LONDON/SEOUL – North Korea warned on Friday it could not guarantee the safety of diplomats after next Wednesday and asked embassies to consider moving staff out of the country, European diplomats said, amid high tension on the Korean peninsula.
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ALMATY – Iran appeared to side-step responding to proposals by world powers to defuse tensions over its nuclear programme at talks in Kazakhstan on Friday, diplomats said, and instead came up with its own plan – a measure of the gulf between the two sides.
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SHANGHAI/HONG KONG – Chinese authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at a poultry market in Shanghai on Friday as the death toll from a new strain of bird flu mounted to six, spreading concern overseas and sparking a sell-off in airline shares in Europe and Hong Kong.
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WASHINGTON – U.S. President Barack Obama will offer cuts to Social Security and other benefits programs in a budget proposal next week aimed at winning over enough congressional Republicans to pass a broad deal to reduce the deficit.
