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| Greek editor acquitted in Swiss bank list trial Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:24 PM PDT  ATHENS (Reuters) - A journalist who published the names of more than 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts was acquitted on Thursday of breaking data privacy laws. "The court has ruled that you are innocent," Judge Malia Volika said. The arrest and speedy trial of magazine editor Costas Vaxevanis had aroused international concern and riveted recession-weary Greeks angry at the privileges of the elite. In his defense, Vaxevanis accused politicians of hiding the truth and protecting an "untouchable" wealthy elite. He said the trial was politically motivated, calling it "targeted and vengeful". ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama, Romney back on attack as campaign hits final stretch Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:19 PM PDT  GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney were back on the attack on Thursday, breaking a storm-induced campaign truce to hit the road and pound home their closing messages in the final stretch of a tight battle for the White House. With five days left until Tuesday's election, Obama resurrected his 2008 "change" slogan and said he was the only candidate who had actually fought for it. Romney criticized Obama as a lover of big government who would expand the federal bureaucracy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Asian factories perk up, U.S. shows improvement Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:17 PM PDT  NEW YORK/BEIJING (Reuters) - Asia's large economies started to pick up steam last month after a year of slower growth, surveys showed on Thursday, while U.S. manufacturing showed modest improvement. The jury was out on whether the data signaled sustained improvement in the fragile global economy, although analysts said strength in the United States and China, the world's two biggest economies, was essential to overall economic well-being. That is particularly so at a time when a debt crisis in the 17-country euro zone has plunged several countries in the region into recession. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Penn State president charged with perjury in Sandusky case Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:16 PM PDT  HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Former Pennsylvania State University President Graham Spanier has been charged with perjury and obstruction as part of a "conspiracy of silence" in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, Pennsylvania's attorney general said on Thursday. Spanier, 64, also is charged with endangering the welfare of children, conspiracy and failure to report child abuse in the Sandusky scandal, which rocked college sports and focused national attention on child sexual abuse. Sandusky was a Penn State assistant football coach. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sandy on track to be second-largest flood loss ever Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:06 PM PDT (Reuters) - The superstorm Sandy will likely end up as the second-largest insured flood loss in U.S. history, behind only Hurricane Katrina, a top executive of a leading flood insurance provider said on Thursday. Patty Templeton-Jones, the chief operating officer of Wright Flood, said the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency is expecting claims on at least 80,000 flood insurance policies after Sandy. Wright is the largest private provider of policies guaranteed by FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program. (Reporting by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Gary Hill) Full Story | Top |
| Lot of work left on Canada-EU trade deal, both sides say Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:03 PM PDT OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada and the European Union still have plenty of work to do on a proposed free trade treaty that is supposed to be finished by the end of the year, officials from both sides said on Thursday. Canada, keen to diversify its exports away from the United States, says a deal with the European Union would increase two-way trade by 20 percent. The talks started in 2009. But several sensitive matters remain to be settled, including access for agricultural goods, opening up procurement markets and the extension of pharmaceutical patents. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cameron says he will listen to parliament on EU budget Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:59 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday he would listen to parliament after MPs voted in favour of a real terms cut in the European Union budget, and reaffirmed his promise to use Britain's veto if necessary. But he added that Britain was already taking a tough position on the EU budget - where it is pushing for a real terms freeze that would allow the 27-nation long-term spending plan to rise only in line with inflation. ... Full Story | Top |
| UPDATE 3-Ex-Penn State president charged in Sandusky sex abuse case Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:56 AM PDT * Two other former Penn State officials face new charges * Spanier's arraignment set for Friday (Adds arraignment, analyst comment, Spanier lawyer comment, details) HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov 1 (Reuters) - Former Pennsylvania State University President Graham Spanier has been charged with perjury and obstruction as part of a "conspiracy of silence" in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, Pennsylvania's attorney general said on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunman wounds four at college Halloween party in Los Angeles Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:54 AM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire outside a large Halloween party at the University of Southern California and wounded four people in the second major shooting incident involving the school this year, police said on Thursday. The violence erupted late on Wednesday outside a student party at the Tutor Campus Center, the university said in a statement. It said none of the wounded were affiliated with the school. ... Full Story | Top |
| Canada will push to keep bank capital rules on schedule Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:54 AM PDT OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will urge all countries to stick to the agreed schedule for implementing tougher bank capital rules at a November 4-5 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday. The so-called Basel III rules are the world's regulatory response to the financial crisis, forcing banks to triple the amount of basic capital they hold in a bid to avoid future taxpayer bailouts. They were to be phased in from January 2013 but areas such as the United States and the European Union are not yet ready and U. ... Full Story | Top |
| Greek court challenges pension reform plan Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:53 AM PDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Pension reform demanded by foreign lenders may be unconstitutional, a Greek court ruled on Thursday, in a setback to the government's efforts to push through an austerity package for the near-bankrupt country. The Court of Auditors, which vets Greek laws before they are submitted to parliament, said planned measures such as increasing the retirement age by two years to 67 and cutting pensions by 5 to 10 percent could be against the constitution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Government to pay NJ, NY emergency power, transport costs Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:51 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government will cover 100 percent of emergency power and public transportation costs through November 9 for the areas of New York and New Jersey that were hit hard by superstorm Sandy, according to the U.S. senators of the two states. The four senators, all Democrats - Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez in New Jersey and Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in New York - said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved the emergency funding at President Barack Obama's request. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Greek "tax cheat" lists yield one suicide, no convictions Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:47 AM PDT  VOLOS, Greece (Reuters) - Leonidas Tzanis, a Greek provincial lawyer and former government minister, went down to his basement garage in the city of Volos last month, tied a TV cable to a metal beam and hanged himself. Friends and family say Tzanis died because he was on a list, one of several hinting at financial crimes which are dominating Greek headlines and filling a vacuum created by the state's failure to act decisively on tax evasion and corruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| Harper to promote Canada business, but no investment rules yet Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:45 AM PDT  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will promote Canada as open for business during a November 3-11 trip to Asia, although he is not likely to unveil long-awaited guidelines for foreign takeovers of Canadian firms, an aide said on Thursday. "I don't think it's a problem at all to go around the world and say we're open for business, because we are," Harper's chief spokesman, Andrew MacDougall, told reporters ahead of the trip, which will take Harper to India, the Philippines and Hong Kong. "Canada overwhelmingly supports foreign investment in Canada ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Ballot measures could affect U.S. state credits: Fitch Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:35 AM PDT (Reuters) - Some of the 174 measures on ballots in 37 states in Tuesday's presidential election could impact key state credit factors, such as debt, finances and management, Fitch Ratings said on Thursday. Measures crowding ballots include bond authorizations and gambling expansion, as well as proposals to increase or limit taxes, the rating agency said. "The fact that so many states are seeking voter input on taxes attests to the continued political sensitivity of revenue raising in the current tight budgeting environment," said Fitch Managing Director Laura Porter in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| NASA's last space shuttle heading to Florida retirement home Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:27 AM PDT CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's third and last surviving space shuttle will move to its retirement home on Friday after a 10-mile road trip from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis, which ended the 30-year-old space shuttle program with a final flight last year, will be the star attraction of a new $100 million exhibit at the privately operated Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex adjacent to the NASA spaceport. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guarded optimism on Irish economy despite growth cut Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:24 AM PDT DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's economy won't grow as fast next year as previously anticipated, although it will beat the 1.4 percent growth posted in 2011, finance minister Michael Noonan said on Thursday. Noonan's guarded optimism appeared to be backed up by a survey released on Thursday that showed Ireland's manufacturing sector grew for the eighth month in a row in October and at the fastest rate in three months as orders from abroad rebounded. ... Full Story | Top |
| Immigration courts called inefficient, beset by delays Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:12 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Immigration courts are inefficient and beset by delays, falling behind in processing proposed deportations in recent years despite having more judges hearing these cases, the Justice Department's inspector general said on Thursday. The courts completed 324,000 proceedings in the 2006 fiscal year but only 287,000 in the 2010 fiscal year, a report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz said. The number of immigration judges grew from 211 to 238 during that time period, according to the report. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hospitals sue government over private Medicare audits Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:08 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A coalition of hospitals sued the U.S. government on Thursday, claiming that private auditors hired to crack down on improper Medicare payments are denying hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars in legal payments for necessary care. The lawsuit alleges auditors known as Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) forced hospitals to repay Medicare for the cost of in-patient services by determining months and sometimes years after the fact that beneficiaries should have been treated as out-patients instead of being admitted. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sri Lanka pressed at U.N. to prosecute wartime crimes Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:56 AM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Western countries kept up pressure on Sri Lanka on Thursday to prosecute killings of civilians and other crimes committed in its 30-year civil war and to investigate continuing grave violations. Britain and the United States said that accountability must be established for serious breaches in the conflict that ended in 2009 and they voiced concern at the latest attacks on journalists, activists and lawyers. Sri Lanka was in the dock at the United Nations Human Rights Council, a Geneva-based forum that regularly examines the records of all U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama revives his 2008 "change" slogan in final campaign pitch Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:52 AM PDT  GREEN BAY, Wisc. (Reuters) - In what his advisers billed as his closing argument, President Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail for the first time in four days on Thursday, declaring "our work is not yet done" and reviving his successful 2008 campaign slogan: change. Obama resumed re-election rallies after overseeing the response to the devastating storm that hit the eastern seaboard. The president, who won the White House four years ago thanks in part to his themes of "hope" and "change," had largely avoided them until now. ... Full Story | Top |
| East Coast staggers to recover from monster storm Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:49 AM PDT (Reuters) - Rescuers searched flooded streets and swamped houses for survivors, drivers lined up for hours to get scarce gasoline and millions remained without power on Thursday as New York City and nearby coastal towns struggled to recover from one of the biggest storms ever to hit the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. FTC halts robocalls from five companies that stole $30 million Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:46 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal judges in Arizona and Florida have temporarily closed five companies which allegedly used robocalls to find victims to defraud to the tune of $30 million, the Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday. The move was the latest in an attempted crackdown by the agency on companies that pitch products, via autodialed phone calls, such as fraudulent credit card services or medical discount cards. ... Full Story | Top |
| Judge backs Catholic firm over contraception mandate Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:44 AM PDT (Reuters) - A Catholic-owned family business in Michigan does not have to comply with the provision of the new U.S. healthcare law that requires private employers to provide employees with health insurance that covers birth control, a federal judge in Detroit has ruled. U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland, in a ruling late Wednesday, temporarily blocked the government from forcing the owner of Weingartz Supply Company, which sells outdoor power equipment, to include contraception in its health coverage of employees. ... Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu rival blasts his "obsession" with Iran Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:40 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Kicking off his election campaign, Israeli opposition leader Shaul Mofaz on Thursday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being driven by an obsession to bomb Iran. Mofaz, head of the centrist Kadima party that quit Netanyahu's coalition weeks ago citing differences over how to rein in Iran's nuclear program, unveiled a poster of a flaming mushroom cloud emblazoned with "Netanyahu will mire us in trouble". ... Full Story | Top |
| Labour party embraces old foes in risky European gamble Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:40 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Giving Prime Minister David Cameron a bloody nose over Europe may have given Labour Party a short-term glow, but their lurch towards the anti-Brussels camp risks leaving them divided, isolated and lacking credibility. After years of broadly pro-European policies, the centre-left party joined a rebellion organised by members of Cameron's Conservatives demanding he pushes for a real-terms cut in the European Union budget at talks this month. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least 23 killed in Riyadh fuel truck blast Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:36 AM PDT  RIYADH (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed when a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday, triggering an explosion that brought down an industrial building and set fire to nearby vehicles. State-owned Ekhbariya television news channel reported on that the death toll had risen to 23 and emergency workers were still searching the collapsed building for more victims or survivors. Health ministry spokesman Saad al-Qahtani said 135 people were injured, mostly men and including some foreigners. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mis-sold loan insurance costs Lloyds another £1 billion Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:25 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group took another 1 billion pound hit to compensate customers mis-sold loan insurance, taking its charge for the scandal to 5.3 billion and dragging it to a third-quarter loss. Britain's biggest retail bank had already set aside 4.3 billion pounds to repay customers wrongly sold payment protection insurance (PPI), in what has become one of Britain's biggest consumer finance debacles. Lloyds provisions are far higher than rivals because it had the biggest share of the PPI market. The bank said on Thursday it had paid out or spent 3. ... Full Story | Top |
| Presidential race still tied with six days to go: Reuters/Ipsos poll Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:23 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The presidential race remained effectively tied on Thursday, with President Barack Obama backed by 47 percent of likely voters and challenger Mitt Romney supported by 46 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll. The race has been stable in the last days before Election Day on Tuesday. Obama has remained at 47 percent and the Republican Romney at 46 percent support in the online poll for three days running. It is a statistically insignificant difference between them despite a barrage of late campaign ads and the effects of devastating Hurricane Sandy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers, several executed Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:22 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Anti-government rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday in attacks on three army checkpoints around Saraqeb, a town on Syria's main north-south highway, a monitoring group said. Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to video footage. Rebels berated them, calling them "Assad's Dogs", before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground. The highway linking the capital Damascus to the contested city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial center, has been the scene of heavy fighting since rebels cut the road last month. ... Full Story | Top |
| Massachusetts man sentenced to 17 years after FBI terrorism sting Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:18 AM PDT  BOSTON (Reuters) - A Massachusetts man was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Thursday for a plot to attack the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol building in Washington with explosives loaded into remote-control model airplanes. Rezwan Ferdaus, who was arrested in September 2011 and pleaded guilty in July to terrorism-related charges in a deal with prosecutors, told the court he has devoted a lot of time to self-reflection while in jail awaiting sentencing and that he accepted his fate. ... Full Story | Top |
| Car explodes outside barracks in Turkey's Iskenderun port Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:15 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A car exploded outside a military barracks in the Turkish port town of Iskenderun on Thursday, injuring four people, in what a local news agency said was a bomb attack. The Dogan news agency said the car, which was packed with explosives, blew up 150 meters from the entrance to the barracks shortly before a military vehicle had been due to pass and that the blast injured at least three passengers in a civilian car. "There was an explosion and we can confirm four people are slightly injured. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dissident says reforming Lukashenko's Belarus impossible Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:58 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Belarussian dissident Andrei Sannikov, granted political asylum in Britain, is worried about the safety of his family he left behind but believes the autocratic government of President Alexander Lukashenko could eventually fall, he said on Thursday. A former deputy foreign minister, Sannikov, 58, moved to Britain in August after being released from prison where he said officials tried to push him to kill himself. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenya police make three more arrests in Venezuela diplomat murder Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:51 AM PDT  NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police have arrested three more suspects in connection with the murder of a Venezuelan diplomat in the capital Nairobi in July, a senior officer said on Thursday. Olga Fonseca, Venezuela's acting ambassador and charge d'affaires, was found strangled in her bedroom less than two weeks into her posting, which followed the abrupt departure of the previous ambassador after he was accused by his domestic staff of sexual harassment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Prison officer killed in Northern Ireland motorway shooting Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:44 AM PDT  BELFAST (Reuters) - A prison officer was killed in Northern Ireland on Thursday when he drove into a hail of bullets and crashed off a motorway at high speed, in an attack blamed by police and politicians on militant nationalists. It was the first murder of a prison officer since 1993 and the fifth fatal attack on a member of the security establishment since the 1998 Good Friday peace deal, which largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon airlifts power teams, trucks to New York Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:41 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is airlifting power restoration experts and trucks cross-country, from California to New York, to bolster efforts to assist the millions of people still living in darkness days after superstorm Sandy hit the U.S. Northeast. The C-5 and C-17 military transport planes - designed to carry heavy military equipment, like tanks - began flying from March Air Reserve Base in southern California early on Thursday and were due to start arriving in the afternoon at an Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mayor says Sandy's death toll in New York City is at least 37 Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:33 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - At least 37 people have been killed in New York City due to the massive storm Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday. Downtown Manhattan and parts of the city's Brooklyn borough remain without electricity, and restoration of power will "take time," Bloomberg said at a briefing. Sunday's New York Marathon remained on schedule and is "not going to redirect any focus" from the city's safety and recovery efforts, he said. The city's schools are scheduled to reopen on Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Romney back to campaign attacks on Obama after Sandy pause Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:31 AM PDT  ROANOKE, Virginia (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney returned to campaign attacks against President Barack Obama on Thursday after a pause for the storm Sandy, hitting the Democrat for proposing more government bureaucracy. Romney swept into must-win Virginia looking to increase turnout among Republican voters in a conservative area of the state to help offset the Democrats' advantage the northern area. Virginia went for Obama in 2008 but may flip for the Republican this year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Data points to slow healing in labor market Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:30 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies added jobs in October at the fastest pace in eight months, a sign of modest healing in the labor market just days before a presidential election that could hinge on the economy. Other data on Thursday showed a sharp improvement in consumer confidence and a drop in new claims for jobless benefits, while there were mixed signals regarding the health of U.S. manufacturing. Private employers added 158,000 workers last month, the biggest gain since February, payrolls processor Automatic Data Processing said. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Dutch finance minister promise cuts, tough line on euro zone Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:29 AM PDT AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The incoming Dutch finance minister said on Thursday he would push ahead with budget cuts at home and take a tough line on the euro zone crisis, ensuring policy continuity. Labor MP Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned of tough times ahead given the new coalition government between his Labor party and Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals has already agreed to nearly 16 billion euros ($21 billion) in budget cuts. "We have agreed to a tight budget and together we are going to implement it. It is a tough package that is going to require sacrifices from everyone in the Netherlands. ... Full Story | Top |
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