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The people of the United States voted by 51 per cent to 48 per cent in favour of Mr George W. Bush to serve another term as President, rather than Mr John Kerry, the Democrat candidate; the turnout was higher than for decades. But, because of the electoral college system, the outcome in the state of Ohio became the deciding factor. The Republicans increased their majority in the House of Representatives. American forces waited until after the poll to launch an attack against Fallujah in Iraq, which had fallen under the control of Iraqi insurgents and foreign terrorists. Hatim Kamil, the deputy governor of Baghdad, was shot dead in his car. A car bomb in Baghdad, outside the satellite station al-Arabiyah, killed seven. Eight US marines were killed earlier by a suicide bomber near Fallujah. At least 1,121 members of the US military have been killed since March 2003, according to a tally by the Associated Press news agency. Reinforcements brought the number of American troops in Iraq to 142,000, the highest level since the summer of 2003. A teenaged suicide bomber killed three in Carmel market, Tel Aviv. President Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority underwent examinations for a serious blood disorder at the Percy military teaching hospital at Clamart, south-west of Paris. Mr Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, said that Mr Arafat would certainly not be allowed burial in Jerusalem. Uruguay lurched to the Left by electing as president Dr Tabare Vazquez. In the Botswana general election, the Botswana Democratic party, which has won every election since independence in 1966, won 44 of 57 seats; although the United Nations says that Botswana has the highest incidence of HIV/Aids, it was not an issue in the election. Mr Rocco Buttiglione withdrew his nomination as a European commissioner after Mr José Manuel Barroso decided not to present the new Commission for approval by the European Parliament lest they reject the whole lot because of their hatred of Mr Buttiglione, who had said that he thought homosexuality sinful. A state of emergency was declared in the central Chinese province of Henan after thousands of people rioted and some were killed in confrontations between the majority Han and Muslim minority Hui people, sparked off by a traffic obstruction.
CSH
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