Former Yankees manager Joe Torre wants focus on child abuse

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A government commission co-led by former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre said on Wednesday that the U.S. federal and local governments are not doing enough to identify and treat child victims of abuse and violence.At a meeting with representatives from major federal departments, the commission of academics, law enforcement officials and others, issued 56 recommendations...

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Korean closer Lim heading to Chicago Cubs

(Reuters) - South Korean closer Lim Chang-yong is set to sign a deal with Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, though the sidearm pitcher is unlikely to be able to take the mound again until late next season.The 36-year-old righthander, who had elbow surgery earlier this year, told reporters at Incheon Airport on Thursday he had long dreamed of signing for a major league team.Lim tallied 296 saves...

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Angels land slugger Hamilton in $125 million deal: report

(Reuters) - Free agent slugger Josh Hamilton has agreed to a five-year, $125 million deal to join the Los Angeles Angels, Major League Baseball's (MLB) website reported on Thursday.The five-time All-Star, who overcame drug and alcohol addictions to become one of MLB's most feared hitters, helped power the Texas Rangers to consecutive World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011.The 31-year-old hard-hitting...

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Northern Ireland police injured in sectarian clashes

BELFAST (Reuters) - At least 29 police officers were injured when pro-British and Irish nationalist youths clashed in the Northern Irish capital on Saturday following another protest against the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall.Rioting started as the mainly Protestant protesters passed a Catholic area on their way home from a rally in central Belfast against the flag's removal....

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29 Belfast cops hurt in Catholic-Protestant clash

DUBLIN (AP) — Northern Ireland police fought day-and-night street battles with Protestant militants Saturday as a protest march to Belfast City Hall degenerated into riots when many marchers returned home to the Protestant east side.The Protestants, who have blocked streets daily since Catholics on the council decided Dec. 3 to curtail the flying of the British flag, have frequently clashed with...

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Hundreds of French troops drive back Mali rebels

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The battle to retake Mali's north from the al-Qaida-linked groups controlling it began in earnest Saturday, after hundreds of French forces deployed to the country and began aerial bombardments to drive back the Islamic extremists.At the same time, nations in West Africa authorized the immediate deployment of troops to Mali, fast-forwarding a military intervention that was not...

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RPT-Baseball-MLB, players agree to expand drug testing

Jan 10 (Reuters) - Major League Baseball and the players' union have agreed to expand their drug program to include random in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone, they said on Thursday.The testing will start this season.MLB has been conducting random blood testing for the detection of HGH among minor league players since July 2010.Starting this season, the...

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UPDATE 1-Baseball-MLB, players agree to expand drug testing

* HGH and testosterone testing to be used this season* WADA-accredited lab hails toughness of new MLB testing (Adds details, quotes)Jan 10 (Reuters) - Major League Baseball and the players' union have agreed to expand their drug program to include random in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone, they said on Thursday.The advanced testing will start this season,...

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MLB to expand blood testing for HGH

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) — Major League Baseball will test for human growth hormone throughout the regular season and increase efforts to detect abnormal levels of testosterone, a decision the NFL used to pressure its players.Baseball players were subject to blood testing for HGH during spring training last year, and Thursday's agreement between management and the Major League Baseball Players...

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Amazon and Samsung are running away with the Android tablet market

Following the successful launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, Android vendors saw a beacon of hope in a market that had been dominated by Apple’s (AAPL) iPad since 2010. The Android tablet space has since become flooded with hundreds of products from a wide-range of companies, but there are only two companies that matter.[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]According...

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Academy Launches Oscar App on Android, Amazon

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Academy launched its official Oscars app on Android and Amazon on Thursday, expanding its initiative to direct fans' attention from the television to the second screen.The app, already available on the iPad and iPhone, was made available for free on the Google Play store and the Amazon app store, the Academy said. According to iTunes, the iPad app was updated earlier...

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Report links drug agents to Secret Service prostitute scandal: NBC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two drug enforcement agents "facilitated a sexual encounter" between a prostitute and a Secret Service agent before an international summit in Colombia last April, NBC News reported on Thursday, citing a Justice Department investigation.The two Drug Enforcement Administration agents also admitted paying for the sexual services of a prostitute, and used their government-issued...

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Canadian dollar overlooks U.S. results in rangebound trade

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's dollar ended slightly lower against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, shrugging off a modest rally in other riskier assets after Alcoa opened the U.S. earnings season with an optimistic outlook.Global equities staged a modest recovery after two days of losses. Even with the encouraging Alcoa report, investors lacked a clear view of how U.S. corporations fared in the...

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Wall Street rises after Alcoa reports earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday, rebounding from two days of losses, as investors turned their focus to the first prominent results of the earnings season.Stocks had retreated at the start of the week from the S&P 500's highest point in five years, hit last Friday, on worries about possible earnings weakness.Shares of Alcoa Inc were down 0.5 percent to $9.08 after early gains, following...

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Asia stocks rise on positive start to US earnings

BANGKOK (AP) — A positive start to U.S. corporate earnings season helped boost Asian stock markets Thursday.Major regional benchmarks rose on the heels of a handful of better-than-expected results that also lifted Wall Street.Consumer products maker Helen of Troy, whose brands include Dr. Scholl's and Vidal Sassoon, reported a 15 percent profit increase. Electronic payments processor Global Payments...

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Golf-Goosen returns after "totally disintegrated" disc

Jan 8 (Reuters) - Twice U.S. Open winner Retief Goosen will play his first tournament for nearly five months at this week's Volvo Golf Champions in South Africa after having surgery on a "totally disintegrated" disc in his back.The 43-year-old South African, who rated his health as "about five out of 10" at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August in his penultimate event before an extensive break...

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Goosen returns after "totally disintegrated" disc

Twice U.S. Open winner Retief Goosen will play his first tournament for nearly five months at this week's Volvo Golf Champions in South Africa after having surgery on a "totally disintegrated" disc in his back.The 43-year-old South African, who rated his health as "about five out of 10" at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August in his penultimate event before an extensive break to repair his...

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Jets fire offensive coordinator Tony Sparano

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Tony Sparano has been fired as the New York Jets' offensive coordinator after one season in which the offense ranked among the league's worst.Sparano was hired last March to replace Brian Schottenheimer and take over an offense that struggled mightily. Instead, the former Miami Dolphins head coach wasn't able to jumpstart the running game or figure out a way to use Tim Tebow...

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Asian shares slip, Basel ruling supports banks

 Asian stocks drifted down on Monday as investors booked profits from a New Year rally that had pushed markets to multi-month highs, although financial stocks gained after global regulators decided to relax draft plans for tough new bank liquidity rules.Commodity prices mostly held steady, supported by data showing the U.S. economy continuing on a path of slow but steady recovery that propelled...

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Burundi coffee earnings fall 63 pct in December

 Burundi's earnings from coffee exports fell 63 percent in December from the previous month due to lower volumes sold, the country's industry regulator said on Monday."Low quantities of coffee were exported in December as most buyers in western countries were off for the holidays," said regulator ARFIC in its monthly report.Earnings dropped to $2.1 million from $5.7 million in November, as the...

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Maruti shares hit four-year high; earnings seen improving

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki shares rose to a four-year high on Monday on hopes earnings would improve due to rising sales for passenger vehicles, while margins were also seen increasing due to the depreciation in the Japanese yen.CLSA's upgrade of Maruti Suzuki Ltd to 'buy' from 'sell' also helped boost the stock, traders said.At 2:31 p.m., Maruti shares were up 3 percent to 1,591.5 rupees after...

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UK police charge Nepalese man with torture

LONDON (AP) — British police said Friday they have charged a serving colonel in the Nepalese army with two counts of torture allegedly committed during the Himalayan nation's civil war. The case has touched off a diplomatic spat, with the Nepalese government summoning the U.K. ambassador in Kathmandu to protest.Kumar Lama, 46, was arrested Thursday at a residential address in the English town of St....

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UK police charge Nepali colonel accused of torture

LONDON/KATHMANDU (Reuters) - British police charged a Nepali army colonel on Friday with two counts of torture during the Himalayan nation's decade-long civil war, despite the Nepali government's demanding his immediate release.Nepal summoned the British ambassador earlier on Friday to express its "strong objection" to Kumar Lama's detention.Rights groups accuse both the security forces and former...

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Northern Irish fighting rages on as rioters branded a disgrace

BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Irish police came under attack by pro-British loyalists on Friday as the province's first minister branded rioters a disgrace and said they were playing into the hands of rival militant nationalists.Rioting began a month ago after a vote by mostly nationalist pro-Irish councillors to end the century-old tradition of flying the British flag from Belfast City Hall every...

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Wal-Mart defends low-price ads after rivals' objection

(Reuters) - Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc has gone on the defensive against charges by competitors that a recent ad campaign is using inaccurate information, leading the competitors to file complaints with state legal officials.A Wal-Mart Stores spokesman defended the retailer's ad campaign that claims to offer better prices on some products than competitors, after the Wall Street Journal reported...

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Asian shares drop on Fed minutes, dollar extends gains

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Friday, as investors booked profits from a recent sharp climb after senior Federal Reserve officials expressed concerns about continuing to expand stimulative bond buying, but the dollar extended gains as U.S. debt yields rose.European shares were seen tracking Asian peers lower, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's...

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Fed becoming worried about stimulus side effects

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve officials are increasingly concerned about the potential risks of the U.S. central bank's asset purchases on financial markets, even if they look set to continue an open-ended stimulus program for now.In a surprise to Wall Street, minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting, published on Thursday, showed a growing reticence about further increases in the...

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Report: Israeli ex-spy chief criticizes PM on Iran

A recently retired Israeli spy chief says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acted irresponsibly regarding Iran's nuclear program and accuses him of prioritizing personal concerns over national interests.Yuval Diskin, chief of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency from 2005 to 2011, has voiced similar criticisms before.Diskin says Netanyahu tried to convince him and his colleagues to approve what he...

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Sadr visits Baghdad church, site of 2010 attack

Firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr visited a Baghdad church that was the scene of a deadly 2010 attack as well as one of the Iraqi capital's main Sunni mosques on Friday, an apparent overture to other religious groups as opposition mounts against his rival, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.The cleric's stops at the holy sites — a rare public appearance by Al-Sadr outside predominantly Shiite parts...

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Israel ex-spy chief blasts PM ahead of election

JERUSALEM (AP) — A prominent Israeli ex-intelligence chief sought to sway Israelis against Benjamin Netanyahu in upcoming elections, saying in an interview published Friday that the prime minister has mismanaged Israel's response to Iran's nuclear program and missed opportunities to make inroads on a peace agreement with the Palestinians.The interview by Yuval Diskin was an unusually strong and overt...

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Syrian warplanes bomb suburbs of the capital

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian ground and air forces bombarded rebel strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country Friday while anti-government forces targeted a military post near the capital with a car bomb, activists said.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes targeted neighborhoods around the capital including Douma, which troops have been trying...

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Fatah party stages first rally in Gaza since 2007

 Leaders of the Palestinian Fatah party led tens of thousands of supporters Friday in a mass rally in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering for the largely secular party in the territory since the rival Islamist Hamas seized power there in 2007.The demonstration, which was condoned by Hamas, showed how the long-bitter relations between the rival Palestinian factions have improved since an...

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Shares steady after rally, dollar jumps

 World stocks stalled on Thursday as traders were cautious after equities hit an 18-month high, while the U.S. dollar climbed to a three-week high against a basket of currencies on concerns about more budget wrangling in Washington.Data suggesting some momentum in the U.S. economy as the year ended showed private-sector employers stepped up hiring in December, allowing for the upward tick in...

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Stocks edge lower as next fiscal showdown looms

Stock indexes turned lower Thursday afternoon after the Federal Reserve said its policymakers are split over how long to continue a bond-purchasing program intended to stimulate the economy.The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index treaded water for much of the day, then dipped into the red after 2 p.m. Eastern, when the Fed released minutes from its December policy...

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Fed split on stimulus plans nudges stocks lower

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are fading into the close of trading on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve revealed a split among its policymakers over how long to continue an economic stimulus program.The market started on a weak note Thursday following mixed holiday sales reports from retailers and the prospect of another fiscal fight looming in Congress over the nation's borrowing limit.The Dow Jones...

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Private sector job gains offer hope for labor market

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Private-sector employers shrugged off a looming budget crisis and stepped up hiring in December, offering further evidence of underlying strength in the economy as 2012 ended.While other data on Thursday showed an increase in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits, the trend remained consistent with steady job growth."The underlying economy has momentum,...

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