News Archive - 4 December 2015

>VIENNA OPEC members failed to agree an oil production ceiling on Friday at a meeting that ended in acrimony, after Iran said it would not consider any production curbs until it restores output scaled back for years under Western sanctions.Friday's developments set up the fractious cartel for more price...

>LONDON/BERLIN Egyptian tycoon Nassef Sawiris has formed a partnership with U.S. investor Mason Hawkins and his colleagues at Southeastern Asset Management to drive change at companies they invest in - and they have sportswear firm Adidas (ADSGn.DE) in their sights.The long-term venture between Sawiris and fellow billionaire...

>"The (European) Commission concluded that, given its extensive experience in assessing cases in this sector, it was better placed to deal with the transaction and ensure consistency in the application of merger control rules in the mobile telecommunications sectors across the European Economic Area," the EU executive said.The UK...

>Twinkies maker Hostess Brands LLC is in talks to acquire Give and Go Prepared Foods Corp, a Canadian maker of thaw-and-serve sweet baked goods such as Two-Bite Brownies, according to people familiar with the matter.The Toronto based-company's owner, OMERS Private Equity, the buyout arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees...

>Obama has called climate change a great threat to future generations. At a news conference on Tuesday before leaving the U.N. climate summit in Paris, he likened global warming to the threat posed by terrorism and Islamic State and said both problems can be addressed by applying steady pressure...

>NEW YORK New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the city's pension funds on Friday to divest their holdings in stocks of gun makers after this week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.Two of the funds in the city's $155 billion pension system dropped their holdings in gun...

>WASHINGTON/SAN JUAN The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Puerto Rico's bid to reinstate a law that would allow restructuring of the debt-burdened U.S. territory's public agencies.In a major boon for a U.S. commonwealth facing some $72 billion in debt, Puerto Rico will get...

>WASHINGTON A U.S. appeals court heard arguments on Friday over the legality of the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules, in a case that may ultimately determine how consumers get access to content on the Internet.The fight is the latest battle over Obama administration rules requiring broadband providers...

>NEW YORK Samsung fought until the bitter end to avoid paying Apple, but the company now says it will finally hand over the more than $548 million it owes for infringing the patents and designs of its biggest smartphone rival.In papers filed in federal court in San Jose, California...

>The meeting will take place on Thursday, Dec. 10 at 2:30 p.m. (1430 ET), the spokeswoman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Hagar Chemali, said in a statement. She added that senior U.N. officials would brief the council.     The other eight council members who...

>SAN FRANCISCO Yahoo Inc's board of directors on Friday is in the third and final day of meetings that could decide the future of one of Silicon Valley's most prominent but troubled companies.One option on the table for the nine board members is whether to sell Yahoo's core business,...

>WASHINGTON Since Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet last week, the United States has quietly put on hold a long-standing request for its NATO ally to play a more active role in the U.S.-led air war against Islamic State.The move, disclosed to Reuters by a U.

>Of the 598 lawmakers who took part in the vote, 445 voted for, 146 against and seven abstained. The mission will include sending six Tornado reconnaissance jets, a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, refueling aircraft and up to 1,200 military personnel. Germany will not...

>"The Fed has been signaling this for a very long time if they do make this decision by the end of the year ... I think the markets in the U.S. and the world will have already processed that and they have laid out what criteria they think should be...

>WASHINGTON/PHILADELPHIA Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has the evidence of U.S. labor market health she wanted in order to raise benchmark interest rates for the first time in a decade this month, but she may have a tougher time selling further hikes. Yellen's arguments against potential dissenters at the...

>WASHINGTON U.S. employment increased at a healthy pace in November, in another sign of the economy's resilience, and will most likely be followed by the first Federal Reserve interest rate rise in a decade later this month. Nonfarm payrolls rose 211,000 last month, the U.S. Labor Department said...

>DETROIT The United Auto Workers union won its first organizing vote on Friday at a foreign-owned auto assembly plant in the U.S. South, in a groundbreaking victory after decades of failed attempts.About 71 percent of skilled trades workers who cast ballots at Volkswagen AG's (VOWG_p.DE) factory in...

>The S&P 500 rallied 2 percent Friday to eke a slight gain for the week, the ninth up week out of the last 10, after the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in November in a show of the economy's resilience.The data likely paved the way for...