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US, Aussie refugee swap scheme on the high seas
AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister John Howard's agreement with the United States to exchange asylum seekers as part of his "Pacific solution" was met with outrage. The exchange is expected to begin by sending 82 Sri Lankans and eight Burmese - currently detained on Nauru - to the US in return for Cuban refugees interned at Guantanamo Bay.
Their departure would circumvent a likely row with an increasingly impatient Nauru, which said the detainees' claims for refugee status must be settled within six to 12 months - a potential time-bomb for an Australian Government facing election later this year.
The "Pacific solution" was implemented to prevent asylum seekers reaching mainland Australia, and has become increasingly unpopular, adding to a huge swing in voter sentiment against the Government. Recent polls have consistently placed Opposition leader Kevin Rudd comfortably ahead of Howard.
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Suspected Qaeda bombs kill nearly 200 in Baghdad
BAGHDAD: Al Qaeda militants are suspected in the wave of car bombings that killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad yesterday.
The apparently co-ordinated attacks - there were several within a short space of time - occurred hours after Prime Minister Nuri al-Malikisaid announced Iraqis would take security control of the whole country from foreign forces by the end of the year.
The bombings were by far the bloodiest since US and Iraqi forces launched a security crackdown two months ago. One car bomb in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim Sadriya district killed 140 people and wounded 150, police said.
The attacks killed a total of 191 people and wounded 250, police said. Witnesses said many of the dead were women and children.
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Gunman sent video diatribe between shootings
VIRGINIA:The Virginia Tech gunman paused during the rampage to post a package to NBC news containing photos of himself brandishing weapons and a video of a hateful, rambling manifesto.
"You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option," Cho Seung-Hui said in the video portion. "You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today".
NBC said the package received at its New York headquarters bore a postal time stamp that showed it was mailed sometime between Cho's killing of two people in a dormitory and his attack two hours later on a classroom building.
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UK and US threaten Sudan with sanctions
LONDON: The US and Britain have threatened the Sudanese government with tough new sanctions over the continuing human rights abuse and breaches of United Nations arms embargos in Darfur. These include targeted action against the country's leadership and the extension of a weapons ban.
A confidential UN report charged Sudan's government with supplying weapons into Darfur - violating UN resolutions - on aircrafts disguised with UN logos.
However, human rights groups pointed out last night that no time frame has been imposed on Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir to comply with the demands.
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