Reuters World News Highlights

BEIRUT – Syrian rebels under siege near the Lebanese border pleaded for help on Thursday against government troops and their Hezbollah allies as a confident President Bashar al-Assad spoke of having new Russian missiles.
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BAGHDAD – A series of bombs battered Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 25 people in the worst wave of sectarian violence since civil war five years ago.
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WASHINGTON – Authorities intercepted a threatening letter addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama that was similar to ones sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Secret Service said on Thursday.
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PARIS/BERLIN – President Francois Hollande pledged on Thursday to carry out long overdue reforms of France’s pension system and labour markets but said it was up to Paris, not the European Commission, to determine how they are implemented.
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NEW YORK – An Iranian-born used car salesman from Texas was sentenced to 25 years in a U.S. prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to participating in a plot with an Iranian military unit to murder the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States.
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KANO, Nigeria – Nigerian authorities said on Thursday they had arrested three Lebanese in northern Nigeria on suspicion of being members of Hezbollah and that a raid on one of their residences had revealed a stash of heavy weapons.
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UNITED NATIONS/OSLO – Big companies should report their impact on the environment in addition to their earnings under a U.N. plan to boost economic growth and ease poverty by 2030, according to recommendations by a panel of world leaders released on Thursday.
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MOSCOW – A widening clampdown on groups and individuals critical or independent of Russian President Vladimir Putin has left his opponents asking: “Who’s next?”
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BRUSSELS – NATO defence ministers hold their first review of cyber defence next week in a sign the issue is making its way to the top of the alliance’s agenda as fears grow that Western infrastructure and military secrets are vulnerable to hackers.