Reuters World News Highlights 1500 GMT, April 5
SEOUL - North Korea has placed two of its intermediate range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them on the east coast of the country in a move that could threaten Japan or U.S. Pacific bases, South Korean media reported on Friday.
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SHANGHAI/HONG KONG - Chinese authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at a poultry market in Shanghai on Friday as the death toll from a new strain of bird flu mounted to six, spreading concern overseas and sparking a sell-off in airline shares in Europe and Hong Kong.
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GENEVA - The United Nations gave its starkest warning yet on Friday that it would soon run out of cash to cope with the vast influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan and other neighbouring countries.
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ROME - Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, buoyed by new opinion polls showing a lead for his centre-right coalition, said on Friday Italy must return to the polls quickly unless the centre left agrees to govern with him.
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MADRID - Spain's embattled royal family has agreed to open its affairs to more public scrutiny under a new transparency law intended to restore confidence in a political establishment undermined by corruption and a deep economic crisis.
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ALMATY - World powers and Iran still appeared far apart on Friday in negotiations on Tehran's nuclear programme that were aimed at calming tensions which could boil over into war.
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WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama will offer cuts to Social Security and other entitlement programs in a budget proposal aimed at swaying Republicans to compromise on a deficit-reduction deal, a senior administration official said on Friday.
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SAO PAULO - She's one of the world's most popular presidents with an approval rating that is the envy of her peers in richer countries struggling with debt crises and political deadlock - 79 percent and rising.
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