Wall Street opens a tad higher after jobs data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened slightly higher after a key U.S. jobs report showed the pace of hiring by employers had eased sightly in December but gave signals of some momentum in the labor market's recovery since the 2007-09 recession.Though the data showed lackluster economic growth was unable to make a dent in the still-high U.S. unemployment rate, it calmed fears about the possibility...

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Data-feed glitch leaves some traders in dark on Nasdaq prices

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A technical glitch caused an outage of around 15 minutes on real-time prices for Nasdaq listed stocks, including Apple Inc and Google Inc , for many investors on Thursday, traders and multiple industry sources said.Nasdaq said at 1:42 p.m. in an alert to traders that it was investigating an issue involving the Universal Trading Platform's (UTP) centralized securities information...

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Hedge fund chief Einhorn disappoints, Loeb has big 2012

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Widely followed hedge fund managers Daniel Loeb and David Einhorn ended the year on divergent notes with Loeb's firm handily beating the broader stock market and Einhorn's firm posting a modest single-digit annual gain after performing poorly in December.For Einhorn, who has moved stock prices by simply opening his mouth, 2012 ended with lackluster returns when his Greenlight...

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Fighting rages around Syrian military air base

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops and rebels fought intense battles Thursday around a strategic air base in the country's north and a suburb of the capital that government forces have been trying to capture since last month, activists and state media said.The fighting is part of the escalating violence in a Syrian civil war that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 60,000 people since the revolt...

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Car bomb in Iraq kills 12 Shiite pilgrims

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a car bomb has struck a procession of Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad, killing at least 12 and wounding dozens.A police official says the bomb exploded late Thursday afternoon in the town of Musayyib, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the Iraqi capital.He says the bomb hit the pilgrims as they were returning from the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the...

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Car bomb in Iraq kills 17 Shiite pilgrims

BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb explosion tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims returning home Thursday from a religious commemoration, killing at least 20 and reinforcing fears of renewed sectarian violence, according to Iraqi officials.The blast erupted late in the afternoon in the town of Musayyib, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the Iraqi capital. It targeted worshippers returning from the...

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Car bomb in Iraq kills 20 Shiite pilgrims

BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb explosion tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims returning home Thursday from a religious commemoration, killing at least 20 and reinforcing fears of renewed sectarian violence, according to Iraqi officials.The blast erupted late in the afternoon in the town of Musayyib, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the Iraqi capital. It targeted worshippers returning from the...

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Iraq orders release of 11 women from prison

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities on Thursday ordered the release of 11 women facing criminal charges and pledged to transfer other women prisoners to jails in their home provinces, in a move to address a main demand during a wave of protests by the country's Sunni minority against the Baghdad government.The demonstrations erupted following the arrest of bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia...

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Google filing error shocks investors, exposes process

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co handles thousands of securities filings a year for corporate clients in a routine process that is invisible to most investors. On Thursday Google and its shareholders found out just what happens when that process goes wrong.Google issued a statement blaming Donnelley, its filing agent, after the Internet search company's quarterly results...

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Who Owns America’s Debt?

As the U.S. continues to rack up more than $1 trillion of new debt every year, Americans are beginning to worry about who we owe this money to and how much power our creditors have over us.According to Barry P. Bosworth, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, our two biggest foreign creditors are Japan and China.Although it may seem as though our debt to these countries renders us a puppet...

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Analysis: Geithner's planned departure puts Obama in tough spot

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plans to leave near the end of January put the White House in a tricky spot, depriving the Obama administration of its longest-serving economic adviser for its next fiscal showdown with Congress.Geithner, who spent his years as Treasury secretary battling the financial crisis and then fighting with Republican lawmakers in 2011 over raising...

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US job market resilient despite budget fight

The U.S. job market showed resilience in three reports Thursday, suggesting it may be able to withstand a federal budget battle that threatens more economic uncertainty in coming months.A survey showed private hiring increased last month, while layoffs declined and applications for unemployment benefits stayed near a four-year low. The data led some economists to raise their forecasts for December...

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US housing construction up 15 percent in September

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. builders started construction on single-family homes and apartments in September at the fastest rate since July 2008, a further indication that the housing recovery is strengthening.The Commerce Department said Wednesday that builders broke ground on homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000 in September. That's an increase of 15 percent from the August level.Applications...

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First photos of BlackBerry 10 ‘N-Series’ QWERTY smartphone leak

As Research In Motion (RIMM) begins its attempt to mount a comeback for the ages in 2013, it will place its early hopes on two high-end smartphones. The first is the BlackBerry Z10, and we’ve already seen it in a number of leaks. The second is a QWERTY-equipped touchscreen phone similar to the current BlackBerry Bold 9900, and it has just been pictured for the first time in photos published by Chinese...

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Fifth-gen iPad reportedly due in March along with Retina iPad mini

Rumors that a second-generation iPad mini with a Retina display is set to launch ahead of Apple’s typical annual schedule next year have been swirling, and now it appears Apple’s (AAPL) full-size iPad may be sticking to its new semiannual release schedule. According to a report from Japanese blog Makotakra that cites an anonymous “inside source,” Apple plans to launch a new thinner, lighter 9.7-inch...

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Find room for God in fast-paced world, pope says on Christmas eve

 Pope Benedict, leading the world's Roman Catholics into Christmas, on Monday urged people to find room for God in their fast-paced lives filled with the latest technological gadgets.The 85-year-old pope, marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate, celebrated a solemn Christmas Eve mass in St Peter's Basilica, during which he appealed for a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and...

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Just got a new iPhone, iPad or Android device for Christmas? Gameloft cuts popular iOS and Android games to 99¢

Smartphones and tablets running Apple’s (AAPL) iOS platform and Google’s (GOOG) Android OS are big this year — so big that traditional toy makers are terrified they might soon be obsolete. If you’re one of the tens of thousands of people young and old who just unwrapped a brand new iPad, Android device, iPod touch or iPhone, Gameloft has made figuring out where to start fairly easy for you by putting...

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Google filing error shocks investors, exposes process

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co handles thousands of securities filings a year for corporate clients in a routine process that is invisible to most investors. On Thursday Google and its shareholders found out just what happens when that process goes wrong.Google issued a statement blaming Donnelley, its filing agent, after the Internet search company's quarterly results...

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Who Owns America’s Debt?

As the U.S. continues to rack up more than $1 trillion of new debt every year, Americans are beginning to worry about who we owe this money to and how much power our creditors have over us.According to Barry P. Bosworth, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, our two biggest foreign creditors are Japan and China.Although it may seem as though our debt to these countries renders us a puppet...

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Earnings from McDonald's, Microsoft sink stocks

Poor earnings reports from three companies in the Dow Jones industrial average — Microsoft, General Electric and McDonalds — sent indexes down sharply Friday, marking a sour end to an otherwise strong week in the stock market.McDonald's led a broad drop in the Dow, falling 3 percent. The Dow was down 151 points at 13,397 shortly after noon."I'm concerned about corporate earnings, but I'm not alarmed...

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McDonald's Canada Reveals How They Make Famous Fries

McDonald's Canada is at it again, demystifying their french fry recipe "from the farm to all the way to the fryer."In their new behind-the-scenes video, Scott Gibson, manager of the company's supply chain, takes customer questions on their world-famous fries.Gibson addresses the first question asking whether or not the potatoes used by the fast food restaurant are real. Standing in the middle of the...

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US housing construction up 15 percent in September

 U.S. builders started construction on single-family homes and apartments in September at the fastest rate since July 2008, a further indication that the housing recovery is strengthening.The Commerce Department said Wednesday that builders broke ground on homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000 in September. That's an increase of 15 percent from the August level.Applications for...

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