News Archive - 6 September 2016

By: Vahid Karimi   The world is moving towards a multipolar order, yet it is impossible to deny the hegemony of the United States and its decision-making power, or speak of Washington's decline. Nonetheless, to make a more accurate prediction of the future of international relations, we should wait...

>VIENTIANE The Philippines' defense ministry released pictures on Wednesday showing what it said were Chinese boats near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just hours before Southeast Asian nations were due to meet China's premier at a summit in Laos.There was no explanation for the timing of...

>The new phone, which offers a 5.7 inch display along with a metal body and replaceable battery, offers upgrades from its predecessor including dual rear cameras, audio playback capabilities in partnership with Bang & Olufsen and improved photo and video functions. LG did not disclose pricing. The V20's success...

>"Poland's formal request is an important milestone toward becoming the 6th NATO Patriot country and the 14th Patriot partner nation," Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, said in a statement.The deal calls for eight systems, a Polish government statement said. Raytheon agreed to perform at least half...

>London Brent crude for November delivery was down 4 cents at $47.22 a barrel by 2018 EST, after settling down 37 cents on Tuesday. NYMEX crude for October delivery was down 8 cents at $44.75, after settling up 39 cents on Tuesday.Oil prices hit a one-week high...

>It "makes sense to get back to a pace of gradual rate increases, preferably sooner rather than later," San Francisco Fed President John Williams said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Hayek Group. In his prepared remarks Williams did not address the release of data on Tuesday that showed...

>TOKYO The dollar took a tumble and Asian stocks rose to one-year highs on Wednesday after surprisingly weak U.S. services sector activity put paid to already slim chances of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve as early as this month.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside...

>By Arshad Mohammed and Jeff MasonWASHINGTON/TAMPA The U.S. State Department and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday stressed the need for ties with the Philippines to be based on mutual respect, after Manila's new leader raised worries about the future of the key alliance by calling President Barack...

>The billionaire manager said in a regulatory filing late on Tuesday that the company's shares, which closed at $414.07 on Tuesday, were undervalued and that he would be speaking with management. The share price jumped more than 5 percent in after-market trade on news that Ackman owned 2.9...

>WASHINGTON Supporters of Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's U.S. Supreme Court selection, on Tuesday launched a new push to persuade the Republican-led Senate to act on the nomination before the Nov. 8 presidential election, but their calls fell on deaf ears.With senators returning to work after a seven-week...

>VIRGINIA BEACH, Va./TAMPA, Fla. The U.S. presidential campaign's focus shifted to national security on Tuesday as Republican Donald Trump pledged to help female veterans during a Virginia Beach campaign stop, and with Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine set to deliver a related speech in North Carolina.Trump,...

>Some Democrats, including the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, have advocated for removing private bankers from the boards of regional Federal Reserve banks.But Fed officials say private bankers offer insights on the nation's economy and a check on central authority in Washington."The Fed's public-private structure supports...

>SAO PAULO Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.SA) (PBR.N) agreed to sell 90 percent of its natural gas pipeline unit to a group of investors led by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc (BAMa.TO) for $5.2 billion, a source with direct knowledge of the deal...

>Icahn Enterprises, which bought auto parts retailer Pep Boys-Manny Moe & Jack for $1 billion in February, made an initial buyout offer of $7 per share for Federal-Mogul in February and raised it to $8 in June. The revenue from the energy business, Icahn Enterprises' largest business until 2014, fell...

>TAMPA, Fla. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized Republican rival Donald Trump on Tuesday for making comments about the Federal Reserve's monetary policies, which she said should be off-limits for U.S. presidents and presidential candidates."You should not be commenting on Fed actions when you are either running for...

>SHANGHAI/BEIJING Judging by the volume of online chatter, there's a lot less buzz in China ahead of this week's expected launch of the new Apple Inc (AAPL.O) iPhone, and people on the street say they're more likely to "wait and see" what the latest device offers than rush out...

>LONDON Top British bankers will tell finance minister Philip Hammond on Wednesday to give them a clearer idea of what the country's divorce from the European Union will mean for them when they hold their first meeting since the Brexit vote.Hammond is to meet with executives from major banks...

>French Trade Minister Matthias Fekl said last week he favored calling a halt to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks, while German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel called them "de facto dead". "These statements are very unfortunate," Sweden's EU Minister Ann Linde said on Monday, adding that, while the...

>WASHINGTON A U.S. Navy coastal patrol ship changed course after a fast-attack craft from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came within 100 yards (91 meters) of it in the central Gulf on Sunday, two U.S. Defense Department officials told Reuters on Tuesday.It was at least the fourth...

>BOSTON/NEW YORK U.S. companies that have expressed the most fervent public support for President Barack Obama’s environmental agenda are also funding its biggest enemies - the scores of U.S. lawmakers who are climate change skeptics and oppose regulation to combat it, according to a Reuters review of public...

>The Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue workers' organization that operates in rebel-held areas, said government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs containing chlorine on the Sukari neighborhood in eastern Aleppo.The Syrian government has denied previous accusations it used chemical weapons during the five-year-old civil war. The Syrian army could not...

>The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Tuesday its non-manufacturing activity index fell 4.1 percentage points to a reading of 51.4, the lowest since February 2010. The drop from July was the largest monthly decrease since the 2008 financial crisis, with the ISM saying a majority of...

>LONDON/SINGAPORE Iran signalled on Tuesday it was prepared to work with Saudi Arabia and Russia to prop up oil prices as Tehran began to bargain with OPEC on possible exemptions from output limits.Iran has been the main factor preventing an output deal between OPEC and non-OPEC Russia as Tehran...

>BRUSSELS Creating a euro zone fund to help shield the region from financial shocks will come up for discussion when the European Union's finance ministers and central bank governors meet on Friday.The 19-country euro zone now lacks two features that a well-functioning monetary union should have, the Slovak EU...

>FRANKFURT Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has agreed a wide-ranging technology and purchasing deal with U.S. truck maker Navistar (NAV.N) in exchange for a 16.6 percent stake, an alliance forged in part by the need to meet stringent emissions regulations.The deal should help both sides cut costs, give...

>Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO), Canada's largest pipeline company, said on Tuesday it would buy Spectra Energy Corp (SE.N) in an all-stock deal valued at about C$37 billion ($28 billion) to create the largest North American energy infrastructure company.Enbridge's biggest-ever deal comes as the company has been steadily expanding...

>VAMOSSZABADI, Hungary/NICKELSDORF, Austria On a warm morning in late August, two dozen migrants carrying stuffed plastic bags and backpacks boarded a bus outside a refugee center in Vamosszabadi, a village in northwest Hungary.Escorted by police on what was meant to be a short shopping trip organized by the Hungarian...

>BRUSSELS European Union countries should better coordinate tax rules to avoid hitting corporations too hard, the Slovak presidency of the European Union proposed, in an effort to provide more balance to an EU campaign against tax avoidance by multinational companies.The proposal, to be discussed at an informal meeting of...

>The amount of the average loan for a new vehicle was only a few dollars short of $30,000, and the average monthly payment just a dollar shy of $500, Experian said.Thirty-day delinquencies rose slightly to 2.22 percent of all vehicle loans, from 2.19 percent a year earlier.

>Wall Street was higher on Tuesday morning as lower chances of an interest rate hike and a host of multi-billion dollar takeover deals boosted investor sentiment. Top Federal Reserve officials, encouraged by a string of strong economic data, had hinted that a rate hike could come as early as this...

>PayPal's partnership follows a similar deal with MasterCard's larger rival Visa Inc in July as the company looks to expand its payments network.PayPal will allow users to select a credit or debit card as the default payment method and share data on transactions made through MasterCard's tap-and-pay feature, which...

>In a written excerpt from an interview with ABC News that will air Tuesday morning, Clinton simply said "no" when asked if she would travel to Mexico before the election on Nov. 8, without elaborating further.Her campaign later confirmed her decision."We understand and respect her decision to propose...

>SINGAPORE Avolon Holdings, part of China's acquisitive HNA Group is nearing a deal to buy the aircraft leasing assets of U.S. lender CIT Group (CIT.N) for between $3 billion and $4 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.The purchase would turn Avolon into one of the...

>WASHINGTON Republicans in Congress are planning a light legislative agenda as they return from their long summer break on Tuesday, a strategy some say is designed in part to bog down Hillary Clinton if she becomes president. It is not uncommon for the Congress to take it slow in an...

>BERLIN Germany has scope to cut taxes by around 15 billion euros after the federal election in September 2017 despite increased spending on migrants, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday Campaigning is getting underway for next year's vote and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), of which Schaeuble is...

>The two Sweden-based companies said in separate statements the new company would have an initial work force of about 200 staff taken from both parent companies, a number that would increase to more than 600 over the medium term.The joint venture, which is to be headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden,...

>The notice is a summary of a routine State Council meeting held by China's Premier Li Keqiang on Monday. The State Council also said it would encourage China's policy banks to step up credit support. It reaffirmed that China would actively reduce overcapacity and further liberalize infrastructure investment, meaning a...

>STOCKHOLM European mobile payment providers iZettle and SumUp are among a handful of start-ups that have encouraged European small businesses to kick their cash-only habits.Now, their strategy is to lower fees as they brace for a more formidable challenge: the onslaught of mature North American payment providers onto their...

>"I've worked to rebalance our foreign policy to make sure America is a key player in the region," Obama said in a speech on the sidelines of a summit in Vientiane, Laos. He also said that a failure to move ahead with the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact would "call...

>3D printing has been used by engineers to build prototypes for decades but has recently become more widespread, with uses including the production of dental crowns and light aircraft parts.GE said it would offer 38 euros per share, or a total of 683 million euros ($762 million), for SLM...

>SYDNEY Australia's central bank held interest rates steady on Tuesday, a month after cutting to a record low of 1.5 percent, and left open the question of further easing as the country gets ready to toast 25 years without a recession.The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia...

>HANOI Vietnamese airlines plan to order 40 Airbus (AIR.PA) jets in deals worth an estimated $6.5 billion, the European planemaker said on Tuesday, as they expand their fleets for a small but fast-growing market.Strong economic growth and a burgeoning middle class has increased demand for travel both...

>Along with the perennial run on leggings, students returning to America's classrooms this year are making a beeline for retro sneakers, "cold-shoulder" tops, versatile laptops and USB drives.Demand for those hot-ticket items is helping to push back-to-school spending to its fastest growth in four years, a boon for retailers...

>The military statement said the sites hit were in the Metina and Hakurk regions of northern Iraq, but did not give further details. In the past, such strikes have been aimed at targets Turkey says are linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK has been fighting a...

>DENVER The drumbeat of hammers echoes most mornings through suburban Denver, where Jay Small, the owner of company that frames houses, is building about 1,300 new homes this year.That's more than triple what he built a few years ago, when “you couldn’t buy a job” in the residential construction...