By Tova Cohen TEL AVIV | Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:26pm EDT TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel-based Neuronix, which has developed a non-invasive medical device to help to treat Alzheimer's disease, expects the system to be approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in late 2014. The device, which combines electromagnetic stimulation with computer-ba...

By Clair MacDougall ACCRA | Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:19pm EDT ACCRA (Reuters) - A court in Ghana released a top ally of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on Wednesday after dismissing charges brought by Ivorian authorities that he murdered two men during last year's post-election civil war. Allegations that pro-Gbagbo exiles in Ghana have ma...

ROME | Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:16pm EDT ROME (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi confirmed on Wednesday he would not lead his center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party in next year's election. "I will not stand for premier again but I remain at the side of younger people who can play and score goals," the 76 year-old media magnate a...

By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:14pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday, supported by a slight pickup in manufacturing and a surge in new home sales, while Boeing gained after raising its full-year forecast. The muted morning action suggested the market was attempting to find its footing after a 3.3 pe...

BISSAU | Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:10pm EDT BISSAU (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's caretaker government said on Wednesday it sent an extradition request to Portugal for its exiled former prime minister, whom it accuses of ordering the assassination of a former president in 2009. Tensions between Guinea Bissau and its former colonial ruler Portugal have soared sinc...

Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:57am EDT (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to Alere Inc saying the diagnostic device maker's response to the health regulator's earlier observations on manufacturing processes for the company's Triage products was not adequate. The FDA said in its letter on Monday that Alere will need to complete a revalidati...

By John Mkhize and Olivia Kumwenda CARLETONVILLE, South Africa | Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:50am EDT CARLETONVILLE, South Africa (Reuters) - AngloGold Ashanti sacked 12,000 wildcat strikers who defied a deadline to return to work on Wednesday, the latest South African company to resort to mass firings after weeks of crippling labor unrest. Thousands of ...

Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:31am EDT (Reuters) - Apple Inc's "iPad mini" will attract new customers but the higher-than-expected price is unlikely to make it a threat to low-cost tablets such as Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, analysts said, in a muted reaction to the new tablet. Only a few analysts revise their price targets for Apple's shares ahead of the company's quarterly ...

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:30am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here's one more reason to dread aging: older Americans are seeing a greater increase in obesity rates, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Data from nearly 600,000 U.S. adults showed that people aged 18 and older were more likely to be obese than they were i...

By Brian Love PARIS | Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:15am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief whose French presidential ambitions were shattered by a sex scandal last year, is making a comeback in business and at conferences. The 63-year-old Strauss-Kahn was accused of trying to rape a New York hotel maid in May 2011. He prote...

By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM | Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:13am EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians fired dozens of rockets into Israel from Gaza on Wednesday and an Israeli air strike killed a militant in a surge of violence after the Emir of Qatar embraced the enclave's Hamas leadership with a visit. Hamas claimed responsibility for some of the rocke...

By Roberta Cowan AMSTERDAM | Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:06am EDT AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch court has ruled Samsung Electronics does not infringe an Apple Inc patent by using certain multi-touch techniques on some of the Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers. Samsung and Apple, the world's top two smartphone makers, are locked in patent dis...

WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:50am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New single-family home sales surged in September to their highest level in nearly 2-1/2 years, further evidence the housing market recovery is gaining steam. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales increased 5.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted 389,000-unit annual rate - the highest...

By Steve Gutterman and Maria Golovnina MOSCOW/LONDON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:44am EDT MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) - Ecuador is worried about the health of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and has asked Britain to guarantee him safe passage from its London embassy to hospital if he needs medical treatment, a senior Ecuadorean diplomat said in Moscow. As...

By Frederik Joelving NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:39am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many medical guidelines don't stick to quality standards designed to make them trustworthy, and the situation hasn't improved over the past two decades, researchers have found. "Everybody everywhere is developing guidelines and there is no real quality contro...

PARIS | Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:17am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Spaniard Alberto Contador expressed support on Wednesday for disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong saying the American was being "humiliated and lynched" by doping accusations which have led to the stripping of his seven Tour de France titles. "It seems to me that at certain times and in certain places L...

SHANGHAI | Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:39am EDT SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Justin Rose knows he needs to win one of two events over the next fortnight in China to have a chance of denying world number one Rory McIlroy his first Race to Dubai title. Rose arrived in Shanghai for this week's BMW Masters trailing McIlroy by 437,334 euros ($567,000) and with six official ev...

By Chris Francescani Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:36am EDT (Reuters) - Rhythm and blues star Bobby Brown, ex-husband of the late Whitney Houston, was arrested in Los Angeles and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, Los Angeles police said on Wednesday. Brown was stopped by police at the intersection of Corbin Avenue and Ventura Boulevard, north of T...

By Julien Pretot PARIS | Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:01am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - While the sports world struggles to come to terms with the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, Tour de France organizers unveiled on Wednesday a mountainous route for the 100th edition of the world's greatest cycling race. The 2013 Tour, which starts from Corsica, will take l'Alpe...

Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:58am EDT (Reuters) - Warren Buffett sees clear signs that the global economy is slowing, although the U.S. economy is "inching ahead" as other regions decline, the Berkshire Hathaway chief executive officer said on Wednesday. Yet despite the weakness, Buffett said he was "salivating" to make another major acquisition, adding that two deals of a...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:39am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with chronic dry mouth related to cancer treatment reported some improvement in symptoms like sticky saliva and dry lips after eight weeks of group acupuncture, in a new study from the UK. It's not clear how much of that benefit could have been a result o...

By Robert-Jan Bartunek and Nigel Davies GENK, Belgium/MADRID | Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:27am EDT GENK, Belgium/MADRID (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co will close a Belgian factory employing 4,300 workers by the end of 2014, shifting production to Spain as the U.S. automaker tries to save money and stem European losses. Europe's car market has slumped because ...

Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:32am EDT (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) posted stronger-than-expected results for the third quarter on Wednesday and raised its forecast for the full year, as its defense business improved and commercial aircraft deliveries surged. The company said it earned $1.0 billion, or $1.35 a share, compared with $1.1 billion, $1.46 a share, a year ago. Re...

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:35am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures advanced on Wednesday, pointing to a bounce from declines a day earlier when the Dow suffered its biggest drop in four months, after data from China and Boeing earnings eased concerns about sluggish global growth. The China HSBC Flash Manufacturin...

PARIS | Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:31am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Former Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) trader Jerome Kerviel was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in France's biggest rogue-trading scandal on Wednesday and ordered to repay the bank 4.9 billion euros ($6.35 billion). Kerviel, 35, will not go to jail immediately, however, and his lawyer said...

By Oliver Holmes and Shaimaa Fayed BEIRUT/CAIRO | Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:53am EDT BEIRUT/CAIRO (Reuters) - Syria said on Wednesday its military command was still studying a proposal for a holiday ceasefire with rebels - contradicting international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi's earlier announcement that Damascus had agreed to a truce. The statement threw...

Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:46am EDT (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), the largest U.S. weapons maker, on Wednesday posted an 11 percent increase in third-quarter earnings, beating expectations by a wide margin, and raised its full-year forecast. Lockheed warned that revenues would ease slightly in 2013, pulled lower by a mid-single-digit decline in sales at its i...

MOSCOW | Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:13am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ecuador is worried about the health of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and has asked Britain to guarantee him safe passage from its London embassy to a hospital if he needs medical treatment, a senior Ecuadorean diplomat said in Moscow. "Assange has grown noticeably thinner, and we are very concern...

By Edith Honan Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:07am EDT (Reuters) - Connecticut Democratic U.S. Congressman Chris Murphy has pulled ahead of Republican businesswoman Linda McMahon in their U.S. Senate race, taking a 49 percent to 43 percent lead in a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday. Murphy is now leading among women and older voters, but the closely w...

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard BEIJING | Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:33am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - A loyal ally of Chinese President Hu Jintao is the front-runner to become propaganda minister during a once-in-a-decade generational leadership change, two sources said, but while media-savvy he is unlikely to drastically loosen tight controls. Liu Qi...

By Keith Weir LONDON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:22am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will be elected for a second term next month if Britain's bookmakers are to be believed. The polls have Obama effectively tied with rival Mitt Romney in the two-horse race for the White House but the odds show gamblers putting their money on the incu...

LOS ANGELES | Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:21am EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The number of American TV viewers who watched the last debate between U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney fell sharply on a night when football and baseball competed with politics for eyeballs. Final Nielsen ratings data on Tuesday showed that 59.2 million Ame...

By Deborah Charles WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 1:55am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In Florida, Virginia and Indiana, voters have received phone calls that wrongly told them there was no need to cast a ballot in person on Election Day because they could vote by phone. In Ohio and Wisconsin, billboards in mostly low-income and minority neighborhood...

By Susan Guyett INDIANAPOLIS | Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:23am EDT INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Richard Mourdock, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Indiana, said in a debate on Tuesday that "even when life begins with that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen." The remark drew criticism from his Democratic ...

By Basil Katz NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:18am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The sentencing on Wednesday of fallen Wall Street titan Rajat Gupta for insider trading could come down to whether a judge agrees that his lifetime of charity counts against sending him to prison. The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member was convicted in June of lea...

By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK | Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:55pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - For anyone who craves one more hug from a grandma long gone, one more of her chocolate turtle cookies or another whiff of her apple strudel baking in the oven, there is "Oma & Bella". Scenes from the new documentary about two octogenarian friends living together ...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:44pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc grew mobile advertising revenue several times in the third quarter, a faster-than-expected pace that helped drive shares in the world's No. 1 social network nearly 13 percent higher. Facebook sai...

UNITED NATIONS | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:29pm EDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - It's not all war and peace at the United Nations. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon added pop music and supersonic skydiving to his agenda on Tuesday when he met with "Gangnam Style" South Korean singer Psy and Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner. Psy's song "Gangnam Style," which mocks the co...

By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:11pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show. The emails, obt...

By Poornima Gupta and Noel Randewich SAN JOSE | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:01pm EDT SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Apple Inc will begin to sell an 8-inch version of the iPad on Friday to compete with Amazon.com Inc's Kindle and other smaller tablets, but it set a higher-than-expected price tag of $329 that Wall Street fears could curb demand. The 7.9 inch "iPad mi...