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Qaida-Linked Salafists Threaten Tunisia's Islamist Govt

Supporters of fugitive Salafist leader Abu Iyadh, wanted over a deadly attack on the U.S. embassy last September, threatened Thursday to topple Tunisia's government led by moderate Islamist party Ennahda.

"To the leaders of Ennahda, if he remains restrain your sick one, otherwise he will be the target of our war to bring him down," said a post on the Facebook page of jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia, referring to Ennahda Prime Minister Ali Larayedh.

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Mancini Concedes Defeat in Title Race

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has finally admitted that his team's defense of their Premier League title is over.

City's 2-0 defeat at Everton in the last game before the international break left neighbors and rivals Manchester United 15 points ahead at the top of the table with nine matches left to play.

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Bayern Rule out Wild Weekend Title Celebrations

Bayern Munich have ruled out the possibility of a major celebration this weekend, even if they wrap up the Bundesliga title in record time.

Should the Bavarian giants beat Hamburg at home, and reigning champions Borussia Dortmund fail to win at Stuttgart, then Bayern would become champions with seven matches still to play.

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Egypt Arrests Scuba Divers Accused of Cutting Internet Cable

The Egyptian military has arrested three scuba divers accused of cutting an undersea Internet cable off the coast of the northern city of Alexandria, it said on Thursday.

The three had been spotted on board a small boat and attempted to flee ashore, but the navy gave chase and eventually caught up and arrested them, the military said on its Facebook page.

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Reports: Algeria Forces Kill Islamists in Restive Kabylie

Algerian security forces have killed five Islamists this week in the restive region of Kabylie, including an "emir" and a jihadist recently sentenced to death in absentia, reports said on Thursday.

The special forces killed the five men on Monday evening and Tuesday in a raid on the village of Attouche, in the Makouda area, near the main Kabylie city of Tizi Ouzou, Liberty newspaper quoted security sources as saying.

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Speaker Says Turkey Urgently Needs New Charter

Turkey's parliament speaker called Thursday on political parties to draft a new democratic constitution without delay, warning that failure to do so would tarnish the country's image.

Political parties in the 550-seat parliament have been working since 2011 to replace the current constitution which was drafted by the powerful army after the 1980 military coup.

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Mortar Attack Kills 12 Damascus University Students

A mortar attack on Damascus University killed at least 12 students on Thursday, state television reported, blaming rebels who have stepped up attacks in the heart of the Syrian capital.

"The number of students killed in the mortar attack on the architecture faculty in Damascus University has risen to 12," said the broadcaster, blaming "terrorists" for the attack, using the regime term for insurgents.

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Putin Orders Surprise Black Sea Military Exercises

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered unscheduled military exercises involving thousands of troops and dozens of ships in the Black Sea region to test their battle readiness, the Kremlin said.

The order was presented to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a sealed envelope at 4:00 am (2400 GMT), his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies, adding the exercises would involve 36 ships and up to 7,000 troops.

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China Lashes Out at U.S. Technology Restrictions

Beijing branded a new U.S. spending bill barring government purchases of Chinese-made technology "biased" on Thursday, after the two powers clashed over accusations of cyber-hacking.

The bill, signed Tuesday by President Barack Obama, blocked government buying of information technology equipment "produced, manufactured or assembled" by firms "owned, directed or subsidised by the People's Republic of China".

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Rare Find Backs Shape-Shifting Neutrino - Scientists

Physicists announced further proof Wednesday for a theory that mysterious particles called neutrinos which go "missing" on the journey from the Sun to Earth are in fact shape-shifting along the way, arriving undetected.

The evidence: a muon-type neutrino dispatched from the CERN research laboratory near Geneva had arrived as a tau neutrino at the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy, 730 kilometers (450 miles) away, they said in a statement.

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