Sensex edges up to two-year high on oil, earnings

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex edged higher on Friday to touch two-year high, posting its strongest weekly performance since the end of November, as oil companies such as ONGC rose on hopes a proposed change in the government's pricing formula would boost gas prices.Software services exporters such as Tata Consultancy Services also rose on expectations upcoming October-December earnings results...

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Israeli undercover raid sets off violent protests

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli undercover troops broke into a West Bank apartment building in a failed arrest raid Thursday, igniting a violent protest and signaling that Israeli-Palestinian security coordination may be in trouble, officials said.Thursday's raid targeted a suspected Islamic militant and marked the second time this week an army operation sparked clashes. Palestinians accused Israel...

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Israeli library unveils ancient Afghan manuscripts

JERUSALEM (AP) — A trove of ancient manuscripts in Hebrew characters rescued from caves in a Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan is providing the first physical evidence of a Jewish community that thrived there a thousand years ago.On Thursday Israel's National Library unveiled the cache of recently purchased documents that run the gamut of life experiences, including biblical commentaries,...

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Brotherhood official urges Egypt's Jews to return

CAIRO (AP) — A leading Muslim Brotherhood member and adviser to Islamist President Mohammed Morsi created a stir in Egypt when he called on Egyptian Jews in Israel to return home because Egypt is now a democracy and because the Jewish state won't survive.Essam el-Erian's remarks in a TV appearance put the Brotherhood, which holds power in Egypt, on the spot as opponents — and some allies — jumped...

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Activists: At least 9 killed by Damascus car bomb

BEIRUT (AP) — A car bomb blew up late Thursday in a Damascus gas station, killing at least nine people, a Syrian activist group said.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll in the blast in the capital's Masakin Barzeh neighborhood is expected to rise because many of the wounded were in critical condition.Syria's state news service also reported the blast but did not...

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Rebel area shows limits of rebel push for Damascus

Twin airstrikes by government jets on a large, rebel-held suburb of Damascus on Thursday sheered the sides off apartment towers and left residents digging through rubble for the dead and wounded.The bombing of Douma came amid a wave of attacks on rebellious districts of the Syrian capital, part of the government's efforts to keep rebel fighters out of President Bashar Assad's seat of power. Late Thursday,...

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Fiscal-cliff deal no recipe for a robust economy

Housing is rebounding. Families are shrinking debts. Europe has avoided a financial crackup. And the fiscal cliff deal has removed the most urgent threat to the U.S. economy.So why don't economists foresee stronger growth and hiring in 2013?Part of the answer is what Congress' agreement did (raise Social Security taxes for most of us). And part is what it didn't do (prevent the likelihood of more...

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