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NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York will slice spending by $630 million, partly by freezing hiring and running agencies more efficiently to close a deficit, and ask the legislature to slash another $600 million in an emergency summer session, New York Governor David Paterson said on Wednesday.

ASUNCION (Reuters) - Pope Benedict granted Paraguay's president-elect a historic waiver to allow the former bishop to take office next month without violating church rules, a Vatican representative said on Wednesday.

BISHKEK (Reuters) - The United States criticized Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday for destroying part of a fence surrounding a Western luxury hotel, saying its actions undermined investor confidence in the Central Asian state.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's highest court will announce its much-anticipated verdict on whether to close the governing party on charges of Islamist activities on Wednesday, the Anatolian state news agency said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted on Wednesday.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A private Malaysian doctor who examined a former aide to opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim following allegations of sodomy was not qualified to conduct such a check, his employer said on Wednesday.

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Twenty-five Taliban militants and five Pakistani soldiers were killed in a fierce clash in the troubled Swat valley in Pakistan's northwest on Wednesday, the military said.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Israel and Syria will hold their next indirect peace talks in Turkey in mid-August after failing to move on to face-to-face negotiations, a source close to the talks said on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas and Fatah have both carried out serious human rights abuses over the past year, including arbitrary arrests and torture, according to a report on the bitter power struggle.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed into law a sweeping rescue package aimed at resurrecting the housing market from its worst slump since the Great Depression and stabilizing the two largest mortgage finance companies.

HARARE (Reuters) - Talks between Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition MDC aimed at resolving the country's political crisis will resume on Sunday, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will pursue its nuclear path, the country's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday, speaking just before a deadline set by world powers in a nuclear dispute.

PORT HARCOURT (Reuters) - Rival militant factions in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta have clashed in an apparent turf war, killing at least four people, security officials said on Wednesday.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's highest court could decide as soon as Wednesday whether to ban the ruling AK Party for Islamist activities, Radikal and Sabah newspapers said.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Investigators looking at whether an exploding oxygen bottle blew a large hole in the side of a Qantas 747 said on Wednesday part of a bottle burst into the plane's cabin and partly moved a door lock. The Qantas 747-400 suffered a loss of cabin pressure during a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne last Friday, forcing the plane to make an emergency descent from 29,000 feet to 10,000 feet before landing safely in Manila in the Philippines.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militants shot and killed an Afghan woman accused of being a U.S. spy in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, and dumped her body in a sewer, a witness and intelligence officials said on Wednesday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Parts of North Korea are experiencing their worst levels of hunger in nearly a decade, the U.N. World Food Program said on Wednesday as it called on donors to provide urgent assistance over the next few months.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States and India both said on Wednesday they hoped to build on progress made before world trade talks collapsed, but clashed again on the issue that brought the meeting down.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Marathon talks on a new global trade pact collapsed on Tuesday as the United States and India refused to compromise over a proposal to help poor farmers deal with floods of imports.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's navy may be forced to cancel an annual display of its military prowess because of prohibitively high fuel costs, a ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.