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GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. military tribunal on Wednesday sentenced Osama bin Laden’s former cook to 14 years in prison, but he is expected to serve far less under a plea deal that remains secret.

SUKKUR, Pakistan (Reuters) – The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $459 million in aid for flood-hit Pakistan, warning of a second wave of death among sick, hungry survivors unless help arrived quickly.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States racked up a $165.04 billion budget deficit during July, 8.7 percent below the year-ago gap as economic stimulus and bailout spending subsided from peak levels, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian demands are giving a new headache to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion after New Delhi threatened a shutdown that could affect one million of the smartphone’s 41 million users.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After hearing months of dire political predictions, President Barack Obama’s Democrats took heart on Wednesday from primary results that spared an endangered senator and highlighted Republican Party divisions ahead of November’s elections.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Dan Rostenkowski, who as Congress’ chief tax-writer was one of most powerful U.S. politicians in the 1980s and early 1990s until brought down by a corruption conviction and a 17-month prison sentence, has died at age 82.

ORLANDO (Reuters) – Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum on Wednesday proposed tougher curbs against illegal migrants in his melting-pot state which he said would go “one step further” than a similar contested Arizona law.