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China and Japan: earthquake diplomacy -Times Online (World, 9 articles)
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An education official in Sichuan Province conceded that poor official oversight and corruption might have contributed to the collapse of numerous schools during the earthquake on May 12. Leaders of both China and Japan have been working to improve relations in recent months, and a Japanese search-and-rescue team has already participated in rescue efforts in Sichuan. The idea of Japanese military planes carrying tents and blankets to Sichuan was initially floated by Japan as another effort to boost ties between the countries. Japan on Friday abandoned a plan to use military aircraft to transport earthquake relief to China that had been widely seen as a powerful affirmation of warming ties between the Asian powers. Nobutaka Machimura said: " As there were concerns in China, Japan and China had discussions and decided to shelve the idea of Self Defence Force planes providing transport. The extraordinary request for help from China's historically detested foe will produce an image that few could have imagined possible two weeks ago. No aircraft operated by Japan's Air Self Defence Force - the name of the officially pacifist nation's five-decade-old airforce - has ever visited China, where memories of Tokyo's 1931-45 invasion and occupation still run deep.
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Other stories about China, Chinese and Beijing:
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Higher world food prices here to stay, report says (World, 12 articles)
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NEW DELHI - Soaring world food prices may dip in coming months, but steadily rising demand means higher food costs are probably here to stay over the coming decade. That could fuel growing hunger and unrest in the world's poorest and most vulnerable nations, a United Nations agency reported Thursday. To deal with immediate and long-term food problems, the bank said Thursday that it will increase its overall support for agriculture and food aid to $6 billion next year, up from $4 billion in 2008.
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McCain sets goal of success in Iraq :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Steve Huntley (World, 7 articles)
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Iraqi officials appealed Thursday to escape nearly $100 billion in debt and war reparations - owed mostly to Arab nations still reluctant to forgive Iraq's belligerence during Saddam Hussein's rule. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki received no firm commitments, and two key neighbors - Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - sent only low-level envoys to the meeting outside Stockholm. Campaigning at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin Thursday, McCain said of Iraq, " I can tell you that it is succeeding.
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North Korea fired short-range missiles off coast: report (World, 5 articles)
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Crossing stars Cha In-pyo as a North Korean miner whose undernourished, pregnant wife contracts tuberculosis. With no medicine available in the impoverished nation, Cha's character leaves his wife and 11-year-old son to travel to China to earn money for medicine. A similar launch in March riled regional tensions and was seen by analysts as a display of anger at Washington and Lee's new conservative government in Seoul.
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Obama's vulnerable on national security :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Steve Huntley (World, 6 articles)
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May 28, 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama seems to be softening his "unconditional" willingness to hold talks with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. Obama's vow to meet with such leaders during his first year in office, without preconditions, drew widespread (and well-deserved) criticism. Just this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that Tehran continues to hide the truth about its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
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Other stories about Iran, Nuclear and Obama:
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U.S. Withdraws Fulbright Grants to Palestinians in Gaza (World, 15 articles)
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JERUSALEM (CNN) The U.S. government has taken Fulbright scholarships away from eight students in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, citing Israeli travel restrictions imposed on the Hamas-ruled zone, a U.S. official said Friday. The scholarships, which bring international students to the United States to study at American universities, will be given to students in the West Bank, said Stacey Barrios U.S. diplomats had told the students the deferments were necessary because Israel would not grant an exception to its near-total travel ban on Palestinians living in the sealed-off Gaza Strip.
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Brazil shows 'uncontacted' Amazon tribe (World, 6 articles)
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RIO DE JANEIRO Amazon Indians from one of the last uncontacted tribes in the world have been photographed from the air, with a striking image showing them painted bright red and carrying bows and arrows (above). RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil One of Brazil's last uncontacted Indian tribes has been spotted in the far western Amazon jungle near the Peruvian border, the National Indian Foundation said Thursday. The Indians were sighted in an Ethno-Environmental Protected Area along the Envira River in flights over remote Acre state, said the Brazilian government foundation, known as Funai.
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Musharraf says he's staying (World, 6 articles)
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A late-night meeting this week between Musharraf and his successor as army chief fueled rumors that the longtime U.S. ally in its war on terror could resign. The realities in Pakistan are that the government is trying to deal with a deep and broad challenge to its authority from various radical and extremist groups. At the same time the government is trying to build its own legitimacy and bring about a political transition from what has been largely military rule to something more civilian in character.
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China elevates quake-area flood threat (World, 9 articles)
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CHENGDU, China - Chinese officials yesterday upgraded the threat posed by waters that are rising quickly behind a mass of rocks and earth that tumbled from a mountainside when the May 12 earthquake struck and blocked a river near dozens of villages. The threat of flooding from dozens of lakes swelling behind walls of mud and rubble that have plugged narrow valleys in parts of the disaster zone is adding a new worry for millions of survivors. MIANYANG, China - A Sichuan Province official has withdrawn as an Olympic torchbearer to acknowledge that lax government oversight of construction may have contributed to the collapse of dozens of schools that killed at least 9,000 children in this month's earthquake.
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UN: Myanmar forcing cyclone survivors out of camps (World, 9 articles)
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RANGOON, Burma - Burma's military government is forcing cyclone victims out of shelters and refugee camps and sending some back to their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, United Nations and church officials said yesterday. (Associated Press) The Burmese military government contributed to the deaths of thousands of people by delaying aid after a devastating storm struck the country May 2, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Saturday to added his voice to critics of the junta's handling of the crisis, saying obstruction of international efforts to help cyclone victims cost " tens of thousands of lives.
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Al Qaeda near defeat, on defensive: CIA chief (World, 8 articles)
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In this undated file photo, an unidentified spokesman speaks on al-Jazeera TV about al-Qaeda's intention to keep fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, where CIA chief Michael Haydon now says major gains are being made against Islamist militants. Just two years ago, the CIA released a study saying the U.S.-led campaign against militant Islamism had become a propaganda victory for al-Qaeda that helped the group raise money and attract volunteers for attacks. The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has said al-Qaeda is essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and on the defensive elsewhere.
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Ehud Olmert may face party ballot to decide his future (World, 8 articles)
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Ehud Olmert is under mounting pressure to resign after his Foreign Minister called for party primaries to resolve the corruption scandal that is threatening both his leadership and the faltering peace process with the Palestinians. Kadima officials said that the party would meet within a week to decide whether primaries - which Ms Livni is expected to win - would be held. Al-Qaeda virtually beaten in Iraq, says CIA Figures released by the Pentagon show May to be the least deadly month for US troops since the invasion five years ago.
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Turkey Sends Troops Into Iraq to Battle Kurdish Rebels (World, 7 articles)
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A senior administration official said the goal of the U.S. program is to identify the movements and activities of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting to create an autonomous enclave in Turkey. The PKK has used a remote part of Iraq's largely autonomous region of Kurdistan as a base to stage attacks inside Turkey in pursuit of its goal of a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey. Turkey's attacks on Turkish Kurd guerrillas operating out of northern Iraq have placed the United States in the middle of a dangerous struggle between two regional U.S. allies.
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Z$1bn note highlights a foe that Robert Mugabe cannot threaten with violence (World, 5 articles)
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MPs belonging to the Zimbabwe's opposition party have met in a symbolic parliament to assert its status as government-in-waiting 30 people killed as bus crashes into river. A fortnight ago the Central Bank introduced a Z$1 billion banknote, as well as a new species of notes called "special agrocheques" with a top denomination of Z$50 billion. HARARE, May 30 - Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party should be reformed, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in a speech that may open the door to a national unity government.
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A Profile of Cuba's Fidel Castro (World, 5 articles)
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When Cuban native Maria Elena Alvarez first heard the news that Fidel Castro had finally stepped from his post as Cuba's president, her reaction was " so what?. Despite the anti-climatic announcement that will virtually guarantee Castro's brother Raul as his successor, by Tuesday evening Alvarez was drawn to the streets of Little Havana. The Miami real estate agent joined nearly 150 people milling about the famed Versailles restaurant, the site of many exile protests and a requisite stop for presidential candidates courting the Cuban-American vote.
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Blair's faith in difficult task (World, 5 articles)
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There will be plenty who will wonder whether a man so many associate with war is the best person to try to foster global peace and understanding. Former prime minister Tony Blair has launched a faith foundation to tackle global poverty, challenge conflict and unite the world's religions. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation has three aims: to promote faith as a force for good, improve awareness between religions and tackle poverty and war.
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As TNK-BP director Jean-Luc Vermeulen quits, spy allegations fly in Moscow (World, 5 articles)
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Compounding the company's problems yesterday, the Tvoi Den newspaper claimed in a front-page story that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had unmasked a senior BP manager as a spy. A board member of BP s Russian oil venture, TNK-BP, has resigned amid a deepening standoff for control for the company after its Russian billionaire shareholders demanded the removal of the venture's BP-backed chief executive. Jean-Luc Vermeulen resigned on Thursday evening, citing the deepening row, people familiar with the situation said on Friday.
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3 killed as plane skids off runway in Honduran capital (World, 4 articles)
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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - A Miami-bound jetliner overshot a runway, raced onto a busy street and slammed into an embankment in the Honduran capital Friday, killing the pilot, a passenger and a motorist on the ground. The nose of the Grupo Taca Airbus 320, which was carrying 124 people, smashed into an embankment and its fuselage buckled and broke in places, trapping the pilot and co-pilot inside. A further 38 people were injured as the plane ploughed down an embankment and crashed into cars on a road, splitting into three pieces.
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Nepal's deposed king given order to leave palace (World, 4 articles)
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KATMANDU, Nepal - Nepal's government told the Himalayan nation's deposed monarch Friday to vacate the royal palace within two weeks, and a palace official said the king was preparing to move to his palatial private home in Katmandu. The order to leave the concrete palace that dominates downtown Katmandu came two days after Nepal's newly elected lawmakers, led by former communist insurgents, declared the country a republic, ending a dynasty that had reigned for 239 years. By midday Friday, King Gyanendra was still in the palace, although his daughter-in-law, Hemani, had moved to a private home in northern part of the city just after midnight, Mainali said.
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Libya to resolve claims with US (World, 4 articles)
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The US and Libya have agreed to work together to resolve compensation claims from the Lockerbie bombing and other 1980s attacks blamed on Libyan agents. Libya has already paid out $8m ($4m) to each Lockerbie victim's family but has not made final payments of $2m amid a dispute over America's obligations. WASHINGTON (CNN) Negotiations between the United States and Libya that could result in compensation for past acts of state-sponsored terrorism by Libya are under way, a senior State Department official said Friday.
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blaster@cs.columbia.edu
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