Reuters World News Highlights

BRUSSELS – Under pressure to prevent a catastrophic break-up of their single currency, euro zone leaders agreed today to let their rescue fund inject aid directly into stricken banks from next year and intervene on bond markets to support troubled member states.
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ANTAKYA, Turkey – Helicopter gunships bombarded a strategic town in northern Syria overnight and tanks moved close to the commercial hub of Aleppo, rebels said, but kept well clear of new Turkish air defences installed to curb Syrian action near its frontiers.
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CAIRO – Egypt’s Islamist President-elect Mohamed Mursi took an informal oath of office today before tens of thousands of supporters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, in a slap at the generals trying to limit his power.
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TOKYO – After years of policy paralysis in Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has pushed a much-needed but unpopular sales tax rise through the lower house of parliament, but the chances of further reform in the world’s third-largest economy seem unlikely.
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BEIJING – China’s Shenzhou 9 spacecraft returned to Earth today, ending a mission that put the country’s first woman in space and completed a manned docking test critical to its goal of building a space station by 2020.
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MEXICO CITY – Mexico, a country long synonymous with vote-rigging, is better equipped than ever to prevent fraud in tomorrow’s national elections, according to experts, but voters still have grave doubts.
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WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney took his fight against President Barack Obama’s newly upheld healthcare law out on the campaign trail yesterday, attempting to use it to galvanize support for his bid to oust Obama on Nov. 6.
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COLORADO SPRINGS – President Barack Obama yesterday described as a “major disaster” a Colorado wildfire that has destroyed 347 homes and forced the evacuation of 35,000 people near the state’s second-largest city, as he toured the devastation left by the blaze.