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| August 20, 2007 | Monday | Sha’aban 6, 1428 |
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Maldives president wins landmark referendum
MALE, Aug 19: Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom won a landmark referendum on Sunday to adopt a US-style presidential system in the remote Indian Ocean island chain, in a vote seen as an acid test for Asia’s longest serving ruler.... 
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Kazakh leader’s party dominates flawed poll
ASTANA, Aug 19: Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s party won every available seat in a new parliament on Sunday after a flawed vote that the opposition said turned the clock back to totalitarian Soviet rule....
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Afghanistan celebrates independence anniversary
KABUL, Aug 19: President Hamid Karzai led Afghanistan’s Independence Day celebrations on Sunday with a call to the country’s young people to educate themselves to preserve their freedom....
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Gul’s presidency could be a watershed for Turkey
ANKARA: Turkey’s parliament is poised to elect a former Islamist as president in what some analysts say could be a watershed in this secular Muslim country’s transition into a liberal democracy with a strong economy....
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Jordanian parliament dissolved
AMMAN, Aug 19: Jordan’s King Abdullah issued a decree on Sunday dissolving parliament and told the government to prepare for multi-party polls later this year, officials said....
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Iraqi leaders agree on agenda for summit
BAGHDAD, Aug 19: Iraq’s fractious leaders on Sunday agreed on the agenda for a political summit called by embattled Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in a bid to salvage his crumbling unity government....
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Thais vote for charter drafted by army
BANGKOK, Aug 19: A healthy majority of Thai voters approved an army-drafted constitution on Sunday designed to prevent a repeat of the powerful single party government of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, an exit poll showed....
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When hearth is no longer her home
COLOMBO, Aug 19: To Princey Mangalika from Sri Lanka, AIDS has come to mean hatred, hunger, humiliation and death....
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China laments ‘cold wind’ of quality problems
BEIJING, Aug 19: Politically motivated, unfair, biased and poisoned by jealousy – China’s quality watchdog chief gave his verdict on Sunday on the storm surrounding the quality of Chinese goods, describing it as a “cold wind”....
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EU freezes financing for Gaza fuel supply
GAZA CITY, Aug 19: Parts of the Gaza Strip were still suffering power cuts on Sunday after the European Union suspended the financing of fuel deliveries for the impoverished territory’s sole power plant....
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The endgame looms as N-deal strains Indian govt
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government is struggling to weather its worst crisis as communist allies threaten to end support, and even if the coalition scrapes through its stability is likely to be badly dented....
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Taliban show new media savvy in Afghanistan
KABUL: When two Taliban addressed journalists outside the venue of talks to free South Korean hostages last week, it was effectively the militia’s first press conference in Afghanistan in five years....
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Palestinian poverty spawns child beggars
NAZARETH (Israel): For 15-year-old Issa, days of summer start when the sun rises over a northern Israeli hill, shining on a garbage dump, a thorny field and then the dirty mattress that is his bed....
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Leh’s Tibetan architecture at risk as tourism booms
LEH (India): Perched high above the Himalayan town of Leh, a warren of traditional mud-brick houses squats by the ruins of the royal palace and a monastery, appearing to grow out of the mountainside....
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