News Archive - 28 April 2016

>WASHINGTON The FBI paid under $1 million for the technique used to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters - a figure smaller than the $1.3 million the agency's chief initially indicated the hack cost, several U.S. government sources said on Thursday.The Federal...

>SINGAPORE Crude oil prices fell in early trading on Friday as a looming rise in Middle East output may drag on the stronger markets seen in April, although falling U.S. production and a weakening dollar are still offering support.International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading at $47.69...

>Ares Management LP and Apollo Investment Corp, the business development company of Apollo Global Management LLC, are among those competing for the assets of American Capital Ltd, people familiar with the matter said.Fortress Investment Group LLC and Blackstone Group LP have also submitted expressions of interest in the auction...

>SYDNEY The yen held onto hefty gains on Friday after the Bank of Japan surprised markets by declining to adopt fresh stimulus, while an Apple-inspired slide on Wall Street soured sentiment in stock markets.The absence of Tokyo for a holiday was a welcome relief to many given the pandemonium...

>LinkedIn shares, which have lost more than a third of their value since the company reported fourth-quarter results on Feb. 4, rose 8 percent to $133 in extended trading on Thursday. Revenue from the company's talents solutions business, which connects recruiters and job seekers, jumped 41 percent to $558 million...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. military on Thursday retreated from a top general's claim this week that the number of foreign fighters joining Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has plummeted by as much as 90 percent.Air Force Major General Peter Gersten, deputy commander for operations and intelligence in the...

>AbbVie Inc placed another big bet on new cancer drugs on Thursday with a $5.8 billion acquisition that could lessen its dependence on arthritis treatment Humira, the world's top selling drug.Shares of AbbVie rose 1.3 percent in afternoon trading. The suburban Chicago drugmaker said it would buy...

>WASHINGTON A revised criminal justice reform bill moved closer to a full U.S. Senate vote on Thursday when it gained support from more Republicans after being stalled for months in Congress.In a legacy-shaping issue for President Barack Obama, the measure's sponsors announced four new Republican co-sponsor senators and...

>WASHINGTON Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday won endorsements from two more U.S. Congress members as he battled to be his party's nominee.Of the 300 Republicans in Congress - 246 in the House of Representatives and 54 in the Senate - Trump now had the explicit support...

>Icahn, in an interview with cable television network CNBC, also said he was "still very cautious" on the U.S. stock market and there would be a "day of reckoning" unless there was some sort of fiscal stimulus.Icahn had been a huge cheerleader of Apple, acquiring a stake in...

>WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Thursday approved a rule change that would allow U.S. judges to issue search warrants for access to computers located in any jurisdiction, despite opposition from civil liberties groups who say it will greatly expand the FBI's hacking authority. U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. military will announce on Friday that has it taken disciplinary action against 16 service members over a deadly Oct. 3 air strike in Afghanistan that destroyed a hospital run by the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, U.S. officials tell Reuters.The disclosure of the...

>NEW YORK The first few months of the year have given investors both severe selloffs and powerful rallies, and U.S. stocks have now limped into the record books with the second-longest bull market in history - with an asterisk.The S&P 500 technically peaked on May 21, 2015 at...

>Shares of the world's biggest online retailer jumped nearly 13 percent to $679 in extended trading on Thursday.Amazon has seen strong growth in subscribers to its Prime loyalty program, which offers one-hour delivery, original TV programming and access to its digital entertainment products such as Prime Music and Prime...

>Comcast Corp, the owner of NBCUniversal, said on Thursday it would buy Hollywood studio DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc for $3.8 billion to boost its family-friendly offerings and help it take on media conglomerate Walt Disney. The acquisition will add major children's franchises to Universal's film library such as "Shrek,"...

>DETROIT U.S. consumers who are under 40 are more open than older people to self-driving cars and their underlying systems, according to a survey released on Thursday by J.D. Power.The 2016 U.S. Tech Choice Study also found that one-third of Gen Y buyers - those born...

>The talks have been ongoing for several months, the Journal reported, as Alphabet seeks industry partnerships, offering a deal to sell self-driving car technology. Alphabet and Fiat Chrysler declined to comment. Fiat Chrysler has been talking with many players outside the car sector about possible collaborations, as car technology has...

>After underwhelming results from Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Google Inc (GOOGL.O) and other big tech names, investors finally found a friend in Facebook Inc (FB.O) after the company shredded Wall Street's forecasts for revenue, profit and user growth.Facebook's shares jumped 11 percent to a record high of...

>BAGHDAD Islamic State earns millions of dollars a month running car dealerships and fish farms in Iraq, making up for lower oil income after its battlefield losses, Iraqi judicial authorities said on Thursday.Security experts once estimated the ultra-radical Islamist group's annual income at $2.9 billion, much of it...

>Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) said on Thursday that it would buy St. Jude Medical Inc (STJ.N) in a $25 billion deal to expand its heart device business, but investors worried that the acquisition would not pay off as promised.Medical equipment makers are under pressure to offer a wider...

>The $26-per-share offer represents a premium of 30.7 percent to Textura's Thursday closing. (Reporting by Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)...

>SAN FRANCISCO Uber's proposed settlement of a high-profile class-action lawsuit last week has drawn opposition from some drivers and other concerned parties as the ride-hailing service seeks to avoid reclassifying drivers as employees.The settlement, which still must be approved by a San Francisco federal judge, provides for a $100...

>LONDON Opponents of Britain's European Union membership have edged into the lead over the past two weeks, according to a YouGov poll which indicated President Barack Obama's intervention failed to swing support behind "In" vote in a June 23 referendum.The online survey for The Times taken on April 25-26...

>Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 257,000 for the week ended April 23, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 260,000...

>NEW YORK Warren Buffett, who pitched newspapers as a teenage delivery boy, may be entering the final stretch of his "Woodstock for Capitalists," after cutting back his involvement in the event and opening it up for an online audience. This weekend's gathering of Berkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska...

>Wall Street opened lower on Thursday after the Bank of Japan stunned markets by holding off from expanding monetary stimulus, showing yet again how vulnerable markets are to central bank decisions.The BOJ's decision to hold steady in the face of soft global demand and a rise in the yen...

>WASHINGTON/BETHESDA, Md. Wealthy, well-educated voters helped carry Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump to victory in this week’s East Coast primaries, a demographic the famously blunt-spoken billionaire had struggled to attract in the past.His sweep of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island on Tuesday included wins in some of...

>WASHINGTON Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump waded into politically risky territory this week when he accused Democrat Hillary Clinton of exploiting her gender to win votes and said she would have little support if she were not a woman.As Trump and Clinton, fresh off big wins in Northeastern state...

>Trump said on Wednesday that if elected, his foreign policy would leave European and Asian allies of the U.S. fending for themselves if they did not pay more for U.S. defense measures."I can only hope that the election campaign in the USA does not lack the perception...

>The al-Quds hospital was supported by international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which said it was destroyed after being hit by a direct air strike that killed at least three doctors. The head of a rescue service put the death toll at 50, saying most of the dead were...

>SEOUL North Korea fired what appeared to have been an intermediate range ballistic missile on Thursday but it crashed seconds after the test launch, South Korea's defense ministry said, the second such failure in the run-up to next week's ruling party congress.Isolated North Korea has conducted a flurry of...