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ວັນສຸກ, ໒໙ ມີນາ ໒໐໒໔

US Senator Edward Kennedy, Heir of Powerful Family, Dies


EDWARD KENNEDY OBIT: U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, the youngest brother of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy and one of the most most influential lawmakers in U.S. history, has died at the age of 77. Kennedy's family says he died late Tuesday at his home in the small Massachusetts town of Hyannis Port. The Democratic senator had been suffering from an incurable form of brain cancer for just over a year. A statement issued by the family described him as "the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our eyes."

EDWARD KENNEDY REACT: U.S. President Barack Obama says the late U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy was "the greatest United States Senator of our time." In a written statement released by the White House early Wednesday, Mr. Obama says he and his wife Michelle were "heartbroken" to learn of Kennedy's death. The president says he valued the elder lawmaker's "wise counsel" when they both served in the U.S. Senate, and expressed gratitude for Kennedy's crucial support during his 2008 presidential campaign.

KOREAS TENSIONS: Red Cross delegations from North and South Korea are holding talks to discuss the resumption of reunions for families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War. Kim Young-chol, the secretary general of the South Korean Red Cross office is leading the three man delegation to the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea. Kim says family reunions will top the agenda, but adds the delegation would also make efforts to discuss other humanitarian matters.

AUSTRALIA - CHINA - GAS DEAL: Australia gave final approval Wednesday for the development of a massive natural gas field that will supply gas to China and India. The $42 billion development on Australia's Barrow Island, off its western coast, will be the country's biggest resources project. The Gorgon plant will supply natural gas to Asia and will be run by U.S. oil company Chevron and its partners Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil. Environmentalists argue that the Barrow Island site is home to threatened species such as the flat back turtle.

AFGHAN - VIOLENCE: Rescue workers in southern Afghanistan continued to sift through rubble in Kandahar Wednesday, the day after a powerful bomb killed more than 40 people there. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says the car-bomb blast wounded at least 65 people, killed 43, and destroyed a hotel (called Spogmai) and 12 civilian houses. The International Committee of the Red Cross says one of its staff members (Abdul Wadood) is among the dead. Kandahar provincial council head Ahmad Wali Karzai (brother of President Hamid Karzai) told VOA (Pashto Service) the blast blew windows and doors off houses half a kilometer away.

SOMALIA - FRANCE: Somali officials say one of two French security advisors held hostage by insurgents has a escaped and is now safe in the presidential palace. Somali military, police and government officials in the capital, Mogadishu, say the French advisor approached soldiers near the presidential palace early Wednesday. The officials say the man identified himself and said he had escaped from his captors who are said to be members of the militant Islamic group al-Shabab.

HONDURAS: A delegation from the Organization of American States has ended a two-day mission to Honduras without negotiating an end to the political impasse over President Manuel Zelaya's ouster in June. The OAS issued a statement Tuesday saying the delegation failed to persuade the caretaker government to accept a Costa Rica-brokered plan that would bring back the deposed president. Foreign ministers from seven OAS member states traveled to Honduras, accompanied by Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

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