Czech PM Necas: Soften austerity drive to help economy – paper

PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech government must change tack to help the economy out of a recession and “stop scaring” the public with further budget tightening, Prime Minister Petr Necas was quoted as saying on Saturday.Pressure has been building on his centre-right cabinet to ease its austerity zeal after the economy slid into a recession and Necas’s Civic...

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Philip Roth Is Retiring; Amazon Glitch Disables Buy Buttons

Today in books and publishing: Philip Roth confirms his retirement; Amazon‘s mysteriously vanishing buy buttons; Kobo expands to Italy, Kindle considers China; cities in literature.RELATED: Trikes, a Mustache, and Andy Warhol Philip Roth wraps it up. One of America’s most celebrated living novelists has been hinting...

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Weinstein Co., Clear Channel, Madison Square Garden Hosting Benefit Concert for Sandy Relief

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Clear Channel Media, The Madison Square Garden Company and The Weinstein Company are joining together to produce a benefit concert to raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy.The concert, titled “12-12-12,” will feature live music, although the producers did not reveal who would be performing. The roster should be an A-list...

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Abbott hepatitis C drugs bring high cure rates in trial

(Reuters) – A trio of oral medicines from Abbott Laboratories Inc to treat hepatitis C produced unprecedented cure rates in patients who had failed to benefit from standard treatment, as well as very high cure rates for newly treated patients, Abbott said on Saturday.Detailed data from the mid-stage trial, called Aviator, were released Saturday at the...

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Administrator cuts 330 Comet jobs

9 November 2012 Last updated at 12:02 ETThe joint administrators of Comet say 330 staff are being made redundant. The cuts will be made at the retailer’s head office and support centres in Rickmansworth (99), Hull (53) and a call centre in Clevedon (42).There have been no redundancies at Comet distribution centres or...

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Assad says will live and die in Syria

DOHA (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad said he would “live and die” in Syria and warned that any Western invasion to topple him would have catastrophic consequences for the Middle East and beyond.Assad’s defiant remarks coincided with a landmark meeting in Qatar on Thursday of Syria’s fractious opposition to hammer out an agreement on a new umbrella...

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‘NBA 2K13′ tops video games titles in October

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. retail sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories fell 25 percent in October, marking the 11th straight month of declining sales for physical game products, according to a report from NPD Group.Many gamers are waiting for big holiday releases such as Activision‘s “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.” NPD...

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On Twitter, pope to get different type of followers

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict already has 1.2 billion “followers” in the standard sense of the word but he soon will have another type when he enters what for any 85 year old is the brave new world of Twitter.Vatican officials say the pontiff, who is known not to love computers and still writes most of his speeches by hand, will have his own handle...

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Tiny Tick May Be Spreading Vegetarianism

A tiny tick might be to blame for a rash of meat allergies in central and southern regions of the U.S.A bite from the lone star tick, so-called for the white spot on its back, looks innocent enough. But researchers say saliva that sneaks into the wound might trigger a reaction to meat agonizing enough to convert lifelong carnivores into wary vegetarians. “People...

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Draghi open to ECB rate cut, done helping Greece

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The euro zone economy shows little sign of recovering before the year-end despite easing financial market conditions, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Thursday, leaving open the possibility of an interest rate cut in the months ahead.But after keeping rates on hold on Thursday, Draghi said the ECB cannot do much...

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Ghana building collapse traps dozens, kills 1

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A five-story shopping center built earlier this year in a bustling suburb of Ghana‘s capital collapsed Wednesday, killing at least one person and leaving several dozen people trapped in the rubble, authorities and eyewitnesses said.Rescue crews used cranes to try and remove debris from the top of the building amid fears that machinery...

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Assad fans vent over Syria at Qatar soccer match

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria blames the state of Qatar for arming rebels bent on overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad. Qatar has accused Assad of genocide. On Thursday afternoon, the two countries battled it out on the soccer field.“Our souls, our blood, we sacrifice them for Bashar,” the Syrian fans screamed, waving their national flag, as the under-19s...

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UK PM warns of witch-hunt against gays in pedophile scandal

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron warned on Thursday that speculation about the identity of an unidentified member of his ruling Conservative party accused of sexually abusing children could turn into a witch-hunt against gay people.Cameron, who leads a troubled two-party coalition, ordered an investigation this week after a victim...

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Sudan’s Bashir vows “painful response” to alleged Israel bombing

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan‘s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday promised his country would respond robustly to what he believes was an Israeli bombing of a Khartoum arms factory and said he was in “perfect health” after undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia.Sudan last month accused Israel of carrying out an air strike on the Yarmouk arms factory...

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Stocks plunge after election; Europe woes deepen

The election behind them, U.S. investors dumped stocks Wednesday and turned their focus to a world of problems — tax increases and spending cuts that could stall the nation’s economic recovery and a deepening recession in Europe.The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted as much as 369 points, or 2.6 percent, in the first two hours of trading. The average...

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Canada firms to capitalize on nuclear trade with India

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Canadian firms will be able to export uranium and nuclear reactors to India for the first time in almost four decades under an agreement between the two nations, their prime ministers said, but more work is needed to implement the deal.Once implemented, the agreement will end a ban on nuclear cooperation Canada imposed in 1976 after...

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News Summary: Apple-Google lawsuit dismissed

CASE CLOSED: A federal judge in Madison, Wis., has thrown out a suit by Apple Inc. claiming that Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility is seeking unreasonably high license fees for the use of patents on wireless technology.THE BACKDROP: The suit is part of a world-spanning battle between Apple and Google, whose Android software powers the smartphones that...

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“Dad’s Army” star Clive Dunn dies aged 92

LONDON (Reuters) – British actor Clive Dunn, best known as a bumbling old butcher in the popular World War Two sitcom “Dad’s Army”, has died, his agent said on Wednesday.Dunn passed away on Tuesday, Peter Charlesworth said, adding that he believed the actor died in Portugal where he has lived for many years. He was 92. As...

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Soda tax ballot measures fizzle in California

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Voters in two California cities rejected measures that would have imposed the nation’s first penny-per-ounce taxes on businesses that sell sodas and other sugary drinks in an effort to boost municipal revenue and fight obesity.In El Monte, 76.8 percent of voters said no, while in Richmond, 66.9 percent opposed the measure, according...

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Asia-Europe Meeting: build growth with cooperation

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Leaders from Asia and Europe called Tuesday for closer cooperation between the two continents in addressing the current global economic and financial crisis.The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, also unequivocally affirmed the euro’s future. A two-day Asia-Europe Meeting in...

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Cautious reformers tipped for new China leadership

BEIJING (Reuters) – China‘s ruling Communist Party will this month unveil its new top leadership team, expected to again be an all-male cast of politicians whose instincts are to move cautiously on reform.Sources close to the leadership say 10 main candidates are vying for seven seats on the party’s next Politburo Standing Committee, the peak decision-making...

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Whale injures three boatmen off South Africa’s coast

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Three men were injured on Monday when a whale leaped out of the water and landed on their inflatable boat off South Africa’s south coast near the harbor city of Port Elizabeth, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Tuesday.The weight of animal, believed to be a humpback whale, pushed the craft underwater but the boat...

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Ivorian reggae singers bury rivalry for “peace” tour

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – As darkness falls over Ivory Coast‘s lagoon-side commercial capital a steady thumping cuts through the tropical night.But where once the thud of heavy weapons set the Abidjan‘s residents scrambling indoors for cover, tonight it is a reggae bass line that draws them out. Here, little over a year ago,...

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