Reuters World News Highlights 2200 GMT Jan 3
TOP STORIES
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WASHINGTON - Offshore rig contractor Transocean Ltd has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle U.S. government charges arising from BP Plc's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
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WASHINGTON - Despite a rocky few weeks during the "fiscal cliff" fight, John Boehner won re-election as speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday and will lead Republicans as they take on the White House over federal spending.
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WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday the time was not right for Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and former diplomat Bill Richardson to travel to North Korea.
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AZAZ, Syria - Rebels battled on Thursday to seize an air base in northern Syria, part of a campaign to fight back against the air power that has given President Bashar al-Assad's forces free rein to bomb rebel-held towns.
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LONDON/ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An oil rig that ran aground in Alaska on New Year's Eve in "near hurricane" conditions dragged two vessels trying to control it more than 10 miles (16 km) toward a wave-battered rocky shore before the crews cut it loose to save themselves.
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WANA, Pakistan - A U.S. drone strike killed a key Taliban commander, his deputy and eight others in northwest Pakistan, intelligence sources and tribal leaders said Thursday, deaths that could substantially alter the power balance in the Taliban heartland of Waziristan.
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NEWTOWN - Twenty days after the massacre that left 20 first graders and six adults dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, plunging a rural New England town and the nation into grief, classes resumed on Thursday for the more than 400 students who lived through the harrowing assault.
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NEW DELHI - Five Indian men were formally charged in court on Thursday with the gang rape and murder of a physiotherapy student in a case that has generated widespread anger about the government's inability to prevent violence against women.
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MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted citizenship to Gerard Depardieu, the French movie star whose decision to quit his homeland to avoid a tax hike prompted accusations of national betrayal.
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CAIRO/LONDON - Egypt dipped deeper into its rapidly shrinking currency reserves on Thursday, fighting to slow a sliding pound which is likely to push up inflation and risks reigniting popular unrest.
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ROME - Mario Monti, bidding for a second term as Italy's prime minister, said on Thursday a left-wing party on track to lead the next government should sideline "extreme" elements who hinder vital economic reforms.
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LONDON - Britain rejected calls on Thursday from Argentine President Cristina Fernandez for talks over the disputed Falkland Islands after she wrote an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron.