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Reuters World News Highlights at 0953 GMT, Sep 12

Published: 13 Sep 2009 17:08:17 PST

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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama sought to rally Americans behind the war in Afghanistan on the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States as polls show faltering public support for the conflict.

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WASHINGTON - The United States said on Friday it would accept Iran's offer of wide-ranging talks with major powers despite the Islamic Republic's stated refusal to discuss its nuclear program.

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WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is launching a broad push for action on financial regulatory reform, returning to a key legislative priority even as the debate over healthcare consumes the U.S. Congress.

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BEIJING/WASHINGTON - China decried a U.S. decision to impose added duty on Chinese-made tyres, calling the move protectionist abuse that sent a wrong signal before a G20 summit and could stoke reactions impeding global recovery.

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SEOUL - South Korea said on Saturday it would support direct talks between the United States and North Korea so long as they were aimed at advancing multilateral negotiations on ending Pyongyang's nuclear programmes.

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NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia - Russia said on Friday it would reject any new climate change agreement that imposed restrictions on Moscow but not bind other big polluters, illustrating the difficulties faced in putting a pact together.

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BEIJING - A court in far-west China has tried and sentenced three suspects accused of joining in an outburst of needle-stabbing that ignited sometimes deadly riots and deepened ethnic divisions in the tense region.

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ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces have arrested the spokesman for the Taliban in the Swat valley, the military said, the first major arrest in the region since the army went on the offensive there more than four months ago.

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CARACAS - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez said on Friday that his country is buying Russian missiles with a range of 300 kilometers as part of a series of arms deals with Moscow.

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EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - The space shuttle Discovery landed safely in California on Friday after bad weather forced a switch of its touchdown site at the end of a two-week mission to the International Space Station.