MADRID | Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:04am EST MADRID (Reuters) - Telefonica is to create a video platform with Microsoft, as part of the Spanish telecoms group's ongoing push into digital services. The new platform will enable services such as timeshifting and multiscreen across Telefonica's video services, and first deployments will be in Brazil, Chile and Spain...

KABUL | Thu Nov 15, 2012 7:43am EST KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan and the United States have started talks that will eventually define how many American troops stay in the country after most NATO combat forces leave at the end of 2014, and the scope of their mission. The bilateral security negotiations could take months, and are expected to be difficult....

By Robin Emmott and Michelle Martin BRUSSELS/BERLIN | Thu Nov 15, 2012 7:13am EST BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - The debt crisis dragged the euro zone into its second recession since 2009 in the third quarter despite modest growth in Germany and France, data showed on Thursday. The two leading economies both managed 0.2 percent growth in the July-to...

GENEVA | Thu Nov 15, 2012 7:02am EST GENEVA (Reuters) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said on Thursday it had sacked its chief auditor after finding his performance "unsatisfactory", in the latest in a series of leadership changes at the Geneva-based organization. The fund was due later on Thursday to name a new executive direct...

LONDON | Thu Nov 15, 2012 6:56am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Police have arrested a man in his 60s from the central English county of Bedfordshire as part of an investigation into alleged child abuse centering on former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile. Police said in a statement the man, who they declined to name, was arrested on Thursday morning on suspicion of s...

MAPUTO | Thu Nov 15, 2012 6:28am EST MAPUTO (Reuters) - Protesters burned tires and barricaded roads in Mozambique's capital on Thursday in retaliation to a government plan to hike bus fares in one of the world's poorest countries. Police encircled Maputo's poorest suburbs, where demonstrating commuters blocked intersections with burning tires.All bus se...

LOS ANGELES | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:52pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Criminal charges filed against a photographer who pursued teen pop star Justin Bieber at high speeds on a Los Angeles freeway in July were thrown out on Wednesday, striking a blow to California's crackdown on overly aggressive paparazzi. Celebri...

By Sinead Carew and Noel Randewich NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:49pm EST NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Texas Instruments is eliminating 1,700 jobs, as it winds down its mobile processor business to focus on chips for more profitable markets like cars and home appliances. Texas ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:48pm EST GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza on Wednesday, killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike and threatening an invasion of the enclave that the Islamist group vowed would "open the gates of hell". The onslaught shattered hop...

By Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:45pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama laid out his second-term agenda on Wednesday, expressing a willingness to work with Republicans in Congress and a resolve to defy them if necessary. In his first full-scale news conference since March, Obama said he was willing...

NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:43pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets became the first knuckleball pitcher ever to win a Cy Young Award, while Tampa Bay Rays' left-hander David Price won the American League's top pitching award after the closest vote in 43 years. Dickey, who turned 38 last month, confounded hitters by being able to...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:36pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Poor management decisions by MF Global former CEO Jon Corzine triggered the brokerage firm's collapse, while lax protections for customer funds contributed to the loss of an estimated $1.6 billion of customer money, congressional investigators have determined. Evidence unearthed by the House...

By Corrie MacLaggan AUSTIN, Texas | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:33pm EST AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Lance Armstrong Foundation has formally dropped the name of the disgraced cyclist from its title, the organization said on Wednesday, marking the latest move by the cancer charity to distance itself following the biggest doping scandal in the sport's his...

By Lisa Baertlein and Martinne Geller Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:23pm EST (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) on Wednesday announced plans to buy Teavana Holdings Inc (TEA.N) for $620 million in cash, with the goal of replicating the success it has had with its namesake coffee shops. Teavana has about 300 shopping mall stores that sell loose-leaf, exotic teas. In...

By Aurindom Mukherjee Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:18pm EST (Reuters) - Data storage equipment maker NetApp Inc's second-quarter adjusted profit beat analysts' expectations on higher service and maintenance revenue, and it forecast a strong current quarter, sending its shares up 12 percent in extended trading. The company, which competes with EMC Corp, Hewlett-Pack...

By Steve Keating AUSTIN, Texas | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:03pm EST AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Americans have had a long-standing love affair with the car but the romance of Formula One, that sets hearts of motor sports fans around the world a flutter, has never managed to get pulses racing in the United States. After a five-year hiatus, F1 returns to th...

By Julian Linden NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:08pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Spending vasts amount of money is no guarantee for instant success, as the Miami Marlins discovered. Now, the team's owners are under fire for a proposal to trade their most expensive players to Toronto. Major League Baseball executives on Wednesday were still poring ove...

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:58pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slid on Wednesday with declines accelerating after President Barack Obama set up a drawn-out fight over the fiscal cliff when he stuck to his pledge to raise taxes on the wealthy, and as violence increased in the Middle East. Obama, in his first press conference ...

By Euan Rocha and Janet Guttsman WATERLOO, Ontario | Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:47pm EST WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) - A new line of BlackBerry 10 devices will provide Research In Motion with a framework for growth over the next decade, offering long-term value for unhappy shareholders, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on Wednesday. In an interview wi...

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:32pm EST CHICAGO (Reuters) - Two international teams of scientists have identified a rare mutation in a gene linked with inflammation that significantly increases the risk for the most common form of Alzheimer's disease, the first such discovery in at least a decade. The findings, published on Wed...

By Alistair Barr SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:21pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Groupon Inc said on Wednesday that it promoted Kal Raman to chief operating officer, giving the executive more power as the world's largest daily deal company tries to turn around its struggling international businesses. Raman joined the company in April and wa...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:46pm EST (Reuters) - Some of music's most notable names including Billy Joel, Rihanna and Missy Elliott have signed an open letter to Pandora Media Inc opposing the online music company's push to change how artists are compensated. Pandora is currently lobbying lawmakers in U.S. Congress to pass the "Internet Radio Fairness Act," which would ch...

By Jose Sanchez BELIZE CITY | Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:41pm EST BELIZE CITY (Reuters) - Belize's prime minister on Wednesday urged anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee to help the country's police with a murder inquiry, calling McAfee "bonkers" for recent media statements. "I don't want to be unkind, but he seems to be extremely paranoid - I would g...

By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES | Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:52pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Twilight" fans bid an emotional farewell this week to Bella, Edward and Jacob in "Breaking Dawn-Part 2," the romantic book and movie franchise that ignited a pop culture infatuation with blood-sucking vampires and werewolves. The tumultuous love triangle between ...

PERTH, Australia | Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:43pm EST PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Wednesday it will station in Australia an advanced radar to help track space junk threatening satellites and is working toward placement of a new, state-of-the-art deep-space telescope developed by the Pentagon's advanced research arm. The positioning of...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:36pm EST (Reuters) - Rock star Jon Bon Jovi's daughter was arrested in New York state on Wednesday on drug possession charges following a suspected heroin overdose, local police said. Stephanie Bongiovi, 19, was found unresponsive in a dormitory room at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York from an alleged overdose and taken to a local medical ...

ATHENS | Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:16pm EST ATHENS (Reuters) - Hewlett Packard will transport its goods across Europe, the Middle East and Africa through Greece's biggest port, the Greek government said on Wednesday, after a deal with China's Cosco Pacific that Athens hopes will attract investors and bolster cargo business at its commercial docks. The agreement...

BOSTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:10pm EST BOSTON (Reuters) - Adobe Systems Inc shut down a website where customers share information about using its Connect online conferencing service after the software maker discovered it had been compromised in a data breach. The company, whose software is frequently targeted by computer hackers because it is widely used t...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:03pm EST (Reuters) - Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is out of the Pittsburgh Steeler's divisional clash with the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday and could be out even longer with a worrying rib injury. Veteran back-up Byron Leftwich will make his first start for the Steelers, replacing the two-time Super Bowl winner Roethlisberger.Roethlisberger spr...

PARIS | Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:39pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - Warner Music and a joint venture led by British impresario Simon Fuller are among nine groups interested in buying Parlophone from Vivendi's Universal Music Group, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Universal has received nine preliminary non-binding proposals for the label, the Financial Time...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:32pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed to push for a diplomatic resolution to Iran's suspected attempt to build a nuclear weapon, while restating his insistence that Tehran will never be allowed to acquire a bomb. "I will try to make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a ...

By Chris Wickham LONDON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:29pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Military drone technology, which has revolutionized warfare over the last decade, will be ready for civilian use within four years and could create a market worth more than $400 billion. That's the prediction from a UK research project backed by the government and top aerosp...

By Ben Blanchard BEIJING | Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:08pm EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party unveils a new leadership line-up on Thursday to steer the world's second-largest economy for the next five years, with Vice President Xi Jinping taking over from outgoing President Hu Jintao as party chief. The new members of the Politburo St...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:46pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - MF Global's collapse and the loss of an estimated $1.6 billion in customer money was triggered by former CEO Jon Corzine's poor management decisions and lax protections for customer funds, a congressional investigation has determined. The findings...

By Nick Brown NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:44pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co (EKDKQ.PK) won court permission on Wednesday to retain exclusive control of its bankruptcy case through February 28 as it tries to execute a $793 million financing offer from a group of bondholders. Judge Alan Gropper approved the extension at a hearing in ...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:41pm EST (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc named 70 new partners to its 2012 partnership class, the smallest number since the investment bank went public in 1999. Goldman's partner naming, a relic from its past as a private investment bank, occurs every two years and is a closely watched event on Wall Street. The prior partner class in 2010 i...

KRASNODAR, Russia | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:39pm EST KRASNODAR, Russia (Reuters) - Mix Diskerud scored deep into stoppage time as the United States twice fought back to hold Russia to a 2-2 draw on Wednesday in the first match between the two former Cold War adversaries since 2000. Debutant Fyodor Smolov put the home team 1-0 up in the ninth minute of the fri...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:32pm EST GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza on Wednesday, killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike and threatening an invasion of the enclave that the Islamist group vowed would "open the gates of hell". The onslaught shattered hop...

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Ali Shuaib TRIPOLI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:29pm EST TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's first elected government was sworn in under tight security on Wednesday, inheriting the daunting task of establishing democracy in a country plagued by rival militias who helped overthrow Muammar Gaddafi last year. In a national congress hal...

By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:23pm EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has said that "from today" he will work closely with his bitter political rival President Mikheil Saakashvili, rejecting suggestions that he has used the courts to settle scores after his election win. The billionaire busine...