News Archive - 26 June 2015

>WASHINGTON Jeb Bush, a Republican contender for president, will sit down with pastors on a visit on Monday to Charleston, South Carolina, where nine African-Americans were shot to death at a historic black church, his campaign said on Friday.Bush, the former Florida governor who leads many polls of Republican...

>NEW YORK The S&P 500 closed flat on Friday but ended lower for the week, with investors cautious ahead of a meeting in Europe that could decide whether Greece will default on critical loans.The Dow closed higher, boosted by strong results from component Nike Inc (NKE.N), while the...

>ATHENS/BRUSSELS Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on austerity demands from foreign creditors on Saturday, rejecting an "ultimatum" from lenders and putting a deal that could determine Greece's future in Europe to a risky popular vote.The surprise call marked the most dramatic twist yet in five-month negotiations...

>Lone Star's statement on Friday comes a day after financial news website Proactive Investors reported that BP Plc (BP.L) had offered to buy company for $8 per share."If it is true that Penn Virginia could be sold for an 80 percent premium or more to a credible buyer,...

>WASHINGTON Eighteen Republican lawmakers sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Friday requesting the removal of two Office of Personnel Management (OPM) executives after a data breach that compromised the personal information of millions of Americans.Led by House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz,...

>Garg, who led the company's mergers and acquisition team, had joined Twitter in May, 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had previously worked at Square, Re/code reported. This is the second resignation at Twitter's mergers and acquisition team. Jessica Verilli resigned last month as the director of corporate development...

>NEW YORK A batch of 15 newly disclosed Hillary Clinton emails appears to contradict her assertion last month that memos about Libya she received from an old friend while she was U.S. secretary of state were "unsolicited."Clinton did not hand over the emails to the State Department last...

>Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken called China's large scale reclamation projects in the South China Sea, "a threat to peace and stability."He said the United States took no position on the merits of competing claims in the disputed sea, but had a strong interest in how those were...

>WASHINGTON Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen met with top executives from GE Capital (GE.N) prior to the company's move to shed financial assets, and she met with a top Democrat who opposes legislation aimed at Fed reform, her April calendar shows.Yellen's April calendar, released on Friday through a...

>SAN FRANCISCO Anxiety about Greece and uncertainty about the timing of higher U.S. interest rates may keep Wall Street on edge early next week, but one ray of hope for investors could be an unusually long streak of ambivalence on Main Street.Seen by some as a contrarian indicator...

>The deal, which will combine FedEx's air fleet with TNT's sizeable European road network, will extend FedEx's reach in competition with United Parcel Service (UPS.N) and Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE).FedEx submitted its request to the European Commission on Friday, spokeswoman Nira Gale said.The EU competition authority's preliminary...

>CHICAGO Former U.S. Representative Mel Reynolds, already convicted of having sex with an underage campaign worker, was indicted again for failing to file income tax returns for 2009 through 2012, federal prosecutors said on Friday.Reynolds, 63, who was charged on Thursday, faces up to a year in prison...

>net new borrowing as Europe's largest economy rides high on a tide of surging tax revenues, government officials said on Friday.The officials, who briefed reporters on condition that they would not be named, said that even a Greek default would not affect plans to keep the federal budget in...

>The financing is set to be led by U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic, Beijing-based investment management firm Hillhouse Capital and investment firm Tiger Global, the FT said in a report on Friday. All three are new investors in Airbnb, the FT said, citing people familiar with the plans.

>J.P. Morgan, UBS Investment Bank and Citigroup were among the underwriters for the IPO, the company told the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus. Digicel said it currently provides mobile communications services to 13.6 million subscribers in 31 markets.The filing did not reveal...

>A robust cyber security insurance policy can be tricky to procure, even for the most meticulous wealth management firms.Interest in cyber insurance has surged over the past year following a number of high-profile hackings, including one announced earlier this month involving the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In response,...

>TUNIS At least 27 people, including foreign tourists, were killed when at least one gunman opened fire on a Tunisian beachside hotel in the popular resort of Sousse on Friday, an interior ministry spokesman said.Police were still clearing the area around the Imperial Marhaba hotel and the body of...

>LONDON Zero hour comes for Greece on Tuesday, when Athens will either repay 1.6 billion euros ($1.79 billion) to the International Monetary Fund after securing a last-ditch deal with its creditors or plunge into default.Non-payment after months of failed talks on unlocking frozen aid could trigger a...

>U.S. stocks rose slightly on Friday as investors were encouraged by signals of a possible deal between Greece and its creditors that could help the country avert a debt default.Euro zone partners offered to release billions in frozen aid in a last-minute push to win Greece's acceptance for...

>The University of Michigan's final June reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 96.1, up sharply from 90.7 in May. It was higher than the survey's preliminary reading of 94.6. The final reading was the highest since January and topped the median forecast...

>BRUSSELS Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused international creditors of "blackmail" on Friday after euro zone partners offered to release billions in frozen aid in a last-minute push to win his acceptance a cash-for-reform deal.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met Tsipras on the sidelines of...

>Charter said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday that it would not block or suppress Internet traffic or prioritize content for a fee and that its broadband services would cost less than the current offerings of Time Warner (TWC) and Bright House. In its first...

>BEIJING China's dominant taxi-hailing app Didi Kuaidi told shareholders on Friday it had three times the number of daily private car trips than Uber Technologies Inc just weeks after its U.S. rival boasted of similar successes in a letter to investors.Didi Kuaidi, which controls 80 percent of China's...

>The move, announced by China's maritime safety authorities, comes soon after the country indicated it was close to setting up new outposts in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, as it nears completion of land reclamation in the South China Sea.China claims most of the potentially energy-rich South China...

>SOUSSE, Tunisia A gunman disguised as a tourist opened fire at a Tunisian hotel on Friday with a rifle he had hidden in an umbrella, killing 39 people including Britons, Germans and Belgians as they lounged at the beach in an attack claimed by Islamic State.Terrified tourists ran for...

>SAINT-QUENTIN FALLAVIER, France A decapitated head covered in Arabic writing was found at a U.S. gas company in southeast France on Friday, police sources and French media said, after two assailants rammed a car into the premises, exploding gas containers. The attack, in which one person was killed and...

>Cinven did not disclose the size of the transaction in a statement.Reuters reported on Thursday that Cinven would pay 1.7-1.8 billion euros ($3.92 billion) for synlab, according to three sources familiar with the deal.The purchase follows Cinven's acquisition in May of French medical diagnostics provider...

>SYDNEY General Electric Co (GE.N) said it will help fund a $348 million Australian windfarm, the country's third largest, after political leaders ended a deadlock over state subsidies that had stalled the $13 billion industry for over a year.GE, Swiss private equity firm Partners Group Holding AG (PGHN.

>WASHINGTON Infuriated by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that kept President Barack Obama’s healthcare program intact, conservative activists and Republican presidential candidates vowed on Thursday to make the role of the high court a central issue in the 2016 presidential election.Conservative ire was trained particularly on Chief Justice...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a conservative legal challenge that could have doomed President Barack Obama's healthcare law, upholding nationwide tax subsidies crucial to his signature domestic policy achievement.Obama strode into the White House Rose Garden after the ruling to declare that the law known...

>BEIJING/SHANGHAI China's No. 2 e-commerce firm JD.com Inc (JD.O) is launching a Chinese consumer credit data system as a joint venture with U.S. credit-scoring technology company ZestFinance, taking on a rival service linked to the larger Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N).JD-ZestFinance Gaia, as the joint...

>The 44-year-old man, whose father is another MERS patient, had defied recommendations from health authorities in South Korea to remain in voluntary quarantine, flying to Hong Kong in late May before taking a bus to mainland China.He later tested positive for the MERS virus and had been hospitalised in...

>The key CSI300 index .CSI300 fell 7.9 percent, to 4,336.19, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC lost 7.4 percent, to 4,192.87 points.For the SSEC, it was the worst one-day loss since Jan 19. For the CSI300, the drop was the biggest since June 2008. Stocks...

>Loans to the private sector in May were up 0.5 percent on the year, a stronger result than the 0.4 percent predicted in a Reuters poll.Sparse lending to companies has dogged the struggling euro zone economy although the picture had been improving and policy setters including ECB...