SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:34pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc on Tuesday said it is closing its offices in Boston, has cut 5 percent of its full-time work force and will "sunset" 13 older games. The company provided Reuters with a copy of a memo to employees in which it announced the news, wh...

By Bernie Woodall DETROIT | Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:19pm EDT DETROIT (Reuters) - Engineers and scientists at General Motors Co believe they are making major strides toward lighter vehicles by developing a way to expand the use of magnesium in auto parts. Making auto parts from magnesium sheets by heating the lightweight metal so it can be formed into ...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:06pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc posted a 32 percent jump in third-quarter revenue to $1.26 billion, as the company reignited advertising growth with the help of larger-than-expected gains in mobile. The company's shares leapt 9 percent to $21.22 in after-hours trading on Tuesd...

By Noel Randewich and Poornima Gupta SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Oct 23, 2012 5:34pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple marketing wizard Phil Schiller defended the $329 price of the new iPad mini tablet, saying consumers will be willing to pay for quality not found in less expensive devices from rivals like Google and Amazon. With competition growing fr...

By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK | Tue Oct 23, 2012 5:30pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Tuesday, driving the Dow industrials to the biggest drop since June 21, as weak results from index members DuPont and United Technologies showed profit growth is slowing. This earnings season has so far produced a string of disappointments from com...

By Alistair Barr SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Oct 23, 2012 4:04pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is grappling with a problem that eBay Inc has struggled with for years: the proliferation of unauthorized third-party sellers that undercut the world's top consumer brands. The sellers offer online shoppers goods ranging from Guess watches to LG ...

By Jeff Mason DELRAY BEACH, Florida | Tue Oct 23, 2012 12:59pm EDT DELRAY BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - President Barack Obama told voters on Tuesday that Republican rival Mitt Romney shifts his policy positions and cannot be trusted to deal honestly with the public as the presidential campaign entered its frantic final weeks. After three televised ...

By Regan Doherty DOHA | Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:23pm EDT DOHA (Reuters) - A second Sudanese rebel group in the western region of Darfur has agreed to start Qatar-sponsored peace talks with the government in Khartoum, officials said on Tuesday, in the first attempt by mediators to revive a stalled peace...

By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS | Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:20pm EDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Countries around the world are increasingly viewing capital punishment as a form of torture because it inflicts severe mental and physical pain on those sentenced to death, a U.N. torture investigator said...

By Amy Norton NEW YORK | Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:12pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Severe complications from childbirth are rare in the U.S., but they are becoming more common, a new government study finds. Between 1998 and 2009, the rate of serious complications like heart attack, stroke, severe bl...

By Toni Clarke and Tim McLaughlin BOSTON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:08pm EDT BOSTON (Reuters) - The pharmacy tied to a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak escaped harsh punishment from health regulators several times in the years leading up to the health crisis that has raised questions about oversight of the customized drug mixing industry, newly released...

By Andrew Hammond ADEN | Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:38pm EDT ADEN (Reuters) - A U.S.-backed military onslaught may have driven Islamist militants from towns in Yemen they seized last year, but many have regrouped into "sleeper cells" threatening anew the areas they vacated, security officials and analysts say. The resilience of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Pe...

By Jill Serjeant LOS ANGELES | Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:36pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Making a TV reality show may not be the most obvious way to cope with the sudden death of a loved one, but most families don't count an icon like Whitney Houston among their relatives. Less than a year after the "I Will Always Love You" singer drowned accidentally ...

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:36pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pulled slightly ahead of Republican Mitt Romney in a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll on Tuesday, but the race remained essentially tied with two weeks to go until the November 6 election. Obama led Romney among likely voters by a statisticall...

By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian NEW YORK | Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:17pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Tuesday, putting the Dow industrials on track for the biggest drop since June 21, after a series of weak quarterly results from bellwether companies. Multinationals including DuPont (DD.N) and United Technologies (UTX.N) fell short of Wall Stree...

Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:40pm EDT (Reuters) - An independent safety panel determined that Celgene Corp's experimental cancer drug had met the main goal of a late-stage trial by improving progression-free survival in multiple myeloma patients who have relapsed or not responded to prior treatment, the drugmaker said. The study's data safety monitoring board also determin...

By Justyna Pawlak and Fredrik Dahl BRUSSELS/VIENNA | Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:33pm EDT BRUSSELS/VIENNA (Reuters) - Big powers may ask Iran for stricter limits on its nuclear work if it wants an easing of harsh sanctions - a long-shot approach aimed at yielding a negotiated solution that has eluded them for more than a decade. A solution to the standoff...

By Ritsuko Ando HELSINKI | Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:29pm EDT HELSINKI (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Nokia plans to raise 750 million euros ($972 million) from bonds convertible into shares, seeking a cheap way to help finance its fight to claw back market share lost to Apple and Samsung. Once the world's biggest mobile phone maker, the Finnish firm ha...

By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:28pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which is battling Apple Inc across the globe for dominance of the smartphone market, dealt the California company a setback by winning a preliminary invalidation of a key Apple patent, according to a court filing. The fight is related to App...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:19pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are battling to seize an army base close to the main north-south highway and say its capture would be a big step towards creating a "safe zone" allowing them to focus on Bashar al-Assad's southern strongholds. For two weeks they have surrounded and attacked Wa...

By Kate Kelland LONDON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:01pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Genetic testing could help doctors find the small number of patients with advanced bowel cancer likely to benefit from cancer drug Avastin, scientists said on Tuesday. In a study of Roche's blockbuster drug, which targets and blocks a protein called VEGF-A, researchers found ...

ROME | Tue Oct 23, 2012 12:40pm EDT ROME (Reuters) - Senior members of an Italian government disaster assessment body resigned on Tuesday, a day after seven scientists and officials were convicted of manslaughter for not giving adequate warning of the deadly earthquake in the city of L'Aquila in 2009. The head of the National Commission for the Forecast ...

WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 12:36pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has agreed to relax Medicare's requirements for skilled nursing and home health care, allowing beneficiaries to qualify for benefits even if their conditions are not expected to improve, according to court documents. A proposed settlement of a national class-action ...

By Oliver Holmes TRIPOLI, Lebanon | Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:40am EDT TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - The Lebanese army said it had arranged a ceasefire on Tuesday in the northern city of Tripoli after two nights of fighting between Sunni and Alawite gunmen loyal to different sides in the war in neighboring Syria, a military source said on Tuesday. At le...

Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:22am EDT (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs removed Monster Beverage Corp from its conviction buy list after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was investigating reports of five deaths that may be linked to the company's namesake energy drinks. Shares of the company, which makes drinks such as Java Monster, Monster Rehab, and X-Presso Monste...

By Kerry Grens NEW YORK | Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:02am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Doctors don't need to double-check the results of a negative strep throat test because any missed cases typically don't result in additional health problems for patients, according to a new study. Researchers found that among people with strep throat symptoms, an i...

By Ben Hirschler LONDON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:53am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's drug regulator has started an infringement procedure against Switzerland's Roche to investigate its alleged failure to properly report tens of thousands of potential drug side effects. If found guilty, the world's biggest maker of cancer medicines could be fined up...

By Maria Kiselyova MOSCOW | Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:43am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - EBay Inc expects its Russian business to skyrocket if it can overcome logistical hurdles and is seeking a local partner to help it do so, its country head told Reuters. EBay launched a Russian-language site in 2010 and has hired former Google Inc manager Vladimir Dolgov t...

LONDON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:55am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - The American Glazer family are long-term investors in Manchester United and have no plans to sell the English Premier League soccer club following flotation, Executive Vice Chairman Ed Woodward said on Tuesday. United floated on the stock market in New York in August under a dual-share structure tha...

By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya KOROLYOV, Russia | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:46am EDT KOROLYOV, Russia (Reuters) - A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American blasted off on Tuesday for the International Space Station (ISS), where the men are to spend five months in orbit. The Russian-built Soyuz TMA-06M lifted off on time from the Baikonur lau...

PARIS | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:44am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Five times Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain believes Lance Armstrong is not guilty of doping despite the evidence produced by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the Spaniard said on Tuesday. "Even now I believe in his innocence. He has always respected all the rules," Indurain, who won the Tour...

By Martyn Herman LONDON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:36am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Recognized as one of the best Olympics ever, London 2012 came with a hefty price tag for the British taxpayer despite government figures on Tuesday showing a 377 million pounds saving on the budget for the sporting spectacle. The final quarterly economic report published by ...

OSLO | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:35am EDT OSLO (Reuters) - Former cyclist Steffen Kjaergaard, who competed with the disgraced Lance Armstrong on the U.S. Postal Service team in the Tour de France, admitted to doping on Tuesday and was placed on leave as Norway's cycling federation sports director. "For 15 years I hid a lie," Kjaergaard told a news conference. "...

Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:16am EDT (Reuters) - The San Francisco Giants routed the St. Louis Cardinals 9-0 in Game Seven of the National League Championship Series on Monday to complete a stunning comeback and advance to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. The Giants, the 2010 World Series winners, trailed last year's champion Cardinals 3-1 in the best-of-seven...

By Jane Chung YANGPYEONG, South Korea | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:03am EDT YANGPYEONG, South Korea (Reuters) - The near-death of an actress in an accident while filming nearly ended director Kim Ki-duk's career four years ago, but after making "Pieta," which took best picture at this year's Venice film festival, he is now South Korea's most feted auteur...

By Christine Kearney NEW YORK | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:57am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Makers of the new James Bond movie "Skyfall" have striven to combine the old-school values that made 007 such a success over the last 50 years with enough modern mores to keep the silver screen's favorite super spy relevant in a post-Cold War world. The 23rd official...

By Sarah White LONDON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:55am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - In the high-tech, gadget-addicted world of investment banking, layoffs are becoming more complex and brutal as firms try to stop sensitive data leaving with employees. Sackings are usually swift, with bankers escorted out, a few belongings thrown into boxes and Blackberries an...

Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:49am EDT (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has told close friends he probably will not stand for a third term at the central bank even if President Barack Obama wins the November 6 election, the New York Times reported. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has already said he would not re-nominate Bernanke if he wins the ...

By Oliver Holmes TRIPOLI, Lebanon | Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:52am EDT TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Four people were killed and 15 wounded in overnight gun battles in the Lebanese city of Tripoli in a second night of fighting between Sunni and Alawite gunmen loyal to different sides in the war in neighboring Syria, a military source said on Tuesday. In ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:47am EDT GAZA (Reuters) - The Emir of Qatar embraced the Hamas leadership of Gaza on Tuesday with an official visit breaking the isolation of the militant Palestinian Islamist movement, to the dismay of Israel and rival, Western-backed Palestinian leaders in the West Bank. Israel said it was "astound...