By Michael Todt SUN CITY, South Africa | Sat Dec 1, 2012 12:00pm EST SUN CITY, South Africa (Reuters) - Saturday proved a good day for Germany at the Gary Player Country Club as Martin Kaymer seized a one-stroke lead in the Nedbank Golf Challenge and Bernhard Langer won the senior edition. Double U.S. Masters champion Langer lifted the seniors tr...

BOSTON | Sat Dec 1, 2012 9:52am EST BOSTON (Reuters) - A grand jury is investigating the compounding pharmacy at the heart of a deadly meningitis outbreak, the Boston Globe reported on Saturday. The grand jury has begun issuing subpoenas to people who worked for the New England Compounding Center, which closed after investigators determined it had produc...

By Alistair Lyon and Tamim Elyan CAIRO | Sat Dec 1, 2012 7:18am EST CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamist crowds demonstrated in Cairo on Saturday in support of President Mohamed Mursi, who is racing through a constitution to try to defuse opposition fury over his newly expanded powers. Many thousands assembled outside Cairo University, waving Egyptian flag...

BRAZZAVILLE | Sat Dec 1, 2012 7:16am EST BRAZZAVILLE (Reuters) - A cargo plane crashed into houses near Brazzaville Maya-Maya airport while attempting to land in a thunderstorm on Friday, killing at least 32 people, a Congolese Red Cross official said on Saturday. "We have already pulled 32 bodies from the crash site, but there could be more victims," th...

By Mark Felsenthal HATFIELD, Pennsylvania | Sat Dec 1, 2012 7:12am EST HATFIELD, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - With barely a month left before the "fiscal cliff," Republicans and Democrats remained far apart on Friday in talks to avoid the across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts that threaten to throw the country back into recession. While Presid...

By Ed Stoddard and Kenny Katombe GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo | Sat Dec 1, 2012 7:10am EST GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Rebel fighters, singing and brandishing weapons, pulled out of Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern border city of Goma on Saturday, raising hopes regional peace efforts could advance negotiations to en...

BELGRADE | Sat Dec 1, 2012 6:41am EST BELGRADE (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Serbia adopted a 2013 budget on Saturday, pledging to slash the deficit to 3.3 percent of national output and return the economy to growth of 2 percent as the government seeks new IMF funding. The Balkan country is running a budget shortfall this year of around 6.2 percent of gross d...

BEIRUT | Sat Dec 1, 2012 6:36am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombed rebel-held areas of Damascus on Saturday, residents said, and a countrywide Internet blackout entered its third day. Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad clashed with troops in most populated areas of the country, according to opposition activists. At least 40,0...

PARIS | Sat Dec 1, 2012 6:18am EST PARIS (Reuters) - European Central Bank policymaker Benoit Coeure urged euro zone governments on Saturday to forge a closer political union, arguing "the euro is a currency with a state" whose branches of government need more clearly defining. At an economic forum in Paris, Coeure said the ECB had acted to prevent the b...

By Soe Zeya Tun MONYWA, Myanmar | Sat Dec 1, 2012 6:06am EST MONYWA, Myanmar (Reuters) - Buddhist monks marched in Myanmar's two biggest cities on Saturday to protest at police violence during a crackdown on demonstrators at a copper mine, while Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and a rights group called for an official inquiry. Activists sai...

SEOUL | Sat Dec 1, 2012 5:52am EST SEOUL (Reuters) - Four South Korean sailors abducted by Somali pirates 19 months ago were released on Saturday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said. The MT Gemini, a tanker operated by Singapore-based Glory Ship Management, was hijacked by the pirates on April 30, 2011, with the four sailors, along with 21 non-Korean cr...

TOKYO | Sat Dec 1, 2012 5:51am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki has lost patience with the New York Yankees over a contract extension and has begun talking with other teams, his agent said on Friday. The Yankees have been busy locking up their principle pitchers, paying Hiroki Kuroda $15 million, Andy Pettitte $12 million and Maria...

TOKYO | Sat Dec 1, 2012 5:51am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki has lost patience with the New York Yankees over a contract extension and has begun talking with other teams, his agent said on Friday. The Yankees have been busy locking up their principle pitchers, paying Hiroki Kuroda $15 million, Andy Pettitte $12 million and Maria...

SEOUL | Sat Dec 1, 2012 5:32am EST SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is to carry out its second rocket launch this year in December as South Korea holds its presidential election in a move that will likely trigger diplomatic tensions between the two Koreas and censure from the United States and Japan. State news agency KCNA said on Saturday that the launch o...

GAZA | Sat Dec 1, 2012 3:43am EST GAZA (Reuters) - One of six Palestinians shot and wounded by Israeli troops on Friday while protesting at the Gaza Strip boundary fence died on Saturday, hospital officials said. The fortified fence and a 300-metre-deep zone on the Palestinian side - on which Israel has regularly fired since 2009 with the declared aim of...

Sat Dec 1, 2012 1:25am EST (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Lakers rebounded from their worst offensive performance of the season with an all out blitz against the Denver Nuggets on Friday, prevailing 122-103 at the Staples Center. Three nights after their last second loss to the Indiana Pacers in the same building where they managed to score just 77 points, 40 of whi...

By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES | Sat Dec 1, 2012 1:12am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An actress who said she was duped into appearing in an anti-Islam film that stoked violent protests against the United States across the Muslim world lost on Friday her second legal bid to force the video off YouTube. Denying a request by actress Cindy Lee Garcia for...

Sat Dec 1, 2012 1:04am EST (Reuters) - David Beckham has targeted one final fling in the European Champions League before hanging up his boots once he leaves Los Angeles after five-and-a-half years. "I always loved it when I went back to AC Milan being back in the Champions League," the 37-year-old told British media as he prepared for his last game for the L.A. ...

By Mark Lamport-Stokes THOUSAND OAKS, California | Fri Nov 30, 2012 9:21pm EST THOUSAND OAKS, California (Reuters) - Graeme McDowell will take a 10-week break after the World Challenge ends on Sunday to recharge his batteries for a hectic 2013 campaign on both sides of the Atlantic. The globe-trotting Northern Irishman competes regularly on the P...

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK | Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:56pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - In normal times, next week's slew of U.S. economic data could be a springboard for a December rally in the stock market. December is historically a strong month for markets. The S&P 500 has risen 16 times in the past 20 years during the month.But the market hasn'...

By Terry Baynes Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:52pm EST (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court's nine justices met in private on Friday to consider whether to enter the legal fray over same-sex marriage but made no announcement about any decision they may have reached. The high court is considering whether to review five separate challenges to a federal law that prevents...

By Larry Fine Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:49pm EST (Reuters) - The first weekend of December football signals the start of the NFL stretch run with Houston, New England, Denver, Baltimore and Atlanta poised to clinch playoff spots, while others fight to stay on the postseason path. American Football Conference (AFC) division races look close to being locked up, bu...

Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:20pm EST (Reuters) - The Atlanta Braves borrowed from their starting rotation to boost their bullpen by trading Tommy Hanson to the Los Angeles Angels for hard-throwing reliever Jordan Walden, the Major League Baseball teams said on Friday. Both young pitchers have shown glimmers of greatness but slipped back last season.Hanson, 26, who broke i...

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta | Fri Nov 30, 2012 5:09pm EST LAKE LOUISE, Alberta (Reuters) - American Lindsey Vonn won a women's World Cup downhill in Lake Louise on Friday, according to provisional results. Fellow American Stacey Cook was second while Germany's Maria Hoefl-Riesch and Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather were joint third, also according to provisional ...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:30pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The idea that filling up on fruits and vegetables will cut one's appetite for higher-calorie fare did not pan out in a new study; in fact, adding fruit juice before meals boosted hunger and weight gain for some participants. Eating apples and grapes before lunch...

Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:26pm EST (Reuters) - FedEx Corp (FDX.N), the No. 2 U.S. package-delivery company, said on Friday it will raise its average rates for ground shipments and home deliveries by 4.9 percent beginning in January. The increase reflects a 5.9 percent raise in published rates at FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Deliver...

NEW YORK | Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:14pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 wrapped up its second positive week in a row on Friday, although it ended the day flat as politicians remain at odds about how to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 3.22 points, or 0.02 percent, to fini...

LOS ANGELES | Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:14pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles judge on Friday dismissed murder charges against a 70-year-old professional tennis official accused of killing her husband, granting a request by prosecutors who said they were unable to proceed with the case. Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to discuss their reasons f...

By Julien Ponthus and Emmanuel Jarry PARIS | Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:13pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - The French government struck a deal with ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS) on Friday which will see the steelmaker invest 180 million euros ($234 million) in its Florange steelworks, allowing some 600 jobs at two shuttered blast furnaces to be saved. Prime Minister J...

By Jonathan Stempel Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:10pm EST (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether human genes can be patented, a hotly contested issue with broad consequences for the future of gene-based medicine. The nation's highest court agreed to review a case over whether Myriad Genetics Inc may patent two genes linked to hereditary br...

By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:57pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to create a permanent visa program for foreigners with advanced science and technical degrees cleared the House of Representatives on Friday, the latest salvo in the broader fight over U.S. immigration reform. The Republican-backed measure proposes reserving 5...

By Edmund Blair and Patrick Werr CAIRO | Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:52pm EST CAIRO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Egyptians protested against President Mohamed Mursi on Friday after an Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of a new constitution in a bid to end a crisis over the Islamist leader's newly expanded powers. "The people want to bring d...

By Mark Felsenthal HATFIELD, Penn. | Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:51pm EST HATFIELD, Penn. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama hit the road on Friday to turn up pressure on Republicans in the "fiscal cliff" talks, urging Americans to support his drive to raise taxes on the wealthy while extending tax cuts for the middle class. In a Christmas-season visit to...

By Stephanie Simon Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:29pm EST (Reuters) - Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush soared to rock star status in the education world on the strength of a chart. A simple graph, it tracked fourth-grade reading scores. In 1998, when Bush was elected governor, Florida kids scored far below the national average. By the end of his second term, in 2007...

By Alistair Barr SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:20pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Noted short seller David Scially of Kingsford Capital Management LLC is retiring at the end of this year, after more than a decade running the investment firm with partner Mike Wilkins, according to two people familiar with the situation. Scially decided to lea...

By Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis NEW YORK | Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:14pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) has emerged as the frontrunner in an auction for Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc (MDRX.O), but the companies remain far apart on price and a deal is highly uncertain, people familiar with the matter said. Blackstone has p...

MADRID | Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:07pm EST MADRID (Reuters) - Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho will confront the home fans who whistled him at their midweek King's Cup match by walking out alone onto the Bernabeu pitch 40 minutes before Saturday's La Liga match with Atletico Madrid. Stuttering Real go into the derby eight points behind second-placed Atletico an...

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado | Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:02pm EST BEAVER CREEK, Colorado (Reuters) - Italy's Christof Innerhofer won a men's World Cup downhill in Beaver Creek on Friday, according to provisional results. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal was second and fellow-Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud was third, also according to provisional results.(Reporting by Patrick La...

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA | Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:55pm EST GENEVA (Reuters) - Two people who died in Jordan in April have been found to have been infected with the new virus from the same family as SARS which sparked a global alert in September, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. The coronavirus, previously unknown in humans, has ...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:50pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior senator is pressing Hyundai Motor Co and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp on their plans to compensate customers for inflated fuel-efficiency claims the two companies admitted earlier this month. Hyundai and Kia have agreed in negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency to re...