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Four Killed in Clashes with Police in Southern Yemen

Four people including a child were killed in clashes Tuesday in south Yemen between security forces and separatists, who have called for "civil disobedience" in protest at the country's presidential polls, officials and medics said.

A 10-year-old child was killed when militants from the separatist Southern Movement traded gunfire with police near the election commission headquarters in Aden's Dar Saad neighborhood, residents and medics said.

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Taliban Behead Four Alleged Spies

Taliban militants have beheaded four men for allegedly spying for the government in southern Afghanistan, an official said Tuesday.

The bodies of the men were discovered in Washer district of volatile Helmand province late on Sunday.

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Afghan Protests Erupt over Quran 'Burning,' U.S. Probes Incident

Afghan protesters firing slingshots and petrol bombs besieged the largest U.S.-run military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday, furious over reports that NATO troops had set fire to copies of the Quran.

Guards at Bagram airbase, about 60 kilometers north of Kabul, responded by firing rubber bullets from a watchtower, an Agence France Presse photographer said as the crowd shouted "Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar" (God is greater).

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57 Civilians Dead as Syrian Forces Pound Homs, Assault Idlib

Syrian forces killed 57 civilians Tuesday as they blitzed the city of Homs and a village in Idlib province, monitors said, as the Red Cross sought a truce to deliver aid and the United Nations demanded unimpeded access for aid groups.

The escalation comes as Russia, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, said it will boycott an international conference in Tunis this week aimed at seeking political change in Syria and China refused to commit.

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Russia to Miss ‘Friends of Syria’ Meeting in Tunis

Russia on Tuesday said it will not attend an international conference in Tunis this week aimed at seeking political change in Syria because the meeting only supported the opposition's cause.

The meeting was called "for the purpose of supporting one side against another in an internal conflict," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "We cannot accept the offer to attend this meeting."

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Yemen's Hadi Hails his Own 'Historic' Election

Yemen's future president Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi hailed Tuesday's election, in which he is the sole candidate, as a "historic day" that would open a new page for the country, as he cast his ballot amid tight security.

"This is a historic day in Yemen. We will turn the page of the past and open a bright new page on which we will write the future of a new Yemen," Hadi told reporters, as he posted his ballot into a box at a polling station in Sanaa amid applause.

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China Steel Factory Blast Kills 13

An explosion at a steel plant in northeastern China killed 13 people and injured another 17, a company official said Tuesday, in the latest industrial accident to hit the country.

The blast happened late Monday in a steel casting workshop owned by state-run Angang Heavy Machinery in the city of Anshan in Liaoning province, a spokesman for parent company Ansteel Group said.

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4 Killed in U.S. Spy Plane Crash in Djibouti

Four American special operations personnel were killed over the weekend in the crash of their aircraft in Djibouti as it returned from a mission, the U.S. military said Monday.

The U-28, a modified single engine turbo prop plane used by special operations units, crashed Saturday near Camp Lemonnier, a base used by the U.S. military in the tiny Horn of Africa state.

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Iraq Says It Thwarted Infiltration on Syria Border

Iraq's interior ministry said on Monday its forces had fended off "smugglers and infiltrators" trying to cross the border from Syria.

"Border guards were able to fend off groups of smugglers and infiltrators who were trying to cross the border from Syria into Iraq," a statement on the ministry's website said, without specifying when this occurred.

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Saleh Urges Yemenis to Vote for His Successor

Outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh urged Yemenis to vote for his successor Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi in Tuesday's referendum-like elections to ensure a "peaceful" transition of power, state media reported.

"I invite you to actively participate in this democratic event and to head to ballot boxes to vote for Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi" as future president, Saleh said in a speech addressed to Yemenis, published by the Saba news agency.

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