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| 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 |
| Bloomberg endorses Obama for a second term, climate change a focus Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:34 PM PDT  (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term, citing the importance of Obama's record on climate change, particularly in the aftermath of the devastating blow dealt to the New York area by storm Sandy. "Our climate is changing," Bloomberg wrote in an opinion article for Bloomberg View. ... 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 |
| 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 |
| Court in UK tells Apple to change statement on Samsung case Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:41 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Apple must re-write a statement posted on its website acknowledging that Samsung did not infringe on its registered designs for tablet computers, and place it more prominently on its homepage, a court in the UK ruled on Thursday. The statement was deemed to be "non-compliant" with the order in a previous High Court judgment that concluded Samsung's Galaxy tablet did not infringe Apple's designs, in part because its products were "not as cool". ... 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Pakistani couple kill daughter who talked to a boy Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:36 AM PDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani couple killed their teenage daughter by pouring acid on her face and body after they caught her talking to a boy, police and a doctor said on Thursday. The parents of the 16-year-old confessed to police in Kotli, a town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, that they attacked their daughter after she had spoke to the boy outside their house, said Mohammad Jahangir, a local doctor at the hospital where she was brought. "There were third-degree burns on her scalp, face, eyes, nostrils, both arms, chest foot and lower part of legs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venice hit by worst flooding in two years Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:20 AM PDT  VENICE (Reuters) - Tourists in Venice put plastic bags over their legs and residents wore rubber boots as water rose to knee-high levels in many parts of the lagoon city on Thursday. The median level of the Adriatic Sea swelled to about 1.4 meters (1.5 yards) above normal - the highest in nearly two years - sending water from the lagoon into St. Mark's Square and many narrow alleyways. Wooden catwalks which are usually used to allow pedestrian passage over flooded areas were removed after the water rose above them, rendering them useless. ... 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 |
| China proposes new initiatives for Syria ceasefire Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 05:17 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday it had proposed new initiatives to head off an escalation of violence in Syria, including a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the establishment of a transitional governing body. China has been strongly criticized by some in the Arab world for failing to take a stronger stance on the violence in Syria and has subsequently been keen to show it is trying to take a more proactive role in resolving the crisis. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exxon quarterly profit falls, output tumbles Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:48 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported a quarterly profit on Thursday that topped expectations, as higher margins from its refining arm countered a 7.5 percent decline in oil and gas output. Exxon and other global oil producers are buying oil and gas assets in North America as they struggle to raise production in a sector where vast energy resources are tightly controlled by countries like Brazil. Earlier this month, Exxon agreed to buy Celtic Exploration Ltd for $2.64 billion. ... Full Story | Top |
| NJ power firm PSEG says Sandy severely damaged infrastructure Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:15 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, the biggest utility in New Jersey, said superstorm Sandy had caused severe damage to its infrastructure and it expected its losses to be material. About 775,000 PSEG customers were still without power on Thursday, down from about 1.7 million at the peak, PSEG Chief Executive Ralph Izzo said, adding that it would take seven to 10 days to fully restore service. Towns along the New Jersey shore took much of the brunt of Sandy, which barreled through the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Government to pay New Jersey emergency power costs: senators Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:18 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government will cover 100 percent of emergency power and public transportation costs through November 9 in eight New Jersey counties that were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, according to the two U.S. senators representing the state. An aide to Senator Frank Lautenberg told Reuters that FEMA informed the senators of the decision. Lautenberg and Senator Robert Menendez said they are continuing to request that federal aid "covers as large of a share of the response costs as possible" in the wake of this week's hurricane that battered the East Coast. ... Full Story | Top |
| Moody's says Sandy will test municipalities' liquidity Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:59 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Massive storm Sandy might put strains on the liquidity of some municipalities facing unbudgeted costs related to clean-up and repairs, Moody's rating agency said on Thursday. The Wall Street ratings agency said that although the track record of recovering from natural disasters is "extremely strong" for U.S. municipal issuers, there are risks. Up-front clean-up costs may exceed budgeted contingencies, aid from higher levels of government could be delayed and insurance reimbursement could arrive too late, it said. (Reporting by Tiziana Barghini; Editing by James Dalgleish) Full Story | Top |
| Obama to use "affirmative" message in closing pitch Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 01:45 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After three days of focusing on superstorm Sandy, President Barack Obama will return to the campaign trail on Thursday with a more "affirmative" message to win over undecided voters in the final days of the race for the White House. With polls showing a tight contest between the Democratic incumbent and Republican challenger Mitt Romney before Tuesday's election, Obama will use trips to political battleground states to make a closing appeal for a second term. ... Full Story | Top |
| Productivity increases modestly, unit labor costs drop Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 06:18 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nonfarm productivity increased at a modest pace in the third quarter, giving little sign that businesses are poised to ramp up hiring significantly. Productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, increased at a 1.9 percent annual rate, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Many economists would read a drop in productivity as a sign that companies are closer to maxing out production with existing staff and would have to boost hiring. But the third-quarter reading matched the revised reading for the prior three-month period. ... Full Story | Top |
| Three days after Sandy, 659,000 ConEd customers in NY powerless Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 06:02 AM PDT  (Reuters) - New York power company Consolidated Edison Inc said Thursday it still had about 659,400 homes and businesses without power three days after monster storm Sandy slammed into the U.S. East Coast. Sandy hit the East Coast late Monday leaving more than 8.48 million customers without power in 21 states from North Carolina to Maine and as far west as Illinois. Con Edison said in a report it has restored power to more than 225,000 customers since Sandy's departure. The company said the storm was the worst natural disaster to strike its service area. ... Full Story | Top |
| NYC taxi firms run out of fuel Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 06:17 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York taxi and car service companies started pulling vehicles off the road on Thursday as the fuel crunch deepened, with the vast majority of storm-hit service stations in the greater New York area now out of gasoline or without power. Power outages and fuel shortages have forced many gasoline stations to shut, and now threaten efforts in New York and New Jersey to get back to business after Hurricane Sandy. Many homes and businesses that have lost power are also reliant on gasoline and diesel run generators, including many of the Wall Street banks in lower Manhattan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Crunching the numbers to boost odds against cancer Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:15 AM PDT  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Software engineers are moving to the fore in the war on cancer, designing programmes that sift genetic sequencing data at lightning speed and minimal cost to identify patterns in tumors that could lead to the next medical breakthrough. Their analysis aims to pinpoint the mutations in our genetic code that drive cancers as diverse as breast, ovarian and bowel. The more precise their work is, the better the chance of developing an effective new drug. ... Full Story | Top |
| Power market watchdog seeks Barclays fine Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 04:59 AM PDT  WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. regulators threatened to fine Barclays roughly $470 million to settle allegations that the bank and four traders manipulated California electricity markets, reviving the specter of a sector-wide crackdown on energy trading. It could possibly be the biggest penalty ever levied by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and potentially exceeds the fine Barclays paid over the Libor bid-rigging scandal that cost Chief Executive Robert Diamond his job. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pfizer sales weak on vaccine, emerging markets slump Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:27 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc on Thursday posted quarterly revenue well below Wall Street expectations, as sales of the pharmaceutical company's Prevnar pediatric vaccine disappointed and emerging market revenue dropped sharply. A sharper-than-expected decline for Lipitor, the cholesterol fighter that began facing cheaper generics late last year, also hit revenue. Pfizer's global sales slid 16 percent to $13.98 billion, well below Wall Street expectations of $14.64 billion. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sharp fears for future as Japan TV makers bleed Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:31 AM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Struggling Japanese TV maker Sharp Corp warned it might not be able to survive on its own, as it almost doubled its full-year net loss forecast to $5.6 billion, and said it was considering alliances with other companies. In a statement, the company said it booked massive second-quarter losses and is seeing "serious negative operating cash flow." "This raises serious doubts about (our ability) to continue as a going concern," it said, adding it was taking steps, from pay cuts and asset sales to voluntary redundancies, to generate cash flow. ... Full Story | Top |
| Republican candidate calls aborting rapist's child "more violence on woman's body" Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 09:40 PM PDT OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - Tea Party politician John Koster, the Republican nominee for a hotly contested congressional seat in Washington state, says he opposes abortions, even in cases of "the rape thing," because it is tantamount to inflicting "more violence onto a woman's body." The Snohomish County councilman made the comments during a weekend fundraising appearance in the Puget Sound city of Everett, north of Seattle, that was captured in a recording released on Wednesday by the liberal activist group Fuse Washington. ... Full Story | Top |
| Expect feisty defense from China's disgraced Bo Xilai Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 08:48 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - Disgraced former top Chinese politician Bo Xilai can be expected to mount a feisty defense of himself when he finally comes to trial, but a guilty verdict is not in doubt, a lawyer who had a front seat at China's last major show trial said. Zhang Sizhi was defense lawyer for Mao Zedong's widow, Jiang Qing, leader of the "Gang of Four" that wielded supreme power during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. She was given a suspended death sentence in 1981 for the deaths of tens of thousands during that period of chaos. ... Full Story | Top |
| Apple's Cook fields his A-team before a wary Wall Street Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 08:18 PM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook's new go-to management team of mostly familiar faces failed to drum up much excitement on Wall Street, driving its shares to a three-month low on Wednesday. The world's most valuable technology company, which had faced questions about a visionary-leadership vacuum following the death of Steve Jobs, on Monday stunned investors by announcing the ouster of chief mobile software architect Scott Forstall and retail chief John Browett -- the latter after six months on the job. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sony posts small second-quarter profit, keeps full-year forecast Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:25 AM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp booked a small operating profit in the second quarter, after a loss a year ago, helped by the sale of a chemicals business that offset weak demand for its TVs and other devices, and it kept its full-year profit guidance. July-September operating profit of 30.3 billion yen ($379 million) compared with a 1.64 billion yen loss a year ago, and was close to the average 33.8 billion yen profit estimated by five analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Child sex convict Sandusky sent to Pennsylvania maximum security prison Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 09:36 PM PDT  HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Former Penn State assistant football coach and convicted child sexual predator Jerry Sandusky will spend the rest of his days in a maximum security prison in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, the state corrections system decided on Wednesday. Sandusky, 68, who was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison this month for sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period, was transferred to the State Correctional Institution at Greene County, near Pittsburgh, where he was put in protective custody. ... Full Story | Top |
| Panasonic cleans house with writedowns, sees $9.6 billion loss Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 10:57 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp said it will lose almost $10 billion this business year as it cleans house of poorly performing operations, writing down billions of dollars of goodwill and assets in its mobile and energy units while its new boss readies for a fresh bout of restructuring. Shares in Panasonic, founded in 1918, plunged by nearly a fifth on Thursday to their lowest in more than three decades. A day earlier, it forecast a 765 billion yen ($9.6 billion) net loss for the year to March, nearly matching last year's record loss of 772 billion yen. ... Full Story | Top |
| France, Britain set stage for EU budget wrangling Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 04:27 PM PDT  BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron came under pressure to act tough on the European Union budget and France threatened to use its veto, signaling a divisive start to bargaining over the 1 trillion euro ($1.3 trillion) long-term spending plan. Wednesday's warning from Paris echoed similar threats from Denmark and Britain, where Cameron suffered a humiliating defeat in parliament after Conservatives rebelled over Europe, an issue that has long divided his party. ... Full Story | Top |
| Race tight in four states, Obama holds slight edge: Reuters/Ipsos poll Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:51 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are neck and neck in four of the most hotly contested states in next week's election, but Obama holds a slight advantage in two of them, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday. The online survey of four battleground states showed Obama leading by 3 percentage points in Ohio and 2 points in Virginia. The two are dead even in Florida, and Romney leads by 1 percentage point in Colorado. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama, Republican Christie tour storm-hit New Jersey, trade praise Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 03:18 PM PDT  ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) - Putting aside partisan differences, President Barack Obama and Republican Governor Chris Christie toured storm-stricken parts of New Jersey on Wednesday, taking in scenes of flooded roads and praising each other for their response to superstorm Sandy. Riding in the Marine One presidential helicopter, Obama and Christie got an aerial view of some of the hardest-hit areas of the New Jersey shoreline, and afterward the president promised to cut through red tape to help storm victims. ... Full Story | Top |
| UK's Cameron rocked by defeat in Europe budget vote Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 01:36 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron suffered a humiliating defeat in parliament on Wednesday after Conservatives rebelled over Europe, an issue that has divided his party for decades and helped bring down previous leaders. Although the result carried no legal weight, the setback raised questions about Cameron's authority after months of missteps by his coalition government and it revived painful memories of Conservative infighting over Europe. ... Full Story | Top |
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