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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to a near three-year low, giving a boost to President Barack Obama. Nonfarm payrolls jumped 243,000, the Labor Department said on Friday, as factory jobs grew by the most in a year. The jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent - the lowest since February 2009 - from 8.5 percent in December. The gain in employment was the largest since April and it far outstripped the 150,000 predicted in a Reuters poll of economists. ...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - More than 200 people were killed in shelling by Syrian forces in the city of Homs, activists said on Saturday, as the U.N. Security Council prepared to vote on a draft resolution backing an Arab call for President Bashar al-Assad to give up power. Death tolls cited by activists and opposition groups ranged from 217 to 260, making the Homs attack the deadliest so far in Assad's crackdown on protests which erupted 11 months ago, inspired by uprisings that overthrew three Arab leaders. Residents said Syrian forces began shelling the Khalidiya neighborhood at around 8 p.m. (1 p. ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - It's the year's hottest initial public offering, but some wealth managers find themselves having a hard time recommending Facebook to their clients. The world's biggest social network is expected to seek a $75 billion to $100 billion valuation in its IPO, the most anticipated stock offering from Silicon Valley since Google Inc went public in 2004. At Granite Investment Advisors in New Hampshire, Chief Investment Officer Scott Schermerhorn has already been fielding queries from clients eager to get in on the action. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation backed down from its decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and birth control services, following a massive outcry by supporters of the world's largest breast cancer charity. Komen's decision had thrust the group into America's deeply politicized debate over abortion rights and its apology on Friday may not satisfy the more vocal advocates on either side. Planned Parenthood supporters, including local directors within Komen's ranks, say Komen had come under pressure from anti-abortion activists. ...

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - With the enemy at the gates, Bashar al-Assad was dining out. The sound of gunfire and explosions carried to central Damascus as his troops clashed in the suburbs last Saturday with rebels who had seized towns near the capital. Masked gunmen erected checkpoints on the city outskirts. But Syria's 46-year-old president, outwardly unfazed, put on a show of business as usual for fellow patrons of the smart downtown restaurant where he spent the weekend evening. ...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An $80 billion marriage of commodities trader Glencore and miner Xstrata could lead to a new round of takeovers in iron ore, creating a goliath eager to muscle its way onto one of mining's richest and most closely guarded sectors. Glencore and Xstrata, which have yet to reach a deal, would together rank as the world's largest thermal coal exporter, the largest zinc producer and third-largest copper miner - but would remain all but non-existent in iron ore mining. Xstrata wants to get into iron ore, underlined in 2009 by its attempt to buy mining giant AngloAmerican. ...

BOISE, Idaho/SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 3 - Micron Technology Inc Chief Executive and Chairman Steve Appleton died in a small plane crash on Friday, a major loss for a U.S. memory chipmaker already struggling with sluggish computer sales and declining prices. The 51-year-old Appleton, a three-decade industry veteran who performed stunts at airshows, died after the small plane he was piloting crashed at an airport in Boise, Idaho, where the chipmaker is headquartered. His death stunned the tight-knit semiconductor industry. ...

ZURICH (Reuters) - The first indictment of a Swiss private bank over hiding untaxed money for wealthy Americans has heightened tension among private bankers fearful of being next in the firing line. The United States has indicted St.Gallen-based Wegelin, the oldest Swiss private bank, on charges it enabled Americans to evade taxes on at least $1.2 billion in offshore bank accounts. The indictment, which was announced by the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday, set Wegelin rivals in Zurich and Geneva buzzing on Friday, highlighting the fear of another U.S. strike against a private bank. ...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader threatened on Friday to retaliate against the West for sanctions, a day after a U.S. newspaper said defense secretary Leon Panetta believed Israel was likely to bomb Iran within months to stop it building a nuclear bomb. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's defiant televised speech marking the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution was the first time the top authority has spoken publicly about the impact of the new sanctions, which have strangled the Iranian economy since the start of the year. ...

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Republican front-runner Mitt Romney surged on Friday toward an apparent easy win in Nevada, with a new poll showing him beating rival Newt Gingrich by a 2-to-1 margin on the eve of the state's presidential nominating contest. Romney is seeking his second consecutive victory on Saturday in the state-by-state Republican race after seizing momentum earlier in the week by crushing Gingrich in Florida. A new Public Policy Polling survey showed Romney with support from 50 percent of likely voters in Nevada's caucuses. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives will swiftly take up a Senate-passed bill to curb insider trading by lawmakers next week, a top Republican said on Friday as Congress clamors to promote the measure in the face of flagging approval ratings. The "clean government" bill, which aims to prevent lawmakers from using knowledge gained through their positions for personal profit, sailed through the Senate by a 96-3 vote on Thursday, marking a rare display of bipartisan support in a deeply divided Congress. "We are going to act with dispatch. ...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Two American women kidnapped by gunmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Friday were released into army custody a few hours later, security sources said. The gunmen in the isolated desert region had apparently been seeking a ransom, but the security sources declined to discuss the terms of the release. However, a Bedouin source said the authorities had agreed to a demand to free four fellow tribesmen from police custody in exchange for the two tourists. Security in Sinai has deteriorated in the year since President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising. ...

In a long-awaited surge of hiring, companies added 243,000 jobs in January — across the economy, up and down the pay scale and far more than just about anyone expected. Unemployment fell to 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years.

To many people, breast cancer screening means a mammogram. But for millions of poor, mostly young women who visit Planned Parenthood, it is usually just a physical exam by the only health professional they may ever see.

Ben Gazzara, whose powerful dramatic performances brought an intensity to a variety of roles and made him a memorable presence in films, on television and on Broadway in the original "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," has died at age 81.

One of India's most powerful and controversial politicians rises from a throne-like armchair, a clutch of candidates standing deferentially behind her and two large portraits flanking the stage. A gated semicircle keeps tens of thousands of supporters 20 yards (meters) away.

Trading jokes and swapping leads, investigators from the FBI and Scotland Yard spent the conference call strategizing about how to bring down the hacking collective known as Anonymous, responsible for a string of embarrassing attacks across the Internet.

A powerful winter storm swept across Colorado on Friday as it headed east, bringing blizzard warnings to eastern Colorado and western Kansas, and winter storm warnings for southeast Wyoming and western Nebraska.

The head of memory chip maker Micron, long known for taking risks in stunt piloting, died Friday when a small experimental plane he was piloting steeply banked, stalled and crashed near an Idaho runway.

Competitive-eating champ Takeru Kobayashi (tah-kah-roo koh-bee-yah-shee) conquered Philadelphia's annual gustatory gorge-fest by eating 337 chicken wings in a half-hour before a crowd of nearly 20,000 at Wing Bowl XX.

Witnesses say demonstrators have stormed into the Syrian Embassy compound in Kuwait, breaking windows and hoisting the flag of the opposition to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Thirty-three civil rights groups from around the country complained to the New York attorney general Friday about police documents that showed the New York Police Department recommending increased surveillance of Shiite mosques based on their religion.

An Army officer ordered a court-martial Friday for a low-ranking intelligence analyst charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

In an effort to cut the unemployment rate among veterans, President Barack Obama is calling for a new conservation program that would put veterans to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands.

For leaders of the nation's pre-eminent breast-cancer charity, it was a firestorm they didn't see coming — and couldn't withstand.