MOSCOW (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Russians defied bitter cold in Moscow on Saturday to demand fair elections in a march against Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule, and thousands of others staged a rally supporting the prime minister.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 150 "Occupy" movement protesters who have been camped at a park near the White House since October peacefully removed gear on Saturday after police moved in at dawn to enforce a no-camping rule.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would not retreat from its nuclear program even if its crude oil exports grind to a halt, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

BEIRUT/MUNICH (Reuters) - Syrian forces killed more than 200 people in an assault on the city of Homs, activists said, the bloodiest day of an 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, ahead of a Saturday vote on a U.N. resolution calling for him to cede power.

MUNICH (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reassured European allies on Saturday that Washington remains committed to their security despite an austerity drive, as NATO pushed for new ways for alliance members to maintain capabilities at lower cost.

KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban denied on Saturday that the group's leader Mullah Omar wrote to the White House last year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Among the slick, million-dollar ads for the likes of Pepsi and Honda during the Super Bowl this Sunday, viewers in New York and Boston will see a far more modest spot. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will be sitting on a couch touting an issue most politicians avoid like the plague: gun control.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary is seeking an international credit line of 15 to 20 billion ($20 to $26.3 billion) euros, the secretary of state heading the prime minister's office, Mihaly Varga, was quoted on Saturday as saying.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - With a huge lead in polls, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney appears poised for an easy win in Nevada on Saturday that would put him in firm command of the party's see-sawing presidential nominating race.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - It's the year's hottest initial public offering, but some wealth managers find themselves having a hard time recommending Facebook to their clients.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co forecast a worse-than-expected 65 percent drop in profit for the year to March after natural disasters in Japan and Thailand hammered it harder than its rivals while the strong yen delivered an added blow.

NEW YORK/TOKYO (Reuters) - Ratings agency Standard & Poor's warned it may downgrade "a number of highly rated" Group of 20 countries from 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising healthcare spending and other costs related to ageing populations.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel cemented her political ascendancy in Europe Monday when 25 out of 27 EU states agreed to a German-inspired pact for stricter budget discipline, even as they struggled to rekindle growth from the ashes of austerity.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp, Japan's biggest chip maker, booked a 72 percent fall in quarterly operating profit and cut its annual profit forecast as a strong yen and a weak global economy hit profits at the industrial electronics conglomerate.

COCOA BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Florida's Republican voters go to the polls on Tuesday in a high-stakes presidential primary election that could determine the direction of the race.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For a central bank that wants to make transparency its hallmark, the Federal Reserve's new forecast of nearly three more years of super-low rates has left room for a few doubts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House hopeful Mitt Romney's lead over rival Newt Gingrich has stretched to 15 percentage points in Florida, according to results of a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday, just a day before the state's Republican primary.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Republicans will propose legislation on Tuesday calling for $260 billion in spending on transportation infrastructure for up to five years, an election-year proposal touted as a job creator in a tough economy.

(Reuters) - A California judge has dismissed a fraud claim brought by Oracle Corp against Hewlett-Packard Co in the bitter legal battle between the two companies over the Itanium platform.

(Reuters) - An Oregon special election in which national Democrats have sought to paint the Republican congressional candidate as a Tea Party radical foreshadows a tactic the party will employ in its quest to take back Congress seats lost in the 2010 election.