By Renee Maltezou ATHENS | Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:03pm EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - The Greek prime minister's appeal for a united front to push through more austerity fell on deaf ears on Tuesday, with one ally promising to vote against reforms and another scolding him for prematurely saying talks had ended. A flurry of contradictory statements from the t...

Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:02pm EDT (Reuters) - Three more patients have died after contracting fungal meningitis from potentially tainted steroid injections supplied by a Massachusetts company, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from the outbreak to 28 nationwide. Two of the new deaths were in Michigan, which now...

By Andrew Quinn SARAJEVO | Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:01pm EDT SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Europe and the United States teamed up on Tuesday to press Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo to overcome the legacy of Yugoslavia's bloody collapse as a condition of closer integration with the West. "If you do not make progress you will be left behind," U.S. Secretary of State H...

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:56pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian Sarah Silverman has built her career largely on raunchy jokes about sex and other decidedly adult topics. So it may come as a surprise that a woman famous for an R-rated song about sleeping with actor Matt Damon and for pro-Obama viral videos is now voicing...

By Stephanie Pett and Paul Casciato LONDON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:54pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Photography's artistic roots are laid bare in a new show which brings historical paintings, early photographs and contemporary pictures together in a new show at Britain's National Gallery. "Seduced by Art: Photography Past & Present" explores how phot...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:51pm EDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed rebel targets with renewed intensity on Tuesday after the end of a widely ignored four-day truce between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and insurgents. State television said "terrorists" had assassinated an air force general, Abdullah Mahmoud ...

LONDON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:42pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Iran has drawn back from its ambitions to build a nuclear weapon, Israel's defense minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday, while warning that his country may still have to decide next year whether to launch a military strike against it. Tehran denies its nuclear work has any military dimensions bu...

LONDON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:40pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Taiwanese computer maker Acer is putting off the launch of tablets using Microsoft's new Windows RT operating system to give itself time to see how Microsoft's own Surface tablet fares. The world's No. 4 PC vendor by shipments initially planned to roll out Windows RT tablets based on ARM chips early...

By Amy Norton NEW YORK | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:33pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Kids who experiment with menthol cigarettes are more likely to become habitual smokers than their peers who start out with the regular variety, new research findings suggest. In a study of tens of thousands of U.S. students, researchers found that kids who were dabbl...

By Gennady Fyodorov MOSCOW | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:31pm EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Maria Sharapova will focus on trying to win Wimbledon next year rather than attempting to regain the world number one ranking. "Wimbledon will be my priority next season," Sharapova, who finished the year as world number two behind Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, t...

By Ju-min Park DANDONG, China | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:13pm EDT DANDONG, China (Reuters) - Top soccer-boot maker Adidas probably shouldn't be worrying just yet but a rare venture that marries South Korean money with North Korean labour in the Chinese city of Dandong aims to make its mark on the world soccer scene. At a temporary factory in a village ...

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:51pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential race remains a dead heat one week before Election Day but most Americans think President Barack Obama will defeat Republican Mitt Romney, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released on Tuesday. Obama leads Romney among likely voter...

MOSCOW | Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:46pm EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's most prominent opposition activist, Alexei Navalny, was fined $1,000 by a Moscow court on Tuesday for his role in a weekend protest under a new law that President Vladimir Putin's opponents say is aimed at smothering dissent. The anti-graft blogger was among three of Putin's foes briefly de...

By Sebastian Moffett BRUSSELS | Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:43pm EDT BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is considering sending about 200 troops to train Mali's army to retake the Islamist-held north, but is not willing to deploy them in battle, EU officials said on Tuesday. Fears are growing in Europe that the African country could turn into a platfo...

By Amy Norton NEW YORK | Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:43pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new U.S. government study suggests that during a serious flu epidemic, closing schools can keep people - especially kids - out of the ER. Now, researchers say, the big questions include, When is it best to close schools? And what are the downsides?The study, report...

SEATTLE | Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:01pm EDT SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday the company has sold 4 million upgrades to Windows 8, signaling a strong start for its new operating system which launched on Friday. Ballmer, speaking at a meeting for software developers at Microsoft's headquarters near Seattle, said h...

LONDON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:23pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - British chip designer ARM on Tuesday launched its first 64-bit processors to power the next generation of smartphones and tablets and offer low-energy solutions for servers. The Cambridge-based company, whose technology is in Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3, said its latest blueprints woul...

By Michael Roddy LONDON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:05pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - London dance house Sadler's Wells will mark the centenary of the riotous premiere of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" with a commission that uses neither the original music or scandalous choreography, opting instead for a piece inspired by it. Olympics op...

LONDON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:41am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is engaged to be married to a 34-year-old theatre producer named Sally Humphreys, his spokesperson said on Tuesday. The twice-married, 65-year-old musician and artist separated from his second wife Jo Wood in 2008 and had a public disagreement with her over the ...

By Sherilee Lakmidas RUSTENBURG, South Africa | Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:09am EDT RUSTENBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African police fired rubber bullets and teargas on Tuesday at striking Amplats miners who were protesting against a union-brokered deal to end a six-week wildcat walkout at the top platinum producer. As they moved into a shanty t...

ATHENS | Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:04am EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras appealed to his coalition partners on Tuesday to approve in parliament a new wave of austerity measures demanded by international lenders. The government had completed negotiations on the 2013 budget and the austerity ...

By Ghaith Shennib and Marie-Louise Gumuchian TRIPOLI | Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:05am EDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's new prime minister on Tuesday presented a coalition cabinet drawn from liberal and Islamist parties to the national congress, which had rejected his predecessor's line-up. Ali Zeidan has said his transitional government, if approved by c...

By Robert Muller PRAGUE | Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:02am EDT PRAGUE (Reuters) - The ruling Czech Civic Democrats will try to delay a confidence vote tied to an unpopular law to raise taxes, after failing on Tuesday to quell a rebellion by six of its lawmakers that threatens to bring down the cabinet. The government has insisted it use tax hikes and spen...

By Renee Maltezou ATHENS | Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:56am EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek state television journalists accused the government of censorship and began a series of work stoppages on Tuesday after two well-known presenters were suspended for criticizing a government minister. Their removal came on the same day an editor went on trial for print...

TOKYO | Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:30am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and the United States will hold a biennial joint military exercise in Japan in November in a move likely to further anger China amid heightened tensions between the two Asian giants over disputed islets in the East China Sea. About 37,400 military personnel from Japan will join some 10,000 U.S. ...

By Jon Herskovitz JOHANNESBURG | Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:30am EDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A storm of violent wildcat strikes in South Africa's mines has eased, leaving President Jacob Zuma battered but defiant, and buoying his chances of heading off rivals to win a party leadership election in December. With most strikers in gold and platinum mines r...

AMMAN | Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:40am EDT AMMAN (Reuters) - A Syrian airforce raid on a rebel-held town, strategically situated on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, killed at least six civilians on Tuesday, including children, opposition campaigners in the area said. Video footage showed men pulling out the body of a toddler from a flattened building in a northern ...

Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:26am EDT (Reuters) - Asian golfers have made a real impact on the world game in recent years but some of the region's top players are trembling about this week's WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shenzen, China. Some, including the Asian Tour's Order of Merit leader, are complaining that the 7,301-yard Olazabal course at Mission Hills is too long for...

By Terhi Kinnunen HELSINKI | Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:02am EDT HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland and Sweden plan to join some NATO air surveillance operations over Iceland, their prime ministers said on Tuesday, in a sign the neutral Nordic states are ready for more cooperation with the Western alliance. Iceland, a NATO member without its own air force, had...

By Martin Petty SITTWE, Myanmar | Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:50am EDT SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - As security forces police the edgy aftermath of sectarian bloodshed in western Myanmar, fearful Buddhists and Muslims are arming themselves with homemade weapons, testing the government's resolve to prevent a new wave of violence. Despite government claims t...

By Tan Ee Lyn HONG KONG | Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:47am EDT HONG KONG (Reuters) - The father of a Foxconn worker left brain-damaged by a factory accident in southern China took the company to court on Tuesday, in a case that heaps more attention on the labor practices of Apple Inc's largest contract manufacturer. The case involves Zhang Tingzhen, a 26-...

By Chris Wickham LONDON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:33am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Breast-cancer screening saves lives even though it also picks up cases in some women that would never have caused them a problem, according to a review published in The Lancet medical journal. The independent review, commissioned by the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and ...

By Sinead Carew NEW YORK | Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:05am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Andreessen Horowitz is leading a $15.5 million round of venture funding for ItsOn Inc, a developer of software that supports more flexible mobile billing options like sponsored data services and split billing for work and personal use. ItsOn, which has had funding from Ve...

HELSINKI | Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:03am EDT HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish phone maker Nokia said its new Lumia smartphones, key to the company's hopes for recovery, will begin to appear in some European markets this week. Nokia late on Monday said its high-end Lumia 820 and 920 phones, which will run on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software, will this week reac...

By Andy Sullivan Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:34am EDT (Reuters) - Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are scouting an unlikely path to the White House through the vast forests and blueberry barrens of northern Maine. President Barack Obama is expected to win the Pine Tree State easily in the November 6 election.Regardless, Romney allies are...

Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:02am EDT (Reuters) - The San Francisco 49ers flexed their muscles with a dominant 24-3 road win over the slumping Arizona Cardinals on Monday night to stretch their lead at the top of the NFC West to two games. In a matchup of two stout defenses, it was the 49ers (6-2) who lived up to their reputation by holding Arizona (4-4) to just seven yard...

By Reiji Murai TOKYO | Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:39am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Electronics conglomerate Panasonic Corp may curtail its expanded production of solar panels and small lithium batteries used in PCs and other devices as part of new round of restructuring, two sources at the company told Reuters. Panasonic recently built a solar panel plant in ...

By Steve Ginsburg Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:12am EDT (Reuters) - Game on Dude was installed as the early 9-5 favorite and will break from the fifth post for the $5 Million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park on Saturday. The Bob Baffert-trained gelding was leading the race a year ago but was caught by a high-flying Drosselmeyer in the final strides at Chu...

By John Whitesides and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:05am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tense and unpredictable race for the White House became even more so on Monday, as mammoth storm Sandy created delicate political challenges for President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney and raised the possibility of a chaotic...

By Lisa Lambert COLUMBUS, Ohio | Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:02pm EDT COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Pulled back to Washington to address the storm pounding the East Coast just days before the presidential election, President Barack Obama passed his campaign banner on Monday to Vice President Joe Biden and the man he has anointed his "Secretary of Explaining ...