NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures slid on Thursday after Wal-Mart Stores posted disappointing December sales and forecast a fourth-quarter profit shortfall, compounding investors' worries about the deepening recession.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported a disappointing 1.7 percent rise in December sales at its U.S. stores open at least a year, and the world's largest retailer cut its quarterly earnings outlook on Thursday.

(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc is leading other lenders in advanced talks with key U.S. senators on legislation that would allow judges to set new repayment terms for millions of mortgage holders who wind up in bankruptcy court, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people involved in the talks.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - HSBC , Europe's biggest bank, said on Thursday U.S. stocks were the best bets in 2009 due to the healthy profits some U.S. firms had made over the past two years, though a big sell-off was possible through March.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Lenovo Group, the world's fourth-biggest PC maker, forecast a quarterly loss as China's slowing economy hit sales, and said it will axe 2,500 jobs as part of a restructuring to cope with falling demand for computers.

(Reuters) - Macy's Inc is expected to announce as soon as Thursday it will close 10 locations, the Wall Street Journal reported citing a person familiar with the matter.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil traded higher on Thursday, reaching $43 after diving 12 percent overnight, partly due to higher than expected U.S. crude stocks data that hardened evidence of weakening demand.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lyondell Chemical Co received bankruptcy court approval on Wednesday to access more than $2 billion in interim debtor-in-possession financing and an emergency $100 million loan, saying it had run out of cash.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A monthly gauge of online labor demand in the United States slid in December, suggesting job conditions worsened with the economy stuck in a recession, a private employment group said on Thursday.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Investors in Satyam Computer Services Ltd's American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) have filed two class action suits against the Indian software services firm, the law firms representing the investors said on Thursday.

News organisations say a rule change hampers their publication of secondary school league tables for England.

The government is pledging more money to create apprenticeships as part of its efforts to tackle the downturn in the economy.

A council is threatening to prosecute parents who fraudulently try to enrol their children in its schools.

Dozens of schools remain closed as the UK continues to suffer from freezing weather.

The fast food restaurateur is set to become the largest provider of apprenticeships in the UK.

Every secondary school in Leeds is to get a dedicated police officer in the biggest scheme of its kind outside London.

Books illustrated with computer- generated images are the latest attempt by publishers to get boys reading.

The economic downturn could be about to hit funding for schools and children's services, a government committee warns.

A university leader warns that Conservative plans to restrict public spending could mean cutting student places.

Children learn to love an e-library in Nepal

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Batman movie "The Dark Knight" soared away with five People's Choice Awards on Wednesday including favorite movie and on-screen pairing for stars Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger to kick off Hollywood's annual awards season.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - One of the most promising indie films this winter features several stars and already has buyers circling. It sounds like a top Sundance Film Festival hopeful, except for one thing -- it isn't going to Sundance.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singers Beyonce, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson, along with the cast of TV comedy "Tyler Perry's House of Payne", were among top nominees for the NAACP Image Awards, the oldest U.S. civil rights organization said on Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Considering the jump-the-shark pronouncements that accompanied Season 6 of "24" two years ago, the clamor for the return of Fox's real-time thriller has been notably muted.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood screenwriters on Wednesday named nominees for 2008's best film scripts with a few surprises among the movies vying for honors ahead of the industry's highest awards -- the Oscars in February.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The second half of the broadcast season got under way this week marked by the premieres of several new and returning shows, including the ABC debut of "Scrubs."

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - After months of will-he or won't-he speculation, MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews has opted not to run for the U.S. Senate in his native Pennsylvania.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A film about the election-eve gun attack on Taiwan's recently indicted ex-president Chen Shui-bian will debut on the island this week, where it is expected to reignite debate about the controversial 2004 shooting.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Howie Mandel tosses his hat into the hidden-camera arena with "Howie Do It," a reasonably entertaining piece of whimsy. The show premieres on NBC on Friday, and simultaneously in Canada on Global Television.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The werewolf will not morph.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will not finalize new auto fuel efficiency standards, as it had planned, due to historic uncertainty gripping U.S. manufacturers, officials said on Wednesday.

PARIS (Reuters) - Temperatures plunged to record lows in Germany and heavy snow forced normally sunny Marseille to close its international airport as freezing winter weather gripped much of Europe on Wednesday.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia has rejected a Japanese request to block anti-whaling activists from re-supplying, saying Thursday their ship would be allowed to dock at an Australian port before returning to harass whalers in the Southern Ocean.

PUNTA ARENAS, Chile (Reuters) - A yellow robot submarine will dive under an ice shelf in Antarctica to seek clues to world ocean level rises in one of the most inaccessible places on earth.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc, Canada's No. 2 pipeline firm, said a malfunctioning valve at an oil storage facility in the oil sands region of northern Alberta this week spewed out 4,000 barrels of oil, but the spill was mostly contained on the grounds of its tank farm.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Environmental groups took the first step on Wednesday to convince a court to charge Canada's largest oil sands producer with the deaths of 500 ducks, an incident that brought worldwide attention to the ecological impact of the huge energy resource.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state should fight obesity, help more residents get health insurance and revive the upstate economy with a research consortium for hybrid car batteries and energy storage, Governor David Paterson proposed on Wednesday.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Climate change and rising sea levels pose one of the biggest threats to security in the Pacific and may also spark a global conflict over energy reserves under melting Arctic ice, according to Australia's military.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's space agency will launch a satellite later this month to monitor greenhouse gases around the world, officials said Wednesday, hoping the data it collects helps global efforts to combat climate change.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will designate nearly 200,000 square miles (518,000 sq km) of the Pacific ocean on Tuesday as a protected region, White House officials said, making the areas hands-off for oil drilling or other extraction procedures.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has made 388 people sick across 42 states, sending 18 percent of them to the hospital, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.

BOSTON (Reuters) - More than half of all Cesarean deliveries are done by choice and more than a third are done too early, putting the babies at risk of breathing and other difficulties, U.S. researchers reported Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British doctors conducting experiments in the "Death Zone" of Mount Everest has recorded the lowest levels of blood oxygen in humans, far below those of critically ill patients.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mississippi has claimed the distinction of having the highest teen birth rate in the United States, a figure more than three times higher than the states with the lowest rates, health officials said on Wednesday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A drug used to suppress the immune system in cancer and rheumatoid arthritis has helped extend the life of a Minnesota boy struggling with a rare and deadly form of the genetic disorder Pompe disease.

HANOI (Reuters) - The sister of Vietnam's first confirmed bird flu patient of the year died with similar symptoms last week and the director of the hospital where she was treated said she probably also had avian flu.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A certain gene abnormality raises the chance of relapse for children with the most common form of childhood cancer, a discovery that could change the way doctors treat them, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Shirley Hunter reviewed her finances to make sure she could afford to retire in 1999, she never banked on health care costs more than doubling in less than a decade.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government experts are seeking new ways to treat a flood of American troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with substance abuse problems compounded by conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - One in every hundred breast cancers or so occurs in men, and such tumors are often detected at a late stage. Furthermore, these cancers can appear benign on mammography, according to a report in the American Journal of Roentgenology.

NEW YORK/LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc has chosen Microsoft Corp to provide Internet search services for cell phones, in what is seen as a blow to rivals Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.

Las Vegas (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc unveiled on Wednesday a list of partners to aid its push to bring the Internet and television together, hoping their joint effort will finally connect with consumers.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Online DVD rental company Netflix Inc said on Wednesday it reached a deal for viewers to watch movies from Netflix on Vizio high definition televisions through Vizio's "Connected HDTV" Platform.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc has reached a deal with major record labels to sell digital songs without the copy protection software that had prevented fans from sharing music bought from its iTunes store, the maker of the iPod and iPhone said on Tuesday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Three Chinese Internet operators have apologized for failing to purge "vulgar" content following a government pledge this week to expose and shut down offending websites.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - More than half of teenagers mention risky behaviors such as sex and drugs on their MySpace accounts, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Online travel agency Orbitz Worldwide on Wednesday said it named Barney Harford as president and chief executive and added that it would cut costs an additional $20 million to $25 million a year.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Tuesday said it was dropping copy protection from songs sold on the Internet and debuted its slimmest 17-inch laptop yet, but with no dramatic products or master pitchman Steve Jobs, the company's final Macworld performance disappointed Wall Street.

MIAMI (Billboard) - Musicalatina.com, the only Latin-owned, Latin-centric U.S. digital download store, launched in December.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched an investigation into the UK business of Bernard Madoff, the US fund manager behind an alleged $50 billion fraud.$

One of London's biggest insurance brokers, Aon, was today fined £5.25 million for anti-corruption failings after making suspicious payments to help win business in overseas jurisdictions.

Clifford Chance, the worlds largest law firm by revenue, has begun a redundancy consultation that could see up to 80 lawyers lose their jobs in London.

The judiciary is losing out on some of the best talent in the legal profession because the work of a High Court judge is perceived as fusty, old-fashioned and underpaid.

Backhander

Pete Weatherby, a barrister at Garden Court North Chambers in Manchester, acted for Michael Shields, the Liverpool supporter who was found guilty of attempted murder in Bulgaria and jailed for 15 years. The sentence was later reduced to ten years on appeal, and Shields was repatriated to serve the balance of his sentence in an English prison.

When appointed the first civilian in charge of military prosecutions, Bruce Houlder, QC, faced accusations that he would let our boys hang out to dry. Others said that he had been put in post to whitewash the crimes of the military. Houlder, who took over on January 1 as the independent Director of Service Prosecutions for all three Armed Forces, is determined to prove that he can steer a middle course.

This is the year when the pursuit, exposure and prosecution of fraud will be a very big business story. Already, almost every fraud lawyer in London will say that his or her workload has boomed and that Bernard Madoff has become the poster boy for what will become a substantial global legal industry.

Santander, the Spanish owner of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, looks likely to miss its ambitious 10 billion (£9 billion) profit target for 2008 after suffering hits from the Bernard Madoff scandal and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Britains top City regulator is examining whether to extend disclosure of short-selling to all 3,489 companies publicly traded in the UK.

AP - An eastern Pennsylvania man may face up to 37 years in prison for tearing open a neighbor's door with a chain saw. Police say 34-year-old Robert Kane began sawing through the front door of Jamie Zaleski's apartment in Scranton while Zaleski and several friends ran out the back.

AP - A 22-year-old Fairbanks man was arrested for allegedly urinating on a bouncer at a bar on Sunday morning. The bouncer at Kodiak Jack's told police that he was trying to remove another man from the bar for causing a disruption.

AP - Sioux Falls police trying to arrest a Lincoln, Neb., woman on shoplifting and drug charges said she faked birth pains. Officers were called to The Empire Mall Monday for a report of a woman stealing a key chain. When they searched the 35-year-old woman's purse, they also found pain pills without a prescription.

AP - A New York doctor is demanding that his estranged wife pay him $1.5 million to compensate him for the kidney he gave her while they were still on good terms. Dr. Richard Batista spoke Wednesday to reporters at his lawyer's office in Garden City, Long Island.

AP - Police said a feud among neighbors escalated when a Memphis woman lobbed flaming bottles of gasoline onto a neighbor's house. The woman was being held on $5,000 bond on a charge of aggravated arson after her arrest Tuesday.

Reuters - An Australian court has issued a blunt warning about the sexual predators a young driver faces in jail if he does not stop speeding, as authorities struggle to stop teenagers street racing.

Reuters - The Church of England published a prayer on Tuesday to help comfort Britons who lose their jobs in the financial crisis.

Reuters - Britain's morris dancers, renowned for bells on knees, colored rags and flower-bedecked hats, are launching a recruitment drive to convince young people that their stick-slapping art form is not a thing of the past.

Reuters - Three German children aged five, six and seven who said they were fed up with cold weather at home set off on a voyage to Africa but only got as far as the local train station, police said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama will seek Thursday to rally support for a massive fiscal stimulus package by warning that the United States could remain mired in recession for years without bold action.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - After months of will-he or won't-he speculation, MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews has opted not to run for the U.S. Senate in his native Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will name Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who pioneered efforts to design regulation around the ways people behave, as regulatory czar, the Wall Street Journal reported.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In an abrupt switch, Democratic leaders began talks on Wednesday to swear in Roland Burris, appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama will decide how to spend the remaining half of a $700 billion economic rescue package, a top Bush administration official said on Wednesday, while a key Democratic lawmaker outlined his vision of how new rescue funds should be spent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama will revamp the way the U.S. government coordinates counterterrorism efforts, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama, who faces trillion-dollar government deficits stretching into coming years, named on Wednesday a former Treasury official as the first U.S. "chief performance officer" to oversee budget and spending reform.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and his successor, Barack Obama, joined all the living U.S. presidents on Wednesday for a historic meeting at the White House two weeks before the country's next transfer of power.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Shirley Hunter reviewed her finances to make sure she could afford to retire in 1999, she never banked on health care costs more than doubling in less than a decade.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Wednesday that he will be communicating with key market participants on a regular basis.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have found the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the 24th century BC, the government said on Thursday.

LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British doctors conducting experiments in the "Death Zone" of Mount Everest has recorded the lowest levels of blood oxygen in humans, far below those of critically ill patients.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Black holes -- those massive, invisible objects that suck in everything around them -- may have appeared before the galaxies that host them, astronomers said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Could a pill or a squirt up your nose save your marriage? Maybe, according to a researcher who is studying the chemical basis of that most elusive of emotions -- love.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. scientists have found a way to levitate the very smallest objects using the strange forces of quantum mechanics, and said on Wednesday they might use it to help make tiny nanotechnology machines.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's space agency will launch a satellite later this month to monitor greenhouse gases around the world, officials said Wednesday, hoping the data it collects helps global efforts to combat climate change.

LONDON (Reuters) - The "love" hormone linked to feelings of sexual pleasure, bonding and maternal care also appears to help us recognize familiar faces, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deep brain stimulation dramatically improves Parkinson's disease symptoms such as trembling and slowness of movement, offering hope to many with the incurable ailment, researchers said on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Pink iguanas unknown to Charles Darwin during his visits to the Galapagos islands may provide evidence of species divergence far earlier than the English naturalist's famous finches, researchers said Monday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A single gene appears to play a crucial role in deadly breast cancers, increasing the chances the cancer will spread and making it resistant to chemotherapy, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Cleveland Browns named Eric Mangini as head coach Wednesday, just 10 days after he was fired by the New York Jets.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Struggling NBA champions Boston Celtics suffered their third straight defeat after Houston Rockets edged them 89-85 at home on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Robert Lang grabbed a hat-trick in an explosive third period to power the Montreal Canadiens to a 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Reuters) - Philadelphia coach Andy Reid said Wednesday that a mid-season defeat and his benching of quarterback Donovan McNabb helped the Eagles soar into Sunday's playoff clash against the New York Giants.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston College fired Jeff Jagodzinski on Wednesday after the head football coach interviewed for a job with the New York Jets, the school said.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A noticeable presence of protestors outside the venue failed to stop Olympic champion Elena Dementieva from marching into the semi-finals of the Auckland Classic on Thursday.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Former world number one Amelie Mauresmo upset top seed Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals of the Brisbane International on Thursday.

DALLAS (Reuters) - The Dallas Cowboys released troubled cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones on Wednesday, ending a tumultuous season marred by controversy, injuries and a six-game suspension.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom earned his 11th all-star selection on Wednesday when the Stanley Cup champion's Swedish captain was named to the Western Conference roster.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Jason Giambi is returning for a second spell with the Oakland Athletics after agreeing a one-year contract, the team said on its website (http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com) on Wednesday.

NEW YORK/LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc has chosen Microsoft Corp to provide Internet search services for cell phones, in what is seen as a blow to rivals Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.

Las Vegas (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc unveiled on Wednesday a list of partners to aid its push to bring the Internet and television together, hoping their joint effort will finally connect with consumers.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - TVs, TVs everywhere but not a 150-inch in sight. With much of the world grappling with recession, technology giants at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas eschewed the one-upmanship that had characterized past gatherings and focused instead on unveiling slimmer, energy-saving televisions with Internet bells and whistles.

NEW YORK/LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc picked Microsoft Corp to provide Internet search services for cell phones, in what is seen as a blow to rivals Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said on Thursday it had ended production of its only mobile device using the U.S.-centered WiMax technology, another blow for the struggling wireless technology.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp plans to launch the world's lightest 8-inch notebook PC, taking aim squarely at a rapidly growing market for ultra-portalbe personal computers.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government will seek to introduce new guidelines on mobile phone connection fees as early as 2010, which may lower rates for consumers, the Asahi newspaper reported on Thursday.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - SanDisk Corp unveiled a portable digital music system based on memory cards preloaded with songs, signaling a shift in its strategy to compete against the iPod.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Chief Executive John Chambers said he expects to make a "stream of acquisitions" with a particular focus on video, as part of an effort to remake the company as a consumer electronics brand.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co, aiming to keep ahead of rivals, will introduce new features for its Sync system that provides voice-activated links to mobile phones and digital music players, the automaker said on Wednesday.

The Bank of England cuts rates to 1.5%, the lowest level in its 315-year history, as it continues efforts to help the economy.

The Serious Fraud Office says it is to open an inquiry into Bernard Madoff's business operations in the UK.

UFO researchers claim damage to a Lincolnshire wind farm turbine was caused by a mystery aircraft.

Chancellor Alistair Darling denies he is planning to "print money" in order to boost the UK economy.

The England and Gloucester rugby player Mike Tindall is banned from driving for three years after admitting being over the drink-drive limit.

A Jamaican criminal who fathered four children by four different women in the UK has lost his legal battle against deportation.

Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo writes off his Ferrari in a crash near Manchester Airport.

The entire cabinet is in Liverpool for its third meeting outside London as Gordon Brown continues his regional tour.

The administrators at music, games and DVD retail chain Zavvi say they are closing 22 stores with immediate effect.

Zookeepers across Britain are counting every one of their animals and insects as part of a huge new year stock-take.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It took war, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the collapse of some of New York's famed investment banks, but Manhattan apartment prices are finally falling.

(Reuters) - Macy's Inc is expected to announce as soon as Thursday it will close 10 locations, the Wall Street Journal reported citing a person familiar with the matter.

(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp began laying off staff in its investment bank and capital markets group, the New York Post said, citing sources.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Investors in Satyam Computer Services Ltd's American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) have filed two class action suits against the Indian software services firm, the law firms representing the investors said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has made 388 people sick across 42 states, sending 1