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TOP STORIES

Mourning Venezuelans parade Chavez's coffin, prepare for vote

CARACAS - Sobbing and shouting, a throng of Hugo Chavez's supporters paraded his coffin through the streets of Caracas on Wednesday in an emotional outpouring that could help his deputy win an election to keep his socialist revolution alive. (VENEZUELA-CHAVEZ/ (UPDATE 7, PIX, TV, GRAPHIC), moved, by Simon Gardner and Andrew Cawthorne, 1,200 words)

- VENEZUELA-CHAVEZ/MOOD (PIX, TV), moved, by Terry Wade, 745 words

U.N. set to crack down on Nth Korea financing, illicit cargo

UNITED NATIONS - In response to North Korea's third nuclear test, the UN Security Council is set to tighten financial restrictions on North Korea and crack down on Pyongyang's attempts to ship and receive banned cargo in violation of existing sanctions. (KOREA-NORTH/UN (UPDATE 3), moved, by Louis Charbonneau, 715 words)

- KOREA-NORTH/AMNESTY (PIX), moved, by Stephanie Nebehay, 550 words

- KOREA-NORTH/DRILLS, moved, 308 words

Syrian rebels seize UN peacekeepers near Golan Heights

BEIRUT - Syrian rebels seize a convoy of U.N. peacekeepers near the Golan Heights and say they will hold them captive until President Bashar al-Assad's forces pull back from a rebel-held village which sees heavy recent fighting. (SYRIA-CRISIS/ (WRAPUP 3, TV, PIX), moved, by Oliver Holmes, 1,060 words)

- SYRIA-CRISIS/RUSSIA-MILITANTS, moved, by Thomas Grove and Mariam Karouny, 960 words

U.S. House passes funding bill, Obama reaches out to Senate

WASHINGTON - Legislation easily passes the U.S. House of Representatives to avert another partisan budget battle and a possible government shutdown, and a dinner meeting between President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans offers signs of a thaw in relations. (USA-FISCAL/ (WRAPUP 6), moved, by Richard Cowan and Roberta Rampton, 950 words)

- USA-FISCAL/HOEVEN, moved, by Roberta Rampton, 350 words

ASIA

China navy aims to 'wear out' Japanese ships

HONG KONG - China's naval and paramilitary ships churn up the ocean around islands it disputes with Tokyo in what experts say is a strategy to overwhelm numerically inferior Japanese forces that must sail out to detect and track flotillas. (CHINA-JAPAN/NAVY (PIX, GRAPHICS), moved, by David Lague, 1,570 words)

Police chief a tough referee in Pakistani militant town

RAHIM YAR KHAN, Pakistan - Sohail Zafar Chattha sets the tone for his tenure as police chief in a corner of rural Pakistan by launching Operation Clean Up, an audacious assault on river bandits featuring a home-made floating bunker he nicknamed "The Shark". (PAKISTAN-MILITANTS/ (INSIGHT, PIX), moved, by Matthew Green, 1,455 words)

Sri Lanka military blocks protest over missing relatives

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's security forces block hundreds of mostly ethnic Tamils from travelling to Colombo for a protest to demand justice for relatives missing after the island's war. (SRILANKA-RIGHTS/, moved, by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez, 427 words)

UNITED STATES

Surge in English-speaking militants worries U.S., European officials

WASHINGTON - The increased use of English in videos by Islamic extremists and the rising flow of recruits from Europe to fight in Syria and on other battlegrounds disturbs U.S. officials who fear some could return to Europe or come to the United States to plot attacks. (USA-SECURITY/MILITANTS, moved, by Mark Hosenball, 770 words)

Gun-control drive to get first votes in U.S. Congress

WASHINGTON - Less than three months after the Connecticut school shooting, a campaign to tighten U.S. gun laws that is backed by U.S. President Barack Obama will go to its first votes in Congress on Thursday when a U.S. Senate panel meets. (USA-GUNS/SENATE, moving at 0600 GMT, by Thomas Ferraro, 450 words)

U.S. senator leads filibuster of Brennan nomination as CIA head

WASHINGTON - Kentucky Republican Rand Paul takes to the floor of U.S. Senate and keeps talking for hours in an attempt to block confirmation of U.S. President Obama's counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, as director of the CIA. (OBAMA-NOMINATIONS/BRENNAN (UPDATE 3, PIX), moved, by Patricia Zengerle and Mark Hosenball, 685 words)

MIDDLE EAST

US envoy walks out of nuclear meeting over Iran's Israel remark

VIENNA - The U.S. ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog storms out of an agency meeting in protest when Iran's representative accuses Israel of "genocide", diplomats say. (IRAN-NUCLEAR/USA (UPDATE 5, TV), moved, by Fredrik Dahl, 655 words)

Egypt court throws election timetable up in the air

CAIRO - An Egyptian court throws the timetable for parliamentary elections into confusion, ordering the cancellation of President Mohamed Mursi's decree calling a vote and forcing a likely delay to polls due to start in April. (EGYPT-ELECTIONS/COURT (UPDATE 4), moved, by Marwa Awad and Yasmine Saleh, 660 words)

EUROPE

Italy's Bersani seeks way out of vote impasse

ROME - Italian centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani rallies his party behind a plan to form a minority government backed by populist Beppe Grillo after failing to secure victory in last week's election. (ITALY-VOTE/ (UPDATE 2, PIX, TV), moved, by James Mackenzie, 895 words)

- ITALY-VOTE/MEDIASET, moved, by Danilo Masoni, 730 words

AFRICA

Anxiety builds as Kenyans wait for presidential winner

NAIROBI - Kenyan authorities say the outcome of the country's presidential election will not be compromised by the failure of electronic vote counting technology that has delayed results for a third day. (KENYA-ELECTIONS/ (PIX, TV), moved, by George Obulutsa and James Macharia, 600 words)

DREAMLINER

FAA likely to OK Boeing battery testing in days - sources

U.S. safety regulators are poised to approve within days a plan to allow Boeing Co to begin flight tests of the 787 Dreamliner with a fix for its volatile batteries, a critical step towards returning the grounded aircraft to service, two sources familiar with the matter say.(BOEING-FAA/ (UPDATE 3, PIX, GRAPHIC), moved, 786 words)

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130307/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et