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| February 23, 2008 | Saturday | Safar 15, 1429 |
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Venezuelan plane crash claims 46 lives
MERIDA (Venezuela), Feb 22: A Venezuelan passenger plane slammed into the sheer face of an Andean mountainside shortly after takeoff from this tourist city and all 46 people on board were killed, officials said on Friday.... 
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Peace offer to Israel may be withdrawn: Arab leaders
CAIRO, Feb 22: Arab officials are warning they could withdraw their landmark offer of peace and full ties with Israel in exchange for a return of Arab lands, unless Israel explicitly accepts the initiative....
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Serbs clash with UN police in Kosovo town
PRISTINA, Feb 22: A group of protesters clashed on Friday with UN police in Mitrovica, hurling firecrackers and flares at a flashpoint bridge they were guarding in the ethnically divided Kosovo town....
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US embassy dependents asked to leave Belgrade
BELGRADE: US authorities have instructed dependents of staff at its embassy in Belgrade to leave Serbia after the mission was torched in rioting, a US embassy spokeswoman said on Friday....
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Troops in Afghanistan to stay, says Australia
CANBERRA, Feb 22: Australia pledged on Friday to keep its troops in Afghanistan for the long haul despite Canada’s decision to set a timetable for the withdrawal of its forces from the volatile south of the country....
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Castro calls for change — in US
HAVANA, Feb 22: In his first comments since announcing he would step down as Cuba’s president after almost 50 years, Fidel Castro lashed out Friday at US presidential hopefuls’ calls for...
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India sets wages for housemaids abroad
NEW DELHI, Feb 22: India has begun rolling out mandatory minimum wage requirements for housemaids working in the Gulf and parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, a minister said on Friday....
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Touchscreen to replace keyboards, says Gates
PITTSBURGH, Feb 22: People will increasingly interact with computers using speech or touch screens rather than keyboards, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said....
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Abdullah signs headscarf law
ANKARA, Feb 22: Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a landmark constitutional reform on Thursday allowing girl students to wear the Muslim headscarf at university despite strong objections by the country’s secular elite....
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‘Girl’ at Japan school was 39-year-old man
TOKYO, Feb 22: A Japanese man was arrested for trespassing this week after turning up at a high school dressed in a girl’s uniform and a long wig, local police said....
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A boost for missile defence advocates: Destruction of spy satellite
WASHINGTON: The stunning image of a Navy missile streaking into outer space at 10,000 kph to obliterate an orbiting spy satellite boosts the credibility of missile-defence advocates....
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Belgrade smash-and-grab becomes YouTube hit
BELGRADE: A video of two young women looting with gay abandon during rioting in the Serbian capital Belgrade was becoming a Balkan smash hit on the video-sharing website YouTube on Friday....
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Yemen in danger of descending into chaos
SANAA: Yemen’s painful struggle to build a modern state may be overwhelmed by rampant population growth, dwindling resources, corruption and internal conflicts....
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Manila’s rice plea a wake-up call for a hungry world
MANILA: The Philippines’ unusual plea for Hanoi to guarantee rice supplies is the clearest sign of a growing global anxiety over how nations will feed their people....
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Climate threatens fishing grounds: study
MONACO: Depleted by over-harvesting and pollution, the world’s major fishing grounds are now severely threatened by climate change as well, according to a UN report released on Friday....
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Hormone governs caterpillar’s disguise
CHICAGO: A hormone is the secret behind the unusual ability of young swallowtail caterpillars to disguise themselves as bird droppings and then copies of the leaves they live on before becoming butterflies, Japanese researchers found....
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