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Garment Factory Blaze Kills 104 in Bangladesh

More than 100 workers were killed when a fierce blaze tore through a busy garment factory in Bangladesh, forcing people to leap from high windows to escape the choking smoke and flames.

Firefighters battled for several hours to control the fire, which broke out in the ground-floor warehouse of the nine-storey Tazreen Fashion factory, 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the capital Dhaka on Saturday evening.

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13 Killed as Bangladesh Flyover Collapses

At least 13 people were killed and dozens are feared missing after a flyover under construction collapsed in Bangladesh's southeastern port city of Chittagong, police said Sunday.

"So far 13 dead bodies have been recovered," sub-inspector Mohammad Alauddin told Agence France Presse, adding that military rescue teams had been called in to help with the search for victims.

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Spain's ETA Ready to Disband if Certain Conditions Met

Spain's armed Basque separatist group ETA said Saturday it was ready to discuss disbanding and to negotiate with France and Spain if certain conditions are met, in a statement published on a Basque news site.

The group, which last year said it had abandoned violence after a four-decade campaign for an independent homeland that claimed more than 800 lives, said one outstanding issue was the transfer of Basque prisoners to jails closer to home.

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Mauritanian Leader Back Home after Treatment for Shooting

Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz flew home from France on Saturday, where he spent 40 days recovering after being shot by a soldier in what was officially described as an accident.

Tens of thousands of supporters lined the three kilometers (two-miles) of road between Nouakchott airport and the presidential palace, to welcome him back.

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Afghan Student Killed in Sectarian Clash

An Afghan student was killed and eight others wounded in clashes between Sunnis and Shiites at Kabul University, a senior police officer said Saturday.

"It seems the clash between some Sunni and Shiite students erupted when Shiite students wanted to perform the Ashura mourning ceremony in a dormitory mosque," said Mohammad Zaher, head of Kabul's Criminal Investigation Department.

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Berlusconi Keeps Election Role Shrouded in Mystery

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi cast new doubt over his role in next year's general election when the scandal-hit billionaire said he needed to reflect on how to best make use of his long political career.

"We'll see. I'm thinking it over," Berlusconi, 76, told reporters who'd asked him if he intended to return to politics.

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South Africa Opposition Leader Envisions 'Non-Racial' Party

The head of South Africa's main opposition party on Saturday outlined her vision for the Democratic Alliance, which she said could win the next general elections in 2014 by following an inclusive, "non-racial" party line.

"We must work tirelessly to bring together all South Africans who share the same values. People who oppose racism in all its forms. People who believe in real freedom," DA leader Helen Zille said at the opening of her party's congress near Johannesburg.

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Russia Frees Physicist Convicted of Spying for China

Russia on Sunday released a physicist who spent eight years in a Siberian prison on charges of spying for China in what supporters maintain was a wrongful conviction motivated by Soviet-style paranoia.

Professor Valentin Danilov was released before dawn from prison number 17 in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, in an early release with over three years of his original sentence remaining, Russian news agencies said.

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Thousands Protest 'Destruction of Public School' in Italy

Thousands of high school students, teachers and unionists demonstrated in Rome and several other Italian cities on Saturday against deep cuts in spending on public education.

"Down with the Crisis and Austerity, Let Us Reclaim Our Lives," read a banner at the head of a march in Rome.

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Darfur Rebels 'Seize' Sudan Army Base

Sudanese rebels have seized an army compound in the Darfur region, the insurgents said on Saturday, as the Red Cross reported the release of three soldiers captured by rebels.

The pre-dawn attack came on Friday about five kilometers (three miles) northeast of Kebkabiya in North Darfur state, said Ibrahim al-Hillu, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army's (SLA's) Abdelwahid Nur faction.

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