Reuters World News Highlights at 1745 GMT, Feb 05

Feb 5 (Reuters) - TOP STORIES

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CAIRO - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was both kissed and scolded on Tuesday when he began the first visit to Egypt by an Iranian president since Tehran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

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LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron's ruling Conservative party split in two on Tuesday over his plans to legalise gay marriage, a move that many of his own lawmakers said was wrong, not a priority for the public, and unnecessarily divisive.

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PARIS - French police arrested four suspected Islamist militants near Paris on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the recruitment of volunteers by al Qaeda insurgents in Mali, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said.

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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will seek to build momentum for U.S. immigration reform this week ahead of his State of the Union address, which is expected to challenge Republicans to take up an overhaul amid an increasingly contentious debate in Washington.

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SOFIA - Bulgaria said on Tuesday it had evidence showing that Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah carried out a bomb attack on a bus in the Black Sea city of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists last year.

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MADRID - The tortuous procedures of the Spanish court system and a weak political opposition mean corruption allegations are unlikely to force Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy from office.

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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin's attempts to reassert his grip on Russia after months of protests look likely to force the removal of one of the few liberal leaders outside Moscow.

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KANO, Nigeria - Few in Nigeria's second city of Kano would admit to supporting the Islamist insurgents waging a bloody northern rebellion against the central government in Abuja.

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TOKYO - A Chinese navy vessel aimed a type of radar normally used to aim weapons at a target at a Japanese navy ship in the East China Sea, prompting Japan to protest, Japan's defence minister said on Tuesday, an action that could complicate efforts to cool tension in a territorial row between the rivals.

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DUBAI - Iran and world powers announced new talks on Tehran's nuclear programme on Feb. 26, but hopes of progress after Tuesday's announcement were tempered when an Iranian official said the West's goal in talking was to undermine the Islamic republic.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130205/reuters-world-news-highlights-at-1745-gmt-feb-05