News Archive - 30 December 2016

Turkey and Russia have brokered a nation-wide cease-fire in Syria that, if successful, can mark a new milestone in the 6-year conflict that has stubbornly defied durable peace despite repeated international efforts. As 2016 comes to a close, the new cease-fire initiative is, of course, welcome news for millions...

>BEIJING China's military has become alarmed by what it sees as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's support of Taiwan and is considering strong measures to prevent the island from moving toward independence, sources with ties to senior military officers said.Three sources said one possibility being considered was conducting war...

>Controlling risks has been a constant refrain in recent months as the focus of policymakers switches to taming asset bubbles and checking unbalanced growth stemming from efforts to fuel the economy with credit.The central bank - while reaffirming a long-standing commitment to prudent policy - said on Friday it...

>Jan Chamberlin resigned after five years with the choir, which originates from Utah, over the Jan. 20 ceremony, saying it "will appear that (the) Choir is endorsing tyranny and fascism by singing for this man."With three weeks to go before Trump is sworn in, teen classical singer Jackie Evancho...

>The company had slashed output by 30 percent in January-March this year due to accumulated inventory, the paper said. Apple's shares were down 0.84 percent in midday trading, in line with the Nasdaq stock index. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in...

>Obama, who is leaving office on Jan. 20, will attend a meeting with Democrats from the House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday, the official said.During the session, Obama will warn Democrats that allowing Republican lawmakers to scrap the Affordable Care Act before proposing a replacement would create...

>NEW YORK After a late-year rally fueled by the U.S. election pushed stocks to surprising new peaks, investors are wary that the market could be primed for a spill to start 2017.The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX is set to post a roughly 10 percent price gain for 2016...

>Cabela's shares were down 7.6 percent at $56.98 in premarket trading on Friday.Cabela's did not provide details about the FTC's request.As part of the proposed $5.5 billion deal, announced in October, Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) had said it would buy Cabela's credit card...

>BERLIN/PARIS European capitals tightened security on Friday ahead of New Year's celebrations, erecting concrete barriers in city centres and stepping up police numbers after the Islamic State attack in Berlin last week that killed 12 people.In the German capital, police closed the Pariser Platz square in front of the...

>NEAR MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi forces faced car bombs and fierce resistance from Islamic State militants in southern Mosul on Friday, the second day of a renewed push to take back the city after fighting stalled for several weeks.An officer in the federal police forces, which joined the battle on...

>Wall Street was flat after the open on the last trading day of 2016 due to losses across most sectors, but was still on track to record hefty gains for the year. The S&P is on track to rise nearly 10 percent this year, the Nasdaq 8.3 percent and...

>"Due to the low added value, production jobs will be lost," German weekly paper Welt am Sonntag quoted Elmar Degenhart as saying in a summary of an article to be published on Sunday.He said it was too soon to say whether the number of jobs that would be lost...

>LONDON Britain scolded U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the most right-wing in Israeli history, a move that aligns Prime Minister Theresa May more closely with President-elect Donald Trump.After U.S. President Barack Obama enraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by refusing...

>TAIPEI Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will transit through Houston and San Francisco during her January visit to allies in Latin America, her office said Friday, prompting China to repeat a call for the U.S. to block any such stopover. Tsai's office declined to comment on whether she would be...

>Midea, which launched a 4.5 billion euro ($5 billion) offer for Kuka in May, said Germany's markets regulator had approved the settlement of the transaction, allowing it to control a 94.55 percent voting stake in Kuka from January onwards. The bid for Kuka, a high-tech robotics manufacturer, sparked...

>SEOUL Samsung Electronics Co's (005930.KS) sponsorship of the equestrian-athlete daughter of a long-time friend of President Park Geun-hye has helped to land South Korea's top company in the center of the country's influence-peddling scandal.Samsung agreed last year to pay $18 million to Core Sports International GmbH, a consulting...

>SINGAPORE Crude oil, rubber and metals are set to end 2016 with strong gains, bouncing back from several years of losses on output cuts and expectations of firmer demand.Benchmark zinc CMZN3, steel rebar SRBcv1 and rubber JRUc6 have all rallied around 60 percent this year, while Brent crude LCOc1...

>Sakai Display Products Corp's plant will be a so-called Gen-10.5 facility specializing in large-screen LCDs and will be operational by 2019, the company said at a signing event with local officials in Guangzhou on Friday. It said the plant will have capacity equating to 92 billion yuan a year.

>MANILA After six months at the helm in the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte has been touting just two achievements of his presidency - a vicious war on drugs and a surprise alliance with his country's bitter rival, China.Yet behind the curse-laden bluster and populist demagoguery that has defined Duterte's rule,...

>CHICAGO Smithfield Food Inc [SFII.UL], the world's biggest pork producer, is buying grain elevators and purchasing grain directly from farmers, a move that hits grain handlers already reeling from multiyear lows in corn and soybean prices.The Virginia-based company bought two Ohio grain elevators in September. For the first...

>Social media firm Snap Inc may be the highest profile tech IPO planned for 2017, with the potential to raise billions.But more than a dozen expected stock offerings of relatively obscure software firms targeting business customers - little-known names such as Apttus, Tintri and Okta - could be just...