TOP STORIES
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SANAA - Explosions ripped through a northern area of Yemen's capital on Wednesday as a powerful tribal group backing the ouster of entrenched President Ali Abdullah Saleh battled his security forces.
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THE HAGUE - Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, extradited to the Netherlands from Serbia after 16 years on the run, will be formally charged with genocide at the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Friday.
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TRIPOLI/BRUSSELS - NATO said on Wednesday it had extended its Libyan mission for a further 90 days, after Muammar Gaddafi made it clear he would not step down, dashing hopes of a negotiated end to the uprising against his rule.
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TOKYO - A former Japanese prime minister joined the swelling ranks of ruling party rebels trying to oust leader Naoto Kan, raising the risk that a no-confidence vote will pass in parliament on Thursday, forcing him to quit.
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WASHINGTON - The reported torture of a Syrian boy shows the "total collapse" of Syrian authorities' willingness to listen to anti-government protesters, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday.
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ZURICH - Sepp Blatter cleared the final obstacle to a fourth term as FIFA president on Wednesday when delegates decided overwhelmingly to proceed with the vote, but soccer's woes deepened with fresh calls for a probe into Qatar being awarded the 2022 World Cup.
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ATHENS - Greece has to cut through a thicket of outdated regulations and labour laws if its ambitious privatisation drive is to raise anything near the sums needed to avoid default and jump-start its ailing economy.
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LONDON/SINGAPORE - Factory growth eased in Europe and Asia in May, surveys showed on Wednesday, feeding concerns that the world's main economic engines are cooling fast as richer countries curtail orders.
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MINSK - Belarus said on Wednesday it had asked the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan of up to ${esc.dollar}8 billion, hoping to stave off a financial crisis in the ex-Soviet republic.
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MOSCOW - Vladimir Putin's tightly controlled political system is so weakened by corruption that Russia's paramount leader could face a revolt within five years, the country's most prominent whistleblower told Reuters.
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BRUSSELS/BERLIN - European governments traded accusations of blame on Tuesday as they scrambled to find the source of an E. coli outbreak that has killed 16 people and made more than 1,000 ill in Germany, Sweden and other countries.
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CARACAS - Venezuela will not take immediate action against the United States in response to sanctions on its oil company PDVSA, President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday after several days of marches against the "imperialist" measure.
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CAPE CANAVERAL - The space shuttle Endeavour touched down at its Florida home base early on Wednesday, capping a 16-day mission to deliver a premier science experiment to the International Space Station on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight.
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