Reuters World News Highlights at 2200 GMT, Dec 4
TOP STORIES
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DUBAI - Iran said on Tuesday it had captured a U.S. intelligence ScanEagle drone in its airspace over the Gulf in the last few days, but the United States said there was no evidence to support the assertion.
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BRUSSELS/BEIRUT - NATO told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday that any use of chemical weapons in his fight against encroaching rebel forces would be met by an immediate international response.
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CAIRO - Egyptian police battled thousands of protesters outside President Mohamed Mursi's palace in Cairo on Tuesday, prompting the Islamist leader to leave the building, presidency sources said.
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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama dangled the possibility on Tuesday of lowering tax rates in 2013 with a broad U.S. tax code revamp, but he stood firm on insisting rates for the wealthiest must rise as part of a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff," a series of budget cuts and tax increases that will begin taking effect on Dec. 31 unless Congress acts.
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LOS ANGELES - Union and management negotiators agreed on Tuesday to the intervention of a federal mediator in a bid to settle a week-old strike by clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that has idled most of America's biggest container port complex.
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SOUTH THOMASTON, Maine - Sometime in the next few months, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide two cases that could fundamentally reshape the rules of race in America.
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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is expected to announce his nominees for secretaries of state and defense in the next two weeks, with former Republican senator Chuck Hagel on the short list of potential choices to head the Pentagon, senior administration officials said on Tuesday.
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BRASILIA - Brazil's government on Tuesday extended tax breaks to the country's construction industry in a new effort to encourage investment and boost flagging growth in the world's sixth-largest economy.
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HANOVER, Germany - Germany's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) put on a show of total unity at a congress on Tuesday, re-electing Angela Merkel as party leader by a record margin as she prepares to fight for a third term as chancellor.
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DOHA - Extreme weather is the new normal and poses a threat to the human race, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday as he sought to revive deadlocked global climate change talks.
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MOSCOW - Artyom Kolpakov has learnt not to hope for too much after an exhilarating but ultimately frustrating year of protests against Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
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JERUSALEM - For Benjamin Netanyahu, plans to expand Israeli settlements may risk a diplomatic crisis with Europe but could prove a good bet at the ballot box.
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HANOI/NEW DELHI - Vietnam condemned on Tuesday China's claims to disputed South China Sea islands as a serious violation of its sovereignty after saying it was setting up patrols to protect its fisheries and accusing Chinese boats of sabotage.