Reuters World News Highlights at 1405 GMT, March 18
TOP STORIES
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NICOSIA - Cypriot ministers were trying to revise a plan to seize money from bank deposits before a parliamentary vote on Tuesday that will secure the island's financial rescue or could lead to its default, with reverberations across the euro zone.
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Two suicide bombers attacked a judicial compound in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday, killing four people and taking hostages, officials said.
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BEIJING - China has become the world's fifth-largest arms exporter, a respected Sweden-based think-tank said on Monday, its highest ranking since the Cold War, with Pakistan the main recipient.
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ISTANBUL - Kurdish politicans were ferried to a Turkish prison island on Monday where Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to issue a ceasefire call in a conflict that has cost 40,000 lives and battered Turkey's economy over three decades.
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LONDON - Deadly strains of tuberculosis (TB) resistant to multiple drugs are spreading around the world, and authorities urgently need another $1.6 billion a year to tackle them, global health officials said on Monday.
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MOGADISHU - A suicide car bomber killed at least 10 people on Monday in the worst attack in the Somali capital this year when he tried to kill Mogadishu's security chief near the presidential palace, police and rebels said.
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LONDON - Britain's three main political parties struck a compromise deal on a new regulatory system for the country's newspapers in the early hours of Monday morning, a lawmaker said, hours before what was to be a divisive parliamentary vote on the issue.
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JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new governing coalition prepared to take office after a parliamentary vote on Monday with powerful roles reserved for supporters of settlers in occupied territory.
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BEIJING - China said on Monday U.S. plans to bolster missile defences in response to provocations by North Korea would only intensify antagonism, and urged Washington to act prudently.
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HONG KONG - In a break from months of sabre rattling, China under new President Xi Jinping appears to be moderating its approach to a potentially explosive territorial dispute with Japan and taking measures to prevent accidental conflict.
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CARACAS - Venezuela's acting president urged U.S. President Barack Obama to stop what he called a plot by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to kill his opposition rival and trigger a coup ahead of an April 14 election.
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ROME - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano appealed to political leaders on Sunday to work together to form a government, but his appeal fell on deaf ears and pressure grew for a new poll after last month's deadlocked election.
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VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis gave his security detail a taste of his new papal style on Sunday by stepping outside a Vatican gate to greet a boisterous crowd of well-wishers.