By Bill Rigby SEATTLE | Thu Nov 1, 2012 5:38pm EDT SEATTLE (Reuters) - Days after launching Windows 8, Microsoft Corp is mounting a strong campaign to win over the software developers it needs to kick-start its new operating system. A lack of apps is Microsoft's Achilles heel as it attempts to catch Apple Inc and Google Inc in the rush toward mob...

By Jahmal Corner LOS ANGELES | Thu Nov 1, 2012 5:29pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jamal Crawford has taken his high-scoring act on the road during a 12-year NBA career full of short stays with new teams, but the veteran guard hopes he has reached his final destination with the Los Angeles Clippers. The 32-year-old has rarely been able to unpack h...

By John Ruwitch and David Stanway SHANGHAI/BEIJING | Thu Nov 1, 2012 5:03pm EDT SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - It looked like another victory for the people when the Chinese city of Ningbo announced the suspension on Sunday of a petrochemical project after days of street protests by citizens concern...

By Renee Maltezou ATHENS | Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:48pm EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek journalist who published the names of more than 2,000 of his compatriots who held Swiss bank accounts was acquitted on Thursday in a case that touched a nerve over the role of tax evasion in the country's debt crisis. The trial of Costas Vaxevanis, editor of the week...

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:43pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. school children searching for a healthy snack at school - perhaps an apple or some celery sticks - may find that a bag of potato chips is much easier to come by, a report released on Thursday said. Students in states such as Connecticut and West Virginia have limi...

BOSTON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:33pm EDT BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts adopted new regulations on Thursday that it said will allow it to keep a closer eye on compounding pharmacies, a class of drug supplier linked to the U.S. meningitis outbreak that has so far killed 29 people. The state, home to the New England Compounding Center that produced the inject...

LOS ANGELES | Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:29pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Francis Lawrence has signed on to direct the final two installments of the hit movie "The Hunger Games," movie studio Lionsgate said on Thursday. The announcement follows months of rumors that Lionsgate might go with a different director to helm the "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay," - the fin...

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM | Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:26pm EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a rare if symbolic concession to Israel on Thursday, saying he had no permanent claim on the town from which he was driven as a child during the 1948 war of the Jewish state's founding. Among several disputes deadlocking Middle Ea...

Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:19pm EDT (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term, citing the importance of his record on climate change, particularly in the aftermath of the devastating blow dealt to the New York area by storm Sandy. Bloomberg said Obama has taken significant steps to reduce carbon consumption,...

By Michael Stott MOSCOW | Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:13pm EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - When Vladimir Putin celebrated his 60th birthday this month, a group of patriotic mountaineers unfurled a portrait of the Russian leader on a 4,150-metre mountain peak. Hailing him as a guarantor of happiness and stability, the climbers' leader explained: "We have stuck Putin...

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:09pm EDT CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Thursday to bypass a leak in one of the outpost's cooling systems. Engineers suspect a micrometeoroid or tiny piece of space debris may have punched a hole no ...

ATHENS | Thu Nov 1, 2012 3:57pm EDT 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 ...

By Amy Norton NEW YORK | Thu Nov 1, 2012 3:42pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The health clinics in pharmacies and other retail stores may be convenient, but they may also take a bite out of the traditional doctor-patient relationship, a new study suggests. Retail health clinics operate mainly out of chain pharmacies, but they're also in some g...

By Ransdell Pierson Thu Nov 1, 2012 3:27pm EDT (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 c...

LOS ANGELES | Thu Nov 1, 2012 3:17pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Khloe Kardashian's first outing as the new co-host of "The X Factor" helped boost the show's audience by 30 percent, yet the reality star got mixed reviews for a nipple-baring debut that made headlines - but many TV critics found awkward. Kardashian, 28, best known for starring with sociali...

By Stephen Eisenhammer LONDON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:41pm EDT 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-comp...

MUMBAI | Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:38pm EDT MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Playboy club is coming to India -- but with "bunnies" in non-revealing outfits. "The costumes of the bunnies, who are integral to the Playboy culture, will be based on Indian sensibilities and morals," Sanjay Gupta, CEO of PB Lifestyle, which is bringing the brand to India through a licensing agr...

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:29pm EDT BOSTON (Reuters) - Rhode Island is suing former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and the former head of the state's economic development agency over a $75 million loan guarantee the agency made to the baseball player's failed video game company 38 Studios. The suit was filed in Superior Cou...

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:27pm EDT 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 ye...

By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN | Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:24pm EDT 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...

LONDON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:10pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Crash Mr. Toad's motor car into a hedge, make those dastardly weasels dance and drive Mole from his hole with a new interactive iPad app based on classic children's novel "The Wind in the Willows". The app breathes digital life into Kenneth Grahame's tale ...

Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:03pm EDT (Reuters) - United Airlines is mulling upgrading some of its Airbus (EAD.PA) A350 orders to the largest member of the European aircraft family in a possible setback for Boeing Co's (BA.N) 777 mini-jumbo, industry sources said. The deal would be seen as a breakthrough for the A350-1000, which suffered a four-year gap in orders until Cath...

JERUSALEM | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:42pm EDT 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 ...

ISLAMABAD | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:36pm EDT 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 daug...

By Angus McDowall RIYADH | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:36pm EDT 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 t...

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:35pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks shot higher on Thursday, boosted by bullish job market and consumer confidence data as trading continued to return to normal following storm Sandy's devastating sweep through the U.S. North East. Technology and industrial sector shares led gains as data showed U.S...

By Kerry Grens NEW YORK | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:32pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a new study, about half of HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy skipped their medications whenever they were drinking alcohol, an ill-advised behavior that could lead to higher viral loads, researchers say. Nearly 200 people with HIV who were on antiretroviral d...

By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:27pm EDT 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 th...

VENICE | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:20pm EDT 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 wat...

By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:00pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iPad mini uses a display from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, one of Apple's major suppliers and also its fiercest rival in the global mobile-device market that the two companies dominate. Analysts say the Silicon Valley-based iPhone maker...

By Jason Lange WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 12:30pm EDT 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 dr...

By Ben Klayman and Bernie Woodall DETROIT | Thu Nov 1, 2012 12:27pm EDT DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co and Chrysler Group LLC both reported their strongest U.S. sales for the month of October since the financial crisis sent both U.S. automakers into bankruptcy, but the destruction of storm Sandy will cause the sector to miss overall sales ...

By Anna Driver Thu Nov 1, 2012 12:25pm EDT (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 Nort...

By Deepa Seetharaman and Paul Lienert Thu Nov 1, 2012 12:01pm EDT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) promoted long-time executive Mark Fields to chief operating officer as part of a management shuffle announced on Thursday that keeps Alan Mulally as chief executive for at least two more years. The plan, which stopped short of formally naming Fields as Mulall...

By Ludwig Burger FRANKFURT | Thu Nov 1, 2012 11:15am EDT 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 t...

NEW YORK | Thu Nov 1, 2012 10:59am EDT 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 str...

NEW YORK | Thu Nov 1, 2012 10:34am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer confidence rose in October to its highest in more than four years as Americans were more upbeat about improvements in the labor market, a private sector report showed on Thursday. The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes gained to 72.2 from a downwar...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Thu Nov 1, 2012 10:32am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Dieters who eat meals and snacks high in protein might lose a bit more weight than those who get less protein and more carbohydrates - all other things being equal, a new analysis of past studies suggests. Researchers found that over an average of 12 weeks, peop...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Thu Nov 1, 2012 10:10am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - South American babies and toddlers living at high altitude were more likely to score poorly on early tests of brain development, in a new study. Of all kids age three months to two years, one in five was at high risk of developmental delays, according to tests d...

TUNIS | Thu Nov 1, 2012 9:56am EDT TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian security forces arrested four people for allegedly plotting to kidnap local Jews and hold them for ransom, an Interior Ministry official said on Thursday. There are less than 2,000 Jews in Tunisia, mostly living in Zarzis and the nearby island of Dj...