Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:58pm EST (Reuters) - The Pittsburgh Steelers and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders have been fined a total of $50,000 for a faked injury by Sanders in the October 21 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the National Football League (NFL) said on Friday. Sanders was fined $15,000 and the Steelers $35,000, the league said.The league had told clubs in...

By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian NEW YORK | Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:52pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced on Friday but failed to make up for what turned out to be the worst week for markets since June, as investors turned their attention from the presidential election to the coming negotiations over the "fiscal cliff." The market gave up some early...

Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:40pm EST (Reuters) - The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to review a legal challenge to the Voting Rights Act, a landmark law adopted in 1965 to protect African-American voters who had faced decades of discrimination at the polls. The high court accepted an appeal brought by Shelby County, Alabama, challenging a core provision of the act that req...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:39pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration gave states extra time to work on setting up new health insurance exchanges on Friday, three days after President Barack Obama's re-election ensured the survival of his healthcare reform law. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said states must ...

By David K. Randall NEW YORK | Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:21pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nate Silver is an oxymoron come to life: the famous statistician. After successfully calling the Electoral College results in all 50 states ahead of the U.S. presidential election, Silver, the man behind the popular FiveThirtyEight blog, has quickly become a symbol of ...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:13pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a long-delayed bill to ensure U.S. companies receive all the market-opening benefits of Russia's recent accession to the World Trade Organization, congressional aides said on Friday. The House Rules Committee has scheduled a m...

By Alexandra Hudson BERLIN | Fri Nov 9, 2012 3:26pm EST BERLIN (Reuters) - German lawmakers expressed alarm on Friday at the state of human rights in Russia since Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin in May and urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to press Moscow on its treatment of critics when she visits next week. A parliamentary motion, written b...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 9, 2012 3:17pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc said several of its online services have been blocked in China. Traffic to Google's services in China dropped sharply beginning Friday evening there, according to an online "Transparency Report" website operated by Google, which provides updates ab...

By Martyn Herman LONDON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 2:15pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - World number one Novak Djokovic marched into the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals with an unblemished record after completing his round-robin matches with a 6-2 7-6 win over Czech Tomas Berdych on Friday. The Serb, winner of the year-end showpiece in 2008, followed hi...

Fri Nov 9, 2012 2:13pm EST (Reuters) - Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown has been fired after a 1-4 start to the season, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday. The disappointing start by the Lakers followed an off-season in which the National Basketball Association team added center Dwight Howard and point guard Steve Nash to their lineup.(Reporting by Larry...

By Brian Homewood HOOFDDORP, Netherlands | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:50pm EST HOOFDDORP, Netherlands (Reuters) - Separate unions for black players would not make sense and would make it more difficult to stand up for the rights of footballers, the world players' union FIFPro said on Friday. Secretary General Theo van Seggelen said that FIFPro, which repr...

By David Beasley ATLANTA | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:46pm EST ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia congressman who attacked the theory of evolution found himself with an unlikely opponent in Tuesday's U.S. election, when 4,000 voters in one county cast write-in ballots for the 19th century father of evolution, British naturalist Charles Darwin. In a September 2...

DUBAI | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:44pm EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran repelled an unidentified aircraft violating its airspace, it said on Friday, after Washington reported a U.S. surveillance drone was shot at by Iranian warplanes last week. Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi appeared to be referring to the U.S. drone which the Pentagon said had not en...

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK | Fri Nov 9, 2012 2:28pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced on Friday, but were well off session highs after comments by President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner left investors little hope that a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" was on the horizon. Both the S&P 500 and the Na...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:33pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John Boehner said on Friday the country's immigration system was broken, although he did not offer solutions and said President Barack Obama had to take the lead. Immigration reform is becoming a priority for Republicans after Obama, a Democrat, won a second term in office this week with stro...

Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:32pm EST (Reuters) - Payment transfer company MoneyGram International Inc agreed to forfeit $100 million and admitted it aided in wire fraud and failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, according to court documents filed on Friday. Between 2003 and 2009, the U.S. Justice Department said, the company processed thousands of t...

LONDON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:26pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, is at the centre of an investigation by British tax authorities into leaked data that a newspaper said showed it provided accounts in the tax haven of Jersey for alleged criminals. The authorities confirmed they were looking into details of clients in the Channel island a...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:22pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is inviting congressional leaders to the White House next week for "fiscal cliff" talks, an administration official said on Friday. Obama will announce that the invitation was extended to Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi, Democ...

By Simon Evans Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:20pm EST (Reuters) - If form through the first half of the National Football League (NFL) season is a guide, Sunday's clash between the Houston Texans and the Chicago Bears could be a potential Super Bowl preview. The Texans lead the AFC with a 7-1 record and the Bears have an identical record, bettered in the NFC only by ...

By Soyoung Kim and Olivia Oran and Dhanya Skariachan NEW YORK | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:03pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - An eventual bid for Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) by founder Richard Schulze could come in under his initially proposed $8 billion range and will likely not occur before December, sources familiar with the matter said, in a new twist to the m...

By Brian Homewood HOOFDDORP, Netherlands | Fri Nov 9, 2012 12:58pm EST HOOFDDORP, Netherlands (Reuters) - The players' union may ask FIFA to reconsider its decision to stage 2014 World Cup matches in early afternoon in tropical venues in Brazil. "It's an issue for us and a serious one," FIFPro secretary general Theo van Seggelen told Reuters in a...

By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK | Fri Nov 9, 2012 12:45pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - An increasingly upbeat view of the economy and jobs market drove U.S. consumer sentiment to a more than five-year high in early November, while a jump in wholesale inventories suggested the economy grew more than initially estimated last quarter. It was the fourth month t...

COLOMBO | Fri Nov 9, 2012 12:04pm EST COLOMBO (Reuters) - Ten people were killed in a gunfight in a Sri Lankan's biggest jail on Friday that started when police conducting a routine search came under fire from inmates, officials and police said. The clashes were still going on early on Saturday and witnesses said they saw police shooting towards the pris...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 12:02pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Friday called on President Barack Obama to lead the efforts to avert the $600 billion "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts looming at year's end, but stood by his opposition to any tax rate increases on the wealthy. Boehner spoke...

TOULOUSE, France | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:49am EST TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - A military aircraft crashed in southeastern France on Friday, the local fire brigade said. It was not immediately clear how many people were on board or whether there were survivors from the crash in an uninhabited part of the Lozere region near the city of Avignon.French media r...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:41am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A video of President Barack Obama released by his campaign on Thursday shows him wiping away tears the day after his re-election as he thanks young members of his campaign staff and volunteers for their hard work. "I am absolutely confident that all of you are going to do just amazing things...

By Patrick Johnston SINGAPORE | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:29am EST SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Chris John made a 17th defense of his WBA super world featherweight title when he outpointed Thailand's Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo in a slugfest at Marina Bay Sands on Friday. John was awarded the bout 117-111, 119-109, 119-109 by the three ringside judges in an enterta...

By Phil Wahba NEW YORK | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:25am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) on Friday reported its worst drop yet in same-store sales since Chief Executive Ron Johnson began his radical transformation of the department store chain, overshadowing signs of progress at the new boutiques that are the centerpiece of the projec...

JOHANNESBURG | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:21am EST JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Anglo American Platinum (AMSJ.J) said on Friday it had offered to start wage talks ahead of the expiry of current agreements next year in a bid to get more than 30,000 wildcat strikers back on the job at several of its mines in South Africa. "If the offer is accepted, the understanding i...

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:21am EST VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran will return to talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency next month, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday, the latest push to seek a peaceful end to a dispute that has raised fears of a new Middle East war. The IAEA announcement came days after U.S. President...

PRETORIA | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:14am EST PRETORIA (Reuters) - Landlocked Uganda is worried about the chances of violence in elections next year in neighboring Kenya and is taking steps to ensure its trade is not disrupted as it was during polls unrest in 2007/08, its junior foreign minister said on Friday. "We have already set up a task force, a ministeria...

By Jonathon Burch and Rania El Gamal ANKARA/DOHA | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:13am EST ANKARA/DOHA (Reuters) - Thousands of Syrians fled their country on Friday in one of the biggest refugee exoduses of the 20 month war after rebels seized a border town. Syria's fractious opposition was meeting in Qatar, under increasing pressure from the United States a...

By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:06am EST BERLIN (Reuters) - German chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck has fallen far behind Angela Merkel in his campaign for 2013 elections, losing poll support with his abrasive style and a row over his lucrative speaking engagements. Steinbrueck spent much of his first month as candidate for th...

Fri Nov 9, 2012 10:47am EST (Reuters) - Chrysler Group LLC is recalling 919,545 Jeep sport utility vehicles from the 2002 to 2004 model years to fix a part that could cause the airbags to inadvertently deploy. Chrysler is recalling 919,545 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Liberty SUVs from model years 2002 through 2004 because a part in airbag control modules may fail, ac...

By Margarita Antidze TBILISI | Fri Nov 9, 2012 10:45am EST TBILISI (Reuters) - A Georgian court decided on Friday to keep a former minister in custody, but freed two army commanders on bail after they were charged with abuse of power. The case has raised concerns that the new government led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili is waging a political...

MOSCOW | Fri Nov 9, 2012 10:29am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - An Uzbek court has overturned a ruling confiscating the local assets of Russian mobile phone operator MTS (MBT.N), offering hope it could yet restart operations valued at $1 billion in central Asia's most populous country. In a ruling handed down on Thursday, the court also ordered MTS to pay around...

Fri Nov 9, 2012 10:26am EST (Reuters) - Property insurer Chubb Corp, a major player in the U.S. Northeast, has suspended share buybacks because it is unsure how large its losses will be from Superstorm Sandy. Chubb, in a quarterly filing late Thursday, said the temporary halt was necessary to comply with securities laws because it cannot yet estimate Sandy's impa...

By Gabriel Stargardter MEXICO CITY | Fri Nov 9, 2012 9:57am EST MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Friday formally charged 14 federal police officers with attempted murder for an August attack on two U.S. agents, identified by sources as CIA agents, that embarrassed the Mexican government with its powerful northern neighbor. Mexican security sourc...

By Brian Winter SAO PAULO | Fri Nov 9, 2012 9:55am EST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will face an unprecedented revolt by Latin American countries against the U.S.-led drug war during his second term and he also may struggle to pass new trade deals as the region once known as "America's backyard" flexes its muscles like never befor...

LONDON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 9:43am EST LONDON (Reuters) - British Cycling's head coach Shane Sutton is expected to make a full recovery from injuries sustained when he was knocked off his bike, officials said on Friday. Sutton was taken to hospital after suffering bruising and bleeding on the brain in the accident on Thursday, a day after British Tour de Fr...