News Archive - 5 June 2016

>SINGAPORE More than 20 European and Asian-owned supertankers are shipping Iranian crude oil, data seen by Reuters shows, allowing Tehran to ramp up exports much faster than market analysts had expected following the lifting of Western sanctions in January.Iran had been struggling as recently as April to find partners...

>Clinton was the projected winner over Sanders in the U.S. island territory, according to NBC News.The win gives the former secretary of state a boost ahead of a big night on Tuesday, when six states, including New Jersey and California, will hold nominating contests.Clinton is hoping to...

>TAIPEI Taiwan's new defense minister said on Monday the island would not recognize any air defense zone declared by China over the South China Sea, as the island's top security agency warned such a move could usher in a wave of regional tension.U.S. officials have expressed concern that...

>"Excess capacity has a distorting and damaging effect on global markets," Lew said in prepared remarks at the start of high level bilateral talks in Beijing."Implementing policies to substantially reduce production in a range of sectors suffering from overcapacity, including steel and aluminum, is critical to the function and...

>KABUL The illegal mining of some of Afghanistan's most important minerals is funneling millions of dollars into the hands of insurgents and corrupt warlords, according to activists and officials who say the money is fuelling the conflict.The mountains of Afghanistan hold as much as $1 trillion to $3 trillion...

>Asia Square Tower 1, located in the city-state's financial district, has over 1.25 million square feet of net lettable area and has Citigroup Inc (C.N) as its anchor tenant, BlackRock and Qatar Investment Authority said in a joint statement.BlackRock was advised by real estate consultant firms JLL...

>TOKYO Asian shares rose on Monday and the dollar dragged itself off its lowest levels in nearly a month after U.S. nonfarm payrolls showed the slowest job growth in more than five years, quashing expectations for a near-term U.S. interest rate hike. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares...

>The company aims to buy drugs discovered by big pharmaceutical companies and fund and design later-stage clinical trials. It opened last year with backing from Neil Woodford and Invesco Perpetual, among others.Mereo said on Monday it had raised 14.8 million pounds ($21.5 million) in a private placing...

>Constellis Holdings LLC, the owner of the U.S. military security services business formerly known as Blackwater, is exploring a sale it hopes will value the company at as much as $1 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.The sale process will test, both financially and...

>SYDNEY The dollar languished at its lowest in over three weeks early on Monday after an unambiguously disappointing U.S. employment report prompted investors to rule out the chance of a hike in U.S. interest rates this month.The dollar index .DXY stood at 94.112, having been as...

>SINGAPORE Brent crude oil prices rose to $50 a barrel on Monday, lifted by a plunge in the U.S.-dollar that could spur demand, just as ongoing attacks on oil infrastructure in Nigeria tighten supplies.International Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $50.03 per barrel at 0139...

>SINGAPORE After serving only a handful of customers in five hours on a recent weekday, Sam Goh said he was worried the sportswear shop he manages, LIV ACTIV, will eventually join other brands in leaving Singapore's Orchard Road shopping boulevard.Singapore's reputation as a shoppers' paradise, which saw investors pour...

>TOKYO When Fumiko Kasai returned to work a decade ago she found Japan's job market was very different to the one she had left in the 1980s to raise her four children.Kasai, who had enjoyed a well-paid full-time job with a car firm before giving up work when she...

>LIMA Center-right economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski held a very slight edge over Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of an imprisoned former president, in two quick counts by polling firms that reviewed ballots in Peru's presidential run-off election on Sunday.With 100 percent of sample ballots reviewed, polling firm Ipsos gave the...

>LASHKAR GAH/KABUL, Afghanistan A veteran American photojournalist and a translator working for NPR were killed while accompanying Afghan troops in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, NPR and military officials said.NPR's David Gilkey and Afghan translator Zabihullah Tamanna were in an Afghan army Humvee traveling between the provincial capital of Helmand...

>WASHINGTON Senior U.S. Republicans distanced themselves on Sunday from Donald Trump's comments about a Mexican-American judge, saying they were worried that the tone of his presidential campaign could enrage Latinos, who are a growing U.S. voting bloc.Trump has accused U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of harboring...

>RIYADH Saudi Arabia's National Transformation Plan, a pivotal element of the "Vision 2030" reforms announced in April by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will be put before the cabinet for approval on Monday, a senior Saudi source told Reuters. The plan is expected to flesh out sector-by-sector details of...

>It may take several quarters for profits to take off, but the shares could return 20 percent over the next year including its dividend yield, the paper reported in its June 6 edition.Same-store sales are expected to decline at a slowing pace over the current and next quarter before...

>ZURICH/BERN Swiss voters rejected by a wide margin on Sunday a proposal to introduce a guaranteed basic income for everyone living in the wealthy country after an uneasy debate about the future of work at a time of increasing automation.Supporters had said introducing a monthly income of 2,500 Swiss...

>BAGHDAD A boat carrying fleeing civilians across a river from the Islamic State stronghold of Falluja sank on Saturday, killing at least four people, as pro-Baghdad forces said they had the city almost completely encircled.Two children, their mother and a man drowned crossing the 300-metre (1,000-feet) wide Euphrates, one...

>The paper said Accor's Chief Executive Sebastien Bazin hoped to prevent Jin Jiang from increasing its stake to 29 percent which would trigger a public offer.Jin Jiang already holds 15.6 percent of Accor's listed shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.Accor shares rose 3.3 percent and were...

>Kuka is the latest and biggest German industrial technology group to be targeted by a Chinese buyer as the world's second-largest economy makes the transition from a low-cost manufacturer into a high-tech industrial hub. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government is trying to coordinate an alternative offer for Kuka, with government sources...

>SINGAPORE When U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter spoke at a key Asian summit at the weekend, he used the word "principled" 38 times, floating his vision of a U.S.-backed "security network" of countries in the region.Several delegations were quick to respond to the idea at the...

>Commercial property investors are writing clauses into contracts giving buyers the right to walk away from real estate deals if Britain votes to leave the European Union this month, as a way to unfreeze a sector stalled by uncertainty over Brexit.Transactions in commercial property fell by 40 percent in...

>WASHINGTON/LONG BEACH, California If Hillary Clinton ends up losing California to Bernie Sanders, it will be because of voters like Nallely Perez.Perez personifies what a Clinton supporter was supposed to look like: a 24-year-old Latina who grew up idolizing the former first lady as a groundbreaking woman in politics.

>Air strikes on Saturday destroyed gun positions and shelters and caves used by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the Gara area of northern Iraq and the countryside of Lice district in Diyarbakir province, the statement said.It did not give a death toll but state-run Anadolu Agency cited security...

>Lew, speaking to students in Beijing, also said China's recent currency intervention had not been problematic. (Reporting by David Lawder; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)...

>Rebels also hit government-held parts of the city in what Syrian media said was an escalation in mortar attacks on the western parts of the country's largest city before the war.State media said missiles fired on Hamadaniyah and the Midan areas by insurgents left scores injured and several casualties...

>PARIS Investors will be looking for signals from Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen this week about the U.S. central bank's next rate move after shockingly weak payroll data all but killed off chances for a hike this month.But the focus will also not stray far from developments in...