Chinese Seized, Iraq to Tighten Poll Security
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Insurgents in Iraq threatened on  Tuesday to kill eight Chinese hostages, as officials said they  would close land borders and restrict traffic across the  country in a bid to thwart attacks during next week's election.
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Iraq said on Monday it will take over   security control of a second of its 18 provinces this week in   the relatively calm British and Italian-patrolled south.
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Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 150 foreigners. Those reported held are:
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Chinese police have seized about 6,000 illegal firearms and tons of explosives in a two-month crackdown across three provinces, the government said Tuesday.
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The United States is beefing up military forces in Iraq to provide security before elections scheduled for January 30, Pentagon officials said on Wednesday.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - A team of kidnappers grabbed two Americans and a Briton in a dawn raid on their home on a leafy Baghdad street Thursday - a bold abduction that underlines the increasing danger for foreigners in the embattled capital as violence soars ahead of national elections planned for early next year.    West of the capital, U.S...
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U.S. troops detained a bodyguard for the leader of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab political group on suspicion the guard was preparing suicide bombings, and fearful officials on Saturday enforced a total ban on movement in this city of about seven million people.
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On the eve of the US election, China laid into what it called the &quot;Bush doctrine,&quot; said the Iraq war has destroyed the global anti-terror coalition and blamed arrogance for the problems dogging the United States worldwide.
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CHAGMALAI, Pakistan  - Islamic militants holding  two Chinese engineers hostage in Pakistan threatened to kill  one on Monday unless security forces ended a siege of their  hideout, a tactic the interior minister said had echoes of  Iraq.
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Gunmen seized the head of CARE International's operations in Iraq &#151; a woman who has worked on behalf of Iraqis for three decades &#151; as the British government on Tuesday weighed a politically volatile American request to transfer soldiers to dangerous areas near the capital.
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Iraq clamped security measures across  the country on Friday, sealing land borders and curbing travel  to foil insurgents bent on wrecking Sunday's election, but 10  Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers died in fresh attacks. Iraqis  began voting abroad. In Australia, exiles danced in the  streets, proudly displaying blue ink on their fingers which  showed they had cast the election's first votes.
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Iraq said Tuesday it would shut its  land borders and bar traffic from getting close to voting  centers over the Jan. 30 polls to try to thwart attacks, as  insurgents targeted a Shi'ite party with a suicide bomb.
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TIKRIT, Iraq  - Iraqi and U.S. forces are planning  elaborate tactics to protect polling stations from suicide car  bombers expected to launch a wave of attacks on the Jan. 30  elections.
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BAGHDAD/BEIJING  - Iraqi insurgents who have  threatened to kill eight Chinese hostages told the Chinese  government on Friday they would treat them "mercifully" if it  banned all Chinese nationals from Iraq.
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Iraq clamped tough security measures  across the country on Friday, sealing land borders and curbing  travel to foil insurgents bent on wrecking Sunday's election,  but a car bomb killed four people in Baghdad.
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Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 170 foreigners:
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US-led forces swept hotspots south of Baghdad on Wednesday in a push to capture the area before key January polls. The launch of the huge operation on Tuesday came as the international community threw its