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Sunday, November 27, 2011 12:03 AM PST

Today's Reuters News Headlines - Yahoo! News: Egypt's ElBaradei turns up heat on ruling generals Germany, France plan quick new Stability Pact: report Retailers look to keep Black Friday momentum going Greece may miss 2012 selloff target due to EU crisis Police ban Congo election rallies, at least 2 dead Arab states plan to cut commercial ties with Syria FARC rebels execute 4 military hostages: Colombia Yemen presidential election set for February 21 NASA rover launched to seek out life clues on Mars Pakistan stops NATO supplies after deadly raid FARC rebels execute 4 military hostages: Colombia Police ban Congo election rallies, at least 2 dead New NBA season likely to begin on Christmas Day Multiple Baghdad blasts kill at least 13 people France's ruling party denies role in DSK downfall Japan reconsiders boardroom rules amid Olympus scandal AT&T to offer bigger asset sale to save T-Mobile deal: report National marches back to power in New Zealand Bond market hammers Italy, Spain ponders outside help Corzine expected to testify at House hearing: source Black Friday draws crowds, but spending in doubt Arab League prepares for Syria sanctions Global supermarkets wary of fine print on India invite U.S. opening formal probe into GM Volt fire risk Bond market hammers Italy, Spain ponders outside help Protesters dig in to keep pressure on Egypt army Analysis: Sprint network upgrade may curb unlimited data Newsmaker: Technocrat "oil man" takes charge of Libya lifeline Black Friday draws crowds, but spending in doubt AT&T braces for T-Mobile deal collapse U.S. opening formal probe into GM Volt fire risk Ex-Olympus CEO says willing but not begging to return Australia approves $11 billion Foster's sale to SABMiller "Awful" Italy debt sale heightens euro zone stress Lawmakers to look at Corzine, rating firms' ties: report Analysis: Harper's bet may pay off; China open to Canadian oil Australia approves $11 billion Foster's sale to SABMiller AT&T braces for T-Mobile deal collapse James Turley to retire as Ernst & Young CEO Egypt braces for fresh rally against army rule Egypt's ElBaradei turns up heat on ruling generals Sat,26 Nov 2011 03:20 PM PST Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei has offered to lead a government of national unity, raising the pressure on Egypt's ruling generals amid protests demanding an immediate end to army rule. Activists are calling on citizens to converge again in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday, a day before the start of a parliamentary election overshadowed by political turmoil and the threat of violence. The interim government led by Essam Sharaf resigned last week as protests against army rule intensified in Cairo and other cities. The violence has left 42 people dead. ... Full Story Top Germany, France plan quick new Stability Pact: report Sat,26 Nov 2011 04:11 PM PST Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are planning more drastic means - including a quick new Stability Pact - to fight the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday. The Sunday newspaper reported in an advance before publication that if necessary Germany and France were ready to join a number of countries in agreeing to tough budget discipline. ... Full Story Top Retailers look to keep Black Friday momentum going Sat,26 Nov 2011 03:56 PM PST Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. retailers moved from the frenzied start of the holiday shopping season to the next phase on Saturday, hoping to avoid a drop after Black Friday and keep the momentum going during a fitful economic recovery. After featuring the usual deep discounts on Thanksgiving on Thursday and on Friday, retailers were still offering bargains on Saturday as holiday spending is expected to show only about half the growth of last year. ... Full Story Top Greece may miss 2012 selloff target due to EU crisis Sat,26 Nov 2011 11:58 AM PST Reuters - ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece may miss its target for privatization revenues next year because of the worsening economic climate in Europe, the head of the agency responsible for selling state assets said in an interview to be published on Sunday. Greece's repeated failure to meet budget targets including for privatization revenues has angered international lenders, raising questions about whether they will continue indefinitely to keep the country afloat with bailout loans. ... Full Story Top Police ban Congo election rallies, at least 2 dead Sat,26 Nov 2011 04:15 PM PST Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo blocked President Joseph Kabila's main rival at an airport in Kinshasa on Saturday to stop him staging an election rally after at least two died in violence across the central African state's capital city. Two days before presidential and parliamentary elections, rival factions hurled rocks at each other and gunfire was heard across town. A Reuters reporter saw one lifeless body on the road to the airport while a U.N. source reported another death elsewhere in town. ... Full Story Top Arab states plan to cut commercial ties with Syria Sat,26 Nov 2011 02:22 PM PST Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab states plan to cut commercial ties with President Bashar al-Assad's government and freeze its assets in response to violence in Syria, where activists said 42 civilians and soldiers died on Saturday. The sanctions, which would plunge Syria deeper into economic crisis and regional isolation, were drawn up by an Arab League economic committee in Cairo on Saturday and need to be ratified by foreign ministers meeting on Sunday before coming into force. ... Full Story Top FARC rebels execute 4 military hostages: Colombia Sat,26 Nov 2011 04:41 PM PST Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian FARC rebels executed four members of the security forces during a botched mission to free them from a decade as hostages, the most violent act by the group since troops killed its leader Alfonso Cano this month. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which has a policy of killing hostages if troops approach their camps, shot three of the captives in the head and the fourth in the back, President Juan Manuel Santos said. The bodies were found in chains, he said. "These heroes of Colombia sacrificed their lives trying to bring peace to Colombia," Santos said. ... Full Story Top Yemen presidential election set for February 21 Sat,26 Nov 2011 02:20 PM PST Reuters - SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's vice president called presidential elections for February 21 on Saturday under a deal aimed at ending months of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh that have brought the country to the edge of civil war. If the agreement goes according to plan, Saleh will become the fourth Arab ruler brought down by mass demonstrations that have reshaped the political landscape of the Middle East. ... Full Story Top NASA rover launched to seek out life clues on Mars Sat,26 Nov 2011 12:36 PM PST Reuters - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Florida on Saturday, launching a $2.5 billion nuclear-powered NASA rover toward Mars to look for clues on what could sustain life on the Red Planet. The 20-story-tall booster built by United Launch Alliance lifted off from its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:02 a.m. EST (3:02 p.m. GMT). It soared through partly cloudy skies into space, carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory on a 354-million mile (556 million km), nearly nine-month journey to the planet. ... Full Story Top Pakistan stops NATO supplies after deadly raid Sat,26 Nov 2011 03:33 PM PST Reuters - YAKKAGHUND, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan Saturday, killing as many as 28 troops and plunging U.S.-Pakistan relations deeper into crisis. Pakistan shut down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan - used for sending in nearly half of the alliance's land shipments - in retaliation for the worst such incident since Islamabad uneasily allied itself with Washington following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. ... Full Story Top FARC rebels execute 4 military hostages: Colombia Sat,26 Nov 2011 01:31 PM PST Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian FARC rebels executed four members of the armed forces during a botched mission to free them from a decade as hostages, the most violent act by the group since troops killed its leader Alfonso Cano this month. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which has a policy of killing hostages if troops approach their camps, shot three of the captives in the head and the fourth in the back, President Juan Manuel Santos said. The bodies were found in chains, he said. "These heroes of Colombia sacrificed their lives trying to bring peace to Colombia," Santos said. ... Full Story Top Police ban Congo election rallies, at least 2 dead Sat,26 Nov 2011 02:56 PM PST Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo blocked President Joseph Kabila's main rival at an airport in Kinshasa on Saturday to stop him staging an election rally after at least two died in violence across the central African state's capital city. Two days before presidential and parliamentary elections, rival factions hurled rocks at each other and gunfire was heard across town. A Reuters reporter saw one lifeless body on the road to the airport while a U.N. source reported another death elsewhere in town. ... Full Story Top New NBA season likely to begin on Christmas Day Sat,26 Nov 2011 04:26 AM PST Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Basketball Association (NBA) and its players have reached a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement which paves the way for a 66-game season starting on Christmas Day. Full Story Top Multiple Baghdad blasts kill at least 13 people Sat,26 Nov 2011 04:28 AM PST Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three bombs exploded in a commercial Baghdad district and another blast hit the city's western outskirts on Saturday, killing at least 13 people, police and hospital sources said. The first blast hit Baghdad's central Bab al-Sharji district followed by two other explosions in a street nearby, in attacks highlighting the fact that violence is still troubling Iraq as the last U.S. troops prepare to withdraw at the end of the year. A police source said the explosions killed at least seven people and wounded 29 others. ... Full Story Top France's ruling party denies role in DSK downfall Sat,26 Nov 2011 07:13 AM PST Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party dismissed allegations on Saturday of a political plot to bring down disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, following an investigative report by a U.S. journalist. The article by Edward Jay Epstein, published in the New York Review of Books, raised the question of whether a Blackberry phone belonging to Strauss-Kahn was being tapped by his political opponents at the time of his arrest in May on charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. ... Full Story Top Japan reconsiders boardroom rules amid Olympus scandal Fri,25 Nov 2011 08:41 PM PST Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese government panel will propose mandatory appointments of outside directors on boards of large firms in the hope of averting the kind of accounting scandal that has engulfed Olympus Corp. But expectations of meaningful change are not high, and experts say the process in which companies pick outside directors may also need regulatory adjustment. The British ex-CEO of Olympus, Michael Woodford, emerged from a meeting of directors on Friday convinced its board would eventually quit. ... Full Story Top AT&T to offer bigger asset sale to save T-Mobile deal: report Fri,25 Nov 2011 06:46 PM PST Reuters - (Reuters) - AT&T Inc is considering an offer to divest a significantly larger portion of assets than it had initially expected, in order to salvage its $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA, Bloomberg reported citing a person familiar with the plan. Bloomberg said the exact size of the divestiture hasn't been determined but reported it could be as much as 40 percent of T-Mobile USA's assets. ... Full Story Top National marches back to power in New Zealand Sat,26 Nov 2011 04:58 AM PST Reuters - AUCKLAND (Reuters) - The ruling center-right National Party returned to power in a crushing win in New Zealand's general election on Saturday and secured the backing of minor parties to ensure a majority for asset sales and welfare reforms. National, led by former foreign exchange dealer John Key, was sitting on 48 percent share of the vote on election night. That would give the party 60 seats in the 121-seat parliament from its current 58. Key was guaranteed a second three-year term with the return of current coalition partners, free-market ACT and centrist United Future, each with one ... Full Story Top Bond market hammers Italy, Spain ponders outside help Sat,26 Nov 2011 02:56 AM PST Reuters - ROME/MADRID (Reuters) - Italy's borrowing costs soared to their highest levels since Rome joined the euro on Friday, piling pressure on the newly installed government of Mario Monti at the end of a week in which the euro zone crisis tainted even safe haven Germany. A punishing bond sale, in which Italy was forced to pay a record 6.5 percent for six months paper, came after a disastrous German bond auction earlier in the week and the leaders of France, Germany and Italy failed to make headway in tackling the growing debt crisis. ... Full Story Top Corzine expected to testify at House hearing: source Fri,25 Nov 2011 02:58 PM PST Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former MF Global Chief Executive Jon Corzine is expected to testify at a congressional hearing next month, a committee aide said on Friday, tamping down speculation that the former head of the bankrupt brokerage would decline to take part. The House Financial Services Committee announced earlier this week that Corzine, a former U.S. senator and governor of New Jersey and one-time head of Goldman Sachs, would appear at a December 15 investigations subcommittee hearing. ... Full Story Top Black Friday draws crowds, but spending in doubt Fri,25 Nov 2011 11:32 PM PST Reuters - (Reuters) - Retailers were hoping for more shoppers like Shawn Elzia as the annual Black Friday bargain stampede marked the unofficial start of what is widely expected to be a middling holiday shopping season. The Brooklyn, New York teacher, one of hundreds of thousands of shoppers jostling for deals around the country, said he ended up spending about 25 percent more than he planned, even while worrying about the state of the economy. ... Full Story Top Arab League prepares for Syria sanctions Fri,25 Nov 2011 03:22 PM PST Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Arab officials will prepare plans for sanctions against Syria on Saturday over its failure to let Arab League monitors oversee an initiative aimed at ending a violent crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad. Damascus missed a Friday deadline to sign an agreement under which the Arab League planned to send observers to Syria, where the United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed since the start of the uprising in March. ... Full Story Top Global supermarkets wary of fine print on India invite Fri,25 Nov 2011 01:38 PM PST Reuters - NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Global supermarket chains welcomed a long-awaited invitation from India to invest in the country's $450 billion retail market, but they fear the small print may keep a lid on investment in the short term. The government on Thursday approved 51 percent foreign direct investment in supermarkets, paving the way for firms such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Tesco and Carrefour to enter one of the world's largest untapped markets. Shares in Indian retailers jumped -- bucking the weaker stock market trend -- in anticipation of interest from those big foreign retailers. ... Full Story Top U.S. opening formal probe into GM Volt fire risk Fri,25 Nov 2011 04:03 PM PST Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators are opening a formal investigation into fire risks in General Motors' Volt vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday. The NHTSA said it was taking the action after recreation this month of a May crash test resulted in fires in two out of three tests. ... Full Story Top Bond market hammers Italy, Spain ponders outside help Fri,25 Nov 2011 01:37 PM PST Reuters - ROME/MADRID (Reuters) - Italy's borrowing costs soared to their highest levels since Rome joined the euro on Friday, piling pressure on the newly installed government of Mario Monti at the end of a week in which the euro zone crisis tainted even safe haven Germany. A punishing bond sale, in which Italy was forced to pay a record 6.5 percent for six months paper, came after a disastrous German bond auction earlier in the week and the leaders of France, Germany and Italy failed to make headway in tackling the growing debt crisis. ... Full Story Top Protesters dig in to keep pressure on Egypt army Fri,25 Nov 2011 03:18 PM PST Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Protesters demanding an end to army rule in Egypt sought on Saturday to build on momentum from a mass protest, bedding down in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a ninth day just two days before the first free parliamentary polls in living memory. Thousands stayed in the square late into the night on Friday, aiming to keep up pressure on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to further speed up a transition to democracy which they believe requires the generals to leave power now. ... Full Story Top Analysis: Sprint network upgrade may curb unlimited data Fri,25 Nov 2011 01:39 PM PST Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel may be forced to abandon the biggest advantage it has over its rivals - unlimited data services for a flat fee - because of heavy data users and a shortage of wireless airwaves. Moreover, the increasing likelihood that AT&T's plan to buy T-Mobile USA, the nation's fourth-largest mobile operator, will fail may have the paradoxical result of making Sprint's position even more untenable, according to analysts who follow all three companies. ... Full Story Top Newsmaker: Technocrat "oil man" takes charge of Libya lifeline Fri,25 Nov 2011 01:41 PM PST Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's new oil minister is seen as the right kind of technocrat, deeply experienced yet not too closely tied to the former regime of Muammar Gaddafi, to help restore the OPEC member's economic lifeline after eight months of war. Abdulrahman Ben Yazza is in his mid-50s and brings experience from both Libya's oil industry and Italian firm Eni, the largest foreign oil producer in Libya before the war. He worked at Libya's Waha Oil company and at the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), culminating in a seat on the management committee. ... Full Story Top Black Friday draws crowds, but spending in doubt Fri,25 Nov 2011 01:40 PM PST Reuters - (Reuters) - Retailers were hoping for more shoppers like Shawn Elzia as the annual Black Friday bargain stampede marked the unofficial start of what is widely expected to be a middling holiday shopping season. The Brooklyn, New York teacher, one of hundreds of thousands of shoppers jostling for deals around the country, said he ended up spending about 25 percent more than he planned, even while worrying about the state of the economy. ... Full Story Top AT&T braces for T-Mobile deal collapse Fri,25 Nov 2011 11:19 AM PST Reuters - LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - AT&T said it would take a $4 billion charge in case its takeover of T-Mobile USA fails, a tacit recognition of the dwindling chances that the deal will get through U.S. regulators who say it would destroy jobs and curb competition. The U.S. telecommunications group and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, said they would continue to pursue anti-trust approval for the $39 billion takeover from the U.S. Department of Justice, but withdrew applications to the industry regulator, for now at least. ... Full Story Top U.S. opening formal probe into GM Volt fire risk Fri,25 Nov 2011 02:46 PM PST Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators are opening a formal investigation into fire risks in General Motors' Volt vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday it was taking the step after efforts to recreate a May crash test saw fires result from two out of three crash tests performed this month. ... Full Story Top Ex-Olympus CEO says willing but not begging to return Fri,25 Nov 2011 01:38 PM PST Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - The British ex-CEO of Japan's Olympus Corp emerged from a frosty meeting of directors on Friday convinced its board would eventually quit over an accounting scandal engulfing the firm, but he said he wasn't "begging" to return and clean up the mess. Michael Woodford, still an Olympus director despite being fired as CEO and blowing the whistle over the scam, described the meeting as a tense encounter with no handshakes or apologies offered from the men who had sacked him barely a month ago. ... Full Story Top Australia approves $11 billion Foster's sale to SABMiller Fri,25 Nov 2011 01:40 PM PST Reuters - CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's government approved on Friday SABMiller's A$11.5 billion ($11.2 billion) deal to acquire Foster's Group Ltd under foreign acquisitions laws, but imposed conditions requiring the company to keep brewing operations in Australia. The government approval is the final regulatory condition to be cleared ahead of the Foster's shareholders vote set for December 1, which is expected to pass the deal. ... Full Story Top "Awful" Italy debt sale heightens euro zone stress Fri,25 Nov 2011 09:36 AM PST Reuters - MILAN (Reuters) - Italy paid a record 6.5 percent to borrow money over six months on Friday and its longer-term funding costs soared far above levels seen as sustainable for public finances, raising the pressure on Rome's new emergency government. The auction yield on the six-month paper almost doubled compared to a month earlier, capping a week in which a German bond auction came close to failing and the leaders of Germany, France and Italy failed to make progress on crisis resolution measures. ... Full Story Top Lawmakers to look at Corzine, rating firms' ties: report Fri,25 Nov 2011 06:04 AM PST Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers plan to look into the relationship between bankrupt mid-size brokerage firm MF Global Holdings Ltd's former CEO Jon Corzine and the major credit-rating agencies, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. MF Global's credit ratings were cut to junk in the days before its October 31 bankruptcy. A U.S. congressional subcommittee plans a December 15 hearing with regulators and top MF Global officials to review the firm's collapse. ... Full Story Top Analysis: Harper's bet may pay off; China open to Canadian oil Fri,25 Nov 2011 08:00 AM PST Reuters - SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - China is set to embrace Canada's offer of more crude, heating up competition with the United States as the world's top two oil consumers jostle to secure supplies and meet ravenous demand. Shipments from a politically stable country such as Canada will be a welcome diversification of supply sources as top consumers make plans to deal with a supply shock if tensions in the Middle East escalate and choke off Iranian exports, barely a year after markets coped with a disruption from Libya. ... Full Story Top Australia approves $11 billion Foster's sale to SABMiller Thu,24 Nov 2011 03:23 PM PST Reuters - CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's government approved on Friday SABMiller's A$11.5 billion ($11.2 billion) deal to acquire Foster's Group Ltd under foreign acquisitions laws, but imposed conditions requiring the company to keep brewing operations in Australia. The government approval is the final regulatory condition to be cleared ahead of the Foster's shareholders vote set for December 1, which is expected to pass the deal. ... Full Story Top AT&T braces for T-Mobile deal collapse Thu,24 Nov 2011 03:07 PM PST Reuters - LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - AT&T said it would take a $4 billion charge in case its takeover of T-Mobile USA fails, a tacit recognition of the dwindling chances that the deal will get through U.S. regulators who say it would destroy jobs and curb competition. The U.S. telecommunications group and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, said they would continue to pursue anti-trust approval for the $39 billion takeover from the U.S. Department of Justice, but withdrew applications to the industry regulator, for now at least. ... Full Story Top James Turley to retire as Ernst & Young CEO Thu,24 Nov 2011 11:58 AM PST Reuters - (Reuters) - Accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young said chairman and chief executive James Turley will retire in June 2013. Turley told the firm's worldwide partners in a November 10 communication that he would retire at age 58, on June 30, 2013, Ernst & Young said in a statement. A replacement will be named by April 2012, it added. "He's gotten them through some ugly litigation," Jonathan Hamilton, editor of the Accounting News Report, said. Many feared that the lawsuits stemming from the firm's audits of hospital operator HealthSouth Corp would cripple Ernst & Young, he added. ... Full Story Top Egypt braces for fresh rally against army rule Thu,24 Nov 2011 03:11 PM PST Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Activists vowed to crank up pressure on Egypt's generals on Friday with an overwhelming show of people power to cap almost a week of protests against army rule that have left 41 people dead. State media said the army leaders picked a political veteran in his late 70s to form a national salvation government, a choice that was quickly snubbed by many of the young activists who have led the demonstrations in Tahrir Square. ... Full Story Top

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