News Archive - 20 January 2017

>WASHINGTON President Donald Trump directed government agencies on Friday to freeze regulations and take steps to weaken Obamacare, using his first hours in the White House to make good on a campaign promise to start dismantling his predecessor's healthcare law.Heading into the Oval Office shortly after the conclusion of...

>WASHINGTON Donald Trump took over as U.S. president on Friday in the same way he conducted his upstart campaign, with a mixture of blustery salesmanship and naked contempt for the established political order. In doing so, he sent a clear signal to the country and the world: He plans...

>WASHINGTON The Trump administration will make defeating "radical Islamic terror groups" its top foreign policy goal, according to a statement posted on the White House website moments after Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. president.Trump, a Republican, used his inaugural address on Friday to promise to "unite the civilized...

>The Competition Bureau's investigation found that an arrangement between the publishers and Apple led to higher prices for Canadians.The watchdog said it had entered into consent agreements with Apple, Lagardere SCA's Hachette, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH's Macmillan and CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster that will let other retailers,...

>WASHINGTON The new U.S. administration of President Donald Trump said on Friday its trade strategy to protect American jobs would start with withdrawal from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact.A White House statement issued soon after Trump's inauguration said the United States would also "crack down on...

>Apple Inc filed a $1 billion lawsuit against supplier Qualcomm Inc on Friday, days after the U.S. government filed a lawsuit that accused the chip maker of resorting to anticompetitive tactics to maintain a monopoly over key semiconductors in mobile phones. Qualcomm is a major supplier to both Apple...

>The FTC isn't convinced that Walgreen's proposal to sell 865 drugstores to Fred's Inc (FRED.O) would do enough to preserve competition that would be lost in the $9.4 billion tie-up, Bloomberg reported on Friday. (bloom.bg/2iJXpwf)The FTC is also unlikely to complete its review of the deal before...

>Trump, who was sworn into office earlier on Friday, also signed into a law a waiver to allow Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, to serve, Sean Spicer said. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chris Reese)...

>WASHINGTON Outgoing U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler warned Republicans against dismantling the Obama administration's landmark "net neutrality" protections that bar internet service providers from slowing consumer access to web content.Wheeler, in an interview this week, repeatedly questioned why Republicans would institute new policies that he said...

>The online retailer launched its thumb-sized Dash button in 2015, allowing Prime members to re-order products such as Tide detergent, Huggies diapers and Gillette products by pushing a button.Prime customers can create virtual dash button on "millions" of Prime eligible products on Amazon, the company said in a video.

>The strike took place just a day before the end of President Barack Obama's presidency and a day after more than 80 Islamic State militants were killed in U.S. air strikes in Libya.The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the air strike was primarily carried out...

>BRUSSELS Donald Trump's policy plans in his first days in office are likely to dominate headlines in the coming week, but the new president himself will also get a first read-out on the health of the U.S. economy.And for all his call to make American great again, data...

>NEW YORK American International Group Inc (AIG.N) has agreed to pay roughly $10.2 billion to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) to take on many long-term risks on U.S. commercial insurance policies it has already written.The reinsurance transaction covers "long-tail" exposures, which are liabilities that...

>DAVOS, Switzerland A strengthening dollar and a "race to the bottom" on taxes, deregulation and trade policy are the major risks to an otherwise brightening global economy, financial leaders said on the final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos.Asked about "black swans", or unexpected, disruptive events, that...

>MOSCOW The Kremlin may have spent years reviling America, but Russians hoping Donald Trump will usher in a new era of detente marked his inauguration on Friday with parties and trinkets from commemorative coins to "matryoshka" nesting dolls in his image.Washington was turned into a virtual fortress with an...

>LONDON For financial markets, the Trump era begins on Monday, and if history is any guide the following month should be a rocky one for Wall Street but positive for the dollar.The S&P 500 .SPX has fallen a median 2.7 percent in the month after each new president...

>DAVOS, Switzerland U.S. bankers, buoyed by a resurgence in profits, are advising their counterparts in Europe to think positively about the new administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.But many Europeans still need convincing.At the annual gathering of the world's political and business elites in the Swiss...

>MUMBAI Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) is in early talks to sell 25 percent of India's largest private general insurer ICICI Lombard in a deal that could fetch up to $1 billion, as the Canadian firm looks to cash out and start a new insurance joint venture, sources familiar with...

>DAVOS, Switzerland Globalization is good. That's the message leaders of developing countries want to send from the Davos forum to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Friday.Any return to protectionism, they fear, could bring the sky down on decades of trade-based economic growth that has lifted...

>SAN FRANCISCO U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is only hours old, but already a small parade of S&P 500 companies' chiefs have voiced optimism that his promised tax cuts, stimulus spending and deregulation will boost corporate profits.In the days ahead of Friday's inauguration, senior executives from Morgan Stanley...

>LONDON A banner reading "Build bridges not walls" was draped across London's Tower Bridge on Friday as part of a series of protests across the world aimed at expressing displeasure at the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president.Protesters on the drawbridge, with its two Gothic-style towers, held...

>SEOUL South Korea's special prosecutor's office said on Friday it summoned a Samsung Electronics Co Ltd executive for questioning as it investigates a widening influence-peddling scandal that has embroiled President Park Geun-hye. The office said it had summoned Executive Vice President Hwang Sung-soo for questioning at 2 p.m. (0500...

>"We have filed an HSR Act with the FTC after good communications with the case team. We believe the U.S. anti-trust process is on track," ChemChina said in an email, referring to the U.S. anti-trust Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees mergers.A Syngenta spokesperson also...

>PENNE, Italy Eight people were found alive on Friday two days after being buried under a massive avalanche that hit a luxury mountain hotel in central Italy, a Civil Protection official said.Titti Postiglione told reporters that two of the survivors had already been pulled clear of the snow and...

>Larry Fink said at the World Economic Forum that he expected that Fed interest rate hikes this year could push up the value of the U.S. currency "significantly". "We all should be aware right now that we are going to be living a world of a strong dollar," he...

>SHANGHAI China's COSCO Shipping Corporation and Hong Kong-listed shipping-to-property firm Orient Overseas International (OOIL) Ltd (0316.HK) on Friday threw cold water on reports that the two were in talks over a deal for OOIL's subsidiary OOCL.Rumors about a deal for OOCL have grown over recent months, amid market...

>TOKYO Japan's Toshiba Corp (6502.T) has begun preparations to sell a minority stake in its core chip business, people with knowledge of the matter said, as it urgently seeks funding to avoid being crippled by an upcoming multi-billion dollar writedown. The industrial conglomerate has distributed non-disclosure agreement forms to...

>WASHINGTON Tens of thousands of law enforcement officers and miles of barriers were in place in Washington on Friday, as officials braced for hundreds of thousands of people planning to celebrate or protest Donald Trump's inauguration as president of the United States.About 900,000 people were expected to pack central...

>PARIS/DAVOS, Switzerland For the last year, Sanofi's chief executive has made clear his quest for deals to help revive the fortunes of France's biggest drugmaker.The market is still waiting. Olivier Brandicourt's failure to land two big biotech acquisitions he was chasing has led to growing impatience among some investors.

>LOS ANGELES Traditional TV networks are following Netflix Inc's (NFLX.O) lead by releasing all new episodes of a series at the same time, a step to win over binge viewers who do not want to wait a week for the next installment.The move poses a direct challenge to...

>WASHINGTON Donald Trump will be sworn in on Friday as the 45th president of the United States, taking power over a divided country after winning a savage campaign and setting the country on a new, uncertain path at home and abroad.In a ceremony likely to be attended by 900,000...

>NEW YORK CITY Mexican cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is expected to appear in a court in New York on Friday, shortly after his surprise extradition from Mexico ended a decades-long career in drug-trafficking, dare-devil jail breaks and murder.A Justice Department spokesman said El Chapo, or Shorty, once...

>NEW YORK As he is sworn in as the 45th U.S. president on Friday, Donald Trump will mark one of the best performances for the American stock market for any presidential transition period of the modern era.But the market's 5.8 percent rise since his Nov. 8 election...

>DAVOS, Switzerland Open markets and global trade have been blamed for job losses over the last decade, but global CEOs say the real culprits are increasingly machines.And while business leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos relish the productivity gains technology can bring, they warned...

>WASHINGTON Tax cuts, deregulation and more federal spending advocated by the incoming Trump administration are a classic remedy for economic stagnation and long unemployment lines. But that medicine may be too strong for an economy that has grown for eight years, with wages now rising and the jobless rate near...

>WASHINGTON They voted to "drain the swamp" in Washington, D.C., but on the night before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, they came to wallow in it.At parties across the city, Trump supporters danced and drank to celebrate an incoming...

>Police eventually rammed the car and shot the 26-year-old driver in the arm, before dragging him from the vehicle and arresting him. Police said the man had a history of family violence and was wanted over a stabbing earlier in the day.Pursued by police cars, the man had been...

>NEW YORK A month ago, the dollar and stock markets were riding high as investors bet that the Trump administration, together with the Republican-controlled Congress, would usher in an era of lower taxes, more government spending and looser regulations. But as questions mount about how the new administration would carry...