians in the West Bank, apparently by Jewish extremists, drew condemnations Friday from Israeli leaders, Jewish settlers and the United States. Palestinians held Israel's government responsible. WASHINGTON, December 4 (Xinhua) -- Following are the standings of National Basketball Association teams after Monday's games ( tabulate under wins, losses, winning percentage, games behind first place):

minhash.py

from __future__ import division
from multiprocessing import Pool
from nltk import ngrams
from collections import defaultdict
from difflib import SequenceMatcher
from datasketch import MinHash, MinHashLSH
import glob, sys, resource, json, os, shutil, functools
import numpy as np

# parameters
window_len = 12
window_step = 6
max_cores = 8
permutations = 256
threshold = 0.5
min_similarity = 0.7
recall = 0.95
infiles = glob.glob('*.txt')

# data stores
lsh = MinHashLSH(threshold=threshold, num_perm=permutations,
      weights=(1-recall, recall))
minhash_dict = defaultdict(lambda: defaultdict())
id_to_segment = {}

# outdirs
for i in ['ngrams', 'matches']:
  for j in range(10):
    for k in range(10):
      for l in range(10):
        outdir = os.path.join(*[str(q) for q in [i, j, k, l]])
        if not os.path.exists(outdir):
          os.makedirs(outdir)

def get_nested_path(text_id):
  '''
  @args:
    text_id: {int} index position of a text in `infiles`
  @returns:
    {str}: a string that points to the nested path for the infile
  '''
  f = str(text_id)
  while len(f) < 3: f = '0' + f
  return os.path.join(f[0], f[1], f[2], f)

def get_ngrams(text_id_and_path):
  '''
  @args:
    text_id_and_path: {tup} a tuple containing:
      {int} index position of a text in `infiles`
      {str} path to that file on disk
  @returns:
    text_id: {int} index position of a text in `infiles`
    text_json: {obj} object with ngrams and windows keys
  '''
  text_id, text_path = text_id_and_path
  print(' * getting ngrams in', text_id)
  outfile = os.path.join('ngrams', get_nested_path(text_id) + '.json')
  if os.path.exists(outfile):
    return (text_id, json.load(open(outfile)))

  # no ngram json was found, so create new ngram json
  text_json = {'windows': [], 'ngrams': []}
  with open(text_path) as f:
    for window_id, window in enumerate(ngrams(f.read().split(), window_len)):
      text_json['windows'].append(window)
      if window_id % window_step == 0:
        grams = set()
        for gram in ngrams(' '.join(window), 3):
          grams.add(''.join(gram))
        text_json['ngrams'].append(list(grams))
  with open(outfile, 'w') as out:
    json.dump(text_json, out)
  return (text_id, text_json)

def get_minhashes(text_id_and_json):
  '''
  @args:
    text_id_and_json: {tup} a tuple containing:
      text_id: {int} index position of a text in `infiles`
      text_json: {obj} an object with windows and ngrams
        keys, each of which maps to a list of strings
  @returns:
    text_id: {int} index position of a text in `infiles`
    _minhashes: {list} a list of minhashes for this infile
  '''
  _minhashes = []
  text_id, text_json = text_id_and_json
  print(' * minhashing grams in', text_id)
  for window_id, window in enumerate(text_json['ngrams']):
    id_to_segment[_id] = (text_id, window_id)
    _minhash = MinHash(num_perm=permutations)
    for w in window:
      _minhash.update(w.encode('utf-8'))
    _minhashes.append( _minhash )
  return (text_id, _minhashes)

def write_matches(text_matches):
  '''
  @args:
    text_matches: {arr} an array of tuples that identify the
      text_id, text_window, match_text_id, match_text_window
      for all matches in the incoming file
  @returns:
    none
  '''
  match_similarities = []
  match_text_to_details = defaultdict(list)
  for i in text_matches:
    text_id, text_window, match_text_id, match_text_window = i
    match_text_to_details[match_text_id].append(i)

  with open(os.path.join('ngrams', get_nested_path(text_id) + '.json')) as f:
    text_json = json.load(f)

  for match_text_id in match_text_to_details:
    with open(os.path.join('ngrams', get_nested_path(match_text_id) + '.json')) as f:
      match_json = json.load(f)

    for i in match_text_to_details[match_text_id]:
      text_id, text_window_id, match_text_id, match_text_window_id = i
      text_window = ' '.join(text_json['windows'][text_window_id])
      match_text_window = ' '.join(match_json['windows'][match_text_window_id])
      similarity = SequenceMatcher(None, text_window,
        match_text_window, autojunk=False).ratio()
      if similarity >= min_similarity:
        match_similarities.append([
          int(text_id),
          int(match_text_id),
          int(text_window_id),
          int(match_text_window_id),
          int((similarity*100)+0.5)/100.0
        ])

  print(' * found', len(match_similarities), 'matches for text id', text_id)
  outpath = os.path.join('matches', get_nested_path(text_id) + '.json')
  with open(outpath, 'w') as out:
    json.dump(match_similarities, out)

##
# Get ngrams for each text
##

text_id_and_json = []
ngram_pool = Pool(max_cores)
text_ids_and_paths = [(c, i) for c, i in enumerate(infiles)]
for text_id, text_json in ngram_pool.map(get_ngrams, text_ids_and_paths):
  text_id_and_json.append((text_id, text_json))
ngram_pool.close()
ngram_pool.join()

##
# Get minhashes for each window and build lsh index
##

_id = 0
minhash_pool = Pool(max_cores)
for text_id, minhash_list in minhash_pool.imap(get_minhashes, text_id_and_json):
  for window_id, _minhash in enumerate(minhash_list):
    minhash_dict[text_id][window_id] = _minhash
    id_to_segment[_id] = (text_id, window_id)
    lsh.insert(_id, _minhash)
    _id += 1
minhash_pool.close()
minhash_pool.join()

##
# Find and store matches in the lsh index
##

matches = defaultdict(list)
for text_id in list(minhash_dict):
  for window_id in minhash_dict[text_id].keys():
    _minhash = minhash_dict[text_id][window_id]
    result = lsh.query(_minhash)
    for match_id in result:
      match_text_id, match_window_id = id_to_segment[match_id]
      if match_text_id != text_id:
        matches[text_id].append(np.array([
          text_id,
          window_id,
          match_text_id,
          match_window_id
        ]))
  del minhash_dict[text_id]

##
# Store the matches for each file
##

match_pool = Pool(max_cores)
text_matches = [matches[i] for i in matches]
for _ in match_pool.imap(write_matches, text_matches):
  pass

##
# Flatten matches
##

@functools.lru_cache(maxsize=128)
def load_windows(text_id):
  '''
  @args
    text_id: integer id for text
  @returns
    list of windows from the given text
  '''
  path = os.path.join('ngrams', get_nested_path(text_id) + '.json')
  with open(path) as f:
    j = json.load(f)
  return j['windows']

for i in glob.glob(os.path.join('matches', '*', '*', '*', '*.json')):
  with open(i) as f:
    j = json.load(f)
    if not j: continue
    for id_a, id_b, win_a, win_b, sim in j:
      print(' --', infiles[id_a], infiles[id_b], 'sim =', sim, '--')
      print(' '.join(load_windows(id_a)[win_a]))
      print(' '.join(load_windows(id_b)[win_b]))

##
# Write a mapping from text id to text file
##

with open('filelist.json', 'w') as out:
  json.dump(infiles, out)

# identify max RAM usage
max_ram = resource.getrusage(resource.RUSAGE_SELF).ru_maxrss

requirements.txt

nltk>=3.4.0
datasketch>=0.2.6