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　　The UN secretary general says he's encouraged that Iran has become involved for the first timein international talks in resolving the conflict in Syria. The US secretary of State John Kerry hasheld preliminary discussions with his counterparts from Iran, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.As world powers prepare for a substantive negotiations in Vienna, Ban Ki-moon urged them toshow a sense of flexibility. I'm urging all these five countries to show their global leadershiprather than their own national perspectives. The longer they take their own nationalperspectives, the much more our people will suffer and whole world will suffer.

　　Men armed with knives have attacked rally held by the main opposition National League forDemocracy in Myanmar's largest city Yangon. The NLD candidate for the area, a seating MP hasbeen taken to hospital with injuries to his head and hands. The attack comes ten days beforeMyanmar's first openly contested election in 25 years and three days before the NLD leaderAung San Suu Kyi is due to hold a large rally.

　　Paul Ryan has been elected as the new speaker of US House of Representatives. The 45-year-old republican from Wisconsin succeeds John Boehner who announced his retirement lastmonth. A White House spokesman said President Obama respected the speaker Ryan despitedifferences on policy. In his speech accepting the role, Mr. Ryan described the house as broken.The BBC's Anthony Zurcher says he's facing a difficult task. He is generally well-respected as acharismatic young man. He comes kind of from the conservative wing of the Republicanparty, but they've turned on people who they think don't have their backs before. So he'sgoing to have to try to broke or some compromises actually get legislation passed and whenthat happens, that's when you see this right-wing conservative Tea Party caucus started tobreak away and cause trouble.

　　A Saudi Arabia blogger Raif Badawi has been given the Sakharov human rights prize. He ran anInternet discussion forum "Free Saudi Liberals". Last year, there was an international outragewhen he was sentenced to ten years in prison for insulting Islamic values. Alvilin Avidboal is theco-founder of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom. She says the award may not help hiscause immediately. Well, it means a lot. It's the second most important prize or the same levelas the Nobel Prize for freedom and it means that his struggle is concerned for so many peoplearound the world, for the European Parliamentarian. Of course it's a consolation for now but itdoesn't mean that Raif will be released tomorrow morning. BBC news.

　　China has announced the end of its decades-long policy of restricting most families to havingonly one child. The official Xinhua News Agency said that all couples would be allowed to twochildren citing a statement from the ruling Communist Party.

　　Reports from Sudan say there's been an escalation of a border dispute with Ethiopia.Sudan's interior minister Esmat Abdel Rahman told Parliament that Ethiopian cattle rustlers hadkilled at least 16 farmers and stolen nearly 300 cattle in recent raids. Members of the SudaneseParliament have asked government to send troops to the border state of El-Gadaref.

　　A corruption watchdog says nearly all countries in the Middle East and North Africa haveopaque defense budgets with almost no parliamentary accountability. In a new report, theLondon-based Transparency International says secrecy across defense and securityestablishment remains the norm in the region and that the ensuing corruption was having abig impact on the rise of terrorism. It said only Jordan and Tunisia published their defensebudgets.

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