By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM | Wed Dec 5, 2012 7:41am EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel moved forward on Wednesday with plans to build some 3,000 settler homes in one of the most sensitive areas of the occupied West Bank, in defiance of international protests. A Defence Ministry official said architects and contractors appeared before a subcommitte...

BRUSSELS | Wed Dec 5, 2012 7:19am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have not yet made a decision in their case against Google and talks are proceeding with the Internet search firm to resolve complaints that it used its clout to block rivals, the EU's competition chief said. "We are in the process of conversation with Google to try to reac...

By Justyna Pawlak and Erika Solomon BRUSSELS/BEIRUT | Wed Dec 5, 2012 7:11am EST BRUSSELS/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels said on Wednesday they had surrounded an air base near Damascus, a fresh sign of battle closing in on the Syrian capital a day after NATO drew a line in the sand by agreeing to send air defense missiles to Turkey. The Western milita...

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS | Wed Dec 5, 2012 7:01am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Philips, LG Electronics, Samsung SDI and three other firms were fined a record 1.47 billion euros ($1.92 billion) by EU antitrust regulators for fixing prices of TV and monitor cathode-ray tubes for nearly a decade. The European Commission slapped the biggest penalty, of 3...

By Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 5, 2012 6:24am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will renew his case for tax hikes on wealthy Americans to avert a year-end fiscal crunch and call for a smooth increase in the nation's borrowing limit in a speech to a business group on Wednesday, a White House official said. The president is...

By Jussi Rosendahl HELSINKI | Wed Dec 5, 2012 6:14am EST HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia is to partner with China Mobile, the world's biggest operator, to launch a version of its flagship Lumia smartphone tailored for the world's largest market. China Mobile, which has more than 700 million subscribers but no contract to sell iPhones, will start selli...

DUBAI | Wed Dec 5, 2012 6:10am EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has obtained data from a U.S. intelligence drone that shows it was spying on the country's military sites and oil terminals, Iranian media reported its armed forces as saying on Wednesday. Iran announced on Tuesday that it had captured a ScanEagle drone belonging to the United States, but Washingt...

FRANKFURT | Wed Dec 5, 2012 5:29am EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Nokia Siemens Networks confirmed on Wednesday it would close its loss-making German services company, part of a broader revamp at the telecoms equipment joint venture. On Tuesday, people familiar with the matter already said the unit, which provides network operations and management services an...

TAIPEI | Wed Dec 5, 2012 5:11am EST TAIPEI (Reuters) - Qualcomm's tie-up with Sharp Corp will not affect Hon Hai Precision's talks with the Japanese firm to become its biggest shareholder and the deadline to reach a decision by next March still stands, a Taiwan newspaper reported on Wednesday, quoting Hon Hai's chairman. Terry Gou, chairman of Hon Hai Pr...

By John Ruwitch and Michael Martina SHANGHAI/BEIJING | Wed Dec 5, 2012 4:21am EST SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - New Chinese regulations allowing police to board vessels deemed to be breaking the law off the southern island of Hainan were a provincial-level initiative, but Beijing likely signed off on them, an official said on Wednesday. China is i...

By Miyoung Kim SEOUL | Wed Dec 5, 2012 3:24am EST SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co pushed the anointed heir of the company Chairman closer to the top job on Wednesday as the it cemented a global lead in smartphones with a stock price that is close to record highs. The promotion of the snappily-dressed and bespectacled Jay Y. Lee, aged 44,...

By Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 5, 2012 1:07am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After a car bomb struck the U.S. ambassador's residence in Lima in 1992, the State Department convened a special panel to answer the same questions now hovering over a review of the September attacks in Benghazi, Libya: How much security is enoug...

Wed Dec 5, 2012 12:43am EST (Reuters) - The Oklahoma City Thunder cruised to their sixth straight win on Tuesday after an incredible night of shooting earned them a 117-111 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. The red-hot Thunder made a season-high 60 percent of field goals, Kevin Durant leading the way with 32 points while Russell Westbrook added 25 and nine assists....

By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 5, 2012 12:08am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The 1982 hit "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was named the greatest hip hop song of all time on Wednesday, in the first such list by Rolling Stone magazine to celebrate the young but influential music genre. "The Message," which tops a list...

WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 10:03pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate voted 98-0 on Tuesday to approve a wide-ranging defense bill that authorizes $631.4 billion in funding for the military, the war in Afghanistan and nuclear weapons. The bill, passed after five days of debate and consideration of hundreds of amendments, must be reconciled with the ...

By Mark Felsenthal and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 9:23pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned on Tuesday that Republican tax proposals could threaten the collapse of hospitals and universities benefiting from charitable deductions. "There's been a lot of talk that somehow we can raise $800 billion or $1 trillion w...

By David Lawder and Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 9:20pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama held his ground on the "fiscal cliff" on Tuesday, insisting on higher tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, while Republicans showed increasing disarray over how far they should go to compromise with Obama's demands. With les...

By Irene Klotz SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Dec 4, 2012 9:11pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - NASA plans to follow up its Mars rover Curiosity mission with a duplicate rover that could collect and store samples for return to Earth, the agency's lead scientist said on Tuesday. The new rover will use spare parts and engineering models developed for Curiosity...

By Chris Wickham LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:03pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers have found what could be the earliest known dinosaur to walk the Earth lurking in the corridors of London's Natural History Museum. A mysterious fossil specimen that has been in the museum's collection for decades has now been identified as most likely coming from...

By David Lawder and Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:43pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans had wanted to show a united front against President Barack Obama's demand for tax hikes, but their tenuous coalition showed signs of strain on Tuesday. Just a day after House Speaker John Boehner unveiled a "fiscal cliff" co...

By Sofia Menchu GUATEMALA CITY | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:13pm EST GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - U.S. anti-virus software guru John McAfee, who is on the run from police in Belize seeking to question him in a murder probe, has crossed into Guatemala and said on Tuesday he will seek political asylum there. M...

By David Lawder and Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:11pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama held his ground on the "fiscal cliff" on Tuesday, insisting on higher tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, while Republicans showed increasing disarray over how far they should go to compromise with Obama's demands. With les...

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:05pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When it comes to sperm counts, French men aren't what they used to be, according to a new study. Researchers found that between 1989 and 2005, the number of sperm in one milliliter of the average 35-year-old Frenchman's semen fell from about 74 million to about ...

By Marice Richter DALLAS | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:02pm EST DALLAS (Reuters) - Former President George W. Bush on Tuesday called on lawmakers to debate immigration reform "with a benevolent spirit" and bear in mind the contribution of immigrants in building the country. Bush's comments came at the opening of a daylong conference on immigration and econ...

By Jennifer Hoyt Cummings Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:54pm EST (Reuters) - UBS Wealth Management Americas released its 2013 compensation plan to its financial advisers on Tuesday, announcing changes that will give them incentives to sell a wider range of products and bring in more revenue. There are also changes to the compensation structure that will likely help t...

Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:53pm EST (Reuters) - Boeing said Tuesday that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is requiring inspections of all 787 Dreamliners currently in service to confirm that fuel line connectors have been properly installed. The FAA requirement, due to be issued Wednesday, "makes mandatory inspections already recommended by Boeing," the company sa...

LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:42pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - British supermarket operator Tesco (TESO.O) will launch a strategic review of its money-losing Fresh & Easy chain in the United States, Sky News reported on Tuesday. Tesco Chief Executive Philip Clarke will announce in the company's third-quarter results on Wednesday "a strategic review that coul...

By Kate Kelland LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:38pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Little progress has been made in improving the long-term health of extremely premature babies, and with pre-term births on the rise across Europe, rates of serious disability are likely to increase, doctors said on Wednesday. A decade of advances in medicine mean more babies b...

By Nate Raymond and Suzanne Barlyn NEW YORK | Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:36pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has sided with a UBS AG (UBSN.VX) request for arbitration in a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking overtime pay brought by three former financial advisers at a brokerage unit of the bank. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in ...

By Kevin Murphy Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:35pm EST (Reuters) - Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend - and later himself - after he spent the previous night in an entertainment district and slept at the apartment of another woman, witnesses told police. The events could explain why Belcher got into an argument with Kasandra Pe...

By Ronald Grover and Sue Zeidler Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:32pm EST (Reuters) - Netflix will provide TV viewers with live and animated Disney, Pixar, Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm movies starting in 2016, as Walt Disney Co on Tuesday became the first major studio to choose Netflix over cable TV networks. Netflix shares jumped 14 percent on the news, as investors sa...

By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:18pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican law professor nominated to the Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday he would recuse himself from the agency's investigations into Google for two years to avoid any possible conflicts of interest. The FTC is investigating Google for allegedly breaking an...

Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:17pm EST (Reuters) - Chelsea Therapeutics Inc said its experimental hypotension drug met the main goal of a study by significantly reducing dizziness in patients at week one, but results beyond that period were not statistically significant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve the drug, Northera, in March, and asked for dat...

By Debra Sherman and Caroline Humer Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:16pm EST (Reuters) - Baxter International Inc said on Tuesday it would buy privately held Swedish kidney dialysis product company Gambro AB for about $4 billion, a tie-up that would make it No. 2 in the dialysis market. Baxter, whose shares fell nearly 1 percent, will finance the acquisition with cash ...

By David Henry NEW YORK | Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:08pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Despite the prospect of low lending rates for years to come, JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) will continue to build new branch offices to take in more deposits to make loans and support some of its business franchises, a top bank executive said on Tuesday. "Even in the curr...

Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:04pm EST (Reuters) - Washington Redskins cornerback Cedric Griffin will miss the rest of the National Football League's regular season after receiving a four-game ban for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances. Griffin's ban begins immediately and he will be eligible to return to Washington's active roster on December ...

LOS ANGELES | Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:59pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former "Malcolm in the Middle" child star Frankie Muniz said on Tuesday he had suffered a mini-stroke, at the age of 26. "I was in the hospital last Friday. I suffered a 'Mini Stroke', which was not fun at all. Have to start taking care of my body! Getting old!," Muniz said on Twitter.Muniz...

By Matt Smith and Joseph Menn DUBAI/SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:49pm EST DUBAI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. and Canadian proposal to protect the Internet from new international regulation has failed to win prompt backing from other countries, setting up potentially tough negotiations to rewrite a telecom treaty. The idea, also supported...

Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:42pm EST (Reuters) - The New England Patriots juggled their receiving corps on Tuesday by re-signing veteran receiver Donte' Stallworth after losing Julian Edelman to injury, the American Football Conference East division champions said on Tuesday. Stallworth, who entered training camp with the Patriots but was cut before the start of the season...

WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:32pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California Democrat Maxine Waters was elected to serve as ranking member of the House Financial Service Committee, according to an announcement from Waters' office on Tuesday. In a statement, Waters said she looks forward to defending the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul and plan...