By Steve Holland DAVENPORT, Iowa | Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:16pm EDT DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was about to go on stage in Ohio on Monday when he decided to abruptly shift the tone of his campaign given the potentially lethal impact of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast. With the storm bearing down, Romney...

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland WASHINGTON/DAVENPORT, Iowa | Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:09pm EDT WASHINGTON/DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - President Barack Obama suspended campaigning and returned to Washington on Monday to oversee the response to Hurricane Sandy, while his Republican rival Mitt Romney curtailed political events to show respect for the stor...

By Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:55pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the U.S. East Coast little more than a week before the presidential election, President Barack Obama's fortunes may in part depend on how well a former volunteer firefighter from Florida does his job. Craig Fugate, a former paramedi...

The current situation of organized crime in Central America is the central topic of a meeting carried out by the general district attorneys of the area, said the Judicial Power of Costa Rica here Monday. According to the General District Attorney of Costa Rica, Jorge Chavarría, the program of the Net against Organized Crime is giving positive results in the area, although the high indexes of de...

By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:50pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Venture capitalists are proving a less reliable source of cash for President Barack Obama during this election, according to fundraising data, even though he has raised a record amount of cash overall. Through September 30, Obama collected $552,758 from these d...

By Nick Carey CHILLICOTHE, Ohio | Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:46pm EDT CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters) - Ohio's Senate race has become one of the most expensive in the country in the 2012 election campaign, as money pours into the state to help a young Republican challenger come within striking distance of Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. Ohio, a key prize...

By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:56pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday urged East Coast residents in the path of Hurricane Sandy to heed evacuation orders and assured them the government was ready to respond swiftly, but he warned them it would take a long time to clean up in the storm's aftermath. Scr...

WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:51pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney were virtually tied in a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Monday, with the Democrat leading by a single percentage point eight days before the November 6 U.S. presidential election. Obama leads Romney 48 percent to 47 perce...

One of the structures that suffered damage from the 7.6 magnitude earthquake was the colonial church of Nicoya, which was built in 1544. Plans for its restoration are now underway, according to Adrian Vindas, director of the Conservation Center of the Patrimonial Church. Vindas explained that the major damages are to the vault and the façade, the walls of which split apart and cracked in place...

By Jeff Mason Orlando, Florida | Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:34am EDT Orlando, Florida (Reuters) - President Barack Obama canceled a campaign event in Florida on Monday to return to Washington ahead of Hurricane Sandy, a White House spokesman said. "Due to deteriorating weather conditions in the Washington area, the president will not attend today's campa...

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:21am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With one week left in the tight battle for the White House, it's all about the vital swing state of Ohio. Unless it's about Colorado - or Iowa, or tiny New Hampshire. Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney both have clear paths to t...

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:21pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hurricane Sandy blew the U.S. presidential race off course on Sunday even before it came ashore, forcing Republican Mitt Romney to shift his campaign inland and fueling fears that the massive storm bearing down on the East Coast could disrupt an election that is alr...

Investigators are trying to determine whether a body found last week in a vacant lot in San Jose is that of a Mexican journalist who disappeared in June, the press reported. Pascual Tarin Avila's relatives in Mexico have been contacted by the Judicial Investigations Agency to see whether or not the body found last Tuesday is his, the La Nacion newspaper said. The 53-year-old Tarin, who worke...

WASHINGTON | Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:56pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has extended his narrow lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney among likely voters in a race that remains statistically tied nine days before the election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Sunday. Obama has a 49 percent to 46 percent edge ov...

By Lisa Lambert and Sam Youngman NASHUA, N.H./KISSIMMEE, Florida | Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:50pm EDT NASHUA, N.H./KISSIMMEE, Florida (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney campaigned feverishly in closely contested battleground states on Saturday but changed travel plans to avoid Hurricane Sandy, the massive storm app...

The situation was so unique that the normally unflappable president of the Supreme Court, Luis Paulino Mora, appeared uncertain of how to go about treating it and called a meeting of top Judges this week. Judge Priscilla Quiros had submitted a letter to Mora last week in which she accused a fellow Judge, Oscar Gonzalez, of sexual and workplace harassment. The closed door meeting Monday decid...

WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 27, 2012 12:12pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama holds a narrow lead of 2 percentage points over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in Reuters/Ipsos poll results released on Saturday, leaving the race effectively tied as fewer voters say they are likely to change their minds. Obama led Romney by 47 percent to 45 perc...

With a new public works minister taking office and announcements of new highway investments last week, Costa Rica’s infrastructure plans seem to be full speed ahead. Due to a 13 percent reduction in capital expenditures and a 2.4 percent cut for the public works ministry next year, the Costa Rican government has looked abroad for credit and investments to beef up the country’s infrastructure. “The...

By Sam Youngman AMES, Iowa | Fri Oct 26, 2012 12:50pm EDT AMES, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attempted to adopt the mantle of change on Friday in an economic speech in which he vowed to bring a fresh start to Washington to generate stronger job growth. Romney's address in the swing state of Iowa was an effort to ...

A Chinese official Thursday expressed here China's willingness and determination to work with the international community to promote sustainable development. Speaking at the opening of the 6th "Environment for Development" (EfD)annual meeting, China's diplomat in Costa Rica Zhai Yue highlighted his country's commitment for the world's sustainable development, and also stressed the right to a fa...

While on a visit to San José, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with the President of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, Victor Emilio Granados Calvo. Greeting the Armenian Foreign Minister, the Chairman of Costa Rica’s Parliament attached importance to Edward Nalbandian’s visit, which, according to him, marks a new start in the bilateral relations and will undoubte...

By Edith Honan STAMFORD, Connecticut | Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:08am EDT STAMFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Linda McMahon, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, seldom mentions World Wrestling Entertainment during campaign stops even though the business made her into a multimillionaire and something of a household name. Instead, McMah...

By Patrick Temple-West WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:13pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Republican donors Sheldon Adelson and his wife gave another $10 million to the "Super PAC" backing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in October, saying they hoped to "level the playing field" wi...

By Nicole Neroulias SEATTLE | Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:01pm EDT SEATTLE (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday endorsed state ballot initiatives to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state, Maryland and Maine as he sought to galvanize gay and lesbian enthusiasm for his re-election bid. St...

By Scott Malone and Tim McLaughlin CANTON, Massachusetts | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:44pm EDT CANTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney's testimony from a 1991 court hearing related to the founder of Staples Inc appeared to contain little likely to damage the candidate's chances in the November 6 general election....

By Mary Slosson SACRAMENTO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:24pm EDT SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A California campaign finance regulatory agency sued an Arizona group on Thursday over an eleventh hour $11 million donation to a political action committee, which the agency's head said was the largest such donation in state history. The California Fair Political Pr...

By Lisa Baertlein and Carey Gillam LOS ANGELES/KANSAS CITY | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:04pm EDT LOS ANGELES/KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - Heavy advertising spending by Monsanto Co and others opposed to a California ballot proposal to require labels on grocery products containing genetically modified organisms is paying off, according to a new poll that shows...

By Corrie MacLaggan AUSTIN, Texas | Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:19pm EDT AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A federal appeals court declined on Thursday to reconsider a ruling that would allow Texas to withhold funding for women's healthcare from Planned Parenthood's clinics because the organization also performs abortions. Texas Governor Rick Perry said after the...

By Sam Youngman and Jeff Mason CINCINNATI/CHICAGO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:48pm EDT CINCINNATI/CHICAGO (Reuters) - He does it too often to be a slip of the tongue. When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses his growing crowds, he always catches himself."If I'm president - when, I'm president," Romney says in his speeches now, drawin...

By Jeff Mason CHICAGO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:20pm EDT CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama won the endorsement of retired General Colin Powell, a moderate Republican, on Thursday as he and Republican rival Mitt Romney engaged in frantic campaigning in battleground states to try to turn a razor-close race their way. Hoping to encourage other D...

By Jeff Mason CHICAGO | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:19pm EDT CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama cast his ballot for the November 6 election on Thursday in his hometown of Chicago and encouraged others who could vote before Election Day to follow his example. Obama, who was a U.S. senator from Illinois and had before becoming president, went to an ...

By Samuel P. Jacobs WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:18pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican challenger Mitt Romney held a 1 percentage point lead over President Barack Obama in Thursday's Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll in a presidential race that is effectively a dead heat less than two weeks before Americans vote. In a repeat of Wednesday'...

WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 12:10pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his allies raised $111.8 million October 1-17, his campaign said on Thursday, a high-profile period that included two of the three televised presidential debates. Romney's strong performance in the first debate with President Barack Obama on...

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:38am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday endorsed Barack Obama's bid for re-election, citing the Democratic president's efforts to wind down the war in Afghanistan and tackle terrorism. "I think we ought to keep on the track that we are on," the Republi...

By Michael Shields and Corrie MacLaggan VIENNA/AUSTIN, Texas | Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:26pm EDT VIENNA/AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - International election monitors took a dim view on Wednesday of Texas' threat to prosecute them if they observe voting in the state a bit too closely on November 6. The exchange pitted the Vienna-based human rights watchdog ...

By James B. Kelleher CHICAGO | Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:19pm EDT CHICAGO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that an Illinois law limiting contributions to political campaigns can remain in force at least until the November 6 election. Passed in 2009, the law imposed a $5,000 limit on contributions from individuals, a $10,000 limit o...

By Jeff Mason DAVENPORT, Iowa | Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:15pm EDT DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - President Barack Obama predicted passage of immigration reform and a deficit-reduction deal, offering a fresh glimpse of his second-term agenda as he fights for votes in the final stretch of the tight race for the White House. In a newspaper interview released...

By Scott Malone CANTON, Mass | Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:46pm EDT CANTON, Mass (Reuters) - A Massachusetts state court judge delayed for a day a decision on whether to make public testimony that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave more than two decades ago in divorce proceedings involving the founder of the Staples Inc office products cha...

By Deborah Charles WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:22pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In Florida, Virginia and Indiana, voters have received phone calls that wrongly told them there was no need to cast a ballot in person on Election Day because they could vote by phone. In Ohio and Wisconsin, billboards in mostly low-income and minority neighborhood...

By Susan Guyett INDIANAPOLIS | Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:45pm EDT INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - The Republican candidate for the Senate in Indiana, Richard Mourdock, said on Wednesday he was sorry if anyone misunderstood a comment on rape and abortion, and White House hopeful Mitt Romney's campaign said he would stand by the controversial candidate. Mourdock...