CANBERRA (Reuters) – An Australian court ruled on Friday that two technology companies could hold a patent on genetic material related to cancer, in a case similar to one before the U.S. Supreme Court that has implications for gene-based medicine worldwide. Cancer support groups said the finding could stifle new breast cancer research and treatment. Australia’s Federal Court ruled that U.S. company Myriad Genetics Inc and Melbourne-based Genetic Technologies Ltd had the right to hold a patent on human genetic material. …
Rogers Communications adjusted profit rises 30 percent, ups dividend
(Reuters) – Rogers Communications Inc , Canada's largest wireless company, posted a 30 percent rise in adjusted quarterly profit, helped by cost improvements and revenue growth in all its segments, and increased its annualized dividend. Separately, Rogers said that Chief Executive Nadir Mohamed has decided to retire in January 2014. Mohamed will work with the board to ensure an orderly transition and continue to lead the company in 2013, the company said. The Toronto-based company, which also owns television stations, magazines and sports teams, said adjusted net income was C$455 million … 
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) – Costa Rica's president said on Thursday that she was ready to take more steps to prevent flows of foreign capital from driving the country's currency higher. In an interview with Reuters, President Laura Chinchilla said she was worried a capital controls bill sent to Congress could stall, reviving interest from speculative investors that have tipped the Central American nation into a battle over its currency. Costa Rica's central bank has spent $1. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – The government stepped up its campaign against companies paying less than their fair sh are of tax when it announced details on Thursday of new rules that may bar corporate tax dodgers from competing for public sector contracts. Companies bidding for government contracts will have to provide details of their tax compliance history, including tax returns that have been judged incorrect, under the draft new rules. "The government is clear that aggressive tax avoidance is totally unacceptable," Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the treasury, said in a statement. … 
NEW YORK (Reuters) – After sitting out the industry's last round of mega-mergers, airline giants AMR Corp , parent of American Airlines, and US Airways Group are finally tying the knot. Meet the matchmakers: the financial and legal advisers for AMR's unsecured creditors' committee in bankruptcy. … 
CURUGUATY, Paraguay (AP) -- The prosecutor says he has no physical evidence showing who killed six police officers during a land dispute that prompted the downfall of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo. He says he didn't even try to determine who killed 11 farmworkers who also died when the bullets started flying. 
CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt's military made a rare admission and apology on Thursday for mistakenly shooting and killing a 12-year-old street vendor in Cairo, a day after activists accused the government of trying to cover up the death. 
DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co reported a weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, citing wider losses in Europe and lower vehicle prices plus highe r costs in its core North American market. The largest U.S. automaker also made an accounting change in the quarter, intended to signal confidence that it will continue to be profitable in coming years. The move resulted in a $26 billion charge for the quarter, however. Shares of GM, which did not change its 2013 profit outlook, initially bounced between positive and negative territory and were off 3.4 percent at $27. … 
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian housing prices were still about 10 percent overvalued at the end of 2012, the IMF said on Thursday, and it warned t hat authorities may have to intervene a fifth time in the mortgage market if personal debt levels rise further. The International Monetary Fund, in its annual report on Canada, also said the country's currency was between 5 and 15 percent higher than warranted by long-term economic fundamentals, lifted in part by commodity prices and the country's safe-haven status for investors. … 
MALE (Reuters) – Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed will stay in the Indian Embassy in Male until a caretaker government is formed, his party said on Thursday, despite a government assurance he would not be arrested if left. Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically elected leader, who left office last year in contested circumstances, entered the Indian High Commission in the capital on Wednesday as police tried to arrest him in connection with a court case. … 
BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian authorities said they had uncovered a plot by "criminal clans" to bring down a government plane carrying a national leader, in the latest twist to a murky row over the links between mafia and politicians. In a statement, the Interior Ministry said Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, who is also interior minister, had nevertheless decided to board one of the government's two planes for his return to Belgrade from Dublin on Thursday evening. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc's British supermarket arm, Asda, said on Thursday it had discovered horse DNA in its beef bolognese sauce and was withdrawing that prod uct and three others from its stores. "We have a preliminary test result that suggests the presence of horse DNA in our 500g Beef Bolognese sauce. As you'd expect, we have withdrawn this product from our shelves," Asda spokeswoman Jo Newbould said. Asda has about 550 shops across the UK. … 
DETROIT (Reuters) – Chrysler Group LLC said on Thursday it was recalling 370,297 pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles globally because a loose fastener could cause the rear axle to lock up and make a driver lose control. The recall, which expand s on another recall announced last fall, affects 278,222 vehicles in the United States, 63,321 in Canada, 23,767 in Mexico and 4,987 in the rest of the world, Chrysler said. … 
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Outside investors in Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors have until the end of the day to decide if they still love the embattled billionaire hed ge fund manager. Cohen already has told staff to expect outside investors in SAC Capital to submit requests to withdraw up to $1 billion in the wake of the latest round of insider trading allegations involving former employees of the $14 billion hedge fund. The big question as the deadline for submitting redemption notices approaches is whether the withdrawals exceeds Cohen's own estimate. … 
PARIS (AP) -- British police say three men have been arrested by officers investigating the burgeoning horsemeat scandal in Europe. 
BOSTON (Reuters) – Some of the biggest hedge funds that helped make Apple Inc a stock market darling lost faith and dumped their st akes in the fourth quarter, fueling the massive drop in the iPhone maker's share price. Noted stock pickers including Leon Cooperman and Thomas Steyer unloaded billions of dollars of Apple shares between September 30 and December 31, according to disclosure documents filed on Thursday. Shares of Apple rose to an all-time high of $705. … 
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian rebels captured most of an eastern oil field and stormed a military base in the south, anti-regime activists said Thursday, further chipping away at President Bashar Assad's hold on the country' s hinterlands. 
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The Afghan army is training female special forces to take part in night raids against insurgents, breaking new ground in an ultraconservative society and filling a vacuum left by departing international forces. 
PODGORICA (Reuters) – A junior partner in Montenegro's governing coalition lodged a court challenge on Thursday against Pres ident Filip Vujanovic's bid for re-election, exposing a rift that could threaten the ruling alliance. The appeal, brought by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the Constitutional Court, signals a split that analysts said might deepen if the court rules against Vujanovic, 58, or he is defeated in the April 7 election. It was a rare sign of discord in the coalition which won re-election in the former Yugoslav republic in October. … 
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- For an institution devoted to eternal light, the Vatican has shown itself to be a maste r of smokescreens since Pope Benedict XVI's shock resignation announcement. 
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron's promise of a vote on Britain's EU membership is a gamble he must take to end the bitter arguments that have poisoned British politics for decades, a predecessor who was seriously undermined by those rows said on Thursday. John Major, a Conservative prime minister whose seven years in office were dogged by party infighting over Europe, said the referendum could "heal old sores". … 
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Kenyan presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta has asked for his trial on crimes against humanity charges to be delayed to allow time to prepare his defense given prosecutors' late disclosure of evidence, his lawyers said on Thursday. Kenyatta, a former finance minister and the son of his country's founder president, is one of four accused at the International Criminal Court (ICC) of orchestrating bloody clashes in which 1,200 people died and thousands were uprooted from their homes after disputed elections in December 2007. … 
TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) -- The Associated Press has discovered a confidential letter written by a senior al-Qaida commander, spelling out the terror network's strat egy for conquering northern Mali. 
PARIS (AP) -- A French minister says the French meat wholesaler Spanghero is to blame for fraudulently labeling horsemeat as beef. 
LONDON (AP) -- American philosopher and constitutional law expert Ronald Dworkin, a liberal scholar who argued that the law should be founded on moral integrity, has died at the age of 81. 
PARIS (Reuters) – A French investigation into a meat-labeling scandal suggests that French meat-processing company Spanghero sold on horsemeat labeled as beef, French Consumer Affairs minister Benoit Hamon said on Thursday. "The investigation shows that Spanghero knew that the meat labeled as beef could be horse. There was a strong suspicion," Hamon told a news conference, adding that a Romanian supplier named in the affair seemed to have been acting in good faith. Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said the government was considering withdrawing Spanghero's operating license. … 
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- On a campaign stage, Rafael Correa is a dancing, singing, swirling tornado of energy. Ecuador's president doesn't make promises. He's way past that. 
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran has den ied allegations that it has been supplying Islamist militants in Somalia with weapons, describing the charges as "absurd fabrications," according to a letter obtained by Reuters on Thursday. As the United States pushes for an end to the U.N. arms embargo on Somalia, U.N. monitors following Somalia sanctions warned that Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa nation are receiving weapons from distribution networks linked to Iran and Yemen, diplomats told Reuters. According to the latest findings by the U.N. … 
The face of the Roman Catholic Church has changed profoundly in Pope Benedict XVI's lifetime. Congregations in the West are smaller and older, while those in Africa, Latin America and pockets of Asia are booming, bringing youth and energy to the Catholic world. 
(Reuters) R 11; A judge on Thursday accepted drilling rig operator Transocean Ltd's agreement to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and pay $400 million to settle U.S. government criminal charges over the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill at BP Plc's Macondo well in 2010. The overall settlement, unveiled last month by the U.S. Department of Justice, included $1 billion in civil penalties in addition to the $400 million in criminal penalties. (Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco) 
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs. 
LONDON (AP) -- Only six months ago, Oscar Pistorius was running circles around the track at the Olympic Stadium, a shining example of what a person can achieve in the face of adversity as he competed at the London Games despite losing both of his legs when he was a baby. 
JERUSALEM/CANBERRA (Reuters) – An Australian immigrant, reported to have been recruited by Israel's Mossad spy agency, was charged with grave crimes before he committed su icide in an Israeli jail, one of his lawyers said on Thursday. The closely guarded case has raised questions in Australia and Israel about the suspected use by the Mossad of dual Australian-Israeli nationals and the circumstances behind the 2010 detention and death of 34-year-old Ben Zygier. … 
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The jailhouse suicide of an Australian immigrant who may have betrayed Israel's Mossad has focused attention on the agency's recruitment of foreign-born Jews who could spy under cover of their native passports. After a three-year blackout was broken by an Australian TV expose, Israel on Wednesday acknowledged that a dual national had committed suicide in prison where he had been kept isolated in the name of state security. … 
(Reuters) – Toronto's main stock index looked set to open lower on Thursday, as economic data showing the euro zone's recession deepened threw a first quarter recovery into doubt and rattled European shares. TOP STORIES * The euro zone slipped deeper into recession in the last three months of 2012 after its largest economies, Germany and France, shrank markedly at the end of the year. * Barrick Gold reported a quarterly loss, after booking a $3.8 billion impairment charge to write down the value of its Lumwana copper asset. Even so, its shares were slightly higher in pre-market trading. … 
(Reuters) – Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc and 3G Capital will buy ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $72.50 a share, or $23.2 billion in cash, Heinz said on Thur sday. Including debt assumption, Heinz valued the deal at $28 billion, which it called the largest in food industry history. For Buffett, the deal represents an unusual teaming with private equity for a major acquisition. He told CNBC that 3G approached him with the idea in December and that it was "my kind of deal." He has been on the hunt for a major purchase, something worth $20 billion or more. … 
NEW YORK, N.Y. – H.J. Heinz Co. says it agreed to be acquired by an investment consortium including billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a deal valued at $28 billion. 
TUNIS (Reuters) – Two years on, the euphori a has long gone. The flame of revolt that first flared in Tunisia, previously one of the Arab world's quietest corners, consumed autocrats there, in neighboring Egypt and, more violently, in Libya. Contained in Bahrain, it flickered on in Yemen where in time a veteran leader was pushed aside. In Syria, it is still being fiercely fought over. All Arab countries have felt the heat. … 
WASHINGTON – The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits fell by 27,000 last week, an indication that hiring could improve. 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, pointing to a continued steady improvement in labor market conditions. Initial claims for state unempl oyment benefits dropped 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 341,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims figure was revised to show 2,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had expected claims to fall to 360,000. … 
VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday it had again failed to cl inch a deal in talks with Iran this week on investigating suspected atom bomb research by the Islamic state. The lack of a breakthrough in Wednesday's meeting in Tehran, though expected by Western diplomats, represented a new setback for international efforts to resolve a decade-old dispute over Iran's disputed nuclear program. … 
MALE (Reuters) – Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed no longer faces arrest, a government spokesman said on Thursday, a day after Nasheed took refuge in India's embassy because he feared being detained and his supporters clashed with police outside. Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically elected leader, who left office last year in contested circumstances, entered the Indian High Commission as police attempted to arrest him in connection with a court case. … 
JERUSALEM/CANBERRA (Reuters) – An Australian immigrant, reported to have been recruited by Israel's Mossad spy agency, was charged with grave crimes before he committed suicide in an Israeli jail, one of his lawyers said on Thursday. The closely guarded case has raised questions in Australia and Israel about the suspected use by the Mossad of dual Australian-Israeli nationals and the circumstances behind the 2010 detention and death of 34-year-old Ben Zygier. … 
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- For the past decade, the world's most powerful nations have turned to sanctions in an attempt to punish North Korea for a series of rocket launches and nuclear tests. Their stated goal: to stop North Korea's march toward acquiring an arsenal of nuclear-armed long-range missiles. 
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares rose on improving risk sentiment while the yen steadied ahead of the weekend meeting of G20 finance and c entral bank officials, whose views on global growth and differences over currencies will be scrutinized by investors. "Asian markets have extended gains with risk sentiment remaining resilient as markets continue to push to new highs. Ahead of the European open, we are calling the major bourses relatively flat with GDP numbers in focus," Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG Markets, said in a note. … 
BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) – Europe's two largest economies, Germany and France, both shrunk markedly in the last three months of 2012, suggesting the euro zone has slipped deeper into recession and throwing a first quarter recovery for the bloc into doubt. The German economy contracted by 0.6 percent on the quarter, official data showed on Thursday, marking its worst performance since the global financial crisis was raging in 2009. France's 0.3 percent fall was also a touch worse than expectations. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – London's Gatwick airport on Thursday published its business plan for the next 10 years, saying it favoured setting prices charged to airlines based on bilateral contracts rather than pure regulation. Gatwick, which is investing 1 bill ion pounds over the next five years as it looks to grow to 37 million passengers by 2020, is required to publish the business plan so that aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) can set price caps for the five years from April 2014. …