News Archive - 19 December 2015

>ChemChina has offered 470 Swiss francs ($472) per share to buy 70 percent of Syngenta with an option to acquire the remaining 30 percent at a later date, Bloomberg said on Friday. (bloom.bg/1OdJSqo)Syngenta and ChemChina were not immediately available for comment.Syngenta, under pressure to boost shareholder returns after...

>The move was outlined in a response to a written query about the offer from embattled Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual SA (BBTG11.SA), GP Investments said in a Brazilian securities filing. BTG Pactual is a leading shareholder in BR Properties.GP Investments, which made a 1.87 billion-real ($470...

>WASHINGTON President Barack Obama urged Americans to remain vigilant against the potential threat of homegrown Islamic State militants on Friday, acknowledging the difficulty of tracking "lone wolf" attackers like those who went on a shooting spree in California.Obama appeared in the White House press briefing room for a year-end...

>Cook's remarks, made on CBS' 60 Minutes show, come amid a debate in the United States over corporations avoiding taxes through techniques such as so-called inversion deals, where a company redomiciles its tax base to another country.Apple saves billions of dollars in taxes through subsidiaries in Ireland, where it...

>WASHINGTON U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders regained access to crucial voter files on Friday after taking the Democratic National Committee to court and accusing party leaders of trying to undermine his White House bid and help rival Hillary Clinton.The DNC had blocked access to the voter data...

>SAN FRANCISCO The U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing a criminal investigation of a May 2014 data breach at ride service Uber [UBER.UL], including an examination of whether any employees at competitor Lyft were involved in the episode, sources familiar with the situation said.Earlier this year, Uber...

>ON BOARD THE USS KEARSARGE A U.S. aircraft appears to have mistakenly carried out an air strike that killed Iraqi security forces near the city of Fallujah, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Saturday.The Iraqi Minister of Defence Khaled al-Obeidi said earlier that nine soldiers died...

>They said the committee would be headed by a Lebanese army general and consist of representatives from the Saudi-backed government of Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and from the rival Houthi movement, which is allied to Iran.Both sides arrived at a hotel in the Swiss city of Biel on...

>UNITED NATIONS The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syria peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter million lives.The resolution gives a U.N. blessing...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate on Friday ratified reforms to boost the representation of emerging economies at the International Monetary Fund as part of a budget bill that will clear the way for new industrial powerhouses like China and India to have more clout at the international lender.A sprawling...

>SAN FRANCISCO The Federal Reserve aims to keep the U.S. economy running hot next year to boost the job market and inflation, a top central banker said, and to achieve that goal interest-rate hikes will be slow but will not follow any predictable pattern. "Every meeting will truly be...

>LONDON/BRASILIA/BENGALURU The world economy may be set for another year like 2015, with modest growth in developed economies offsetting persistent weakness elsewhere but generating very little inflation and keeping interest rates low.The U.S. Federal Reserve's long-awaited rise in rates from zero showed confidence in the world's largest economy,...

>"That's half the rate at which we raised rates in the last tightening cycle. So that's what 'gradual' means to me," Lacker told reporters in Charlotte, North Carolina after participating in a business panel discussion.The Fed raised the range of its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a...

>NEW YORK Martin Shkreli, the boyish pharmaceutical entrepreneur who caused a public uproar after he drastically raised the price of a life-saving prescription drug, was arrested on Thursday for engaging in what U.S. prosecutors said was a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a pharmaceutical company he...

>U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday for the second straight day, as concerns, ranging from a decline in crude oil prices to the global response to the Federal Reserve's interest hike, weighed down the market.The expiration of stock and index options contracts added volatility in a heavy trading...