Reuters World News Highlights

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri formed a new unity government yesterday that includes two ministers from Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since Hariri led his coalition, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to victory in a June parliamentary election against Hezbollah and its allies.
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BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the courage of East Germans who helped topple the Berlin Wall as leaders converged on the German capital to celebrate the 20th anniversary of an event which marked the end of the Cold War.
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BEIJING – Exactly a year since it unveiled a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package and switched to an easy monetary policy, China is basking in the success of its aggressive response to the global financial crisis.
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BOGOTA – Colombia said on Sunday it will appeal to the UN Security Council and the OAS after Hugo Chavez, the fiery leftist president of neighbouring Venezuela, ordered his army to prepare for war in order to assure peace.
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MOGADISHU – Somali pirates have seized a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo ship loaded with weapons bound for the anarchic Horn of Africa nation in contravention of a UN arms embargo, maritime experts said on Monday.
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HOUSTON – Ida weakened to a tropical storm as it churned toward oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and was forecast to hit the US Gulf Coast early today, the US National Hurricane Center said.
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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama was due to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Monday amid floundering US efforts to jump-start stalled Middle East peace talks.
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BRUSSELS – Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband have emerged as firm favourites to become president and foreign policy chief of the European Union.
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HARARE – Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s ally Roy Bennett went on trial accused of terrorism in a case that has stoked tensions in the unity government of Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF.