Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:37pm EDT (Reuters) - Venus Williams proved she was still a force to be reckoned with after a two-year battle with injuries and illness as she downed Romania's Monica Niculescu 6-2 6-3 to win the Luxembourg Open title on Sunday. The result ended a torrid year and a 31-month barren run for the 32-year-old American, who failed to get past the sec...

WASHINGTON | Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:02pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are tied at 47 percent support each among likely voters with just over two weeks to go before the U.S. presidential election, a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday said. The nationwide poll, which was conducted after l...

By Gennady Fyodorov MOSCOW | Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:14am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki claimed her 20th career title by beating top seed Samantha Stosur 6-2 4-6 7-5 in a thrilling Kremlin Cup tennis final on Sunday. The third-seeded Dane trailed Stosur 1-3 in the third set but recovered her poise to draw level, then broke the A...

By Mariam Karouny and Angus MacSwan BEIRUT | Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:00am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Violence erupted in downtown Beirut on Sunday as protesters tried to storm the offices of Prime Minister Najib Mikati after the funeral of an assassinated intelligence chief whose death they blame on Syria. Security forces shot into the air and police fir...

By Angus MacSwan BEIRUT | Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:30am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of people mourned an assassinated senior intelligence officer at his funeral on Sunday, accusing Syria of involvement in the killing and calling for Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati to quit. Heavily armed troops and police stood guard as people flocked to Marty...

By Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI | Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:32am EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran followed the United States on Sunday in denying that the two countries had scheduled direct bilateral negotiations on Iran's controversial nuclear program. The New York Times, quoting unnamed U.S. administration officials, had said on Saturday that secret exchanges betw...

BISSAU | Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:29am EDT BISSAU (Reuters) - Six people were killed in a gun battle at an airforce base near Guinea-Bissau's capital early on Sunday in what diplomatic sources described as an apparent failed counter-coup attempt. The tiny former Portuguese colony on Africa's west coast is in the mid...

By Marwan Makdesi DAMASCUS | Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:25am EDT DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A car bomb killed 13 people in central Damascus on Sunday as President Bashar al-Assad told an international mediator seeking a truce in Syria's civil war that the key to any political solution was to stop arming rebels. The bomb exploded outside a police station in the...

By Naomi O'Leary VATICAN CITY | Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:04am EDT VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict created seven new saints on Sunday including the first Native American to be canonized, as the Roman Catholic Church reaches out to its global flock to rebuff encroaching secularism. The celebration of figures who had suffered to promote the faith c...

By Joe Brock ABUJA | Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:57am EDT ABUJA (Reuters) - For decades Nigeria has failed to fix chronic electricity shortages that stifle growth and help keep millions in poverty. That is about change, the government says, when most of the power sector is privatized by the end of the year. Its target is to increase electricity output ten...

By Ali Shuaib TRIPOLI | Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:47am EDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan militiamen aligned to the Defence Ministry shelled the former Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid on Sunday, extending a feud between two towns that demonstrates the country's deep divisions a year after the veteran leader was killed. Militias, many of whom are from Misra...

By Nadia Damouni and Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:35am EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Marissa Mayer, who earned a reputation for decisive action and intensity during her 13-year stint at Google Inc, has spent her first months as Yahoo Inc CEO quietly moving the Internet pioneer back to its roots in technology. Long torn betw...

By Peter Griffiths LONDON | Sun Oct 21, 2012 7:54am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to reassert his authority over a Conservative Party reeling after a week which saw the resignation of a senior minister and claims of incompetence and elitism at the heart of his government. After one of the most bruis...

MOSCOW | Sun Oct 21, 2012 7:34am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian security forces have killed 49 militants in an operation across the North Caucasus region, where rebels are fighting to carve out an Islamic state, Russia's top anti-terrorism body said on Sunday. The agency, which serves as a mouthpiece for law enforcement agencies operating in the region, ...

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM | Sun Oct 21, 2012 6:19am EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel held its first major earthquake drill on Sunday, stepping away from simulated Iranian missile salvoes though officials insisted the country remained ready for any war with its arch-foe. Schoolchildren, civil servants and others participating in the annual "Turnin...

By Gabriel Debenedetti Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:13am EDT (Reuters) - In today's highly polarized political environment it is somewhat surprising to find voters who backed John McCain in 2008 and now support President Barack Obama, but they exist. Roughly 5 percent of respondents in Reuters/Ipsos polls said they chose the Republican contender in 2008 and will sw...

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON | Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:03am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Suddenly, Republican Mitt Romney has a viable path to victory in the tight battle for the White House. Democratic President Barack Obama still appears to have the upper hand in the state-by-state fight to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to win the pr...

By Julien Pretot PARIS | Sat Oct 20, 2012 10:06pm EDT PARIS (Reuters) - The Lance Armstrong doping scandal reaches a decisive day on Monday when cycling's governing body announces whether it has ratified the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's sanctions but whatever happens the affair is set to run and run. International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat M...

By Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:17pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Saturday denied a New York Times report that said the United States and Iran had agreed for the first time to one-on-one negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, saying it remained committed to working with major powers to resolve the standoff. The T...

By Alina Selyukh and Patrick Temple-West WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:15pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic donors gave unprecedented amounts of money in September to their party's three main "Super PACs," federal disclosures revealed on Friday, a reflection of how wealthy Democrats' reluctance to give to such groups has faded in the week...

BERLIN | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:05pm EDT BERLIN (Reuters) - European Central Bank policymaker Klaas Knot has thrown his support behind German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's call for a euro zone commissioner with power over European Union nations' budgets. The EU needs not only stricter budget discipline but also stronger debt controls, Knot, who heads...

LIMA | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:51pm EDT LIMA (Reuters) - Argentina's president on Saturday ordered 326 sailors to evacuate a Navy frigate that was seized in Ghana to help bondholders try to recoup debts from the South American country's 2002 default. The Libertad, a training frigate, was detained in the Ghanaian port of Tema on October 2 under a court order o...

By Ali Shuaib TRIPOLI | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:41pm EDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan militias captured Muammar Gaddafi's chief spokesman on Saturday, the government said, but an audio clip posted on Facebook purporting to be the voice of Moussa Ibrahim denied his capture. There was no independent verification of the authenticity or timing of the Facebo...

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland WASHINGTON/DEL RAY BEACH, Florida | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:13pm EDT WASHINGTON/DEL RAY BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Facing a cliffhanger re-election attempt, President Barack Obama will launch a round-the-clock, two-day campaign blitz through six battleground states next week to try to fend off the challenge from Republi...

By Dominic Evans BEIRUT | Sat Oct 20, 2012 6:45pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's political opposition has called for a mass turnout at Sunday's funeral for slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan, turning the ceremony into a political rally against Syrian authorities and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Hassan, who uncovered an alleged...

NEW YORK | Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:06pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter has had an operation on his broken left ankle and is expected to be sidelined for at least four months, the Major League Baseball team said on Saturday. Jeter sustained the injury during the 12th inning of a 6-4 loss to Detroit in Game One of the American L...

By Shadia Nasralla and Clare Hutchison LONDON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:13pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Star Trek fans made history on Saturday by breaking the record for the largest gathering of people dressed as characters from the TV series at the "Destination Star Trek London" convention. An estimated 1,083 costume-clad "trekkies" assembled at the eve...

By Keith Weir LONDON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 3:40pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Cyclist Lance Armstrong's doping scandal is causing sponsors to question their future in a sport that allows them to reach mass audiences at a moderate price, but risks tainting their brand. The Dutch Rabobank pulled out of professional cycling on Friday, ending a sponsorship d...

By Gennady Fyodorov MOSCOW | Sat Oct 20, 2012 3:18pm EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Top seed Samantha Stosur reached her first final in eight months with a comeback 2-6 6-3 6-2 win over fourth-seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic in the Kremlin Cup semi-finals on Saturday. The Australian will face another former world number one Caroline Wozniacki in Sunday's fin...

By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 2:42pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The race between President Barack Obama and rival Mitt Romney has tightened in the days before their final televised debate, with the Republican closing the gap on Obama's slight but steady lead in a Reuters/Ipsos online poll. Data from the daily tracking poll released ...

WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 2:34pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. death toll from fungal meningitis linked to potentially contaminated steroid injections has risen to 23 with one new death each reported in Tennessee and North Carolina, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday. States reported 13 new cases of fungal meningiti...

By Laila Bassam and Angus MacSwan BEIRUT | Sat Oct 20, 2012 10:54am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Saturday he suspected the assassination of a senior Lebanese intelligence chief was linked to his role in uncovering Syrian involvement in an earlier bomb plot. As fear and anger gripped Lebanon over Friday's car bomb att...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Sat Oct 20, 2012 10:37am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Boys in the United States may be entering puberty earlier than in generations past, a new study has found, suggesting it's not just girls who are developing at younger ages. In comparisons with decades-old data, boys who were seen for well-child visits between ...

By Euan Rocha and Stuart Grudgings TORONTO/KUALA LUMPUR | Sat Oct 20, 2012 9:07am EDT TORONTO/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Canada has blocked Malaysian state oil firm Petronas' C$5.17 billion ($5.2 billion) bid for gas producer Progress Energy Resources in a surprise move that could signal problems for a much larger Chinese deal in the country's ener...

By Noah Browning RAMALLAH, West Bank | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:17am EDT RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians voted in local elections in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Saturday, their first vote for six years and one with little choice, out of step with democratic revolutions elsewhere in the...

DUBAI | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:16am EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain's interior minister said on Saturday that the country had identified several suspects in a bomb attack on Thursday that killed one policeman and injured another following clashes between protesters and the security services in the U.S. ally. The tin...

MOSCOW | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:15am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - BP (BP.L) has approved Russian group Rosneft's (ROSN.MM) bid to buy out the British oil company's stake 50 percent stake in its Russian joint venture TNK-BP (TNBP.MM), Kommersant reported. Separately, the Financial Times reported that BP's board would continue its discussion on the matter over the w...

By Edith Honan BRIDGEPORT, Ct. | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:07am EDT BRIDGEPORT, Ct. (Reuters) - Late last week, Rep. Chris Murphy, the Democratic contender for Senate in Connecticut, stopped in at El Flamboyan restaurant in Bridgeport. This is one of poorest sections of the state's most populous city and home to the kind of Democratic Party loyalists Mu...

By Jilian Mincer NEW YORK | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:01am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Corporate America is finally ready to deal with a monkey on its back: massive pension obligations. AT&T Inc on Friday said it plans to contribute a $9.5 billion stake in its wireless business to its underfunded pension plan. Earlier this week, Verizon Communications ...

By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:47am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Protesters and gunmen blocked roads with burning tires in Beirut and other cities on Saturday as grief and anger over the assassination of a senior intelligence official opposed to the Syrian leadership kept Lebanon on edge. Lebanese soldiers opened fire on a group who took ...