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In Briefs
•<B>USA. Senate confirms Rice as secretary of state. Condoleezza Rice was confirmed as US secretary of state on Wednesday as a large majority of senators swept aside objections from some Democrats who said she should be held accountable for mistakes in the Iraq war. Rice, President George W. Bush’s close confidant and a key architect of the Iraq war as his national security adviser, won Senate confirmation by a vote of 85-13. The vote reflected more opposition than any secretary of state in recent history. Some Democrats said she had repeatedly deceived Congress and was responsible for decisions they said have mired the United States in a conflict that has hurt efforts to fight terrorism worldwide.
•<B>AUSTRALIA. Court orders photographers to stay away from Kidman. </B>Oscar-winning Australian star Nicole Kidman said yesterday she had been a virtual prisoner in her Sydney home, fearing for her safety if she left due to the actions of two photographers staking out her harbourside house. Kidman won restraining orders against the photographers yesterday after a listening device was found outside her Sydney home and after a reported high-speed car chase. Waverley Local Court ordered Jamie Fawcett, 43, and Ben McDonald, 32, not to approach Kidman at her home or go within 20 metres (60 ft) of her harbourside home at Darling Point.
•<B> PALESTINE. First-ever municipal elections. </B>Palestinians in the Gaza Strip voted in their first-ever municipal elections yesterday in a test of support for President Mahmoud Abbas and rival Islamist groups ahead of Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territory. Thousands of Palestinians turned out to vote at 10 municipal councils throughout the strip, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and where Palestinians seek statehood under a US-backed peace “road map”.
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