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Lebanon Beats France at Rugby League World Cup

Mitchell Moses on Sunday spearheaded Lebanon to its first-ever Rugby League World Cup victory as it defeated France 29-18 in Canberra.

The Parramatta Eels playmaker was at the heart of Lebanon’s attack as he scored a try, set up another two and landed a drop goal.

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Hariri: Cyprus Can Help Us Cope with Refugee strain

Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said that Cyprus can help Lebanon drum up support from other European Union member states for its economy that's coming under heavy strain from hosting around 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

Hariri said after overnight talks in Nicosia with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades that Lebanon needs international support to prop up the economy and help with job growth.

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Moroccan Social Justice Movement Seeks Relief from Crackdown

It all began with a fish seized by the police.

Morocco is marking one year since a fisherman's gruesome death spawned a social protest movement against police abuse — an event that has drawn comparisons to the 2010 death of a Tunisian vendor that sparked the Arab Spring democracy uprisings.

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Facebook Ads: Social Media Giant Announces New Transparency

Under pressure in advance of hearings on Russian election interference, Facebook is moving to increase transparency for everyone who sees and buys political advertising on its site.

Executives for the social media company said Friday they will verify political ad buyers in federal elections, requiring them to reveal correct names and locations. The site will also create new graphics where users can click on the ads and find out more about who's behind them.

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Art Exhibit in Lebanon Takes on Civil War's Old Wounds

Zena El Khalil's art exhibit has tapped into wounds that are more than 40 years old in war-scarred Lebanon.

"Sacred Catastrophe: Healing Lebanon" is being hosted in a landmark building in the center of Beirut that is a powerful reminder of the country's 1975-1990 civil war. Pockmarked and riddled with bullet holes, the building stands on the former demarcation line that bisected Beirut into warring sections: east and west, Christian and Muslim.

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Pentagon Chief Accuses NKorea of Threatening 'Catastrophe'

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused North Korea on Friday of building a nuclear arsenal to "threaten others with catastrophe" and said the Trump administration remains committed to compelling the North to accept complete nuclear disarmament.

Calling the North a threat to global order, Mattis stood inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas and pledged solidarity with the South.

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Experts Blame Syria for Chemical Weapons Attack in April

Experts from the U.N. and the chemical weapons watchdog are blaming Syria's government for a sarin nerve gas attack that killed over 90 people last April.

Their report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, says leaders of the expert body are "confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017."

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Tillerson Calls for Assad Departure as U.N. Envoy Announces New Peace Talks

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson doubled down Thursday on Washington's call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, looking past recent battlefield gains by his Russian-backed forces to insist that "the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end."

Tillerson made the comments after what he called a "fruitful" meeting with U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who later announced plans to resume U.N.-mediated peace Syrian talks on Nov. 28. It will be the eighth such round under his mediation in Geneva since early 2016.

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U.S. House Approves Bill to Sanction Iran for Ballistic Missiles

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation Thursday that would slap new sanctions on Iran for its pursuit of long-range ballistic missiles without derailing the 2015 international nuclear accord that President Donald Trump has threatened to unravel.

Reps. Ed Royce and Eliot Engel sponsored the bill, which requires the Trump administration to identify for sanctions the companies and individuals inside and outside of Iran that are the main suppliers of Tehran's ballistic missile programs.

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At Least 4 Killed in Finland Train Crash

A train collided with a military vehicle at a railroad crossing in southern Finland early Thursday, killing at least four people, police and military officials said.

The crash in Raseborg, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) southwest of Helsinki, also left several people injured.

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