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Reuters World News Highlights 0600 GMT Aug 31

Published: 30 Aug 2009 22:01:30 PST

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TOKYO - Japan's next leader, Yukio Hatoyama, faced the task on Monday of forming a government to tackle challenges such as record unemployment and a fast-ageing society after voters gave his party a sweeping mandate for change.

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KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan - The Dalai Lama, on a controversial humanitarian visit to flood-ravaged Taiwan denounced by China, steered clear of talking about Tibet on Monday but said he was dedicated to the promotion of democracy.

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NANSAN, China - Refugees who fled to China from armed clashes in northeast Myanmar are weighing a return to farms, homes and shops against fear of the Myanmar army, while both governments asserted that normality was returning.

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TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposed new cabinet came in for criticism from some lawmakers in a heated parliamentary debate on Sunday, but one senior MP signalled support for the surprise oil minister nominee.

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BRASILIA - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tried on Sunday to overcome opposition by three state governors to a legislative proposal he hopes will make the country a top oil producer and help fight poverty.

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KHOBAR - Saudi Arabia has tightened security at oil facilities after the country's anti-terror chief escaped a suicide attack, guards at Abqaiq, the world's biggest oil processing plant, said on Sunday.

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LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE - A wildfire burned out of control through the Los Angeles foothills and deep into the brittle forest on Sunday, threatening 10,000 homes and encroaching on the region's telecommunications nerve center.

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LIBREVILLE - Gabon's voters waited on Monday for the first results of an election for a successor to long-time leader Omar Bongo, with the late president's son tipped for power in the central African oil-producing state.

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LONDON - Britain agreed to include Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer deal with Libya in 2007 because of "overwhelming interests" just before an oil deal with Tripoli, a newspaper reported on Sunday.