News Archive - 7 November 2016

“Did you watch the recent debate between the two candidates for the U.S. presidential elections? Did you see the truths that they revealed? Did you listen to them? They revealed the true nature of America. The truths that they revealed were several times larger in number [and worse]...

(Picture: Rouhani and Ghalibaf at the backstage of 2013 televised electoral debates.)   Last week, pro-reform website Entekhab published a series of interviews on the status quo in the Principlist camp and their plans for the upcoming presidential election.   Abolghassem Raoufian, member of the Principlist Istadegi (=resistance)...

>With hours to go before Americans vote, Democratic candidate Clinton has about a 90 percent chance of defeating Republican Donald Trump in the race for the White House, according to the final Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project.Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said in a letter to...

>Aso made the remarks when asked about market speculation that the safe-haven currency could spike if Republican nominee Donald Trump won the presidential race due on Nov. 8. "I won't comment on results of other country's elections. But if it were to affect currencies, we would need to watch and...

>FedEx Corp is grounding one of its planes temporarily that has an engine General Electric Co flagged after a passenger jet erupted in flames last month, a spokesman for the cargo airline told Reuters on Monday.Engine-maker GE on Friday alerted airlines about a small number of parts under investigation...

>LinkedIn makes most of its revenue from job hunters and recruiters who pay a monthly fee to post resumes and connect with people on what's often known as the social network for business.Technology news website TechCrunch first reported the news on Monday. (tcrn.ch/2fwHLSB) With Facebook's jobs features, companies...

>SINGAPORE Oil prices were stable early on Tuesday after posting strong gains the previous day, with investors piling money into financial markets in expectation that Democrat Hillary Clinton would win the U.S. presidential election.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 1 cent at $44.88...

>SEOUL South Korean prosecutors raided the offices of Samsung Electronics on Tuesday as part of a probe over a political scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her friend who is alleged to have exerted improper influence in state affairs. A prosecution official told Reuters the search is related to the...

>SINGAPORE Most Asian stock markets rose on Tuesday ahead of the U.S. presidential election, with investors optimistic but cautious over improving prospects for a win by Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Mexican peso, which strengthens as the perceived chances of an election victory by Republican Donald Trump fall, retained its...

>WASHINGTON U.S. state attorneys general have joined a federal antitrust probe of the planned merger between DuPont (DD.N) and Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N), according to three people familiar with the matter, heightening risks to a deal that could help reshape the global farm industry.A separate group...

>Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal will begin selling ads for Apple Inc’s News app next year in an exclusive deal, the companies announced on Monday.Apple will outsource the selling to NBCUniversal, which already has relationships with many major U.S. advertisers. The deal is reminiscent of one that Snapchat struck with...

>CHICAGO Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is in talks with several mobile wallet companies to offer more payment options in its Wal-Mart Pay app, an executive at the world's largest retailer said, after signing up JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) last week. Starting next year, Chase Pay will become...

>Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the targets of the air strikes included Islamic State fighting positions and vehicles, including some that could be used to deliver explosives. (Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Dan Grebler)...

>U.S. banks, including Morgan Stanley (MS.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), are bracing for potential tumult on financial markets in the wake of Tuesday's U.S. election.Bank preparations ahead of the U.S. election reflect their experience following Britain's...

>PARIS AccorHotels (ACCP.PA) is buying a 30 percent stake in Germany's 25hours Hotels for 35 million euros ($39 million), stepping up its expansion in the fast-growing market for "boutique" hotels that shun the replicated styles of mass-market brands. 25hours Hotels, which will continue to be run by chief executive...

>"A U.S. rate hike could trigger capital flows from Switzerland to the U.S.," Maechler said in a interview with Swiss broadcaster SRF. "That would of course be good for the Swiss franc."Maechler said negative interest rates remained "absolutely necessary" in Switzerland as a way to prevent...

>NEW YORK Facebook said on Monday it would partner with 50 broadcast stations, print and online publications for an Election Day live video blitz, as the social media company aims to build on the momentum of its popular Facebook Live video streaming service. The move comes as Facebook and rival...

>Sabine Lautenschlaeger's comments were likely to be read as an indication she might oppose extending the ECB's monthly bond-buying program much beyond its March deadline - a decision the ECB will make at its meeting in a month's time.The former head of Germany's financial regulatory agency defended the ECB...

>WASHINGTON Personnel from the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division will be deployed to polling sites in 28 states to monitor Tuesday's election, five more than it monitored in the 2012 election, the department said on Monday.Most of those states will receive Justice Department staff who have no...

>Renewed focus on Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state had led traders to downgrade her chances to win the White House in Tuesday's election.Polls showed Clinton's lead over Republican rival Donald Trump narrowed after FBI director James Comey sent letters to U.S. lawmakers...

>The decree, signed by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, ordered the sale of stake by state energy firm Rosneftegaz to be finalised by Dec. 5, the document showed.Russia's budget, which is in danger of running up a bigger deficit this year than the 3.7 percent of gross...

>The $40.75 per share offer represents a nearly 34 percent premium over Blue Nile's closing price on Friday.Blue Nile's shares, which have lost 16 percent of their value this year, were up 31.5 percent at $40.04 in premarket trading on Monday.Blue Nile has a 30-day...

>EarthLink shareholders will receive 0.818 Windstream shares for each share they own.The deal values EarthLink at about $645.2 million or $5.92 per share, based on Windstream's Friday closing price, according to Reuters calculations. EarthLink had about $436 million in gross debt as of Sept. 30.Shares...

>JERUSALEM Israel on Monday formally rejected France's invitation to take part in a Middle East peace conference in Paris later this year, saying it was a distraction from the goal of direct negotiations with the Palestinians.At a meeting in Jerusalem with Israel's acting national security adviser and Prime Minister...

>LONDON/BENGALURU Sterling's near 20 percent plunge following Britain's vote in June to leave the European Union has brought the currency to the ideal rate for the UK economy, according to a Reuters poll of economists taken in the past few days.That plunge, however, has already begun to stoke inflation,...

>Greece is financing itself from euro zone loans under its third bailout deal with the single currency area and to get subsequent tranches, it needs to show it is implementing agreed reforms under a process called a review."I would say (Greece) is broadly on track," Dombrovskis told reporters before...

>The investigation by prosecutors in Braunschweig focuses on whether Volkswagen (VW) in 2015 manipulated markets by delaying the release of information about the financial impact of its emissions test-cheating scandal. VW on Sunday said a probe announced in June and targeting VW brand Chief Executive Herbert Diess and former group...

>U.S. stocks soared on Monday as U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's prospects got a boost a day ahead of the election after the FBI said it would not press criminal charges related to her use of a private email server.Wall Street closed lower for nine days in...

>WASHINGTON A furious fight for control of the U.S. Congress being waged alongside the White House race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump ends on Tuesday with elections that will help shape the country's policy decisions for the next two years.At stake is Republicans' current grip...

>PARIS Online luxury retailer Farfetch, valued at around $1.5 billion in a fund-raising this year, sees a flotation on the cards in two to three years once a phase of high investment is over, its CEO told Reuters.Farfetch is a marketplace website that puts consumers in touch with...

>Vivendi has been gradually increasing its stake in Ubisoft, and holds more than 20 percent at the moment. But Vivendi ruled out making a hostile takeover bid for Ubisoft in October.Ubisoft's chairman and chief executive, Yves Guillemot, also told reporters at a news briefing that there had been no...

>The operation by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), including the Kurdish YPG militia, that began on Saturday aims to encircle and ultimately capture Raqqa, adding to the pressure on IS as it faces a major assault in Iraq.Islamic State has also drawn heavily on suicide car bombs in its...

>"The (Russian) president deems a regime when Russian air forces don't carry out strikes on eastern Aleppo as reasonable if militants don't start combat action," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. (Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; editing by Vladimir Soldatkin)...

>A council of experts that advises Chancellor Angela Merkel's government said last week that the ECB should scale back its stimulus program of bond purchases given the extent of the bloc's economic recovery. But a broader survey of 64 European academics by the Center for Macroeconomics and the Center for...

>SHANGHAI/TAIPEI Cargo owners are becoming more concerned about risks and are shifting their business to shipping lines deemed more financially stable after the collapse of South Korea's Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd (117930.KS), top shipping executives said. Robbert van Trooijen, Asia Pacific chief executive of AP Moeller-Maersk's (MAERSKb.CO) container...

>"For the moment, we have no information on this issue ... The KBA (motor vehicle authority) is making sure that it will receive information on the issue and as a next step it will make an assessment," spokesman Sebastian Hille said during a regular government news conference. Newspaper Bild am Sonntag...

>SINGAPORE/ANKARA Iran has reached a deal with a foreign leasing company to finance the first 17 jets it plans to buy from Airbus (AIR.PA), breaking a logjam in efforts to import aircraft following the lifting of sanctions, people familiar with the move said.The deal removes a significant hurdle...

>ABC News, citing Reno's goddaughter, said she died from complications of Parkinson's disease early on Monday.Reno served as the top U.S. law enforcement official under Clinton from 1993 to 2001, becoming the longest-tenured attorney general of the 20th century. The blunt-spoken Reno authorized the deadly 1993 raid on...

>"We will not insist on buying expensive arms from the United States. We can always get them somewhere else. I am ordering the police to cancel it. We don't need them," Duterte said in a televised speech at a event attended by Muslim rebel leaders."We will just have to...

>The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of 2016, gives GIC control of P3's 163 warehouses in 62 locations, across nine countries.TPG Real Estate and its partner Ivanhoe Cambridge bought the Prague-based business in 2013 and have grown its portfolio...

>MANCHESTER, N.H./STERLING HEIGHTS, MICHIGAN As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton criss-crossed the United States on Sunday in a final, frenzied burst of campaigning, the Republican said he was the "last chance" to fix a broken country while his Democratic rival said a "moment of reckoning" had arrived.The...

>The bank, wholly owned by supermarket chain Tesco, said it had discovered there had been "significant" fraudulent criminal activity on customers' current accounts late on Saturday and early Sunday morning.Benny Higgins, the bank's chief executive, said 40,000 of current accounts had experienced suspicious transactions and about half had money...

>BASHIQA, Iraq Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces attacked an Islamic State-held town northeast of Mosul on Monday, trying to clear a pocket of militants outside the city while Iraqi troops wage a fierce urban war with the jihadists in its eastern neighborhoods.The first waves of a 2,000-strong peshmerga force entered...

>NEW YORK Apparently, Americans are too distracted or distraught by this year's wild presidential campaign to think about getting a dishwasher, buying an RV or opening a doughnut shop. And the topsy-turvy race could be crimping furniture sales, hotel bookings and even temporary help hiring.At least that is the...