Reuters World News Highlights 1400 GMT, April 4
SEOUL/WASHINGTON - The United States said it would soon send a missile defence system to Guam to defend it from North Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called a "real and clear danger" from Pyongyang.
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BEIJING - China said it was mobilising resources nationwide to combat a new strain of deadly bird flu that has killed four people, as Japan and Hong Kong stepped up vigilance against the virus and Vietnam banned imports of Chinese poultry.
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ANABTA - Thousands of mourners turned out on Thursday for the funerals of three Palestinians, including two teenagers killed by Israeli army gunfire in some of the worst violence in the occupied West Bank in years.
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ROME - Florence mayor Matteo Renzi launched a challenge to Italian centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani on Thursday, calling for a government coalition with former premier Silvio Berlusconi or new elections in June.
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NEW YORK - Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy is expected on Thursday to sign a tough new gun law that restricts sales of the sort of high-capacity ammunition clips that a gunman used to massacre 26 people in minutes in a December attack on a school.
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CAIRO - Egypt's planning minister said on Thursday the government expects to reach a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan within two weeks, the state news agency MENA reported.
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NEW DELHI - Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and a contender for prime minister in 2014, on Thursday offered a broad vision of 21st century India in his first major speech to business leaders that critics called vague and rambling.
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ISTANBUL - Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party denied on Thursday media reports that jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan had told his fighters to leave the country without their weapons under a peace plan.
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