News Archive - 5 February 2016

>TAINAN, Taiwan A powerful earthquake toppled a 17-story apartment building in southern Taiwan on Saturday, killing at least five people, including a 10-day-old girl, and triggering frantic efforts to rescue about 35 people feared trapped inside.The baby and three of the other dead were from the collapsed building, a...

>WASHINGTON U.S. and UK spy agencies and police may soon be allowed to directly ask media companies in each others' countries for email and online chat data for people being investigated, under a tentative bilateral deal, officials said on Friday.As governments worldwide and online companies struggle to strike...

>"As BlackBerry continues to execute its turnaround plan, we remain focused on driving efficiencies across our global workforce," the company said in an emailed statement.The company declined to comment on what percentage of its workforce is affected by the cuts. According to a filing, the company had 6,225 employees...

>WASHINGTON Russian authorities in November raided offices associated with a Moscow film distribution and production company as part of a crackdown on one of the world’s most notorious financial hacking operations, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.Cybersecurity experts said a password-stealing software program known as Dyre...

>NEW YORK Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has erased Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's wide lead for the Democratic presidential nomination since the start of year, putting the two in a dead heat nationally, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.Clinton leads Sanders 48 percent to 45 percent among Democratic voters, according...

>"No, I'll be there. I have no objection to being there. That had nothing to do with Megyn Kelly the fact that I went out of the last one, it had to do with a memo that was sent out by Fox that was a little bit taunting and I...

>The proposal, dubbed the Community College Partnership Tax Credit, would require businesses to donate funds for equipment, instruction, or internships related to programs in areas such as healthcare, energy and information technology. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)...

>The microblogging service provider said in a blog on Friday that it had increased the size of the teams that review reports of such activity, reducing the response time significantly. (bit.ly/1KvrmZ5) The company said it was seeing results, including an increase in account suspensions and "this type of activity"...

>The ECB published details about the Agreement on Net Financial Assets (ANFA) for the first time on Friday after an academic study published last year showed national central banks quietly bought hundreds of billions of euros worth of assets over the past decade using the facility.The ECB data showed...

>WASHINGTON Satellite images taken this week of North Korea's Sohae rocket launch site show apparent fueling activity that has been seen in the past one to two weeks before a rocket launch, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.North Korea has notified U.N. agencies it will launch...

>WASHINGTON Jeb Bush brought out his famous family four days before the crucial U.S. presidential primary in New Hampshire, tapping his mother on Friday to scold Republican front-runner Donald Trump over his use of profanity and treatment of women.In a last ditch attempt to make a mark on...

>"We should be proud of the progress we've made," Obama told reporters in the White House briefing room. But Obama noted "softness" in China, Europe and other economies has presented challenges to U.S. exporters. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Ayesha Rascoe, Roberta Rampton)...

>TOKYO If Sharp Corp's (6753.T) rescue plans are anything to go by, Japan's insular technology sector is finally opening up to foreign investors, spurred by a shift in political thinking and a drive for improved corporate governance.Battered by losses in display panels even after two bank bailouts, Sharp...

>Polling following Monday's Iowa caucuses showed Trump retaining a double-digit lead in New Hampshire with U.S. Senator Marco Rubio rapidly rising into second place.The billionaire's front-runner status was pierced by a second-place finish to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz in Iowa, where Rubio's strong third-place finish set him...

>WASHINGTON Barack Obama might seem an unlikely investor in the firearms industry. But the U.S. president, a fierce advocate for gun regulation, has money in a pension fund that holds stock in gun and ammunition companies.Although Obama’s stake is minuscule, worth no more than $30, it reflects a...

>LinkedIn shares plunged as much as 43 percent, wiping out about $11 billion of market value, after the social network for professionals shocked Wall Street with a revenue forecast that fell far short of expectations.At least seven brokerages downgraded the stock from "buy" to "hold" or their equivalents, saying...

>BRUSSELS Backed by an increase in U.S. military spending, NATO is planning its biggest build-up in eastern Europe since the Cold War to deter Russia but will reject Polish demands for permanent bases. Worried since Russia's seizure of Crimea that Moscow could rapidly invade Poland or the Baltic states,...

>"By June where the big payments are coming, the big GO payment ... by June there are no more, literally run out of tricks, we run out of emergency measures. We really are at the end," Melba Acosta Febo, president of the GDB, said in a briefing to U.S. Congressional...

>The U.S. Federal Reserve is increasingly likely to raise interest rates this year, traders bet on Friday, as a long-awaited surge in wages finally materialized and the unemployment rate dropped to an eight-year low.U.S. short-term interest-rate futures contracts fell, suggesting traders are now pricing in about a...

>LONDON Global markets have been in turmoil since the start of the year, with stocks and commodities prices reeling, eroding inflation and making central banks increasingly dovish - a trend that could continue with more weak economic data.China, a major commodities consumer and focus of much of the recent...

>FRANKFURT Monsanto (MON.N) could seek to expand in agricultural chemicals by deepening its partnership with Germany's BASF (BASFn.DE) after losing out to ChemChina in its bid to buy seeds and pesticides firm Syngenta (SYNN.VX).A growing world population, limited farm land, higher meat consumption and biofuel use...

>FRANKFURT The free flow of data across the Atlantic, the lifeblood of modern business dealings, faces an uncertain future, despite a belated, high-level deal between European and U.S. officials this week.Restive regulators in Europe are gearing up to enforce tough privacy laws and further court challenges await, activists...

>JOHANNESBURG Almost 90 miners were rescued and three were still missing after a cave-in at a gold mine in northeastern South Africa on Friday, the firm that owns the mine said. The collapse at the mine's main entrance trapped 87 workers underground, all of whom were rescued, Vantage Goldfields (VTGFF.

>Jim O'Sullivan of High Frequency Economics, who also won the previous year based in part on confidence in the improving jobs market, says there are few reasons to worry that the fall in unemployment will halt soon or that a recession is near.His conviction stems from one of the...

>The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 3.9 points, or 0.02 percent, to 16,412.68, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 3.89 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,911.56 and the Nasdaq Composite index .IXIC dropped 18.34 points, or 0.41 percent, to 4,491.22. (Reporting...

>LONDON Worldwide cross-border mergers and acquisitions activity has hit $132.7 billion so far in 2016, up 31 percent compared with a year ago and the strongest year-to-date period since 2006, driven by Chinese acquisitions, Thomson Reuters data shows. ChemChina agreed to buy Swiss seeds and pesticides group Syngenta this...

>Syrian government troops and their allies broke through rebel defenses to reach two Shi'ite villages in northern Aleppo province on Wednesday, choking opposition supply lines from Turkey to Aleppo city.The assault in northern Aleppo province, backed by hundreds of Russian air strikes there, has also prompted tens of thousands...

>OSAKA, Japan/TAIPEI Taiwan's Foxconn is aiming to finalise a deal to acquire Japan's Sharp Corp by the end of the month, after the two firms reached a consensus on most points, Foxconn Chief Executive Officer Terry Gou said.Foxconn, known formally as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, has been given...

>North Korea has said it has a sovereign right to pursue a space program, although the United States and other governments suspect such rocket launches are actually missile tests and have called for Pyongyang to abandon the launch plans.The North was believed to be making preparations for a test...