Paralympic boon to China's disabled
The Games for the physically impaired start Saturday in Beijing, but they already have left one group of Chinese citizens heartened.

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The African nation goes to the polls to elect lawmakers for the first time in 16 years. The ruling party is expected to win, but there is a hunger for change. >>

Despite growing protests in Pakistan over a raid, many Pentagon officials favor a more aggressive approach to counter attacks in Afghanistan carried out by militants based in Pakistan. >>

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that her historic visit to former pariah state Libya proves that the U.S. never writes off another nation forever. >>

The U.S. vice president, appearing with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, pledges continued U.S. support for reconstruction. >>

The United Nations report says an ambitious goal embraced by wealthy countries to cut extreme global poverty by 2015 is in jeopardy. >>

He assures villagers that those responsible for civilian deaths will be punished. His government and the U.S. military continue to differ over the toll in the Aug. 22 strike. >>

CHINA
China: Quake-hit schools were poorly built / Mexico: Three held in beheadings / Russia: Army kills 5 Muslim rebels in Dagestan >>

The move reflects concerns that widespread violence could return to the country. >>

Maliki and others have been targeted, according to the upcoming "The War Within." The book also says covert programs, not the troop "surge," led to the drop in violence. >>

September 4, 2008
Aleksander Dugin, a popular theorist in hard-line circles, advocates an alliance between the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. He says Georgia crisis could be start of a real conflict with U.S. >>

GLOBAL ECONOMY
The downturn, strikingly similar to the one in the United States, has thrown tens of thousands of recent arrivals out of work. >>

A mass strike fails to materialize but tens of thousands remain at a government compound in Bangkok as they seek Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's resignation. >>

Islamabad says helicopter-borne commandos, most likely Americans, attacked a hamlet just across from Afghanistan. It angrily protests the raid, saying it could inflame tensions in the tribal region. >>

Members of the Iraqi security forces are slain in a gunfight with U.S. troops on the Tigris River in Tarmiya, officials say. >>

Tropical Storm Hanna roared along the edge of the Bahamas today ahead of a possible hurricane hit on the Carolinas, leaving behind at least 61 dead in Haiti. >>


September 4, 2008
The package includes humanitarian assistance and help in rebuilding infrastructure. It does not include money for the Caucasus nation's military. >>

3 Canadian soldiers slain in Afghanistan / 13 bodies found on migrant boat near one of Spain's Canary Islands / Two Israeli border policemen convicted of killing teen / Ex-priest in Australia charged with pedophilia / Journalist killed; another beaten n Russia's troubled North Caucasus >>

U.S. officials say it isn't clear how serious an effort the North is making to rebuild what it had dismantled. >>

Britain and Ireland appeal to Protestant leaders in Northern Ireland to accept a panel's verdict and deepen cooperation with Catholics in a partnership government. >>

John Wylie Needham was arrested Monday at his San Clemente condo, where Jacqwelyn Joann Villagomez was found severely beaten. He is being held on $1-million bail. >>

Russian officials have said Michael Lee White was a U.S. agent involved in the recent fighting between their troops and Georgia. They claim to have found the Army veteran's passport in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia. >>

September 3, 2008
Nini Gogiberidze is among the activists who seek to foster democracy through peaceful means. She travels abroad to teach others how to agitate nonviolently for change. >>

Hisham Talaat Mustafa, a ruling-party lawmaker with ties to the Mubarak family, is accused of ordering the slaying of Suzanne Tamim. >>

Federal authorities say Aafia Siddiqui, a 36-year-old mother of three, had notes mentioning a 'mass casualty attack.' >>

Violence has marred Islam's holiest month since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. It's quieter this year, but electricity is still in short supply, and heat is not. >>

Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Azerbaijan today, part of a tour of three ex-Soviet republics wary of Russia's intentions following last month's war between Russia and neighboring Georgia. >>

Parliament shelves a bill that the activists say would have curtailed the rights of women. But four of their leaders are sentenced to prison for contributing to banned websites. >>


September 3, 2008
Containers sank into the Magdalena River when barge went down. Two are unaccounted for. >>

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