Reuters World News Highlights

 AMMAN/HAMA, Syria – Syrian forces killed at least 19 people  in raids near the Lebanon border and in the country’s Sunni  tribal heartland, activists said, pursuing a military campaign  to crush street protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
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 SHALGHOUDA/BENGHAZI, Libya – Libyan rebels said they had  captured part of the oil town of Brega on Thursday while their  forces in the west pushed toward Zawiyah, trying to get within  striking distance of Muammar Gaddafi’s capital.
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 KABUL – A roadside bomb killed five American troops in  southern Afghanistan on Thursday, the U.S. military said, less  than a week after American forces suffered their worst single  loss of the Afghan war when Taliban insurgents shot down a  helicopter.
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 NEW YORK – Investors swooped back into world stocks on  Thursday, picking up beaten-down shares after a mildly  encouraging U.S. jobs report dulled fears of recession, although  credit markets faced strains similar to those that preceded the  2008 credit crisis.
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 PARIS/MADRID – European regulators will ban short-selling in  four countries’ financial stocks from Friday in a coordinated  attempt to restore confidence in a panicky market hit by rumors  and higher borrowing costs.
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 WASHINGTON – Democrats named three loyal party lieutenants  to a U.S. deficit reduction “super committee” on Thursday,  charting what could be a path to partisan deadlock with all 12  members now appointed.
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 AMES, Iowa – Eight Republican White House hopefuls meet in a  nationally televised debate on Thursday, hoping to generate  momentum two days before an Iowa straw poll that will test the  strength of their campaigns.
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 LIMA – Two weeks into his five-year term, Peru’s President  Ollanta Humala has retreated from the public spotlight, showing  an odd reluctance to discuss policies, scandals or even his  plans for running the country.
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 CARACAS – President Hugo Chavez told Venezuelans on Thursday  he was responding well to a second round of chemotherapy in Cuba  and accused the opposition of stirring up street protests at  home ahead of a 2012 election vote he has vowed to win.
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 JERUSALEM – Israel’s interior minister has given final  approval for a plan to build 1,600 settler homes in East  Jerusalem, a project whose announcement last year during a visit  by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden caused a diplomatic rift with  Washington.