News Archive - 7 May 2015

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to pass a bill giving Congress the right to review, and potentially reject, an international agreement with Iran aimed at keeping it from developing nuclear weapons.The 98-1 vote sent the measure to the House of Representatives, which could consider it...

>WASHINGTON/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The United States has begun a long-awaited program to train Syrian fighters to go into combat against Islamic State, the Pentagon said on Thursday, deepening America's role in Syria's civil war after eight months of airstrikes against the Sunni militants. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the military...

>SAN FRANCISCO Hillary Clinton makes the final stop on Friday on a California fundraising tour where she has courted technology titans for her 2016 campaign and where one of her admirers tried comparing her to fellow former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is...

>China has recently advanced a wave of policies to tighten cybersecurity after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden disclosed that U.S. spy agencies planted code in American tech exports to snoop on overseas targets.The standing committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislature, reviewed a cyberspace...

>WASHINGTON U.S. job growth likely rebounded last month and the unemployment rate probably dropped to a near seven-year low, signs of a pick up in economic momentum that could keep the Federal Reserve on track to hike interest rates this year.Nonfarm payrolls likely jumped by 224,000 after increasing...

>LAS VEGAS Billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens, who cemented his fortune with bets on oil companies, said the price of oil would likely hit $75 dollars a barrel by yearend as demand revives.The octogenarian corporate-raider-turned-hedge-fund-investor also mused about politics, saying he has put his money on former Florida Governor...

>Pyongyang's warning came during the annual crab fishing season, which runs until June in the waters off the west coast of the Korean peninsula. Naval forces from the two Koreas clashed during the same month in 1999 and 2002, killing scores of sailors on both sides.In March 2010, a...

>TOKYO/SYDNEY Most major currencies stuck to recent ranges ahead of U.S. jobs report later on Friday, but sterling seized the spotlight and rallied to its highest in just over a week on expectations that British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives will stay in office.The Conservatives are set to...

>TOKYO Some Bank of Japan board members warned that private consumption remained weak despite improvements in job markets, minutes of the bank's early April meeting showed, underscoring a lack of conviction among policymakers over the strength of the economy.The nine-member board shared the view that inflation expectations appeared to...

>In its 70-page quarterly monetary policy report, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said weakness in business investment meant the economy would continue to grow at a below-average pace for longer than expected just a few months ago.This, along with a benign outlook for inflation, prompted it to cut...

>Singapore's GIC Pte [GIC.UL], the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Brazilian investment bank Grupo BTG Pactual SA (BBTG11.SA) were among investors who agreed to pay 2.77 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) in cash for the stake, Hutchison said in a securities...

>LONDON Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives are on track to govern Britain for another five years even though they are likely to fall just short of an outright majority at Thursday's election, an exit poll showed.The poll gave the Conservatives 316 of 650 seats in the lower house of...

>TOKYO Asian shares held firm on Friday on signs global bond markets are stabilizing after a big selloff and sterling jumped about one percent after UK exit polls forecast the ruling Conservatives taking the most seats in parliament.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was little changed...

>Microsoft Corp currently is not weighing an offer for Salesforce.com Inc, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, dampening speculation that Microsoft could be drawn into bidding for the cloud software company.Bloomberg News, citing people with knowledge of the matter, reported earlier this week that Microsoft...

>LONDON/FRANKFURT Agricultural companies Monsanto and Syngenta are working with investment banks on a takeover deal that would create an industry behemoth with combined sales of more than $31 billion, three sources familiar with the matter said.Swiss crop chemicals maker Syngenta is working with Goldman Sachs to assess the merits...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Thursday she will unveil a bill next week to reverse the U.S. oil export ban in an effort to build support for killing the 1970s-era restriction that drillers say threatens to choke the domestic energy boom. Murkowski, the Republican...

>"If we make a decision to get in, it will be shortly after our session. So June 11 is when the session ends," he said. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Peter Cooney) Republican Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal speaks at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's forum in Waukee,...

>(Reuters) - The U.S. State Department will not review the breaches of the 2008 ethics agreement Hillary Clinton signed in order to become secretary of state after her family's charities admitted in March that they had not complied, a spokesman said on Thursday. Clinton, now the Democratic front-runner in...

>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union antitrust regulators are not investigating U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm's patent licensing deals, an EU source said on Thursday in response to media reports saying that scrutiny of the company had been expanded to this issue. The European Commission has been looking into rebates and financial...

>LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Will they or won't they move this year? One of the most hotly debated topics among hedge fund managers and their investors at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, known as SALT, is when the Federal Reserve will end its easy money policy by increasing interest rates."I...

>None received more than 71.9 percent of the votes cast, compared with each last year receiving at least 98 percent.Shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services had recommended voting against the four directors after their committee led the board in October to unilaterally change company bylaws to allow CEO...

>Yelp's shares rose as much as 16 percent on Thursday. The San Francisco-based company is working with investment bankers and it has been in touch with potential buyers in recent weeks, the Journal reported. Yelp, which went public in 2012, had a market value of about $2.86 billion as...

>Two London-based traders said billionaire Warren Buffett and investment firm 3G Capital were also cited as potential bidders.Officials for SABMiller, ABI and 3G declined to comment. An official for Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), Warren Buffett's company, was not immediately available to comment.A possible takeover of the world's second-largest...

>(Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) has secured $17 billion from investors for its latest global private equity fund in just seven months, the biggest so-called first close of a buyout fund ever, according to people familiar with the matter. The fundraising is continuing and Blackstone already has commitments...

>The company has been reaching out to companies that specialize in making content for Google Inc's YouTube to discuss both acquiring their material and co-creating original video series, the Journal said. Spotify could announce its video plans as early as this month, the report said.Spotify could not be reached...

>"As President Obama has emphasized, the U.S. places great importance on our close military, intelligence and security cooperation with Israel," the White House National Security Council said on Twitter. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Bill Trott) Related Coverage › White House says looks forward to talks with Israel...

>(Reuters) - A U.S. spying program that collects data about millions of Americans' phone calls is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, adding pressure on lawmakers to decide quickly whether to end or replace the program, which was intended to help fight terrorism. While stopping short of...

>DHUNCHE, Nepal (Reuters) - It was three foreign trekkers who used their satellite telephone to call the rescue helicopter that landed in Nepal's Langtang Valley around midday on Tuesday, April 28. Three days earlier, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake had triggered a catastrophic landslide that buried hundreds of people in...

>NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India moved on Thursday to mollify foreign investors who were hit by bills for several years of taxes on previously untaxed gains, triggering a sell-off in financial markets. Overseas funds chalked up their biggest single-day sales of Indian shares and bonds in a year and a...

>ATHENS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greece defied its international creditors on Thursday, refusing to cut pensions or ease layoffs to meet their demands, dimming prospects of progress next week toward securing desperately needed financial aid. Despite efforts by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to coax leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras into moving...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits held near a 15-year low last week in a sign that the labor market was strengthening despite moderate economic growth. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000 for the week ended...

>Telecity, which operates some of the huge computer centers which process traffic on the Internet, said on Thursday it believed it was required "by virtue of its fiduciary duties" to enter talks with Equinix over a possible offer of 1,145 pence per share, a 27 percent premium to Wednesday's closing...

>PARIS (Reuters) - Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA), which is set to be bought by larger rival Nokia (NOK1V.HE), improved profit margins in the first quarter despite a marked sales slowdown in its biggest market, the United States. Although it reported a net loss, higher software sales, a...

>Alibaba's American depository shares were up 7.5 percent at $86 in premarket trading.The company also said on Thursday that Chief Executive Jonathan Lu will step down, effective May 10, and would be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Daniel Zhang. Lu will remain on the board as vice chairman.

>Allegations that the BND has helped the NSA spy on European officials and firms has put strains on Angela Merkel's governing coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and could damage U.S. relations and even the conservative chancellor's own popularity.An INSA poll on Wednesday showed that 62 percent of...

>CAIRO/RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said all options were open including ground operations to stop mortar attacks on its border towns by Yemen's Houthi militia, as its jets hammered the group's positions ahead of U.S.-led talks on a temporary truce. A second night on Wednesday of raids aimed...

>LONDON (Reuters) - Britons went to vote on Thursday in the tightest election for decades; one that could cause government gridlock, push the world's fifth-largest economy closer to leaving the European Union and stoke a second attempt by Scotland to break away. Final opinion polls showed Prime Minister David Cameron's...

>(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were lower on Thursday, following global markets, as the global bond rout continued and ahead of the release of weekly jobless claims numbers. World financial markets were unsettled again as the week-long sell-off in bonds, stocks and the dollar and a race up...