News Archive - 12 February 2016

>ORANGEBURG, S.C. If Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders has a chance of drawing African-American voters away from rival Hillary Clinton in South Carolina's presidential nominating contest on Feb. 27, his best opportunity will be among the young.African Americans support former Secretary of State Clinton by more than a 3-to-1...

>MUNICH Iran and Saudi Arabia must overcome strained relations and work for stability in Syria and the Middle East, Iran's foreign minister said on Friday, a day after Syrian peace talks brought the rivals to the same table for the first time in months.Speaking at the Munich Security Conference...

>MUNICH/AMMAN Major powers agreed on Friday to a pause in combat in Syria, but Russia pressed on with bombing in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad, who vowed to fight until he regained full control of the country. Although billed as a potential breakthrough, the "cessation of hostilities" agreement...

>SEVNICA, Slovenia If Melania Trump succeeds Michelle Obama as First Lady, she may trace her road to the White House back to 1987 and a chance encounter in the capital of her native Slovenia.“I was leaving a fashion show in Ljubljana and saw her in front of the building.

>HAVANA Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill embraced and kissed on Friday in a historic meeting, uniting to issue a global appeal for the protection of Christians under assault in the Middle East.Nearly 1,000 years after the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart, the meeting at...

>Japan's NTT Data Corp (9613.T) is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Perot Systems, the information technology consulting division of Dell Inc, although differences over price persist, according to sources familiar with the matter.The deal would be NTT Data's most significant overseas acquisition as it seeks to expand in...

>Speaking to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Munich, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed Beijing's opposition to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, China's Foreign Ministry said late on Friday.Wang "demanded the U.S. side must act cautiously, not use the...

>Dorsey in June agreed to no salary until the company's compensation committee agreed upon a package for him.The committee decided on Wednesday to introduce a performance-based equity compensation program for Twitter's top executives to tie their performance more closely with that of the company, according to the filing. Twitter...

>The signing brings into effect an arrangement the Cold War foes agreed upon on Dec. 16. U.S. airlines still must apply for permission from U.S. regulators to fly specific routes before they sell tickets to Cuba. While charter flights already connect the countries, the accord is expected to...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate on Friday backed a plan to name a plaza in front of the Chinese embassy for a pro-democracy dissident after what congressional sources called a tit-for-tat deal that led Senator Ted Cruz to stop blocking President Barack Obama's diplomatic nominations.By unanimous voice vote, the...

>WASHINGTON A recent tightening of credit for U.S. companies is threatening to undermine economic growth, making it less likely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates anytime soon.Fed Chair Janet Yellen said this week it was still too soon for the central bank to change its view that...

>A printer cartridge reseller infringed the patent rights of Lexmark International Inc when it imported Lexmark's toner products back into the United States after they were first sold abroad, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday.In a victory that reinforces U.S. patent owners' ability to control the...

>NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO Alphabet Inc's Google will not participate in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's upcoming auction of broadcast airwaves that can help the wireless industry improve coverage, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday.Some industry watchers had expected Internet search giant Google to be a dark horse participant...

>NEW YORK As U.S. stocks continue to struggle in 2016, equities are showing some signs selling pressure may be reaching an end. The S&P 500 .SPX is down about 13 percent from its record high in May, as oil remains mired below $30 a barrel, while concerns about stability...

>Apple, which will introduce a new 4-inch iPhone, dubbed the "iPhone 5se", and a new iPad Air at a launch event, is unlikely to take pre-orders for the new devices, the blog reported. The technology giant has hit a trough in iPhone demand. The 0.4 percent rise in shipments...

>The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority were preparing a final round of civil charges against the bank for rate manipulation in the Libor scandal, the newspaper reported, citing people close to the investigation. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Eric Walsh)...

>Intercept has been working with investment bankers to explore the prospect of a sale, the people said this week, cautioning that there was no certainty on whether the company would decide to proceed with any transaction. The sources asked not to be identified because the sale process is confidential. Intercept...

>It will be the ninth televised debate for Republican candidates seeking to represent the party in the November presidential election amid a thinning field that once had more than a dozen candidates. The debate in Greenville, South Carolina, comes as the remaining seven candidates aim to gain momentum heading into...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation on Friday broadening sanctions against North Korea, sending the measure to President Barack Obama to sign into law.Lawmakers said they wanted to make Washington's resolve clear to Pyongyang, but also to the United Nations and other governments - especially...

>Facebook blocked the account of a French professor and art lover after he uploaded a picture of Gustave Courbet’s 1866 canvas 'The Origin of the World', which shows a close-up view of female genitals.The Paris Appeal Court's decision upheld a lower court ruling in March 2015 that a clause...

>Now markets have delivered their verdict on inflation - it's not picking up any time soon - economic data due next week will show whether price pressures are rising meaningfully or falling back in some of the world's major economies.A global rout in stock markets, currencies, commodities and bond...

>"The area we have liberated so far is more than half of what was occupied by Daesh before," he said, using the Arab term for the militant group. "We intend this year to make it the final year and the last year for the existence of Daesh in Iraq."...

>New York Fed President William Dudley, who did not directly address recent market turmoil in prepared remarks, noted that the current U.S. expansion is nearly seven years old and the third longest in the post World War Two period. But its sheer age does not mean that the risk...

>The Houston-based driller, which has rigs around the world, has been struggling with a heavy debt load. Paragon decided not to make a $15.4 million bond interest payment due Jan. 15, triggering a 30-day grace period before default. Paragon had $732 million in cash at Sept. 30, according to...

>The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, would be funded through a mix of debt and cash and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016, Nasdaq said.Marketwired is currently owned by the private equity arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), which in...

>It did not specify when it bought the shares or what stake it had acquired in the firm, which has previously raised more than $5 billion in several financing rounds. "We believe that Uber's highly talented management team possesses the necessary vision and skills to build the company into one...

>FRANKFURT There is firm support for a deposit rate cut within the European Central Bank's Governing Council but appetite for more radical action is still limited, conversations with policymakers indicate a month before the March rate decision.With long-term inflation expectations falling, the ECB will probably have to act and...

>WASHINGTON U.S. consumer spending regained momentum in January as households ramped up purchases of a variety of goods, in a hopeful sign that economic growth was picking up after slowing to a crawl at the end of 2015.Other data on Friday showed import prices fell in January for...

>FRANKFURT Nokia's (NOKIA.HE) best days of growth may be behind it for the foreseeable future, but what keeps investors on board one of Europe's biggest technology stocks is the progress it is making to deliver more consistent profits and shareholder returns. It came as little surprise when Nokia warned...

>LONDON Oil major LUKOIL (LKOH.MM) has told the Russian government it wants to buy mid-sized rival Bashneft (BANE.MM), with the state still studying whether to sell a controlling or minority stake in the firm to plug a budget deficit, sources told Reuters.The government owns 75 percent of...

>BAMAKO Suspected Islamist militants attacked a U.N. base in the northern Mali town of Kidal with mortars and machine guns on Friday, killing three peacekeepers and wounding 30, United Nations and separatist sources said.The attack is a fresh sign of instability in the desert region that is home...

>FRANKFURT A protracted selloff in the shares and bonds of euro zone banks has the potential to knock the fragile economic recovery off track by raising financing costs for banks, limiting their ability to lend.It may also undo some of what the European Central Bank has been trying to...

>BRUSSELS A December fall in euro zone industrial output held back economic growth in the bloc to the same pace in the last quarter of 2015 as in the third, data showed, adding to arguments for further monetary easing.The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said gross domestic product in...

>U.S. stock index futures were higher on Friday in tandem with higher oil prices and after a punishing, widespread rout this week due to concerns about the health of the global economy.* Oil prices, which have dictated the market's direction this year, were up nearly 5 percent after...

>The company said it has signed an agreement with NICE, which is also a cloud computing firm, and expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2016. (amzn.to/1QZt7NP)No financial terms were disclosed. Italy-based NICE has customers in industries ranging from aerospace to industrial, energy and utilities. (Reporting...

>FRANKFURT A flurry of sales of German and Swiss companies to Chinese buyers in the past month is testament to increasing Chinese expertise in European bidding processes and growing trust, German bankers and advisers say.Those involved in the deals, which include ChemChina's $43 billion agreement to buy Swiss seeds...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Federal Reserve's carefully scripted decision to raise interest rates last December, and begin a return to "normal" policy, may now become a nightmare for the central bank if an economic downturn forces a return to unconventional methods. Fed chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers this week she...