By Julien Pretot GENEVA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:26pm EDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong was ditched from the Tour de France record books on Monday but the question of whether cycling should forget his tarnished legacy or use it as a force for change must be urgently addressed. The International Cycling Union (UCI) has ratified the U.S. Anti-Dop...

BRUSSELS | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:22pm EDT BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone's fiscal deficit fell sharply last year as governments slashed expenses and raised taxes to regain market confidence in their public finances, but public debt still climbed, data from the European Union's statistics office showed on Monday. Eurostat said the aggregate budget defic...

By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:20pm EDT KAMPALA (Reuters) - An outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Uganda has spread to the capital Kampala after an infected woman travelled to the city and the death toll from the disease, a cousin of Ebola, climbed to five, a health official said on Monday. The latest outbreak of another ...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:18pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels cast doubt on Monday on prospects for a temporary truce aimed at stemming bloodshed in the 19-month-old conflict, saying it was not clear how an informal ceasefire this week could be implemented. International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who held talks in Damas...

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:18pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Isis, a venture of three of the top U.S. mobile providers, said on Monday it has kicked off its much-delayed mobile payments service in two U.S. cities and promised that as many as 20 phone models would support the service by year end. Isis, formed by Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc and T-Mobile...

VIENNA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:00pm EDT VIENNA (Reuters) - More than 100 countries lost an opportunity to improve the fight against cross-border organized crime by failing to agree a new monitoring measure at a major international meeting last week, a United Nations agency said on Monday. Disagreement over how the effort would be funded prevented a deal on...

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:58am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has called for a full and independent investigation into doping in cycling in the wake of the Lance Armstrong scandal. USADA, which banned Armstrong for life and stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles after saying it had exposed him as a dru...

Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:53am EDT (Reuters) - Eli Lilly & Co's experimental once-weekly diabetes drug dulaglutide proved superior in late-stage clinical trials to three other widely used medicines that are dosed more frequently, the company said on Monday. Lilly said it aims to seek marketing approval for its injectable medicine in 2013, based on favorable data fr...

DUBAI | Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:52am EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - The top Saudi in al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing has apparently released an audio message denying reports he was killed last month, a group that monitors Islamist websites said on Monday. In the audio posted on jihadist websites on Sunday, a man identified as Said al-Shehri said reports of his death were...

PARIS | Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:19am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - A study last month pointing to health risks from a type of genetically modified maize and a related pesticide did not provide grounds for questioning previous safety approvals, the French government said on Monday. The study by researchers at the University of Caen said rats fed on Monsanto's NK603 G...

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK | Mon Oct 22, 2012 10:07am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A group of U.S. pediatricians on Monday recommended that cheerleading be designated an official sport, mainly to help prevent injuries, which the doctors say can be catastrophic. Some of the group's other recommendations include requiring cheerleaders to pass ...

LONDON | Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:56am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - American soul veteran Bobby Womack won Q magazine's best album award on Monday for "The Bravest Man in the Universe", beating out younger competition including London indie band The Maccabees and Paul Weller. Womack's first album of original material since 1994's "Resurrection" was co-produced by Bl...

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent ATHENS | Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:35am EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Just when it seems things couldn't get any worse for Greece, the exhausted and indebted country has a new threat to deal with: mosquito-borne diseases. Species of the blood-sucking insects that can carry exotic-sounding tropical infections li...

LONDON | Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:20am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - The London film festival ended late on Sunday with the European premiere of Mike Newell's "Great Expectations" and the release of figures showing public attendance at screenings across the capital this year had risen 12 percent to a record 149,000. Organizers of the annual 12-day cinema showcase, wh...

Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:44am EDT (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said it would buy privately held-NextWave Pharmaceuticals for $255 million, gaining access to the company's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug, the first once-daily liquid medicine approved to treat the condition in the United States. NextWave's shareholders would also be eligible to get up to $425 mil...

Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:19am EDT (Reuters) - Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc's experimental epilepsy drug Oxtellar XR won marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the second drug approval for the company since it went public in May. Oxtellar XR's final marketing approval follows the tentative approval given in late-June to Supernus's Trokendi XR -- ...

By Olzhas Auyezov MAKIYIVKA, Ukraine | Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:19am EDT MAKIYIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Crumbling concrete pillars resemble ancient Greek temples, abandoned and overgrown, next to slag heaps that smell like piles of rotten eggs just a mile away from the center of the Ukrainian town of Ma...

Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:17am EDT (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co is recalling 13,919 of its top-selling Altima sedans in the United States because bolts that may not have been tightened properly during production could fall off, increasing the risk of a crash, according to U.S. safety regulators. The Altima sedans are from the from ...

Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:14am EDT (Reuters) - A Leeds United fan who attacked former England goalkeeper Chris Kirkland during a match against Sheffield Wednesday was jailed for 16 weeks on Monday. Aaron Cawley, 21, from Cheltenham, pleaded guilty at Sheffield Magistrates' Court to assault and invading the pitch during the Champio...

By Ernest Scheyder Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:20am EDT (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc, the world's largest maker of tractors and excavators, said on Monday the global economy is slowing faster than it had expected and slashed its 2012 forecast for the second time this year. The company's retail dealers are selling off inventories, rather than buying new machines, fo...

By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:07am EDT PRISTINA (Reuters) - Police fired teargas in Kosovo on Monday to disperse opposition activists demonstrating against a new push by the European Union to improve ties between Serbia and its former southern province. The clashes, in which 18 police officers were injured, followed a meeting last...

By Andrew Callus and Katya Golubkova LONDON/MOSCOW | Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:00am EDT LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - State-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft has struck a two-part deal worth about $55 billion to buy privately-owned TNK-BP and make British oil company BP a near-20 percent Rosneft shareholder with two seats on the board. The first part o...

By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya MOSCOW | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:59am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two female members of Russian punk group Pussy Riot convicted of protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a cathedral have been sent to prisons far from Moscow despite requesting to serve out their terms in the capital, a lawyer said on Monday. Maria Alyokhi...

By Julien Pretot GENEVA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:55am EDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life on Monday after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) sanctions against the American. "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling," UCI Pr...

GAZA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:53am EDT GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants during an incursion in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday that touched off clashes with gunmen from the governing Hamas movement, local officials said. They said militants fired mortar bombs at Israeli troops spotted inside Gaza's boundary fence, drawing ai...

BEIJING | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:49am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party will discuss a proposal to amend its constitution at its congress in early November, state media said on Monday, a move aimed at strengthening one-party rule over the next five years. State news agency Xinhua did not elaborate on what the amendments could be, though ...

By Samia Nakhoul BEIRUT | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:43am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Beirut car bomb that killed a top Lebanese security official will probably prove to be the most destabilizing attack in Lebanon since the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. What is less clear - and this is something that instills fear in a socie...

LONDON | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:41am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Three British men planned to carry out suicide bombings which could have been more devastating than the July 7, 2005 attacks in London, a court heard on Monday. Fifty-one people died and over 700 were injured in co-ordinated suicide bombings on London underground trains and a bus by four British Isl...

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:27am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures advanced on Monday, indicating the S&P 500 may bounce from its worst decline since late June ahead of earnings from companies including Caterpillar and Freeport-McMoRan. * The benchmark S&P index fell 2.2 percent on Friday, its bigges...

LONDON | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:26am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Athletes competing in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, will be able to toast their medal wins with a glass of Scotland's "other" national drink - not whisky, but bright orange, fizzy Irn-Bru. Scottish soft drinks maker A.G. Barr Plc will offer the drink - made to a secret recipe - and other b...

By Dominic Evans and Angus MacSwan BEIRUT | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:21am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese army promised decisive action to quell unrest linked to the Syria conflict as gunbattles flared in the capital Beirut and elsewhere on Monday after the assassination of a senior intelligence officer last week. The army command urged political l...

By Liana B. Baker and Lisa Richwine Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:14am EDT (Reuters) - When the mighty New York Yankee bats went silent during a humbling four-game sweep in the American League championship series, it was more than a blow to a franchise that has won 27 World Series titles. It also doomed the Fox TV network to what could rank as the lowest-rated World...

Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:12am EDT (Reuters) - American twins Bob and Mike Bryan will end the tennis season on top of the world for a record eighth time, the sport's governing body said on Monday. The Olympic gold medalists are the only doubles team to win at least five titles for 10 consecutive years, and won a record-equaling 12th grand slam title at the U.S. Open las...

BEIJING | Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:57am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States believes that Myanmar is on the right track towards giving up its remaining military ties with North Korea but recognizes it will take time, the U.S. envoy for the North Korean nuclear dispute said on Monday. U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies told rep...

LONDON | Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:30am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange's technology system supplier Millennium IT said on Monday it had signed an agreement to provide the London Metal Exchange (LME) with surveillance software which will allow it to analyze trading patterns. With trading weak this year, top stock exchanges such as the LSE and N...

TAIPEI | Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:24am EDT TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwanese PC maker Acer Inc reported third quarter net profit of T$68 million ($2.32 million), well below estimates. A poll of 18 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S produced a mean estimate of T$756 million profit.The company did not explain why its profit undershot expectations so dramatically, bu...

By Alastair Himmer TOKYO | Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:19am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - The King of Spain had his video recorder set up so as not to miss the last day of Europe's epic Ryder Cup tussle with the United States, Sergio Garcia told Reuters on Monday. The 32-year-old Garcia said he has found himself glued to the screen, just like friends not remotely...

By Hadeel Al Shalchi and Marie-Louise Gumuchian BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI | Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:10am EDT BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Insecurity blights Libya, where militias still call the shots a year after they toppled Muammar Gaddafi, keeping foreign investors wary and clouding the oil-producing country's future. Last month's attack on the U.S. consula...

By Natasha Baker TORONTO | Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:05am EDT TORONTO (Reuters) - Text messaging is fast and efficient but a new video-sharing application aims to put users in the picture. The London-based company Six3 has launched a new video-sharing app by the same name that will enable users to send short video messages as easily as sending a text. W...

SYDNEY | Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:15am EDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's 2011 Tour De France winner Cadel Evans has admitted meeting the Italian doctor at the heart of the Lance Armstrong scandal more than a decade ago but said they never discussed doping. Evans, who was Australia's first winner of the endurance classic, said in an e-mail to Australia's SBS t...