Stock futures point to flat-to-lower start

LONDON (Reuters) – Stock futures pointed to a flat-to-lower open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.1 percent at 0950 GMT (4.50 a.m. ET).

Contracts on the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 were flat in percentage terms.

Japan’s Nikkei <.n225> average surged above 9,700 for the first time in eight months, led by exporters, as the yen fell to a multi-month low on mounting expectations of aggressive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan after a general election at the weekend.</.n225>

European shares slipped on Thursday after persistent concern about U.S. austerity measures that could hit growth in the world’s largest economy overshadowed fresh stimulus steps from the Federal Reserve.

Google’s navigation tool has returned to the iPhone, months after Apple‘s home-grown mapping service flopped, prompting user complaints, the firing of an executive and a public apology from Apple‘s CEO. [ID:nL1E8ND0P2]

Adobe Systems , the maker of Photoshop software, reports results, expected to show earnings per share fell to $ 0.57 in its fourth quarter, from $ 0.67 one year earlier.

GrainCorp Ltd on Thursday rejected a sweetened $ 2.9 billion bid from Archer Daniels Midland , putting pressure on the U.S. agribusiness giant to boost its offer for Australia’s last major independent grains handler.

Knight Capital Group Inc expects to make a decision on its future ownership by early next week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. unit of Britain’s BAE Systems Plc said it has won a contract valued at up to $ 400 million to maintain and service more than 300 U.S. Navy trainer aircraft, beating out incumbent Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies , and L-3 Communications .

The Pentagon will pay about 4 percent less for each new Lockheed Martin Corp F-35A fighter jet when it signs a deal worth $ 3.8 billion with the No. 1 U.S. defense contractor on Friday, according to sources familiar with the deal.

American Airlines creditors want a potential merger with US Airways Group Inc to be an all-stock deal rather than one that pays some claims in cash, three people familiar with the matter said, in a move that underscores confidence in a merged airline.

Solar installer SolarCity is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq after halving the value of its initial public offering. The deal has been highly anticipated in clean tech and venture capital circles as alternative energy startups have had a difficult time attracting investor interest.

The U.S. Labor Dept releases first-time claims for jobless benefits for the week ended December 8 at 1330 GMT (8.30 a.m. ET). They were expected to show 370,000 new filings, a repeat of the previous weeks figure.

The U.S. Commerce Dept’s November retail sales, also due out 1330 GMT (8.30 a.m. ET), were forecast to show a 0.5 percent rise, compared with a 0.3 percent decrease in October. Excluding automobiles, sales are expected to be unchanged, a repeat of the October level.

Producer prices were forecast to show a 0.5 percent decrease compared with a 0.2 percent drop in October. Excluding volatile food and energy items, PPI is expected to rise 0.2 percent versus with a 0.2 percent decrease in October.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slipped 2.99 points, or 0.02 percent, to 13,245.45 on Wednesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.spx> inched up just 0.64 of a point, or 0.04 percent, to 1,428.48. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed 8.49 points, or 0.28 percent, to end at 3,013.81.</.ixic></.spx></.dji>

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

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Stock futures edge higher, focus on Fed

LONDON (Reuters) – Stock futures pointed to a fractionally higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 rising by 0.1 to 0.2 percent.

* The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to announce a fresh round of bond buying on Wednesday as part of its efforts to support a fragile economic recovery threatened by political wrangling over the government’s budget.

* Negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff” ahead of a year-end deadline intensified as President Barack Obama and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner spoke by phone on Tuesday after exchanging new proposals.

* India’s government announced an inquiry into lobbying practices by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Wednesday after a report that the giant retailer had pressed U.S. lawmakers to help gain access to foreign markets.

* Costco Wholesale Corp posted a 30 percent rise in quarterly profit, beating expectations, as the largest U.S. warehouse club chain saw sales rise and got a lift from higher membership fees.

* Chesapeake Energy Corp on Tuesday agreed to sell most of its remaining natural gas processing and gathering assets for $ 2.16 billion as it continues to sell assets to pay down its heavy debt load.

* Sprint Nextel Corp is in talks with Intel Corp and Comcast Corp to buy out their stakes in the U.S. wireless provider Clearwire Corp , two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

* European shares steadied in early trade on Wednesday, keeping alive their sharp three-week rally as investors bet the Fed would deliver on stimulus.

* The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> closed up 78.56 points, or 0.60 percent, at 13,248.44 on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.spx> was up 9.29 points, or 0.65 percent, at 1,427.84 – its highest since November elections. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 35.34 points, or 1.18 percent, at 3,022.30.</.ixic></.spx></.dji>

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; editing by Patrick Graham)

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Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse’s family

CANBERRA (Reuters) – The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.

Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum contribution of A$ 500,000 ($ 525,000), to a memorial fund for the nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, who answered the telephone at the hospital treating Prince William’s pregnant wife, Kate.

The company has suspended the Sydney-based announcers, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, scrapped their “Hot 30″ programme and suspended advertising on the station in the wake of the Saldanha’s death. Southern Cross said it would resume advertising on its station from Thursday.

“It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts continue to be with the family,” Southern Cross Chief Executive Officer Rhys Holleran said in a statement.

“We hope that by contributing to a memorial fund we can help to provide the Saldanha family with the support they need at this very difficult time.”

(Reporting by James Grubel; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Recent hacking of U.N. nuclear agency not first attempt: IAEA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A recently announced hacking of the U.N. nuclear agency’s computer servers was not the first time an attempt had been made to break into the organization’s computer system, the head of the agency said on Thursday.

Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that a few months ago a group broke into the agency’s computer system and stole personal information of scientists working on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

In response to questions at a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington, Amano repeated what he said last week after the hacking was revealed: no sensitive information about the IAEA‘s nuclear inspections had been stolen.

The IAEA has shut down the server that had been hacked and is continuing an investigation, Amano said. But he also said it wasn’t the first attempt to break into the system.

“If you ask if this is the only case? I would say there have been some other tries but we are doing our best to protect our system,” Amano said.

The hackers – a group using an Iranian-sounding name – have posted scores of email addresses of experts who have been working with the U.N. agency on a website, and have urged the IAEA to investigate Israel’s nuclear activity.

Israel, which has an undeclared nuclear arsenal, and the United States accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran denies such ambitions.

Amano would not say if he believed Iran was behind the attacks on the IAEA, whose missions include preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and which is investigating Iran’s disputed nuclear activities.

“The group … they have what looks like an Iranian name. But that does not mean that the origin is Iran,” he said.

There has been an increase in suspected Iranian cyber attacks this year, coinciding with a deepening standoff with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.

(Reporting by Deborah Charles. Editing by Warren Strobel and Doina Chiacu)

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Elijah Wood, Aaron Paul rally fans to save north Hollywood taco joint

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Elijah Wood and Aaron Paul are on a mission to save a North Hollywood taco stand.

The actors are rallying fans around Henry‘s Tacos, which has been on the corner of Tujunga and Moorpark for 51 years and is closing December 31 due to a conflict with the building’s landlord.

In an announcement posted on Facebook, the stand’s owner, Janis Hood, said that running the restaurant is too much of a burden for her – but the landlord, Mehran Ebrahimpour, isn’t allowing “prospective buyers committed to continuing the tradition” to take over the lease.

The reason, Hood believes, is because she “unwittingly” angered him by nominating Henry’s to become for a Historic Cultural Monument a year ago. Ultimately, the city council never voted on her request, but the damage was done.

Once loyal customer Wood heard the news, he immediately took to Twitter: “Los Angeles institution, Henry’s Tacos to shut,” Wood tweeted. “Please retweet. Very sad situation.”

Over 250 followers and counting have heard his cry, including a few famous friends like Aaron Paul, Colin Hanks and “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig.

“This can’t happen. Save LA history,” Feig added, after retweeting Wood’s words.

But instead of just wishing for a Christmas miracle, Paul has a plan – not to mention a cool opportunity for his fans. The “Breaking Bad” star is asking “the masses” to join him for lunch this coming Sunday.

“We must save @HenrysTacos from closing,” he tweeted. “Come join me for lunch this Sunday at 2pm!! Join the masses and eat some tacos!! Tell your friends.”

While he may bring Henry’s some extra business before serving its last burrito, owner Hood makes it seem like the chances of changing Henry’s fate are slim.

“The current prospective buyers have agreed to all the landlord’s terms, but he has ceased communicating with them,” she wrote. “Therefore, I have given my notice and it has been accepted by the landlord.”

Neither Hood nor Ebrahimpour immediately responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.

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New tests could hamper food outbreak detection

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s about to get faster and easier to diagnose food poisoning, but that progress for individual patients comes with a downside: It could hurt the nation’s ability to spot and solve dangerous outbreaks.

Next-generation tests that promise to shave a few days off the time needed to tell whether E. coli, salmonella or other foodborne bacteria caused a patient’s illness could reach medical laboratories as early as next year. That could allow doctors to treat sometimes deadly diseases much more quickly — an exciting development.

The problem: These new tests can’t detect crucial differences between different subtypes of bacteria, as current tests can. And that fingerprint is what states and the federal government use to match sick people to a contaminated food. The older tests might be replaced by the new, more efficient ones.

“It’s like a forensics lab. If somebody says a shot was fired, without the bullet you don’t know where it came from,” explained E. coli expert Dr. Phillip Tarr of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that losing the ability to literally take a germ’s fingerprint could hamper efforts to keep food safe, and the agency is searching for solutions. According to CDC estimates, 1 in 6 Americans gets sick from foodborne illnesses each year, and 3,000 die.

“These improved tests for diagnosing patients could have the unintended consequence of reducing our ability to detect and investigate outbreaks, ultimately causing more people to become sick,” said Dr. John Besser of the CDC.

That means outbreaks like the salmonella illnesses linked this fall to a variety of Trader Joe’s peanut butter might not be identified that quickly — or at all.

It all comes down to what’s called a bacterial culture — whether labs grow a sample of a patient’s bacteria in an old-fashioned petri dish, or skip that step because the new tests don’t require it.

Here’s the way it works now: Someone with serious diarrhea visits the doctor, who gets a stool sample and sends it to a private testing laboratory. The lab cultures the sample, growing larger batches of any lurking bacteria to identify what’s there. If disease-causing germs such as E. coli O157 or salmonella are found, they may be sent on to a public health laboratory for more sophisticated analysis to uncover their unique DNA patterns — their fingerprints.

Those fingerprints are posted to a national database, called PulseNet, that the CDC and state health officials use to look for food poisoning trends.

There are lots of garden-variety cases of salmonella every year, from runny eggs to a picnic lunch that sat out too long. But if a few people in, say, Baltimore have salmonella with the same molecular signature as some sick people in Cleveland, it’s time to investigate, because scientists might be able narrow the outbreak to a particular food or company.

But culture-based testing takes time — as long as two to four days after the sample reaches the lab, which makes for a long wait if you’re a sick patient.

What’s in the pipeline? Tests that could detect many kinds of germs simultaneously instead of hunting one at a time — and within hours of reaching the lab — without first having to grow a culture. Those tests are expected to be approved as early as next year.

This isn’t just a science debate, said Shari Shea, food safety director at the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

If you were the patient, “you’d want to know how you got sick,” she said.

PulseNet has greatly improved the ability of regulators and the food industry to solve those mysteries since it was launched in the mid-1990s, helping to spot major outbreaks in ground beef, spinach, eggs and cantaloupe in recent years. Just this fall, PulseNet matched 42 different salmonella illnesses in 20 different states that were eventually traced to a variety of Trader Joe’s peanut butter.

Food and Drug Administration officials who visited the plant where the peanut butter was made found salmonella contamination all over the facility, with several of the plant samples matching the fingerprint of the salmonella that made people sick. A New Mexico-based company, Sunland Inc., recalled hundreds of products that were shipped to large retailers all over the country, including Target, Safeway and other large grocery chains.

The source of those illnesses probably would have remained a mystery without the national database, since there weren’t very many illnesses in any individual state.

To ensure that kind of crucial detective work isn’t lost, the CDC is asking the medical community to send samples to labs to be cultured even when they perform a new, non-culture test.

But it’s not clear who would pay for that extra step. Private labs only can perform the tests that a doctor orders, noted Dr. Jay M. Lieberman of Quest Diagnostics, one of the country’s largest testing labs.

A few first-generation non-culture tests are already available. When private labs in Wisconsin use them, they frequently ship leftover samples to the state lab, which grows the bacteria itself. But as more private labs switch over after the next-generation rapid tests arrive, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene will be hard-pressed to keep up with that extra work before it can do its main job — fingerprinting the bugs, said deputy director Dr. Dave Warshauer.

Stay tuned: Research is beginning to look for solutions that one day might allow rapid and in-depth looks at food poisoning causes in the same test.

“As molecular techniques evolve, you may be able to get the information you want from non-culture techniques,” Lieberman said.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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Pensions plans ‘will cost jobs’

11 December 2012 Last updated at 05:42 ET

The CBI has renewed its attack on a European scheme aimed at strengthening pension finances – claiming it will lead to thousands of job cuts.

The proposals, first outlined by the European Commission in 2010, aim to make company pension schemes more robust if the firm goes bust.

But the CBI said the plans were “completely unnecessary” and would add billions to schemes’ costs.

The UK government is continuing to press for the plans to be dropped.

Costs and jobs

One of the Commission’s aims is to bring the solvency rules for occupational pension schemes in three years time in line with its so-called “Solvency 2″ rules, which will be aimed at strengthening the finances of insurance companies.

This would mean that a company pension scheme would need to cover the full cost of pensions, in case the employer went bust. Normally, a scheme never has to cover the full cost of paying pensions all at once.

A study for the CBI by economic consultants Oxford Economics claimed that the changes could result in extra costs of £350bn over 10 years and 180,000 jobs could be lost.

“Imposing £350bn more costs on business would be a disaster for the economy and for pension saving,” said CBI chief policy director Katja Hall.

“The long-term economic outlook is so fragile and uncertain that it is crazy to entertain proposals which would cost jobs and cut so deeply into our long-term growth and competitiveness.

“We have a tough regulatory system in this country, so these changes are completely unnecessary.”

‘Reckless’

The plans have been criticised by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), the TUC, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW).

In June, Pensions Minister Steve Webb said the government remained “resolute” in its determination to fight off the Commission’s plan and to make the European authorities “see sense”.

He said the rules would be pointless and so onerous for employers that more schemes would simply be shut down altogether.

“I continue to meet senior Commission officials, to persuade them to rethink their reckless plans,” he said.

The Commission said it had yet to make any firm legislative proposals.

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McAfee wants to return to US, ‘normal life’

BACALAR, Mexico (AP) — Software company founder John McAfee said Sunday he wants to return to the United States and “settle down to whatever normal life” he can.

In a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old said “I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years.”

Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near his home on a Belizean island in November.

The creator of the McAfee antivirus program again denied involvement in the killing during the Sunday Internet video hook-up, during which he answered what he said were reporters’ questions.

His comments were sometimes contradictory. McAfee is an acknowledged practical joker who has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and the production of herbal medications.

The British-born McAfee first said that returning to the United States “is my only hope now.” But he later added, “I would be happy to go to England, I have dual citizenship.”

He was emphatic that “I cannot ever return to Belize …. there is no hope for my life if I am ever returned to Belize.”

“If I am returned,” he said, “bad things will clearly happen to me.”

He descibed the health problems that had him briefly hospitalized earlier this week after Guatemalan authorities detained him for entering the country illegally. He apparently snuck in across a rural, unguarded spot along the border.

“I did not eat for two days, I drank very little liquids, and for the first time in many years I’ve been smoking almost non-stop,” he said. “I stood up, passed out hit my head on the wall, came to,” though he now said he was feeling better.

McAfee praised the role his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Vanegas, played in his escape from Belize, where he claims he is being persecuted by corrupt politicians. Authorities in Belize deny that they are persecuting him and have questioned his mental state.

“Sam saved the day many times” during their escape, he said, and suggested he would take her with him to the United States if he is allowed to go there.

He confirmed that journalists from Vice magazine who accompanied him on his escape after weeks of hiding in Belize had unwittingly posted photos with embedded data that revealed his exact location.

“It was an error anyone could make,” he said, noting they were under a lot of pressure at the time.

McAfee has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.

He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $ 4 million of his $ 100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as describing that claim as “not very accurate at all.”

McAfee’s Guatemalan attorney, Telesforo Guerra, says that he has filed three separate legal appeals in the hope that his client can stay in Guatemala, where his political asylum request was rejected.

Guerra said he filed an appeal for a judge to make sure McAfee’s physical integrity is protected, an appeal against the asylum denial and a petition with immigration officials to allow his client to stay in this Central American country indefinitely.

The appeals could take several days to resolve, Guerra said. He added that he could still use several other legal resources but wouldn’t give any other details.

Fredy Viana, a spokesman for the Immigration Department, said that before the agency looks into the request to allow McAfee to stay in Guatemala, a judge must first deal with the appeal asking that authorities make sure McAfee’s physical integrity is protected.

“We won’t look into (allowing him to stay) until the other appeal is resolved,” Viana said. “The law gives me 30 days to resolve the issue.”

McAfee went on the run last month after Belizean officials tried to question him about the killing of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in early November.

McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denies killing Faull. Faull’s home was a couple of houses down from McAfee’s compound in Ambergris Caye, off Belize’s Caribbean coast.

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Syrian Rebels Now Have a Tank Powered by a Playstation Controller

As Syria‘s rebels work to overthrow the tank-equipped Assad regime, they’ve learned that it helps to have tanks of their own. They deserve bonus points for integrating video game technology. This is no exaggeration. Have a look at the opposition forces’ “100 percent made in Syria” armored vehicle, the Sham II.

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Named for ancient Syria and assembled out of spare parts over the course of a month, the Sham II sort of rough around the edges, but it’s got impressive guts. It rides on the chassis of an old diesel car and is fully encased in light steel that’s rusted from the elements. Five cameras are mounted around the tanks outside, and there’s a machine gun mounted on a turning turret. Inside, it kind of looks like a man cave. A couple of flat screen TVs are mounted on opposite walls. The driver sits in front of one, controlling the vehicle with a steering wheel, and the gunner sits at the other, aiming the machine gun with a Playstation controller.

RELATED: It’s Never a Good Idea to Put Your Torture Victims on YouTube

Sham II is heading up to the devastated city of Aleppo to join the combat forces there. Meanwhile, rebel forces continue to close in on Damascus and Assad’s shrinking regime. Diplomats have already begun to speculate about what the Syrian president’s next move would be. We do know that Assad has been exploring the option of seeking political asylum in the Middle East or in Latin American. However, it looks more likely that Assad and his cronies will retreat to the Alawite-controlled mountains on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. The only other alternative — chemical weapons attack notwithstanding — would be for Assad to stay in the palace and fight to the end. And can you imagine standing helpless as a fierce machine like Sham II roared up the palace steps? Run, Bashar. Run.

RELATED: The CIA Is Guiding Weapons into Syria

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Gabrielle Aplin tops UK charts with Power of Love

LONDON (Reuters) – English singer Gabrielle Aplin scored her first British number one on Sunday with a cover of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood hit “The Power of Love”, the Official Charts Company said.

Aplin climbed to number one from sixth place with the song, which first entered the charts in 1984 and is the theme for a Christmas television advert for British retailer John Lewis.

In the album charts, Olly Murs, a former runner-up in television’s X-Factor talent contest, held on to the top spot with his release “Right Place Right Time”, but saw his “Troublemaker” slip to third place in the singles ranks.

American singer Pink was the week’s highest climber in the singles top ten, jumping to eighth place from number 26 with “Try”.

(Reporting by Tim Castle; editing by Jason Webb)

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