By Tom Bergin LONDON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:47pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Germany may have missed out on a combined $1 billion in sales tax since online marketplace eBay picked a tiny Luxembourg office as its base for EU sales, a shift that lawmakers say should now be investigated. EBay's nomination of Luxembourg unit eBay Europe Sarl - w...

By Kathleen Raven NEW YORK | Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:32pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although studies of the effects of relaxation techniques on menopause symptoms have yielded mixed results so far, a new report from Sweden comes down in favor of the approach as an alternative to hormone therapy. Postmenopausal women trained to relax before and d...

Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:27pm EST (Reuters) - The New York Mets and David Wright have agreed on a seven-year contract extension that will ensure the six-time All-Star third baseman stays with the team through 2020, Major League Baseball's website reported on Friday. Wright, who turns 30 next month and is already the face of the National League franchise, would receive ...

By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:10pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp and the U.S. Defense Department have reached an agreement in principle on a fifth batch of 32 additional F-35 fighter planes, the Pentagon said on Friday, bringing nearly a year of negotiations to a close. The deal is valued at around $3.8 bi...

By Nick Brown NEW YORK | Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:41pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Airlines' bankrupt parent has asked a judge to extend by six weeks, through March 11, the period in which it has the exclusive right to propose a plan to exit bankruptcy. The request, made jointly with its creditors' committee, was filed on Friday in U.S. Bankruptc...

By Michael Todt SUN CITY, South Africa | Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:41pm EST SUN CITY, South Africa (Reuters) - Former British Open champion Paul Lawrie put on a masterclass in ball-striking to claim a one-stroke lead after the second round of the $5 million Nedbank Golf Challenge on Friday. The Briton snatched three birdies on the back nine at the Gary ...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:39pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer spending fell in October for the first time in five months and income growth stalled, leading some economists to cut already weak estimates of fourth-quarter economic growth. Superstorm Sandy was partly to blame for the pullback in spending as the quarter s...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:20pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A sexually transmitted infection usually thought of in connection to cervical cancer is also tied to a five times greater risk of cancer of the vocal chords or voice box, a new report suggests. Combining the results of 55 studies from the past two decades, Chine...

By Kate Kelland LONDON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:01pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - The publisher of a much-criticized study suggesting genetically modified corn caused tumors in rats has come under heavy pressure from scientists to retract the paper and explain why it was ever printed. The calls follow a report by Europe's food safety watchdog this week dis...

Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:41pm EST (Reuters) - Shares in Health Management Associates Inc fell nearly 3 percent on Friday ahead of a "60 Minutes" television segment on the hospital chain's admissions practices that will air on CBS on December 2. According to the website for "60 Minutes," the segment will investigate allegations by doctors that the hospital chain pressu...

By Toni Clarke Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:39pm EST (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, the world's biggest maker of generic drugs, announced an ambitious plan on Friday to reshape the company as it faces increased competition for its top-selling multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. The Israeli-based company said it plans to streamline operations, cut co...

Fri Nov 30, 2012 11:17am EST (Reuters) - Shares of gaming company Zynga Inc fell as much as 10 percent, a day after the "Farmville" creator reached an agreement with Facebook Inc that reduces its dependence on the social networking giant. The companies reported in regulatory filings on Thursday that they have reached an agreement to amend a 2010 deal that was wid...

FRANKFURT | Fri Nov 30, 2012 11:02am EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - SAP's co-founder Hasso Plattner sold shares in the German business software maker worth 120 million euros ($155.74 million), divesting a portion of his overall stake, the company said on Friday. To protect the stock price, a bank will place 10 million euros worth of the shares every month unt...

Fri Nov 30, 2012 10:45am EST (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson has named Chief Executive Alex Gorsky as the chairman of its board of directors, effective December 28, replacing current chairman Bill Weldon, the company said on Friday. Gorsky, a former vice chairman of the diversified healthcare company, became chief executive on April 26, replacing Weldon, who ha...

By Ransdell Pierson Fri Nov 30, 2012 9:51am EST (Reuters) - Drugmakers racing to develop medicines and vaccines to combat a germ that ravages the gut and kills thousands have a new challenger: the human stool. For patients hit hardest by the bacterium Clostridium difficile, getting a "stool transplant" could become a standard treatment within just a few y...

By Jane Wardell SYDNEY | Fri Nov 30, 2012 9:45am EST SYDNEY (Reuters) - James Yu, who runs the King of the Pack tobacconist in central Sydney, is indignant about Australia's stringent anti-tobacco laws making manufacturers package cigarettes in drab olive green packs with pictures of ill babies and diseased body parts. The packages, mandatory fro...

By Marilyn Gerlach FRANKFURT | Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:38am EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Closer ties with Turkish Airlines (THYAO.IS) could keep Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) in the race for long haul flights to Asia and stem the flow of business to Gulf carriers. A combination of the German airline, Europe's bigge...

By Angela Moon NEW YORK | Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:26am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures were little changed on Friday, the final trading day of the month, amid a cautious mood as investors kept their focus firmly on U.S. budget talks. Trading has been choppy lately, as investors buy on sporadic dips in the market and react to mixed headlines out...

Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:16am EST (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T) and their local Chinese partner, Changan Automobile Co Ltd (000625.SZ), said on Friday that they had obtained final approval from the Chinese government to split their three-way manufacturing and sales joint venture into two. Starting immediately, Changan Ford Mazda Automobi...

By Fred Barbash WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:05am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, reapplying his re-election campaign theme of protecting the middle class, heads to Pennsylvania on Friday suggesting that Republicans could spoil Christmas by driving the country over the "fiscal cliff." The president's road trip, visiting a fa...

PARIS | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:59am EST PARIS (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Friday that budgetary consolidation in the euro zone would entail a short-term economic impact but the currency bloc was on track for a recovery in the second half of 2013. "We have not yet emerged from the crisis," Draghi told Europe 1 radio. "The ...

By Terril Yue Jones CHENGDU | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:56am EST CHENGDU (Reuters) - Chinese and American soldiers finished a week-long disaster rescue exercise on Friday, furthering military ties between the two countries even as military tensions rise between China and U.S. military allies in the Pacif...

By Sylvia Westall KUWAIT | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:53am EST KUWAIT (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people marched in Kuwait on Friday calling for a voter boycott, a day before a parliamentary election that looks unlikely to defuse tensions in the U.S.-allied, oil-producing Gulf country. Political activists and opposition politicians, who have already...

By Noeleen Walder and Emmanuel Jarry NEW YORK/PARIS | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:52am EST NEW YORK/PARIS (Reuters) - Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has reached a preliminary agreement with the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault last year to settle a civil lawsuit she brought against him, sources familiar with the case said. While a sou...

VIENNA | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:46am EST VIENNA (Reuters) - Anti-Israel hackers, who the U.N. nuclear agency this week said had posted data online stolen from one of its servers, claimed in a new statement they had published confidential material obtained from the watchdog. The statement - in the name of a group with an Iranian-sounding name - was put on a w...

By Gareth Jones and Stephen Brown BERLIN | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:44am EST BERLIN (Reuters) - German lawmakers approved the latest bailout for Greece on Friday by a large majority despite growing unease about the cost to taxpayers less than a year before federal elections. The outcome of the vote in the lower house was never in doubt but it was a tes...

ROME | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:43am EST ROME (Reuters) - Italy's center-left Democratic Party has increased its lead over the center right ahead of an election expected in March, while the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo has slipped slightly, a poll showed on Friday. The poll by the SWG polling institute showed the Democratic Party (P...

By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:21am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It took more than a decade, two directors and a lawsuit before "The Hobbit" made it to the big screen. Hollywood executives are crossing their fingers that the culmination of that journey will help smash movie box office records this year. The film, which opens on ...

By Daniel Flynn and Leigh Thomas PARIS | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:15am EST PARIS (Reuters) - The euro zone's crisis is far from over and its members must consolidate their budgets and forge a banking union to put the bloc on a more stable economic footing, the leaders of the IMF and European Central Bank said on Friday. Underlining the bloc's woes, dat...

By Steve Slater LONDON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:11am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays could ax as many as 3,500 investment bank staff and cut its advisory or equities operations in Asia as part of a broader strategic review aimed at fixing the bank's culture in the wake of the financial crisis. The future shape and size of the investment bank is seen ...

By Dominic Evans BEIRUT | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:10am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian air force jets bombarded rebel targets on Friday close to the Damascus airport road and a regional airline said the violence had halted international flights to the capital. Activists said security forces clashed with rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad ...

By Frank Jack Daniel NEW DELHI | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:03am EST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's economy extended its long slump in the last quarter, with lower-than-expected growth keeping it on track for its worst year in a decade and underscoring the urgency of politically difficult reforms to spur a revival. The economy grew 5.3 percent from a year...

VIENNA | Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:48am EST VIENNA (Reuters) - Any military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities may lead to the country withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a pact designed to prevent the spread of nuclear arms, a senior Iranian official said on Friday. In case of an attack, "there is a possibility that the (Iranian) parliament f...

By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS | Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:46am EST UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long overdue "birth ...

By Matthew Bigg JAKARTA | Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:44am EST JAKARTA (Reuters) - China's plan to board and search ships that illegally enter what it considers its territory in the disputed South China Sea could spark naval clashes and hurt the region's economy, Southeast Asia's top diplomat warned on Friday. Seeking to ease alarm over the issue, China s...

By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES | Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:35am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Gangnam Style," the catchy Korean song by rapper Psy, may have danced its way into the American charts but the Korean pop industry isn't horsing around when it comes to capitalizing on the singer's phenomenal U.S. success. With "Gangnam Style" topping the current...

By Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad CAIRO | Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:22am EST CAIRO (Reuters) - An Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of a new constitution for Egypt on Friday to end a crisis over President Mohamed Mursi's newly expanded powers, but opponents responded with another rally in Cairo against the Islamist leader. "The people want to br...

By Claire Davenport BRUSSELS | Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:19am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union member states are preparing to fight as a bloc alongside the United States to prevent a move by Russia and countries in Africa to impose a levy on internet traffic and make it easier to track users' activities. The showdown over the policing and adminis...

By Samuel Shen and Kazunori Takada SHANGHAI | Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:19am EST SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's state-backed electronic payment services giant, China UnionPay, launched an international arm tasked with speeding its expansion overseas, heating up competition with rivals such as Visa Inc (V.N) and Mastercard Inc (MA.N). The move underscores ...

By Narae Kim SEOUL | Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:11am EST SEOUL (Reuters) - Former Major League Baseball All Star Park Chan-ho, who holds the record for the most wins by an Asian-born pitcher in the majors, announced his retirement on Friday and said it was time to give something back to the sport in South Korea. The 39-year-old, who finished up his playi...