All posts published in May 2014
KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukraine launched air strikes and a paratrooper assault against pro-Russian rebels who seized an airport on Monday, even as its newly elected leader vowed to reassert control in the east and refused to negotiate with “terrorist... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Socialist opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said on Monday he was stepping down after the party had its worst-ever election result on Sunday with an upstart rival leftist group grabbing 8 percent of the vote. Recession-weary ... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Stunning victories in European Parliament elections by nationalist, Eurosceptic parties from France and Britain left the European Union licking its wounds on Monday and facing a giant policy dilemma. Across the continent, anti-establishmen... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea and China agreed on Monday recent nuclear activity by North Korea posed a serious threat to the peace and stability of the region and Pyongyang must not conduct a nuclear test, the South said after a meeting of their top diplomats... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Maria Sharapova emerged unscathed from an all-Russian battle against Ksenia Pervak on the rain-interrupted second day of the French Open on Monday. The seventh seed and 2012 champion blew kisses to the crowd after she won 6-1 6-2 on the Phili... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – South Asia’s bitterest rivals have an opportunity to turn a page in their history of troubled relations, Pakistan’s prime minister said on Monday after he and other regional leaders arrived for the swearing-in ceremony of India’s Narendra... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Heavy rain stopped first-round action at the French Open on Monday, the second day of the grand slam tournament. Surfaces were covered on the main courts, with world No. 2 Novak Djokovic of Serbia 4-1 up against Portugal’s Joao Sousa. Play st... More »
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – As a $14.8 billion hedge fund with a reputation for savvy mortgage trades and a record of double-digit returns, Pine River Capital Management has long signed up multi-billion-dollar pension and sovereign wealth funds as investors. Now the... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The euro recovered early losses on Monday after election results handed a significant share of the EU parliament to Eurosceptics but failed to deliver the serious domestic blow to some European governments feared by analysts. <-ID:L6N0OB1P... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Italian assets surged and German shares hit all-time highs on Monday as solid election showings by pro-European forces in both countries provided an antidote to Eurosceptic gains in France, the UK and Greece. Though nationalists scored stunn... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Maria Sharapova hurried into the second round of the French Open on Monday with a 6-1 6-2 demolition of fellow Russian Ksenia Pervak. Seventh seed Sharapova, champion in 2012 and runner-up last year, dropped serve once in the opening set but ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – If having a broken heart was a viable excuse for withdrawing from a grand slam tournament, Caroline Wozniacki might be tempted to use it. The Dane’s life has been turned upside down since golfer Rory McIlroy, like Wozniacki a former world No.... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Former world number one Rory McIlroy believes the confidence he will gain from his BMW PGA Championship victory at Wentworth could act as a launch pad to get him back on top of the rankings. The 25-year-old shrugged aside the midweek heartac... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp aims to expand sales of its PlayStation 4 games console as the key driver of its fast-growing network and streaming services business, Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said on Monday. Hirai said gaming was the one area where Sony would c... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Rafa Nadal, looking to extend his French Open record to nine titles, starts his Roland Garros campaign with what is likely to be his only appearance on court Suzanne Lenglen as the start of play was delayed by one hour because of rain on Mond... More »
PRETORIA (Reuters) – South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius checked in as a day patient to Pretoria’s Weskoppies psychiatric hospital on Monday for the first day of a month of mental tests ordered by the judge overseeing his murder trial... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Humans may be born to run but fitness experts differ on exactly how to embark on what has been called the most natural cardiovascular workout. Some chase one ideal form, others work with the body’s individual flow, but all praise the soft ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Liverpool is the home of music giants The Beatles and the city’s exalted five-times European soccer champions and in July it may also be the stage where Miguel Angel Jimenez creates golfing history, says Tony Jacklin. None of the four major ... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India will move to recover bank guarantees from an aborted 560-million-euro helicopter deal with Italy’s Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI ), the defense ministry said, after an Italian court lifted a freeze on 228 million euros held with European ba... More »
MONACO (Reuters) – Baku will be a big hit with Formula One when oil-rich Azerbaijan hosts a grand prix for the first time next year, according to Italian Flavio Briatore. The controversial and colorful former Benetton and Renault team boss, who has business in... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Standard Chartered (STAN.L ) is set to close its Swiss private bank in Geneva, broadcaster Radio Television Suisse (RTS) reported on Monday. The Asia-focused bank said in February it was looking to sell the Swiss private bank as part of a pl... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Major airlines want real-time tracking for commercial aircraft following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines (MASM.KL ) flight MH370 and cost is not a concern, a senior official with the United Nations’ aviation agency said on Monda... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese shares climbed to a one-month high on Monday morning, extending its winning streak to a third day, helped by the yen’s retreat and a closing record-high for Wall Street on upbeat U.S. housing data. The benchmark Nikkei .N225 gained 0... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House inadvertently included the name of the top CIA official in Afghanistan on a list of participants in a military briefing with President Barack Obama that was distributed to reporters on Sunday, the Washington Post reported... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – A man wielding a saw slashed and injured two members of Japanese female pop group AKB48, rated by Guinness as the world’s biggest such group, at a fan event in Japan, leaving the country stunned at the extremely rare violent crime. The group,... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Japan’s Sony Corp and China’s Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group Co Ltd will set up two joint ventures to make and market Sony’s PlayStation games console in China, Shanghai Oriental Pearl said in a stock exchange filing on Monday. One joint ven... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Bank of Japan board member Takehiro Sato proposed changing the central bank’s assessment of prices to say that risks are tilted somewhat to the downside, highlighting skepticism within the board that Japan would be able to decisively beat off... More »
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Hon Hai Precision, a major supplier of Apple Inc, is set to raise about T$93 billion ($310 million) via selling new shares to foreign investors for its expansion overseas and into Taiwan’s developing 4G telecom market, a local paper reported... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The euro slipped early on Monday, while the other major currencies got off to a steady start as the results of a presidential election in Ukraine and votes for the European Parliament were so far greeted calmly by investors. Dealers expect l... More »
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The “X-Men” mutant superheroes smashed into U.S. and Canadian theaters and collected $90.7 million in ticket sales through Sunday, keeping monster hit “Godzilla” at bay and heading toward a decisive win over a long holiday week... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – The Chinese developer behind an eight-storey clubhouse with a billion-dollar view over Shanghai’s Huangphu River is turning to lower-end coffee shops and restaurants to fill the space, as a broad anti-graft campaign puts the brakes on con... More »
(Reuters) – ESPN is considering selling online access to live Major League Soccer games to consumers without pay TV subscriptions, an experiment that could help the sports network find ways to generate revenue outside the traditional pay television system. Med... More »
SINTRA, Portugal (Reuters) – Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, called on Sunday for closer cooperation among the world’s central banks to cope with the challenges of increasingly interlinked and complex financial systems.... More »
(Reuters) – China has told its state-owned enterprises to sever links with American consulting firms just days after the United States charged five Chinese military officers with hacking U.S. companies, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. China’s action, w... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Sunday he wanted to revive gun control legislation rejected by Congress in the wake of the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre, saying it could have helped prevent this weekend’s deadly Californi... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – AOL Inc said on Sunday it is starting a program in Israel to assist start-ups, and that it will invest at least $100,000 in as many as 10 projects at a time. The Internet giant already has a development center in Israel, and its new proje... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – (This May 13, 2014 story was refiled to correct the final words in quote in last paragraph and adds how Reuters received a copy of Umanets’ video statement) A Mark Rothko painting vandalized at London’s Tate Modern gallery 18 months ago went... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A crackdown on corruption and pricing in China’s fast-growing pharmaceutical market has squeezed profits and margins, raising a red flag to global Big Pharma that the days of easy growth in the country may be over. A Reuters’ analysis of m... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Stung by criticism, President Barack Obama will use a speech on Wednesday to launch a sweeping defense of his approach to foreign policy, one that he will say is reliant on multilateral diplomacy instead of military interventions. Obama ... More »
DENVER/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Washington is considering using visa restrictions to prevent Chinese nationals from attending popular summer hacking conferences in Las Vegas as part of a broader effort to curb Chinese cyber espionage, a senior administration offic... More »
CANNES France (Reuters) – Turkish film “Winter Sleep” examining the huge divide between rich and poor and the powerful and powerless in Turkey won the Palme d’Or award for best film for director Nuri Bilge Ceylan on Saturday at the 67th Cannes International Fi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At the end of a week rocked by allegations of mismanagement and cover-ups at the Department of Veterans Affairs, President Barack Obama used his weekly address on Saturday to vow again to make sure veterans get the necessary medical care... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – U.S. social networking company Twitter is planning to replicate parts of its India election strategy across countries that go to polls this year, after it emerged as a key tool for politicians and media companies during the world’s larges... More »
SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) – Utah’s Mia Love, a Republican darling who could become the first conservative black woman elected to U.S. Congress, is getting a second, and likely better, chance to make history after narrowly losing to a popular incumbent Democrat ... More »
FLORENCE Italy (Reuters) – Television personality Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West celebrate their wedding on Saturday in a 16th century castle overlooking the historic city of Florence. City authorities have confirmed the event, overseen by a Protestant p... More »
CANNES France (Reuters) – While attention in Cannes is focused on film premieres and stars on the red carpet, movie sales and deals struck by high rollers and bit players are what keep the Mediterranean seaside town awash in money. Eighteen film titles ranging... More »
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Sanctions imposed on the chief executive of Rosneft (ROSN.MM ) over the Ukraine crisis have not impacted BP’s (BP.L ) business with the Russian oil producer, Interfax news agency quoted BP chief executive Bob Dudley as saying ... More »
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Saturday that proceeds from the state selling a stake in the country’s largest oil producer should go to the federal budget and not to the energy holding Rosneftegaz. Russia is... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Euro zone banks need to be strong enough to support a pick up in credit demand to keep the euro zone recovery going, European Central Bank Executive Board member Yves Mersch said on Saturday. Tougher regulatory standards and a stronger sen... More »
(Reuters) – Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he would not press during his term as Boy Scouts of America president for an end to the group’s ban on gay adult leaders for fear of causing permanent damage to the century old organization. Ga... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican congressman overseeing a U.S. House panel investigation into delays in veterans’ treatment demanded on Friday that Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki allow patients to seek emergency private health care. The VA’s Insp... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has hit a Twitter feed milestone of 2 million followers, though his cyber popularity still lags far behind that of his charismatic predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez. “Today I reached 2 million followers o... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Whatever investors are worried about right now, those concerns are not showing up in Wall Street’s fear gauge. That scares some. On the other hand, it more than likely means that stocks will keep taking things slow and steady. The CBOE Vol... More »
(Reuters) – A federal judge ruled on Friday that longtime Detroit-area Democratic U.S. Representative John Conyers should appear on an August primary ballot, saying Michigan registration rules that had disqualified him may violate his constitutional rights. Co... More »
BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – EBay Inc initially believed that its customers’ data was safe as forensic investigators reviewed a network security breach discovered in early May and made public this week, a senior executive told Reuters on Friday. EBay has c... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama elevated fast-rising Latino politician Julian Castro to the national stage on Friday, nominating the San Antonio mayor as the next secretary of housing and urban development. The move automatically puts the 39-year... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 closed at a record high on Friday, buoyed by a rally in housing stocks after better-than-expected home sales and a jump in Hewlett-Packard shares a day after the personal computer maker said it would cut more jobs. The S&P 500 ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Whatever investors are worried about right now, those concerns are not showing up in Wall Street’s fear gauge. That scares some. On the other hand, it more than likely means that stocks will keep taking things slow and steady. The CBOE Vol... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secret Service police on Friday arrested a man who stripped naked outside the White House fence and fought with officers. A Secret Service spokesman identified the man as Michel Bechard and said he was charged with assault and indecent e... More »
(Reuters) – For two months last summer, Stanford Law School professor Joseph Grundfest locked himself away in his home office in California’s Portola Valley. Grundfest’s house overlooks the Santa Cruz Mountains, but his attention was fixed on the piles of pape... More »
PORT-AU-PRINCE/SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) – A painful mosquito-borne virus spreading quickly through the Caribbean is causing alarm in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic, where health officials are scrambling to respond to a surge of new patients. Chikungun... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) – A group of citizen scientists can take over a 36-year-old decommissioned robotic space probe that will fly by the Earth in August, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on Wednesday. Launched in 1978, the Intern... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) – An asteroid that exploded last year over Chelyabinsk, Russia, leaving more than 1,000 people injured by flying glass and debris, collided with another asteroid before hitting Earth, new research by scientists shows. Analysis of ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. television personality Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West toured the Chateau de Versailles in France on Friday with hundreds of guests ahead of their wedding in Florence this weekend, the visit’s organizer said. The couple were due to ... More »
CANNES France (Reuters) – Screening films in digital is like forcing audiences to watch television in public, cult director Quentin Tarantino told the Cannes film festival on Friday, adding that the lush 35-millimetre cinema he grew up with was “dead”. Taranti... More »
CANNES France (Reuters) – The Hungarian film “Feher Isten” (White God), starring a pack of stray dogs that terrorizes the capital Budapest and directed by Kornel Mundruczo, won the top prize in the “Un Certain Regard” forum of the Cannes International Film Fes... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fund investors worldwide pulled $7 billion out of stock funds in the week ended May 21 on weak U.S. economic data and disappointing corporate results, data from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research report showed on Friday. The o... More »
CANNES France (Reuters) – Juliette Binoche confronts an issue every actress eventually faces in Olivier Assayas’s “Clouds of Sils Maria” – what happens when the casting call you get is for the older woman and no longer the starlet? Men, as Harrison Ford, Arnol... More »
CANNES France (Reuters) – A gentle Labrador mix named Body won the “Palm Dog” award on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, a pat on the head from canine-lovers and film critics for the outstanding movie performance by a pooch. Body starred in ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A family portrait by Colombian artist Fernando Botero and a depiction of psychological turmoil by Chilean painter Roberto Matta are expected to be the highlights of Latin American art sales in New York next week. Botero’s 1969 “Man Going t... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Agriculture Department is known for its army of statisticians packing yardsticks and calculators to measure wheat and count soybeans. But the agency needs more firepower for another kind of rural reckoning and is gearing up with th... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Many folks hired to be financial planners may not be planning their time well, a number of studies show. But those who do are more successful and tend to grow their firms with fewer drawbacks, such as stress and exhaustion. Successful firms... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Stradivarius violin forgotten in a closet for decades and formerly owned by a reclusive U.S. heiress to a copper fortune could sell for as much as $10 million in a sealed bid auction next month, according to Christie’s. If the 1731 violi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – They might be the odd couple of the bird world. Scientists on Thursday identified the closest relative of New Zealand’s famed kiwi, a shy chicken-sized flightless bird, as the elephant bird of Madagascar, a flightless giant that was 10 f... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists seeking a vaccine against malaria, which kills a child every minute in Africa, have developed a promising new approach intended to imprison the disease-causing parasites inside the red blood cells they infect. The researchers ... More »
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. manufacturing growth picked up to a three-month high in May, while private business activity in the euro zone grew at just under its fastest pace in three years, surveys showed on Thursday. In Asia, China’s factory sector turne... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Net immigration to Germany leapt by over 18 percent to a 20-year high in 2013, fuelled largely by migrants from euro zone debt-crisis states Italy and Spain as well as a continued influx of Poles, data from the Statistics Office showed on Th... More »
MILAN (Reuters) – An Italian prosecutor has asked that Mediaset Vice Chairman Pier Silvio Berlusconi, son of the ex-prime minister, be jailed for three years and two months for tax fraud over the TV group’s broadcasting rights firm Mediatrade. Mediatrade has b... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday talks over Tehran’s nuclear program had reached an important and tough juncture, but an agreement was still possible by a July deadline. The lack of progress in talks in Vienna that ended l... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said his government was considering various “defense options” against China, including legal action, following the deployment of a Chinese oil rig to waters in the South China Sea that Hanoi also cla... More »
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said in a message to participants in a annual investment forum on Thursday that he wants to improve ties with other nations, but emphasized that Russia must be treated as an equal and its interests res... More »
LONDON, date (Reuters) – European stocks and low-rated government bonds opened higher on Thursday after a report showed China’s factory sector turning in its best performance in five months and the US Federal Reserve reiterated it would support of the world’s ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Explosives hurled from two vehicles which ploughed into an open market in China’s troubled Xinjiang killed 31 people on Thursday, state media reported, the deadliest act of violence in the region in years. China’s Ministry of Public Securit... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean President Park Geun-hye named on Thursday a former supreme court justice with a reputation for fighting corruption as prime minister to replace an incumbent who resigned over the government’s slow response to last month’s ferry d... More »
CANNES France (Reuters) – Packed behind security barriers, scorched by the sun and pelted by rain, they are the real stars of the Cannes film festival – the intrepid autograph hunters. The fans on the front line of the world’s largest cinema showcase, perched ... More »
* Poised to go down as 2nd largest breach in U.S. history * EBay says encrypted passwords were taken * Says no reason to believe they have been unscrambled By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) – EBay Inc said that hackers raided its network three months ago, accessi... More »
(Reuters) – The San Antonio Spurs put the Oklahoma City Thunder to the sword with a spectacular exhibition of shooting in the second half to tighten their grip on the Western Conference finals with a 112-77 win in Game Two on Wednesday. With All-Star point gua... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A cross between a sleek cat and a wide-eyed teddy bear that lives in Andean cloud forests and an eyeless snail that lives in darkness 900-plus meters (3,000 feet) below ground in Croatia rank among the top 10 new species discovered last ye... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Los Angeles Kings handed the Chicago Blackhawks their first home playoff loss on Wednesday, leveling the Western Conference Finals at one game apiece after scoring six unanswered goals to beat the defending champions 6-2. The Kings reli... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Glencore Plc (GLEN.L ) will close its Newlands underground coal mine in Australia in late 2015, opting not to extend the life of the mine amid a slump in coal prices, the Swiss-based mining and commodities group said on Thursday. Newlands... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will begin checking computer systems used in government departments to protect “sensitive data”, the official Xinhua news agency said via its microblog on Thursday, amid a row over cyberspying with the United States. The checks would ... More »
(Reuters) – Six different champions in the last six years suggests that tipping a French Open women’s champion is something of a lottery, but those backing world No.1 Serena Williams are surely investing wisely. The American powerhouse claimed a second Roland ... More »
(Reuters) – Say it quietly but some chinks are appearing in the suit of armor Rafael Nadal usually wears on a claycourt as the Spaniard sets his sights on a ninth French Open title. By his high standards the 28-year-old Spaniard has suffered a mediocre season ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The woman who recorded Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist remarks that got him banned from the NBA insisted on Wednesday she was never his mistress but rather an employee, friend and caretaker who saw him as a “fat... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representative on Wednesday edged toward passage of an annual defense policy bill that rejects Pentagon plans to retire older weapons systems and slow the rise in military pay as it implements long-term spending cuts ordered... More »
(Reuters) – Lloyds Banking Group is joining a class-action lawsuit against government-owned Royal Bank of Scotland, seeking 420 million pounds ($709 million) over the bank’s handling of its 12-billion-pound rights issue, the Herald Scotland newspaper reported.... More »
VIRGINIA WATER England (Reuters) – Sergio Garcia has been involved in two high-profile breakups during his career and is ready to provide a shoulder for Rory McIlroy to lean on following his split from fiancée Caroline Wozniacki. World number 10 McIlroy announ... More »
(Reuters) – Google Inc plans to offer Wi-Fi network hardware and software at a discount to small and medium-sized businesses, tech blog The Information reported on Wednesday, citing a confidential document it accessed and a person who was briefed on the projec... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The scandal over a made-up study that badly disrupted traffic at the George Washington Bridge may not be New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s biggest problem after all. Less than a year after the charismatic governor was the toa... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE ) will defend plans to raise 8 billion euros ($11 billion) in equity on Thursday when management stands before shareholders at an annual general meeting, less than a week after announcing the surprise plan. Germany... More »
