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By Mark Hosenball and David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government formally acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that it had killed four Americans, including militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who died in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan. Attorney General Eric Holder named the dead U.S. citizens in a letter to members of Congress a day before President Barack Obama is expected to promise more transparency on national security issues in a speech on counterterrorism. ...

By David Stanway and Niu Shuping BEIJING (Reuters) - The discovery of dangerous levels of toxic cadmium in rice sold in the southern city of Guangzhou, the latest in a series of food scandals, has piled more pressure on China to clean up its food chain - possibly at the expense of Mao Zedong's cherished goal of self-sufficiency. ...

REUTERS - General Motors Co is recalling worldwide more than 27,000 Cadillac crossover vehicles whose wheels could fall off due to potentially loose wheel nuts. GM said on Wednesday it knows of no crashes or injuries due to the issue and that no wheels have separated from the sport utility vehicles built on car-based platforms. The recall by the largest U.S. automaker affects certain 2013 Cadillac SRX models equipped with 18-inch wheels. About 18,871 of the affected vehicles are in the United States, 913 are in Canada, and 7,397 have been exported beyond North America, a GM spokesman said. ...

By Patrick Lannin and Philip O'Connor STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Hundreds of youth have torched cars and attacked police in four nights of riots in immigrant suburbs of Sweden's capital, shocking a country that dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to solve youth unemployment and resentment among asylum seekers. Violence spread from the North to the South of the city on Wednesday as groups of youth pushed through Stockholm's suburbs casting stones, breaking windows and setting cars alight. Police in the southern Swedish city of Malmo said two cars had been set ablaze. ...

By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supporters of U.S. immigration reform are hoping that the smooth and drama-free passage of their legislation through a Senate committee - a departure from almost everything that has happened in Congress over the past four years - will boost the likelihood of the bill winning full Senate approval. Even Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee who voted against the immigration bill on Tuesday, told Reuters TV that the "very fair" debate by the panel "does improve its chances. ...

By Arshad Mohammed and Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Washington threatened on Wednesday to increase support for Syria's rebels if President Bashar al-Assad refuses to discuss a political end to a civil war that is spreading across borders. Rebels called for reinforcements to combat an "invasion" by Hezbollah and its Iranian backers, days after Assad's forces launched an offensive against a strategic town that could prove to be a turning point in the war. ...

By Poornima Gupta SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co raised its 2013 earnings outlook after quarterly results beat low expectations, as CEO Meg Whitman's turnaround plan helped offset shrinking personal computer sales with enterprise computing services. While fiscal second-quarter profit plummeted 32 percent, Wall Street had braced for worse. HP shares gained 14 percent after the company projected full-year earnings per share of $3.50 to $3.60, raising the lower end by 10 cents, and fiscal third-quarter profit that topped analyst estimates. ...

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday with the S&P 500 posting its biggest decline in three weeks, after minutes from the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed some officials were open to tapering large-scale asset purchases as early as at the June meeting. Trading was volatile - the Dow and the S&P indexes both rose more than 1 percent during the morning, but fell more than 1 percent in the afternoon. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of the money that multinationals and wealthy investors poured into emerging markets in 2011 came via tax havens, resulting in revenue losses for poor countries, anti-poverty campaigners ActionAid said in a report. British Prime Minister David Cameron has said corporate tax avoidance will be discussed next month at the annual summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial economies, which Britain is hosting in Northern Ireland. A number of U.S. multinationals, including Apple , web search leader Google , online retailer Amazon. ...

By Maria Golovnina and Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - A British soldier was hacked to death by two men shouting Islamic slogans in a south London street on Wednesday, in what the government said appeared to be a terrorist attack. A dramatic clip filmed by an onlooker just minutes after the killing showed a man with hands covered in blood, brandishing a bloodied meat cleaver and a knife. "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. ...

By Andy Sullivan, Gabriel Debenedetti and Poornima Gupta WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For years, Apple Inc kept a low profile in Washington as it grew into one of the most valuable companies in the world. Now the iPad maker has taken the lead, perhaps inadvertently, on a top priority for U.S. business: simplifying America's tax code. Chief Executive Tim Cook, who was called before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday to answer questions about Apple's alleged tax avoidance, used his appearance to plead for an overhaul of corporate taxes. ...

By Carey Gillam and Ian Simpson MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - Tornado survivors thanked God, sturdy closets and luck in explaining how they lived through the colossal twister that devastated an Oklahoma town and killed 24 people, an astonishingly low toll given the extent of destruction. At least one family took refuge in a bathtub and some people shut themselves in underground shelters built into their houses when the powerful storm tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday. ...

By Ana Nicolaci da Costa LONDON (Reuters) - American short story writer Lydia Davis won the fifth Man Booker International Prize for fiction on Wednesday for a body of work that includes some of the briefest tales ever published. Davis, a professor of creative writing at the University of Albany, is best known for work that Observer critic William Skidelsky once said "redefines the meaning of brevity". ...

Los Angeles, May 23 (IANS) Actress Kristen Stewart was reportedly nursing her broken heart by spending an entire day at singer Taylor Swift's house here.

Moscow, May 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) A workman who disappeared from St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre in December was found hanging in the theatre's attic, investigators said.

Los Angeles, May 23 (IANS) Singer Kanye West wants actor Will Smith to start making music again, but Smith says he needs to be "truly inspired".

Moscow, May 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) A drunk driver who crashed into a bus stop in Moscow, killing two adults and five teenagers, has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.

New York, May 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia has been asked to increase the level of staff it commits to UN peacekeeping missions around the world, Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said.

Minsk, May 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The Belarusian foreign ministry has dismissed part of the Religious Freedom Report published by the US State Department about the country as "outdated" and failing to take into account the current situation in the country.

Los Angeles, May 23 (IANS) Actor Brad Pitt says he wasted a lot of time using drugs in the past. He admits he damaged his health with it just in the quest of exploring new things.

Los Angeles, May 23 (IANS) Actress Heather Graham says she is in no hurry to walk the aisle because she wants to take her time to make the right choice about her life partner.

Washington, May 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) An FBI agent shot and killed a 27-year-old alleged friend of slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Florida, a day after questioning him as part of the investigation into the April 15 attack, media reports said.

Dubai, May 23 (IANS/WAM) The Third UAE-Korea Economic Partnership Forum begins May 27 in the South Korean capital city of Seoul.

Abu Dhabi, May 23 (IANS/WAM) Leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have met senior officials of the US, the Czech Republic and Kenya and held talks on enhancing ties.

Los Angeles, May 23 (IANS) Actress Tori Spelling put her perfect bikini body on display while celebrating her 40th birthday with her family at a beach location.

London, May 23 (IANS) Two men carrying weapons brutally assaulted and killed a man, said to be a soldier, in Woolwich in southeast London Wednesday afternoon. The two attackers were later shot and injured by police. Prime Minister David Cameron said there were strong indications that it was a "terrorist incident".