May 7 (Reuters) - TOP STORIES
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WASHINGTON - China is using espionage to acquire technologies to fuel its fast-paced military modernization program, the Pentagon said on Monday in an annual report that for the first time accused Beijing of trying to break into U.S. defense computer networks.
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JERUSALEM/AMMAN - Israel played down weekend air strikes close to Damascus reported to have killed dozens of Syrian soldiers, saying they were not aimed at influencing its neighbour's civil war but only at stopping Iranian missiles reaching Lebanese Hezbollah militants.
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WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will "make another stab" at seeing if the United States and Russia can work together to find a political solution to end Syria's civil war when he visits Moscow this week, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.
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NEW YORK - The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the current strain of bird flu that is causing illness and deaths in China cannot spark a pandemic in its current form - but he added that there is no guarantee it will not mutate and cause a serious pandemic.
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WASHINGTON - North Korea has taken two Musudan missiles off launch-ready status and moved them from the country's east coast, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, after weeks of concern that Pyongyang had been poised for a test-launch.
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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Congress this week opens its first debate in six years on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, testing whether business and labor groups can hold together on a delicately crafted deal that already is under attack.
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BOSTON - The body of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev remained in limbo on Monday as his family searched for a cemetery that would accept the remains.
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MOSCOW - Russian media magnate Alexander Lebedev goes on trial on Tuesday in a case he portrays as President Vladimir Putin's revenge for criticising the Kremlin and a warning to other rich businessmen.
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Mian Hussain is fighting for his political life from a deserted party headquarters, where two telephones sit silently beside him and the footsteps of a tea boy echo down the corridor. One of Pakistan's most high-profile anti-Taliban politicians, Hussain hasn't been to a single public event since campaigning for the May 11 election kicked off.
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LAHORE, Pakistan - After 14 years out of power, Nawaz Sharif is a man in a hurry. The politician tipped to be Pakistan's next prime minister is frank about what he will inherit - "a mess".
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BAGHDAD - At least 17 people were killed by three bombs and a grenade attack on a mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday, medics and police said.
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MUNICH, Germany - Wearing an elegant trouser-suit and an air of defiance, the suspected surviving member of a German neo-Nazi cell strode into a Munich court on Monday to stand trial for a series of racist murders that scandalised Germany and led to intense soul-searching about the lack of vigilance towards the far right.
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NEW DELHI - After riding high since launching economic reforms in September, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's minority coalition has been brought to a new low, with key ministers entangled in corruption investigations and Singh facing calls to quit.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Three Ohio women believed abducted separately about a decade ago were found alive on Monday at a Cleveland house near where they were last seen, and three brothers were arrested as suspects in their disappearances, police said.
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