RIM will swallow Playbook charge
Research In Motion (RIM) will account for extra costs of $360m (£229m; 266m euros) in its third quarter after poor sales of its Playbook tablet computers.
RIM shares have fallen around 65% this year as Apple's iPhone and Google's Android devices dominate the smartphone market.
RIM introduced the tablet in April, 12 months after the launch of Apple's first iPad tablet computer.
The firm slashed Playbook prices last month in a bid to boost sales.
US unemployment rate falls sharply to 8.6%
The US unemployment rate dropped sharply to 8.6% in November, its lowest level in two-and-a-half years, from 9% the month before, official figures show.
The US economy added 120,000 new jobs in November, the Department of Labor said, in line with forecasts.
The number of jobs created in September and October was revised up by 72,000.
The US has struggled for many months with slow growth while the unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high.
One of the reasons for the sharp drop in the unemployment rate in November was the large number of people who gave up looking for work, and therefore were no longer counted as part of the workforce.
The report helped the US market to open higher, with the Dow Jones index climbing 0.8% in early trading.
Upward revisions
The private sector added 140,000 jobs during the month, while government employment continued to fall.
The retail sector saw the biggest gains, with 50,000 jobs added, while the leisure and hospitality, business services and healthcare sectors also saw strong gains.
Manufacturing and construction, however, saw little change.
The number of jobs added in October was revised up to 100,000 from 80,000, while the figure for September was pushed up to 210,000 from 158,000.
Analysts were generally encouraged by the jobs figures.
"This is a pretty handsome looking report in my mind. The US has clearly turned a corner," said Eric Lascelles at RBC Global Asset Management.
Others were more circumspect.
"The really good news is that employment has grown for four months running - in large steps," said Pierre Ellis at Decision Economics.
However, he pointed out that "a lot of the drop in the unemployment rate comes down to a decline in the size of the labour force, which is quite large".
The unemployment figures come one day after data showed the pace of growth in the US manufacturing sector in November grew at its strongest pace since June.
The Institute for Supply Management said its index of factory output rose to 52.7 from 50.8 the month before.
Stocks rise on US jobless data and EU integration hopes
Global stock markets have risen as Europe's leaders called for closer economic integration as the way to ultimately resolve the debt crisis.
US stocks had their best week in more than two years, up 7%. Leading indexes in France, Germany and the UK were all up about 1%.
In a speech to the Bundestag, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe was working towards "fiscal union".
US unemployment data showed the jobless rate falling sharply to 8.6%.
The Labor Department said 120,000 jobs were created in November, while the figures for the previous two months were revised up by a combined 72,000.
However, one reason for the drop in the unemployment rate was the large number of people who gave up looking for work, and therefore were no longer counted as part of the workforce.
Banking stocks in particular performed well. In the UK, Lloyds was up more than 4% while Barclays gained 5%. In Germany, Commerzbank climbed almost 6% and Deutsche Bank rose 4%, while in France BNP Paribas was up more than 7%.
Earlier, Asian markets closed slightly higher, with Japan's Nikkei index up 0.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.2% higher.
Treaty changes
Mrs Merkel said steps were already being taken to create closer ties between eurozone members.
"We are not only talking about a fiscal union, we are beginning to create it," she said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy also called for changes to EU treaties as a prelude to closer integration in a speech on Thursday evening.
Global markets made strong gains on Wednesday after the some of the world's biggest central banks announced a joint plan to ease tensions within the global financial system.
This centred around offering access to cheaper dollars for commercial banks in the hope of stimulating lending.
China also announced that it was cutting its bank reserve limit, also a move designed to boost lending.
US Republican Herman Cain suspends campaign
US presidential hopeful Herman Cain has said he is suspending his campaign for the Republican nomination.
He blamed political and media pressure on his family in the wake of "false" allegations of sexual harassment and a 13-year-long extra-marital affair.
"I am not going to be silenced and I'm not going away," he told supporters in his home city of Atlanta, Georgia.
Next month, voters in Iowa will begin the process of choosing a Republican presidential candidate for 2012.
Mr Cain said the allegations against him had taken a toll on his family, but added: "I am at peace."
"I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt caused on me and my family," he told supporters at what had been billed as the opening of his campaign headquarters.
"These false and unproved allegations continue to be spinned in the media and in the court of public opinion so as to create a cloud of doubt over me and this campaign and my family," he said.
He said he would endorse another candidate at a later date but gave no hint of where he would direct his supporters to go.
Tweets of praise
On Friday Mr Cain discussed with his wife, Gloria, whether to press on with his campaign.
Last week, an Atlanta woman, Ginger White, 46, came forward to claim she had a 13-year affair with Mr Cain.
Speaking to MSNBC on Thursday, Ms White denied they had been in love, saying: "It was a sexual affair - as hard as that is for me to say."
While rejecting any suggestion of an affair with Ms White, Mr Cain has acknowledged helping pay her monthly bills and expenses, and that his wife did not know about the friendship.
The BBC's Marcus George, in Washington DC, says even before the questions arose about Mr Cain's private life, there were doubts about his plans for tax reform and his understanding of foreign affairs.
The former pizza executive went from obscure longshot to unlikely frontrunner to tabloid fodder.
While Mr Cain's ratings slumped, support for former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich has surged.
Mr Gingrich has now overtaken frontrunner Mitt Romney in some opinion polls on who should be the Republican candidate to challenge Barack Obama for the White House in November 2012.
Within minutes of his speech, rival Republican candidates - including Michele Bachmann and Mr Gingrich - had tweeted their praise for Mr Cain.
"Herman Cain provided an important voice. His ideas & energy generated tremendous enthusiasm for the conservative movement," Michele Bachmann tweeted.
Mr Gingrich's tweet said: "I am proud to know Herman Cain and consider him a friend and I know he will continue to be a powerful voice for years to come."
Tea Party
Mr Cain made his announcement before the series of state-by-state contests, known as primaries and caucuses, begins next month in Iowa to to choose the Republican nominee.
The former Godfather's Pizza chief executive - who has never won an election - was propelled by conservative Tea Party support to the front of the Republican field in October.
Portraying himself as a business-savvy, anti-establishment outsider, he captured the spotlight with his folksy charm and catchy 9-9-9 tax reform proposal.
But supporters were also alarmed when he made confusing comments about abortion and badly fumbled a question on Libya policy in a recorded interview.
Russians Begin Voting in Parliamentary Elections
Voters Russia are casting ballots in parliamentary elections that are expected to favor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.
Polling stations opened starting in the Russia's far east.
The voting Sunday comes amid claims of campaign fraud and unprecedented intimidation of observers.
Members of Russia's only independent election monitoring group say their leader Lilya Shibanova was detained for 12 hours Saturday at a Moscow airport.
Customs officials held the Golos monitoring group leader at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after she refused to hand over her laptop to security officers who said they wanted to inspect the computer for illegal software. Shibanova was released after she handed over the computer.
She told reporters in St. Petersburg Saturday she feared that her organization would not be allowed to properly monitor the elections.
“From my point of view, there is one major threat. The threat is that tomorrow (December 4) we start to do our job and do our best to do our program (of monitoring the elections) and then we hear in the morning that they don't let us in (the polling stations).
But the group says it is determined to go to the polls Sunday.
The airport detention is just the latest incident of intimidation of Golos in the run-up to the elections. On Friday, a Moscow court fined the monitoring group about $1,000 for compiling election law violations and posting them online. Golos, has nearly 5,000 complaints of alleged violations that it has received via text message, e-mail and telephone. Friday night, state-run television aired a program attacking the group.
Golos public relations manager Dmitry Merezhko told VOA that the group will protest the court decision, but not until it is done monitoring the vote.
He said Golos has recently received more public support in response to the media coverage.
The last polling places are scheduled to close at 1700 hours GMT.
Iraqi PM Confirms Assassination Attempt
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has confirmed that a car bomb explosion inside of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone last Monday was an assassination attempt against him.
In a Saturday interview with the Associated Press, Mr. Maliki said preliminary information indicated the blast was supposed to take place as he entered parliament.
Iraqi security officials said Friday the bomber intended to drive his vehicle filled with explosives to a parking lot near the parliament building and detonate the explosives when Mr. Maliki arrived.
However, officials at a checkpoint turned back the driver because he did not have proper credentials. He then detonated explosives, killing at least one person and wounding several others.
The blast took place at a time of heightened concern about Baghdad's ability to handle security after U.S. forces withdraw at the end of the month. Meanwhile, some of the last troops to leave Iraq are back on U.S. soil. On Saturday, loved ones greeted the soldiers as they returned to Fort Hood, Texas.
In violence Saturday, three people were killed in two separate incidents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Two people were shot dead when unidentified gunmen broke into their house in southern Mosul, while the third person died in the western part of the city.
Islamists, Secularists Protest Outside Tunisian Parliament
Thousands of Tunisian Islamists and secularists gathered near the parliament building in the capital, Tunis, Saturday in rival protests.
Separated by barriers and police, the two sides shouted slogans and waved flags outside the Bardo Palace where a new constitution is being drawn by lawmakers.
The latest round of protests was sparked when a group of hardline Islamists occupied a university campus near the capital earlier this week to demand segregation of sexes in class and for female students to wear a full-face veil.
The moderate Islamist Ennahda party dominates Tunisia's new 217-member assembly, taking the largest number of seats in the country's first democratic polls on October 23. The secular Congress for the Republic placed second with 30 seats and the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties – or Ettakatol – came in third with 21 seats.
Some secularists say the Islamists want to concentrate all the power in the hands of the prime minister from Ennahda party, which will lead the new coalition government.
The vote, which came nine months after protesters ousted longtime president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, was widely considered free and fair and sparked similar uprisings across the Arab world.
The assembly held its historic opening session last month.
Fire rages on Nassau Bahamas
Firefighters are at this hour working to put out a blaze that has been raging on Bay Street for the past several hours.
So far, the historic Pompey Museum has been destroyed, as has the building west of it, which housed The Balcony nightclub.The fire has jumped across the street to the sourthern of bay street and is now burning in the roof of the building just behind the British American Financial Center.
RTC will have more later on that story.
TCIG and the Civil Service Association discusses Critical Issues
TCIG ‘s negotiating team met with the Civil Service Association (CSA) this morning to discuss the issues that have led to recent strike action by Public Servants.
The CSA outlined their current position on the issues that were previously tabled. However, the meeting was focused on three specific issues which the CSA considered to be critical to its members and both parties agreed to move forward in a positive manner on these issues.
The current financial situation of the TCIG was outlined by its Finance Team, and a number of details were shared with the CSA, with some further data to follow. The difficulty that the Government faces in considering any cost increases before the end of the 2012/2013 financial year end, was outlined.
The CSA made two specific proposals in relation to the three issues discussed and, having been armed with the relevant additional financial and human resource information, will now document the proposals in more detail before sending them to TCIG by Monday 5th December 2011. The TCIG negotiating team agreed to give serious consideration to those proposals, and will endeavor to respond in the week commencing 12th December 2011.
Both parties agreed that the meeting had been very useful and that they would continue to discuss the issues in good faith. The CSA will continue work with the Office of Public Service Management within the coming week to address critical human resource issues.
The TCIG team agreed to see whether it would be possible for the CSA to meet the Governor and/or DfID Minister Alan Duncan early next week.
The CSA confirmed after the meeting that there would not be a strike on Tuesday 6 December.
DDME marks the end of the Huricane Season in the TCI
The Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies (DDME) marks the official end of the Atlantic Hurricane Season by reminding the Residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) of how blest we were that there were no lives lost, as where there is life there is hope. Though the TCI was threatened on several occasions the territory was impacted Hurricane Irene which resulted in significant flooding across the country but primarily on Providenciales. A number of lessons were learnt from TCIG’s response activities and have subsequently been reviewed for implementation by the beginning of the next Hurricane Season.
The DDME would like to high the team of TCIG professionals that will be participating in the Caribbean Comprehensive Disaster Management Conference in Trinidad and Tobago December 5th-9th. Also represented will be the defending champion TCI Youth Parliament Debaters that will be competing against a regional team selected by a process of elimination. We wish all those participants good luck in representing the TCI.
The DDME encourages all residents of the TCI to continue to remember the importance of being prepared as hazardous events can occur anytime of the year as was noted by the Haiti Earthquake occurring in January.