TOP STORIES
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BEIJING – North Korea has almost completed preparations for
a third nuclear test, a senior source with close ties to
Pyongyang and Beijing told Reuters, which will draw further
international condemnation following a failed rocket launch if
it goes ahead.
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PARIS – France’s presidential rivals scrambled on Tuesday to
seduce nearly a fifth of the electorate that voted for far right
anti-immigration crusader Marine Le Pen, voicing sympathy for
voters’ distress in the economic crisis.
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BEIRUT – Three Syrian military officers were killed in
Damascus on Tuesday, state media and opposition groups said, and
at least three people were wounded in a car bomb blast in the
capital in further blows to a ragged U.N.-monitored ceasefire.
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THE HAGUE – The biggest Dutch opposition parties refused on
Tuesday to back austerity cuts needed to meet EU budget targets
after the government fell, deepening the crisis in a nation
probably facing a long period of uncertainty until elections.
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CAIRO – Egypt’s ruling military has approved a law banning
top officials who worked under Hosni Mubarak from running for
president, ruling out his last prime minister and possibly
helping former Arab League chief Amr Moussa in his race against
Islamists.
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LONDON – James Murdoch denied on Tuesday that he tried to
use the political influence wielded by his father’s newspapers
to steer through the largest takeover in his company’s history
at a time when it was battling a scandal over hacking phones.
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JUBA/BEIJING – South Sudan accused Sudan on Tuesday of
mounting bombing raids on the newly independent country’s
oil-producing border region and President Salva Kiir said the
latest hostilities amounted to a declaration of a war by his
northern neighbour.
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DUBAI – The Iranian oil ministry said on Tuesday its IT
systems had suffered no lasting damage from a suspected cyber
attack, but its experts would require two or three days to
investigate and address the impact of the virus.
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MANILA – A Philippine exploration firm has found
more-than-expected natural gas in a disputed area of the South
China Sea, a discovery likely to inflame territorial tensions
with China.
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CAPE CANAVERAL – Google Inc executives Larry Page and Eric
Schmidt and filmmaker James Cameron are among those bankrolling
a venture to survey and eventually extract precious metals and
rare minerals from asteroids that orbit near Earth, the company
said on Tuesday.
