By Kieran Mulvaney LOS ANGELES | Sun Dec 16, 2012 4:29am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britain's Amir Khan returned to winning ways after two tough defeats with a comprehensive 10th round stoppage of previously unbeaten American Carlos Molina in a light-welterweight contest on Saturday. Khan (27-3, 19 KOs) dominated every round and after telling Mo...

By James B. Kelleher CHICAGO | Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:42am EST CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic ward bosses from Chicago and its suburbs failed on Saturday to endorse a candidate to succeed former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., creating an open primary in February for the vacant Illinois congressional seat. None of the more than one dozen cand...

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON | Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:29am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner has offered to raise tax rates on high earners to break the "fiscal cliff" deadlock in exchange for major cuts in entitlement programs, but President Barack Obama is not ready to accept, a source said late Saturday....

Sat Dec 15, 2012 11:20pm EST (Reuters) - The San Antonio Spurs broke out of a two-game losing streak in style, demolishing the Boston Celtics 103-88 on Saturday to claw closer to Oklahoma City's Western Conference lead. The Spurs (19-6) surged ahead in the final quarter courtesy of Tony Parker's 22 points and Gary Neal's 20, to close in on the Thunder's Western C...

By Thomas Ferraro and Steve Holland WASHINGTON | Sat Dec 15, 2012 11:02pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is not ready to accept a new offer from the Republican leader of the U.S. the House of Representatives to raise taxes on top earners in exchange for major cuts in entitlement programs, a source said late Saturday. The shape ...

Sat Dec 15, 2012 10:50pm EST (Reuters) - Rookie Washington Redskins' quarterback Robert Griffin III will not start Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns after failing to overcome a knee sprain. "The decision was not my own..." Griffin tweeted on Saturday after failing a medical check. "But I will be there for my team!!! In every way I possibly can."The Redsk...

By Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON | Sat Dec 15, 2012 10:47pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to nominate Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, sources familiar with the process said on Saturday. Kerry, the Democratic nominee for pre...

Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:14pm EST (Reuters) - The New York Giants, Jets and New England Patriots will honor those killed in the mass shooting at a Connecticut school by wearing special helmet decals at games, the National Football League (NFL) website said on Saturday. The NFL asked all home teams to observe a moment of silence prior to opening kickoffs on Sunday and M...

By Deisy Buitrago CARACAS | Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:53pm EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has recovered "full intellectual capacity" after a six-hour cancer operation in Cuba this week, an official said on Saturday, but offered few details on the socialist firebrand's physical condition. Chavez's health weakened sharply after h...

By Owolabi Tife YENAGOA, Nigeria | Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:49pm EST YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - The governor of Nigeria's volatile Kaduna state and a former national security adviser were among six killed when a helicopter crashed in the southerly oil-producing Bayelsa state on Saturday, officials said. The helicopter wobbled in the sky before nose-d...

Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:10pm EST (Reuters) - Locked out National Hockey League (NHL) players will begin voting on Sunday on whether to give the players association's executive board authority to file a "disclaimer of interest" and dissolve their union. Voting will be done electronically and continue through Thursday, a source familiar with the proceedings told Reuters...

By Linda Sieg TOKYO | Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:34pm EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan voted on Sunday in an election expected to return the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to power after a three-year hiatus, giving ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a chance to push his hawkish security agenda and radical economic recipe. Polls opened at 0700 a.m. (220...

By Tamim Elyan and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO | Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:19pm EST CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamists attacked the offices of an Egyptian opposition party newspaper on Saturday, security sources said, as people voted on a new constitution intended to pull the country out of a growing political crisis. The newspaper of the Wafd party in Cairo was targe...

By Dominic Evans BEIRUT | Sat Dec 15, 2012 4:31pm EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran's army chief of staff warned NATO on Saturday that stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria was setting the stage for world war. General Hassan Firouzabadi, whose country has been a staunch supporter of President Bashar al-Assad throughout...

By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan | Sat Dec 15, 2012 3:28pm EST PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Taliban suicide squad staged an audacious car bomb, rocket and gun attack on the airport in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday and Pakistani security officials said at least nine people, including five attackers, were killed. The night rai...

LONDON | Sat Dec 15, 2012 2:14pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - International leaders on Saturday expressed horror at the Connecticut elementary school massacre, with Iran - at odds with the United States - calling the incident tragic and Pope Benedict conveying "heartfelt grief." Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, died in Friday's shooting spree in the ...

By Gabriela Baczynska and Alissa de Carbonnel MOSCOW | Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:19pm EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian riot police detained four opposition leaders and broke up a crowd of about 2,000 people who went ahead with a banned rally on Saturday to demand an end to Vladimir Putin's 13-year rule. The opposition chose a symbolic location, in front ...

JERUSALEM | Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:13pm EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Avigdor Lieberman confirmed on Saturday that he would run in next month's Israeli election, despite a corruption charge that prompted him to resign from the post of foreign minister. Authorities have said Lieberman will be charged over alleged irregularities in the promotion of an Israeli dip...

By Agnieszka Flak JOHANNESBURG | Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:17am EST JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela, the 94-year-old former South African president and Nobel Peace laureate hospitalized with a lung infection, has successfully undergone a procedure to have gallstones removed, the government said on Saturday. "The former president underwent a proc...

Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:52am EST (Reuters) - Asia stormed back into contention at the Royal Trophy on Saturday by taking three points from the four fourball matches against Europe to close the deficit to just one ahead of the final day singles. Holders Europe have a slender 4 1/2-3 1/2 lead ahead of Sunday's eight singles matches at the Empire Country Club in Brunei w...

By James B. Kelleher CHICAGO | Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:43am EST CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic ward bosses from Chicago neighborhoods and suburban townships are expected to endorse a candidate on Saturday who will have a leg up in a potentially crowded field to replace former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. Jackson resigned in November after 17 ...

Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:41am EST (Reuters) - Sweden's Daniel Chopra took a one-stroke lead into the final day of the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia after the tournament was reduced to 54 holes on Saturday due to several weather disruptions. Chopra carded a six-under-par 66 to take the second round lead for a total of 10-under, ...

JOHANNESBURG | Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:15am EST JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who has been in hospital for a week with a lung infection, has successfully undergone a procedure to have gall stones removed, the government said on Saturday. "The former president underwent a procedure via endoscopy to have the gall stones...

MOSCOW | Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:06am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian cycling team Katusha have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after cycling's world governing body (UCI) rejected their application to compete in the World Tour. "The professional cycling team Katusha have filed an appeal to the Lausanne-based court, contesting the UCI's dec...

By Gabriela Baczynska and Maria Tsvetkova MOSCOW | Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:01am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian riot police detained four opposition leaders on Saturday to stop them taking part in a banned rally against President Vladimir Putin in front of the former KGB security police's headquarters in Moscow. The rally was intended to celebrate the ...

By Dominic Evans BEIRUT | Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:00am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed insurgents east of Damascus on Saturday and government forces pounded a town to the southwest, activists said, in a month-long and so far fruitless campaign to dislodge rebels around the capital. Jets bombarded the Beit Sahm district on the road leadi...

WARSAW | Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:41am EST WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland could adopt the euro as soon as 2016, the president's adviser said on Saturday, encouraging the government to take bolder action to prepare for possibility of joining the shared currency. The largest member of the EU's emerging east has so far treated euro entry as a distant prospect. But top...

ZURICH | Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:36am EST ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS (UBSN.VX) faces a fine of 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.63 billion) to settle interest rate rigging charges, a Swiss newspaper reported on Saturday. Citing unnamed sources, Tages-Anzeiger daily said the bank would admit 36 traders around the globe manipulated yen Libor between 2005 and 2010. A UB...

By Antoni Slodkowski and Linda Sieg TOKYO | Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:18am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese candidates made final appeals on Saturday ahead of an election expected to restore the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to power and give hawkish former premier Shinzo Abe a second shot at running the world's third biggest economy. An LDP...

BERLIN | Sat Dec 15, 2012 6:43am EST BERLIN (Reuters) - Economic growth is slowing to a worrying degree across the euro zone and not only in the periphery, European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said in an interview to be published on Sunday in Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "There are a number of indications that the economy...

By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON | Sat Dec 15, 2012 6:17am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday to join in solidarity as they mourn the victims of a shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school, saying the hearts of parents across the country were "heavy with hurt" for the lives lost. In his weekly rad...

By Tamim Elyan and Marwa Awad CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA | Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:34am EST CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Egyptians queued to vote on Saturday on a constitution promoted by its Islamist backers as the way out of a prolonged political crisis and rejected by opponents as a recipe for further divisions in the Arab world's biggest nation. Soldiers jo...

Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:34am EST (Reuters) - The Denver Nuggets took full advantage of a Memphis Grizzlies team lacking in confidence by grinding out a 99-94 home win to get back to .500 for the season on Friday. The Nuggets, who have spent an NBA-high 17 of 24 games on the road this season, improved to 12-12 on their return to Denver, while condemning the Grizzlies t...

By Alastair Himmer TOKYO | Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:13am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - The abandonment of last Wednesday's Copa Sudamericana final following shocking accusations police had pulled guns on players should serve as a warning for Brazil's World Cup organizers, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Saturday. Argentina's Tigre refused to emerge for the...

By Angela Moon NEW YORK | Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:10am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - The last two weeks of December are traditionally quiet for stocks, but traders accustomed to a bit of time off are staying close to their mobile devices, thanks to the "fiscal cliff." Last-minute negotiations in Washington on the so-called fiscal cliff - nearly $600 billio...

NEW DELHI | Sat Dec 15, 2012 3:48am EST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will speed up the sale of stakes in state companies to revive the stock market and will push ahead with reforms aimed at spurring an investment recovery in the flagging economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday. Selling equity in large public industries is a central plank o...

By Nick Brown Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:09am EST (Reuters) - Edison Mission Energy, a power company that operates in more than a dozen U.S. states, is preparing a possible bankruptcy filing as it tries to restructure about $5 billion in debt, according to a source close to the matter. Edison Mission, the unregulated power generation business of Edison Internati...

By Pete Sweeney SHANGHAI | Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:44pm EST SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's foreign exchange regulator has removed the $1 billion limit for foreign sovereign wealth funds, central banks and monetary authorities buying Chinese assets through the Qualified Institutional Investor Programme (QFII). The new regulations, published on the websi...

By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES | Fri Dec 14, 2012 8:46pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - There is a crazy family living at the White House, but it's not the Obamas. It's the Gilchrists, whose never-ending follies pulse and push upcoming TV comedy romp "1600 Penn." Starring Bill Pullman as U.S. President Dale Gilchrist and Jenna Elfman as his first lady, ...

SEATTLE | Fri Dec 14, 2012 8:40pm EST SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp and Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit have requested a federal judge in Seattle to keep secret from the public various details from their recent trial concerning the value of technology patents and the two companies' attempts at a settlement. Microsoft and Motorola, acquired by Go...