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WASHINGTON: Barack Obama will flash Kennedy-style charisma but face a stern test as a novice on the world stage in the Middle East and Europe next week, on a trip rich in both risk and potential rewards. The presumptive Democratic nominee is expected to meet King Abdullah II in Jordan, tread the frontlines of the Israeli-Arab conflict in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and engage leaders of European powers Germany, France and Britain.
BOGOTA: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe acknowledged Wednesday that his army used the Red Cross emblem in its bloodless July 2 rescue of 15 hostages, a move the humanitarian agency swiftly denounced as "abusive." Uribe allowed that one army official wore a vest with the International Committee of the Red Cross emblem but said that it was because the official was nervous about the operation and there were many leftist rebels on the scene.
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday he wants to send more troops to Afghanistan "sooner rather than later," signaling a shift in priorities from Iraq amid warnings of an accelerating Taliban threat. Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said Pakistan needed to do more to stop the unimpeded flow of Taliban and other fighters into Afghanistan from safe havens in Pakistan.
SEOUL: North Korea's killing of a South Korean tourist should not be allowed to disrupt international nuclear disarmament talks that include the two nations, Seoul's envoy to the forum said Thursday. Kim Sook said in an interview with Seoul-based PBC radio the two issues must be handled separately.
A North Korean soldier last Friday shot dead a 53-year-old South Korean housewife who strayed into a closed military area near Mount Kumgang resort.
SEOUL: South Korea's subway system said Thursday it had removed advertisements for Japanese condoms from its carriages amid growing public anger over Tokyo's renewed claims to disputed islands. About 200 ads for Okamoto condoms were removed from carriages in Seoul on Tuesday, only five days after being posted, said Seoul Metro. "There were public complaints about promoting Japanese condoms and we immediately took action," Seoul Metro spokesman Kim Jeong Hwan told Agence France-Presse.
WASHINGTON: As Anglican bishops gathered in Canterbury for a once-a-decade conference, US members of the Anglican Communion are fretting about talk of a schism over the ordination of female and gay bishops. "Rumors of a split are, I believe, exaggerated," Patrick Cook, 19, an Anglican-Catholic-who are very similar to Roman Catholics but do not follow the Pope-told Agence France-Presse. "The Church of England, the mother church of the Anglican Communion, ordained women priests in 1994 amid a storm of controversy.
UNITED NATIONS: Humanitarian donations are on the rise this year, but $3.4 billion (2.1 billion euros) are still needed to respond to growing global food shortages, protracted conflicts and environmental disasters, the UN said Wednesday. Food shortages alone have led the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to increase its need for funding this year by $700 million in the last six months, up 37 percent.
PARIS: The United States holds the best overall record for surviving cancer, despite a large disparity between American blacks and whites, while Algeria has the worst, according to a study of 31 countries published on Thursday. The paper, appearing online in the journal The Lancet Oncology, found wide ranges in the chances of surviving breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer, in North America, Europe, Japan, Brazil, Australia and Cuba.
-- AFP
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