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N.Korea says U.S.-S.Korea drills push tension to ‘brink of nuclear war’

By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea accused the U.S. and South Korea of escalating tensions to the brink of nuclear war through their joint military drills, vowing to respond with “offensive action”, state media KCNA reported on Thursday. KCNA released a commentary by Choe Ju Hyon, whom it called an international security analyst, criticising …

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Thailand’s promised cannabis bonanza disappoints as politicians trade blame

By Devjyot Ghoshal and Napat Wesshasartar BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s decriminalisation of cannabis has delighted its fans, alarmed some health experts and has increasingly disappointed farmers who have been undercut by illegal imports, sending a promise of a new bonanza crop up in smoke. Marijuana has also become an election football with the opposition criticising …

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U.S. panel votes to expand compassionate release for prisoners

(This April 5 story has been refiled to fix a typo in paragraph 6) By Sarah N. Lynch and Nate Raymond (Reuters) – The U.S. Sentencing Commission approved new guidelines on Wednesday that will expand federal inmates’ ability to qualify for compassionate release from prison. The new policy, approved in a vote of 4-3, was …

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Meta releases AI model that can identify items within images

By Katie Paul (Reuters) – Facebook-owner Meta published an artificial intelligence model on Wednesday that can pick out individual objects from within an image, along with a dataset of image annotations that it said was the largest ever of its kind. The company’s research division said in a blog post that its Segment Anything Model, …

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Up to $520bln in debt write-offs needed for emerging nations’ climate goals

By Libby George LONDON (Reuters) – Up to $520 billion in debt needs to be written off to help developing nations at greatest risk of default return to a sounder fiscal footing and meet climate and development goals, according to a Boston University report released on Thursday. The haircuts on debt owed to public and …

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Indian shares rise for second week after RBI’s surprise rate hike pause

By Bharath Rajeswaran BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian shares logged gains for a second consecutive week on Thursday, aided by real estate and financials stocks, after the Reserve Bank of India, in a surprising decision, kept its key policy rate unchanged. The Nifty 50 ended 0.24% higher at 17,599.15 and the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.24% …

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Rupee steady after surprise RBI pause, gains for third week

By Anushka Trivedi MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indian rupee held minor gains and forward premiums fell on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India surprised markets by holding rates, with the local currency posting its third straight weekly advance. The rupee finished at 81.8850 per dollar, compared with its previous close of 82. It gained …

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Trump, newly charged, urges defunding US Justice Department and FBI

By Rami Ayyub WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on his fellow Republicans in Congress to slash funding for the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI, one day after pleading not guilty in New York to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump, who is seeking to regain the presidency in …

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UK Conservative lawmaker Benton suspended after newspaper sting

(Reuters) -A lawmaker in Britain’s governing Conservative Party has been suspended after he was filmed in a newspaper sting offering to lobby ministers and leak market-sensitive information on behalf of a fake company. Scott Benton, a lawmaker in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party since 2019, has been suspended pending an investigation. The move comes after …

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South Africa revokes ‘state of disaster’ declared over power crisis

By Kopano Gumbi JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s government on Wednesday revoked a national “state of disaster” declared in February to manage a crippling electricity crisis but said that some emergency measures would remain in place. The state of disaster gave the government additional powers to respond to the crisis, including by permitting emergency procurement procedures …

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