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/ 5 September 2007

Bush, Howard cement alliance at Apec meeting

United States President George Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard cemented a strong alliance on Wednesday as Asia-Pacific ministers began talks ranging from human security and climate change to trade and economic reform. Howard promised Australian soldiers would stay alongside US troops in Iraq following a meeting between the close friends.

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/ 5 September 2007

Mother Teresa’s letters surprised, inspired order

Letters written by Mother Teresa which reveal she sometimes doubted God surprised and then inspired many among her order, her successor said ahead of Wednesday’s 10th anniversary of the ethnic Albanian nun’s death. ”The sisters were surprised, I was surprised to learn how she suffered in her thirst for God,” said Sister Nirmala, the diminutive superior general.

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/ 5 September 2007

Serena lost for words after Henin defeat

A despondent Serena Williams grudgingly faced reporters after her 7-6, 6-1 defeat to top seed Justine Henin in Tuesday’s quarterfinals of the US Open, tears staining her cheeks after the bitter result. Williams was reluctant to give the Belgian any credit despite being mauled in a one-sided, 36-minute second set.

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/ 5 September 2007

Gangster’s daughter sheds light on Japan underworld

With her dyed-brown long hair and tight designer jeans, Shoko Tendo looks like any other stylish young Japanese woman — until she removes her shirt to reveal the vivid tattoos covering her back and most of her body. The author of Yakuza Moon, Tendo says that police efforts to eradicate the gangsters have merely made them harder to track.

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/ 5 September 2007

Eskom looks to nuclear plants

South Africa’s largely coal-driven power utility Eskom has hit the limits of its capacity and aims to double output by 2025, with nuclear plants supplying more than a quarter of future energy compared with 6% now. Eskom’s chief executive Jacob Maroga told a coal conference on Tuesday the state-owned firm would cut back on polluting coal-fired plants.

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/ 5 September 2007

New health scheme launched to help world’s poor

Seven developing countries in Africa and Asia will be the first to take part in a new global health campaign aimed at directing aid more effectively at the basic needs of poor countries. Health ministers from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Cambodia and Nepal will take part in the launch of the initiative at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office later on Wednesday.

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/ 5 September 2007

Felix kills four in Central America

Hurricane Felix ripped into Central America on Tuesday, trashing a port on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, killing at least four people and threatening dangerous mudslides in Honduras and Guatemala. The storm, which hit land as a powerful category-five hurricane, ravaged Puerto Cabezas in northern Nicaragua, where howling winds tore the roofs off homes and shelters and damaged a church.

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/ 5 September 2007

Madonna denies using status to speed up adoption

Madonna has not used her celebrity status to speed up the adoption of a little boy from a Southern African country, her spokesperson said on Tuesday. Madonna’s effort to add Malawian toddler David Banda to her family again came under the spotlight on Monday, when the Malawian official scheduled to go to London to assess the adoption was removed from the case.