By Andy Bruce LONDON | Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:24am EST LONDON (Reuters) - The euro zone economy is on course for its weakest quarter since the dark days of early 2009, according to business surveys that showed companies toiling against shrinking order books in November. Service sector firms like banks and hotels that comprise the bulk of the economy ...

By Tony Jimenez DUBAI | Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:22am EST DUBAI (Reuters) - World number two Luke Donald made a flying start in his bid to record back-to-back victories by snatching the first-round lead at the DP World Tour Championship on Thursday. Donald fired a seven-under 65 to move one stroke ahead of top-ranked Rory McIlroy, Briton Marc Warren an...

By Richard Hubbard LONDON | Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:11am EST LONDON (Reuters) - World share markets extended a week-long rally on Thursday as manufacturing surveys in China and the United States boosted confidence over global growth and euro zone data at least didn't worsen the already weak outlook for the region. The euro also touched a three-week hi...

LONDON | Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:59am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Former Beatle Paul McCartney has joined the lineup for a Christmas single raising money for the families of those who died in the 1989 Hillsborough soccer stadium tragedy in northern England, organizers said on Thursday. Already committed to the song are artists including Robbie Williams, ex-Spice G...

By Brad Dorfman Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:57am EST (Reuters) - Forget that Turkey trot. Thanksgiving is now the start of the annual holiday shopping endurance race, as more stores open on Thursday's national holiday to seek a bigger share of spending that is expected to grow slowly this season. Target Corp has joined Wal-Mart and Gap Inc in being open at least p...

By Claude Canellas BORDEAUX, France | Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:51am EST BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - Nicolas Sarkozy was questioned on Thursday by magistrates trying to establish whether he received illegal campaign funds from France's richest woman when he ran for president in 2007. It was the first time since losing the presidency - and the legal imm...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Alistair Lyon GAZA/JERUSALEM | Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:28am EST GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold on Thursday after eight days of conflict, although deep mistrust on both sides cast doubt on how long the Egyptian-sponsored deal can last. Quiet reigned on both sides of the f...

By Tony Jimenez DUBAI | Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:23am EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Padraig Harrington was performing metaphorical handstands after shooting a five-under-par 67 at the DP World Tour Championship on Thursday despite frittering away a host of birdie chances in the opening round. The triple major winner found the Greg Norman-designed Earth layout ...

By Renee Maltezou ATHENS | Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:18am EST ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek municipal workers occupied hundreds of town halls across the country for a fifth day on Thursday to protest against public sector layoffs demanded by European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders. Greece has promised the lenders it will revamp its bloated pub...

HELSINKI | Thu Nov 22, 2012 6:02am EST HELSINKI (Reuters) - Orange, the mobile brand of France Telecom, launched a global free calling and texting application on Thursday, in direct competition with services such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber. Telecom operators around the globe have suffered as free calling and texting services have proliferated over the ...

By James Topham TOKYO | Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:22am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Ratings agency Fitch downgraded the debt ratings of Japan's Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp to "junk" status citing weakness in their consumer electronics and TV operations, further diminishing the luster of the once-great Japanese brands. The cut to below investment grade, the fi...

By Tony Jimenez DUBAI | Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:55am EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Shane Lowry has been so badly affected by a virus he can barely stand up, the Irishman said after pulling out of the European circuit's season-ending DP World Tour Championship ahead of Thursday's opening round. The winner of last month's Portugal Masters was taken to a Dubai h...

SEOUL | Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:51am EST SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's chances of winning the World Baseball Classic (WBC) next year have suffered a major blow after key pitcher Bong Jung-keun was forced to withdraw with a shoulder injury. Team officials said on Thursday the 32-year-old, who had spells with the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds, was set to...

CANBERRA | Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:13am EST CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia released draft revisions to tax laws on Thursday, which it said were designed to stop big firms, including the local arm of Google, from shifting their income to countries such as Holland or Ireland where the tax rates are lower. The move is in line with a push by Britain and Germany w...

SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:47am EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has ordered Apple Inc to disclose to rival Samsung Electronics details of a legal settlement the iPhone maker reached with Taiwan's HTC Corp, including terms of a 10-year patents licensing agreement. The Korean electronics giant had earlier filed a motion to compel its U.S...

By Lucy Hornby BEIJING | Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:45am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's vast manufacturing sector saw expansion accelerate in November for the first time in 13 months, preliminary results from a factory survey showed, a sign that the pace of economic growth has revived after seven consecutive quarters of slowdown. The China HSBC Flash Ma...

Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:34am EST (Reuters) - Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook stepped up in overtime to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 117-111 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. After the Clippers went on a fourth-quarter run to force overtime, Durant and Westbrook combined to score all 15 Thunder points in the extra session to keep last season's W...

By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:30pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wanted: Visionary CEO to help world-class chipmaker expand beyond struggling personal computer market into tablets and smartphones. Experience with cutting-edge manufacturing plants and $10 billion annual capital expenditures a plus. Intel Corp raised eyebrows...

By Margaret Chadbourn WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:20pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday pardoned a pair of turkeys - Cobbler and Gobbler - quipping that the two birds deserved a second chance, an old adage he said he could not agree with more following his re-election. "They say life is all about second chances,"...

UNITED NATIONS | Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:29pm EST UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, broke her silence on Wednesday and defended her remarks on a September attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to the North African nation. Republicans have criticized Rice for appearing o...

LONDON | Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:44pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Growing into a fully formed human being is a long process, and scientists have found that unborn babies not only hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb, they yawn too. Researchers who studied 4D scans of 15 healthy fetuses also said they think yawning is a developmental process which could potentia...

BOSTON | Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:23pm EST BOSTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday denied a motion to freeze the assets of the owners of the compounding pharmacy at the heart of the deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak, but said the company may not make extraordinary cash transfers or pay dividends or bonuses to the pharmacy's owners. Judge Dennis Saylor, o...

By James B. Kelleher CHICAGO | Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:14pm EST CHICAGO (Reuters) - Jesse Jackson Jr. is the namesake son of one of the most prominent black men in the United States, a progressive-minded activist whose ascent into public life prompted talk of a new era of African-American political power. In the early years, speculation swirled around...

By Julian Linden NEW YORK | Wed Nov 21, 2012 4:18pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Football League is as much a part of the Thanksgiving tradition in the United States as roasted Turkey and cranberry sauce. With hundreds of millions of people at home for the annual feast, American football has been played on the holiday for their captive a...

By Marwa Awad and Nidal al-Mughrabi CAIRO/GAZA | Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:28pm EST CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) - Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement agreed on Wednesday to an Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire to halt an eight-day conflict around the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis. Announcing the ceasefire in Cairo, Egypt...

By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES | Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:35pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British boyband One Direction made Billboard chart history on Wednesday after storming to the top of the 200 album chart with their second album "Take Me Home," holding off competition from Christina Aguilera, Soun...

LOS ANGELES | Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:29pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Music by Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Elton John and late singers Whitney Houston and James Brown will be inducted into the 2013 Grammy Hall of Fame, The Recording Academy said on Wednesday. Paul McCartney & Wings' 1973 album "Band on the Run,...

By Angela Moon NEW YORK | Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:23pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday after a ceasefire was declared to end the flare-up in violence between Israel and the Palestinians, though the lack of a deal to release emergency aid for Greece limited the market's advance. Investors also remained anxious about the mandatory tax ...

By Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS | Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:14pm EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Six world powers agreed on Wednesday to seek renewed talks with Iran as fast as possible, reflecting a heightened sense of urgency to resolve a long rift over Tehran's disputed nuclear activity and avert the threat of war. Their call coincided with growing evidence of I...

By Jonny Hogg SAKE/GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo | Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:13pm EST SAKE/GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Rebel forces in eastern Congo vowed on Wednesday to "liberate" all of the vast central African country as they began seizing towns near the Rwandan border and spoke of a 1,000-mile march to the capital Kinshasa. ...

Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:00pm EST (Reuters) - The National Hockey League (NHL) was given a new economic proposal by the players' association on Wednesday, though there still appeared little hope of a breakthrough to end their bitter, two-month-old labor dispute. The union presented its latest offer while the two sides met for an hour at the league's offices in New York...

By Alan Baldwin SAO PAULO | Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:57pm EST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Sebastian Vettel can become Formula One's youngest triple champion without scoring a point in Sunday's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix but Fernando Alonso has a more sensational script in mind. If Ferrari's Alonso retires from what promises to be a nail-biting race a...

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan | Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:46pm EST RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least eight people at Shi'ite processions in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Wednesday night, local television stations reported. Police said at least five people were killed and 25 wounded, including children. The attack came hours after tw...

By Tim McLaughlin BOSTON | Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:28pm EST BOSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took 684 days to issue a warning letter after uncovering infractions that could potentially harm patients at the pharmacy at the center of the deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak, newly released documents show. The New England Compounding C...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Oliver Holmes AMMAN/BEIRUT | Wed Nov 21, 2012 1:18pm EST AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed a Damascus suburb on Wednesday in a push to dislodge rebels from a stronghold that threatens President Bashar al-Assad's hold on the capital, opposition activists said. Heavy fighting also raged in other outskirts o...

By Kerry Grens NEW YORK | Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:47pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite a widespread belief that sex during the later stages of pregnancy can jumpstart labor, a new study from Malaysia found no differences in the timing of delivery between women who had sex near term and those who abstained. "We are a little disappointed that w...

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES | Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:00pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is known for putting a dark twist on super heroes and children's fantasy, but in "Rise of the Guardians" the producer brings together holiday heroes for a festive adventure. "Rise of the Guardians," which will be in theaters on ...

By Mike Collett-White LONDON | Wed Nov 21, 2012 11:34am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Pop music loves him. The art establishment shuns him. At the age of 80, British artist Peter Blake is revered for his celebrated "Sgt. Pepper" Beatles album cover yet at the same time dismissed as too "cheerful" to be one of the greats. Regularly stroking his wispy sil...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:52am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week but remained elevated due to superstorm Sandy, a sign the storm is proving to be a substantial disruption to the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 41,000 to a seasonally adjusted ...

Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:42am EST (Reuters) - China's double Olympic swimming gold medalist Sun Yang is planning a quiet revolution by freeing himself from the state-run system and choosing his own commercial agency. The 20-year-old shot to fame by winning two gold medals at this year's London Games and is well on his way to becoming one of his country's most recogniza...