ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Taliban movement threatened on Thursday to attack Indian targets to avenge the country’s execution of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the militant squad responsible for a rampage through Mumbai that killed 166 people in 2008. Kasab was hanged on Wednesday amid great secrecy, underscoring the political sensitivity of the November 26, 2008, massacre, which still casts a pall over relations between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India. …
US banks, funds file against Argentina remedy
Argentina is running out of wiggle room in a billion-dollar showdown over foreign debts left unpaid since the country's world-record default a decade ago, and the stakes couldn't be higher for President Cristina Fernandez. Taliban suicide bomber kills 23 in Pakistan
A Taliban suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim procession near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people in the latest of a series of bombings targeting Shiites during the holiest month of the year for the sect, officials said Thursday. Australian tax crackdown to target Google, other multinationals
CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia released draft revisions to tax laws on Thursday, which it said were designed to stop big firms, including the local arm of Google, from shifting their income to countries such as Holland or Ireland where the tax rates are lower. The move is in line with a push by Britain and Germany who want the G20 group of nations to make multinational companies pay their “fair share” of taxes, following reports of large firms exploiting loopholes to shift taxation of their income away from where they are generated. …
Pakistani girls defy the Taliban, welcome home friends hurt in shooting
MINGORA, Pakistan – For one month the dreams kept coming. The voice, the shots, the blood. Her friend Malala slumped over.
Wreck of helicopter carrying British tourist, local pilot found 8 years later in New Zealand
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A helicopter that went missing in New Zealand eight years ago carrying a local pilot and a British tourist has been found in a remote part of the country.
Suicide bomber attacks Shiite Muslim procession near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people
ISLAMABAD – A suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim procession near Pakistan’s capital, killing 23 people in the latest of a series of bombings targeting Shiites during the holiest month of the year for the sect, officials said Thursday.
Holiday shopping marathon starts as consumer sentiment shaky
(Reuters) – Forget that Turkey trot. Thanksgiving is now the start of the annual U.S. holiday shopping endurance race, as more stores open on Thursday's national holiday to seek a bigger share of spending that is expected to gr ow slowly this season. Target Corp has joined Wal-Mart and Gap Inc in being open at least part of the day, and some retailers will be open throughout the day, a trend that began to take hold in 2011. Traditionally, retailers enticed shoppers with "doorbuster" deals early Friday morning. Then they shifted to midnight following Thanksgiving. Now Walmart's U.S. … Pakistan: Malala's wounded friends back in school
For one month the dreams kept coming. The voice, the shots, the blood. Her friend Malala slumped over.
On the day China unveiled its new leadership in Beijing with promises of a better life for all, five runaway boys died in a garbage bin where they had sought shelter and warmth on a cold, damp night in the south. 
BEIJING (Reuters) – China's vast manufacturing sector saw expansion accelerate in November for the first time in 13 months, preliminary results from a factory survey showed, a sign that the pace of economic growth has revived after seven consecutive quarters of slowdown. The China HSBC Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to a 13-month high of 50.4 in November, the latest indicator of recovery in the real economy after data showing solid credit growth, firmer exports and rising industrial output in the previous month. A sub-index measuring output rose to 51. … 
TOKYO (Reuters) – The yen fell to a 7-1/2-month low versus the dollar on Thursday, lifting Japan's Nikkei share average to a six-month high, on mountin g expectations of aggressive policy action under a likely new government. Asian stocks outside Japan were also in demand and investors will focus on HSBC China flash PMI for November due later on Thursday to see whether a low point for China, the world's second largest economy, is over. The Japanese currency fell to 82.535 yen to the dollar and has fallen around 4 percent in the last 1-1/2 weeks. … 
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Wanted: Visionary CEO to help world-class chipmaker expand beyond struggling personal computer market into tablets and smartphones. Experience with cutting-edge manufacturing pla nts and $10 billion annual capital expenditures a plus. Intel Corp raised eyebrows on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley this week when it said it will consider an outsider to take over from outgoing Chief Executive Paul Otellini, potentially ending a four-decade tradition of internal succession. … 
(Reuters) – Ally Financial said it will sell its Europe and Latin America operations to GM Financial, a unit of General Motors, for about $4.2 billion. The combined operations in Europe and Latin America represented a bout $16.1 billion in assets at the end of the third quarter, Ally said in a statement. The transaction involves two companies that are still partially owned by the U.S. government after a series of bailouts. The companies also have an intertwined history: Ally is the former financing arm of GM and was once known as GMAC. … 
India secretly executed the lone surviving gunmen from the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, four years after Pakistani gunmen blazed through India's financial capital, killing 166 people and shattering relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors. 
Toshiba Corp. has developed a robot it says can withstand high radiation to work in nuclear disasters, but it's not clear what exactly the robot is capable of doing if and when it gets the go-ahead to enter Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. 
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold on Thursday after eight days of conflict, although deep mistrust on both sides cast dou bt on how long the Egyptian-sponsored deal can last. Even after the ceasefire came into force late on Wednesday, a dozen rockets from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel, all in open areas, a police spokesman said. In Gaza, witnesses reported an explosion shortly after the truce took effect at 9 p.m (14:00 EDT), but there were no casualties and the cause was unclear. … 
A cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers took effect Wednesday night, bringing an end to eight days of the fiercest fighting in years and possibly signaling a new era of relations between the bitter enemies. 
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's president on Wednesday demanded the release of dozens of prisoners from U.S. custody and said all inmates held in breach of an agreement must be transferred immediately to Afghan authorities. Hamid Karzai's call for "urgent actions" by Thursday came days after the start of complex bilateral talks on a security pact on the role the United States would play in Afghanistan after most of its troops are withdrawn by the end of 2014. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Growing into a fully formed human being is a long process, and scientists have found tha t unborn babies not only hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb, they yawn too. Researchers who studied 4D scans of 15 healthy foetuses also said they think yawning is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors a new way to check on a baby's health. While some scientists have previously suggested that foetuses yawn, others disagree and say it is nothing more than a developing baby opening and stretching its mouth. … 
ROME (Reuters) – Italy's government won three parliamentar y confidence votes on its budget plans on Wednesday, paving the way for a sales tax hike to help mend public finances and taking a step towards clearing one of its last big hurdles before elections next year. President Giorgio Napolitano, who will decide the date of the election and has indicated a March date, has directed that the law must be passed before the end of the government's term. The budget, enshrined in a so-called Stability Law, is central to Prime Minister Mario Monti's efforts to lower Italy's public deficit to 1. … 
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) – Hector "Macho" Camacho was on life support on Wednesday after he was shot in the face and neck and doctors treating the three-time world boxing champion conducted tests to determine whether he was brain dead. "This is the toughest fight in the life of Macho Camacho," Ernesto Torres, director of the Rio Piedras Medical Center, told reporters. Camacho, 50, was gravely injured in a drive-by shooting in Puerto Rico on Tuesday night. Torres said Camacho suffered a heart attack early Wednesday, worsening his condition, and at one point his heart had stopped. … 
New Zealand's Mount Tongariro volcano erupted for the second time this year on Wednesday (Nov. 21), sending a plume of ash 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) skyward and raising the odds that another eruption is imminent. 
The Gaza cease-fire deal reached Thursday marks a startling trajectory for Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi: an Islamist leader who refuses to talk to Israelis or even say the country's name mediated for it and finally turned himself into Israel's de facto protector. 
AMMAN (Reuters) – At a rebel-controlled border crossing in northern Syria, camps housing thousands of refugees trying to flee the country occupy an area that less than two years ago was usually crammed with trucks lining up to pass through customs. The capture of Bab al-Hawa, previously a throughfare for e xports from Turkey and the Gulf to the rest of the Middle East and Europe, highlights the loss of transshipments through Syria as conflict has spread, causing a sharp drop in income from customs duties. … 
After more than two months, Libya's investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi appears in limbo. Key security commanders and witnesses say they were never questioned. No suspects have been named, and gunmen seen participating in the assault walk freely in the eastern Libyan c ity. 
Key details of cease-fire agreement reached Wednesday between Israel and Hamas to end fighting: 
NEW YORK (Reuters) – United Airlines bears no responsibility for the collapse of a third World Trade Center building on September 11, 2001, stemming from suspected airport security lapses that allowed hijackers to crash an American Airlines plane into the complex, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted a request by United and its parent, United Continental Holdings Inc, to dismiss negligence claims by Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the World Trade Center property, over the destruction of 7 World Trade Center. … 
Police in the Puerto Rican city of Bayamon say they found drugs inside the car in which former champion boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho was shot and critically wounded. 
(Reuters) – He is one of the most wanted war crimes fugitives in the world and the International Criminal Court lists h im as "at large". Bosco "The Terminator" Ntaganda, the Rwandan-born Tutsi warlord U.N. experts say controls the M23 rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has stayed largely invisible as M23 fighters notch up military success after success. … 
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Parliament backed a devout Catholic as EU health commissioner on Wednesday, brushing off critics who fear the Maltese politician could row back on EU policies on stem cell research, abortion and gay rights. Greens, Liberals and Socialists in the European Parliament had said they would vote against Tonio Borg, a former foreign and justice minister in Malta, saying his beliefs could influence EU policy. As commissioner, Borg's remit would include access to healthcare and contraception and the control of sexually transmitted diseases. … 
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian warplanes bombed a Damascus suburb on Wednesday in a push to dislodge rebels from a stronghold that threatens President Bashar al-Assad's hold on the capital, opposition activists said. Heavy fighting also raged in other outskirts of the city in the most serious challenge to Assad's seat of power in months. In Brussels, NATO envoys were considering a request by Turkey to deploy Patriot missiles its territory to defend itself against any Syrian attacks. … 
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia's energy-based economy will take a serious blow from membership of the WTO coupled with a global slowdown, President V ladimir Putin warned on Wednesday, singling out the most vulnerable sectors of the $1.9 trillion economy. Higher unemployment and budget revenue shortfalls were likely to result from moves to cut some import duties to comply with WTO rules, Putin said, making domestically produced goods less attractive to cash-strapped consumers and businesses. … 
PARIS (Reuters) – Former French premier Francois Fillon contested results of his party's leade rship race on Wednesday, plunging conservatives deeper into turmoil just hours after the winner said rival factions had been reconciled. Fillon, defeated by the more hardline Jean-Francois Cope by a razor-thin margin, said an internal election committee had omitted to count votes from three overseas districts which would have tipped the result in his favor. …