News Archive - 13 November 2016

Iranian senior diplomat Hossein Mousavian says Trump’s upset victory is not much of a surprise for Iran as the country has seen unexpected results in 1997, 2005 and 2013. In an article published in government mouthpiece Iran daily, Mousavian called Donald Trump the first American president that has entered...

(Ahmad Khatami led this week’s Friday prayers in Tehran. Soroush Seyed Jamali/YJC)   This week, Friday prayers’ leaders made game of United States’ elections, not only for the final outcome, the surprise election of Donald Trump, but also for the electoral campaign of both Democrat and Republican candidates and...

>WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump was weighing contenders for other top jobs in his administration after choosing Washington insider Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff and firebrand outsider Stephen Bannon as senior counselor.Less than a week after his upset win over Democrat Hillary Clinton in last Tuesday's presidential...

>Hackers used stolen Bangladesh Bank credentials to try to send three dozen SWIFT messages to transfer nearly $1 billion from its Fed account. They succeeded in transferring $81 million to four accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in Manila.Most of the money was laundered through casinos in Manila.On...

>Reuters reported on Saturday, citing a source familiar with the matter, that the two had signed an agreement that could pave the way for Volkswagen's joint venture with SAIC to make Audi brand cars. Audi cars are now only made in China through a joint venture with China FAW Group...

>KABUL/CAIRO From Afghanistan to Algeria, jihadists plan to use Donald Trump's shock U.S. presidential victory as a propaganda tool to bring new fighters to their battlefields.Taliban commanders and Islamic State supporters say Trump's campaign trail rhetoric against Muslims - at one point calling for a total shutdown of...

>TOKYO Japanese policymakers are starting to see fiscal stimulus as the most likely next step to spark economic growth given the central bank's dwindling monetary ammunition and uncertainty over the agenda of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.The market turbulence caused by Trump's victory has unnerved policymakers, and offers an...

>LONDON Anti-establishment votes in Britain and the United States have roiled markets twice this year and investors are determined not to be caught off guard again.In 2017, voters in the Netherlands, France and Germany - and possibly in Italy and Britain too - will vote in elections that could...

>If true, the delay is another setback for Idemitsu in its long-drawn out attempt to take over Showa Shell, after meeting strong opposition from the founding family of Idemitsu.Idemitsu management last month put a full takeover on hold indefinitely although it had planned to press ahead with a signed...

>Trump had lambasted China throughout the U.S. election campaign, drumming up headlines with his pledges to slap 45 percent tariffs on imported Chinese goods and to label the country a currency manipulator on his first day in office.His election has injected uncertainty into bilateral relations at a time...

>BEIJING China's economy largely showed further signs of steadying in October as expected, but disappointing retail sales growth and fears of U.S. trade frictions under incoming President Donald Trump are increasingly clouding the outlook.Fixed-asset investment quickened slightly and beat expectations in January-October as the government stepped up infrastructure...

>SYDNEY Australia's prime minister said on Monday resettlement to the United States of many of the 1,200 asylum seekers held in detention camps on Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru will begin after President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration in January.Whether Trump honors the deal Australia reached with...

>NAGOYA, Japan Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday the economy is sustaining momentum towards hitting the central bank's 2 percent inflation target but risks are tilted to the downside due to uncertainty over the global economy.Kuroda maintained his optimistic view of Japan's economy, saying it is...

>SAN FRANCISCO Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE), Europe's biggest industrial group, is nearing a deal to buy Mentor Graphics Corp (MENT.O), which makes software for designing semiconductors, for $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion in cash, according to people familiar with the matter.The deal could be announced as...

>Munich-based BMW expects to increase its deliveries of fully electric and hybrid vehicles to around 60,000 units this year, Krueger said in an interview published on Monday. Sales of battery-powered BMW models have totaled about 100,000 cars since 2013, he noted."Electric mobility will come, but demand is not going...

>Some 150 migrants, reported as being mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, left Belgrade on Friday to walk about 125 km (80 miles) to the Croatian border, demanding free and secure passage to Western Europe. Due to exhaustion and cold weather, some decided to give up the march, media reported. But...

>In a speech at Mansion House in the City of London financial district, May will say Britain must be the strongest advocate for free trade, but also manage the forces of globalization so that everyone benefits from them.Discontent among those seen as "left behind" by globalization was considered a...

>TOKYO The dollar rose to a nine-month high against a basket of major peers early on Monday, as a risk-on mood in global markets triggered by Donald Trump's election to president remained firmly intact.The dollar index .DXY was up 0.4 percent at 99.428 after touching 99.445,...

>London Brent crude for January delivery LCOc1 was trading down 3 cents at $44.72 a barrel, after settling down $1.09 on Friday. The benchmark on Friday hit its lowest since Aug. 11 at $44.19.NYMEX crude for December delivery CLc1 was down 11 cents at $43.30...

>SYDNEY The U.S. dollar touched a nine-month peak in Asia on Monday as the risk of faster inflation at home and greater bond issuance kept Treasury yields elevated, a painful mix for assets in many emerging market countries.The dollar neared a four-month top on the yen at 106.

>The peso MXN=D2, the world's worst-performing currency this year, has fallen to record lows after Trump's election upset last week on fears he may look to decrease trade and build a wall between the two countries, while also deporting about 11 million people living illegally in the United States. On...

>NEW YORK Donald Trump's stunning victory for the White House may mark the long-awaited end to the more than 30-year-old bull run in bonds, as bets on faster U.S. growth and inflation lead investors to favor stocks over bonds.A two-day thumping wiped out more than $1 trillion across...

>NEW YORK Facebook Inc chief executive Mark Zuckerberg again rejected the idea that the social network affected the U.S. presidential election, saying late Saturday it is "extremely unlikely" news hoaxes changed the outcome.Ensnared in a string of content controversies in recent months, Facebook has insisted that it is...

>CHICAGO U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has requested that a trial over a lawsuit by former students of his now-defunct Trump University be put on hold until after the presidential inauguration, according to a motion filed by his lawyer late Saturday.A trial in federal court in San Diego over...

>WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump backed away from his promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, saying some areas could instead be "fencing," and added he would move to deport up to 3 million immigrants in the country illegally who have criminal records.Trump, whose pledge to...

>BERLIN The chairman of Germany's largest luxury carmaker, Daimler-Benz, braved boos and a frosty reception as guest speaker at a Greens party congress on Sunday to tell delegates he too wants CO2-free cars on the roads.Dieter Zetsche, whose company is demonized by many Greens, said the firm had not...

>Novartis has blamed a failure to innovate and inconsistent customer service for the problems at Alcon, a business the company gradually bought from food maker Nestle in deals totaling $51 billion. Alcon will take longer to turn around than expected, Chief Executive Joe Jimenez said in October, forecasting unit sales...

>WELLINGTON An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck central New Zealand just after midnight, the U.S. Geological Survey said, causing widespread damage and generating a tsunami.New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management warned of the risk of destructive waves along the country's entire east...

>"In this situation marked by a disruption in oil markets, it is imperative to reach a consensus among OPEC’s countries and to agree on an effective mechanism and accurate figures to activate the historic agreement of Algiers," APS quoted Falih saying after a meeting with Algeria's oil minister. (Reporting by...

>BAWIZA, Iraq Iraqi soldiers fighting just north of Mosul, within sight of city neighborhoods, said on Sunday they were ready to tighten the noose around Islamic State militants waging a brutal defense of their Iraqi stronghold.Four weeks into the campaign to crush Islamic State in Mosul, the city is...

>WASHINGTON U.S. officials are striving to put finishing touches on a slew of banking rules before President Barack Obama leaves office and hands regulatory power to Donald Trump who has vowed to rewrite the existing financial rule book.President-elect Trump will take over on Jan. 20 and his fellow...

>WELLINGTON U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday the Obama administration would do everything it could to implement a global agreement to combat climate change before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.Kerry made the comments during a visit to New Zealand just before setting off to Marrakesh,...

>"Troops from the Ninth Armoured Division liberated Nimrud town completely and raised the Iraqi flag above its buildings," the statement said. The town of Nimrud lies 1 km (less than 1 mile) west of the ruins of the 3,000-year-old city.The soldiers also captured the village of Numaniya, on the...

>LONDON If Britain does not agree a transitional arrangement with the European Union for the country's finance industry, it will be damaging for the economy and the financial services sector, the Chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) said on Sunday.The country's finance sector has been lobbying for...

>Special forces and a tank division fighting to expand their foothold in the east of the city for nearly two weeks have faced determined opposition from the militants who have launched waves of suicide bombers, sniper attacks and ambushes against them.The army has said it controls or has advanced...

>LONDON Five months to the day after Britain voted for Brexit, its finance minister will outline how the government plans to cope with the economic fallout and voters' frustrations which had echoes in Donald Trump's U.S. election triumph.Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is due on Nov.