Hurricane Rita has strengthened to a powerful and intensely dangerous category five storm, prompting evacuation orders for more than one million people as it churns toward the Texas Gulf Coast.
Diplomats say the European Union has decided to postpone its drive at the International Atomic Energy Agency to immediately refer Iran's nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council.
Malaysian troops on the border with Thailand have been put on alert in response to the violence that has flared in Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
The World Health Organization says a possible bird flu outbreak in Indonesia does not mean transmission of the disease has increased.
An official at the Chinese embassy in Jakarta says Beijing is "astonished and strongly dissatisfied" after gunfire from an Indonesian warship killed a Chinese fisherman and wounded two others.
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