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| Scope of Sandy's devastation widens, death toll spirals Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:04 PM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - From New York City's Staten Island to the popular beach towns of the Jersey Shore, rescuers and officials on Friday faced growing evidence of widespread destruction wrought by superstorm Sandy, mounting anger over delayed relief and a rising death toll. The total killed in one of the biggest storms to hit the United States jumped by a third on Thursday alone, to 98. In New York City, 40 people have been found dead, half of them in Staten Island, which was overrun by a wall of water on Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
| In the Badger State, divided over and baffled by Obamacare Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:07 PM PDT  BELOIT, Wisconsin (Reuters) - To Tim Givhan, Obamacare shouldn't be an excuse for election-year polemics: "It's a lifeline." A former IT specialist, Givhan tripped on a machine at work and landed on his head, suffering neurological damage. His employer's insurance company wouldn't pay for an operation, saying the outcome was iffy. Plagued by debilitating migraines and tremors, he quit work. His wife, an attorney, divorced him. Givhan, 49, has moved back to his mother's home in Beloit, Wisconsin. ... Full Story | Top |
| Jobless rate seen rising, offering Obama no relief Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:04 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate probably rose in October as employers stepped up hiring only slightly, underscoring President Barack Obama's vulnerability in next week's presidential election. Employers likely added 125,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists. That would be up from 114,000 in September, but would fall short of what is needed to quickly cut the jobless rate. Indeed, economists expect the unemployment rate -- a key focus in the neck-and-neck race for the White House -- to tick up by a tenth of a percentage point to 7. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Rothschild forms consortium to counter Bakrie buyout - sources Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:17 PM PDT  HONG KONG/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Financier Nat Rothschild is forming a rival consortium, including a contender for Indonesia's presidency, to launch a counter-offer to the $1.4 billion Bumi Plc buyout proposal from the Bakrie family, in a deal that would pour fuel on an already smoldering relationship. Sources familiar with the matter said Rothschild - who set up Bumi with the Bakries two years ago - was in talks with various partners including former general and current presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, to thwart the Bakrie plan and take control of parts of the coal empire. ... Full Story | Top |
| RBS may face Libor fines after talks with regulator Friday, Nov 02, 2012 12:52 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland said it may face "material fines" in relation to how Libor and other interest rates were set after talks with regulators which it expects to begin soon. "The group expects to enter into negotiations to settle some of these investigations in the near term and believes the probable outcome is that it will incur financial penalties," RBS said as it presented third-quarter results on Friday. It said it had dismissed "a number of employees for misconduct" after its investigations into interest rate setting. RBS is under investigation by U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Second stealth jet puts China on path to top regional power: expert Friday, Nov 02, 2012 12:23 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's second stealth fighter jet that was unveiled this week is part of a program to transform China into the top regional military power, an expert on Asian security said on Friday. The fighter, the J-31, made its maiden flight on Wednesday in the northeast province of Liaoning at a facility of the Shenyang Aircraft Corp which built it, according to Chinese media. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Jilted Africa cool to U.S. vote after Obama fever fades Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:04 PM PDT  KOGELO, Kenya/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - In the tiny Kenyan village of Kogelo, U.S. President Barack Obama's ancestral homeland, some people talk of hurt feelings of the kind experienced when a favorite relative has failed to get in touch. Four years ago, Kogelo, and Africa in general, celebrated with noisy gusto when Obama, whose father came from the scattered hamlet of tin-roofed homes, became the first African-American to be elected president of the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| Apple rolls out iPad mini in Asia to shorter lines Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:44 PM PDT  SYDNEY (Reuters) - Apple fans lined up in several Asian cities to get their hands on the iPad mini on Friday, but the device, priced above rival gadgets from Google and Amazon.com, attracted smaller crowds than at the company's previous global rollouts. Apple Inc's global gadget rollouts are typically high-energy affairs drawing droves of buyers who stand in line for hours. But a proliferation of comparable rival devices may have sapped some interest. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blind Chinese activist's brother says lawsuit rejected Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:45 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - The eldest brother of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng said on Friday a Chinese court had rejected his lawsuit filed against local police and officials for unlawfully barging into his house after his brother's escape. The rejection of Chen Guangfu's lawsuit on Thursday was an expected outcome, but it underscores the continued pressure on Chen Guangcheng's family in northeastern Shandong province, about five months after Chen Guangcheng left for the United States to study. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Coast Guard suspends search for captain of replica HMS Bounty Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:34 PM PDT  Charleston, South Carolina (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday suspended a four-day, round-the-clock search for Robin Walbridge, 63, the missing captain of the replica tall ship HMS Bounty, which sank in heavy seas stirred up by Hurricane Sandy. Fourteen crew members were rescued from life rafts by Coast Guard helicopters on Monday, but Walbridge and another crew member, Claudene Christian, were washed overboard before they could make it to the rafts. Christian, 42, was pulled from the sea later and flown to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. ... Full Story | Top |
| CIA officials in Libya made key decisions during Benghazi attacks Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 06:19 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA officials on the ground in Libya dispatched security forces to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi within 25 minutes and made other key decisions about how to respond to the waves of attacks on U.S. installations on September 11, a senior American intelligence official said on Thursday. Officials in Washington monitored events through message traffic and a hovering U.S. military drone but did not interfere with or reject requests for help from officials in the line of fire, the official said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama, Romney return to attack as campaign hits final stretch Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 05:47 PM PDT  GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney went back on the attack on Thursday, breaking a storm-induced campaign truce to hit the road and pound home their closing messages in the final stretch of a tight battle for the White House. With five days left until Tuesday's election, Obama received an endorsement from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, resurrected his 2008 "change" slogan and said he was the only candidate who had actually fought for it. Romney criticized Obama as a lover of big government who would expand the federal bureaucracy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Standard Chartered close to U.S. settlement on Iran transactions Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 04:52 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered is close to wrapping up discussions to resolve U.S. investigations into its Iran-linked transactions and nearing agreement on a fine in the $300-million range, mirroring a much-publicized state settlement over similar allegations, according to four people familiar with the matter. The London-based bank agreed in August to pay New York's banking regulator $340 million after that authority filed a surprise order accusing the bank of hiding some $250 billion worth of transactions with Iran. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Penn State president charged with perjury in Sandusky case Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:27 PM PDT  HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A grand jury has charged former Penn State President Graham Spanier with participating in a "conspiracy of silence" to cover up child sex abuse by former football coach Jerry Sandusky, Pennsylvania's attorney general said on Thursday. The highest-ranking Pennsylvania State University official charged in the explosive case, Spanier, 64, was accused of child endangerment, perjury and criminal conspiracy, all felonies. He also faces misdemeanor counts of failure to report suspected abuse, conspiracy and obstruction of the administration of law. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bloomberg endorses Obama for a second term, climate change a focus Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 01:19 PM PDT  (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, whereas Republican challenger Mitt Romney has backtracked on earlier positions he had taken as governor of Massachusetts to battle climate change. "Our climate is changing," Bloomberg wrote in an opinion article for Bloomberg View, a section of Bloomberg News. ... Full Story | Top |
| British millionaire pleads guilty in Iran missile scheme Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:04 PM PDT  SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - British millionaire Christopher Tappin pleaded guilty in federal court in Texas on Thursday to charges of attempting to sell missile parts to Iran, prosecutors said. Tappin, 66, from Orpington, Kent, who had previously pleaded not guilty, reversed that stance in federal court in El Paso as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors that calls for a sentence of 33 months in prison and a fine of more than $11,000, according to U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman. ... Full Story | Top |
| Microsoft pushes new Windows to developers Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:38 PM PDT  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 mobile computing. Windows 8, the new Surface tablet and a range of Windows-based phones - all unveiled in the past week - are designed to close that gap, but the world's largest software company still needs to convince developers to recreate the thriving 'ecosystem' that made PCs so successful. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Putin's Russia - more fragile than it looks Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:52 PM PDT  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's portrait on a rock wall we see as unbreakable and eternal as Putin". But as Putin nears the end of his 13th year ruling this vast country, Russians feel increasingly unhappy and worries over long-term political and economic stability are growing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Court in UK tells Apple to change statement on Samsung case Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:41 AM PDT  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-compliant" with the order in a previous High Court judgment that concluded Samsung's Galaxy tablet did not infringe Apple's designs, in part because its products were "not as cool". ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama, Romney go back on attack as campaign hits final stretch Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 03:19 PM PDT GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney went back on the attack on Thursday, breaking a storm-induced campaign truce to hit the road and pound home their closing messages in the final stretch of a tight battle for the White House. With five days left until Tuesday's election, Obama resurrected his 2008 "change" slogan and said he was the only candidate who had actually fought for it. Romney criticized Obama as a lover of big government who would expand the federal bureaucracy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fuel scarce, East Coast struggles to recover from storm Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 04:37 PM PDT NEW YORK/SEASIDE HEIGHTS, New Jersey (Reuters) - Rescuers searched flooded homes for survivors, drivers lined up for hours to get scarce gasoline and millions remained without power on Thursday as New York City and nearby towns struggled to recover from one of the biggest storms to hit the United States. New York subway trains crawled back to limited service after being shut down since Sunday, but the lower half of Manhattan still lacked power and surrounding areas such as Staten Island, the New Jersey shore and the city of Hoboken remained crippled from a record storm surge and flooding. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunman wounds four at college Halloween party in Los Angeles Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:08 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire outside a large Halloween party at the University of Southern California and wounded four people in the second major shooting incident involving the urban Los Angeles institution this year, police said on Thursday. The gunfire erupted late on Wednesday outside a party at the Tutor Campus Center, the university said in a statement, although the people wounded in the incident were not students, faculty or staff at the school. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. fiscal cliff looms large at Mexico G20 meet Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 01:38 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - World finance chiefs this weekend will press the United States on how it can prevent its fiscal problems from hitting the global economy and will seek reassurance from Europe that it has a grip on its debt crisis. U.S. and European financial officials are also likely to come under pressure from peers when they meet in Mexico City for dragging their feet on implementing the so-called Basel III accords, the world's response to the 2007-09 financial crisis. Coming just before the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers, several executed Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:22 AM PDT  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 them, calling them "Assad's Dogs", before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground. The highway linking the capital Damascus to the contested city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial center, has been the scene of heavy fighting since rebels cut the road last month. ... Full Story | Top |
| Data points to slow healing in labor market Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:59 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. 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 drop in new claims for jobless benefits, a sharp improvement in consumer confidence, while there were mixed signals regarding the health of U.S. manufacturing. Private employers added 158,000 workers last month, the biggest gain since February, payrolls processor Automatic Data Processing said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama revives his 2008 "change" slogan in final campaign pitch Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:52 AM PDT  GREEN BAY, Wisc. (Reuters) - In what his advisers billed as his closing argument, President Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail for the first time in four days on Thursday, declaring "our work is not yet done" and reviving his successful 2008 campaign slogan: change. Obama resumed re-election rallies after overseeing the response to the devastating storm that hit the eastern seaboard. The president, who won the White House four years ago thanks in part to his themes of "hope" and "change," had largely avoided them until now. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Greek "tax cheat" lists yield one suicide, no convictions Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:47 AM PDT  VOLOS, Greece (Reuters) - Leonidas Tzanis, a Greek provincial lawyer and former government minister, went down to his basement garage in the city of Volos last month, tied a TV cable to a metal beam and hanged himself. Friends and family say Tzanis died because he was on a list, one of several hinting at financial crimes which are dominating Greek headlines and filling a vacuum created by the state's failure to act decisively on tax evasion and corruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House race tight in 4 key states; Obama up in Virginia: Reuters/Ipsos poll Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:43 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is very close in four of the critical battleground states expected to decide next week's election, but Obama has built a small lead in Virginia, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday. The incumbent Democratic president leads his Republican challenger by five percentage points among likely voters in Virginia, at 49 percent to 44 percent. That margin exceeds the survey's 4-point credibility interval, the tool used to account for statistical variation in Internet polls. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least 23 killed in Riyadh fuel truck blast Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:36 AM PDT  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 the death toll had risen to 23 and emergency workers were still searching the collapsed building for more victims or survivors. Health ministry spokesman Saad al-Qahtani said 135 people were injured, mostly men and including some foreigners. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon airlifts power teams, trucks to New York Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:41 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is airlifting power restoration experts and trucks cross-country, from California to New York, to bolster efforts to assist the millions of people still living in darkness days after superstorm Sandy hit the U.S. Northeast. The C-5 and C-17 military transport planes - designed to carry heavy military equipment, like tanks - began flying from March Air Reserve Base in southern California early on Thursday and were due to start arriving in the afternoon at an Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistani couple kill daughter who talked to a boy Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:36 AM PDT 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 daughter after she had spoke to the boy outside their house, said Mohammad Jahangir, a local doctor at the hospital where she was brought. "There were third-degree burns on her scalp, face, eyes, nostrils, both arms, chest foot and lower part of legs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venice hit by worst flooding in two years Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:30 PM PDT  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 water from the lagoon into St. Mark's Square and many narrow alleyways. Wooden catwalks which are usually used to allow pedestrian passage over flooded areas were removed after the water rose above them, rendering them useless. ... Full Story | Top |
| Romney back to campaign attacks on Obama after Sandy pause Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:31 AM PDT  ROANOKE, Virginia (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney returned to campaign attacks against President Barack Obama on Thursday after a pause for the storm Sandy, hitting the Democrat for proposing more government bureaucracy. Romney swept into must-win Virginia looking to increase turnout among Republican voters in a conservative area of the state to help offset the Democrats' advantage the northern area. Virginia went for Obama in 2008 but may flip for the Republican this year. ... Full Story | Top |
| China proposes new initiatives for Syria ceasefire Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 05:17 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday it had proposed new initiatives to head off an escalation of violence in Syria, including a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the establishment of a transitional governing body. China has been strongly criticized by some in the Arab world for failing to take a stronger stance on the violence in Syria and has subsequently been keen to show it is trying to take a more proactive role in resolving the crisis. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exxon quarterly profit falls, output tumbles Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:48 AM PDT  (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 North America as they struggle to raise production in a sector where vast energy resources are tightly controlled by countries like Brazil. Earlier this month, Exxon agreed to buy Celtic Exploration Ltd for $2.64 billion. ... Full Story | Top |
| NJ power firm PSEG says Sandy severely damaged infrastructure Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:15 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, the biggest utility in New Jersey, said superstorm Sandy had caused severe damage to its infrastructure and it expected its losses to be material. About 775,000 PSEG customers were still without power on Thursday, down from about 1.7 million at the peak, PSEG Chief Executive Ralph Izzo said, adding that it would take seven to 10 days to fully restore service. Towns along the New Jersey shore took much of the brunt of Sandy, which barreled through the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Government to pay New Jersey emergency power costs: senators Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:18 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government will cover 100 percent of emergency power and public transportation costs through November 9 in eight New Jersey counties that were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, according to the two U.S. senators representing the state. An aide to Senator Frank Lautenberg told Reuters that FEMA informed the senators of the decision. Lautenberg and Senator Robert Menendez said they are continuing to request that federal aid "covers as large of a share of the response costs as possible" in the wake of this week's hurricane that battered the East Coast. ... Full Story | Top |
| Moody's says Sandy will test municipalities' liquidity Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:59 AM PDT  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 strong" for U.S. municipal issuers, there are risks. Up-front clean-up costs may exceed budgeted contingencies, aid from higher levels of government could be delayed and insurance reimbursement could arrive too late, it said. (Reporting by Tiziana Barghini; Editing by James Dalgleish) Full Story | Top |
| Obama to use "affirmative" message in closing pitch Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 01:45 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After three days of focusing on superstorm Sandy, President Barack Obama will return to the campaign trail on Thursday with a more "affirmative" message to win over undecided voters in the final days of the race for the White House. With polls showing a tight contest between the Democratic incumbent and Republican challenger Mitt Romney before Tuesday's election, Obama will use trips to political battleground states to make a closing appeal for a second term. ... Full Story | Top |
| Productivity increases modestly, unit labor costs drop Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 06:18 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nonfarm productivity increased at a modest pace in the third quarter, giving little sign that businesses are poised to ramp up hiring significantly. Productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, increased at a 1.9 percent annual rate, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Many economists would read a drop in productivity as a sign that companies are closer to maxing out production with existing staff and would have to boost hiring. But the third-quarter reading matched the revised reading for the prior three-month period. ... Full Story | Top |
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