All posts published in April 2015
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos, launched an experimental suborbital spaceship from Texas, the first in a series of test flights to develop commercial unmanned and passenger spaceflight... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – – NASA’s pioneering Messenger spacecraft ended its four-year study of the planet Mercury on Thursday by crashing into the planet’s surface, scientists said. Flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China and India remain on a U.S. priority watch list for lax rules on copyright, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights violations in an annual review of trading partners published by the U.S. Trade Representative on Thursd... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) – NASA’s Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has spotted surface features on the icy world, including a possible polar cap, images released on Wednesday show. With 60 million miles (97 million km) left to go before its July 14, 20... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The mouse walked, the mouse stopped- the mouse ignored a bowl of food, then scampered back and gobbled it up, and it was all controlled by neuroscientists, researchers reported on Thursday. The study, describing a way to manipulate a lab a... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The euro zone ended four months of deflation in April with consumer prices unchanged from year-ago levels, removing the threat of persistent price declines as energy costs pushed up in the month. Consumer prices in the 19 countries that sh... More »
ATHENS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone officials sought to wring policy concessions from Greece on Wednesday to unlock urgently needed aid after Athens said it would present a list of reforms for legislation to show it is serious about implementing its promises... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – While many people try to hide their gray hair, spending hours eradicating the signs of advancing age, going gray may no longer mean reaching out for the dye bottle as “granny hair” is in vogue. Fashion designers such as Jean-Paul Gaultier,... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists in China on Wednesday described one of the weirdest flying creatures ever discovered, a pigeon-size dinosaur with wings like a bat that lived not long before the first birds. The dinosaur, named Yi qi (meaning “strange wing” i... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – If fear of Europe-wide financial wildfire was Athens’ trump card in its standoff with euro zone creditors – then the card has now turned up a dud. The merits of ruling socialist party Syriza’s demands aside, its brinkmanship in renegotiating... More »
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday he was confident of an outline deal with international creditors within two weeks, after shaking up his negotiating team and sidelining his finance minister who has infuriated euro zone par... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Cap Gemini plans to buy United States-based IGATE Corp for $4 billion cash to make North America its biggest market and is raising its sales outlook for 2015 after a solid first-quarter, the French IT services company said on Monday. IGATE, a... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – A rally in Chinese stocks led Asian equities to 7-year highs thanks to expectations of more stimulus from Beijing with stellar earnings from a few U.S. hi-tech giants further underpinning a broadly positive mood. Some markets were slightly mo... More »
NICOSIA (Reuters) – A leftist moderate promising to press for a peace deal in ethnically-split Cyprus swept to victory in a Turkish Cypriot presidential election runoff on Sunday. Mustafa Akinci, standing as an independent, won 60.3 percent of the votes, accor... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude prices held near a 4-1/2 month high above $65 a barrel on Monday, supported by concerns over fighting in Yemen disrupting Middle East supplies and signs that U.S. shale output may have started to decline. The number of active ... More »
SYDNEY/JAKARTA (Reuters) – Australia made a last-minute plea on Monday for a stay in the imminent execution of two Australian drug traffickers in Indonesia, saying reports that their trial had been tainted by corruption needed to be investigated. The call from... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – A German government spokesman confirmed on Monday that Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a telephone conversation on Sunday but declined to comment on the contents of their conversation. “I can confirm the ... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank will cut some 200 billion euros ($217.46 billion) in investment bank assets and exit a tenth of the countries it operates in, as part of a restructuring program that will cost 3.7 billion euros to implement. The group said o... More »
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Hundreds of Nepalis were fleeing the capital Kathmandu for the plains on Monday, terror-stricken by two days of powerful aftershocks following a massive earthquake that killed more than 3,200 people and faced with shortages of food and wa... More »
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The chief of Pakistan’s main spy agency is spearheading a campaign to wrest control of the teeming port city of Karachi from a powerful political party, the military’s latest, and some say boldest, foray into civilian life in recent years... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – ASEAN host Malaysia is set to give in to pressure from some neighbors and address the sensitive issue of land reclamations in the South China Sea with a draft summit statement saying such action may undermine peace, security and stabil... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the opening of a UN conference on the global anti-nuclear weapons treaty on Monday, as they try to make progress in talks on a long-term at... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Hundreds of farm workers exposed to a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu have been offered antiviral medication as a preventative measure in recent days, U.S. public health officials said. To date, the virulent H5N2 influenza, which has i... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar started the week on the defensive on Monday after more disappointing U.S. economic data reinforced expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will not hike interest rates any time soon, while concerns about Greece’s debt talks pressured... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms fell 0.4 percent in March from a year earlier to 508.61 billion yuan ($82 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. That compared with a 4.2 percent year-on-year fall in the first... More »
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – Republican presidential hopefuls in Iowa and elsewhere have recently begun sounding a call to arms to Christian conservatives, describing what they say is an urgent threat to religious liberty. Citing high-profile dust-ups over rel... More »
BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Ferdinand Piech, who resigned as chairman of Volkswagen over the weekend, sowed the seeds of his own demise by reneging on a deal to support CEO Martin Winterkorn and secretly plotting to oust him instead, according to sources clos... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday in New York, a senior State Department official said on Sunday. The meeting on the sidelines of the five-year review conference on ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – American rapper Wiz Khalifa’s tribute to actor Paul Walker, “See You Again”, kept the top spot in Britain’s music charts for a second week, the Official Charts Company said on Sunday, saying it had also broken the country’s all-time streamin... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Nothing, it seems, and certainly not Blake Lively, can get “Furious 7” to slam on the brakes. The mega-grossing sequel took the top spot at the weekend box office with $18.2 million, becoming the first film to come in first for four... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Ajit Lakha, who runs a mid-sized garment export business in the north Indian textile hub of Ludhiana, prays daily before leaving for work that the rupee will weaken and the euro recover to cut the losses he is taking on his overseas sales... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is convening a group of financial industry veterans for the first time next month to consider stock market reforms, but one group will be conspicuously absent: retail brokerages. The SEC’s 17-mem... More »
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed in a phone conversation on Sunday to maintain contact during talks between Athens and its lenders to reach a debt deal, a Greek government official said. “During ... More »
BARCELONA (Reuters) – Kei Nishikori was crowned Barcelona Open champion for the second consecutive year after a hard-fought 6-4 6-4 victory over surprise Spanish finalist Pablo Andujar on Sunday. It was the ninth career title for the top-seeded Japanese, who a... More »
OSCHERSLEBEN, Germany (Reuters) – Michael Schumacher’s 16-year-old son Mick sprayed the winner’s champagne after capping an impressive debut weekend in German Formula Four with the first victory of his motor racing career on Sunday. Competing for the Dutch-bas... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At the gathering he jokingly called “a night when Washington celebrates itself,” U.S. President Barack Obama took light-hearted aim on Saturday at a range of political friends and foes, including the people running to succeed him. Obama’... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Drone strikes against suspected enemy combatants on foreign soil should be run by the U.S. military and not the CIA, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said on Sunday. McCain made his remarks on CNN’s “State of the Unio... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – “We’re going bust.” “No, you’re not.” “You’re strangling us.” “No we’re not.” “You owe us for World War Two.” “We gave already.” The game of chicken between Greece and its international creditors is turning into a vicious blame game as Ath... More »
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the holding company of India’s Tata conglomerate, has acquired a stake in Xiaomi Technology [XTC.UL], a deal that is likely to bolster the Chinese phone maker’s presence in the world’s third-largest smartphon... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Most central banks have been easing policy since the start of the year and are set to do more, but it still isn’t clear whether that new activism, which has pushed stock markets to record highs, will help the global economy much. Several mee... More »
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s Nokia denied reports in Chinese media that it planned to return to manufacturing phones. “Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in Ch... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s currency black market, a thorn in the side of successive governments, has virtually disappeared in the past two months following a central bank crackdown. Yet, while the authorities hope this will signal to foreign investors that the ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Police captured a young, female coyote outside a cafe in a residential area of lower Manhattan on Saturday, the latest in a series of coyote sightings in New York City, where an increasing number of the predators are making their home. An ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – In coming out as a transgender woman, U.S. Olympic gold medalist and TV reality star Bruce Jenner made clear that while he is keen to help raise awareness about problems faced by the community, he is not self-appointing himself as a spo... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Olympic gold medalist and reality TV star Bruce Jenner said on Friday that he identifies as a woman, becoming the most high-profile American to come out as transgender. The 65-year-old Jenner made the declaration in a wide-ranging inter... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The chief executive of France’s telecom leader Orange said on Saturday he believed the price war in the national telecoms sector was coming to a close. Stephane Richard also argued in a radio interview for consolidation in the French telecoms... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and state-owned China Telecom Corp Ltd have tied up to sell inexpensive smartphones aimed at boosting mobile commerce in smaller cities and rural areas. The phones, dubbed “Tianyi Taobao ... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese consumer electronics firm Sony Corp (6758.T) has raised its operating profit estimate for fiscal 2015 to 300 billion yen ($2.52 billion), or four times its previous estimate, the Nikkei reported on Saturday. Expectations for higher s... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s parliament has passed legislation that restricts tobacco advertising in public, strengthening efforts to curb smoking in a country where more than a billion people are smokers or exposed to second-hand smoke. A revised Advertisemen... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – “Virgin Mountain,” a Danish-Icelandic film about late bloomers and first love, won the best narrative award at the 14th Tribeca Film Festival and “Democrats,” which follows the quest for democracy in Zimbabwe, was named best documentary. G... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – A woman who bashed President Nicolas Maduro on the head with a mango has been promised a new house for her troubles in a surreal tropical tale that has gone viral in Venezuela. The 52-year-old president was driving a bus through a crowd las... More »
RIGA (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers warned Greece on Friday that its leftist government will get no more aid until it agrees a complete economic reform plan, as Athens lurches closer to bankruptcy. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis faced a harsh... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ bid for Mylan NV would create a company controlling nearly 25 percent of the U.S. generics market, including drugs in short supply, according to industry experts and a Reuters review of regulatory filings. B... More »
NEW YORK/TOKYO (Reuters) – The Apple Watch launched quietly around the world on Friday without the usual frenzy or fanfare for an Apple Inc rollout, as a handful of boutiques in major cities like Tokyo and Paris sold the timepiece – but not for purchase at its... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Aiming to acquire more budget powers and take a swipe at Obamacare, Republicans will likely scrap a proposal that stirred controversy and helped launch Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan on the national stage: privatizing the Medicare healt... More »
TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (Reuters) – A Mexican archeologist hunting for a royal tomb in a deep, dark tunnel beneath a towering pre-Aztec pyramid has made a discovery that may have brought him a step closer: liquid mercury. In the bowels of Teotihuacan, a mysterious... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Comcast Corp’s board was meeting late on Thursday to finalize plans to abandon its proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable Inc, according to a person directly familiar with the matter. An announcement is expected as e... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Verizon Communications Inc said on Thursday that Walt Disney Co and Twenty-First Century Fox are not running ads promoting the wireless carrier’s recently launched FiOS Custom TV service on its channels in the New York market. Since Verizo... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Whitney Museum of American Art will open up its new home in downtown New York City on May 1 with an exhibition that details the history of art in the United States from 1900 to the present day. The show, “America is Hard to See,” will ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actors Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner apologized on Thursday for making “tasteless” and “juvenile” comments in which they called their “Avengers” co-star Scarlett Johansson’s superhero character “a slut.” Evans, who plays Captain America... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Deep beneath Yellowstone National Park, one of the world’s most dynamic volcanic systems, lies an enormous, previously unknown reservoir of hot, partly molten rock big enough to fill up the Grand Canyon 11 times, scientists say. Research... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Charles Schwab Corp’s automated investment product has attracted $1.5 billion of assets in over 23,000 accounts in its first six weeks, about 20 percent of whom are new clients, Chief Executive Officer Walt Bettinger told analysts on Thurs... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – NASA on Thursday marked the silver anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with fireworks, of a celestial kind, conveyed by the orbiting observatory itself. To commemorate Hubble’s launch on April 24, 1990, NASA selected a pi... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – For many years, investors have been very tolerant as Amazon.com has sacrificed profits for rapid growth in sales and as it built new businesses. That patience may finally be wearing thin. The average large-cap fund that holds Amazon has 1.... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The most complete genetic information assembled on woolly mammoths is providing insight into their demise, revealing they suffered two population crashes before a final, severely inbred group succumbed on an Arctic Ocean island. Scientis... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Janus Capital Group Inc (JNS.N), the firm that hired closely watched bond investor Bill Gross in September, said first-quarter earnings came in above expectations with the help of net inflows into its equity funds. Janus Chief Executive Of... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For extinct creatures like dinosaurs known only from fossils, it is notoriously difficult to differentiate the males from the females of a species because sex distinctions are rarely obvious from the skeletons. But in the case of the wel... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – London’s troubled English National Opera (ENO) is turning to some old favorites and past successes for its new season in an effort to fill its huge, central London theater and ease its financial problems. A new production of Shostakovich’s r... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand Prime Minister John Key apologized on Wednesday for pulling the ponytail of a waitress who accused him of bullying, media reported. The unnamed waitress in an Auckland cafe said on a blog site that Key had pulled her hair ove... More »
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – When Antofagasta Chief Executive Diego Hernandez took the stage at the world’s biggest copper conference last week, he talked about the growing risks mining companies face from rising worker salaries in South America due to staff shortages... More »
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca left the audience roaring for more at the end of a recital in Budapest which might have seemed a little short on substance were her singing not so outstanding. A star of the opera firmament, Garanca sang... More »
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – It sounds like the musical equivalent of Hungarian goulash: take the gypsy fiddles of a leading folk band, blend them with the drums, bells and xylophones of the country’s top percussion ensemble, then stir and season to taste. No one knew... More »
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s eurosceptic The Finns party is seen neck-and-neck with the center-right National Coalition party in the race for second place in Sunday’s national elections, a poll by public broadcaster YLE showed on Thursday. As with other surv... More »
PARIS/HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia Oyj (NOK1V.HE) is in talks to buy Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA), the companies said in a statement on Tuesday, a potential deal that could create a European telecoms equipment group worth over 40 billion euros ($42.16 billion). In a... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Crude prices rose on Tuesday on expectations U.S. shale oil output will record its first monthly decline in over four years, but analysts warned that the broader market remained oversupplied as China’s exports rose. Front-month Brent crud... More »
FUKUI, Japan (Reuters) – A Japanese court on Tuesday issued an injunction to prevent the restart of two reactors citing safety concerns, in a blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to return to atomic energy four years after the Fukushima crisis. It is the s... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Chinese shares fought to sustain yet another seven-year peak on Tuesday a day before the country updates on economic growth, while much of the rest of Asia took a breather after recent hefty gains. A surprise decision by Singapore’s central ... More »
BARCELONA (Reuters) – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Monday he was concerned by ceasefire violations and insufficient political progress in Ukraine. Speaking in Barcelona before talks on Ukraine with his German, Russian and Ukrainian counterpar... More »
