News Archive - 18 August 2016

Tuesday, 26th of Mordad – August 16th, 2016 HEADLINES OF IRAN’S MORNING PAPERS   KAYHAN   -Turkish Prime Minister: Time has come to reconcile with Syria While mentioning the developments in Turkey’s foreign policy, the Prime Minister of this country said that Ankara intends to correct its relations with...

>"The payment of the $400 million was not done until after the prisoners were released," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters."We took advantage of that to make sure we had the maximum leverage possible to get our people out and get them out safely," Kirby added.It was...

>Clinton has for over a year been dogged by questions about her use of a private email account while she was the nation's top diplomat.The newspaper said the information came from notes the Federal Bureau of Investigation delivered to Congress on Tuesday, which contained details from a more than...

>Former President Bill Clinton told staff members on Thursday he would resign from the foundation's board and that it would only accept donations from U.S. citizens and independent charities.The former president also said he would hold the 12th and final Clinton Global Initiative in September. The annual meetings...

>Hackers targeted the computer systems of presidential candidate Donald Trump and Republican Party organizations as well as Democratic Party networks, sources familiar with investigations into the attacks said.At least one Trump staff member’s email account was infected with malware in 2015 and sent malicious emails to colleagues, according to...

>ZTE would continue to cooperate with relevant U.S. government departments to reach a final solution on the matter, the Shenzhen-based company said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse on Friday. (bit.ly/2b4KYG4) In March, the U.S. Commerce Department hit the company with some of the toughest-ever...

>SYDNEY Australia's anti-trust regulator on Friday said it would not grant the country's three biggest banks interim approval to collectively negotiate with Apple Inc to install their own electronic payments applications on iPhones.Australia's three biggest banks, including the number one lender National Australia Bank (NAB), last month lodged a...

>Fed officials agree that more economic data is needed before raising interest rates, although they were generally upbeat about the U.S. economic outlook and labor market.New York Fed President William Dudley said strong employment and a long-awaited return of middle-wage jobs suggest the labor market is tightening and...

>SINGAPORE Brent crude oil prices dipped in early Asian trading hours on Friday, but remained near two-month highs with Brent still holding above $50 per barrel in a bull-run that has lifted the market by over 20 percent since early August.International benchmark Brent crude oil futures were trading at...

>TOKYO Asian stocks edged up on Friday as Wall Street benefited from buoyant crude oil prices and expectations U.S. borrowing costs will remain at stimulatory levels at least until year-end. Japan's Nikkei .N225 added 0.5 percent and South Korea's Kospi .KS11 tacked on 0.2 percent. Australian shares...

>SAN FRANCISCO A U.S. judge on Thursday rejected an attempt by Uber Technologies Inc to settle a class action lawsuit with drivers who claimed they were employees entitled to expenses. In a case that has been closely watched in Silicon Valley, where many companies use on-demand workers, U.S.

>NEW YORK - Viacom Inc's (VIAB.O) board of directors is expected to meet on Thursday night to discuss a settlement with controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone that would result in the departure of Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.The board is due to...

>The deal will help Emerson expand its core business as it sheds its motors and drives and network power businesses.Emerson agreed earlier in August to sell its network power unit to investment firm Platinum Equity in a deal valued at $4 billion.The business provides equipment and services that...

>"Given the intensity of the current offensive and our loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalition to prevent fatal attacks, MSF considers the hospitals in Saada and Hajjah governorates unsafe for both patients and staff," the group said in a statement.Countless attacks on health facilities in Yemen have endangered...

>ANCHORAGE San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams on Thursday joined a growing chorus of his colleagues signaling support for a U.S. interest rate hike in coming months, saying that waiting too long could be costly for the economy. "I think every one of our meetings should be...

>Enterprise Product Partners LP approached Williams Companies Inc earlier this summer about combining their businesses, the two largest U.S. oil and gas pipeline operations, people familiar with the matter said.Merging Williams' natural gas liquids business in the northeastern United States with Enterprise's ATEX pipeline, which runs from that...

>Forces, mainly composed of fighters aligned with a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, have been closing in on the center of Sirte, where militants now control a shrinking residential area. Since Aug. 1 the United States has been conducting air strikes to support them. As of Wednesday it had...

>The militant group made the claim via the Amaq news agency, which it regularly uses to issue statements.The Amaq statement said: "Two fighters of the Islamic State assaulted Russian policemen in the Balashikha area, east of Moscow". Russia's Investigative Committee said two unidentified people armed with a firearm and...

>Rank and 888 had wanted to join up with William Hill to create Britain's largest multi-channel gambling operator by revenue and profit, with 92 percent of its business from regulated markets.But the two companies said in a joint statement on Thursday they had not been able to meaningfully engage...

>NEW YORK Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Thursday nominated the state's inspector general to serve as interim attorney general until November's election, temporarily replacing Kathleen Kane, who resigned the post earlier this week after her conviction for perjury.Bruce Beemer, who previously served under Kane as first deputy in the...

>The decision comes two days after Univision Holdings Inc (UVN.N) won a bankruptcy auction to acquire Gawker for $135 million, outbidding media company Ziff Davis LLC.Univision's winning bid for Gawker will go before a U.S. bankruptcy judge later in the day. Gawker - which also operates popular...

>The microblogging platform has previously come under fire from Washington and third-party groups for not doing enough to stop accounts linked to Islamic State militants. But, since February, it has suspended an additional 235,000 accounts, after halting 125,000 accounts since the middle of 2015, most of which were related to...

>SEOUL Thae Yong Ho, the most senior North Korean diplomat to flee to the South, is likely to have round-the-clock protection and make a comfortable living at a think-tank run by Seoul's intelligence service, say elite defectors who followed a similar path.Thae, who was deputy ambassador at the North's...

> The Federal Trade Commission said that it would have required divestitures in the deal. ETE walked away from the planned merger in June. It was worth more than $20 billion. (Reporting by Diane Bartz)...

>WASHINGTON Donald Trump's new campaign manager promised on Thursday the volatile Republican presidential candidate would stick to a more disciplined and uplifting message to voters in the final dash to Election Day without crimping his freewheeling style.One day after being elevated to the position in Trump's second campaign overhaul...

>HONG KONG Connecting the giant stock markets of Hong Kong and Shenzhen is unlikely to fast-track the inclusion of Chinese shares in a major investment benchmark index as foreign access to China's markets is still restricted.Approval this week for the long-awaited extension of the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock trading link...

>NEW YORK Strong recent U.S. jobs growth and a long-awaited return of middle-wage employment are two positive signs for the U.S. labor market, an influential Federal Reserve policymaker said on Thursday, appearing to reinforce his more confident message on a possible interest-rate hike.New York Fed President William...

>FLORENCE, Italy The chief executive of Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI), Fabrizio Viola, and the Italian bank's former chairman, Alessandro Profumo, are under investigation for alleged false accounting and market manipulation, a source with knowledge of the matter said.The investigation, which started in 2015 following complaints filed...

>Facebook users will now have a chance to "like" the Fed on the social media site, although the central bank's standing as measured by public opinion polls has taken a hit since the 2007-09 recession. Many economists believe the Fed played a critical role in guiding America out of the...

>The Philadelphia Fed said its current business activity index rose to 2.0 in August from -2.9 in July. The August figure matched the median forecast among economists polled by Reuters.A reading above zero indicates expansion in the region's manufacturing. The survey covers factories in eastern Pennsylvania, southern...

>United Bankshares said it will offer 0.71 shares for each share of Cardinal Financial.The price represents 2.24 times Cardinal Financial's tangible book value on June 30, United Bankshares said on Thursday. "Cardinal is one of the most successful community banks in the country and has a significant...

>BERLIN In his decade as a neo-Nazi skinhead in eastern Germany, Manuel Bauer says he beat up foreigners and disabled people, stabbed a cigarette in the eye of a 12-year old boy and assaulted a Muslim man and his pregnant German wife.Bauer, who led two racist gangs, the "League...

>Wall Street was little changed in early trading on Thursday as the impact of a rise in oil prices and strong results at Wal-Mart was offset by weakness in consumer discretionary and financial stocks.Dow component Wal-Mart (WMT.N) rose as much as 3.1 percent to $75.19 -...

>WASHINGTON The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, reinforcing views of labor market strength that could encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates soon.Another report on Thursday showed a modest improvement in manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region this month amid...

>Anthony Levandowski, one of Otto's co-founders, will lead Uber's self-driving efforts in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Pittsburgh, Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick said in a blogpost on the company's website. (here)The Uber-Volvo partnership will allow Uber to pool resources with the Swedish-based carmaker, owned by China's Geely (0175.

>News of the investment follows Friday's announcement that it will create 500 jobs when it opens a fulfilment center in Doncaster, northern England, next year.The new jobs in Doncaster and Tilbury are in addition to the 3,500 Amazon has announced it expects to create in Britain in 2016, spanning...

>SYDNEY The premier of Western Australia state, a member of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal Party, has offered to accept refugees from Australian-funded detention centres amid growing concern about conditions for the 1,350 people held in the camps.Under Australian law, anyone intercepted trying to reach the country by boat...

>ISTANBUL Turkish authorities ordered the detention of nearly 200 people, including leading businessmen, and seized their assets as an investigation into suspects in last month's failed military rebellion shifted to the private sector.President Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to choke off businesses linked to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah...

>Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) raised its fiscal-year profit forecast on Thursday and reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, an improvement it attributed in part to a better shopping experience resulting from employee wage increases.Shares of the world's largest retailer rose more than 4 percent.Earlier this year, Wal-Mart said it...

>Euro zone prices rose 0.2 percent year-on-year, Eurostat said, confirming its initial estimate of two weeks ago. Month-on-month, prices fell 0.6 percent from June.The annual rate remains well short of the European Central Bank's target of just below 2 percent. Until the annual figure posted a 0.

>NEW YORK Earlier this year, an analyst asked Citigroup Inc (C.N) Chief Executive Michael Corbat what he would do if activist investors tried to shake things up after what seems like eons of underperformance.Corbat's response? He would take the new shareholders down to the U.S. Federal Reserve...

>PARIS Ingenico Group has signed a deal with Alipay, China's biggest online-payments platform, that will allow Chinese consumers to use the mobile payment app widely across Europe, the French company said on Thursday.The agreement, signed on Wednesday, marks an opportunity for Alipay, a unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba,...

>Nokia, whose main business is now telecoms network equipment, started selling the camera earlier this year as the first device to be produced for its digital media business, one of its new hopes for future growth.Having launched the device at $60,000 in the United States and Europe, Nokia has...

>Turkey and Germany have had a series of disputes in recent months, just as the European Union has been trying to secure Turkey's help in tackling the influx of migrants to Europe, of which Germany has taken in the bulk.Ankara has also been incensed by criticism from the West...

>Footage on the CNN Turk channel showed offices inside the police station in ruins and filled with smoke after the bomb exploded just outside the complex at 9:20 a.m. (0620 GMT), when officers had already begun arriving for work.No one immediately claimed responsibility, but Defence Minister Fikri Isik...

>SAN FRANCISCOWhen San Francisco passed an ordinance this year imposing fines on home rental companies for listings by hosts not registered with the city, Airbnb sued, saying the measure runs afoul of Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act.The case is the latest test of Section 230,...

>Police and ambulances were seen rushing in, according to another broadcaster, the privately owned Dogan news agency. The station also serves as a police barracks, TRT said, citing a statement from the local governor. It was not immediately clear how many police and civilians were among the dead and wounded.