Japan on Wednesday posted its worst April trade deficit as a weak yen ramped up import costs and helped extend the run of monthly shortfalls to the longest in more than three decades. Data from the finance ministry showed Japan incurred a trade deficit for the 10th straight month in April with the ...

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A sweeping overhaul of the US immigration system took a major step toward viability when a Senate panel gave bipartisan approval to a landmark bill offering a path to citizenship for millions. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the contentious and potentially historic legislation by a 13-5 ...

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Microsoft staked a claim to the Internet Age living room with an eagerly awaited new generation Xbox One console touted as a home entertainment hub that goes far beyond games. "Today, we put you at the center of a new generation in the living room, " said Don Mattrick, head of Microsoft's ...

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Leaders of recession-hit Europe take a fresh stab at fighting tax fraud and evasion worth a trillion euros a year at a summit Wednesday but seem unlikely to convince reluctant Austria and Luxembourg to sign on. With euro-scepticism gaining ground as European Union unemployment queues lengthen and ...

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Bayern Munich are out to exorcise the ghosts of losing the 2012 Champions League final at home to Chelsea when they take on Borussia Dortmund on Saturday at Wembley for the European title. This will be Bayern's third European final in four years after the 2-0 defeat in 2010 to Jose Mourinho's Inter

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Hezbollah fighters poured across the border from Lebanon into Syria, a watchdog and others said, bolstering Syrian regime forces battling to retake the key rebel stronghold of Qusayr. Washington condemned Hezbollah's intervention on the side of President Bashar al-Assad's regime and diplomats said ...

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives in Pakistan Wednesday for a two-day visit where he will meet prime minister-elect Nawaz Sharif as the long-time allies look to boost trade ties. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party swept to victory in the May 11 general election on a promise to ...

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Families returned to a blasted moonscape that had been an American suburb Tuesday after a monstrous tornado tore through the outskirts of Oklahoma City, killing at least 24 people. Passengers flying into Oklahoma City could see the track left by nature's fury as it played out Monday: the spot where

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Andy Murray will miss the French Open with the back injury that flared up at the Rome Masters, the world number two announced on Tuesday. After meeting with medical specialists Murray has decided to skip the second Grand Slam of the year at Roland Garros to ensure he is fully fit for Wimbledon. ...

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Manager Tony Pulis has left Stoke after seven years in charge, the Premier League club announced late Tuesday. His departure, by mutual consent, was widely anticipated following his talks earlier in the day with Stoke chairman Peter Coates. "Stoke City and Tony Pulis confirm that they have mutually

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Justin Bieber's pet monkey, which was seized by German customs in March, officially became German property Tuesday after the Canadian pop sensation failed to claim the animal, officials said. Mally, a capuchin monkey, is temporarily in an animal refuge in the southern city of Munich where he was ...

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Families returned to a blasted moonscape that had been an American suburb Tuesday after a monstrous tornado tore through the outskirts of Oklahoma City, killing at least 24 people. Passengers flying into Oklahoma City could see the track left by nature's fury as it played out Monday: the spot where

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A far-right writer and activist shot himself dead in front of the altar of Paris's famed Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday, after calling for "spectacular" action to protect France's identity. Police confirmed the man's identity as Dominique Venner, 78, an essayist and activist linked with France's ...

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Apple chief Tim Cook faced a grilling Tuesday by US lawmakers on "sham" subsidiaries and "convoluted" strategies to shift profits offshore, but denied the company uses "gimmicks" to cut taxes. Cook told a Senate hearing Apple lives up to its tax obligations and more, but some lawmakers expressed ...

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Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt will go back on trial after the nation's highest court threw out his genocide and war crimes conviction in the latest twist in complex proceedings. Rios Montt went on trial in March on charges of ordering the massacre of Maya Indians in the 1980s as part

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Italian director Paolo Sorrentino presented a lush portrait of decadence and excess in contemporary Rome at Cannes Tuesday in a film reviewers said echoed the classic "La Dolce Vita". "The Great Beauty" (La Grande Bellezza) tells the story of ageing writer-dandy Jep Gambardella, played by the ...

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British mobile phone giant Vodafone on Tuesday reported a 90-percent plunge in annual net profit after taking a vast impairment charge relating to poor business in debt-laden eurozone nations Italy and Spain. Updating the market, Vodafone was meanwhile silent surrounding recent speculation that it ...

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Israel's army and Syrian forces exchanged fire across the sensitive ceasefire line on the Golan Heights on Tuesday, but the Jewish state denied one of its vehicles had been destroyed. The Syrian army "fired on an Israeli patrol, which we confirmed six hours ago, but did not destroy a vehicle or ...

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Microsoft offers a glimpse Tuesday at a new-generation Xbox as videogame consoles evolve into home entertainment centers and adapt to competition from smartphones and tablets. A tented stage has been set up at the technology giant's headquarters in the city of Redmond in Washington State for an ...

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Moscow reacted angrily on Tuesday as its neighbour Azerbaijan admitted that its vote at the Eurovision Song Contest awarding "nul points" to Russia's song appeared to have been falsified. The scandal topped the agenda at a televised briefing between the countries' foreign ministers in Moscow, as ...

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A Coen brothers comedy, a daring Chinese expose of exploitation and moral rot, and a divorce drama by an Iranian Oscar winner emerged as the breakout favourites as the Cannes Film Festival hit the halfway mark Tuesday. Although incessant rain and chilly winds put a damper on the champagne-fuelled ...

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Five bombings and clashes between soldiers and gunmen killed eight people in Iraq on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a spate of violence that has cost more than 370 lives so far this month. In Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, clashes between Iraqi soldiers and gunmen and a suicide bombing killed ...

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The Vatican on Tuesday denied that Pope Francis had performed an exorcism after an Italian religious television channel said footage of the pontiff blessing a boy in a wheelchair showed he had. "The Holy Father did not intend to perform any exorcism, " Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a ...

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An Australian zoo said Tuesday the birth of a southern white rhinoceros was a "sign of hope" for the species given the escalation of poaching in Africa. Taronga Western Plains Zoo said the yet-to-be-named male calf was born to first-time mother Mopani in the safari-style animal park in Dubbo, 400 ...

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Jose Mourinho will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season after a turbulent three-year spell in charge of the Spanish giants, club president Florentino Perez confirmed. "After the conversations we have had with our coach Jose Mourinho we have arrived at an agreement to end our working ...