PERTH (Reuters) – Australia will start the third and final test against South Afri ca with an entirely new pace attack after dropping fatigued Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus from the 12-man squad for match, which begins on Friday. The pace duo toiled in baking heat for nearly five sessions as they tried to bring an end to South Africa's second innings at Adelaide Oval earlier this week after James Pattinson broke down with a rib injury during the match. … FACTBOX-Cricket-Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting
Nov 29 (Reuters) – A rundown of former Australia captain Ricky Ponting’s international career after he said on Thursday he will retire from test cricket after this week’s third match against South Africa. * Born: Dec 19, 1974 at Launceton, Tasmania In tests: * Matches: 167 (won 48 out of 77 tests as captain) * Debut: Against Sri Lanka at Perth on Dec. 8, 1995 * Total runs: 13366 * Second highest scorer in the world behind India’s Sachin Tendulkar (15562) * Centuries: 41 * Third highest number of centuries behind Tendulkar (51) and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (44). …
Kuwait could ban 100,000 from travel over dues: paper
KUWAIT (Reuters) – Kuwait could ban nearly 100,000 of its residents from leaving the country for failing to pay dues owed to the state, local newspaper reported, quoting a senior Justice Ministry official. The policy is part of a government plan to collect nearly 12 million Kuwaiti dinars ($42.6 million) in fees for the use of state services, or as fines in felony and misdemeanor cases, Thursday’s edition of the Kuwait Times quoted Mohammad al-Duaij as saying. …
Pakistan doctor in bin Laden case starts hunger strike
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – The Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hunt down Osama bin Laden started a hunger strike in his jail cell this week to protest against his living conditions, prison officials said on Thursday. Shakil Afridi was sentenced in May to 33 years in jail for his links to a banned militant group. The decision was widely seen as punishment for helping the CIA find the al Qaeda leader, and has led to strained ties between Washington and Islamabad. … Asian shares up on hopes of U.S. budget deal
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares touched their highest levels in more than three weeks and commodities rose on Thursday as sentiment improved after a senior U.S. lawmaker said he was "optimistic" on reaching a budget deal before the end of the year to avoid a fiscal crisis. European shares will likely extend gains seen in the previous session, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 , Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX will open up as much as 0.4 percent. A 0.4 percent climb in U.S. stock futures also hinted at a solid Wall Street open. … U.N. set for implicit recognition of Palestinian state, despite U.S., Israel threats
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. General Assembly is set to implicitly recognize a sovereign state of Palestine on Thursday despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding much-needed funds for the West Bank government. A Palestinian resolution that would change the Palestinian Authority's U.N. observer status from "entity" to "non-member state," like the Vatican, is expected to pass easily in the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly. … 
CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard heads into an election yea r with her leadership bruised over a union scandal dating back 20 years and with her government struggling to gain voter support after a brutal political year that ended on Thursday. Despite passing major reforms in 2012, Gillard's minority government trails in opinion polls after enduring a series of political scandals, a leadership fight with former prime minister Kevin Rudd, and regular suggestions that Gillard should be replaced. … 
The Palestinians are certain to win U.N. recognition as a stat e on Thursday but success could exact a high price: delaying an independent state of Palestine because of Israel's vehement opposition. 
PERTH (Reuters) – Australia's Ricky Ponting announced his retirement from international cricket on T hursday, telling a stunned news conference he would be calling time on his glittering 17-year career after this week's third test against South Africa. The former Australia captain has scored 13,366 runs in 167 tests – the second highest haul in the long history of the game – and stands behind only the great Don Bradman in the ranks of Australian batsmen. … 
BEIJING (Reuters) – Police in the southern C hinese island province of Hainan will board and search ships which enter into what China considers its territorial waters in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Thursday, a move which could raise tensions further. The South China Sea is Asia's biggest potential military trouble spot with several Asian countries claiming sovereignty. … 
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese fund managers slightly increased their asset allocations to shares on the prospect of more monetary easing in the developed world and a pickup in Chinese economy , a Reuters poll showed. At the same time, however, they trimmed their weighting on Japanese shares to seven-month low as they viewed Tokyo shares' strong performance this month as driven by unrealistic hopes of more money-printing in Japan after next month's election. … 
TOKYO (Reuters) – A new Japanese party that hopes to become a force to contend with in a December 16 general election is calling for more defense spending to protect national in terests and lower corporate and income taxes to bolster the economy, domestic media said on Thursday. The Japan Restoration Party, which came in second to the main opposition Liberal Democrats in an opinion poll published on Thursday, also wants to shrink the role of the central government while promoting free-market competition and making it easier to revise Japan's pacifist constitution. … 
CARACAS/HAVANA (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was back in Cuba on Wednesday for cancer-link ed medical treatment that revived questions about the viability of his socialist rule and left Venezuelans again guessing about his exact condition. After weeks of scarce public appearances, Chavez, 58, announced in a letter on Tuesday that he was going to Havana for therapy known as "hyperbaric oxygenation" – a method used to reduce bone decay caused by radiation therapy. … 
MONYWA, Myanmar – Security forces used water cannons and other methods to crack down on protesters occupying a copper mine in Myanmar hours before opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was expected to visit there to hear the grievances. 
Security forces used water cannons and other methods to crack down on protesters occupying a copper mine in Myanmar hours before opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was expected to visit there to hear the grievances. 
Faced with an unprecedented strike by the courts and massive opposition protests, Egypt's Islamist president is not backing down in the showdown over decrees granting him near-absolute powers. 
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A new shareholder lawsuit over Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of British software firm Autonomy has named Big Four audit firms Deloitte and KPMG as defendants, alleging they missed numerous red flags about Auto nomy's accounting. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California, also named HP's board of directors, officers, and former executives, alleging breach of duty and negligence for their role in HP's acquisition Autonomy. HP is expected to face a barrage of lawsuits by investors seeking to recoup losses. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron faces a no-win dilemma on Thursday when a far-reaching inquiry into British newspapers delivers its verdict on how to curb the excesses of the country's notorio usly aggressive press. Cameron, who was embarrassed when details of his personal links to Rupert Murdoch and his media empire emerged at the inquiry, will have to decide whether to accept its findings, which risk dividing his coalition government and angering an already hostile press. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron faces a no-win dilemma on Thursday when a far-reaching inquiry into British newspapers delivers its verdict on how to curb the excesses of the country's notoriously aggressive press. Cameron, who was embarrassed when details of his personal links to Rupert Murdoch and his media empire emerged at the inquiry, will have to decide whether to accept its findings, which risk dividing his coalition government and angering an already hostile press. … 
TIRANA (Reuters) – The foreign minister of neighboring Greece boycotted festivities on Wednesday marking 1 00 years of Albania's independence after its prime minister hailed a town over the border as "Albanian lands". Reflecting the delicate nature of Balkan politics after the wars that split Yugoslavia, the president of Macedonia also stayed away after the car of his prime minister was hit with eggs and its flag burned in Tirana during a visit last week. … 
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – The head of Total SA's Canadian unit said on Wednesday he has accep ted a new position at the company's Paris headquarters and will leave the country after building up the French oil major's oil sands operations. Jean-Michel Gires took over as president of Total E&P Canada Ltd in September 2009 and reshaped the company's flagging oil sands strategy, adding assets with the C$1.4 billion ($1. … 
BERLIN (Reuters) – German politicians called for tighter regulation of global intere st rates after questioning Deutsche Bank about the manipulation of London's Libor benchmark lending rate. The flagship lender said it had made some provisions to cover the costs of various probes of possible manipulation of benchmark interest rates and reiterated that there were no signs that senior management had behaved inappropriately. But politicians in Berlin were unimpressed. … 
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada said on Wednesday it would decide soon on two big foreign takeover bids for domestic energy companies , despite possible delays in approval by U.S. regulatory authorities. "We intend obviously to take decisions on a couple of particular matters along with some more general guidance to the marketplace. We intend to do that in the near future and that's all I'll say about that," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. Harper has previously spoken about deciding in the "not-too-distant future", the "very near future" and "very soon". Harper's government is studying a $15. … 
PARIS (Reuters) – Vivendi is examining four non-binding offers above 6 billion euros ($7.75 billion) for its Brazilian broadband specialist GVT, according to a person famili ar with the situation. The offers are below the 7 billion euros that sources had earlier told Reuters Vivendi was aiming to garner from the sale of GVT, an alternative provider of fixed telephone, broadband, and TV services in 120 Brazilian cities. Preliminary bids were submitted by satellite group DirecTV , Mexican telecom giant America Movil , and a group of private equity funds, said two people familiar with the matter. … 
BELLEVUE, Washington (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer def ended his company's record on innovation and financial performance at the annual shareholders' meeting, but conceded that he should have moved faster to get into the booming tablet market dominated by Apple Inc's iPad. Bill Gates, co-founder and now chairman of the world's largest software company, was one of the first to champion tablet-sized devices more than 10 years ago, but Microsoft failed to come up with a product that worked as well as the iPad. … 
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Groupon Inc Chief Executive Andrew Mason, under fire for a plunging share price and tapering growth, sa id on Wednesday he would fire himself if he ever thought he was the wrong person for the job. Groupon has shed four-fifths of its value since its public trading debut as an investor favorite during last year's consumer dotcom IPO boom, and Mason himself has presided over a string of high-profile executive departures. Wall Street has grown uneasy about the viability of its business as fever for daily deals has cooled among consumers and merchants, hurting its growth rate. … 
DHAKA/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Three supervisors of a Bangladeshi garment factory were arrested on Wednesday as protests over a suspected arson fire that killed more than 100 people raged on into a third day, with textile workers and police clashing in the streets of a Dhaka suburb. The government has blamed last weekend's disaster, the country's worst-ever industrial blaze, on saboteurs and police said they had arrested two people, who were seen on CCTV footage trying to set fire to stockpiles of material in another factory. … 
(Reuters) – American Mardy Fish will miss the Australian Open in January as he continues to recover from health issues related to heart surgery, his agent said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old, who had an operation in May to correct a form of arrhythmia in his heart, is "improving" and plans to return to the ATP Tour in February at the SAP Open in San Jose, California. "The good news is that Mardy's health is improving and he is back on the court slowing getting back into his regular workouts," Fish's agent, John Tobias, said in an email to Reuters as he confirmed the American's comeback date. … 
Albania celebrated 100 years of independence Wednesday with a military parade, festive cavalcades and an 18-ton cake. 
Two suicide bombers detonated their explosives packed vehicles near a cluster of commercial buildings in a suburb of Damascus Wednesday, killing at least 34 people and covering the street with pools of blood and debris. 
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia has withdrawn from a treaty that binds it to the U.N. International Court o f Justice in anger at a ruling that shifts some of its resource-rich waters to Nicaragua, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday. The Hague-based court ruled last week that a cluster of disputed islands in the western Caribbean belonged to Colombia and not to Nicaragua, but it drew a demarcation line in favor of Managua in the nearby waters. … 
It was the golden age of radio and World War II still raged when Maruja Venegas began broadcasting a show for Peru's children. 
Political interference stymied an investigation into the collapse of Afghanistan's largest bank, according to an independent report of how the men at Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off $861 million in fraudulent loans. 
Lake Vida is devoid of light and oxygen. That hasn't stopped life from finding a way 
The robed Rastafarian priest looked out over the turquoise sea off Jamaica's southeast coast and fervently described his belief that deliverance is at hand. 
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's upcoming re-election battle is shaping Europe's response to bailing out debt-ridden Greece. 
(Reuters) – Trading firm Getco Holding Co offered to merge with Knight Capital Group Inc to create one of the largest U.S. market makers for stocks and options. Getco's two-step deal values the combined company at $1.4 billion, sources familiar with the offer said. The combined firm would be publicly traded and would be headed by Getco Chief Executive Daniel Coleman; Knight CEO Tom Joyce would become chairman of the board, Getco said in a letter to Knight on Wednesday. A deal is by no means certain. … 
The media are under fire, celebrities are under the microscope. Welcome to Britain in 2012 -- or in the 1950s, the setting for the BBC drama "The Hour." 
WEYBRIDGE, England/LONDON (Reuters) – ; A Russian businessman helping Swiss prosecutors uncover a powerful fraud syndicate has died in unexplained circumstances near his mansion in Britain, in a chilling twist to a Russian mafia scandal that has strained Moscow's ties with the West. Alexander Perepilichny, 44, sought refuge in Britain three years ago and had been helping a Swiss investigation into a Russian money-laundering scheme by providing evidence against corrupt officials, his colleagues and media reports said. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays has fired five employees following its internal investigation of the rigging of Libor interest rates and disciplined another eight people, the head of its investment bank said on Wednesday. Rich Ricci, chief executive of Barclays' corporate and investment banking, said "a l ot" of the individuals identified in its internal probe had left the bank so it could not take action against them. He said authorities had been told the details of those people. Barclays was fined $450 million (281 million pounds) in June by U.S. …