Reuters World News Highlights at 0705 GMT, Feb 21

Feb 21 (Reuters) - TOP STORIES ----------- WASHINGTON - Faced with the growing theft of U.S. trade secrets, the White House said on Wednesday it was stepping up diplomatic pressure and mulling tougher laws to stem the threat to American businesses and security from China and other nations. - - - - TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be seeking to put a strong U.S.-Japan alliance on full display in the face of potential threats from a nuclear North Korea and an assertive China when he meets U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday. - - - - WASHINGTON/SEOUL - U.S. and allied spy agencies have found no traces of telltale nuclear-related particles from North Korea's Feb. 12 nuclear bomb test, leaving unresolved basic questions about the device's design, according to officials in the United States, Europe and South Korea. - - - - WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama turned to local television stations across the United States on Wednesday to increase public pressure on congressional Republicans to avert $85 billion in budget cuts set to begin in nine days. - - - - SOCHI - Above the Black Sea city of Sochi, one of Russia's richest men is spending billions of roubles to turn a patch of mountainside into a global showpiece. Metals magnate Vladimir Potanin has paid for new buildings, new lifts and hundreds of snow canons in the hope of transforming slopes not far from sub-tropical Sochi into a world-class ski resort. - - - - WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI - A senior Boeing Co executive will meet with the head of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Friday and present a series of measures aimed at preventing battery failures that grounded its 787 Dreamliner fleet for five weeks, according to a source familiar with the plans. - - - - WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta formally notified Congress on Wednesday that the Pentagon plans to put civilian defense employees on unpaid leave this year if $46 billion in across-the-board U.S. government spending cuts take effect on March 1. - - - - BEIJING - China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth. - - - - WASHINGTON - More than half of U.S. citizens believe that most or all of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants should be deported, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday that highlights the difficulties facing lawmakers trying to reform the U.S. immigration system. - - - - WASHINGTON - Onetime Democratic Party rising star Jesse Jackson Jr., weeping and repentant as his famous father looked on, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to misusing about $750,000 in campaign funds on luxuries such as fur capes and a Rolex watch. - - - - PRETORIA - The lead detective in Oscar Pistorius' murder case is facing attempted murder charges for opening fire at a minibus containing seven people, a South African police spokesman said on Thursday. - - - - YAOUNDE - French special forces have arrived in northern Cameroon to help locate a French family who were kidnapped on Tuesday and moved to Nigeria, a local governor said on Wednesday. - - - - HAVANA - A U.S. congressional delegation left Cuba on Wednesday after meetings with President Raul Castro and other top officials, but no sign the countries had resolved their latest dispute: the fate of imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross.