By Barbara Liston SANFORD, Florida | Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:45pm EDT SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - Prosecutors want a Florida judge to impose a gag order on the Trayvon Martin murder case, saying lawyers for the man charged with murdering the unarmed black teenager threaten to taint the jury pool by trying the case "in the media and not in the courtro...

Fri Oct 19, 2012 4:22pm EDT (Reuters) - New York City Campaign Finance Board voted to close a complaint against the 2009 mayoral campaign of Michael Bloomberg over $1.2 million in payments made by him to the Independence Party, according to a ruling. Bloomberg, who spent more than $100 million of his own money to win the 2009 vote, did not report the $1.2 million...

KUWAIT | Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:12pm EDT KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said on Friday the Gulf Arab state's electoral system was deficient and that he had ordered partial changes, a move likely to anger the opposition. Sheikh Sabah dissolved the parliament of the major oil produce...

By Oliver Holmes and Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:04pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Senior Lebanese intelligence official Wissam al-Hassan, who led the investigation that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, was killed by a huge car bomb in Beirut on Friday. Hassan was also the brai...

SYDNEY | Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:47pm EDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - A lucky sailor is back on dry land after passengers and crew on a commercial flight from Canada helped find his crippled yacht adrift in rough seas hundreds of miles off the Australian coast, rescue authorities said. The Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Sydney was one of two diverted on Wednesday...

By Stephen Eisenhammer LONDON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:39pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Relatives of four British soldiers killed in the war in Iraq won the right to sue the government for negligence, in a landmark appeal court ruling on Friday that could open the door for other claims. Families of some of the soldiers who lost their lives in the 2003 U.S...

UNITED NATIONS | Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:33pm EDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council intends to impose sanctions on the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 rebels and others violating an arms embargo on the country, according to a draft statement to be formally adopted later on Friday. The Security Council's "Group of Experts" ...

KHARTOUM | Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:18pm EDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - More than 900,000 people have been displaced or severely affected by fighting in two Sudanese border states, the United Nations said on Friday, sharply increasing its estimates and urging Sudan and rebels to let in badly needed aid. Fighting between Sudan's army and SPLM-North rebels broke out i...

By Jack Kimball BOGOTA | Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:03pm EDT BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Friday defended his signature law that returns land seized by illegal armed groups to peasants after leftist rebels assailed the measure at the start of peace talks. Negotiations to end five decades of war started out bumpy this week ...

By Marwa Awad CAIRO | Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:11pm EDT CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood's political party, Egypt's biggest, chose veteran conservative Saad al-Katatni as its new leader on Friday to replace Mohamed Mursi who went on to become his country's first elected president. Katatni, 61, a microbiologist who joined the Islamist movement i...

By Marwan Makdessi DAMASCUS | Fri Oct 19, 2012 12:46pm EDT DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Mediator Lakhdar Brahimi will meet Syrian officials over the next few days in an effort to secure a brief ceasefire in the worsening war between President Bashar al-Assad's government and rebel forces. Brahimi, who arrived in the capital Damascus on Friday afternoon, ...

LONDON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:08am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - A Pakistani girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen is "not out of the woods" but is doing well and has been able to stand for the first time, doctors at the British hospital treating her said on Friday. Malala Yousufzai, who was shot for vocally opposing the Taliban, was flown from Pakistan to Bir...

By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT | Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:45am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - A huge car bomb exploded in a street in central Beirut during rush hour on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding about 80, witnesses and officials said. It was not immediately clear if the explosion targeted any political figure in Lebanon's divided community bu...

By Adrian Croft MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan | Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:17am EDT MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - NATO's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged the Afghan government on Friday to strive for free, fair and transparent elections in the 2014 presidential poll, saying they marked a critical...

BEIJING | Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:14am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's navy and civilian maritime patrol vessels practiced on Friday stopping "illegal entry" into Chinese waters in the East China Sea, state media said, an area where Beijing is embroiled in a territorial dispute with Japan. State news agency Xinhua said the drill was the largest in recent year...

BESASLAN, Turkey | Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:11am EDT BESASLAN, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey's army fired on Syria on Friday after two shells launched from Syria landed in Turkish territory, Turkish state broadcaster TRT reported, underlining how tension between the two neighbors remains dangerously high. TRT did not specify where the incident occurred and no furt...

BRUSSELS | Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:07am EDT BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will further tighten economic sanctions if Iran does not curb its nuclear activities, EU leaders said on Friday, urging Tehran to engage in "meaningful" negotiations. Europe imposed new sanctions on the Islamic Republic this week, targeting trade, energy and shipping, as part ...

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard BEIJING | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:50am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's three most powerful men have come up with preferred candidates to head up the nation's new leadership, sources said, in a group that includes financial reformers but leaves a question mark over its commitment to political reform. The seven-mem...

LONDON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:44am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - A Pakistani girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen is "not out of the woods" but is doing well and has been able to stand for the first time with some help, doctors at the British hospital treating her said on Friday. Malala Yousufzai, who was shot for vocally opposing the Taliban, was flown from P...

By Mubasher Bukhari ISLAMABAD | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:44am EDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - In a rare challenge to Pakistan's powerful generals, the country's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the military should stop interfering in politics. In connection with a case dating back to 1996 in which a retired air marshal filed a petition against the army for...

By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya MOSCOW | Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:01am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - The sole member of anti-Kremlin punk group Pussy Riot freed on appeal has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights, her lawyer said on Friday, accusing Russia of violating her right to freedom of speech and illegally detaining her. Yekaterina Samutsevi...

ABU DHABI | Fri Oct 19, 2012 7:41am EDT ABU DHABI (Reuters) - A Bahraini policeman was killed and another critically injured in a bomb attack while on patrol south of the capital Manama, security officials said on Friday, in further unrest plaguing the Gulf Arab kingdom and close U.S. ally. Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based as a bulwark agains...

I won’t say I was stunned, but I admit to being surprised when I read the following story in Reuters: Panama leader tells Germany he wants to adopt euro. Anybody who follows the news at all has undoubtedly read about the problems in Greece regarding their participation in the European Economic Union, and you probably have heard dire predictions about the future of the euro due to problems i...

HURDAL, Norway | Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:24am EDT HURDAL, Norway (Reuters) - Colombia's government and Marxist FARC rebels will move to Cuba in mid-November to start substantive peace talks after nearly five decades of war, according to a joint declaration in Norway on Thursday. The talks are the latest in a long history of attempts to end the conflict which...

BEIRUT | Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:17am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 28,000 Syrians have gone missing since they were abducted by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad during the 19-month-old revolt, activist group Avaaz said on Thursday. Quoting statements from Syrian human rights lawyers and families, Avaaz...

DHAKA | Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:09am EDT DHAKA (Reuters) - The father of a Bangladeshi man accused of attempting to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank denied on Thursday that his son was involved and said he was the victim of a "racist conspiracy". Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested on Wednesday and faces charges of attempting to us...

By Harry Papachristou and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS | Thu Oct 18, 2012 9:46am EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek police clashed with anti-austerity protesters hurling stones and petrol bombs on the day of a general strike that brought much of the near-bankrupt country to a standstill. In the second major walkout in three weeks on Thursday, almost 40,00...

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN | Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:55am EDT AMMAN (Reuters) - The international mediator on Syria will go to Damascus in the next few days to try to broker a brief ceasefire in the war between President Bashar al-Assad's government and rebels during the Islamic Eid al-Adha festival. Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, told...

ADEN | Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:38am EDT ADEN (Reuters) - Nine suspected al Qaeda militants were killed in what a local security source and residents said was a U.S. drone attack on a farmhouse outside a town in southern Yemen. The farmhouse just west of Jaar, one of two southern towns that Yemen's army took back from rebel control this summer, was hit by thre...

BEIJING/TOKYO | Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:30am EDT BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) - China condemned a visit by two Japanese ministers to a controversial shrine for war dead on Thursday, further straining already tense relations between Asia's two largest economies. Sino-Japanese relations have soured sharply in the past month when a row over disputed islands led to vi...

By Mirwais Harooni and Adrian Croft KABUL | Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:29am EDT KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggested on Thursday that foreign members be removed from the country's election watchdog, in a step that could be aimed at bolstering his grip on power. Two members of the five-member Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) are ...

ISLAMABAD | Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:48am EDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The alleged organizer of the Taliban shooting of a Pakistani schoolgirl was captured during a 2009 military offensive against the hardline Islamist group but released after three months, two senior officials told Reuters. They identified the man who planned the attack on 14-year-old Malala You...

By Sherilee Lakmidas JOHANNESBURG | Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:38am EDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Striking miners at one of Gold Fields' South African operations returned to work on Thursday, but there was no end in sight to the country's worst wildcat walkouts since the end of apartheid due to renewed unrest at Lonmin's Marikana mine. More than 80,000 mi...

By Corrie MacLaggan AUSTIN, Texas | Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:55pm EDT AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong stepped down as chairman of the Livestrong cancer support charity he founded, as Nike Inc dropped the disgraced cyclist over the doping scandal that will likely cost him his seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong's Livestrong foundation is be...

NEW YORK | Wed Oct 17, 2012 5:06pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday arrested a person suspected of plotting to explode a bomb in New York, a source familiar with the situation said. The person was arrested in lower Manhattan on Wednesday morning on terrorism charges, a person familiar with the matter said. The per...

Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:05pm EDT (Reuters) - New York City will speed up spending on more than $1 billion of infrastructure projects to take advantage of record-low interest rates, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference on Wednesday. The road, bridge, school building and other projects are part of the city's long-term capital plan after fiscal 2014, and some o...

Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:14pm EDT (Reuters) - Former Democratic Senator George McGovern, who lost to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, is "no longer responsive" and is surrounded by family and friends at a hospice center in South Dakota, his family said on Wednesday. McGovern, 90, was admitted to hospice in Sioux Falls "with a combination of medical cond...

SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:54pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California lawmakers in their next session will discuss small steps the state can take to help local governments avert bankruptcy, focusing on the use of controversial capital appreciation bonds, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said on Wednesday. Lockyer said he expects state officials to...

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and David Morgan BOSTON/WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:46pm EDT BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of deaths from a meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated steroid medications rose to 19 on Wednesday, just hours after federal agents raided the offices of the company at the center of the scandal and took away docum...

By Corrie MacLaggan AUSTIN, Texas | Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:15pm EDT AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The state of Texas is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit on behalf of a high school cheerleading team fighting to continue featuring religious messages on banners at football games, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said on Wednesday. The cheerleaders and th...