Nov 16 (Reuters) – David Beckham could be set to move to the A-League after Football Federation Australia (FFA) said on Friday they had been approached by the former England captain’s management. According to FFA officials, the approach was made in relation to Beckham playing in the A-League during the current 2012-13 season. “The approach from David Beckham’s people is another sign of how much the A-League has grown in stature on a global basis,” the FFA said in a statement. …
Former WNBA star Chamique Holdsclaw in Atlanta jail on aggravated assault charge
ATLANTA – Former WNBA star Chamique Holdsclaw is in custody after being accused of shooting into a woman’s car after using a bat to break its windows.
Turkmen gas company says flows to Iran restored
ASHGABAT (Reuters) – Turkmenistan has resumed gas supplies to Iran after a brief stoppage for repairs along a stretch of pipeline linking the two countries, the head of Turkmenistan’s state gas company told Reuters on Friday. Iran buys almost a third of Turkmenistan’s exported gas, relying on it for heating in winter and using it year round to meet industrial demand in regions distant from the country’s own fields clustered around the Gulf. Turkmengaz Chairman Sahatmurad Mamedov said Iran had requested the halt. …
Australia wait on Watson's fitness for 2nd test
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia has named Shane Watson in a 13-man squad for the second test against South Africa in Adelaide next week, but said it was too early to guarantee the allrounder's selection as he recovers from a calf strain. Vice captain Watson was ruled out of the drawn first test in Brisbane and replaced by Rob Quiney who slotted in at number three and scored nine in his test debut. … Analysis: New Microsoft mantra after Sinofsky - Teamwork
SEATTLE/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The sudden departure of powerful Windows boss Steven Sinofsky this week is the first step in a plan by CEO Steve Ballmer to remodel Microsoft Corp as a much more integrated operation in an attempt to take on Apple Inc and Google Inc at their own game. After nearly 13 years at the helm of the world's largest software maker, which just launched its first own-brand computer, sources inside the company say Sinofsky's departure signals Ballmer's new-found focus on co-operation between its self-sufficient – and sometimes warring – units. … Leodis McKelvin scores on 79-yard punt return, Buffalo defence stuffs Miami in 19-14 win
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – Mario Williams and the Buffalo Bills’ high-priced defence finally flexed its collective muscle, stuffing the Miami Dolphins in a 19-14 victory Thursday night.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is investigating Wal-Mart Stores Inc. over allegations it violated the country's foreign exchange rules, a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter, told Reuters on Friday. An Indian lawmaker has accused Wal-Mart of "clandestinely and illegally" investing $100 million in the multi-brand retail business of its wholesale joint venture partner, Bharti Enterprises, as early as 2010, before India allowed foreign companies to operate front-end stores. … 
An Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Egypt that Israel would be prepared to suspend its military offensive in the Gaza Strip during the Egyptian prime minister's visit there. 
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was poised to dissolve Japan's parliament Friday, setting the stage for elections next month that will likely result in a weak coalition government with differing policies on the country's economic woes, territorial disputes and other problems. 
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Triple Olympic champion Leisel Jones has retired from the pool at the age of 27, after swimmin g a record fourth Games for Australia at London. Jones, who won selection at the age of 14 for the 2000 Sydney Games, signed off at London with a silver in the 4
Casualties and attacks in the Israel-Hamas conflict: 
GAZA (Reuters) – Egypt 's prime minister prepared to visit the Gaza Strip on Friday in an unprecedented display of solidarity with Hamas militants embroiled in a new escalation of conflict with Israel that risks spiraling into all-out war. Two rockets from Gaza crashed near Tel Aviv in the first such attack on Israel's commercial capital for 20 years. One fell into the Mediterranean Sea and the other in an uninhabited part of one of the Tel Aviv suburbs south of the city. … 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will press Myanmar leaders during an upcoming trip to restore calm to the western part of their country and bring instigators of ethnic violen ce there to justice, White House officials said on Thursday. Obama leaves on Saturday for a trip to Asia that will include a historic stop in Myanmar, a former pariah state. Some human rights workers object to the trip, saying the president is rewarding the country too soon for its still fragile democratic reforms. … 
Miners at Anglo American Platinum Ltd. operations in South Africa returned to work Thursday, ending a more than eight-week strike that crippled the world's largest platinum producer. 
The hostilities between Israel and Hamas have found a new battleground: social media. 
BANGKOK (Reuters) – There is a Jekyll-and-Hyde quality to President Thein Sein, the bookish-looking former general Barack Obama will meet on Monday during the first visit by a U.S. president to Myanmar. Thein Sein has been both a dictator's henchman and a man widely seen as a Nobel Peace Prize contender. He rose to power in a rabidly anti-American military junta, yet spearheaded its efforts to build better relations with the United States. His past remains opaque, even as he leads Myanmar into a new era of transparency after nearly five decades of dictatorship. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – PricewaterhouseCoopers, administrators to Manganese Bronze Holdings Plc, said on Thursday it had found a solution to the steering box defect affecting its new TX4 model. The maker of London's black taxi, which has been reporting lo sses since 2008, recalled about 400 TX4 London taxis last month after it found a defect in a steering box that was introduced in February. PwC said it had secured supply chain availability and logistics from a UK supplier to begin replacing the faulty steering boxes, which it aims to have completed by mid-December. … 
Egypt's Islamist president may hail from the fiercely anti-Israeli Muslim Brotherhood, an a lly of Gaza's Hamas rulers. But in his first major crisis over Israel, he is adopting a stance not unlike that of his ousted predecessor Hosni Mubarak, Israel's longtime friend. 
Uruguay is one step closer to turning the government into the country's leading pot dealer. 
CINCINNATI (Reuters) – Procter & Gamble plans to trim more non-manufacturing jobs through 2016, on top of cutting 10 percent of that workforce by the end of June, as the world's larg est household-products maker tries to reinvigorate what has become a sluggish organization. P&G also said it may increase stock repurchases to $6 billion from $4 billion, but said such additional buybacks should not have a big impact on earnings per share. The company maintained the forecasts for sales and earnings for the current quarter and the fiscal year it had given in late October. … 
Jordanian authorities will strike those who incite violence during protests with an "iron fist," the country's police chief said Thursday as the Islamist-led opposition vowed to continue demonstrations that have rattled the U.S.-allied kingdom. 
France's president called Thu rsday for stepped-up talks between Mali's government and any leaders from its breakaway north "who reject terrorism," even as African nations geared up for a possible military operation against Islamic extremists there. 
Spain approved a two-year suspension of evicti ons Thursday for some needy homeowners unable to pay their mortgages, but activists said the government failed to address the larger issue of how those who give up their homes may still remain indebted, sometimes for the rest of their lives. 
LONDON (Reuters) – Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, two of Britain's best-known property entrepreneurs, have won the lion's share of their multi-million pound costs in a legal battle aga inst the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over a bungled probe. The decision, which was handed down on Thursday, could see the SFO pick up a tab of up to 3.0 million pounds – 10 percent of its annual budget – in Tchenguiz's legal costs. Both brothers are also expected to sue the agency for its handling of the case. … 
Israel has begun moving troops toward the Gaza Strip and authorized the call-up of reservists for a possible ground invasion of the Palestinian territory. 
BERLIN (Reuters) – France's German-speaking prime minister offered a worried Berlin reassurances on Thursday that his government would reduce the deficit and prevent France from becoming the next victim of the euro crisis by applying a new economic model. Jean-Marc Ayrault, making his first visit to Berlin since Francois Hollande became president, told Chancellor Angela Merkel that France would find its own way to reduce spending and boost economic growth and jobs, rather than copying Germany. … 
ATLANTA (Reuters) – The improving housing market is "far from being out of the woods," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday, arguing that overly tight lending standards are part of the problem. The Fed, which has focused on mortgage bonds in its latest round of asset purchases, will continue to do what it can to support the housing market, Bernanke said in a speech that avoided policy specifics. A bubble in the U.S. housing market was at the core of the 2007-2009 financial crisis and brutal recession that continues to hamper the world economy. … 
France raised the possibility Thursday of sending "defensive weapons" to Syria's rebels, but Ru ssia warned that such a move would violate international law. 
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin fired two defence ministry deputies on Thursday, broadening a reshuffle after the sacking of the defence minister last week over a fraud investigation. Putin dismissed deputy minister Yelena Kozlova, who oversaw finances, and Dmitry Chushkin, who was in charge of communications technologies, naming two associates of the new Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as their replacements. … 
Pressure mounted Thursday for the Irish government to draft a law spelling out when life-saving abortions can be performed -- a demand that came after a pregnant woman who was denied an abortion died. 
Palestinian militants barraged Israel with nearly 150 rockets on Thursday, killing three people as Israel pressed a punishing campaign of airstrikes on militant targets across the Gaza Strip. Three rockets struck the densely populated Te l Aviv area, and air raid sirens blared in the city as night fell. 
TILORMA, Sierra Leone (Reuters) – When the European Union's chief election observer Richard Howitt asked people in this remote village last month if they had concerns about Sierra Leone's looming presidential poll, he g ot a sobering response: what is voting? The question from one of the villagers in the gold and diamond mining district of Kenema underscored the challenges facing this West African country ahead of Saturday's elections, which will become the latest test of democracy in a region notorious for flawed polls, civil wars, and coups. … 
HOUSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – BP Plc will pay $4.5 billion in penalties and plead guilty t o felony misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon disaster that caused the worst offshore oil spill in the country's history, the company said on Thursday. The settlement includes a $1.256 billion criminal fine, the largest such levy in U.S. history, the company said. A settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also part of the deal, as are payments to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences. …