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Spanish Police Smash Chinese Immigration Ring

Spanish police said Saturday they had smashed a major ring allegedly providing Chinese nationals living illegally in the country with fake contracts as domestic staff so they could get residency permits.

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Anti-Islam Activists Stage Protest atop Berlin Monument

Anti-Islam activists have staged an hour-long demonstration atop Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

The protesters unfurled a banner calling for "secure borders" in Germany as crowds of tourists milled around the iconic monument Saturday.

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Malaysian Students Rally to Demand Prime Minister's Arrest

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian student activists have rallied to demand the arrest of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has been implicated in a U.S. government probe into a massive fraud in a Malaysian investment fund.

More than 1,000 people defied a police ban as they congregated at two locations in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, holding posters and caricatures of Najib.

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Mosul Fight is already Redrawing the Map of Northern Iraq

In the buildup to a long-awaited offensive on the city of Mosul, Kurdish forces are seizing new territory in northern Iraq that they say will become part of their autonomous region. The moves are further straining relations between the Kurds and the Baghdad government and Shiite militias, all ostensibly allies in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Just east of Mosul, Kurdish engineering teams on a recent day were laying down a 3-meter wide, 20-kilometer long trench and 2-meter high berms, marking the new front line after recapturing the village of Qarqashah and neighboring hamlets from IS earlier this month.

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Filipinos Seen Backing Duterte despite Rising Drug Killings

On the day he was sworn into office, President Rodrigo Duterte went to a Manila slum and exhorted residents who knew any drug addicts to "go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful."

Two months later, nearly 2,000 suspected drug pushers and users lay dead as morgues continue to fill up. Faced with criticism of his actions by rights activists, international bodies and outspoken Filipinos, including the top judge, Duterte has stuck to his guns and threatened to declare martial law if the Supreme Court meddles in his work.

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Iran Investigates Young Men at Risk of Being Recruited by IS

Iran's intelligence minister says security officers have investigated more than 1,500 young men at risk of being recruited by the extremist Islamic State group.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency on Friday quoted Mahmoud Ali as saying that his department has summoned for questioning, detained or talked with the young people to stop them from joining IS.

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11 Civilians Killed in Airstrikes in Northern Yemen

Yemen's rebel-run news agency says airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition have killed 11 civilians and wounded others in the northern city of Saada.

The agency, SABA, which is under control of the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, reported on Friday that the airstrikes destroyed two houses located in the district of Baqam in the city of Saada — a Houthi stronghold.

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Hungary to Build Stronger Anti-Migrant Fence, Orban Says

Hungary's prime minister says the country will build a new, "massive" fence on its southern borders to defend against a possible surge in the number of migrants.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who earlier said migrants were "poison," said Friday on state radio that there may soon be a "greater need for security" and the fortified barrier would be able to stop "several hundreds of thousands of people," if needed. He did not say when construction could start.

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Indonesia Steps Up Fire Response as Haze Blankets Singapore

Six Indonesian provinces have declared states of emergency as forest fires blanketed a swath of Southeast Asia in a smoky haze.

Singapore's air quality deteriorated to unhealthy levels on Friday as winds blew smoke from fires on Sumatra across the city-state and into southern Malaysia.

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Flood Waters Stabilize in India, but Thousands Evacuated

An official says nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated in India's remote northeast after an artificial lake created by a landslide threatened their lives even as flood water levels stabilized in the worst-hit areas of the north.

Rakesh Ranjan, a National Disaster Response Force official, says the rescue this week was in the mountainous Mangan district of Sikkim state.

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