By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK | Tue Nov 6, 2012 11:15am EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The number of smokers lighting up on hospital grounds has fallen about seven percentage points since 1995, according to a new study. "It is encouraging that there has been improvement, but it's discouraging that the nicotine replacement therapy has not been abl...

HONG KONG | Tue Nov 6, 2012 11:12am EST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Nearly two-thirds of women of reproductive age in China are exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke at home and over half are exposed in the workplace, which raises the risk of complications in pregnancy, including stillbirths and infant death. The findings, released by the World Health Organisat...

By Amy Norton NEW YORK | Tue Nov 6, 2012 11:11am EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. states with laws requiring kids to ride in car booster seats have had fewer child deaths in accidents, especially among 6- and 7-year-olds, researchers reported Monday. Nearly all U.S. states require that children who have outgrown traditional car seats use a ca...

By Patricia Zengerle BELMONT, Massachusetts | Tue Nov 6, 2012 10:53am EST BELMONT, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney cast his vote in a Boston suburb on Tuesday morning, saying he felt good about his chances of winning the presidency. After voting, Romney kissed his wife, Ann, goodbye and headed out for last...

By Jennifer Saba Tue Nov 6, 2012 10:35am EST (Reuters) - AOL Inc (AOL.N) reported higher-than-expected revenue and profit on the strongest advertising growth the company has seen in seven years. AOL said on Tuesday that third-quarter revenue was flat at $531.7 million, ahead of analysts' average estimate of $521.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B...

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS | Tue Nov 6, 2012 10:32am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union regulators are to accept an offer by Apple and four publishers to end an antitrust probe into their e-book prices, two sources said, handing Amazon victory in a bid to sell online books cheaper than its rivals, sources said. The case underscores the battle ...

By Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL | Tue Nov 6, 2012 10:04am EST SEOUL (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) said it would not build its next-generation Chevrolet Cruze small car in South Korea, raising the possibility that it might shift the assembly to Europe to help boost efficiency at its money-losing unit there. A GM Korea spokesman confirmed statements on...

LONDON | Tue Nov 6, 2012 9:57am EST LONDON (Reuters) - "GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" are the first words yelled by Bella, the central character in "My Big Shouting Day", winner of the 2012 Roald Dahl Funny prize in the category aged six and under. The victory was announced at an award ceremony in London by British literary charity Booktrust on Tuesday.Bella's ma...

By Hamid Shalizi and Michael Georgy KABUL | Tue Nov 6, 2012 9:14am EST KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan welcomes the United Nations' decision to impose sanctions on the Haqqani network and would not negotiate for peace with the group blamed for several high-profile attacks in the country, the preside...

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON | Tue Nov 6, 2012 9:02am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After a long and bitter White House campaign, Americans began casting their votes on Tuesday with polls showing President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney neck-and-neck in an election that will be decided in a handful of states. Polling stations op...

By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES | Tue Nov 6, 2012 9:00am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. television networks face a new challenge in covering this year's excruciatingly close presidential election: prevent closely guarded exit poll results from leaking onto Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. The major TV news networks agreed to shi...

By Karolina Tagaris and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS | Tue Nov 6, 2012 8:59am EST ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Greeks began a crippling 48-hour strike on Tuesday to protest against a new round of wage and pension cuts that parliament is expected to approve by a narrow margin. The parliamentary vote on Wednesday is the biggest test yet...

CARACAS | Tue Nov 6, 2012 8:59am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, one of the U.S. government's leading critics, said there was little hope for change in American foreign policy regardless of the winner of Tuesday's vote for the White House. The recently re-elected Chavez wants Barack Obama to beat Republican challenger Mitt Romney...

By Chris Borowski WARSAW | Tue Nov 6, 2012 8:57am EST WARSAW (Reuters) - One of Poland's best-selling newspapers fired its most senior editors on Tuesday over a "flawed" article that triggered a political row when it said traces of explosives had been found in the wreckage of a presidential jet that crashed in 2010. Polish prosecutors denied a re...

BEIRUT | Tue Nov 6, 2012 8:43am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - The international envoy for Syria fears the country could turn into a new Somalia unless its crisis is resolved, warning of a scenario in which warlords and militia fill a void left by a collapsed state. In an interview with the London-based al-Hayat newspaper, veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahi...

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK | Tue Nov 6, 2012 8:37am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Traders and investors seem to agree on one thing about Tuesday's U.S. presidential election: The markets want a clear winner by Wednesday morning. The most recent Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll shows a tight national race, with Democratic President Barack Obama up two point...

By Ece Toksabay ISTANBUL | Tue Nov 6, 2012 8:19am EST ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters chanting "Murderer Israel!" gathered outside an Istanbul court on Tuesday at the start of a trial of a group of former Israeli military commanders charged over the 2010 killing of nine Turks aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship. The trial in absentia of four...

PRAGUE | Tue Nov 6, 2012 7:54am EST PRAGUE (Reuters) - World number six Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek will spearhead the Czech team when they take on Davis Cup holders Spain in this month's final in Prague. Spain will be without Rafa Nadal, who led his country to a 5-0 rout over the Czech Republic in the 2009 final when the two sides last met but has ...

KUWAIT | Tue Nov 6, 2012 7:53am EST KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait's ruler said on Tuesday there would be no leniency towards threats to "the security of the homeland", two days after police broke up an unauthorized protest against new voting rules. OPEC member Kuwait allows more dissent than some of its fellow Gulf states but in recent weeks protests have sp...

BAGHDAD | Tue Nov 6, 2012 6:53am EST BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-filled car into soldiers outside an army base near Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 31 people and injuring tens more in one of the worst attacks this year on the country's military. Bombings and attacks have eased sharply since the height of Iraq's sectarian strife ...

By Thomas Grove MOSCOW | Tue Nov 6, 2012 6:51am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly dismissed his defense minister on Tuesday after a multi-million dollar corruption scandal and appointed a longtime ally to oversee military reforms. Putin announced on television that he had fired Anatoly Serdyukov, who had become a li...

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Michael Martina BEIJING | Tue Nov 6, 2012 6:45am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's outgoing leader and his likely successor are pushing the ruling Communist Party to adopt a more democratic process this month for choosing a new leadership, sources said, in an attempt to boost its flagging legitimacy in the eyes of the publi...

Tue Nov 6, 2012 6:10am EST (Reuters) - Olympic champions Jessica Ennis of Britain, Allyson Felix of the United States and Valerie Adams of New Zealand have been named on the shortlist for the female athlete of the year award, the IAAF said in a statement on Tuesday. Heptathlon champion Ennis, shotput champion Adams and 200 meters champion Felix received the most ...

By Patrick Johnston SINGAPORE | Tue Nov 6, 2012 6:01am EST SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Years of addiction, blow-ups and wrecked marriages earned John Daly the moniker 'Wild Thing' but at 46 the American says he has finally found the maturity to match his unquestionable talent. With his crowd-pulling 'grip it and rip it' style and unconventional swing t...

TOKYO | Tue Nov 6, 2012 4:35am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's new swimming sensation Akihiro Yamaguchi, who appears to have lost his way of late, is better than multiple Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima was at 18, his national coach said. Yamaguchi, who failed to qualify for this year's London Olympics, shattered the men's 200-metres breaststroke record i...

Tue Nov 6, 2012 1:34am EST (Reuters) - The New Orleans Saints pounded Michael Vick in a 28-13 victory over Philadelphia on Monday likely to trigger further questions about the future of the Eagles quarterback and his coach. There was media speculation before the game that a struggling Vick could be benched while head coach Andy Reid was fighting for his job.Sensi...

Eighty-six days after Paul Ryan was introduced as Mitt Romney's running mate aboard the U.S.S. Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia, the Republican vice presidential candidate returned to his home state of Wisconsin late Monday night, putting an end to a marathon stretch of campaigning with one final rally.     "We were in Nevada. We were in Iowa. We were in Ohio. We were in Colorado,...

Tue Nov 6, 2012 1:06am EST (Reuters) - The four-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs stormed to a franchise-best 4-0 start to the season after routing the Indiana Pacers 101-79 on Monday. Reserve Gary Neal led five Spurs in double figures with 17 points, while Tim Duncan got a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds to lift the team to the win.Despite winning...

By Jeff Mason DES MOINES, Iowa | Tue Nov 6, 2012 12:36am EST DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - An emotional President Barack Obama ended his final campaign on Monday in Iowa, the place that launched his first White House bid and that could hold the key to his political future. After two days of nearly round-the-clock travel to the battleground states ...

By Nick Edwards BEIJING | Mon Nov 5, 2012 11:00pm EST BEIJING (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Mitt Romney would lack the legal power to label China a currency manipulator on his first day in office should he win Tuesday's election, offering him a way out of what experts say is the weakest claim on the issue for years. The authority to make the...

By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 9:18pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If President Barack Obama wins re-election, he's expected to move quickly, perhaps within a day, to renew his bid for a bipartisan deal to avert a "fiscal cliff" that threatens to push the United States into recession, top Senate Democratic aides said on Monday. A vi...

By Patricia Zengerle and Jeff Mason COLUMBUS, Ohio | Mon Nov 5, 2012 8:24pm EST COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney engaged in frantic get-out-the-vote efforts and made final pleas to voters in a sprint through battleground states that will determine who wins their agonizingly close White House ...

By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES | Mon Nov 5, 2012 8:12pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Star Wars" was the force behind Walt Disney's $4 billion purchase of producer George Lucas's Lucasfilm entertainment holdings. Not so far, far away is Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, his award-winning special effects shop that will likely save Disney millions of...

By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian NEW YORK | Mon Nov 5, 2012 8:10pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced modestly on Monday in light trading in one of the year's quietest sessions on the day before the presidential election. Whatever the outcome of the race between incumbent President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the electio...

By Christine Stebbins MILWAUKEE | Mon Nov 5, 2012 8:00pm EST MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - The Congress could delay passage of a new five-year farm bill until spring planting given the full plate of legislation needed after the election to avoid a fiscal cliff with its mandatory U.S. budget cuts, a top farm policy expert said on Monday. "My prediction is...

BEIJING | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:57pm EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party will this month unveil its new top leadership team, expected to again be an all-male cast of politicians whose instincts are to move cautiously on reform. Sources close to the leadership say 10 main candidates are vying for seven seats on the party's next Politburo St...

By Deena Beasley and Bill Berkrot Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:38pm EST (Reuters) - Stem cells culled from the bone marrow of healthy donors work as well or even better as cells harvested from patients themselves as a treatment for damaged hearts and are more convenient to use, according to new research. The 13-month trial was the first to compare the safety and eff...

By Malathi Nayak SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:33pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - "Master Chief" springs back into action on Tuesday with the release of Microsoft Corp's Halo 4, the latest installment of the Xbox blockbuster that will compete with Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty franchise for holiday-season bragging rights. Microsoft hopes...

By Verna Gates BIRMINGHAM, Alabama | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:25pm EST BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Alabama may not be a battleground state but its Republicans will be armed for victory on Tuesday night. The party, which dominates local politics and is a champion of gun rights, will hold its main election night celebration at a firing range and gun s...

LOS ANGELES | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:15pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Kristen Bell is expecting her first child with actor Dax Shepard, her spokeswoman said on Monday. "Veronica Mars" actress Bell, 32, is expecting the child in late spring with her fiancé, "Parenthood" actor Shepard, 37, the actress' representative Marcel Pariseau told Reuters.The cou...