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Sheldon Adelson Denies Wrongdoing as FBI, SEC Probe Alleged Corrupt Practices

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years in the fourth quarter, but a rebuilding of stocks by businesses and slower business spending warned of weaker growth in early 2012. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, a sharp acceleration from the 1.8 percent in the prior three months. It was, however, a touch below economists expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3 percent rate, and two-thirds of the increase was due to the build-up in business inventories. ...

GENEVA (Reuters) - At least 384 children have been killed during Syria's 10-month uprising and virtually the same number have been jailed, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday. UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado told Reuters the figures were based on reports by human rights organizations which it judged to be credible. "As of January 7, 384 children have been killed, most are boys. Some 380 children have been detained, some less than 14 years old," Rima Salah, acting UNICEF deputy executive director, told reporters in Geneva. ...

NEW HAVEN, Conn (Reuters) - A judge formally sentenced Joshua Komisarjevsky to death for the murders of a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in Connecticut, saying he committed a crime of "unimaginable horror." Judge Jon Blue on Friday told Komisarjevsky, 31, that he alone was to blame for his new address on death row after the 2007 triple murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, and beating of husband and father Dr. William Petit Jr. ...

PARIS (Reuters) - French troops will start handing over security to the Afghan army in March and focus on training until pulling out of Afghanistan completely at the end of 2013, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday. Sarkozy said French troops would resume training on Saturday after receiving security guarantees from Afghan President Hamid Karzai who was in Paris on a visit. He added France would send NATO a plan next month proposing the handover of all foreign combat operations in Afghanistan next year. ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--Even Newt Gingrich's top aides agree: Thursday's debate  wasn't their boss's hottest night. Mitt Romney showed up armed with the safety turned off. When the other candidates tried to return fire, Romney ducked, dodged and fired right back. Tensions were already high between Romney and Gingrich before they entered the debate hall. The night [...]

President Barack Obama says colleges and universities must be held accountable for the rising cost of higher education.

Famed environmental activist Erin Brockovich has begun a private investigation into a mysterious illness affecting more than a dozen teens in Le Roy, New York. Le Roy was home to a dangerous chemical spill 40 years ago and the children's symptoms--facial tics and verbal outbursts--may be connected, Brockovich tells USA Today. "We don't have all [...]

NASA's Apollo program began with one of the worst disasters the organization has ever faced.

A new taste for eating elephant meat ? everything from trunks to sex organs ? has emerged in Thailand and could pose a new threat to the survival of the species.

All the great names in thoroughbred horse racing ? from Secretariat to Man O?War, from Seabiscuit to Seattle Slew ? they?re all related, and a team of geneticists has now traced their talent for speed back to a single ancestor. The ?speed gene? that made...

Size doesn't matter: a small spider builds the world's biggest webs. Many of the animal kingdom's most amazing architects are tiny creatures -- including a few who make structures visible from space.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years in the fourth quarter, but a rebuilding of stocks by businesses and slower business spending warned of weaker growth in early 2012. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, a sharp acceleration from the 1.8 percent in the prior three months. It was, however, a touch below economists expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3 percent rate, and two-thirds of the increase was due to the build-up in business inventories. ...

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took the fight to chief rival Newt Gingrich on Thursday in his most aggressive debate performance yet, five days ahead of Florida's primary vote. A neck-and-neck race for Florida and its importance for the Republican presidential nomination made for a combustible atmosphere at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville as the candidates sparred repeatedly. ...

AMMAN (Reuters) - Security forces killed 37 people in Syria on Friday, activists and residents said, as people in Homs mourned 14 members of a family they said were slain by militiamen in one of the worst sectarian attacks in a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. The U.N. Security Council was to meet later in the day to discuss Syria before a possible vote next week on a new Western-Arab draft resolution aimed at halting 10 months of bloodshed. ...

(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co reported a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Friday as commodity costs shot up and results from operations outside North America fell short of expectations. The No. 2 U.S. automaker's losses in Europe nearly quadrupled during the quarter as the economy suffered amid the ongoing debt crisis. Flooding in Thailand led to a loss in Asia, and increased competition blunted profits in South America. ...

ATHENS/DAVOS (Reuters) - The European Union and IMF want Greece to push through more budget cuts and implement a series of long-agreed austerity reforms before they sign off on a new bailout the country needs to avert bankruptcy, a report obtained by Reuters shows. All eyes have been on Athens' tortuous debt exchange talks with its private creditors in recent weeks and a preliminary deal could be wrapped up by Sunday evening, a Greek government official said on condition of anonymity. ...

(Reuters) - U.S. health regulators detained three shipments of Brazilian orange juice and six from Canada that tested positive for the fungicide carbendazim, which is illegal in the United States. Two other Brazilian juice shipments tested positive for the fungicide, but the companies decided not to import the juice into the country, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday. Orange juice futures climbed almost 3 percent in reaction to the FDA testing results, which had been widely expected. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - News Corp executive James Murdoch, under pressure from a phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World tabloid, is to quit the board of drug maker GlaxoSmithKline as he spends more time on his new role in the United States. Murdoch was promoted last March to become News Corp's deputy chief operating officer and head of its international operations, in a move seen at the time as confirming his status as heir apparent to his father Rupert Murdoch's media empire. ...

(Reuters) - Chevron Corp reported lower quarterly earnings on Friday, missing Wall Street forecasts, as rising spending on oil and gas projects and losses at its U.S. refinery business offset gains from higher crude oil prices. Its shares were down 2.2 percent at $104.21 by midday, nearly $7 short of the record high they hit early this month. Oil and gas production at the No. 2 U.S. oil company declined to 2.64 million barrels per day (BPD) from 2.79 million BPD a year-before, while average benchmark oil prices rose about 25 percent over the same period. ...

ROME (Reuters) - Costa Cruises has offered 11,000 euros ($14,500) in compensation to each of the more than 3,000 passengers aboard its liner that ran aground and capsized two weeks ago, Italian consumer groups said on Friday. The offer is an attempt by Costa Cruises to limit the legal fallout of the accident off the coast of Italy. Each passenger on the Costa Concordia will also receive a refund on the cruise and the costs of their return home. The offer applies to all passengers, whether child or adult, who suffered no physical injuries. Injured passengers will be dealt with individually. ...

In two days of bloody turmoil in Syria, more than 50 people were killed as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad shelled residential buildings, fired on crowds and left bleeding corpses in the streets in a dramatic escalation of violence, activists said Friday.

Mitt Romney, forced to prove his resilience after a stinging loss in South Carolina, is showing why the so-called Republican establishment thinks he has the best discipline, organization and campaign smarts to challenge President Barack Obama this fall.

Bloggers and activists from China, the Middle East and Latin America said Friday they were afraid that new Twitter policies could allow governments to censor messages, stifling free expression.

President Barack Obama says colleges and universities must be held accountable for the rising cost of higher education.

The economy grew late last year at a pace that in normal times would suggest it's healthy.

Since the Iraq War ended there has been little fanfare for the veterans returning home. No ticker-tape parades. No massive, flag-waving public celebrations.

Demi Moore smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and was "semi-conscious, barely," according to a caller on a 911 recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.

Novak Djokovic overcame his breathing problems and fatigue to beat friend Andy Murray 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 7-5 Friday in a nearly five-hour Australian Open semifinal.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near a funeral procession in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 32 people ? including six policemen who were guarding the march ? in the latest brazen attack since the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle offered a sneak peek Friday of his vision for the 2012 London Olympics: A massive bell that will ring in the opening ceremony along with a segment on one of Britain's most maligned institutions, the National Health Service.

Twitter has refined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis.