A car bomb in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, has left at least eight people dead and injured more than 160 others. The strong blast occurred today (Thursday) near the Australian embassy, and blew out windows in the embassy and in nearby buildings and cars.
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri cut short a visit to Brunei to return to Jakarta and visit the bombing site. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer called the blast a terrorist attack directed at Australia.
South Korea has confirmed that it conducted plutonium-based nuclear research in the early 1980s. South Korea's Science and Technology Ministry says government scientists extracted a small amount of plutonium during an experiment in 1982 at a state-run research reactor in Seoul.
A human rights group says China has detained more than 30,000 petitioners ahead of a major communist party meeting in Beijing. Human Rights in China says the petitioners were rounded up in the past week to ensure public order before the Chinese communist party's elite Central Committee holds its session.
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