Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:21pm EST (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp has been accused in a $250 million lawsuit of continuing to bill and failing to offer refunds to more than 1 million customers who lost TV, Internet or phone service because of Hurricane Sandy. The complaint, filed on Tuesday with the New York State Supreme Court in Nassau County, said Cablevision h...

KHARTOUM | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:08pm EST KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir returned to Khartoum on Wednesday after undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia, his second operation in less than a year. Sudanese blogs and newspapers had been speculating about Bashir's health because he has held fewer public rallies in the past few months.T...

CAIRO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:04pm EST CAIRO (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund negotiators will extend their stay in Egypt to continue their loan talks with the government, the Egyptian central bank and an IMF spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "The IMF mission will remain in Cairo for a few days to continue constructive consultations with the Egyptian au...

NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:53pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks briefly trimmed losses on Wednesday as President Barack Obama pushed for his proposal to have the wealthy pay more in taxes as a way to tame the federal deficit. Taking a hard line in his opening bid before he begins fiscal talks with U.S. lawmakers later in the week, the president also s...

By Matt Smith DUBAI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:55pm EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Lenovo Group Ltd, on track to become the world's top PC maker, has bolstered its presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and aims to raise regional operating margins by about 50 percent, a top company executive said on Wednesday. The Chinese company's profit growth...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:53pm EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States declined to follow France in fully recognizing a fledgling Syrian opposition coalition on Wednesday, saying the body must prove its worth, after its predecessor was dogged by feuding and accusations of Islamist domination. Syria decried the new grouping, ...

DUBAI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:49pm EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have arrested seven people suspected of involvement in the death of a blogger in police custody, a lawmaker said on Wednesday. In a case that sparked international outrage, 35-year-old Sattar Beheshti who wrote a blog critical of the government was arrested on October 30 after rec...

By Feliciano Tisera and Daniel Alvarenga MADRID/LISBON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:38pm EST MADRID/LISBON (Reuters) - Police and protesters clashed in Spain and Italy on Wednesday as millions of workers went on strike in organized labor's biggest Europe-wide challenge to austerity policies since the euro zone debt crisis erupted three years ago. Hundre...

By Frank Jack Daniel NEW DELHI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:34pm EST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged India on Wednesday to stand by Myanmar on its journey to democracy, on her first trip to Myanmar's neighbor since it dropped its support for her democracy movement two decades ago in favor of the ruling junta. Suu Kyi spent...

By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:32pm EST BERLIN (Reuters) - Once a fringe left-wing movement born in the heat of 1970s radicalism, Germany's Greens party may be heading for the unthinkable - a partnership with the conservatives that would keep Angela Merkel in power. Greens leaders deny any interest in forming a coalition with the...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:28pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Facebook Inc jumped as much as 11.2 percent on Wednesday, even as the biggest block of shares held by insiders became eligible for sale for the first time since the social media company's disappointing debut in May. Facebook shares were up 8.8 per...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:24pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retail sales fell in October for the first time in three months as superstorm Sandy slammed the brakes on automobile purchases, suggesting a loss of momentum in spending early in the fourth quarter. Other data on Wednesday showed little inflation, with wholesale pr...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:22pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior Republican senators vowed on Wednesday to block any future promotion of Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, over her handling of the September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. "We will do whatever's necessary to block the nomination that's within o...

By Gabriela Baczynska and Steve Gutterman MOSCOW | Wed Nov 14, 2012 11:58am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's space agency scrambled to refigure communications with civilian satellites and the International Space Station on Wednesday after a cable broke outside Moscow, but said the satellites and the station were operating normally. The space agenc...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 11:56am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday is expected to be grilled about negotiations to avert a looming "fiscal cliff" and the scandal that brought down CIA director David Petraeus when he holds his first news conference since winning a second term. Obama will have little time to savor his deci...

PARIS | Wed Nov 14, 2012 11:37am EST PARIS (Reuters) - The French government is discussing how to tax internet companies such as Google and Amazon both at the national and international levels, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. With government finances severely strained across Europe, France, Britain and Germany are intensifying efforts to clamp down on l...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 11:04am EST (Reuters) - Abercrombie & Fitch Co (ANF.N) teen clothing retailer posted a higher quarterly profit on Wednesday after improved demand in foreign markets, prompting the company to forecast yearly earnings above Wall Street's estimates. Shares of the company, which hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) in September to help ward off p...

BERLIN | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:45am EST BERLIN (Reuters) - A church in Germany has bowed to public pressure and allowed the parents of a soccer-mad nine-year old boy who died from a brain tumor to erect a gravestone with a ball beside it after a Facebook campaign spawned more than 100,000 angry messages. The dispute between the boy's parents and a Catholic...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:33am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nancy Pelosi told fellow Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday that she is willing to run to be their leader again. Seen as a crusading reformer by backers and a reckless liberal by Republican critics, Pelosi, 72, announced her decision later at a news conference at th...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:29am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives has asked for a detailed account of the federal probe into a scandal that led to the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus last week. Lawmakers from both parties are demanding an official account of the FBI investigati...

By Keith Weir LONDON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:23am EST LONDON (Reuters) - A strong start to the season and new sponsorship deals have reinforced English Premier League soccer club Manchester United's confidence it will hit this year's financial targets despite lower first-quarter earnings. United, English champions a record 19 times, said they had c...

By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:23am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator-elect Angus King, an independent and former Maine governor, said Wednesday he will caucus with President Barack Obama's Democrats, raising the party's control of the Senate to 55-45 in the new Congress that convenes in January. King had been expected t...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:21am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday re-elected Mitch McConnell to the lead their party, a Senate aide said. The decision, to be announced later in the day, comes a week after a disappointing election in which Republicans not only failed to win back control of the Senate, but saw Pre...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 9:51am EST (Reuters) - Staples Inc's (SPLS.O) quarterly profit edged past Wall Street's estimates as the largest U.S. office supply chain cut costs and sales in North America held up, although weakness in Europe and Australia hit overall revenue. Shares of the company, which also reiterated its full-year profit and sales forecasts, rose 4.5 perce...

NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 9:17am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Channing Tatum, who set female hearts fluttering in the summer movie hit "Magic Mike", was named the sexiest man alive by People magazine on Wednesday. "My first thought was, 'Y'all are messing with me," Tatum told the magazine after hearing the news.The 32-year-old actor, who is married t...

By Tarmo Virki HELSINKI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 9:08am EST HELSINKI (Reuters) - While mobile phone maker Nokia has hit hard times and looks unlikely to regain its commanding position in the Finnish economy, nine years ago it helped feed a newly hatched technology niche in its homeland. The cellphone giant, which once made more than half the world's sm...

BARCELONA | Wed Nov 14, 2012 8:29am EST BARCELONA (Reuters) - Nokia's chief executive said there would be no change in the relationship with its software partner Microsoft, despite the software giant's entry into tablets and partnerships with rival phone makers. Stephen Elop said Nokia retained a "special" relationship with Microsoft, even though others ...

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES | Wed Nov 14, 2012 8:08am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - If moviegoers are expecting traditional family films in theaters this holiday season, they may be surprised. Hollywood filmmakers are releasing movies that feature epic battles with vampires, goblins, extremists and ...

By Sylvia Westall KUWAIT | Wed Nov 14, 2012 8:04am EST KUWAIT (Reuters) - What started as a dispute over voting rules in Kuwait has mushroomed into a debate about the balance of power between the emir and parliament, with implications for other Gulf dynasties facing reform pressure since the Arab ...

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:54am EST VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is believed to have increased the number of centrifuges in an underground nuclear plant by nearly a third in three months, diplomats say, underlining the tough task facing major powers pressing Tehran to curb its atomic activity. But despite a major expansion of its capa...

BUDAPEST | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:48am EST BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic was sentenced to 22-months in prison by a Hungarian court on Wednesday for causing a fatal car crash in Hungary in 2010, a court spokesman and his lawyer said. Cacic, who is also economy minister and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's closest ally in th...

By Sonali Paul PERTH | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:48am EST PERTH (Reuters) - BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) expects to expand its iron ore capacity by nearly a fifth just by working its mines, rail lines and port harder as it looks to control costs in a softer iron ore market, the global miner's iron ore chief said on Wednesday. Uncertainty over iron ore ...

By Carlos Ruano and Andrei Khalip MADRID/LISBON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:46am EST MADRID/LISBON (Reuters) - Police and protesters clashed in Spain on Wednesday as millions of workers went on strike across Europe to protest spending cuts they say have made the economic crisis worse. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, car factories and ports were at a...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:42am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - France became the first Western power to recognize a fledgling Syrian opposition coalition fully, stepping out beyond the United States, which said on Wednesday the body must first show its clout inside Syria. Six Gulf Arab states recognized the Syrian National Coalition fo...

By Sui-Lee Wee and John Ruwitch BEIJING | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:31am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - One of China's most senior financial officials is likely to lead the fight against corruption, a top priority in the world's second-biggest economy, following his appointment to a key council at the end of the Communist Party's 18th congress on Wednesday. Kn...

By Kaori Kaneko and Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:22am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is set to dissolve parliament's lower house on Friday for a snap election next month, which is likely to cost him his job and return to power a party that has governed Japan for most of the past 50 years. Opinion poll...

MOSCOW | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:17am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law broadening the definition of treason which opponents say could be used to smother dissent and put almost anyone who has contact with foreigners at risk. The law allows Russians representing international organizations to be charged with treason, as w...

LONDON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:44am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Britain faces the "unappealing" mix of a weak recovery and high inflation, the Bank of England's chief warned on Wednesday, adding that the Bank could still restart its bond buying program to stimulate the economy. Governor Mervyn King also batted back criticism of the decision to transfer back to t...

By Matt Smith DUBAI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:38am EST DUBAI (Reuters) - PayPal aims to double its share of Middle East and North African e-commerce within three years after enabling customers in seven of the region's countries to open accounts linked to locally issued bank cards. The online payment pioneer owned by eBay Inc has one million customers ...

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD | Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:34am EST ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has agreed to free some Afghan Taliban prisoners who could be useful in reconciliation efforts, officials from both countries said on Wednesday, the clearest sign that Islamabad will put its weight behind the troubled Afghan peace process. Afghan officia...