By Marwan Makdesi DAMASCUS | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:33am EDT DAMASCUS (Reuters) - International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi met Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Damascus on Saturday, pressing for a brief ceasefire between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels seeking his overthrow. Brahimi has called for a ceasefire during next week'...

By Peter Griffiths LONDON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:15am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of anti-austerity protesters will march in London on Saturday to protest against public spending cuts enacted by a government fighting off accusations that it is run by an upper-class elite that ignores the plight of recession-hit voters. The march comes at a tim...

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:12am EDT LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Six Afghan policemen were killed in Helmand province in a so-called "insider" attack involving a rogue Afghan policeman and a chef, local officials said on Saturday. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, saying they had despatched a "mujahid who had infi...

JERUSALEM | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:11am EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli navy seized an international pro-Palestinian activist ship in the Mediterranean sea on Saturday to prevent it breaching its blockade of the Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman said. She said no one was hurt when marines boarded the SV Estelle, a three-mast schooner, and that it was ...

PERTH, Australia | Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:06am EDT PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - American Bo Van Pelt rolled in a 15-metre putt at the last hole to grab a one-shot lead after the third round of the $2 million Perth International at Lake Karrinyup. "Once in a while the hole gets in the way," Van Pelt told reporters.His eight-iron approach had finished on a bac...

DUBAI | Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:51am EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - A passenger bus in southwestern Iran overturned on Friday evening, killing 26 female high school students on board, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Eighteen others were injured when the bus, carrying students from the town of Borujen, flipped on the Izeh-Lordegan road, about 700 km (435 miles) sou...

KHARTOUM | Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:27am EDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Rebels in Sudan's western Darfur region have launched an attack on government forces, killing several people, state news agency SUNA said. Darfur has been plagued by violence since mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms in 2003, complaining the central government in Khartoum had neglected the remot...

NEW DELHI | Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:23am EDT NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Kingfisher Airline's (KING.NS) license to operate was suspended on Saturday after the debt-laden carrier failed to satisfy the aviation regulator's concerns about its operations. Struggling to pay bills, Kingfisher is seven months behind on salary payments, and its fleet has been grounded sinc...

By Alina Selyukh and Patrick Temple-West WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:55am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic donors gave unprecedented amounts of money in September to their party's three main "Super PACs," federal disclosures revealed on Friday, a reflection of how wealthy Democrats' reluctance to give to such groups has faded in the week...

By Ronald Grover LOS ANGELES | Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:54am EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch is looking to buy the Los Angeles Times, one of the country's largest newspapers, from struggling media conglomerate Tribune Co, a source familiar with his plans told Reuters on Friday. News Corp executives -- including Mur...

Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:53am EDT (Reuters) - Jorge Lorenzo's record-shattering late burst put the MotoGP championship leader on pole position for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit. The Yamaha rider cranked up the pace in the closing stages of Saturday's session to clock a record lap of two minutes 0.334 seconds and snatch his seventh po...

By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS | Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:34am EDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The push by the Palestinians for upgraded status at the United Nations is likely to succeed, the president of the U.N. General Assembly said on Friday, while warning the United States against cutting U.N. funding over the issue. In his first major intervi...

By Tom Bergin LONDON | Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:24am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Starbucks's reputation among consumers in Britain has been hit by wave of criticism of its tax affairs from politicians and the media, pollster YouGov said. A Reuters report showed the coffee chain paid no tax on 1.2 billion pounds of sales in recent years by telling the taxman...

Sat Oct 20, 2012 2:04am EDT (Reuters) - The San Francisco Giants blanked the St Louis Cardinals 5-0 on Friday to stave off elimination and extend the National League Championship Series (NLCS) to a sixth game back at their home ballpark. A four-run burst in the fourth inning gave Giants starter Barry Zito all the offense he needed. The left-hander kept the Cardin...

Sat Oct 20, 2012 1:21am EDT (Reuters) - India's Arjun Atwal carded eight birdies and a lone bogey to rocket into a one-shot lead over Davis Love III and Jim Furyk after Friday's second round of the McGladrey Classic at Sea Island in Georgia. Atwal has not won anywhere since his maiden PGA Tour win in 2010 and his best finish this year is a share of 19th place at ...

By Corrie MacLaggan AUSTIN, Texas | Sat Oct 20, 2012 12:08am EDT AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong told supporters of his Livestrong cancer charity on Friday that it had been a difficult couple of weeks but the foundation's mission must go on. The seven-time Tour de France winner stepped down as the foundation's chairman...

By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:49pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. earnings started the quarter on the wrong foot, and things have only gotten worse. Expectations for the third quarter were dismal, with forecasts for a decline in profits from a year ago. But a recent flurry of high-profile reports has investors scowling at...

By Alina Selyukh and Alexander Cohen WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:43pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two groups formed by influential Republican operative Karl Rove spent more on television and radio ads in the presidential race than any other "super PAC" or advocacy group in recent weeks, blanketing airwaves in advance of the November 6 electio...

By Margaret Chadbourn and Jeff Mason FAIRFAX, Va./WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:13pm EDT FAIRFAX, Va./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama turned his rival's name into an ailment on Friday, accusing Mitt Romney of suffering from "Romnesia" for emphasizing moderate positions rather than the conservative ones he put forward in the Repub...

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:08pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The election between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney looks like it will be a knuckle-biter - unless you go by one of the United States' most respected public-opinion polls. As most surveys show Obama and Romney locked in a virtual dead h...

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:58pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and Facebook Inc's first outside investor, is close to investing roughly $150 million in Airbnb in a deal that would value the lodging rental start-up at about $2.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Details of the investment round...

By Brandon Lowrey LOS ANGELES | Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:30pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The father of pop star Britney Spears was terrified by his daughter's deepening drug addiction as her life spiraled out of control five years ago, his attorney told jurors on Friday. "Jamie (Spears) was living in constant fear that he was going to look at the TV o...

Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:54pm EDT (Reuters) - Dirk Nowitzki will miss the start of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) regular season after having knee surgery that is expected to keep him out of the lineup for six weeks, the team said on Friday. If everything goes according to schedule, the 34-year-old Nowitzki will miss about a dozen games starting with his t...

PHOENIX | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:21pm EDT PHOENIX (Reuters) - A federal judge barred Arizona on Friday from applying a new law that bars Planned Parenthood's health clinics from receiving money through the state because the organization also performs abortions. District Court Neil Wake granted a temporary injunction to Planned Parenthood, which had sued Ariz...

By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian NEW YORK | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:47pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended the week on Friday with their worst day since late June after Dow components General Electric and McDonald's, both barometers of the overall economy's health, added to a disappointing earnings season. Technology shares kept up a pattern of recent ...

By David Alexander WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:33pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cyberspace is the battlefield of the future, with attackers already going after banks and other financial institutions and developing the ability to strike U.S. power grids and government systems, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Friday. "We confront a whole ...

Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:31pm EDT (Reuters) - Google Inc is considering a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over potential claims it broke antitrust law in its handling of patents for mobile devices, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The dispute has to do with whether Google's Motorola Mobility unit lived up to licensing commitments made after its ...

By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:03pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dozens of screening officers and supervisors at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of three main airports serving New York City, face dismissal or suspension for failing to search baggage properly, the Transportation Security Administration said on Friday. The TS...

By Malathi Nayak SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:01pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activision Blizzard is betting big on children's fantasy adventure game "Skylanders" this holiday, with the launch of a new title on Sunday and plans for more mobile versions of the console game. The franchise's second offering, "Skylanders: Giants", will hit s...

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Oct 19, 2012 7:54pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard plans to end its agreement selling solid-state storage devices made by Violin Memory, potentially complicating Violin Memory's plan for an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported. HP will wrap up its deal with Violin Memory, one of a growing number of companies sell...

By Tim McLaughlin and Bill Berkrot BOSTON/NEW YORK | Fri Oct 19, 2012 7:32pm EDT BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Executives at the Boston-area pharmacy whose steroid shots have been linked to a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak have been sued in a bid to freeze their personal assets, while the death toll in the scandal rose to 21, with 268 cases of inf...

By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 7:23pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican senator on Friday accused the head of the Secret Service of making potentially misleading statements to Congress about a prostitution scandal involving agency employees before a presidential trip to Colombia in April. Senator Ron Johnson, the senior R...

By Mary Slosson Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:57pm EDT (Reuters) - Rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit on Friday against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, accusing it of unlawfully detaining immigrants at the behest of the federal government for days beyond when they should have been released. The suit highlights the detention of a British filmmake...

By Zoran Milosavljevic BELGRADE | Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:57pm EDT BELGRADE (Reuters) - Former NBA forward Sonny Weems shone in CSKA Moscow's 76-71 overtime win at Partizan Belgrade but his effervescence was overshadowed by a scandal which sent shockwaves through the Euroleague on Friday. Fenerbahce Istanbul shooting guard Romain Sato was detained ove...

By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO | Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:56pm EDT CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Republican congressman from Illinois waded into controversy with a suggestion that abortion is never necessary to save the life of a mother, two months after a colleague drew fire for saying women were unlikely to become pregnant from "legitimate rape." Representative ...

By Simon Meads LONDON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:47pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - The $100 billion Texas Teachers' pension fund is to buy a stake in Formula One racing from the estate of collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers, a person familiar with the matter said. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas will buy a 3 percent stake in the motor racing bus...

By Jane Sutton GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba | Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:45pm EDT GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The death penalty trial of five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks is so important that it should be televised to the public, defense lawyers argued on Friday. The issue was discussed on...

ROME | Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:29pm EDT ROME (Reuters) - Italy's supreme court has upheld a ruling that said there was a link between a business executive's brain tumor and his heavy mobile phone usage, potentially opening the door to further legal claims. The court's decision flies in the face of much scientific opinion, which generally says there is not eno...

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK | Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:26pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There may be several non-medical factors outside of hospitals' control that are linked to how heart and pneumonia patients fare once they're discharged, according to a fresh look at past research. Beginning October 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Servi...

By Jim Forsyth Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:16pm EDT (Reuters) - The campus of Texas A&M University, one of the biggest in the United States, was evacuated for several hours on Friday after school officials received a bomb threat, the latest such incident at a U.S. university in recent weeks. The threat came in an anonymous email delivered shortly before noon, ...