MADRID | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:50am EST MADRID (Reuters) - World number five David Ferrer will lead Spain's bid to claim their fourth Davis Cup title in five years when the holders take on the Czech Republic in this month's final in Prague. Fourth-ranked Rafa Nadal is still sidelined with a knee injury so Ferrer, winner of Sunday's Paris Masters, will spearh...

NEW YORK | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:46am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were little changed on Monday as traders awaited the election for president and members of Congress on Tuesday to place bets on sectors seen performing better under one or the other political party. Volume was relatively low as President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney...

ROME | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:40am EST ROME (Reuters) - Financial police in Italy said on Monday they had seized a fishing boat the previous night with 171 illegal immigrants onboard, including 34 children, that had been trying to enter the European Union undetected. Police stopped the 25-metre boat off the coast of Calabria, the toe of the Italian boot, and ...

By Catherine Bremer and Emmanuel Jarry PARIS | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:25am EST PARIS (Reuters) - French industrialist Louis Gallois called for a patriotic effort to support shock therapy to reverse declining competitiveness on Monday as he handed in a review the Socialist government commissioned but is unlikely to heed. Gallois said his report prescri...

RAMALLAH, West Bank | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:19am EST RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The Palestinians will press ahead with a bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations, a senior official said on Monday, brushing off a request by Israel to halt the initiative. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has renewed his call for an immediate resumption o...

By Steve Slater and Matt Scuffham LONDON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:12am EST LONDON (Reuters) - A U.S. fine for anti-money laundering rule breaches could cost HSBC significantly more than $1.5 billion and is likely to lead to criminal charges, Europe's biggest bank said on Monday. HSBC said the U.S. investigation had damaged the bank's reputation and fo...

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:11am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney make a frenetic dash to a series of crucial swing states on Monday, delivering their final arguments to voters on the last day of an extraordinarily close race for the White House. After a long, bitter and...

DUBAI | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:06am EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Five bombs exploded in the heart of the Bahraini capital Manama on Monday, killing two people, officials said, in rare attacks targeting civilians during the 21-month-old uprising against the kingdom's U.S.-backed rulers. The blasts, one outside a cinema, could be a sign that radical elements of the op...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:04am EST AMMAN (Reuters) - A bomb exploded near army and security compounds in Damascus, Syrian television reported, and fractured opposition groups seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad began unity talks abroad to win international respect and arms supplies. The 50-kilogram (110-pound) bomb,...

Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:53am EST (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) has cut the number of employees it lists as partners to help streamline expenses. Goldman has reduced the number of partners to 407, down 31 from February, the bank said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, without identifying the partners that had been dropped.Becoming...

By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING | Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:47am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - Two lawyers for disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai said on Monday they had no idea when his trial might start and that he was stuck in legal limbo despite the opening of a formal criminal investigation into accusations of graft and abuse of power. Bo, once a contender for ...

By Josh Reich LONDON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:27am EST LONDON (Reuters) - A tired sounding Novak Djokovic says he will need to draw on all his mental and physical strength if he is to crown another stellar season with the ATP World Tour Finals title. The Serb heads into his opening match with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Monday safe in the knowledg...

By Chris Meyers YOKOHAMA, Japan | Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:22am EST YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - China's leader in-waiting, Xi Jinping, will have no choice but to embark on political reforms to leave a lasting mark the way the current leadership has done with economic reforms, exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said on Monday. Xi, currently v...

TEL AVIV | Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:15am EST TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Windows Phone 8 being launched with its partners would create a strong third player in the smartphone market and sell quickly. "With the work we have done with Nokia, HTC, Samsung and others ... there is now an opportunity to create really a stron...

By Natasha Baker TORONTO | Mon Nov 5, 2012 5:00am EST TORONTO (Reuters) - William Shakespeare's plays are getting a 21st century-style makeover in the form of new apps for tablets and smart phones nearly 500 years after the Bard took pen to parchment. Plays such as "Romeo and Juliet" and "Macbeth" spring to life in iPad apps released by Cambridge...

By Andy Sullivan and Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 4:39am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The devastating storm that slammed into the East Coast last week could send winds of uncertainty through Tuesday's presidential election, narrowing an already close contest and casting doubt on the legitimacy of the outcome. Though superstorm Sandy i...

Mon Nov 5, 2012 1:53am EST (Reuters) - The Atlanta Falcons continued their franchise-best start to a season and marched to an 8-0 record with a gritty 19-13 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. Matt Ryan threw for 342 yards and no scores but was mistake-free as his running game and defense backed him up to hold off the visiting Cowboys (3-5)."It sounds grea...

Mon Nov 5, 2012 1:52am EST (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Lakers finally resembled the team many expected they would be as they blasted the Detroit Pistons 108-79 on Sunday to end their early-season slide. The Lakers had begun the new season 0-3 for the first time since 1978, a shocking development for a team who acquired All Stars Dwight Howard and Steve Nash in th...

Mon Nov 5, 2012 12:46am EST (Reuters) - David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy suffered a shock 1-0 home defeat by the San Jose Earthquakes in the first leg of Major League Soccer's Western Conference playoff on Sunday. Victor Bernardez blasted in a free kick in stoppage time, stunning the LA crowd after the match looked to be heading for a stalemate between the top-...

By Samuel P. Jacobs CASTLE ROCK, Colorado | Sun Nov 4, 2012 11:22pm EST CASTLE ROCK, Colorado (Reuters) - In a telephone call with evangelical voters Sunday night, U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told potential voters that President Barack Obama's path for the United States compromises Judeo-Christian values. The comment cam...

By Larry Fine EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey | Sun Nov 4, 2012 9:59pm EST EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Reuters) - New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin and his players were doubly disappointed on Sunday, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers and letting down fans that needed a lift following superstorm Sandy. "We wanted emotionally so badly to win the game...

By Larry Fine EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey | Sun Nov 4, 2012 9:42pm EST EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Reuters) - The visiting Pittsburgh Steelers scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to erase a 20-10 deficit and upset the Super Bowl champion New York Giants 24-20 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. It was the third victory in a row for the Steelers...

By Simon Evans Sun Nov 4, 2012 8:23pm EST (Reuters) - Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck set a new single-game rookie passing record in the National Football League on Sunday while Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers both led their respective teams to impressive wins. Luck threw 433 yards in his team's 23-20 win over the Miami Dolphins, eclipsing the previ...

MEXICO CITY | Sun Nov 4, 2012 8:03pm EST MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The viral global success of South Korean pop singer Psy's "Gangnam Style" video stems from the "three C's" -- a combination of virtues that Seoul's finance minister says can spur the country's traditionally sleepy service sector. "Cooperation, competition and creativity -- these three Cs ar...

By Julien Pretot PARIS | Sun Nov 4, 2012 6:59pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - Australian clothing brand SKINS has filed a law suit against the International Cycling Union (UCI) seeking $2 million in damages and alleging that the sport's governing body lacked leadership in the fight against doping. "The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has been served ...

By Martyn Herman LONDON | Sun Nov 4, 2012 5:26pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Roger Federer wants more blood testing done in tennis to help keep the sport clear of doping, the 17-times grand slam champion said on the eve of the ATP World Tour Finals. Britain's newly-crowned U.S. Open champion Andy Murray raised the subject this week at the Paris Master...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Sun Nov 4, 2012 4:31pm EST AMMAN (Reuters) - A bomb exploded near army and security compounds in Damascus on Sunday, Syrian television said, and fractured opposition groups seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad began unity talks abroad to win international respect and arms supplies. The 50-kilogram (110-pound)...

JERUSALEM | Sun Nov 4, 2012 4:29pm EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel announced plans on Sunday to boost its Iron Dome missile interceptor system, citing successful tests of the largely U.S.-funded system conducted in light of what it called "a variety of unprecedented threats". A Defence Ministry statement said a fifth battery of the rockets used so far t...

By Gabriel Wildau and Kazunori Takada SHANGHAI | Sun Nov 4, 2012 4:20pm EST SHANGHAI (Reuters) - For all the hopes that China's forthcoming leadership change will herald a new wave of market reforms, foreign bankers don't expect to get the level playing field they crave any time soon. Trends are positive, but progress can be frustratingly slow."M...

AMMAN | Sun Nov 4, 2012 4:18pm EST AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian army shelled rebel positions inside a Palestinian refugee camp on the edge of Damascus on Sunday killing at least 20 people, opposition campaigners said. The Yarmouk camp, adjacent to the capital's southern entrance, has become the latest battle ground between forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad...

JOHANNESBURG | Sun Nov 4, 2012 4:18pm EST JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African police prevented the country's main opposition leader from using a public road leading to President Jacob Zuma's house in his home village on Sunday, citing safety concerns. South African media have reported the government plans to spend some 250 million rand ($28.61 million...

By Michael Martina TIANJIN, China | Sun Nov 4, 2012 3:56pm EST TIANJIN, China (Reuters) - Dong Zizhou casts his fishing net from the shore and fixes his gaze on a stand of 15 unfinished skyscrapers rising like concrete skeletons beside the Hai River, heralding China's ambition to develop the world's largest financial centre. The towers in Tianjin...

By Piya Sinha-Roy and Ronald Grover LOS ANGELES | Sun Nov 4, 2012 3:50pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Wreck-It Ralph," Disney's animated film about a videogame character who destroys everything in his path, scored the highest-grossing opening weekend in Disney animation history with $49.1 million, as box office attendance picked up in the afterma...

KARACHI, Pakistan | Sun Nov 4, 2012 3:43pm EST KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Gunmen wounded an Egyptian working for the United Nations Children's Fund when they fired on his vehicle in Pakistan's largest city on Sunday, police said. The motive for the attack was not entirely clear, but police said it may have been a robbery gone wrong.The shooting follow...

By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM | Sun Nov 4, 2012 3:28pm EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced skepticism on Sunday over an apparent concession from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on a major sticking point in any future peace negotiations. Comments by Abbas on Thursday that he had no permanent claim on the to...

By Sylvia Westall and Ahmed Hagagy KUWAIT | Sun Nov 4, 2012 3:23pm EST KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaiti security forces fired tear gas to disperse an unauthorized demonstration on Sunday by thousands of opposition supporters against new voting rules for parliamentary elections on December 1. OPEC member and U.S. ally Kuwait has so far avoided the mass ...

PARIS | Sun Nov 4, 2012 3:07pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - The French government could propose cutting labour charges for selected sectors and companies as part of its plan to kickstart competitiveness, the junior minister for small and medium-sized business said on Sunday. In an interview with TV channel France 5, Fleur Pellerin said small-to-medium enterpris...

By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 4, 2012 2:52pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The race for the White House remained in essentially a dead heat ahead of Tuesday's election but U.S. President Barack Obama holds a slim edge over Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the key state of Ohio, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released on ...

By Alan Baldwin ABU DHABI | Sun Nov 4, 2012 2:26pm EST ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Kimi Raikkonen returned to the top of the Formula One podium for the first time since 2009 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, leaving his Lotus team in no doubt that he knew what he was doing. The Finn, 2007 world cha...

By Angel Krasimirov SOFIA | Sun Nov 4, 2012 1:40pm EST SOFIA (Reuters) - Russia's Nadia Petrova thrashed top-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-1 on Sunday to secure her maiden Tournament of Champions trophy and a 13th career title. It was the 30-year-old's third tournament victory of the year after winning a Wimbledon warm-up event in Den Bosc...