June 13 (Reuters) - TOP STORIES
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GENEVA - The death toll in Syria reached at least 93,000 at the end of April, but the true number from the violence now in its third year may be much higher, the United Nations human rights office said on Thursday.
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ISTANBUL/ANKARA - Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators chanted and sang in Istanbul's Taksim Square early on Thursday after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK party floated the offer of a referendum on development plans that stirred two weeks of protests.
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ATHENS - Buses and subway trains stopped running in Athens on Thursday as Greek workers began to stage a nationwide strike in protest against the "sudden death" of state broadcaster ERT, switched off in the middle of the night by the government.
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WASHINGTON - U.S. government investigators began an urgent search for Edward Snowden several days before the first media reports were published on the government's secret surveillance programs, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
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ALEXANDRIA - The bread queue can be a dangerous and dishonest place in Egypt. People have killed over state-subsidised loaves. Corruption blights much of the trade.
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Clare Jim, Reiji Murai and Poornima Gupta - Apple Inc is exploring launching iPhones with bigger screens, as well as cheaper models in a range of colours, over the next year, said four people with knowledge of the matter, as it takes a cue from rival Samsung Electronics .
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HAVANA - Australian long-distance swimmer Chloe McCardel abandoned her quest to become the first person to make the 103 mile (166 km) swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, after she was severely stung by a jelly fish on Wednesday night.
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SEOUL - North Korea blamed the South on Thursday for scuttling fresh dialogue that aimed to ease tensions between the rival Koreas, saying Seoul deliberately torpedoed reconciliation talks planned for this week.
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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will name Avril Haines, a White House legal adviser, as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency after the current director, Michael Morell, said he would retire in August, the White House said on Wednesday.
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DUBAI - Iran's supreme leader urged voters to turn out in big numbers for a presidential election on Friday, saying such a show of strength would frustrate Tehran's enemies.
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NEW YORK/ANKARA - Five months ago Iran's foreign minister sent an unusual letter to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It was time, Ali Akbar Salehi wrote according to two sources who read the letter, to reach out to Tehran's arch foe by entering into "broad discussions with the United States."
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MUSHAF AIR BASE, Pakistan - With an olive green head scarf poking out from her helmet, Ayesha Farooq flashes a cheeky grin when asked if it is lonely being the only war-ready female fighter pilot in the Islamic republic of Pakistan.
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VATICAN CITY - Don't even think of calling Ernst von Freyberg, the president of the Vatican bank, God's New Banker.
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