News Archive - 21 December 2015

>DUBAI Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday that Israeli lobbying was behind a new measure passed by the U.S. Congress that will prevent visa-free travel to the United States for people who have visited Iran or hold Iranian nationality.The measure, which President Barack Obama signed into law on...

>GRAND RAPIDS, Mich Protesters heckled Donald Trump at a 9,000-person rally here on Monday, interrupting his speech more than 10 times with shouts before security guards ejected them from the event.Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, alternated between criticizing the hecklers and asking the guards leading more...

>SINGAPORE Oil prices edged away from multi-year lows on Tuesday as the northern hemisphere moves into the peak-demand winter season, but mild weather and ballooning supplies mean that prices are expected to remain generally low well into 2016.The oversupply has already pushed down oil futures by more than 30...

>The contract manufacturing deal, if finalised, is expected to come during the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during the first week of January, Automotive News said.A Google spokesman told Automotive News that the company would not comment on speculation, although Google officials confirmed that the company...

>TOKYO The dollar steadied against the euro on Tuesday after dipping against the common currency on an inconclusive Spanish election result, while traders looked to U.S. data later in the day for direction. The euro was steady at $1.0910 EUR=, having risen about 0.4 percent overnight on...

>The paper said Samsung's foundry business and Globalfoundries will jointly start producing a central processing chip as well as a graphics processing chip for AMD next year using their 14-nanometre technology. Samsung has been trying to increase its external client base in recent quarters for its components businesses as it...

>JALALABAD, Afghanistan Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan have taken to the airwaves to win recruits as they try to build strength and replace the Taliban as the leading force in the Islamist insurgency.Officials have been increasingly concerned by the broadcasts, which encourage young people to find a sense...

>LONDON New share listings in the United States has their worst year since 2009, Thomson Reuters data showed on Tuesday, as a number of deals were pulled or priced below their initial range. Global listings were down 26 percent compared with 2014, at $185.9 billion. The worst hit market...

>NEW YORK Brent oil cratered to its lowest price in more than 11 years on Monday, as demand for heating oil slumped on warmer-than-normal temperatures and traders tested for a bottom. U.S. crude remained above its 2009 low and settled up a penny a barrel as traders squared positions...

>TOKYO Asian shares took solace from gains on Wall Street and edged higher on Tuesday, though gains were capped by caution over low share trade volume and plunging Brent crude oil prices ahead of this week's holidays. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS inched 0.1 percent...

>WASHINGTON Donald Trump would win a hypothetical head-to-head contest against either of his two closest Republican U.S. presidential rivals, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, but he would fall short of beating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton if the election were held today, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Monday.If...

>The company is selling 37.3 million shares of preferred stock to investors for $26.79 per share, according to the filing dated Dec. 18.If all of the Series F shares are issued, Lyft would have a post-money valuation of about $4.88 billion, Justin Byers of VC Experts...

>SINGAPORE/SEOUL Efforts to revive its once stellar smartphone fortunes may be doomed if Samsung Electronics cannot overcome its dominant engineering culture, according to serving and former executives and those who have dealt with the company.This culture, they say, has stymied many previous efforts to develop software and service platforms...

>UNITED NATIONS The United Nations is mulling "light touch" options for monitoring a possible ceasefire in Syria that would keep its risks to a minimum by relying largely on Syrians already on the ground, diplomatic sources said.The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon...

>The company said in a blog posting that it so far has "no indication of unauthorized code" in its products, but that it was conducting an additional review to make sure it had not been tampered with. "Although our normal practices should detect unauthorized software, we recognize that no process...

>MOMBASA, Kenya Somali Islamist militants sprayed a Kenyan bus with bullets on Monday, killing two people, but a passenger said he and fellow Muslims defied demands from the attackers to help identify Christians traveling with them.The attack took place in Mandera, in northeast Kenya. A year ago, al Shabaab...

>BEIRUT Lebanon's Hezbollah group on Monday said it would retaliate for the killing of prominent militant Samir Qantar in an Israeli air strike in Syria, after giving him an elaborate funeral in Beirut of the kind reserved for its top commanders. Thousands of people chanted "death to Israel" as Hezbollah...

>"With this acquisition, Altice has officially entered the large and attractive U.S. cable market, further diversifying and balancing its portfolio of high-quality businesses," Altice said in a statement.It said BC Partners and CPP Investment Board retained a 30 percent stake in Suddenlink. U.S. regulators approved the deal...

>Initial reports said one rocket had landed near Masoud Square close to the entrance to the U.S. Embassy, another hit the nearby area of Shirpur while a third landed further away near the city centre, Kabul police officials said.Sirens could be heard in the area but no details...

>WASHINGTON Oracle Corp has settled allegations by the Federal Trade Commission that it failed to notify customers about unaddressed hacking dangers when it released security updates for the estimated 850 million U.S. computers with Java SE software, the agency said on Monday.The FTC alleged that Oracle promised consumers...

>LONDON Regulation, anemic economic growth and technology changes will force banks across Europe to find more savings in 2016, with jobs likely to be the biggest casualty, according to investors and analysts.Ten of the region's biggest banks have announced staff cuts of 130,000 since June, according to data compiled...

>Pep Boys said its board had determined that Icahn Enterprises LP's offer of $16.50 per share in cash was superior to that of Bridgestone Corp's latest offer.Icahn's revised offer values Pep Boys at about $900 million, based on 54.61 million shares outstanding as of Oct. 31.Bridgestone...

>"Today, I'm suspending my campaign for president," the South Carolina senator said in a video posted on YouTube.Graham, a hawk on defense and foreign policy, ranked in lowest tiers in opinion surveys of Republican voters in a race being dominated by a political outsider, real estate tycoon Donald Trump.

> Fleets of small autonomous robots could soon become a familiar presence on public pathways with the advent of ground-based drones that aim to improve local delivery of goods and groceries.     Former Skype co-founders have launched a new company, Starship Technologies, which is preparing to test their self-driving delivery...

>Russia's Defence Ministry publicly opened the recorder last week, hoping its contents would confirm Moscow's assertions that the bomber did not stray into Turkish air space and was maliciously downed."Retrieving the information and a read out of flight data ... has proven to be impossible because of internal damage," said...

>BRUSSELS Implementing the biggest shake-up to Europe's fragmented data protection laws in two decades may fail to provide companies with the consistency and simplicity that had been promised across the 28-nation bloc.A patchwork of privacy laws in the European Union, dating back to 1995 when the internet was in...

>KABUL A suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a joint NATO-Afghan patrol near Bagram air base in Afghanistan on Monday, killing six members of NATO's Resolute Support mission and wounding six other soldiers and police, officials said.NATO headquarters in Kabul confirmed the deaths and said three other Resolute Support...

>Wall Street started the Christmas holiday week on a positive note, led by tech and financials, but energy stocks lagged as Brent crude hit an 11-year low.Trading volumes are expected to be relatively light this week, with U.S. stock markets operating a shortened session on Thursday and closing...

>Shkreli, who stepped down as CEO of private drugmaker Turing Pharmaceuticals Inc, also resigned from KaloBios' board of directors.Shkreli was arrested for engaging in what U.S. prosecutors said was a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a pharmaceutical company he previously headed.The boyish pharmaceuticals entrepreneur...

>Verdi said in a statement that workers at six of the nine Amazon warehouses were joining the strike, which will run until Dec. 24 at four of the centers and for shorter periods at the others.Germany is Amazon's second-biggest market after the United States with 10,000 warehouse staff plus...

>Shareholder approval is the final remaining hurdle to clear Shell's takeover of its smaller rival, one of the largest energy deals in a decade that will create the world's most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG) trader.Worth $70 billion at the time of the offer in April, it is worth...

>HONOLULU U.S. President Barack Obama said his administration is open to some "legitimate criticism" for failing to adequately explain its strategy to counter Islamic State, though he chided Republican presidential candidates for criticizing his policy without offering an alternative. In a Dec. 17 interview set to air on NPR...

>LONDON Staff at smaller banks in the European Union should not have to defer large chunks of their bonuses over several years, the bloc's European Banking Authority (EBA) watchdog said on Monday.After the 2007-09 financial crisis, the European Union introduced rules to stop bankers from taking excessive risks to...

>Shkreli, who was arrested on Thursday and released soon after on a $5 million bond, has been charged for engaging in what U.S. prosecutors said was a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and Retrophin Inc, a company he headed before he took the helm...

>Ericsson did not specify how much it would earn from the deal but estimated overall revenue from intellectual property rights in 2015 would hit 13 to 14 billion crowns ($1.52-$1.64 billion), including positive effects from the settlement with Apple, up from 9.9 billion crowns in 2014.Investment...