LONDON (Reuters) – The people who were sexually abused in their youth by one of the BBC's most celebrated TV stars will sue the state-funded broadcaster and Jimmy Savile's estate, a lawyer representing some of the victims said on Thursday. The abuse claims against the late Savile, described by police as one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, have sullied the reputation of the BBC and thrown the jobs of its current and former boss into doubt. … Savile abuse victims in Britain to sue for damages
LONDON (Reuters) – The people who were sexually abused in their youth by one of the BBC's most celebrated TV stars will sue the state-funded broadcaster and Ji mmy Savile's estate, a lawyer representing some of the victims said on Thursday. The abuse claims against the late Savile, described by police as one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, have sullied the reputation of the BBC and thrown the jobs of its current and former boss into doubt. … BCE profit falls on taxes, shares slip
(Reuters) – BCE Inc , Canada’s biggest telecom provider, said on Thursday its quarterly profit had fallen from a year earlier, when lower tax expenses boosted results, and its shares fell even as it reported strong wireless and media results. BCE, Bell Canada’s parent company, offered no news on its proposed acquisition of Astral Media Inc . BCE recently delayed the C$3 billion deal’s closing after it was blocked by Canada’s broadcast regulator on competition grounds. In media, BCE said coverage of the London Olympics , led by C TV, helped boost revenue. …
France's president is vowing to fight terrorism and anti-Semitism on online social networks and beyond, as he pays homage to four people killed at a Jewish school in the country's worst terrorist attack in years. 
MADRID (Reuters) – Three women were crushed to death in a stampede apparently caused by a firework at a Halloween part y in Madrid early on Thursday, the city's vice-mayor said. Two other women were in critical condition. Thousands of revelers had packed into the Madrid Arena for the party, which featured electronic music. The stampede was believed to have been caused when someone lit a flare or firecracker in a corridor, creating a panic, vice-mayor Miguel Angel Villanueva told a news conference. The event had not been oversold, he said. … 
"We've got to make people understand that what they're seeing is not the real Mitt Romney." — President Obama's top political adviser, David Plouffe, describing the president's re-election message, according to top campaign advisers interviewed by The Wall … 
Syrian rebels killed 28 soldiers in attacks on military checkpoints in northern Idlib province on Thursday, just hours after a wave of bombings hit Damascus and its outskirts, activists said. 
Don't roll down the taxi windows. Don't buy a remote-controlled plane without a police chief's permission. And don't release your pigeons. 
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisian security forces arrested four people for allegedly plotting to kidnap local Jews and hold them for ransom, an Interio r Ministry official said on Thursday. There are less than 2,000 Jews in Tunisia, mostly living in Zarzis and the nearby island of Djerba in the south of the country. "The security forces aborted a plan to kidnap young Jews in Zarzis. Police arrested four young men and seized two weapons," the official, Lofi Hidouri, told Reuters. Perez Trabelsi, head of the Jewish community in Djerba, said a policeman was among the four arrested. … 
WASHINGTON — The last monthly employment report before the presidential election comes out Friday — and it looks as though October will be another month of modest job gains. A widely followed survey released Thursday by a payroll processing firm found … 
Oct. 31, 2012. Waves wash over a roller coaster from an amusement park in Seaside Heights, N.J., that fell into the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy. Mike Groll / AP. Related Content. People survey damage to beachfront houses in Long Beach Island, … 
As authorities concluded their on-campus investigation into the Halloween shooting at USC that wounded four people, classes were scheduled to continue as normal on Thursday, officials said. "The campus is now open," read an early morning email alert … 
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An Iraqi court sentenced fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to death for a second time on Thursday on a charge of involvement in a plot to assassinate an interior ministry official, a judicial spokesman said. Hashemi, a Sunni Muslim who fled to Turkey earlier this year when Shi'ite-led Iraqi authorities sought his arrest, was subsequently sentenced to death in absentia on charges of running death squads, which he denies. … 
The political détente declared during superstorm Sandy is over as President Obama and Mitt Romney return to the campaign trail today after days of subdued rhetoric and deferred political events. After suspending campaigning for days in the wake of the … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain faces a crisis that could end with the world 's sixth largest economy leaving the European Union, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned ahead of a showdown over budget spending with other states in the 27-member bloc. A day after Prime Minister David Cameron was defeated in parliament for not demanding a cut to the EU budget, Clegg said on Thursday that the behaviour of the rebel MPs could leave Britain isolated in the EU or outside it altogether. … 
After ignoring questions earlier this week about his plans for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mitt Romney said in a statement Wednesday night that he would not eliminate or underfund the agency. "I believe that FEMA plays a key role in … 
Four women killed in Madrid Halloween party stampede. Four women were crushed to death and another critically injured in a stampede at a Halloween party in Madrid during the early hours of Thursday. Four women were crushed to death and another … 
The subway shutdown and accidents due to inoperative traffic signals that closed intersections led to transport chaos Wednesday. Packed buses sped past lines stretching around entire city blocks. Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered that only cars carrying … 
RIYADH: A gas tanker truck exploded on a main road in the Saudi capital on Thursday, killing at least 22 people, injuring about 111 others and leaving a trail of destruction, officials said. The lorry veered into a bridge pylon at a junction on Khurays Road in … 
In the wake of last night's Commons vote to cut the EU budget (how cross that would have made a worldly EU leader like King Canute) I thought I heard a Conservative MP condescendingly explain that the 53 Tory rebels "want to see Europe get real". Oh dear … 
Activists say rebels in Syria have killed 28 soldiers in attacks on military checkpoints i n northern Idlib province. 
(Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Thursday reported a 7 percent decrease in quarterly profit as lower commodity prices took a toll and output fell. The Irving, Texas company said its third-quarter earnings had fallen to $9.57 bi llion, or $2.09 per share, from $10.33 billion, or $2.13 per share, a year earlier. Oil and gas output declined 7.5 percent, Exxon said. (Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston and Ernest Scheyder in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) 
By CAROL E. LEE. President Barack Obama will be back on the campaign trail Thursday to lay out his closing argument five days before the election after being sidelined in Washington for most of the week to monitor superstorm Sandy. Mr. Obama begins a … 
LONDON (Reuters) – UBS is closing its London-based distressed debt trading desk as the bank winds down its fixed income business as part of a wider plan to cut 10,000 jobs and shrink its investment bank, banking sources said on Thursday. UBS's distressed debt trading desk was respon sible for trading leveraged loans and high-yield bonds for poorly- performing non-investment grade companies, often at big discounts to face value. Banks' debt trading operations have been in focus since late 2010, after the U.S. … 
(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc reported on Thursday quarterly revenue well below Wall Street expectations, on sharply weaker sales of specialty care drugs and a pullback of emerging market revenue. Results were also hurt by weaker than expected sales of Pfiz er's Prevnar vaccine and Lipitor cholesterol fighter, which has been facing cheaper generics since late last year. The largest U.S. drugmaker earned $3.21 billion, or 43 cents per share, in the third quarter. That compared with $3.74 billion, or 48 cents per share, in the year-earlier period, when the company recorded a $1. … 
Authorities in Kuwait warned Thursday they will use harsher measures to crack down on anti-government demonstrators defying bans on protest gatherings in the increasingly tense Gulf nation. 
The 105-story, pyramid-shaped hotel that has stood over North Korea's capital city like a mountain for more than 20 years just might be on the verge of opening for the first time. 
New York's three major airports will be operating under reduced schedules on Thursday as flight services start returning to normal following Superstorm Sandy. 
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama, the Democratic incumbent seeking a second, four-year term in the White House, and his Republican challenger, wealthy businessman Mitt Romney, have sparred on the campaign trail over a variety of issues … 
NEW YORK The cleanup of miles of New Jersey shorefront ripped apart by Superstorm Sandy has just begun, but New York City moved closer to resuming its normal frenetic pace Thursday by getting back its vital subways. The storm-crippled trains began … 
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Thursday it had proposed a new initiative to head off an escalation of violence in Syria, including a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the establishment of a transitional governing body. The plan, proposed on Wednesday to Lakhdar Brahimi, the visiting United Nations-Arab League joint peace envoy on Syria, "is an extension of China's effort to push for a political resolution of the Syrian issue", a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. … 
HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvang irai has reached an out-of-court settlement with a former lover to end a messy maintenance case that was damaging his reputation ahead of elections expected next year, a lawyer said on Thursday. Locardia Karimatsenga had been demanding $15,000 a month in upkeep from Tsvangirai. Her claim was strengthened in September when a court stopped Tsvangirai from marrying another woman by ruling he was married to Karimatsenga under traditional law. … 
Despite the fact that the presidential election is days away, the scene on the campaign trail Wednesday was remarkably civil. President Obama cancelled campaign events to tour storm damage with New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie; Mitt … 
Mantoloking was a war zone of ruined houses and isolated fires. The National Guard delivered relief supplies and evacuated residents in Hoboken. Across the state, long lines of frustrated motorists snaked for blocks leading to the few gas stations open for … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Pay-TV group BSkyB reported strong first-quarter earnings growth on Thursday as price rises and the sale of additional products to subscribers helped reassure investors who had been fearing a slowdown. BSkyB, which sells pay-TV, broadba nd and telephony, has launched an online offering and promoted new products to existing customers after the heady rate of subscriber growth seen in previous years started to drop off. … 
Two suspects were in custody following a Halloween-night shooting on the USC campus that left four people wounded, school officials said Thursday. Capt. David Carlisle said the shooting happened around 11:45 p.m. outside the Ronald Tutor Campus … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron suffered a humiliating defeat in parliament on Wednesday after Conservatives rebelled over Europe, an iss ue that has divided his party for decades and helped bring down previous leaders. Although the result carried no legal weight, the setback raised questions about Cameron's authority after months of missteps by his coalition government and it revived painful memories of Conservative infighting over Europe. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain wants a cut in the European Union budget and Prime Minister David Cameron will veto any deal that is not good for the British taxpayer, finance minister George Osborne said on Thursday. "We want a cut in the EU budget," Osborne told BBC Radio 4. "We are at the beginning of a negotiation. Let us see where that negotiation leads." The second most powerful man in the British government refused to be drawn on whether he thought securing such a cut was possible or not, but said Wednesday's defeat in parliament meant the government had to listen to lawmakers. … 
Don't roll down the taxi windows. Don't buy a remote-controlled plane without a police chief's permission. And don't release your pigeons.