By Oliver Holmes and Khaled Yacoub Oweis BEIRUT/AMMAN | Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:26pm EDT BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombed parts of Damascus on Monday in what residents said were the capital's fiercest air raids yet, at the end of what was supposed to be a four-day truce. "More than 100 buildings have been destroyed, some leveled to the grou...

By Jonathon Burch ANKARA | Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:22pm EDT ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands of secularists protesting at a banned rally in the capital on Monday against what they see as an increasingly authoritarian and Islamist government. The scenes of chanting men and women draped in Turkish f...

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM | Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:37pm EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday overcame opposition within his party to an alliance with a far-right group that opinion polls predict will help him triumph in a January election. Netanyahu had angered many Likud party faithful with a surprise an...

By Alexandra Ulmer and Antonio De la Jara SANTIAGO | Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:31pm EDT SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean voters punished President Sebastian Pinera's conservative bloc in municipal elections Sunday, paving the way for a possible comeback by the left in next year's presidential ballot. Pinera took power in 2010, ending 20 years of rule by the...

By Thomas Escritt THE HAGUE | Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:20pm EDT THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals agreed a coalition with the Labour Party on Monday and vowed to follow a path of austerity. Outlining nearly 16 billion euros ($20.65 billion) of cuts over the next four years, the two party leaders said the measures were nee...

By Susana Ferreira PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti | Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:53pm EDT PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - As Hurricane Sandy barreled toward the U.S. East Coast on Monday, the full extent of the storm's havoc on Haiti was just beginning to emerge. Extensive damage to crops throughout the southern third of the country, as well as the high potential...

By Karolina Tagaris and Renee Maltezou ATHENS | Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:21pm EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - A prominent Greek journalist who published the names of more than 2,000 wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts appeared in court on Monday to stand trial for violating data privacy laws in a case which aroused international concern. Costas Vaxevanis, e...

By Andrew Quinn ALGIERS | Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:16pm EDT ALGIERS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed regional power Algeria on Monday to support an Africa-led military intervention in northern Mali, a senior U.S. official said. Clinton's one-day visit comes amid mounting international pressure on Algeria over the crisis in Ma...

By Mohammed Abbas LONDON | Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:38am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labor party piled pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday by pushing for an even tougher line on the European Union budget than that proposed by his ruling Conservative Party. Cameron is promi...

By Richard Balmforth and Olzhas Auyezov KIEV | Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:23am EDT KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich's party was on course on Monday to secure a parliamentary majority but international monitors said flaws in the way the election was conducted meant the country had taken a "step backwards". Exit polls and first result...

By James Mackenzie ROME | Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:22am EDT ROME (Reuters) - Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi faced a fresh setback on Monday as early counting in a local election in Sicily showed his divided center-right party trailing in a former stronghold and big gains for the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement. The election for a regional ...

TRIPOLI | Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:16am EDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Thousands of Libyans who fled fighting in the former Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid will not be allowed to return home for several more days until work was complete to make the town safe and restore services, officials said on Monday. Militias aligned with the defense ministry took control of Ba...

By Paul Carsten PATTAYA, Thailand | Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:09am EDT PATTAYA, Thailand (Reuters) - China is stonewalling attempts to start talks on a multilateral "code of conduct" governing the strategically located South China Sea and an agreement could still be years away, Southeast Asian officials said on Monday. Beijing's assertion of sovereignty...

By Thomas Escritt THE HAGUE | Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:03am EDT THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberal Party and the Labor Party have agreed a coalition deal, the parties said on Monday, paving the way for a pro-austerity, pro-European government to be sworn in as early as next week. Rutte won the most seats in the September 12...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:41am EDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombed suburbs of Damascus and a car bomb killed 10 people in the capital on Monday, the last day of a four-day truce which U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon acknowledged had failed. Each side blamed the other for breaching the Eid al-Adha truce arranged by internationa...

DUBAI | Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:02am EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran holds pictures of Israeli bases and other restricted areas obtained from a drone launched into Israeli airspace earlier this month, an Iranian lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday. Earlier this month, Israel shot down a drone after it flew 25 miles into the Jewish state. Lebanese militant grou...

By Dave Graham TORREON, Mexico | Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:24am EDT TORREON, Mexico (Reuters) - In a five-year struggle with Mexico's most notorious drug cartel, the city of Torreon has suffered a 16-fold increase in murders, fired its police department and lost control of its main prison to the gang. The Zetas cartel arrived in Torreon in mid-2007, and...

By Karolina Tagaris ATHENS | Mon Oct 29, 2012 6:56am EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - A major Greek newspaper reprinted the names of more than 2,000 wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts on Monday and the editor who first published the list was to go on trial for violating data privacy laws. Ta Nea devoted 10 pages to the list of accounts said to hold so...

By Olzhas Auyezov and Pavel Polityuk KIEV | Sun Oct 28, 2012 5:24pm EDT KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich's pro-business party seemed likely to hold on to a majority in parliament after an election on Sunday, but it will face a revitalized opposition boosted by a resurgent nationalist party, exit polls showed. Leaders of the ...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Sun Oct 28, 2012 5:30pm EDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombarded Sunni Muslim regions in Damascus and around the country on Sunday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad kept up air strikes against rebels despite a U.N.-brokered truce that now appears to be in tatters. The Local Coordination Committees act...

By Prashant Mehra ANGUL, India | Sun Oct 28, 2012 5:14pm EDT ANGUL, India (Reuters) - A few hundred meters from the high walls and barbed wire guarding billionaire Naveen Jindal's upcoming steel plant, a dozen men have gathered at a tea stall. Their plan for this and every day: disrupt any attempt by Jindal's company to lay a water pipeline. The ...

By John Ruwitch and James Pomfret XIANGSHAN/WUKAN, China | Sun Oct 28, 2012 5:01pm EDT XIANGSHAN/WUKAN, China (Reuters) - Hua Youjuan is an unlikely Chinese official. Free-spirited but driven, she left her village at age 17, got a degree in marketing, and opened a string of businesses in nearby cities in eastern China before settling in the coast...

ATHENS | Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:44pm EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's foreign lenders have refused to make any further concessions on changes to labour laws contested by a junior coalition partner, the country's finance minister said on Sunday, prolonging an impasse on a crucial austerity package. Athens has been locked in talks with its European Union and In...

TUNIS | Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:15pm EDT TUNIS (Reuters) - Clashes broke out between alcohol sellers and hardline Salafi Muslims in the Tunisian capital, a security official said on Sunday, wounding a police commander in the latest illustration of religious tensions in the home of the "Arab Spring". Tunisia, whose...

By Nigel Davies MADRID | Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:02pm EDT MADRID (Reuters) - An overwhelming majority in the powerful northeastern region of Catalonia want a referendum on independence, an opinion poll showed on Sunday, highlighting increasing dissatisfaction with Spain's central government as it struggles with economic crisis. Although a referendum ...

KUALA LUMPUR | Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:58am EDT KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Two Malaysians, suspected of links to al Qaeda, have been arrested in Lebanon, Malaysia's foreign minister Anifah Aman said on Sunday. Local newspapers said the two were believed to have been trying to make their way to Syria to join the 19-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-A...

KHARTOUM | Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:53am EDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Rebels in Sudan's Darfur region said on Sunday they had shelled a state capital, in a rare attack on the government stronghold where international peacekeepers are also based. The government did not immediately comment on the report and the claim could not be immediately independently verified....

By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY | Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:45am EDT VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, closing a gathering of bishops who discussed how to win back lapsed and lukewarm Catholics, on Sunday said the Church had to develop new ways of reaching out to those who had drifted from the faith. Benedict, 85, said a solemn Mass in St Peter's...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:19am EDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombarded Sunni Muslim regions in Damascus and across the country on Sunday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad kept up air strikes against rebels despite a U.N.-brokered truce that now appears to be in tatters. "The ceasefire is practically over. ...

By a Reuters Staff Reporter SITTWE, Myanmar | Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:17am EDT SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Muslim survivors of six days of sectarian violence in western Myanmar spoke on Sunday of fleeing bullets and burning homes to escape on fishing boats after an attack by once-peaceable Rakhine neighbors. The United Nations said 22,587 people had ...

SANAA | Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:25am EDT SANAA (Reuters) - At least four men suspected of being al Qaeda members were killed in what a local official said was a U.S. drone strike on Islamist militants in northern Yemen on Sunday. It was a rare attack on al Qaeda-linked targets in northern Yemen, an area dominated by Shi'ite Muslim Houthi rebels battling Yeme...

By Garba Mohammed and Isaac Abrak KADUNA | Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:48am EDT KADUNA (Reuters) - A suicide bomber drove a jeep packed with explosives into a Catholic church in northern Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least eight people, injuring more than 100 and triggering reprisal attacks that killed at least two more, officials said. The bomber drove r...

By Jon Herskovitz JOHANNESBURG | Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:23am EDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma intends to drop a four-year-old lawsuit claiming nearly $600,000 in damages from a cartoonist who depicted him poised to rape "Lady Justice", his office said on Sunday. The Sunday Times, named as a defendant in the case, also s...

By Andrius Sytas VILNIUS | Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:02am EDT VILNIUS (Reuters) - Centre-left parties in Lithuania were expected to win the second and final round of a parliamentary election on Sunday as voters fed up with austerity went to the polls in a contest dominated by public anger over years of tough spending cuts. Economists said the Baltic nat...

By Jeffrey Hodgson Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:38am EDT (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 hit Canada's Pacific coastal province of British Columbia late Saturday, setting off a small tsunami, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, officials said. The U.S. Geological Survey said an earthquake with a 7.7 magnitude had hit ...

GAZA | Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:30am EDT GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed a Hamas gunman it accused of preparing to fire a rocket from the Gaza Strip on Sunday and a separate Palestinian salvo struck a southern Israeli city, causing no damage. The incidents followed a three-day lull since an upsurge in violence last week in which Israel killed at least four Gaza...

MECCA | Sat Oct 27, 2012 9:13pm EDT MECCA (Reuters) - Saudi authorities quickly dispersed a protest by hundreds of Syrian pilgrims calling for the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and denouncing what they said was international failure to stop bloodshed in Syria, a Reuters witness said. Protesters held up rebel flags and marched toward the Jamara...

GAZA | Sat Oct 27, 2012 8:09pm EDT GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed a Palestinian militant from the Hamas Islamist group and wounded another in an air strike on a motorcycle in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military confirmed there was an attack but had no further details.The violence followed a three-day lull since a su...

BISSAU | Sat Oct 27, 2012 7:27pm EDT BISSAU (Reuters) - The suspected leader of a failed October 21 counter-coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau was arrested on Saturday, witnesses and a security official said. Captain Pansao Ntchama, a bodyguard to the then head of the army under ousted Prime Minister Carlos Gomes J...

LIMA | Sat Oct 27, 2012 7:03pm EDT LIMA (Reuters) - Two people died and 21 others were injured in Peru's capital on Saturday as protesters clashed with police trying to shut down a sprawling wholesale market, raising the death toll to four since street battles erupted at the site on Thursday. The unrest in Lima's downtown has stunned residents and could ...