By Ransdell Pierson Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:07am EDT (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc reported a higher-than-expected third-quarter profit, as a favorable tax rate and lower merger costs helped offset plunging sales of its former flagship product, Singulair, an asthma drug that began facing cheaper generics in August. But overall company sales came in slightly b...

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:06am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures trimmed earlier declines and pointed to a steady open for Wall Street on Friday after data showed economic growth picked up at a faster pace than expected in the third quarter. S&P 500 futures were off 1 point, and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing b...

ABUJA | Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:04am EDT ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan sought to allay fears on Friday that the nation's worst floods in at least five decades would trigger a food crisis because of damage to crops. Jonathan, who this month toured some parts of Africa's most populous nation that have been submerged by floods he has des...

By Joe Bavier ABIDJAN | Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:49am EDT ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Police and soldiers in Ivory Coast have illegally detained and tortured more than 200 people including supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo, following a series of armed attacks that began in August, Amnesty International said on Friday. U.N. investigators said earlie...

By Stephen Eisenhammer BIRMINGHAM, England | Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:39am EDT BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - The father of a Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education said on Friday she would "rise again" to pursue her dreams after hospital treatment. Malala Yousufzai, 15, was flown from Pakistan to Britain for sp...

By Dominic Evans BEIRUT | Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:38am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Fighting in Syria killed several people on Friday as a ceasefire brokered by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to mark a holy Muslim day frayed almost before it had begun. The Syrian military had said it would hold fire for four days following Brahimi's ceasefire app...

By Robert-Jan Bartunek BRUSSELS | Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:36am EDT BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian prosecutors are investigating the murder of a British oil executive who was shot and killed in unexplained circumstances in front of his wife as they walked to their car after dinner at an Italian restaurant in Brussels. Nicholas Mockford, who worked for U....

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:19am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth picked up in the third quarter as a late burst in consumer spending offset the first cutbacks in investment in more than a year by cautious businesses. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday...

SHANGHAI | Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:02am EDT SHANGHAI (Reuters) - World number one Rory McIlroy shut out noisy distractions to move to within two shots of leader Peter Hanson on day two of the BMW Masters golf on Friday. Despite constant sounds of nearby building construction, sirens and even fireworks, along with the distraction of on-course mobile phones, Mc...

By Lionel Laurent and Matthias Blamont PARIS | Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:54am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Societe Generale, France's second-biggest listed bank, has received a new request for information from U.S. authorities investigating the Libor rate-fixing scandal, a banking source told Reuters on Friday. SocGen has already said publicly it is cooperatin...

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM | Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:33am EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tie-up with far-right coalition partner Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman could backfire by eroding their lead ahead of Israel's January 22 ballot, a poll said on Friday. The findings flew in the face of Netanyahu's prediction that, ...

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Hadeel Al Shalchi TRIPOLI | Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:21am EDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Hours after taking control of Bani Walid, a former stronghold of Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan militias from the rival city of Misrata fired ferociously at its empty public buildings. Fighters yelling "Allahu akbar (God is greatest) and "Today Bani...

By Edith Honan STAMFORD, Connecticut | Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:08am EDT STAMFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Linda McMahon, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, seldom mentions World Wrestling Entertainment during campaign stops even though the business made her into a multimillionaire and something of a household name. Instead, McMah...

KYAUKTAW, Myanmar | Fri Oct 26, 2012 6:24am EDT KYAUKTAW, Myanmar (Reuters) - The number of people killed in six days of unrest in western Myanmar reached at least 112 on Friday as security forces used deadly force to break up the worst sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in years. The United Nations warned that Myanmar's fledgling democracy...

By Bashir Ansari MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan | Fri Oct 26, 2012 5:58am EDT MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people in a mosque in Afghanistan's relatively peaceful north on Friday as worshippers gathered for prayers marking the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, police officials said. The attack in Maimana, cap...

Fri Oct 26, 2012 1:26am EDT (Reuters) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers upset the Minnesota Vikings with an impressive 36-17 win at Mall of America Field in Minneapolis on Thursday night, their first road win since September 2011. Having given up a big lead against the New Orleans Saints last week, the Buccaneers ensured there would be no repeat by keeping the foot on t...

By Patrick Temple-West WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:13pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Republican donors Sheldon Adelson and his wife gave another $10 million to the "Super PAC" backing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in October, saying they hoped to "level the playing field" wi...

By Miyoung Kim SEOUL | Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:02pm EDT SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean technology powerhouse Samsung Electronics Co posted a fourth straight record quarterly profit - of $7.4 billion - with strong sales of its Galaxy range of phones masking sharply lower memory chip sales. The record run, though, is likely to end in December, with prof...

By Nicole Neroulias SEATTLE | Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:01pm EDT SEATTLE (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday endorsed state ballot initiatives to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state, Maryland and Maine as he sought to galvanize gay and lesbian enthusiasm for his re-election bid. St...

SEOUL | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:49pm EDT SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will book patent-related provisions once a U.S. court makes a ruling on its over $1 billion litigation with Apple Inc, it said on Friday. "The amount of provisioning will be fixed according to U.S. court ruling, and the costs will be set aside this quarter only if there's a...

By Scott Malone and Tim McLaughlin CANTON, Massachusetts | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:44pm EDT CANTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney's testimony from a 1991 court hearing related to the founder of Staples Inc appeared to contain little likely to damage the candidate's chances in the November 6 general election....

By Mary Slosson SACRAMENTO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:24pm EDT SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A California campaign finance regulatory agency sued an Arizona group on Thursday over an eleventh hour $11 million donation to a political action committee, which the agency's head said was the largest such donation in state history. The California Fair Political Pr...

By Poornima Gupta SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:08pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc delivered a second straight quarter of disappointing results and iPad sales fell well short of Wall Street's targets, marring its record of consistently blowing past investors' expectations. Shares in the world's most valuable technology company bri...

By Lisa Baertlein and Carey Gillam LOS ANGELES/KANSAS CITY | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:04pm EDT LOS ANGELES/KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - Heavy advertising spending by Monsanto Co and others opposed to a California ballot proposal to require labels on grocery products containing genetically modified organisms is paying off, according to a new poll that shows...

By Alistair Barr SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:26pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc reported its first quarterly net loss in more than five years on Thursday as the world's largest Internet retailer spent heavily and suffered from an economic slowdown in Europe. Amazon shares slipped slightly to $220.75 in after-hours trading af...

By Poornima Gupta and Alistair Barr SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:19pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The biggest names in consumer technology, stung by a string of disappointing quarterly results this month, are suiting up for what's shaping to be the fiercest holiday battle in years. Investors and consumers have already largely written off ...

Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:52pm EDT (Reuters) - New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia is expected to be fully fit for the start of next season after having arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur from his left elbow on Thursday. The 32-year-old pitcher went 15-6 with a 3.38 ERA in 28 starts this season but was twice placed on the disabled list, first with a groin injury an...

By Nicola Leske and Bill Rigby NEW YORK/SEATTLE | Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:44pm EDT NEW YORK/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp put its Surface tablet center stage at its Windows 8 launch event, hoping the sleek new device will spark a fightback against Apple Inc and Google Inc in the exploding mobile computing market. With interest in traditional comp...

By Corrie MacLaggan AUSTIN, Texas | Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:19pm EDT AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A federal appeals court declined on Thursday to reconsider a ruling that would allow Texas to withhold funding for women's healthcare from Planned Parenthood's clinics because the organization also performs abortions. Texas Governor Rick Perry said after the...

By Steve Ginsburg SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:58pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Detroit Tigers, taking on the San Francisco Giants in pursuit of their first World Series crown since 1984, may have to achieve their mission without help from struggling closer Jose Valverde. Valverde saved 35 games in the regular season but during the pl...

Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:53pm EDT (Reuters) - Top trainer and former amateur boxer Emanuel Steward, who worked with several world champions at his fabled Kronk Gym in Detroit and was also a respected television commentator, died in a Chicago hospital on Thursday aged 68. "He has passed - he's gone home," Steward's sister Diane Steward-Jones told the Detroit Free Press ...

By Sam Youngman and Jeff Mason CINCINNATI/CHICAGO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:48pm EDT CINCINNATI/CHICAGO (Reuters) - He does it too often to be a slip of the tongue. When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses his growing crowds, he always catches himself."If I'm president - when, I'm president," Romney says in his speeches now, drawin...

By Jeff Mason CHICAGO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:20pm EDT CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama won the endorsement of retired General Colin Powell, a moderate Republican, on Thursday as he and Republican rival Mitt Romney engaged in frantic campaigning in battleground states to try to turn a razor-close race their way. Hoping to encourage other D...

By Jeff Mason CHICAGO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:19pm EDT CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama cast his ballot for the November 6 election on Thursday in his hometown of Chicago and encouraged others who could vote before Election Day to follow his example. Obama, who was a U.S. senator from Illinois and had before becoming president, went to an ...

By Mariam Karouny and Stephanie Nebehay BEIRUT/GENEVA | Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:46pm EDT BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Damascus residents reported artillery barrages by Syrian troops hours before Friday's scheduled start of a ceasefire to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. They said that on Thursday night troops stationed on a mountain overlooking th...

Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:44pm EDT (Reuters) - Green Bay Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings is scheduled to have surgery next week to repair a lingering groin injury but says he expects to be back in action this season. The twice Pro Bowl selection, who is Green Bay's number one receiver, has been limited to just three games this season because of a torn abdominal musc...

By Greg McCune CHICAGO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:42pm EDT CHICAGO (Reuters) - At least 70 percent of major college football and men's basketball athletes obtain a college degree, NCAA figures show for the first time, although traditional football powerhouse Oklahoma and basketball powers Connecticut and Indiana lag in academic performance. The rates, ...

Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:36pm EDT (Reuters) - National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner David Stern will stand down from his role in February 2014 after 30 years at the helm, the league said on Thursday. Glen Taylor, chairman of the NBA's board of governors, told a news conference the board had authorized negotiations with deputy commissioner Adam Silver to su...

By Christine Kearney NEW YORK | Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:13pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tori Amos has been performing in bars and clubs since the age of 13, but the pianist-singer-songwriter's new tour and album mark 20 years since her breakthrough solo debut album "Little Earthquakes". Throughout October, Amos, 49, has been touring with songs from her ...

By Suzanne Barlyn Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:10pm EDT (Reuters) - An U.S. appeals court has upheld a $1.45 million arbitration award in favor of retired NBA basketball player Horace Grant, who sought reimbursement for losses from risky bond funds that were marketed as safe. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, according to an unpublished decision, rej...