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AFP - At least six people were killed and 20 injured Friday in a stampede at a popular Hindu religious festival in eastern India, officials said.

Reuters - Facing the likely withdrawal of left allies, India’s government moved closer on Friday to clinching political support it needs to avoid early elections and to force through a nuclear energy deal with the United States.

AFP - India’s coalition government underwent a major shake-up Friday with the dominant Congress party pushing on with a controversial nuclear deal with the US and ditching left-wing allies.

AP - In an unprecedented attempt to revive the tiger population in western India, authorities airlifted a female tiger to a national reserve Friday where it will join a male tiger delivered there last week.

AFP - A study on tigers in one of Nepal’s national parks suggests that the population has been halved by poachers in just a few years, a senior wildlife official said Friday.

AFP - Hundreds of Islamists gathered outside Islamabad’s Red Mosque on Friday and chanted slogans against President Pervez Musharraf to mark the anniversary of the bloody storming of the building.

AP - Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt has arrived in France to a hero’s welcome after six years in the captivity of leftist rebels in the Colombian jungle.

AP - Iran delivered its response Friday to an international offer of incentives for it to suspend uranium enrichment, a central part of its nuclear program, state television reported.

AP - Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that’s depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week.

AP - Hundreds of mainland Chinese tourists — some in matching white or pink shirts — arrived in Taiwan on Friday on the first regular commercial flights in nearly six decades between the old foes.

Reuters - About 50 people were wounded early on Friday by a home-made bomb that sprayed nuts and bolts into a crowd at an open-air concert in Belarus’s capital attended by long-time ruler President Alexander Lukashenko, officials said.

AP - Israel says it is keeping Gaza’s border crossings closed in retaliation for a rocket attack.

AP - Hugo Chavez, once a key mediator in securing hostage releases from Colombian rebels, could do little more than phone congratulations to President Alvaro Uribe after this week’s bold rescue.

Reuters - Sudan’s north and south armies have begun to withdraw their forces from the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei, officials said on Friday, after missing an end-June deadline agreed to by the former foes.

AFP - At least six people were killed and 20 injured Friday in a stampede at a popular Hindu religious festival in eastern India, officials said.