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UN Council condems assassination of anti-Syrian Lebanese MP
BEIRUT - The UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the latest political killing in Lebanon, of anti-Syrian legislator Walid Eido and nine other people nearby.
In a policy statement read at a formal meeting, the council also condemned "any attempt to destabilise Lebanon through political assassination or other terrorist acts."
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Militants blow up revered Shi'ite shrine, bloodshed feared
BAGHDAD - Suspected al Qaeda militants blew up today the minarets of a revered Shi'ite mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra, target of a 2006 bomb attack that unleashed a tidal wave of sectarian violence.
Fearing renewed bloodshed, Iraq's government imposed a three-day curfew in Baghdad as Shi'ite and Sunni political and religious leaders called on their followers to remain calm.
But police said gunmen blew up the Sunni Grand Mosque in Iskandariya south of Baghdad, totally destroying it. A second was damaged in another blast and attackers set fire to a mosque in Baghdad's Bayaa district. No injuries were reported.
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Africa's Aids epidemic slowing - World Bank
KIGALI - The pace of Africa's deadly Aids epidemic is slowing as communities are empowered to help themselves in tandem with better delivery of condoms and live-saving treatments, a World Bank report said.
Launched in the Rwandan capital Kigali, the study noted a marked increase in access to HIV prevention, care and treatment programmes on a continent where the disease killed more than 2 million people last year. Another 25 million became infected.
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Police search for Madeleine near resort after tip-off
PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal - Portuguese police searched an area of deserted scrubland near where four-year-old Madeleine McCann was snatched, after a tip-off to a Dutch newspaper.
Seven police officers roamed around a deserted landscape on the side of a road 20 km north of the resort where Madeleine McCann went missing in southern Portugal's Algarve region, according to a Reuters reporter.
Police chief inspector Olegario de Sousa said he was investigating the matter but declined to give further details.
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