CAMBODIA - THAILAND: Thailand and Cambodia have deployed more troops to disputed territory along
their shared border as a tense standoff enters a third day today.Cambodian Brigadier General Chea Keo says Thailand now
has more than 400 troops near the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, twice the
number as the day before.The general says the number of Cambodian troops
has increased to about 800.The standoff began Tuesday, when Thai
soldiers crossed the border after three activists were arrested for illegally
entering Cambodia to reach the ancient temple.
MALAYSIA - ANWAR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been released from jail after spending the night in police custody.Anwar's lawyer, Sankara Nair, says he was freed today on bail. Anwar was arrested Wednesday outside his home in response to a sodomy complaint filed by a former male aide. After several hours of interrogation, Anwar was taken to a hospital for a medical examination, but refused to allow authorities to take a DNA sample from him. He was then returned to police custody. Authorities say he was given access to his family and lawyers during his overnight incarceration.
JAPAN - SOKOR DISPUTE: South Korea is rejecting a proposal by Japan to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of a regional security conference, the latest reaction to Tokyo's renewed claims over a disputed group of islands.A government source in Seoul says Japan wanted the foreign ministers from both nations to meet during next week's annual ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore. Relations between the Asian neighbors have grown tense in recent days after Japan issued new educational guidelines staking its claim on the South Korean-controlled islands in the Sea of Japan.
CHINA - ECONOMY: China says its economy slowed in the second quarter of 2008, while inflation rose over the first six months of the year.A report released today by the National Bureau of Statistics says the economy rose 10-point-one percent over the same period in 2007, a slight drop from the first quarter of this year (10.6). China's economy experienced nearly 12-percent growth during all of last year. The bureau says inflation has been fueled by the soaring cost of food, which rose over 20-percent in the first half of 2008.
AUSTRALIA - POPE: Israel is holding funerals for two slain soldiers returned in a prisoner swap with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah two years after they were captured in a cross-border attack.Thousands attended the service for Ehud Goldwasser in the northern town of Nahariya. Eldad Regev is also to be buried today.Israeli officials positively identified the remains of the two men on Wednesday, hours after their bodies' were turned over.The bodies were returned in exchange for Israel's release of five Lebanese prisoners. Among the five former prisoners was Samir Kantar, who was convicted of taking part in a 1979 cross-border attack in which four Israelis, including two children, died.
ISRAEL - HEZBOLLAH: Pope Benedict is urging young Catholics gathered in Sydney, Australia to
preserve Earth's fragile environment, and reject empty materialism and popular
culture.The pontiff made the remarks today before more
than 100-thousand pilgrims at a World Youth Day event near the famed Sydney
Harbor. Benedict told the crowd that mankind had squandered the planet's
oceans and other natural resources to "fuel an insatiable consumption."
He also denounced the constant portrayal of alcohol and drug abuse,
violence and sexual degradation in modern entertainment, especially on
television and the Internet.
US ECONOMY: Falling oil prices and positive earnings news from the banking sector have sent U.S. stocks soaring.The Dow Jones Industrial Average Wednesday jumped more than two and a-half percent, its largest single day rise since April first.The S&P 500 Index also rose more than two and a-half percent at the close of trading in New York, while the NASDAQ composite index rose more than three percent.Those gains came as oil prices dropped for the second day in a row, and U.S. bank Wells Fargo issued a profit report that topped estimates by some economists.
CANCER SUVIVAL: A new study has found huge differences in survival rates for cancer patients around the world that appear to be linked to treatment options and level of care offered.Michel Coleman, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said researchers examined data on more than two-million patients in 31 countries to measure the effectiveness of health services in treating cancer.The study found the United States, Japan and France outperformed many other countries in five year survival rates for those diagnosed with cancer.
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