LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays could axe as many as 3,500 investment bank staff and cut its advisory or equities operations in Asia as part of a broader strategic review aimed at fixing the bank's culture in the wake of the financial crisis. The future shape and size of the investment ban k is seen as the most critical part of Chief Executive Antony Jenkins' review, as it contributes more than half of group profits but conducts the "casino" activities politicians and regulators are cracking down on. … Any attack on Iran may lead to withdrawal from NPT: envoy
VIENNA (Reuters) – Any military attack on Iran's nuclear f acilities may lead to the country withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a pact designed to prevent the spread of nuclear arms, a senior Iranian official said on Friday. In case of an attack, "there is a possibility that the (Iranian) parliament forces the government to stop the (U.N. nuclear) agency inspections or even in the worse scenario withdraw from the NPT," nuclear envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said in a statement in English to the U.N. agency's 35-nation board. … Cricket-Australia get happy returns from Mitchells in Perth
PERTH, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Australia’s gamble on a rag-tag band of rookies and fringe players to overhaul their pace bowling unit paid rich dividends at the WACA on Friday, giving the hosts the edge in the third test against South Africa. Although the tourists battled back from the depths of 6-75 to make 225 all out and then took a couple of quick Australian wickets, the hosts were more than happy with their day’s work and none was questioning the contribution of the pace attack. …
Israel's Netanyahu to visit Germany
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his Cabinet will travel to Germany next week -- a visit that comes after Berlin abstained in a U.N. vote on recognition of a Palestinian state.
Syria: Airport road reopens but Internet still cut
Syrian rebels battled regime troops south of the capital Friday and Internet and telephone lines were cut for a second day, but the government reopened the road to Damascus' airport in a sign that the fighting could be calming, activists said. China-backed payment processor to accelerate global expansion
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China's state-backed electronic payment services giant, China UnionPay, launched an international arm tasked with speeding its expansion overseas, heating up competition with rivals such as Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc . The move underscores UnionPay's growing global ambitions, and follows a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling that China discriminates against foreign card companies by favoring UnionPay in the home market. … Palestinians celebrate UN endorsement of independent state
RAMALLAH, Palestine – Euphoric Palestinians erupted in cheers, set off fireworks and chanted “God is great” after the United Nations endorsed an independent state of Palestine, giving sweeping international backing to their demands for sovereignty over lands Israel occupied in 1967.
N. Korea rocket preparations might be a bluff
Rocket sections are apparently being trucked into North Korea’s northwest launch site, but some analysts are asking whether it’s just a calculated bluff meant to jangle the Obama administration and influence South Korean voters ahead of presidential elections in three weeks.
PARIS (Reuters) – The euro zone's crisis is far from over and its members must consolidate their budgets and forge a banking union to put the bloc on a more stable economic footing, the leaders of the IMF and European Central Bank said on Friday. Underlining the bloc's woes, data showed both German retail sales and French consumer spending falling faster than expected as well as stubborn Spanish inflation that will likely lift the cost of state pension rises for an already hard-pressed budget. … 
A rebel spokesman says that his fighters have delayed their departure from Goma by 48 hours for "logistical reasons," defying for a second time an ultimatum set by neighboring African countries. 
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India's economy extended its long slump in the last quarter, with lower-than-expected growth keeping it on track for its worst year in a decade and underscoring the ur gency of politically difficult reforms to spur a revival. The economy grew 5.3 percent from a year earlier in the July-September period, provisional gross domestic product (GDP) data showed on Friday, below the 5.5 percent posted for the three months ending in June. … 
PARIS (Reuters) – The French government and steelmaker ArcelorMittal are aimi ng to clinch a deal to save jobs and avoid a temporary nationalization of its Florange steelworks, government sources said on Friday as a midnight deadline neared. ArcelorMittal says the site's two furnaces are not viable but Socialist President Francois Hollande wants them kept open and has threatened a controversial state takeover for the site in northeastern France if no private buyer is found. The two furnaces together employ 600 workers with the entire site providing work for 2,700. … 
Euphoric Palestinians erupted in cheers, set off fireworks and chanted "God is great" after the United Nations endorsed an independent state of Palestine, giving sweeping international backing to their demands for sovereignty over lands Israel occupied in 1967. 
OTTAWA – When David Johnston takes on a cabinet-level trade assignment this weekend in Latin America, it will be a showcase for what could be the unoffical slogan for his vice-regal reign: bland is beautiful. 
Activists say Syrian rebels and government troops are clashing south of the capital as Internet and telephones lines remain cut for a sec ond day nationwide. 
LONDON (Reuters) – Concerns about the deadlock in crucial U.S. budget talks capped gains in world equity markets on Friday, while falling yields on Spanish and Italian bonds kept the euro near a one-month high. Markets are on edge over the lack of progress by political leaders in Washi ngton as a failure to resolve their differences by year-end would trigger automatic spending cuts and tax rises that will tip the U.S. economy into recession. Many investors also expect that once the so called 'fiscal cliff' is resolved, the brighter economic outlook for China and the U.S. … 
BEIJING (Reuters) – The nephew of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng unexpectedly went on trial on Friday for intentional infliction of injury in a case likely to refocus international attention on China's human rights and legal system. Chen Kegui has been held incommunicado by police for over six months and has been denied access to his choice of lawyers. His case is widely seen as illegitimate by Chen's family and human rights advocates. … 
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, cutting access to its international airport, and Dubai-based Emirates a irline and EgyptAir stopped flights to the Syrian capital. The Internet and some telephone lines went down across Syria. Rebels and the government traded blame for the blackout, the worst communications outage in 20 months of conflict. Rebels fighting to topple Assad have been making gains around Syria by overrunning military bases and have been ramping up attacks on Damascus, his seat of power. … 
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany's lower house of parliament will approve a fresh bailout for Greece on Friday in a vote seen as a test of Chancellor Angela Merkel's authority over he r centre-right coalition less than a year before federal elections. The outcome of Friday's vote in the Bundestag is not in doubt but unease over the costs of the euro zone debt crisis and over talk of another write-down of Greek debt means the number of coalition lawmakers voting against will be keenly watched. … 
PERTH (Reuters) – Australia's ove rhauled pace attack mauled South Africa with five wickets in the hour around the lunch break to leave the tourists floundering at 141 for seven at tea on the opening day of the third and final test of the series on Friday. Seamers Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and debutant John Hastings as well as all rounder Shane Watson all got amongst the wickets to leave South Africa perhaps ruing the decision to bat first on a bouncy WACA track. … 
The political party that ruled Mexico for seven straight decades is back, assuring Mexicans there's no chance of a return to what some called "the perfect dictatorship" that was marked by a mixture of populist handouts, rigged votes and occasional bloodshed. 
PARIS (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Mario Draghi sa id on Friday that budgetary consolidation in the euro zone would entail a short-term economic impact but the currency bloc was on track for a recovery in the second half of 2013. Draghi told Europe 1 radio that euro zone governments must push ahead with implementing a banking union which should apply to all banks to avoid fragmenting the sector. Governments must pursue structural reforms to reduce labor market rigidity, notably in France and Italy, he added. (Reporting By Nicholas Vinocur; Editing by Daniel Flynn) 
Gotye has taken home album of the year at Australia's Aria music awards for hi s internationally acclaimed "Making Mirrors." 
MACAU (Reuters) – Wan "Broken Tooth" Kuok-koi will emerge from jail this weekend into a very different Macau gambling haven than the one he bullied in the late-1990s. Under new leadership, chosen at a Chinese Communist Party Congress this month where corruption was a dominant theme, Beijing is sending strong signals to Macau authorities to tighten regulation and promote responsible gaming in the world's casino capital. It's a far cry from more than a decade ago when Wan and other triad gangsters ran amok during the final days of Portuguese rule of this southern Chinese outcrop. … 
The single line of Napoleon's secret code told Paris of his desperate, last order against the Russians: "At three o'clock in the morning, on the 22nd I am going to blow up the Kremlin."