Reuters World News Highlights at 1000 GMT, Mar 13

TOP STORIES

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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Friday delayed an overseas trip to focus on the final drive for healthcare reform as the House of Representatives prepared to vote on the sweeping overhaul next week.

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WASHINGTON - San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen, a monetary policy dove, tops President Barack Obama's list to be No. 2 at U.S. central bank, the White House said on Friday.

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MINGORA - A suicide bomber targeting security forces in Pakistan on Saturday killed at least 11 people, police said, part of a renewed Taliban push against the government after one of the biggest security crackdowns in years.

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday his government sent a "deeply negative signal" by taking steps that undermined renewed Middle East peace talks.

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ATHENS - Greece's economy will shrink more than the government is forecasting this year, its central bank governor said, while the European Commission produced an even bleaker prognosis for the debt-laden country.

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BANGKOK - Anti-government protesters headed for Bangkok from the countryside on Saturday for what they are calling a "million-man march", aiming to paralyse the capital and topple a government they say is a front for unelected elites.

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VATICAN CITY - The head of Germany's Catholic Church apologised to victims of child abuse by priests on Friday and met Pope Benedict who encouraged him to press ahead with tough new measures.

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BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had a narrow lead over rival Shi'ites, partial results in Iraq's tight election race showed on Friday, but a secularist challenger remained far ahead in minority Sunni areas.

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LOS ANGELES/DETROIT - In the latest blow to Toyota Motor Corp , a Southern California prosecutor filed the first consumer protection lawsuit against the automaker, claiming it had engaged in "fraud" by hiding evidence of dangerous vehicle defects.

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JOHANNESBURG - Deep divisions between South Africa's ruling ANC and its labour and communist allies are threatening a decades-old alliance as rival factions battle for power and influence to shape policy.

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GENEVA - The United Nations must act to protect North Koreans from military rulers who are committing "harrowing and horrific" human rights violations, a U.N. investigator said on Friday.

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WASHINGTON - The top U.S. arms buyer said no protectionism was involved in the potential $50 billion refueling-aircraft competition that Europe's EADS quit this week along with Northrop Grumman Corp .