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CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will press European leaders to ease up on fiscal austerity and focus on economic growth at a summit on Saturday that will discuss ways to stem turmoil in the euro zone and head off the risk of global contagion. At the wooded Camp David retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, Obama and leaders from other large economic powers will try to forge a common approach to tackling a crisis that threatens the future of Europe's 17-nation single currency. ...

An explosive device went off outside a high school in southern Italy named after a slain anti-Mafia prosecutor as students arrived for class Saturday, killing one of them and wounding seven others, officials said.

(Reuters) - A group of U.S. seed, chemical and equipment companies will invest at least $150 million over the next few years into African agricultural projects and products, the companies said on Friday. The investments pledged by DuPont, Monsanto, Cargill and others are part of an overall $3 billion effort by companies around the world announced by President Barack Obama. ...

Greek poll front-runner Alexis Tsipras, buoyed by a groundswell of opposition to EU-IMF imposed austerity measures, says forcing his country out of the eurozone would sink the region as a whole.

PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Mauritius said on Friday it has agreed to prosecute Somali pirates, helping overcome one of the hurdles to cracking down on the wave of piracy that has hit international shipping. The island nation said it had reached agreement with Somalia, and the semi-autonomous regions of Somaliland and Puntland, to accept suspected pirates for prosecution and trial starting in June. Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam said his Indian Ocean country needed to play a more active role in fighting piracy, given its impact on security, fishing and tourism. ...

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Plans to create a 26-nation free trade area by integrating three existing African trade blocs by July 2014 are on track and the only major sticking point is likely to be harmonising rules of origin, the three blocs said on Friday. The East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) aim to create a free market of 525 million people with an output of $1 trillion when they unite. ...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Friday imposed a travel ban on five leaders of an April 12 military coup in Guinea-Bissau and threatened an arms embargo and financial sanctions if the tiny West African coastal state does not return to civilian rule. The 15-member council "demands that the Military Command takes immediate steps to restore and respect constitutional order, including a democratic electoral process, by ensuring that all soldiers return to the barracks, and that members of the 'Military Command' relinquish their positions of authority. ...

A suicide car bomb blast shook Syria's eastern city of Deir el-Zour Saturday, targeting a military compound in the latest of a wave of blasts to hit the country in recent months, the country's state media reported.