News Archive - 9 December 2015

>WILLISTON, N.D. North Dakota's oil regulator on Wednesday identified Lime Rock Resources as the buyer of Occidental Petroleum Corp's (OXY.N) North Dakota oil operations, confirming what Oxy's executives had yet to disclose publicly.The deal, worth about $600 million, is expected to close by the end of the...

>WASHINGTON Lawmakers have dropped a Republican effort to make it easier for felons to buy firearms, as measures on both sides of the gun debate failed to make headway in Congress just days after the massacre of 14 people in California.Underscoring the divisive nature of gun legislation, Democratic proposals...

>U.S. lawmakers are negotiating a $1.15 trillion funding bill to pay for government operations through September, with the deadline for action Friday at midnight, when the existing spending authority expires. But lawmakers have been unable to reach agreement on a number of policy "riders" some lawmakers would like...

>WASHINGTON Israeli politicians and more than 250,000 Britons urged their governments on Wednesday to bar Donald Trump from their countries after the Republican presidential front-runner said Muslims should be denied entry into the United States.The calls were part of a growing global backlash against Trump's proposal that cut across...

>SAN FRANCISCO Many more Uber drivers in California can participate in a class action against the ride service over their employment status, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday, even if they did not opt out of an arbitration clause in their contracts.Drivers sued Uber in San Francisco federal...

>WASHINGTON A former U.S. official pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges he orchestrated an international cyber hacking operation to stalk hundreds of young women and threaten them if they did not share sexually explicit material, the Justice Department said.Michael Ford, 36, of Atlanta, Georgia, admitted to using aliases from...

>SYDNEY Apple Inc is struggling to persuade Australia's big banks to sign up for its Apple Pay mobile payment system, people familiar with the matter say, as the technology giant works from an unfamiliar negotiating position: weakness, not strength.Apple rolled out the service in Australia last month with support...

>SYDNEY Australian police said they had charged a 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy with conspiracy to conduct an act of terrorism after they were arrested during early-morning raids in Sydney on Thursday.Police told a news conference the plots could have included attacks on government buildings, including the headquarters...

>WASHINGTON The United States is prepared to deploy advisers and attack helicopters if requested by Iraq to help it "finish the job" of retaking the city of Ramadi from Islamic State, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday.Carter's remarks were the latest sign of U.S. preparations...

>PARIS, WISSEMBOURG, France The third man who attacked the Bataclan concert hall in Paris on Nov. 13 has been identified as a 23-year-old French national who went to Syria two years ago, according to officials involved in the inquiry into the multiple attacks on the French capital.Investigators identified Foued...

>"Similar to pre-crisis surveys, the 2015 survey reflects that many banks are pursuing portfolio growth and yield by loosening underwriting standards. Credit risk is increasing because of these trends," according to the report, which covered the 12 months ending on June 30.Specifically, the report found that underwriting standards for...

>The legislation, agreed by lawmakers from both political parties and both houses of Congress, stops short of the sanctions for currency cheating which some lawmakers had demanded.Instead, it allows the U.S. administration to bar countries from U.S. trade deals and government procurement contracts if they keep their...

>SYDNEY The euro held on to solid gains early on Thursday and stayed above the $1.10 big figure after comments from a central banker suggested markets had been expecting too much stimulus from the European Central Bank.The common currency last stood at $1.1021 EUR=, having scaled a...

>A potential $130 billion merger of Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N) and DuPont (DD.N) could prompt a renewed flurry of takeover bids for European rivals with Switzerland's Syngenta AG (SYNN.VX) the most likely target.Syngenta, the world's largest agrochemicals company, fended off a $47 billion offer from U.

>U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday in a choppy session as oil resumed its decline, fuelling investor worries about global economic growth and causing the S&P 500 index to track the move in the commodity.After a morning rally for both oil and stocks, the three major U.S.

>SAN FRANCISCO/BENGALURU Yahoo Inc shelved plans to spin off its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Wednesday, under pressure from activist investors worried about billions of dollars in taxes, and said instead it is looking at creating a separate company to hold the rest of its...