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THAILAND
Dozens Die in Nightclub Blaze
At least 59 people were killed and more than 200 injured after a fire ripped through a popular nightclub in the Thai capital of Bangkok as revelers celebrated the arrival of the new year.
Television footage showed injured people fleeing the flaming shell of the upmarket Santika nightclub. Police General Jongrak Jutanont said that foreigners were among the dead and that Australians, Nepalese, Japanese and Dutch were among the injured.
Witnesses said the blaze erupted just after midnight, possibly after a firework went off inside, triggering chaos among the about 1,000 people gathered. Police said many of the dead were killed by suffocation; others died in the stampede.
Police said that only one door in the front was open to the public and that the second-floor windows were covered with iron bars.
Tim Johnston
BRITAIN
2 Iraqis Turned Over to Baghdad
Two Iraqis accused of killing two British soldiers during the opening days of the Iraq war have been turned over to Iraqi authorities in defiance of Europe's top human rights court and face trial for war crimes, Britain's defense secretary said Wednesday.
Attorneys for Faisal al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi have fought moves to have the two tried in their home country, arguing that they might be tortured and face the death penalty.
But Defense Secretary John Hutton said Britain had no choice but to defy the European Court of Human Rights because it has no legal authority to hold the Iraqis as of Jan. 1, when its U.N. mandate expires.
VATICAN
