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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej defended himself and his administration on Sunday in the face of thousands of demonstrators camped outside Government House calling for his resignation.

Born in Belgrade in 1969, Goran Tomasevic started working for Reuters as a freelance photographer in 1996 during the anti-Milosevic demonstrations. He was based in Baghdad during the Iraq conflict, in Jerusalem during tense times between the Israelis and Palestinians, and is now senior photographer in Egypt. In the following story he recalls a rare sequence of split-second shots he took of a U.S. Marine in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on Sunday, saying a free and fair poll was impossible in the current climate of violence.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy flies to Israel on Sunday for a three-day visit aimed at reinforcing his image as an ally of the Jewish state and reversing a trend of difficult trips there by French leaders.

CEBU, Philippines (Reuters) - More than 800 people were missing on Monday after a Philippine ferry capsized in a typhoon that has killed scores and left a trail of destruction across the archipelago.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Armed youths blew up a Nigerian crude oil pipeline operated by U.S. major Chevron, a militant group said on Saturday, cutting more output from the world's eighth largest oil exporter.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A tornado in China tore up 650 houses in just five minutes and damaged nearly 1,000, state media said on Sunday, but only one person died.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration confirmed on Saturday that U.S. beef exporters are set to resume shipments, under certain restrictions, to South Korea, a step officials hope will provide resolution to a trade impasse that has become a major headache for both nations.

MIAMI (Reuters) - White House hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday accused his rival John McCain of favoring budget policies that would leave cities unable to pay for critical projects like flood-prevention systems and highways.

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors go to Syria on Sunday to probe allegations of covert nuclear work at a site where Israeli warplanes destroyed a desert complex at the heart of Western suspicions.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The parents of an Israeli soldier being held captive in the Gaza Strip asked Israel's high court on Saturday to delay opening border crossings with the territory until their son's release is guaranteed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Violence and intimidation threaten Zimbabwe's run-off presidential election and the United States intends to bring the matter before the U.N. Security Council next week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a radio interview on Saturday.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's Socialist Party has broken off coalition talks with the nationalist bloc and is starting negotiations with the pro-European alliance led by the Democratic Party, officials said on Saturday.

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Sudan's former north-south foes agreed on Saturday that an international court would decide the borders of the disputed oil-rich Abyei region, which could end tensions threatening a fragile peace deal, officials said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration confirmed on Saturday that U.S. beef exporters are set to resume shipments, under certain restrictions, to South Korea, a step officials hope will provide resolution to a trade impasse that has become a major headache for both nations.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia wants a negotiated end to territorial disputes in ex-Soviet Georgia, but it will not tolerate deliberate attempts to stir up its peacekeeping troops there, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan is grounding its national carrier Sudan Airways from Monday for at least a month for breaking civil aviation rules, mainly over administration, a Sudanese official said on Saturday.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea, which reworked an unpopular U.S. beef import deal that sparked mass street protests, could soon resume imports once a legal step has been completed, the trade minister said on Saturday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran accused the United States on Saturday of supporting a Sunni Muslim rebel group which said on Friday it had killed two of 16 Iranian policemen kidnapped last week in a volatile area near the border with Pakistan.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Armed youths blew up a Nigerian crude oil pipeline operated by U.S. major Chevron, a militant group said on Saturday, cutting more output from the world's eighth largest oil exporter.