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CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A U.S. Marine sergeant was ordered court-martialed for his alleged role in the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha two years ago.

WARSAW, Poland, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Poland's chief veterinary officer said 29 meat producers would soon begin exporting to Russia, following Moscow sanitary experts' approval.

TOLEDO, Ohio, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A mother and four of her children were killed in a head-on collision with a pickup truck that was driving the wrong way in Toledo, Ohio, authorities said.

PRETORIA, South Africa, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Allies of Jacob Zuma, new leader of South Africa's African National Congress, accuse President Thabo Mbeki of orchestrating Zuma's corruption indictment.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Belgium is ringing in the New Year in quieter fashion than usual after security concerns scrubbed a planned fireworks show in Brussels.

TEHRAN, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The fervor nearly three decades after the Islamic Revolution in Iran is dwindling as the once influential clerics falter in the face of secular politics.

MILFORD, Conn., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Maryland man was charged with kidnapping and raping a young girl who was among illegal immigrants he was allegedly transporting from California to Boston.

CHICAGO, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The Episcopal Church of the Mediator on Chicago's southwest side closed Sunday, ending 129 years of service.

TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Tel Aviv, Israel, auction house has sold two yellow badges that were used to identify Jews during the Nazi era.

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The world's largest peacekeeping mission -- joint U.N. and African Union forces in Sudan's Darfur province -- kicked off with severely depleted forces.

DENVER, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A 20-year-old anti-abortion activist called for a November 2008 ballot question that would declare the unborn as people under Colorado law.

SYDNEY, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Hundreds of thousands of Australians braved the sweltering heat to attend New Year's festivities around the country.

BEIJING, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- President Hu Jintao said Monday China will stick to peaceful means under its policy of one country-two systems to reunify Taiwan.

CASEY KEY, Fla., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Charity and arts patron Rhoda Pritzker, a member of one of Chicago's wealthiest families, died at age 93 at her winter home in Florida.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An Alaskan skier escaped an avalanche with only a compound leg fracture despite being swept 1,500 feet down a mountainside.