By Mario Anzuoni LAS VEGAS | Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:34pm EST LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Colombian rocker Juanes and the Mexican brother and sister pop duo Jesse & Joy took home the top Latin Grammys on Thursday in Las Vegas on a night in which the contemporary triumphed over the traditional. Juanes, one of the most well known Latin American stars worl...

By Kathleen Raven NEW YORK | Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:11pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies exposed to their mother's cigarette smoke in the womb later perform more poorly on reading comprehension tests, according to a new study. "It's not a little difference - it's a big difference in accuracy and comprehension at a critical time when children a...

By Ian McKenzie EDINBURGH | Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:05pm EST EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Leading Scottish artist John Bellany banishes his personal demons with an explosion of color in an exhibition charting the his progress over the past 50 years at the National Gallery in Edinburgh. "John Bellany: A Passion for Life" is a moving retrospective of some 75 o...

By Douglas Busvine and Timothy Heritage MOSCOW | Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:57pm EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel took Russian President Vladimir Putin to task over a clamp-down on dissent and treatment of the Pussy Riot punk band when they held frosty talks on Friday. But despite the chill descending on relations, they signed a ho...

By Angela Moon NEW YORK | Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:46pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday after Republicans said their meeting with Democratic President Barack Obama about the "fiscal cliff" was constructive and that they were prepared to put higher revenue on the table if there were also significant spending cuts. All three major U.S. st...

By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:39pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration provided struggling battery maker A123 Systems Inc with nearly $1 million on the day it filed for bankruptcy, the company told lawmakers investigating its government grant. The company, which makes lithium ion batteries for electric cars, fi...

NEW YORK | Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:39pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Paul McCartney, Kanye West and Jon Bon Jovi will perform at a special "12.12.12" Concert for Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden next month, according to organizers. The Who, Roger Waters, Billy Joel and Alicia Keys have also signed up for the December...

By Isla Binnie LONDON | Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:26pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Zeng Fanzhi may be one of the world's most feted and valuable living artists, but the Beijing-based painter says he has little time for the publicity such stature brings. Presenting a new showcase of canvases partly based on the 15th-century works of German master Albrecht Du...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:55am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Friday voted to "name and shame" Russian human rights violators as part of a broader bill that drops Cold War restrictions on trade, brushing off warnings from Moscow that the move would damage relations. The bill goes next to the Senate, which has not yet sc...

By Caroline Copley ZURICH | Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:46am EST ZURICH (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency has thrown Novartis' loss-making vaccines business a lifeline by recommending its meningitis B shot for approval, which means the pressure is on to make the product a commercial success. Novartis paid $5.1 billion to gain full control of U.S....

Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:27am EST (Reuters) - The latest "Call of Duty" videogame had worldwide sales of more than $500 million in the first 24 hours of its release, a new record, game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc said on Friday. Shares of Activision rose about 3 percent following the news, even after the company said it remains cautious about the rest of 2012 an...

By Duff Wilson Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:59am EST (Reuters) - A federal grand jury in Boston is investigating Millennium Laboratories of San Diego, a fast-growing private company selling urine drug testing services to pain clinics across the United States. The company not only is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegations of health care fraud...

By Karolina Tagaris ATHENS | Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:53am EST ATHENS (Reuters) - Actors and the producer and director of an American play in Greece that depicted Jesus Christ and his apostles as gay have been charged with blasphemy, court officials said on Friday. A production of "Corpus Christi" in Athens was canceled this month after weeks of almos...

Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:45am EST (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said on Friday a late-stage trial of a once-a-day formulation of its drug pregabalin did not significantly reduce the frequency of some types of seizures in patients with epilepsy. Pfizer's biggest product, sold under the brand name Lyrica, is used to treat epilepsy when given several times a day in combination ...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:38am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Industrial output unexpectedly fell in October as superstorm Sandy disrupted production, but the underlying tone remained consistent with slowing manufacturing activity. Industrial production contracted 0.4 percent last month after a 0.2 percent increase in Septemb...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:15am EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc wants more credit for making online cash registers ring. Facebook will begin rolling out on Friday a new tool which will allow online retailers to track purchases by members of the social network who have viewed their ads.The tool is the latest...

Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:08am EST (Reuters) - Allergan Inc, maker of anti-wrinkle drug Botox, on Friday said it would pay $350 million to acquire privately held SkinMedica Inc and its array of topical products to improve the appearance of the skin. Allergan, whose facial aesthetics business includes the widely used Juvederm facial filler, said it intends to complete t...

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES | Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:55am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Film adaptations of "Anna Karenina" have featured the likes of Greta Garbo and Vivien Leigh, but Keira Knightley isn't fazed about measuring up to such silver screen luminaries with a new cinematic take on Leo Tolstoy's classic novel. The British actress's turn in t...

By Simon Evans MIAMI | Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:51am EST MIAMI (Reuters) - The league's finest young quarterback takes on one of the masters of the trade when rookie Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts face Tom Brady and the Patriots in New England on Sunday. Luck came into the league this year as the number one draft pick and with a stellar reputat...

By Simon Evans MIAMI | Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:51am EST MIAMI (Reuters) - The league's finest young quarterback takes on one of the masters of the trade when rookie Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts face Tom Brady and the Patriots in New England on Sunday. Luck came into the league this year as the number one draft pick and with a stellar reputat...

Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:39am EST (Reuters) - The latest "Call of Duty" videogame had sales of more than $500 million in the first 24 hours of its release, a new record, game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc said on Friday. By comparison, Microsoft Corp's sci-fi action-shooter "Halo 4," launched a week earlier, had sales of $220...

By Andrea Burzynski NEW YORK | Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:37am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four deaf Wisconsin men were some of the first to seek justice after suffering childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, and a new documentary about the Catholic Church's poor handling of such cases stemming from the Vatican seeks to make their voices heard. "M...

LONDON | Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:18am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Britain needs more details from the fledgling Syria opposition coalition before it can formally recognize the group, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Friday ahead of talks with Syrian opposition officials. The coalition was formed in Doha on Sunday in an attempt to unify Syria's oppos...

NEW YORK | Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:43am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened flat on Friday after disappointing economic data offset optimism following a Wall Street Journal report that White House officials were discussing taking a more flexible approach in negotiations over the "fiscal cliff." The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI gained 0.23 point to 12,...

By Michael Erman and Ben Hirschler NEW YORK/LONDON | Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:07am EST NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc (RB.L) has trumped Bayer AG's (BAYGn.DE) agreed deal to buy Schiff Nutrition International Inc (SHF.N) with a higher offer of $1.4 billion for the U.S. vitamin maker. The bid, which tops Bayer's $1.2 billion pri...

By Carey Gillam Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:55am EST (Reuters) - Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, said it had sought court permission to go out of business after failing to get wage and benefit cuts from thousands of its striking bakery workers. Hostess, which has about $2.5 billion in sales from a long list of iconic consumer b...

ZAGREB | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:48am EST ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia's parliament approved a new economy minister on Friday after Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic, who was also in charge of reviving the economy, was sentenced to jail in Hungary over a car crash. Ivan Vrdoljak, 40, will take over the ministry tasked with making Croatia's economy more compet...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:47am EST GAZA (Reuters) - Egypt tried to open a tiny window to emergency peace diplomacy in Gaza on Friday, but hopes for even a brief ceasefire while its prime minister was inside the bombarded enclave to talk to leaders of the Islamist Hamas movement were immediately dashed. Prime Minister Hisham K...

By Svebor Kranjc THE HAGUE | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:45am EST THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The most senior Croatian military officer convicted of war crimes during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s was freed after an appeal on Friday and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said the "political decision" would open old wounds in the region. General Ante Gotovin...

BAGHDAD | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:38am EST BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities on Friday released suspected Hezbollah operative Ali Mussa Daqduq who was accused of killing American troops, his lawyer said, adding he had made his way to Lebanon. "There was no reason for his detention. last night the decision was made to release him. He is out now and arrived...

By Liana B. Baker NEW YORK | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:32am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - NBC is expected to wrap up its fall season as the No. 1 broadcast network in the key 18-49 advertising demographic for the first time in a decade. The network's catapult to first place from fourth in the ratings is the biggest surprise so far of the young TV season. The...

By Richard Hubbard LONDON | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:31am EST LONDON (Reuters) - World shares were headed for a second consecutive weekly loss on Friday as uncertainty over U.S. budget talks, a weak economic outlook and violence in the Middle East weighed on investors. Further falls were likely when Wall Street opens, according to stock index futures ....

By David Lewis and John Irish DAKAR/PARIS | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:29am EST DAKAR/PARIS (Reuters) - Any foreign-backed offensive to retake control of northern Mali from al Qaeda-linked Islamists will take at least six months to prepare, plans seen by Reuters show, a delay that runs counter to the expectations of many Malians. The timing allows space ...

NEW YORK | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:20am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dell Inc agreed to buy privately held Gale Technologies and said on Friday that it would form a new business unit specializing in delivering technology to enterprise customers. Dell said it would keep the employees of Gale, a Santa Clara, California-based infrastructure automation software compa...

HERAT, Afghanistan | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:08am EST HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded under a van in western Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 17 people and wounding nine, mostly women and children returning from a wedding, a local official said on Friday. The bombing took place mid afternoon in the relatively peaceful province o...

By Nathan Layne and Kevin Krolicki TOKYO | Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:59am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. gaming regulators are investigating millions of dollars paid by affiliates of Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada's Universal Entertainment Corp to a former consultant for the Philippine gaming authority around the time the company was lobbying to win conce...

By Sarah White LONDON | Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:42am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Major banks have announced some 160,000 job cuts since early last year and with more layoffs to come as the industry restructures, many will leave the shrinking sector for good as redundancies outpace new hires by roughly two-to-one. A Reuters analysis of job cuts announced by...

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Michael Martina BEIJING | Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:07am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's commerce minister was surprisingly blocked from a spot on the ruling Communist Party's elite body during a conclave this week, sources said, a rare snub for an official that could raise questions about trade policies during his tenure. The f...

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Michael Martina BEIJING | Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:07am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's commerce minister was surprisingly blocked from a spot on the ruling Communist Party's elite body during a conclave this week, sources said, a rare snub for an official that could raise questions about trade policies during his tenure. The f...

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN | Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:07am EST AMMAN (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters chanted the Arab Spring slogan "the people want the downfall of the regime" in Jordan's capital on Friday, as demonstrations against rising prices gather force in a country so far spared the brunt of Middle East unrest. The mainly urban Muslim Bro...