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PARIS (Reuters) - France is ready to support a British initiative to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on the European Union's list of terrorist organisations, an official said on Thursday, confirming comments by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Paris has traditionally been cautious about backing steps to sanction Hezbollah, fearing it could destabilise Lebanon and potentially put U.N. peacekeepers at risk, but in recent weeks it has said it would consider all options. ...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed 11 security personnel and two civilians on Thursday in southwestern Pakistan where separatist rebels have for decades been battling to control the region's natural gas and other resources. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bomb in the city of Quetta. It was planted in a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw and blew up as a truck carrying the security men passed by. Sixteen people were wounded and the death toll could rise, said police in the city, which is capital of Baluchistan province. ...

By Mark Lamport-Stokes REUTERS - The royal and ancient game of golf, renowned for its etiquette and self-imposed penalties, has undergone many changes to the rules over its 600-year history but few issues have triggered as much debate as the proposal to outlaw the anchoring of putters. In a genteel sport where an inadvertent cough on a downswing can create controversy, the announcement by golf's rule-makers on Tuesday that anchoring would be banned from 2016 has sparked fiery, impassioned division. ...

By Simon Evans MIAMI (Reuters) - LeBron James scored the game-winning points in the dying embers of overtime as the Miami Heat held off a determined Indiana Pacers 103-102 in a thrilling Eastern Conference Finals opener on Wednesday. If broadcasters were concerned that another easy series win for Miami would further damage ratings, they got the perfect antidote with the Pacers pushing the Heat all the way and raising the prospect of a tight best-of-seven set. It was scrappy and foul-ridden at times in the first half and neither side were able to dominate at any stage. ...

Reuters Market Eye - The BSE Sensex falls 1.7 percent and the broader Nifty is down 1.9 percent, heading towards their fourth consecutive session of declines. Asian stocks slid and the dollar rose to a 4-1/2 year high after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's remarks sparked worries of a reduction in U.S. monetary stimulus and after data showed China's factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May. Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd slumps 8.87 percent after majority shareholder Daiichi Sankyo Co said it believes former shareholders of the Indian company hid information regarding U.S. ...

By Billy Cheung NEW YORK (Reuters) - Award-winning author James Salter, who completed his last full-length book more than 30 years ago, has released a new novel that chronicles a life drawn from many of his own experiences. Like Salter, the main character in "All That Is" leaves the military to embark on a literary career. Unlike Salter, Philip Bowman becomes an editor after failing to find work as a writer. Salter is considered by many one of the best postwar American novelists and short-story writers. ...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd slumped as much as 9.37 percent on Thursday after majority shareholder Daiichi Sankyo Co said it believes former shareholders of the Indian company hid information regarding U.S. regulatory probes. "Daiichi Sankyo believes that certain former shareholders of Ranbaxy concealed and misrepresented critical information concerning the U.S. DOJ and FDA investigations," the Japanese company said in a statement on its website late on Wednesday, referring to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration. ...

By Masayuki Kitano and Hideyuki Sano SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Hawkish comments by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and weakness in China's factory activity rattled Asian markets on Thursday, sending stock prices down, the U.S. dollar to three-year highs, and Japanese government bond yields to their highest in a year. Stock and bond markets took their cue from the drop in U.S. equities and Treasuries after Bernanke's remarks at a Congressional hearing sparked worries of an earlier than expected reduction in U.S. monetary stimulus. ...

By Aileen Wang and Koh Gui Qing BEIJING (Reuters) - China's factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May as new orders fell, a preliminary manufacturing survey showed, entrenching fears that its economic recovery has stalled and that a sharper cooldown may be imminent. The flash HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for May fell to 49.6, slipping under the 50-point level demarcating expansion from contraction for the first since October and sending Asian financial markets sharply lower. The final HSBC PMI stood at 50.4 in April. ...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee fell below the key psychological level of 56 to the dollar on Thursday, its lowest level in over 8-1/2 months, as the dollar rallied on worries about a potentially early end to U.S. monetary stimulus. The rupee fell to as low as 56.01, its lowest since September 6, 2012. At 11.49 a.m., it was at 55.98/00 to the dollar versus its previous close of 55.46/47. (Reporting by Subhadip Sircar; editing by Rafael Nam)

Reuters Market Eye - Stocks in Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd gain 8 percent after a higher-than-expected response to its share sale squeezes out short positions in the futures market, dealers say. Oracle, majority owned by Oracle Corp , attracted demand of nearly four times its share sale of 4.4 million shares, according to exchange data, surprising investors who had shorted the stock for arbitrage in anticipation of tepid demand. Oracle's May futures saw a reduction of 150,000 shares, or 16.5 percent of the outstanding total, as of 11.10 a.m., indicating covering of short positions. ...

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kathrin Jansen is a microbiologist with at least two breakthrough vaccines to her name: she brought the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil to market for Merck and helped develop the $4 billion a year pneumonia and meningitis vaccine Prevnar 13 for Pfizer. Jansen's next vaccine success could come by taming the superbug MRSA, a drug-resistant bacterium that she has seen ravage a healthy man up close and personally. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infects an estimated 53 million people globally and costs more than $20 billion a year to treat. ...

By Erika Solomon HERMEL, Lebanon (Reuters) - On a country road in Lebanon's northeast, traffic is heavy; ambulances screech by, sirens blaring, and cars packed with mourners follow coffins as Hezbollah brings wounded fighters home from Syria, and its dead. ...

Kathmandu, May 23 (IANS) Eighty year-old Japanese Yuichiro Miura Thursday became the world's oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Just when will Bollywood ever get it right? As the world celebrates 100 years of Indian cinema, Indian stars, it seems, went a little overboard in projecting the ethnic, oriental look at the Cannes red carpet that saw Sonam Kapoor, Vidya Balan and Sherlyn Chopra either going big on bling or heavy on jewellery and embroidery.

San Juan, May 23 (IANS/EFE) Singer Ricky Martin called Wednesday in a letter sent to the Puerto Rican House of Representatives for the legislative body to approve a bill which would prohibit discrimination due to sexual orientation on the island.

Rio de Janeiro, May 23 (IANS) Santos have rejected a 20 million-euro offer from Barcelona for Brazil star Neymar.

London, May 23 (IANS) American short story writer Lydia Davis was declared the winner of the fifth 60,000 pounds Man Booker International Prize at aceremony held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Rio de Janeiro, May 23 (IANS) Olimpia raised hopes of an unlikely semifinal berth after holding Fluminense to a 0-0 draw in their Copa Libertadores quarterfinal first leg.

Madrid, May 23 (IANS/EFE) The 54,512 home sales recorded in Spain in this year's first quarter represent a decline of 21.5 percent from the same period in 2012, the development ministry said.

Mumbai, May 23 (IANS) A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets was trading 1.27 percent down in pre-afternoon trade Thursday.

Luohe (China), May 23 (IANS) Kazakhstan defeated India 3-2 in the China International men's volleyball tournament here.

Washington, May 23 (IANS/EFE) The tornado that killed 24 people and injured more than 200 others in Moore, Oklahoma, could have done more than $2 billion worth of damage, officials said Wednesday.

Geneva, May 23 (IANS) Finance Commission head Richard Carrion has joined the race to succeed International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge.

London, May 23 (IANS) "Ohhhhh myyyy God!!!! I just see a man with his head chopped off right in front of my eyes!," rapper Boya Dee live tweeted in horror as he saw the London terror attack unfold.

The Hague, May 23 (IANS) Dutch football head coach Louis van Gaal has named four debutants in the squad for the friendlies in Indonesia and China in June.