News Archive - 7 January 2016

>Iran on Thursday said the warplanes had attacked its embassy in Yemen's capital on Wednesday night, an accusation that exacerbated tension between the major Shi'ite and Sunni powers in the region."The coalition command confirmed that these (Iranian) allegations are false and void, stressing that it does not carry out...

>DUBAI Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia deteriorated even further on Thursday as Tehran severed all commercial ties with Riyadh and accused Saudi jets of attacking its embassy in Yemen's capital.A row has been raging for days between Shi'ite Muslim power Iran and the conservative Sunni kingdom since Saudi...

>WASHINGTON Legislation that could undermine the international nuclear deal with Iran cleared a U.S. congressional panel on Thursday, setting up a potential showdown over one of President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy initiatives.The Republican-led House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved the measure by a voice vote, setting...

>Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming was currently in Saudi Arabia and would travel on to Iran, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing."We hope the situation in the Middle East can move in the direction of amelioration," Hua told reporters.Tension between Shi'ite-majority Iran and Sunni-majority...

>LAS VEGAS Germans love the latest wave of touch-free car controls, which respond to the flick of a wrist or the swipe of a hand, as it means no messy fingerprints on their spotless dashboards. Italians, known for an extravagant hand gesture or two, are not so sure. A simplistic...

>SAN JUAN Insurers of Puerto Rican bonds sued the U.S. commonwealth late Thursday over its recent debt default, the first lawsuit against the island since its governor called its $70 billion debt load "unpayable" last June.The lawsuit by Assured Guaranty (AGO.N) and Ambac Financial (AMBC.O), filed...

>Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) has cemented its dominance of a risky corner of the U.S. debt market, as traditional bank rivals retrench, by using a fund that it markets to investors to finance leveraged buyouts. In the past two years, banks have gradually scaled back their supply...

>MANCHESTER, N.H. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Friday proposed an overhaul of the U.S. welfare system that would eliminate what he called failing programs for the poor and send the federal dollars from them to the states to develop their own plans.Bush, continuing an effort to...

>LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, UNITED STATES There are hundreds of drones competing for attention in Las Vegas at 2016 Consumer Electronics Show.But one definitely stands out. This is the Ehang 184, the world's first passenger drone. It doesn't have any flight controls because its not meant to. The UAV is...

>"Recent stock falls likely reflect (concern over) China's economic outlook, developments in the Middle East and North Korea's nuclear bomb test," Abe told parliament. (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Richard Borsuk)...

>WASHINGTON President Barack Obama plans to travel next week to two Republican-leaning states - Nebraska and Louisiana - to promote the themes of his final State of the Union address, the White House said on Friday.Obama, who has begun his last year in the Oval Office, will give the...

>WASHINGTON U.S. employers likely maintained a fairly strong pace of hiring in December, suggesting that a recent but sharp manufacturing-led slowdown in economic growth would be temporary.Nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 200,000 jobs, just a slight step down from the 211,000 created in November, according to a Reuters...

>"State-owned banks were offering dollar liquidity around 6.59, suspected to be on behalf of the central bank," said a trader at a European bank in Shanghai. "This happened both today and yesterday."Early on Friday the central bank strengthened its official rate for the first time in nine trading...

>TOKYO Asian shares are on course to post their biggest weekly fall in more than four years as investors dumped risk assets on fears over China's economy and its turbulent financial markets.China announced late on Thursday it suspended its new stock market circuit breaker introduced only on Monday as...

>U.S. cyber intelligence firm iSight Partners said on Thursday it has determined that a Russian hacking group known as Sandworm caused last month's unprecedented power outage in Ukraine."We believe that Sandworm was responsible," iSight's director of espionage analysis, John Hultquist, said in an interview. The conclusion was based...

>"I will not campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform," Obama wrote in an op-ed column in the New York Times. "All of us need to demand leaders brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby’s...

>TOKYO Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday that China may find it difficult to continue supporting the yuan given the record decline in its foreign currency reserves - a warning that China may have to let its currency fall even more.But Aso noted that further declines could...

>U.S. crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 was trading 12 cents higher at $33.39 a barrel by 0028 GMT (1928 EDT) after settling at $33.27 on Thursday. In the last session, it hit its lowest since late 2003 at $32.10.Brent LCOc1 settled down 48 cents...

>SAN FRANCISCO Federal Reserve policymakers appear to have succeeded in their push last month to convince investors the central bank will hold on to its $4.5-trillion portfolio at least until next year, a Fed survey showed on Thursday. Recent interviews with officials showed they were counting on the Fed's...

>Authorities surprised late Thursday by abandoning a new circuit-breaking mechanism for halting trade in overly volatile markets after stocks sank more than 7 percent for a second day this week.The People's Bank of China (PBoC) also wrong-footed traders by reportedly intervening heavily to defend the yuan in offshore trade,...

>The Santa Fe Sport, a five-passenger crossover model, will be one of three models made at the plant, joining the Sonata and Elantra sedans. Production targets for the three models will be determined in the coming months, but the plant's capacity will remain at 400,000 vehicles a year, the company...

>U.S. stocks sold off further on Thursday, giving the Dow and S&P 500 their worst four-day starts to a year ever, dragged down by another drop in Chinese equities and oil prices at 12-year lows.China allowed the biggest fall in its yuan currency CNY=CFXS CNY= in five months,...

>SAO PAULO/BRASILIA Oi SA (OIBR3.SA), Brazil's most indebted phone carrier, has started talks with the controlling shareholder of rival TIM Participações SA over a merger, with discussions initially focusing on governance issues, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.The board of Telecom Italia SpA...

>TransCanada launched a lawsuit against the U.S. government on Wednesday and said it plans to seek $15 billion in damages from a tribunal under the North American Free Trade Agreement. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he was limited in what he could say about the pending litigation, but...

>Rare disease drugmaker Shire Pharmaceuticals Plc (SHP.L) is preparing to announce its roughly $32.5 billion acquisition of U.S. peer Baxalta International Inc (BXLT.N) as early as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal would come after Reuters first reported on Dec. 22 that...

>WASHINGTON Senior White House officials and U.S. intelligence and law enforcement figures will meet with Silicon Valley executives on Friday to discuss how to counter the use of social media by militant groups, sources familiar with the meeting said on Thursday.In an escalation of pressure on technology firms...

>WASHINGTON/SEOUL The United States called on China on Thursday to end "business as usual" with its ally North Korea after Pyongyang defied world powers by announcing it had tested a hydrogen bomb. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he made clear in a phone call with Chinese Foreign...

>TAIPEI In the weeks ahead of Taiwan's elections, state-linked Chinese firms launched a $3 billion cross-strait investment grab, sparking fears Beijing was using economic clout to influence the island as it looks to vote in an independence-leaning president.Mainland companies have a brief window to get deals approved before a...

>SAN FRANCISCO Apple's stock slump of almost 20 percent over the past month has exposed a widening divide between investors and the sell-side analysts who cover the iPhone maker.Brokerage analysts focused on the company's relatively modest price-to-earnings valuation are mostly sticking to projections that would have Apple surge 50...

>WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve was closely monitoring the sell-off in stocks that shook world markets on Thursday, while U.S. Republican presidential candidates took aim at Chinese policies they claimed are designed to gain a trade advantage. U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, were uncharacteristically silent about a further deterioration in the...

>LONDON Royal Dutch Shell has told investors its purchase of BG can work even if oil prices average $50 a barrel for two years, its lowest estimate to date as it seeks to secure shareholder support for the $51 billion deal amid plunging crude markets.The Anglo-Dutch group is confident...

>"This just shows that we need to have a strong Navy," Ryan said at a news briefing. "We should not have a president proposing to lower our ship count to pre-World War One levels. This means we need to have a strong military and a strong Navy, and a real...

>The report did not specify the financial terms of the deal.The tech giant's plans for Emotient were not immediately clear, the Journal reported, confirming the news with an Apple spokeswoman. Emotient's software reads the expressions of individuals and crowds to gain insights that can be used by advertisers to...

>SAN FRANCISCO The alliance between automakers Renault and Nissan will launch more than 10 cars with self-driving technology over the next four years in the United States, Europe, China and Japan, the partnership's leader said on Thursday.The alliance also said it hired technology executive Ogi Redzic to lead its...

>The breaker, in place since the start of this year, was designed to temper the market but instead caused a wave of selling. Analysts and investors said the trigger levels were too low and too close to work effectively. Earlier on Thursday, China's stock markets were suspended for the day...

>MADISON, Wis. Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said on Thursday his view of the U.S. interest rate path in 2016 was consistent with two hikes, and cautioned that monetary policy must take into account the potential for lower economic growth in the long term."I think appropriate policy...

>WASHINGTON The House of Representatives could vote in the coming days on legislation backed by Republican and Democratic lawmakers to broaden U.S. sanctions on North Korea, House leaders said on Thursday, a day after Pyongyang announced it had tested a hydrogen nuclear device.Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan did...

>House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce are "beginning the process of gathering ideas and having listening sessions with our members about whether and how we could do an AUMF (Authorization to Use Military Force) on ISIS," Ryan said at a news briefing, using...

>Africa's most advanced economy, where a rapid expansion of fiber optic broadband in more affluent neighborhoods has allowed streaming of movies and TV series, was one of more than 130 new markets Netflix entered this week.Naspers launched its own Showmax video-on-demand unit in August that has been airing a...

>LONDON If ever proof were needed of how deeply financial markets are interconnected and dependent on investors' "sentiment", look no further than the worldwide tremors set off by a 1 percent fall in China's currency this week. Free-floating currencies routinely fluctuate by greater amounts in a single day. Nevertheless, the...

>SAN FRANCISCO Investor enthusiasm for highly valued private tech companies waned substantially in the fourth quarter last year, with new data revealing that the growth of the so-called 'unicorn' herd slowed dramatically.Just nine tech companies last quarter became unicorns, or venture-backed companies valued in the private market at $1...

>RALEIGH, N.C. The Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates more than four times this year if oil prices stabilize, the dollar stops appreciating and inflation surges toward the U.S. central bank's 2 percent target, a Fed policymaker said on Thursday.Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker...

>WASHINGTON The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell last week and layoffs in December were the smallest in 15-1/2 years, pointing to labor market strength even as economic growth appears to have slowed sharply in the fourth quarter.Coming on the heels of a report on Wednesday showing...

>The threat from Trump, owner of two golf courses in his mother's homeland of Scotland, comes as British lawmakers prepare to hold a debate on a petition signed by over half a million people calling for him to be barred from the country after his proposal to stop Muslims entering...

>Hudson's Bay expects the deal to add about $500 million to its 2016 total sales, the company said on Thursday. It reported revenue of C$8.17 billion for 2014.Gilt, which runs limited-time discounted online sales of apparel and other products, has struggled in the face of stiff competition from...

>The company also said it has closed transactions of $104 billion, more than half of the target set while announcing its plans to reduce the financing business to less than 10 percent of its total earnings.An active sales process is ongoing for the remaining international businesses while the company...

>PARIS French police shot dead a man wielding a meat cleaver after he tried to enter a police station on Thursday, the anniversary of militant attacks in Paris, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) and wearing what turned out to be a fake suicide belt.The Paris prosecutor said the...

>SACRAMENTO, Calif. California Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday is set to propose a budget that increases public spending in areas including education, the latest indication of the most populous U.S. state's rebound from years of economic doldrums.Brown, a Democrat, will release a budget plan at the State Capitol...

>LONDON/WILDBAD KREUTH, Germany A majority of Britons who have made up their minds would vote to leave the European Union in a forthcoming referendum, making Britain by far the most reluctant member of the 28-nation bloc, an opinion poll published on Thursday showed.As Prime Minister David Cameron pushed for...

>U.S. stocks opened sharply lower for a second straight day on Thursday as market volatility in China and a relentless slide in oil prices unnerved investors.China allowed the biggest fall in the yuan in five months, and Shanghai stocks were halted for the second time this week after...

>A Turkish official said much of the material in question was related to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which Ankara deems as a terrorist organization.A spokesperson for Twitter confirmed the company has taken legal action over the fine without providing further details.Ankara has taken a tough stance on...

>No group immediately claimed the attack, but the bombing was one of the deadliest since Islamist militants started expanding their presence in the chaos that followed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.Mayor Miftah Hamadi said the bomb detonated as recruits were gathering at the police center in Zliten,...

>The Commission's monthly survey showed on Thursday that economic sentiment in the euro zone improved to 106.8 points in December from 106.1 points in November. Economists polled by Reuters had expected an unchanged reading.A separate business climate indicator calculated by the Commission, which points to the phase...

>Foreign exchange reserves fell $512.66 billion in 2015 to $3.33 trillion, central bank data showed on Thursday.They dropped $107.9 billion in December alone, the biggest monthly decline on record and more than markets had expected. Economists polled by Reuters had expected reserves to end the year...

>FRANKFURT/NEW YORK Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) is facing growing pressure from investors and lawmakers to ensure proper treatment of workers at its American business T-Mobile US (TMUS.O). The German company's biggest subsidiary has enjoyed two years of rapid expansion in a fiercely competitive U.S. market that has seen...

>Northern Yemen is a stronghold of the Iranian-allied Houthi group, which has seized large parts of Yemen including the capital from forces loyal to the embattled Saudi-backed president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.Hadi's forces attempted to push from Maydee's port, pounded for weeks by air strikes and naval shelling, into the...

>SINGAPORE Bearish bets on the yuan hit a near six-year high, denting sentiment towards most other emerging Asian currencies, as China's central bank allowed the currency to depreciate at a faster pace, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.Pessimism on yuan CNY=CFXS was the highest since April 2010, according to...