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Three suicide-bombs exploded at two seafood cafés at Jimbaran, a beach resort, and a three-storey noodle and steakhouse at Kuta on Bali, killing 22 and wounding 104. Suspicion immediately fell upon Jemaah Islamiyah, a group linked to al-Qa’eda, and newspapers carried photographs of the bombers’ severed heads in the hope that they would be identified. Abu Bakar Bashir, jailed for his part in the bombing on Bali in 2002 that killed 202, said, ‘I suggest the government bring themselves closer to God by implementing his rules and laws because these happenings are warnings from God for all of us.’ Al-Qa’eda posted a message to Iraq on the internet for Ramadan, which started on Tuesday: ‘We say, O Islam, muster your strength, and we incite believers to fight the worshippers of the cross.’ Sunnis once again threatened to boycott a referendum on the Iraqi election after the Shiite-dominated parliament ruled that a No vote would be valid in any of the country’s 18 provinces only if more than two thirds of the registered voters opposed it, rather than two thirds of those who actually voted. Formal negotiations for the admission of Iraq’s neighbour Turkey to the European Union began after round-the-clock wrangling at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Austria was the last of the 25 EU countries to withdraw opposition after it was conceded that Croatia too would be considered for membership. Mr John Roberts, a Catholic aged 50, was sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States. A boat capsized on Lake George, New York state, drowning 20 elderly passengers. About 30 per cent of railway workers and teachers, 23 per cent of electricity workers and 20 per cent of post office staff joined a one-day strike in France to protest at the cautious economic reforms of Mr Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister. Nicolas Cage, a film actor, and his wife Alice Kim, a former sushi waitress, called their new baby Kal-el, Superman’s name on the planet Krypton.
CSH
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