News Archive - 8 July 2015

>VIENNA Iran has offered "constructive solutions" to resolve disputes in nuclear talks with six major powers, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Wednesday, but Western officials suggested they had heard nothing new from Tehran.Iran and the powers are in the last stretch of talks to reach a...

>CHARLESTON, S.C. The campaign to remove the Confederate battle flag from South Carolina's capitol grounds dragged on into the night in a marathon session on Wednesday as the House of Representatives debated the banner symbolizing slavery and racism for many and Southern heritage for others.Tempers began to fray...

>WASHINGTON Lawmakers on Wednesday sharply criticized long-announced U.S. Army plans to cut nearly 60,000 soldiers and civilian personnel due to tight budgets, warning it was risky and short-sighted at a time of Middle East conflict and rising tensions with Russia.Senator John McCain, the Republican head of the Armed...

>SINGAPORE Crude oil prices bounced on Thursday following losses earlier in the week, with Chinese stocks picking up after the government put in place new efforts to stop a rout that had knocked off a third of the country's share market value.Front-month U.S. crude futures and internationally traded...

>STRASBOURG/BRUSSELS A race to save Greece from bankruptcy and keep it in the euro gathered pace on Wednesday when Athens formally applied for a three-year loan and European authorities launched an accelerated review of the request. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called in a speech to the European Parliament for...

>NEW YORK The New York Stock Exchange was forced to suspend trading for several hours on Wednesday in the biggest outage to hit a U.S. financial market in nearly two years, unnerving investors already rattled by the meltdown in Chinese stocks and the Greek debt crisis.The exchange, a...

>ConAgra Foods Inc (CAG.N) has hired Centerview Partners to explore a sale of its private label unit Ralcorp, just two years after it acquired the troubled business with advice from the same investment bank, people familiar with the matter said. The maker of Chef Boyardee and Slim Jim snacks,...

>The C$2 billion ($1.57 billion) offer, first made in May will terminate immediately, Pacific Rubiales said in a statement, adding that it is not obligated to pay a termination fee.Pacific Rubiales did not provide a reason for the termination of the deal, which had been opposed by O'Hara...

>WASHINGTON/NEW YORK Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and Textron Inc (TXT.N) have emerged as final contenders to buy United Technologies Corp's (UTX.N) Sikorsky Aircraft business, which could be valued at around $8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.UTC is weighing offers from the two companies...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Air Force still aims to award a long-awaited contract for a new long-range strike bomber in August, but the decision could slip into September, Air Force Secretary Deborah James said Wednesday, adding it was crucial to "do it right."Northrop Grumman Corp, maker of the B-2...

>WASHINGTON Relatives and friends of the victims of last month's shooting in a Charleston, South Carolina church traveled to Washington on Wednesday to demand that U.S. lawmakers vote on legislation to expand background checks on gun sales.But their chances of success are at best considered slim. Similar legislation...

>The Nikkei business daily, which first reported the news, said the Japanese industrial conglomerate plans to generate about 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) through the sales.A Toshiba spokesman said the company had already been considering lowering its 87 percent stake in Westinghouse Electric and that this had nothing...

>NEW YORK Almost two-thirds of Republicans oppose the Supreme Court’s backing of gay marriage, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, which gives hope for conservative presidential candidates who have come out strongly against marriage equality.Republicans would struggle to make opposition to same-sex marriage a winning issue in next November’s general...

>The types of communication include postings related to "explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction," according to the text. An official familiar with the bill said it was sent to the Senate floor for a vote.The official said its main purpose was to give social media companies additional...

>LA PAZ, Bolivia Pope Francis arrived in Bolivia on Wednesday, praising the government of leftist President Evo Morales, the country's first indigenous leader whose frosty relationship with the Catholic Church has begun to thaw under the Argentine pontiff's papacy.Morales has nationalized key industries such as oil and gas to...

>A report released by the group suggested NSA spying on Merkel and her staff had gone on far longer and more widely than previously realized. WikiLeaks said the NSA targeted for long-term surveillance 125 phone numbers of top German officials. The release risks renewing tensions between Germany and the United...

>SYDNEY The yen held onto hefty gains early on Thursday, having posted its biggest one-day rally against the greenback this year as investors unwound short positions amid a slump in global equities triggered by panic selling in Chinese stocks.The dollar tumbled 1.5 percent on the yen on Wednesday,...

>FRANKFURT Some large Greek banks may have to be shut and taken over by stronger rivals as part of a restructuring of the sector that would follow any bailout of the country, European officials have told Reuters.European leaders will gather on Sunday in a last-ditch attempt to salvage agreement...

>SHANGHAI China's securities regulator took the drastic step of ordering shareholders with stakes of more than 5 percent from selling shares for the next six months in a bid to halt a plunge in stock prices that is starting to roil global financial markets.The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)...

>MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shed 0.2 percent, hovering near a 17-month low struck the previous day.Japan's Nikkei .N225 dropped 1.8 percent, Australian shares .AXJO lost 0.3 percent and South Korea's Kospi .KS11 fell 0.9 percent.The focus in Asia again...

>Reinsurers Axis Capital Holdings Ltd (AXS.N) and PartnerRe Ltd (PRE.N) are considering tweaking their $6.2 billion merger agreement in a bid to fend off a $6.8 billion offer for PartnerRe by Exor SpA (EXOR.MI), people familiar with the matter said.The move would be a...

>Clinton said on Tuesday that hacking posed a broad threat to U.S. security and business and that Russia, North Korea, Iran and China had "directly or indirectly sponsored" hacking.Asked about her comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "This is an absolutely inappropriate statement and an unfounded accusation.

>BRUSSELS U.S. conglomerate General Electric (GE.N) has just over a week to offer concessions and head off EU regulatory concerns about its 12.4-billion-euro ($13.7 billion) bid for Alstom's power unit, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.The company faces a tough challenge after...

>STRASBOURG European lawmakers on Wednesday backed a compromise plan designed to spur negotiations on a trade pact between the European Union and the United States and overcome deep divisions within the European Parliament.Opposition to the proposed trade pact between the EU and the United States, which would be the...

>"I'll win the Latino vote. I will win it," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with NBC News released on Wednesday. He said he would be better able to create jobs as president than fellow Republican Jeb Bush or Democrat Hillary Clinton."I will create jobs, and the...

>The Federal Bureau of Investigation is pushing technology companies to let law enforcement authorities have access to encrypted communications to investigate illegal activities. Those companies have resisted, arguing that building in such access would undermine encryption and weaken systems against criminals and computer hackers.Comey told a U.S. Senate...

>The company is asking suppliers to manufacture 85 million to 90 million units of two new models with 4.7-inch and .5-inch displays. The company had ordered 70 million to 80 million of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus last year, in its largest initial production run so far.The...

>A federal judge has thrown out a $532.9 million award against Apple Inc and ordered a new trial on damages, in a case where a jury found that the iPhone maker's iTunes software infringed three patents owned by a Texas company.In a decision on Tuesday, U.S. District...

>QUITO Pope Francis flies to Bolivia on Wednesday after drawing about 1.5 million people to Masses in Ecuador on the first leg of a "homecoming" tour, where he urged the world to take better care of the environment and the poor.The Argentine-born pontiff was spending his last few...

>ANKARA/ISTANBUL Delays in efforts to form a coalition government in Turkey are buying time for President Tayyip Erdogan, heightening the chances of a snap election which could see his AK Party regain its majority and leaving the opposition floundering.A month after an election which saw the AKP lose its...

>The OECD's monthly leading indicator, a measure designed to flag turning points in the international economy, showed dips for the United States, the United Kingdom and other key economies such as China and Brazil in May.The indicator, a synthetic index where 100 is the long-term average, fell to 99.

>WASHINGTON The Obama administration is worried that China's stock market crash could hurt the country's economy and get in the way of Beijing's economic reform agenda."The concern, that is a real one, is what does it mean about long-term growth in China," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Wednesday.

>Washington has so far signed pacts covering more than 80 tax jurisdictions to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act 2010, or FATCA, requiring financial institutions to share information about Americans' accounts worth more than $50,000.By signing the agreement, India hopes to garner Washington's support for its own efforts...

>"We will be providing further updates as soon as we can, and are doing our utmost to produce a swift resolution, communicate thoroughly and transparently, and ensure a timely and orderly market reopen," a spokeswoman for the exchange operator said in a statement.The stocks continue to trade on other...