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Cargo Ship Sinks, 11 Missing Near Hong Kong

Authorities launched an air and sea rescue operation Monday to find 11 crew members from a Chinese cargo ship after it collided with another vessel and sank just outside Hong Kong's teeming waters.

Four helicopters and more than 20 ships from China and Hong Kong were deploying to the waters near Po Toi, an island lying at the edge of Hong Kong's territory where the ship sank in the early hours of the morning, officials said.

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Nets Reinforced around S.Korean Ferry to Stop Body Drift

South Korean recovery workers strengthened a ring of netting Monday around a submerged ferry, in a bid to prevent corpses drifting out to open sea, as dive teams recovered 11 more bodies, raising the death toll to 259.

The latest bodies were found during a pre-dawn operation Monday, but 43 people remain unaccounted for. It has been 19 days since the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank with 476 people on board -- most of them schoolchildren.

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U.S.-Philippines Launch War Games after Obama Pledge

Thousands of American and Philippine troops launched large annual exercises on Monday after U.S. President Barack Obama vowed "ironclad" backing for its Asian ally, locked in a tense maritime row with China.

Filipino Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the 10-day drills were necessary to deal with the challenge of "aggressive" neighbors intent on "changing the status quo".

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Panama Vice President Wins Presidential Election

Vice President Juan Carlos Varela was declared the victor of Panama's presidential election Sunday, thwarting an attempt by former ally President Ricardo Martinelli to extend his grip on power by electing a hand-picked successor.

With 60 percent of ballots counted, officials said Varela led with 39 percent of the votes, compared to 32 percent for former Housing Minister Jose Domingo Arias, the preferred choice of Martinelli. Juan Carlos Navarro, a former mayor of the capital, was in third in the seven-candidate field with 27 percent.

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Nigeria President Vows to Free Abducted Girls, Seeks U.S. Help

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday vowed to ensure the release of 223 schoolgirls abducted by suspected Islamists, saying he has sought help from U.S. President Barack Obama to overcome the nation's security challenges.

"We promise that anywhere the girls are, we will surely get them out," Jonathan said in a live broadcast on radio and television.

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Obama Offers Karzai Additional Aid after Killer Landslide

President Barack Obama offered his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai additional U.S. assistance Sunday to relief efforts after a landslide killed hundreds of people in northern Afghanistan.

Much of Aab Bareek village in Badakhshan province was swallowed on Friday by a fast-moving tide of mud and rock that swept down the hillside and left almost no trace of hundreds of homes. 

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Odessa Unrest Flares Anew as Kiev Blames Deaths on Russia

Unrest in Ukraine spread to the south as thousands of pro-Russian protesters attacked Odessa's police headquarters after a fire killed dozens of their comrades, in violence Kiev charged was a Russian plot to "destroy" the country.

Increasing tension in the southern port city threatened a new front in the Ukrainian government's battle against pro-Moscow militants, with an expanded military operation under way in the east against gunmen holding more than a dozen towns.

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Big Quake Rattles Tokyo, 17 Injured

A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook buildings in Tokyo early Monday, lightly injuring 17 people, but officials stressed there was no risk of a tsunami.

Tokyo inhabitants -- set to enjoy a national holiday -- were woken shortly after dawn by the quake, which jolted the densely-built apartments and office blocks.

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Kremlin Says OSCE Chief to Visit Moscow on Wednesday

The head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, will visit Moscow on Wednesday for talks on the crisis in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

Burkhalter will fly to Moscow on May 7, the Kremlin said in a statement after President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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Russian Bombers, Fighter Jets 'Seen over Crimea'

Several dozen Russian planes including what appeared to be strategic bombers and fighter jets have been spotted in the sky above the Moscow-controlled peninsula of Crimea, witnesses and experts said.

According to Russian media, President Vladimir Putin is poised to visit Crimea on Friday after overseeing the main military parade on Red Square when Russia celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

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