Reuters World News Highlights 1800 GMT Jan 2
TOP STORIES
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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans looked ahead on Wednesday toward the next round of even bigger budget fights after reaching a hard-fought "fiscal cliff" deal that narrowly averted potentially devastating tax hikes and spending cuts.
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AMMAN/GENEVA - More than 60,000 people have died in Syria's uprising and civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday, dramatically raising the death toll in a struggle that shows no sign of ending.
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CAIRO - The Egyptian pound fell to record lows and debt insurance costs soared on Wednesday despite assurances by the country's Islamist leaders they would not allow the Arab world's most populous nation to slide further into economic crisis.
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BANGUI - Rebels in Central African Republic said they had halted their advance on the capital on Wednesday and agreed to start peace talks, averting a clash with regionally backed troops in the mineral-rich nation.
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ROME - Italy's outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti pledged to cut labour taxes to fuel growth on Wednesday as he shed his neutral technocrat stance and fired the opening salvo of his campaign for a second term.
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MADRID - The pilots union of struggling Spanish airline Iberia demanded a growth plan as it headed into talks on Wednesday with executives over deep job cuts that have also stoked alarm in a country with the highest unemployment in the European Union.
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TEL AVIV, Israel - In a matter of months, Yair Lapid has turned from heartthrob television news anchor into a rising star of Israeli politics, leading a new centrist party into elections on Jan. 22.
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RAMAT GAN, Israel - Diamond manufacturing is a dwindling trade in Israel. The country has one of the world's hottest diamond exchanges, but polishers and cutters of the precious stones have been replaced by cheaper workers in newer hubs like India and China.
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LONDON - An Afghan insurgent warlord branded Britain's Prince Harry on Wednesday as a shameless, drunken "jackal" out to kill innocent Afghans while on duty as an attack helicopter pilot for NATO forces in the country.
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