News Archive - 29 September 2016

Thursday, 8th of Mehr – September 29th, 2016 HEADLINES OF IRAN’S MORNING PAPERS   KAYHAN   -Syrian army reaches heart of Aleppo In continuation of the advancements made by the Syrian army and Resistance forces from the northwestern part of Aleppo, they have now reached the heart of this...

>SYDNEY China's factory sector struggled to gain speed in September while Japanese inflation went backwards in August despite the best efforts of policymakers, underscoring the limits of stimulus in reviving world growth.Friday's unflattering figures bookmarked a week in which the IMF warned it would likely downgrade forecasts for the...

>In a rambling speech on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam, Duterte told reporters that he had been "portrayed to be some cousin of Hitler" by critics. Noting that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews, Duterte said: "There are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines).

>NEW DELHI Beyond Thursday's raid by Indian special forces into Pakistan's side of divided Kashmir, New Delhi is considering new economic and diplomatic measures to bring pressure to bear on its neighbor, Indian officials said.In a rare public acknowledgement, Indian officials said teams of elite troops crossed the de...

>SAN DIEGO, Calif. The United States has an "ironclad" alliance with the Philippines, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Thursday, countering statements by the southeast Asian nation's president that have thrown bilateral relations into deepening uncertainty.Carter spoke a day after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has branded...

>The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' index (PMI) rose to 50.1, in line with analysts' forecasts and slightly higher than August's no-change mark of 50.0, which separates expansion of activity from contraction on a monthly basis.The reading has bounced around the neutral 50 level for the best part...

>SINGAPORE Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower in early trade on Friday, while oil prices held close to the highest level in almost a month on optimism over an OPEC plan to curb output. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.5 percent, on track for...

>TOKYO The Japanese yen looks set to log its third straight quarter of gains on Friday, while the Swiss franc held firm as concerns about the health of Deutsche Bank undermined investor risk appetite.The yen traded at 101.20 yen to the dollar JPY=, bouncing back from Thursday's low...

>NEW YORK Families of Sept. 11 victims and others who may seek to sue foreign governments accused of supporting terrorism in the United States still face significant legal hurdles, despite a boost from passage of a law allowing such cases to proceed. The new Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,...

>SAN FRANCISCO In the run-up to its initial public offering, cloud computing company Nutanix scrambled to avoid a situation that has increasingly marred technology IPOs: a price that's below the most recent private funding round.After bumping up its price Wednesday to $13 to $15 per share, Nutanix will be...

>Microsoft (MSFT.O) is expected to seek EU antitrust approval in the coming weeks for its largest ever deal. Salesforce (CRM.N), which lost out on the bidding for LinkedIn (LNKD.N), urged competition authorities to go beyond a simple review, saying the deal threatens innovation and competition. "By gaining...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. government will open the doors next week to a new agency, with stronger data protections, meant to shorten by many weeks the time it takes to vet government workers seeking "secret" and "top secret" security clearances.The National Background Investigations Bureau will be headed by Charles...

>WASHINGTON U.S. lawmakers on Thursday expressed doubts about Sept. 11 legislation they forced on President Barack Obama, saying the new law allowing lawsuits against Saudi Arabia could be narrowed to ease concerns about its effect on Americans abroad.A day after a rare overwhelming rejection of a presidential veto,...

>The deal between Secretary of State Kris Kobach and the ACLU comes six weeks before the U.S. presidential election.The two sides have been at odds over a Kansas law requiring people to prove American citizenship if they want to register to vote while applying for a driver's license.

>Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O) said on Thursday it renamed its business-to-business cloud computing brand and enhanced some enterprise applications using artificial intelligence, the company's latest gambit to better compete with Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp. in the lucrative cloud business. Discussing the rebranded Google Cloud, Diane Greene, senior vice...

>An agreement could be struck in the next two to three months, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.However, the Journal also said it was possible there would be no deal and that Qualcomm was exploring other options. Netherlands-based NXP and San Diego-based Qualcomm said separately that...

>WASHINGTON Democratic Party progressives intent on reining in Wall Street are pushing Hillary Clinton to choose people to head the Treasury, SEC and other agencies who will crack down on big banks if she wins the White House on Nov. 8.“Do they have a proven track record of challenging...

>Silicon Valley is diving into artificial intelligence (AI)and machine learning research, an industry estimated to zoom to $70 billion by 2020 from just $8.2 billion in 2013, according to a Bank of America report that cited IDC research.On Wednesday, Microsoft teamed up with four other big technology companies...

>GENEVA Banks are tightening the security of their SWIFT messaging networks – used by the industry to shift trillions of dollars each day – following revelations that hackers are increasingly able to get into this system to steal money.Bankers at SWIFT's annual SIBOS conference in Geneva said they were...

>HOUSTON It was a moment U.S. shale oil producers have been waiting on for more than two years: OPEC nations finally agreed to cut production on Wednesday in a move that lifted low prices ravaging their budgets.Two sources in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said the...

>In a Twitter message, Musk said "corrective action" had been taken on discounting of new vehicles, which "seems to be limited to a small number of cases." Musk's email to employees was included on Wednesday in a response to comments on a Reddit posting of someone questioning the discount...

>Privately held National Amusements said in a letter to both companies' boards that a merger would bring significant savings, but it would not support a transaction that would cause it to surrender control of CBS, Viacom or a combined entity.CBS shares rose 3.1 percent to $55.82 in...

>Of the shareholders present at the meeting, 84.8 percent voted in support of the buyout, SMRT said in a statement. State investor Temasek, as majority shareholder, had no voting rights for the buyout of the 46 percent of SMRT shares it does not already own.More than 4,000 shareholders...

>Carmakers, the top buyers, have also cut back on investments, affecting demand for robots, although that should start to recover as they introduce new models and production techniques, the International Federation of Robots (IFR) forecast on Thursday. Global shipments of industrial robots rose 15 percent last year, down from 29...

>Speaking a day after the National Security Council recommended the extension of emergency rule, Erdogan said the measure sped up Ankara's fight against terrorism, adding he believed Turks would support it.More than 100,000 people, including members of the police, civil service and military, have been sacked or suspended since...

>WASHINGTON/BEIRUT The Kremlin vowed on Thursday to press on with its assault in Syria, while U.S. officials searched for a tougher response to Russia's decision to ignore the peace process and seek military victory on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad.Moscow and Damascus launched an assault to recapture the...

>WASHINGTON U.S. economic growth was less sluggish than previously thought in the second quarter as exports grew more than imports and businesses raised their investments, hopeful signs for the economic outlook.Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.4 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Thursday in...

>Federal Reserve plans to raise interest rates this year.Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 254,000 for the week ended Sept. 24, theLabor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the report to show 260,000 new claims. The four-week moving average...

>But some Japanese creditors have opposed such a filing as it would see them shoulder significant losses, the people said, declining to be identified as the proposals have not been made public.Takata faces huge costs related to the global recall of millions of potentially faulty air bag inflators, and...

>BRATISLAVA The European Commission wants to reduce national restrictions on where some types of commercial and health data can be stored, Vice-President Andrus Ansip said on Thursday.Ansip is in charge of creating a digital single market in the European Union to boost growth in the 28-nation bloc."Barriers like...

>Shares of the company, which also reported a better-than-expected adjusted profit, rose 2 percent in premarket trading.Accenture is beefing up its digital and cloud services as it seeks to gain market share from rivals including IBM Corp (IBM.N) and India's Infosys Ltd (INFY.NS) and Tata Consultancy Services...

>U.S. stocks looked set to open slightly lower as oil prices lost ground and investors assessed a set of economic data ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's speech. An agreement among major oil producing countries to curb output resulted in a near 6 percent surge in Brent crude...

>But to those it hurts, the effects of job and wage loss can be catastrophic, and lawmakers and government had better do something about it because the central bank is in no position to, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker said in remarks prepared for delivery to the...

>Samsung on Sept. 2 initiated a voluntary global recall of at least 2.5 million Note 7 smartphones due to faulty batteries causing some of the flagship devices to catch fire, a deeply embarrassing crisis for a firm that prides itself for its quality control. The recall could cost the...

>China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and has repeatedly denounced what it views as interference there by the United States and its ally, Japan.Japan is strengthening its ties in the region, in particular with the Philippines and Vietnam, which contest China's claims to parts of the sea,...

>Ryabkov was referring to a statement made by U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby who said on Wednesday that Russia had an interest in stopping the violence in Syria because extremists could exploit the vacuum there and launch attacks "against Russian interests, perhaps even Russian cities.""We cannot interpret...

>Beijing will further increase land supply for primary residential property projects that mainly consist of small- to medium-sized units, the Beijing Municipal Planning and Land Resources Management Commission said in a notice posted on its website on Thursday.It announced in the notice the plan to auction five plots of...

>According to terms agreed upon by both companies, Shanks would buy van Gansewinkel for 482 million euros ($540.80 million), on a debt-free cash-free basis.The terms agreed upon by both companies are identical to Shanks' statement earlier this month. On Thursday, Shanks said its trading was in-line with current...

>HANOI Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte met Vietnam's top leadership on Thursday, aiming to advance a burgeoning alliance that could become increasingly uncertain amid his defiance of the United States and overtures towards China.Vietnam and the Philippines have drawn closer as China asserts more vigorously its claims of sovereignty in...

>NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD India said on Thursday it had conducted "surgical strikes" on suspected militants preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir, making its first direct military response to an attack on an army base it blames on Pakistan.The cross-border action inflicted significant casualties, the Indian army's head of operations told...

>SEOUL As the United States and other nations grasp for new ways to sanction Pyongyang in response to its latest nuclear test, some North Korean defectors see investment in its rudimentary market economy as a way to foment gradual change from within. One defector living in South Korea uses a...

>NEW YORK The Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan's actions last week have given a second wind to an alternative investment strategy that relies on cheap money and low market volatility to produce outsized returns.Risk parity trades, which involve borrowing to take long positions in both stocks and bonds,...

>Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) Chief Executive John Stumpf returns to Capitol Hill on Thursday with his job still under threat and the bank facing rising political pressure over a sales scandal that has become a major issue in Washington and on Wall Street.The bank's move earlier this...