News Archive - 9 June 2015

>"The plant ... was taken," Islamic State said in a message on social media, adding that the capture of the plant meant that the militants had driven their enemies out of the entire city.Forces loyal to the self-declared government that controls the capital Tripoli pulled out of the plant after...

>The Houston, Texas-based specialty insurer, which has offices in Britain, Spain and Ireland, has been in talks to be acquired by an Asian buyer, the person said, declining to reveal the acquirer's identity.The source asked not to be identified because the deal is not yet public. An HCC spokesman...

>President Park Geun-hye postponed a U.S. visit to supervise the handling of the outbreak, as two more people died and 13 new cases were reported, lifting the total number of patients to 108.Department store sales in the period fell 25 percent from an average of the first two...

>The attorneys general want to know whether music labels colluded or were pressured into favoring Apple's paid music subscription service, which was released on Monday.Apple launched Apple Music on Monday, a $9.99-a-month streaming music service that will likely alter the dynamics of how consumers listen to music as...

>LONDON The world of zero interest rates has outlived its usefulness, according to a chorus of influential bankers, watchdogs and economists anxious about asset bubbles and wealth inequality.As financial markets start bracing for the first U.S. and British interest rate rises in almost a decade, there's a pervasive...

>Ma is visiting the United States this week to explain Alibaba's global strategy and to "help dispel misconceptions" about the company, spokesman Greg Jenkins said in an email."We're not coming here to compete," Ma told the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday.The vast bulk of Alibaba's revenue...

>BRISBANE Australia's central bank said on Wednesday it was "open to the possibility" of more interest rate cuts if needed, while cautioning that ever easier policy had risks given households were already burdened with a large amount of debt.In a speech to a business lunch, Reserve Bank of Australia...

>KOFU, Japan Bank of Japan board member Takehiro Sato on Wednesday warned of diminishing returns and potential drawbacks of maintaining the central bank's massive stimulus program for too long, such as delaying government efforts to fix Japan's tattered finances.Steady progress in restoring Japan's fiscal health is crucial for the...

>The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh, said the relationship between Kirkland and Mylan, which dates back to January 2013, made it impermissible for the law firm to represent Teva as it could harm Mylan's interests.Mylan, which is headquartered outside Pittsburgh, filed a...

>While final approval from President Barack Obama is still needed, the modest military expansion in Iraq appeared the likeliest choice among a range of options he is weighing to bolster a struggling Iraq effort against insurgent forces in Anbar in the country's Sunni heartland. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by...

>TOKYO Asian shares languished near three-month lows on Wednesday as the spectre of higher borrowing costs in the United States and concerns about the apparent lack of progress in talks between Greece and its creditors sapped confidence.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS edged down 0.1...

>Chief Executive Reed Hastings said at the company's annual meeting that management will seek approval from the board of directors "in due course" to pursue a stock split, Netflix spokeswoman Anne Marie Squeo said.The video-streaming service won approval to raise its share authorization by nearly 30 times to 5...

>WASHINGTON The House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to permanently bar U.S. states from taxing Internet access and replace a 17-year-old temporary ban that had been extended multiple times and was due to expire on Oct. 1.The bipartisan measure, passed by voice vote, also bans discriminatory taxes on...

>DETROIT Tesla Motors Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja will retire this year, but will stay on to help search for a successor at the fast-growing electric car maker, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told shareholders on Tuesday.Musk made the unexpected announcement at the company's annual meeting. Ahuja, a former...

>NEW YORK Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of investment firm DoubleLine Capital, said on Tuesday he still believes the U.S. Federal Reserve will probably not raise interest rates this year, in part because of a lack of wage inflation.Gundlach, reiterating his Federal Reserve call first made in early May,...

>The change in policy, announced by Carter at a gay and lesbian pride celebration, gives U.S. military troops a broader range of choices in pursuing complaints if they believe they have been discriminated against based on sexual orientation.The change brought the rules into conformity with the 2011 decision...

>Representative Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, said most Democrats were unhappy with extending limits on healthcare funding to offset support for workers displaced by trade. House Democratic leadership is working with Republicans to find alternative ways to finance the program and had "some success," said...

>BERLIN Germans need to overcome their traditional fear of the large-scale collection of personal data by companies and instead embrace its opportunities or risk being marginalized in the global economy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.In a marked shift in tone by Germany, one of the most vocal critics...

>PARIS A tiny piece of data needed to run the West's largest turboprop engines is at the center of a complex chain of events under scrutiny following an Airbus A400M military plane crash last month, several people familiar with the matter said.The troop and cargo carrier crashed outside Seville,...

>MOSCOW President Vladimir Putin will be on the lookout for signs of dissent over European Union sanctions on Russia when he visits Italy on Wednesday, but he is likely to be disappointed. The Russian leader is due to meet Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the Expo 2015 global fair in...

>Target Corp (TGT.N) said it would double its share buyback program to $10 billion and boost its quarterly dividend by 7.7 percent, confirming the contents of a statement it published inadvertently and took off its website earlier on Tuesday.The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based retailer said it had invested $3.

>NEW YORK Overseas markets bring in more advertising revenue than the United States for Facebook Inc, amounting to 51 percent of global ad sales in the first quarter, with growth in Asia the fastest in the world at 57 percent, company executives told Reuters.While Facebook has reported regional growth...

>No other areas of the White House were affected, and the briefing room was checked and cleared. "At approximately 1:53 p.m. today, a telephonic bomb threat concerning the White House Briefing Room was called into the Metropolitan Police Department," a spokesman said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Sandra...

>SEOUL South Korean President Park Geun-hye postponed a U.S. visit on Wednesday to supervise the handling of an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), as two more people died and 13 new cases were reported, lifting the total number of patients to 108.Park had been due to...

>ANKARA Whether it teams up with the nationalist or secularist opposition, Turkey's ruling AK Party must navigate the same obstacle in its search for a junior coalition partner: the ambition of President Tayyip Erdogan.Though his efforts to forge a powerful executive presidency have for now been thwarted, Erdogan has...

>BRUSSELS The European Parliament failed on Tuesday to agree a unified stance on a proposed trade deal with the United States, postponing a vote that was meant to cement its support for the biggest accord of its kind.The failure to agree on a resolution meant that the parliament would...

>Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said U.S. prosecutors in New York are considering other possible charges and have not made a final decision. Authorities hope to reach a settlement with the automaker by the end of summer or early fall, the WSJ reported.Before the GM...

>DETROIT General Motors Co (GM.N) Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra said on Tuesday that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI) CEO Sergio Marchionne sent an email proposing a potential merger, and that GM's board gave "strong support" to her strategy of going it alone.Marchionne has been conducting a...

>WASHINGTON A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday rejected an industry and state challenge to the Obama administration's proposal to curb carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the various lawsuits objecting to...

>SAN FRANCISCO Following up on its earlier pledge to spend $300 million over the next five years to improve diversity, Intel Corp promised more on Tuesday, this time to back companies with women and minorities in leadership roles.Intel Capital, the chipmaker's venture capital arm, said it would allocate $125...

>The emergence of self-driving and connected cars has made software a key component in future cars, opening the market to new entrants like Google, and shaking up the pecking order between carmakers and their suppliers.Software-driven cars also throw up new questions about who should control data generated by connected...

>The fire burned overnight and by morning had spread to at least 16 tanks, most of them storing petrol. That sent a huge pall of black smoke over the area around the depot near Vasylkiv, 30 km (19 miles) from Kiev. The depot's owners said they suspected arson. "Firemen have...

>The logistics plan includes 4,371 kilometers of new highways, the extension of existing railway concessions and the private operation of airports in the cities of Porto Alegre, Fortaleza, Salvador and Florianopolis, according to a government presentation. The new concessions will have access to less state bank financing in the midst...

>Henkel & Co KGaA AG and Coty Inc, both of which have personal care and cosmetics businesses, made binding offers to buy separate parts of Procter & Gamble Co's beauty businesses worth up to a total of $12 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.The bids, submitted on...

>Garden Fresh, which also makes hummus and tortilla chips, generated $100 million in net sales in the year ended Dec. 31, Campbell said on Tuesday. (Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)...

>GE's Chicago-based Antares unit is the leading lender to middle market private equity-backed transactions in the United States. Over the past five years, Antares has provided more than $120 billion in financing. "This acquisition exemplifies our strategy to achieve scale in key sectors through platform investments," said CPPIB's Chief Executive...

>CHICAGO Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert pleaded not guilty in a packed Chicago courtroom on Tuesday to federal charges of trying to hide large cash transactions and lying to the FBI about it.Law enforcement officials have said Hastert was using the money to try to...

>BEIRUT/AMMAN Syrian rebels said they had captured a major base from the Syrian army in the south of the country on Tuesday, a setback that would increase pressure on President Bashar al-Assad after his recent losses elsewhere.Syrian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. State TV had earlier...

>Television stations had broadcast Erdogan speeches as often as three times a day in the weeks running up to Sunday's parliamentary election, which he had hoped would deliver a strong enough AKP victory to boost his presidential powers.Instead, the vote left the ruling party unable to form a government...

>Andrew Balls, PIMCO's global fixed income chief investment officer, said investors had priced in the prospect of relatively low interest rates in the future but it was "perfectly plausible" that the Federal Reserve could raise borrowing costs above the so-called neutral rate level over time."Even with our 'new neutral'...

>The second-quarter economic outlook also got a boost from other data on Tuesday showing a solid rise in wholesale inventories in April, as stabilizing oil prices helped lift sales by the most in more than a year.The Labor Department said job openings increased to 5.4 million in April,...

>HONG KONG/LONDON HSBC (HSBA.L) pledged a new era of higher dividends on Tuesday, laying out plans to slash nearly one in five jobs and shrink its investment bank by a third to combat sluggish growth across its sprawling empire.Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver has made it his mission to...

>U.S. stock index futures were lower on Tuesday, following three straight days of losses on rising speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise rates as soon as September.* The blue-chip Dow index on Monday slipped into negative territory for 2015, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq touched...

>HONG KONG/SEOUL British retailer Tesco Plc (TSCO.L) has invited at least six firms including KKR & Co (KKR.N) and Carlyle Group (CG.O) to bid for its South Korean unit Homeplus, valued at about $6 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.A sale is seen as...

>The stakes are high for Christie, a Republican, who has trailed in polls behind rivals such as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a fellow Republican.Christie is viewed unfavorably even in his own state according to one poll. Christie is battling to improve his record on the economy, where he has...

>BERLIN High-tech extortion schemes nearly doubled in the first three months of 2015, while attacks on Adobe Flash software used in streaming media and casual game sites quadrupled, a global report said on Tuesday.Intel Corp's McAfee Labs Threats Report for May found that ransomware surged 165 percent in the...

>Tomoyuki Suzuki, head of Sony's device solutions business including sensors, said he expected sensor sales to grow by about 100 billion yen ($804 million) to 550 billion in the year to March. That would be slightly slower than the 40 percent rise in the previous year, but Suzuki said demand...

>WASHINGTON Top U.S. tech companies are warning the Obama administration against imposing new policies that the companies say would weaken increasingly sophisticated encryption systems designed to protect consumers' privacy.In a strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama on Monday, two industry associations representing major software and hardware companies...

>The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a human rights law firm representing Shafqat Hussain, said the Supreme Court in the capital Islamabad would hear its appeal against an earlier court decision that rejected an inquiry into the case.The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing until Wednesday.It was the fourth time...

>SEOUL Oil prices edged up on Tuesday on hopes of more economic stimulus in China after disappointing data from the world's No.2 economy.China's consumer inflation weakened more than expected, to 1.2 percent year-on-year in May, raising concerns about growing deflationary pressures as the economy cools. Its producer...