By Nina Chestney LONDON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 2:07pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - The melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets has raised sea levels by 11.1 millimeters since 1992, a fifth of the total rise which threatens low-lying regions around the globe, a new study published on Thursday said. The results of the study involving 47 researchers...

By Gennady Fyodorov MOSCOW | Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:51pm EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - World discus champion and Olympic silver medalist Darya Pishchalnikova is under investigation by the sport's world governing body (IAAF) after failing a drugs test, the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) said on Thursday. Pishchalnikova, who won the 2011 discus world tit...

By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:50pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc's steadily tightening grip over the 140-character messages on its network has set off a spirited debate in Silicon Valley over whether a social media company should or should not lay claim over its user-generated content. That debate has now landed in ...

LONDON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:49pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff admitted to feeling nervous as he weighed in ahead of his first professional boxing fight on Thursday. The 34-year-old all rounder will take on American Richard Dawson at the MEN Arena in Manchester on Friday after exchanging his cricketing whites for a pair ...

By Tej Sapru Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:28pm EST (Reuters) - Cable maker Belden Inc said it will sell its Thermax and Raydex cable businesses to diversified manufacturer Carlisle Cos Inc for about $265 million, including debt, as it looks to exit the aerospace and defense markets. Belden, which also makes cables and networking products for the broadcast and consu...

By Li-mei Hoang LONDON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 12:38pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - The Oscar dress worn by Julia Roberts and a frock for Audrey Hepburn are just two tantalizing items out of the dozens of sumptuous pieces gathered for a new show in London celebrating Italian designer Valentino Garavani's 50 years in fashion. "Valentino: Master of Couture" a...

Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:47am EST VERSAILLES, France (Reuters) - A French appeals court on Thursday absolved Continental Airlines of blame for a 2000 Concorde crash that killed 113 people and cleared a mechanic at the U.S. airline of the charge of involuntary manslaughter. The verdict comes over a decade after the accident helped...

NEW YORK | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:36am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose at the open on Thursday, following a rally in the prior session, on expectations of progress toward a fiscal agreement in Washington that would prevent a possible recession. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI gained 35.40 points, or 0.27 percent, to 13,020.51. The Standard & P...

FRANKFURT | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:53am EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A Federal Reserve official asked for a clearer fiscal outlook from political leaders on Thursday, saying that leaving it to the Fed to lead economic recovery efforts created a dangerous predicament. Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher called for more action from the U.S. government to boost em...

TORONTO | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:42am EST TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares in Research In Motion Ltd rose more than 10 percent at the open on the Toronto Stock Exchange after Goldman Sachs upgraded the BlackBerry maker's stock to a "buy" from a "neutral" recommendation. The stock traded at C$12.02 ($12.10), up from a close of C$11.00 on Wednesday, after opening at...

By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:39am EST UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly is set to implicitly recognize a sovereign state of Palestine on Thursday despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding much-needed funds for the West Bank government. A resolu...

VIENNA | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:37am EST VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear agency chief said on Thursday a hacking incident involving one of its servers was "deeply regrettable" but suggested that no sensitive information related to Iran's atomic activities had been stolen. Yukiya Amano said the hacking - first ...

By Daniel Bases NEW YORK | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:17am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina has won a reprieve against having to pay $1.33 billion next month to "holdout" investors who rejected a restructuring of its defaulted debt and have waged a long legal battle to be paid in full. A U.S. appeals court granted an emergency stay order on Wednesday t...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:16am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the third quarter as restocking by businesses provided a big boost, but consumer and business spending were revised lower in a sobering reminder of the recovery's underlying weakness. Gross domestic product expa...

By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:13am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, forcing the closure of the main airport road, and the Dubai-based Emirates airline suspended flights to the Syrian capital. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that fi...

WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:08am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the third quarter, but the momentum is unlikely to be sustained as the nation braces for deep cuts in government spending and tax increases early next year. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.7 percent annual rate, the Commerce Depar...

By Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS | Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:56am EST ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece has yet to decide what price to offer bondholders under a debt buyback plan that is central to a bailout deal with international lenders, but the price is likely to vary depending on the bond, a Greek finance official said on Thursday. Questions have arisen over ...

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA | Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:53am EST VIENNA (Reuters) - North Korea has made further progress in the construction of a new atomic reactor, the U.N. nuclear chief reported on Thursday, a facility that may extend the country's capacity to produce material for nuclear bombs. Pyongyang "has continued construction of the light water re...

Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:44am EST (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc said it will buy privately held network traffic-management software maker Cariden Technologies Inc for about $141 million in cash. Cariden will be integrated into Cisco's service provider networking group unit, Cisco said.California-based Cariden supplies network planning, design and traffic management sol...

NEW YORK | Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:41am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lindsay Lohan was arrested outside a New York nightclub on an assault charge early Thursday after she punched another woman in the face, police said, marking another legal dustup for the 26-year-old "Mean Girls" actress. Lohan and the 28-year-old unidentified woman had some sort of dispute insid...

By Jessica Wohl Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:20am EST (Reuters) - Retailers got a lift over the long Thanksgiving weekend, driving gains in November sales despite some pressure earlier in the month from superstorm Sandy, but the results are not expected to match the gains of a year earlier. Sales at stores open at least a year among the chains that continue to repo...

By Tom Perry and Marwa Awad CAIRO | Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:18am EST CAIRO (Reuters) - The body writing Egypt's new constitution began a session to vote on a final draft on Thursday, a move President Mohamed Mursi's allies in the Muslim Brotherhood hope will help end a crisis prompted by a decree expanding his powers. Mursi is expected to call for nat...

By Ali al-Rubaie HILLA, Iraq | Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:57am EST HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - Bombs in two majority Shi'ite Muslim cities in southern Iraq killed 28 people on Thursday, police and hospital sources said, in an attack aimed at spreading sectarian strife in the country. Scores more were wounded in the blasts, which struck during a month that is...

Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:54am EST LYON, France (Reuters) - Vivendi's SFR launched France's first fourth-generation mobile service open to the public on Thursday, kicking off a race with rivals in an increasingly competitive French market. SFR launched the service in the southern French city of Lyon and will add Montpellier in mid-December.Lille, Marseille, Strasbourg, ...

LONDON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:52am EST LONDON (Reuters) - American Serena Williams has been named WTA Player of the Year after one of the most successful seasons in her career. The 31-year-old won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open to take her grand-slam haul in singles to 15 while she also won Olympic gold in singles and doubles in London.After a relatively slow...

By Norihiko Shirouzu SHANGHAI | Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:47am EST SHANGHAI (Reuters) - General Motors Co unveiled its latest global research center in China on Thursday, where it hopes to take advantage of the country's vast supply of engineering graduates to drive its development of a new generation of electric vehicles. China's auto market has grown ...

By Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Sriraj Kalluvila Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:45am EST (Reuters) - Embattled solid-state hard drive maker OCZ Technology Group Inc is sourcing a critical component from multiple vendors after a supply shortage caught it off guard. "Recently we haven't had any significant NAND supply issues, mostly because we diversified ourselves to multi...

By Noah Barkin BERLIN | Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:42am EST BERLIN (Reuters) - In Germany, election campaigns are supposed to be all about parties, policies and platforms, most definitely not personalities. Now that is about to change. Angela Merkel, at the peak of her political powers, is gearing up to run for a third term and what she hopes will be a p...

KABUL | Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:34am EST KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded under a passenger van in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 10 people, most of them women and children, government officials said. Eight people were wounded in the blast in the Deh Rawood district of Uruzgan province, President Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement....

By David Milliken and Alessandra Prentice LONDON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:06am EST LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England stepped up pressure on commercial banks to shore up their capital on Thursday, days after the government chose a leader of the global push for tighter banking regulation to head the central bank. The BoE's Financial Policy Committ...

By Thomas Escritt and Fatos Bytyci AMSTERDAM/PRISTINA | Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:50am EST AMSTERDAM/PRISTINA (Reuters) - Ramush Haradinaj, a former guerrilla fighter in Kosovo who served briefly as prime minister, was acquitted of war crimes for a second time on Thursday, clearing the way for his return to mainstream politics but angering Serbia. The r...

By Maria Sheahan and Rhys Jones FRANKFURT/LONDON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:39am EST FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens AG promised investors its deal to buy Invensys' rail business for a hefty 1.74 billion pounds ($2.78 billion) would contribute to boosting profits in a tough economy. The engineering conglomerate, Germany's most valuable c...

By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:07am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of Democratic senators on Thursday will urge the Obama administration to propose rules to cut smog-forming emissions from gasoline, regulations opposed by many Republicans. The lawmakers, led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, want the Environment...

HELSINKI/FRANKFURT | Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:28am EST HELSINKI/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Mobile network equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) will cut 650 jobs as it shuts down its plant in Bruchsal, Germany, a spokeswoman for the company said on Thursday. The 50-50 joint venture between Nokia Oyj and Siemens AG is carrying out a cost-cutting plan, which i...

SEOUL | Thu Nov 29, 2012 4:08am EST SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea canceled the launch of its first space rocket on Thursday after a glitch in the propulsion system halted the countdown just minutes before the scheduled lift-off. It was South Korea's third attempt to put a rocket into orbit and the second time this particular mission has failed.October's ...

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Alistair Lyon AMMAN | Thu Nov 29, 2012 4:03am EST AMMAN (Reuters) - Violent protests that shocked Jordan this month have mostly subsided, but unprecedented chants for the "fall of the regime" suggested a deeper malaise in a kingdom so far spared the revolts reshaping the Arab world. Anger over fuel subsidy cuts undoubte...

Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:00am EST (Reuters) - Australian Mark Webber has no interest in playing a support role for triple world champion Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull and is just as keen to beat the German as anyone else on the grid. Vettel claimed his third consecutive world title on Sunday with a sixth-place finish at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, edging out...

By Jeanny Kao TAIPEI | Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:44am EST TAIPEI (Reuters) - A tender for Taiwanese chip maker ProMOS Technologies Inc's idled fabrication plant will be reopened next month after the deadline for an initial sale attempt passed without bids, a semi-government body said, as interest from foreign firms raised hopes a deal could be done. The...

By Fred Barbash WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:30am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, President Barack Obama's chief negotiator in talks to avert the "fiscal cliff," will meet with Congressional leaders on Thursday amid signs that the market-rattling uncertainty about the outcome could go down to the wire. "It is no...

By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:05am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-led talks on a free-trade pact in the Asia-Pacific region are entering a potential make-or-break stage, putting pressure on President Barack Obama and other leaders to sacrifice sensitive domestic interests for a big deal to boost growth. The 11 countries involved...