"I think the UK's participation in the EU is an expression of its influence and its ... role in the world," Obama said during a news conference with Cameron, who was visiting the White House.

Cameron is trying to unite his party on the issue after two cabinet ministers suggested they would vote to leave the EU if a referendum were held today.

Obama said the decision was ultimately up to the people of the UK, and noted there were "tough negotiations" ahead on economic and political issues.

"I will say this, that David's basic point that you probably want to see if you can fix what's broken in a very important relationship before you break it off makes some sense to me," Obama said.

Cameron told reporters that it is in the "national interests of Britain" to work with the EU on reforms that would make it "more open, more competitive, more flexible," and that it made sense to wait until reforms are made to hold a referendum on whether to stay in the EU.

"There's a very good reason why there's not going to be a referendum tomorrow," Cameron said.

"It would be a false choice between the status quo and leaving," he said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Andrew Osborn and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Vicki Allen and Cynthia Osterman)

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales rose 5.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in November. That's up from 4.76 million in October.

Previously occupied home sales are on track for their best year in five years. November's sales were the highest since November 2009, when a federal tax credit that was soon to expire spurred sales. Excluding that month, last month's sales were the highest since July 2007.

Sales are up 14.5 percent from a year ago, though they remain below the roughly 5.5 million that are consistent with a healthy market.

"The report is encouraging, and the positive momentum established in the housing market during 2012 appears likely to continue into 2013," Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays Capital, said in an email.

Superstorm Sandy delayed some sales in the Northeast, the Realtors' group said. Those delayed purchases will likely close in the coming months, though the increase will be modest, the group said.

Even so, sales rose 6.9 percent in the Northeast last month compared with October. Sales increased 7.2 percent in the Midwest, 7.9 percent in the South and 0.8 percent in the West.

Job growth and low home-loan rates have helped drive purchases. Prices are also rising, which encourages more potential buyers to come off the sidelines and purchase homes. And more people may put their homes on the market if they feel confident they can sell at a good price.

In addition, the excess supply of homes that built up during the housing bubble has finally thinned out. The number of previously occupied homes available for sale fell to nearly an 11-year low in November. The supply of new homes is also near its lowest level since 1963.

At the current sales pace, it would take 4.8 months to exhaust the supply of homes for sale. That's the shortest such span since September 2005.

At the same time, more people are looking to buy or rent a home after living with relatives or friends during and immediately after the Great Recession.

As low supply and rising demand push up prices, builders will likely be encouraged to start work on more homes in coming months, economists said.

"That's a good reason to feel optimistic about housing next year," said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight. "We just don't have enough homes right now, and we need to start building."

Builder confidence rose in December for a seventh straight month to the highest level in more than 6 years, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo.

The pace of home construction slipped in November, but it was still nearly 22 percent higher than a year earlier. Builders are on track this year to start work on the most homes in four years.

Economists note that the increase in building should lead to more construction jobs, though it hasn't yet done so. That could mean more construction hiring is coming.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Toddlers are less likely to have asthma and itchy rashes if their parents "cleaned" their pacifiers by sucking on them when the kids were infants, a small new study suggests.

The findings don't prove that technique protects kids against asthma, eczema or other allergies. But researchers said it's possible the transfer of mouth microbes from parents to baby may help boost the bacterial diversity of the young child's digestive system and foster immunity.

"We know these bacteria are important for development," said Dr. Wilfried Karmaus from the University of Memphis, who has studied asthma and eczema but wasn't involved in the new research.

Being delivered through a vaginal birth, for example, exposes babies to more of their moms' bacteria and has been linked to fewer allergies in childhood. But no one has ever looked at transfer of bacteria through pacifiers, Karmaus said.

For the new study, researchers recruited pregnant women at one Swedish hospital and followed them and their children through phone calls and exams over three years. The 184 infants in the study were particularly allergy-prone: 80 percent had at least one parent with allergies.

When the babies were six months old, 65 parents reported "cleaning" their pacifiers by sucking on them. Most parents also said they rinsed pacifiers with tap water.

The children were then brought in for allergy testing at 18 and 36 months of age.

At the first visit, 46 of them had eczema and 10 had asthma symptoms. Kids whose pacifiers had been sucked on by parents were 63 percent less likely to have eczema at 18 months and 88 percent less likely to have asthma, compared to the children of parents who didn't use that cleaning technique.

By 36 months, the difference had gone away for asthma. Parental pacifier sucking was still tied to a 49-percent lower chance of a child having eczema, researchers led by Dr. Bill Hesselmar from Queen Silvia Children's Hospital in Gothenburg found.

There was no clear link between parents' pacifier cleaning method and babies' sensitization to common allergens, such as cat and dog dander or eggs and peanuts, at either age.

In a smaller analysis of 33 infants, the researchers found that babies whose parents did or didn't suck on their pacifiers had different types of bacteria living in their mouths, the group reported Monday in Pediatrics.

"With the different oral flora, it supports the hypothesis and the findings," Hesselmar told Reuters Health.

Still, he said the study can't prove the pacifier cleaning method protected kids against asthma and eczema, and that it's too early to recommend this technique to parents.

"It's always hard to tell if it's the only explanation, but we have tried to analyze as many other possibilities as we can think of," he said.

"This is a simple measure which is really, really nice," Karmaus said. "But we need a trial to be really sure that this is protective."

A gold-standard trial would involve randomly assigning some parents to regularly clean pacifiers by sucking on them and others to never use that method. In the current study, Karmaus said, it's possible parents who decided on their own to suck on their child's pacifier were different from parents who didn't in other important, allergy-related ways.

"It could be that these parents have more time with their children, a less stressful relationship with their children, hug their children more or whatever," he told Reuters Health.

For now, he said, parents should know that using their mouth to clean an infant's pacifier may be worth trying - and at the very least, shouldn't be harmful.

That technique may also be a necessity from time to time, Karmaus noted.

"Sometimes you take two or three pacifiers with you but if all are dirty and your child is crying, there's nothing you can do" but clean it yourself.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/cxXOG Pediatrics, online May 6, 2013.

Albrecht, who averages under eight minutes and two points a game, had 17 with time still left in the first half. He was 6 of 7 overall from the floor.

Player of the Year Trey Burke scored seven points over the first 2:44 for the Wolverines to match his entire output from Saturday night's semifinal. But he also drew his second foul with 11:09 and was lifted from the game by coach John Beilein.

Not to worry. With his shooting streak, Albrecht improved to 9-for-9 from long range so far in the tournament. He hasn't missed a 3-pointer since March 3. Before this game, he had only scored 67 points all season.

Wayne Blackshear had five points for Louisville, which was having trouble matching Michigan shot-for-shot. The Wolverines were shooting 52 percent, while the Cardinals were at 39.

Watching from the stands were all five members of the Fab Five, the brash group of sophomores who led Michigan (31-7) to the final in 1993 the program's last appearance at the Final Four.

That included Chris Webber, who infamously called a timeout the Wolverines didn't have at the end of Michigan's 77-71 loss to North Carolina in the 1993 final. He has had very little to do with his alma mater in recent years, but was seen getting out of his car and heading into the Georgia Dome shortly before tip-off.

Top-seeded Louisville (34-5) is trying to bring its first title back to the state of Kentucky's "other" school since 1986. Sitting on the bench with the Cardinals is sophomore guard Kevin Ware, the team's inspiration since snapping his tibia in the regional final last weekend.

Cardinals coach Rick Pitino is working the sideline hours after being named to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

Pitino is trying to become the first coach to lead two programs to national championships. He took Kentucky to the title in 1996.

Russ Smith, the Louisville team leader who Pitino has nicknamed "Russdiculous" for some of his wild and wildly effective antics on the court, scores 18.9 points a game for the Cardinals during the season but has picked up the scoring in the tournament, averaging 25 in the five Louisville wins.

The Cardinals are playing without their main reserve, Ware, who broke his leg in the regional final against Duke. Needing a pickup without Ware, reserve swingman Luke Hancock scored 20 points in the 72-68 win over Wichita State. And rarely used walk-on Tim Henderson made two key 3-pointers during the comeback.

"The other night, we were not going to play in the championship game unless a walk-on steps up and makes a play to give us momentum," Pitino said in a pregame interview.

Michigan topped Syracuse 61-56 on Saturday despite an off night from Burke, who finished with only seven points on 1-for-8 shooting.

Burke, a sophomore, seriously considered leaving for the NBA after last season but decided he had unfinished business left in Ann Arbor. He picked up the AP Player of the Year award, among others, and is now one victory away from the ultimate prize in college hoops.

Before leaving the locker room, Beilein gave his team a pep talk: "You play with poise, play with confidence, you do all those things today and we're going to have one heck of a celebration," he said.

Monday night's game is the final act in what has been an ugly season overall in college hoops, with scoring at its lowest (67.49 points per team) since 1951-52 and shooting at its worst (43.3 percent) since 1964-65. The 131.2-points-per-game average during March Madness is the lowest since the 3-point line was brought to the game in 1987, though the teams were on pace to easily surpass that midway through the first half.

The Spaniard, still unpopular with a section of Chelsea's support from his days with Liverpool, has impressed as the club's interim manager and victory at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday would all but secure a place in at least the qualifying round for the Champions League.

"You know that next year another manager will be here and I think every one knows who will be here," Benitez said in a televised news conference, when asked if his success at the club could lead to a longer stay.

Self-proclaimed "Special One" Jose Mourinho is the hot favourite to return to Chelsea from Real Madrid, having won two Premier League titles for the club during his first stint in charge which ended in 2007.

"It's not my concern what will happen here next season, I'm just concentrating on doing my job," Benitez, who will lead the side against Portuguese club Benfica in the Europa League final in Amsterdam this month, said.

Interim manager since the sacking of Roberto di Matteo in November, Benitez said he would not be considering his next move until his Chelsea mission was complete.

"I'm just thinking about Tottenham now," he said. "

Chelsea will have Eden Hazard available after he missed Sunday's 1-0 win at Manchester United through injury.

Tottenham have not won a league game at Chelsea for 23 years and defeat would leave them six points behind Chelsea and two points behind fourth-placed Arsenal with two games remaining.

"Both teams will want to win, it's a game we've been looking forward to and we'll certainly be going there to win," Tottenham defender Michael Dawson told the club's website (www.tottenhamhotspur.com).

"We'll have to earn it. We'll go there full of confidence and hopefully get the three points."

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Philadelphia jury began its fifth day of deliberations on Monday in the murder trial of a doctor accused of killing babies and a patient during late-term abortions at a clinic serving low-income women.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-shuttered Women's Medical Society Clinic, could face the death penalty if convicted by the jury in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia.

The seven-woman, five-man jury heard five weeks of testimony before starting deliberations last Tuesday. After having the weekend off, the panel reconvened at about 8:30 a.m. on Monday.

Gosnell is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords, prosecutors said.

It is legal in Pennsylvania to abort a fetus up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Gosnell also faces charges that he performed 24 abortions beyond 24 weeks.

Judge Jeffrey Minehart told jurors last week that state law defines a live baby as one that is fully expelled from the mother and showing signs of life such as breathing, heart beat or movement.

Gosnell's defense contends there is no evidence the babies were alive after they were aborted.

Testimony depicted a filthy clinic serving mostly low-income women in a largely black community.

Gosnell also is charged with murdering Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Virginia, who died from a drug overdose after going to him for an abortion, prosecutors said.

Gosnell has been in jail since his January 2011 arrest. Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are awaiting sentencing. They include Gosnell's wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist who helped perform abortions.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Doina Chiacu)

UBS will pay Assured $358 million in an initial cash payment, the bond insurer said. The two companies have also entered into loss-sharing agreement on future claims, which will take effect from the third-quarter.

"UBS represents the third financial institution with which we have reached a major settlement since 2011," Assured Chief Executive Dominic Frederico in a statement.

Assured sued UBS in February 2012 after the bank declined to repurchase hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mortgages. The lawsuit, which claimed breach of contract, focused on financial guaranty insurance Assured provided in 2006 and 2007 to three mortgage-backed securities transactions.

Assured has filed similar lawsuits against units of JPMorgan Chase & Co , Credit Suisseand Flagstar Bancorp Inc . It had earlier reached settlements with Bank of Americafor $1.1 billion and Deutsche Bankfor $165.6 million, without filing lawsuits against them.

Assured's shares closed at $20.83 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Squad: Michael Clarke (captain), George Bailey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Phillip Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Adam Voges, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Shane Watson.

(Compiled by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Coach Rick Pitino added this title to the one he won at Kentucky in 1996 and is the first coach to win a championship at two schools. Earlier in the day, Pitino was elected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

Hancock scored 22 points and Peyton Siva had 18 for the Cardinals (35-5), who trailed by 12 late in the first half before rallying for the school's third national title.

Trey Burke had 24 points for Michigan (31-8), which was in the final for the first time since the Fab Five led the Wolverines there in 1993. Little-used freshman Spike Albrecht added 17 points.

But the celebration belonged to the Cardinals, who added this to a Sugar Bowl victory this year and also have their women's team in Tuesday's national final against Connecticut.

Chane Behanan scored nine quick points early in the second half to help Louisville take the lead after trailing by double digits.

Behanan finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass.

Albrecht came in for Burke and made his first four 3-point attempts, scoring all his points in the opening half. Albrecht finally missed with a little more than 11 minutes left; he was still 9 for 10 from long range for the tournament.

Hancock made all four of his 3-pointers to start a 14-1 run for Louisville that briefly gave the Cardinals a one-point lead late in the first half after they trailed by 12. Michigan's Glenn Robinson III made two free throws with 2 seconds left to give the Wolverines the lead at the half but Louisville led by as many as five early in the second.

The Cardinals came in having won six games this season after trailing by 10 or more, including Saturday night's semifinals, when they beat Wichita State 72-68 after also falling behind by 12.

It was a scintillating final act of a season that has been more of a grind, with scoring at its lowest (67.49 points per team) since 1951-52 and shooting at its worst (43.3 per cent) since 1964-65.

The 131.2-points-per-game average during March Madness is the lowest since the 3-point line was brought to the game in 1987, though the teams had surpassed that with 5:30 left.

Sitting on the bench with the Cardinals was sophomore guard Kevin Ware, the team's inspiration since snapping his tibia in the regional final last weekend.

Needing a pickup without Ware, Hancock led the scoring against Wichita State. And rarely used walk-on Tim Henderson made two key 3-pointers during the comeback.

Pitino, meanwhile, was working the sideline hours after being chosen for the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

Russ Smith, the Louisville team leader who Pitino has nicknamed "Russdiculous" for some of his wild and wildly effective antics on the court, finished with nine points on 3-of-16 shooting.

Michigan topped Syracuse 61-56 on Saturday despite an off night from Burke, who finished with only seven points on 1-for-8 shooting.

Burke, a sophomore, seriously considered leaving for the NBA after last season but decided he had unfinished business left in Ann Arbor. He picked up the AP Player of the Year award, among others, and is now one victory away from the ultimate prize in college hoops.

(Reuters) - Some of the biggest U.S. media conglomerates beat earnings expectations on Wednesday, though Time Warner Inc, Viacom Inc and Comcast Corp all found their television businesses under scrutiny in a tough advertising market.

Time Warnerposted a profit that topped even the most optimistic Wall Street estimate by 4 cents, and Comcastand Viacomboth beat expectations by one penny.

But all three were just shy of revenue expectations. Even though they operate a range of businesses outside of TV, investors focused on ad performance because it is a key revenue source for media companies.

"That advertising number is the first thing people look at when they look at the earnings release," said Matthew Harrigan, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities.

Viacom's stock got the strongest lift from its results, with shares rising 3.7 percent to $66.33 in afternoon trading, after touching a new multiyear high earlier in the session.

The company reported a 6 percent drop in revenue because of a weak slate of movies from its studio Paramount Pictures, but advertising revenue turned positive during the quarter.

Its cable network properties, including MTV and Nickelodeon, posted a 2 percent rise in advertising revenue in the United States.

Viacom has been struggling with a decline in TV ratings, which are the currency for commercials. The children's network Nickelodeon in particular was a drag.

"Viacom had ratings pressure for a long time, so it's significant that they have turned the corner in terms of ad growth, which is now positive instead of negative," said Brett Harriss, an analyst with Gabelli & Co.

For Time Warner, on the other hand, first-quarter ad revenue at cable properties including TNT and news channel CNN fell 1 percent.

UBS analyst John Janedis said in a note to clients he thinks it had to do with weak ad rates and what he characterized as "slow demand."

Part of the decline had to do with the timing of the 2013 NCAA college basketball tournament, a huge TV draw that partially slipped into a different quarter. But ratings also fell, with Evercore Partners estimating a decline of 4 percent for Time Warner's cable networks in the quarter.

The company said second-quarter ad revenue at its networks will be up in the high single digits in percentage terms.

Time Warner shares fell 1.1 percent to $59.12, recouping some of their earlier losses.

Comcast, which unlike the other two companies combines media properties with a cable television system, benefited more from cable than from its media unit.

The company lost more video customers than expected but gained more Internet subscribers than estimated. On the other hand, operating cash flow at NBC Universal was a negative $35 million, much worse than a year earlier.

Revenue at NBC also fell because the network did not have the lucrative Super Bowl this year, TV's premiere advertising event.

Shares rose 1.7 percent to $41.99, giving back some of their earlier gains. (Reporting by Jennifer Saba and Liana B. Baker; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)