Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:05am EST (Reuters) - Baxter International Inc said on Tuesday that it would buy privately held Swedish dialysis product company Gambro AB for about $4 billion to complement its kidney therapy portfolio. Baxter will finance the deal, which it expects to close in the first half of 2013, with debt and cash generated from overseas operations.The com...

By Ben Blanchard BEIJING | Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:03am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of 134 Nobel laureates including the Dalai Lama and author Toni Morrison have written to Chinese Communist Party chief and president-in-waiting Xi Jinping urging that he release detained Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and his wife. Liu, a veteran dissident involved i...

By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM | Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:01am EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - For Benjamin Netanyahu, plans to expand Israeli settlements may risk a diplomatic crisis with Europe but could prove a good bet at the ballot box. With a January 22 election looming, the Israeli leader has defied long-standing international opposition to settlements an...

By Tim Hepher LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:01am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Bankers, civil servants and industrialists were squeezing out final concessions in talks to shake up aerospace group EADS on Tuesday, people familiar with the discussions said. Attention focused on transactions needed to allow the Berlin government to take a stake in the Airbus ...

By Kate Holton and Guy Faulconbridge LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:00am EST LONDON (Reuters) - London Mayor Boris Johnson heaped pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday by calling for a referendum on a deeply pared back British membership of the European Union. Johnson, speaking at a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event, said the euro was a c...

By Jonathan Cable LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:50am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's economic recovery remains precarious, data on Tuesday showed, with construction activity falling and retail sales weaker than expected - a blow to the government the day before a budget statement. The weak data was accompanied by a report from the British Chambers ...

HANOI/NEW DELHI | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:39am EST HANOI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Vietnam condemned on Tuesday China's claims to disputed South China Sea islands as a serious violation of its sovereignty after saying it was setting up patrols to protect its fisheries and accusing Chinese boats of sabotage. The condemnation of China's claims to the sea and its num...

By Mark Hosenball ZURICH | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:31am EST ZURICH (Reuters) - Secret information on counter-terrorism shared by foreign governments may have been compromised by a massive data theft by a senior IT technician for the NDB, Switzerland's intelligence service, European national security sources said. Intelligence agencies in the United Sta...

By Alistair Lyon and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:07am EST CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's opposition called for mass protests on Tuesday against the Islamist-led government's drive to hold a snap referendum on a new constitution after sweeping aside judicial obstacles. President Mohamed Mursi ignited a storm of protest when he temporarily a...

LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:55am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) conglomerate is claiming up to $1 billion from reinsurer Swiss Re (SRENH.VX) in a dispute over a life insurance deal they agreed in 2010. Berkshire Hathaway is "alleging damages of between $0.5 and $1 billion", Swiss Re said on page 73 of the third-quarter...

By Christine Kearney NEW YORK | Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:37am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ashton Kutcher's turn as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut about a modern day Don Juan are leading a slew of star-studded premieres unveiled Monday for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Kutcher stars in "Jobs," a biographica...

By Mary Slosson SACRAMENTO | Tue Dec 4, 2012 2:35am EST SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked California from enforcing a landmark law that bars therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality in minors, but he applied the ruling to just three people. Two licensed therapists and one aspiring therapist filed a suit against ...

Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:53am EST (Reuters) - New Orleans' Robin Lopez ran off 11 straight points in the third quarter to spark the Hornets to a much needed 102-81 victory over the visiting Milwaukee Bucks on Monday. Seven-footer Lopez scored 21 points and his hot streak helped turn a two-point deficit into a 71-60 advantage as the Hornets cruised to the win."I was jus...

By Steve Ginsburg LANDOVER, Maryland | Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:47am EST LANDOVER, Maryland (Reuters) - Robert Griffin III and the Washington Redskins continued their improbable push for the playoffs by edging the New York Giants 17-16 on Monday to reach the .500 mark and move into a tie for second place in the NFC East. Griffin, the Redskins' sensatio...

SYDNEY | Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:20am EST SYDNEY (Reuters) - Golf has no place in the Olympics and its inclusion is contributing to the dilution of the importance of the sport's major championships, according to eight-times major winner Tom Watson. The sport will return to the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, after last being played in 1904, and while its ...

Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:57pm EST (Reuters) - Wet weather failed to dampen spirits at the Hong Kong Open squash tournament at the weekend and federation officials hope IOC representatives saw the sport's potential to feature on the 2020 Olympic program. One sport will be added to the program for the 2020 Games with squash up against karate, the Chinese martial art of w...

By Larry Fine Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:19pm EST (Reuters) - The murder/suicide committed on Saturday by Kansas City Chiefs football player Jovan Belcher left the National Football League, its fans and health professionals struggling to understand what drove him to do it. Belcher, 25, shot and killed his 22-year-old girlfriend Kasandra Perkins, the mother of his...

By Irene Klotz SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:38pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - NASA's long-lived Voyager 1 spacecraft, which is heading out of the solar system, has reached a "magnetic highway" leading to interstellar space, scientists said on Monday. The probe, launched 35 years ago to study the outer planets, is now about 11 billion miles ...

By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK | Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:34pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court on Monday threw out the conviction of a sales representative for promoting off-label use of a prescription drug, a ruling that could make it harder for the government to police how drugs are marketed and sold. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court ...

By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES | Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:26pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Do not call it a comeback and don't even think of it as a farewell tour. After more than four decades making music and a 2010 tour, Fleetwood Mac will hit the road again next year. But it won't be its last tour, singer Stevie Nicks vowed, dismissing any notion that th...

By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES | Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:22pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lenny Dykstra, the 1980s World Series hero who pleaded guilty earlier this year to bankruptcy fraud, was sentenced on Monday to six months in federal prison and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service. The 49-year-old former ballplayer - who is already serv...

By Irene Klotz SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:23pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, dispatched to look for the chemical ingredients and environments for microbial life, has found hints of carbon, though whether this building block for life on Earth has played a similar role on Mars is unknown, scientists said on Monda...

Mon Dec 3, 2012 7:43pm EST (Reuters) - Teens may be less likely to buy cigarettes at convenience stores if they aren't sold in plain sight behind the counter, according to a U.S. study conducted using a virtual reality game. "We know the retail environment is a very important place for tobacco companies to advertise and market their products," said lead author An...

TOKYO | Mon Dec 3, 2012 7:37pm EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese struggling display panel maker Sharp Corp and U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc have agreed to jointly develop next-generation displays, two sources familiar with matter said on Tuesday. The two are in talks for Qualcomm to invest as much as 10 billion yen ($121.5 million) in debt-laden Sharp, the s...

DETROIT | Mon Dec 3, 2012 7:28pm EST DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) is still working on a remedy for a defect that raises the risk of an engine fire in almost 90,000 just-launched Escape and Fusion models, an executive at the second-largest U.S. automaker said on Monday. This is the fourth recall of the 2013 Escape crossover since July. The Esca...

By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK | Mon Dec 3, 2012 7:27pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks struggled to extend the previous week's gains, dropping on Monday as disappointing U.S. factory numbers dampened optimism about China's economic growth. The declines broke a three-day streak of gains for the S&P 500, keeping it shy of its 50-day moving averag...

By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON | Mon Dec 3, 2012 7:10pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans proposed steep spending cuts on Monday but gave no ground on President Barack Obama's call to raise taxes on the wealthiest in their first formal proposal to avert a "fiscal cliff" that could push the U.S. economy into recession. After days of stalemate, t...

By Ben Hirschler LONDON | Mon Dec 3, 2012 7:08pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Drug companies are becoming more efficient in hunting for new treatments, though this has yet to be reflected in improved investment returns, according to a report on Tuesday. Low productivity in research labs is the biggest single challenge facing the global pharmaceutical i...

FRANKFURT | Mon Dec 3, 2012 7:06pm EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's MAN (MANG.DE) plans to scale back production of trucks from January 14 as its customers hold off placing major orders in uncertain economic times, the head of its truck business said. "We have to adjust our production according to demand," German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung cited Ander...

FRANKFURT | Mon Dec 3, 2012 7:03pm EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A service unit of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) in Germany faces closure after losing a contract with its biggest customer, German daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported. The newspaper cited company sources as saying workers at NSN Services would be told in a meeting on Wednesday that Deu...

By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:58pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Oracle Corp said it would give over $800 million back to shareholders, joining a growing number of companies accelerating dividend payments or declaring special dividends because of uncertainty surrounding the U.S. government's fiscal plans. About $600 billion ...

By Ed Stoddard GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo | Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:47pm EST GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Congo's government re-established control over the eastern city of Goma on Monday after rebels withdrew, and U.N. experts made new allegations that Rwandan soldiers took part in the insurgents' capture of the city. The M23...

By Maria Golovnina LONDON | Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:47pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Socialite-turned-Kremlin-critic Ksenia Sobchak told Russian dissidents in London on Monday that growing repression at home would prompt more and more people to fight for change but warned that a full-blown revolution could d...

By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM | Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:44pm EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel rejected concerted criticism from the United States and Europe on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations' de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood. Washington urged Israel to reconside...

Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:40pm EST (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Monday it is creating a new division to oversee airplane development, hiving off that function from production as it seeks to ramp up factory output. The company named Scott Fancher, who heads Boeing's 777 jet program, to lead the new "airplane development" division, which will handle design and flig...

BELFAST | Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:36pm EST BELFAST (Reuters) - At least five police officers were wounded during a riot at Belfast city hall in Northern Ireland on Monday after Irish nationalist councilors voted to remove the British flag from the building on all but 17 days of the year. Hundreds of protesters, many carrying British flags, clashed with police ...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:33pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc believes it has "numerous" grounds to appeal a Mexico City civil court's $2.7 billion preliminary judgment against the company, including both errors in procedure and in application of law, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. T...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Erika Solomon CAIRO/BEIRUT | Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:19pm EST CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, who was the most public face of Bashar al-Assad's government as it battled a 20-month-old uprising, has fled the country, a diplomat in the region said on Monday. Jihad al-Makdissi, who is in his 40s, pr...

By Lauren Tara LaCapra, Carrick Mollenkamp, Jessica Toonkel Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:16pm EST (Reuters) - In October, Rebecca Rothstein, a Beverly Hills-based private banker to rock stars, top executives and the otherwise rich, abruptly left Morgan Stanley for rival Merrill Lynch. She had spent more than a decade at Smith Barney before Morgan Stanley took contro...

By David Alexander WASHINGTON | Mon Dec 3, 2012 6:09pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The African Union war against al Shabaab in Somalia this past year has left the Islamist group "largely in a survival mode" and is instructive for confronting the region's extremist groups in the future, the head of U.S. Africa Command said on Monday. General Carter...