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Hamas, Fatah truce collapses in bloodshed, 13 dead
GAZA - Palestinian gunmen battled inside a hospital and fired on the prime minister's office during factional fighting that killed 13 people and cast fresh doubt over the future of the unity coalition.
"Everybody is shooting at everybody," a doctor at the Beit Hanoun hospital in the northern Gaza Strip said as a gun battle raged between the Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah groups, hours after the latest in a series of ceasefires collapsed.
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Disease threat rises as floods recede
SYDNEY - Australians mopping up their flood damaged homes in the Hunter Valley and Central Coast north of Sydney were warned to protect themselves from disease in the sewage-contaminated floodwaters.
Up to 60 sewerage pumping stations in the Hunter Valley and 40 on the Central Coast were without power after a major storm battered Australia's east coast, killing nine people, beaching a coal ship and leaving homes and farms flooded.
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Spacewalking astronauts to install new station unit
HOUSTON - Astronauts on space shuttle Atlantis prepared for a walk in space to add a giant new piece to the International Space Station, and NASA engineers pondered whether a bump in the ship's heat protection system needs repair.
Atlantis crewmembers Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas were to make a seven-hour spacewalk to install a 14-metre long, 16,183-kg aluminium structure that will become part of the station's exterior backbone and includes solar panels to generate more electricity.
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- REUTERS/AAP
