All posts published in October 2015
FRANKFURT Deutsche Bank Chief Executive John Cryan will present details of a deep overhaul of Germany’s biggest lender on Thursday, hoping his changes will please investors after rival Credit Suisse’s plan drew a tepid response. One top 30 institutional shareh... More »
AT&T Inc (T.N), the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier and the world’s largest pay-TV operator, raised its 2015 earnings forecast as quarterly earnings beat expectations on cost cuts and gains in wireless and DirecTV subscribers. AT&T shares rose 1.7 percent in after... More »
ROME A boxy monument to Italy’s Fascist era is filling with workers for the first time in its 70-year history as fashion brand Fendi opens its new headquarters at the restored “Square Colosseum”. The travertine structure, formally known as the “Great House of ... More »
WASHINGTON The plague germ that caused the “Black Death” in the 14th century and other ferocious pandemics has stalked humankind far longer than previously known. A study unveiled on Thursday of DNA from Bronze Age people in Europe and Asia showed the bacteriu... More »
NEW YORK Stocks rose in the United States and Europe and the dollar hit a three-week high against the euro after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said further rate cuts were being considered to stimulate the euro zone economy. The ECB, as widely ex... More »
FRANKFURT Google says European media firms, often the search giant’s harshest industry critics, share a common threat because a surge in ad-blocking technology is a threat to all businesses dependent on advertising. Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, Google’s president for... More »
LONDON Alzheimer’s disease is moving out of the shadows as new plays tackle head-on the emotional pain of a condition that robs its victims of words, memories and coherent thought. For a generation of young playwrights, dementia is proving to be a touchstone i... More »
LONDON Had you seen Bob Dylan reinventing popular music on the stage of London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1966, you would never have believed that nearly 50 years later he would be treading the same boards and crooning the songs of Frank Sinatra. But there he was ... More »
PARIS Vivendi raised its stakes in French video games makers Ubisoft and Gameloft and indicated that it may buy additional shares later and seek board seats. Vivendi sold off its video games business Activision Blizzard in 2013 in the opening salvo of an asset... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Representative Paul Ryan did not secure enough votes from the conservative “Freedom Caucus” for a formal endorsement as speaker of the House of Representatives but may get enough support to win if he decides to run, congressmen said on Wednesda... More »
Yahoo Inc has dropped the price of advertising for its first Web-streamed National Football League game on Sunday from an early price of $200,000 to less than $100,000, two media buyers familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday. The match between t... More »
HAVANA Cuba on Wednesday launched an initiative to protect sharks in some of the most pristine habitat for the predators whose populations have been in steep decline. The action plan, reached through two years of collaborative research with the New York-based ... More »
CNN said on Wednesday it has launched ‘Great Big Story’, a video network that promises to deliver more than “empty clickbaits and cat videos” through various social media. The videos will not be based on news, but on “awesome, untold and inspirational stories ... More »
WASHINGTON Scientists have identified a new species of giant tortoise on the Galápagos Islands, using genetic data to determine that a group of 250 of the slow-moving grazing reptiles was distinct from other tortoise species residing in the Pacific archipelago... More »
WASHINGTON A diet of putrid rotting flesh may not be your cup of tea, but to the cinereous vulture, found across southern Europe and Asia, it is positively delightful. This tough bird, it turns out, is genetically wired to thrive on the stuff. Researchers on T... More »
An off-duty Maryland police officer charged with biting a man’s testicles during a fight is no longer working for the department, a spokeswoman said on Monday. Police officer Michael Flaig, 31, of Anne Arundel County, left the department for unspecified reason... More »
Hackers associated with the Chinese government have tried to penetrate at least seven U.S. companies in the three weeks since Washington and Beijing agreed not to spy on each other for commercial reasons, according to a prominent U.S. security firm. CrowdStrik... More »
TOKYO Japan’s economy is expected to have slowed sharply in the third quarter as demand across Asia ebbed, keeping the Bank of Japan and policymakers under pressure to inject more stimulus to revitalize growth, a Reuters poll found. The poll of 21 economists p... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices dipped on Monday as China’s economic growth eased in the third quarter to grow at the slowest pace since the start of the global financial crisis, raising concerns about demand. Brent for December delivery LCOc1 was down 27 cents at $50.19... More »
STA. ROSA, Philippines A typhoon swept across the northern Philippines killing at least nine people as trees, power lines and walls were toppled and flood waters spread far from riverbeds, but tens of thousands of people were evacuated in time. Officials fear ... More »
WARSAW The euro zone needs additional measures, possibly looser fiscal policy, to secure economic growth, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said in an interview published on Monday. “This applies to structural reforms and fiscal policy,” he said ... More »
SYDNEY Australia’s hardline immigration policies overshadowed the launch of its bid to join the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, with the government and rights lawyers arguing bitterly over a pregnant Somali asylum-seeker who claims she was raped. Immigrat... More »
BEIJING China’s economic growth eased to 6.9 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, beating expectations but still the slowest since the global financial crisis, putting pressure on policymakers to roll out more support measures as fears of a sharpe... More »
BEIJING China’s economy will maintain stable growth in the future, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, after growth eased to the slowest since the global financial crisis. China’s exports face increased downward pressure and the g... More »
BEIJING China’s economic growth dipped below 7 percent for the first time since the global financial crisis on Monday, hurt partly by cooling investment, raising pressure on Beijing to further cut interest rates and take other measures to stoke activity. The w... More »
BERKASOVO, Serbia Thousands of migrants clamored to enter European Union member Croatia from Serbia on Monday after a night spent in the cold and mud of no-man’s land, their passage west slowed by a Slovenian effort to impose limits on the flow to western Euro... More »
PARIS Jean-Yves Le Drian will have to resign as French defense minister if he wins the presidency of Brittany in December’s regional elections, French President Francois Hollande said on Monday. “He is a candidate, and I have authorized him to be a candidate a... More »
NEW YORK The New York Mets struck early, using a combination of pitching and power to post a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series. Daniel Murphy blasted a two-run ho... More »
NEW YORK Daniel Murphy has been a good hitter with modest power over his seven-year Major League Baseball career with the Mets, but the 30-year-old second baseman has turned into a one-man wrecking crew this postseason. Murphy, who hit a career high 14 home ru... More »
TOKYO The Bank of Japan maintained its upbeat assessment for all nine of the country’s regional economies despite looming external risks such as China’s slowdown, suggesting that it saw no immediate need to expand monetary stimulus further. In a quarterly repo... More »
HONG KONG Asian shares held two-month highs on Monday as a batch of Chinese data showed the economy slowing while still managing to reassure investors it was not in danger of a hard landing. Adding to optimism wee growing bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve wil... More »
ZURICH The anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s national parliamentary election, keeping pressure on Bern to introduce quotas on people moving from the European Union. Success for the SVP, coupled with gains... More »
Yahoo Inc’s (YHOO.O) chief development officer, Jacqueline Reses, is leaving the company to join mobile payments company Square Inc, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Reses’ role changed earlier this year when she shifted her focus to... More »
Suppliers of everything from groceries to sports equipment are already being squeezed for price cuts and cost sharing by Wal-Mart Stores (WMT.N). Now they are bracing for the pressure to ratchet up even more after a shock earnings warning from the retailer las... More »
A Miami Dolphins player tried to injure Tennessee quarterback Marcus Mariota, Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt claimed after his team lost their National Football League game on Sunday. Whisenhunt made the accusation against Dolphin defensive end Olivier Vernon, wh... More »
Argentine Emiliano Grillo made a perfect start to his career as a PGA Tour member when he beat American Kevin Na in a playoff at the Frys.com Open in northern California on Sunday. After missing a three-footer that would have won it at the first extra hole, Gr... More »
TOKYO The dollar was steady against the yen and euro on Friday after stronger-than-expected U.S. data kept alive prospects of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates before year-end. The Australian dollar inched up after Chinese data on Monday showed growth... More »
NEWMARKET/TORONTO, Ontario Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his team on Sunday urged Conservative supporters to get out the vote as polls showed Liberal rival Justin Trudeau holding a firm lead one day before the country’s fiercely fought election. F... More »
HONG KONG China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on Monday said it will spend $1 billion to support information and communication technology developers over the next five years. “The aim is to help developers create innovative services and rapidly respond to custo... More »
WASHINGTON The Republican head of the congressional investigation into the Benghazi attack said on Sunday he is not targeting Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and such talk hurts the inquiry. Clinton was secretary of state in September 2012... More »
A federal probe into allegations of corruption at Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s (WMT.N) operations in Mexico have found very little, and is likely to result in a much smaller case than investors expected, The Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with th... More »
Argentine Emiliano Grillo and American Kevin Na headed to a playoff at the Frys.com Open in northern California on Sunday. Grillo sank a 25-foot birdie at the final hole, which was later matched by Na, who dropped a six-footer to force extra holes at the Silve... More »
TOKYO Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday the country’s economy was expected to continue recovering moderately even though the slowdown in emerging markets was weighing on exports and output. “The BOJ’s quantitative and qualitative easing is ... More »
IOWA CITY, Iowa Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Sunday he plans to give a major speech soon to explain his belief in democratic socialism, acknowledging the political label could be a stumbling block to winning over American voters. Th... More »
Pittsburgh Steelers supporters could be forgiven for forgetting about Ben Roethlisberger for a moment on Sunday after third-string quarterback Landry Jones came on to lead the team to a 25-13 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. In his National Football League ... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush transitioned from defense to offense on Sunday after criticism from rival Donald Trump that his brother, former President George W. Bush, carried some blame for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Trump, the flamb... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Brandon McManus kicked a 35-yard field goal with 4:56 remaining in overtime on Sunday to keep the Denver Broncos undefeated and beat the Cleveland Browns, 26-23. The lead changed hands twice in the fourth quarter before a 26-yard field g... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Matt Prater kicked a 27-yard field goal with 3:54 remaining in overtime as the Detroit Lions became the final NFL team to win a game this season by edging the Chicago Bears 37-34 on Sunday at Ford Field. The field goal was set up by Matt... More »
PARIS U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday lobbied for the United States to be reelected to UNESCO’s board, promising to work with Congress to restore funding after Washington cut off its contributions in 2011 in protest over the Palestinians being adm... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Goosebumps” rode a wave of Clinton era nostalgia to the top of the box office charts, as the adaptation of the popular children’s book series earned $23.5 million in its opening weekend. That just edged out Fox’s “The Martian,” the... More »
NEW YORK Tracy Morgan returned to “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday to host the long-running comedy show on which he shot to fame, more than a year after he suffered near-fatal injuries in a deadly high-speed car accident. Morgan, a “Saturday Night Live” cast ... More »
LOS ANGELES Rock musician Phil Lesh, a founding member of influential band the Grateful Dead, has been diagnosed with non-aggressive bladder cancer and has canceled a pair of October concerts, he said in a statement late on Friday. Lesh, who plays with the ban... More »
The improving health of former NBA star Lamar Odom four days after he collapsed at a Nevada brothel and fell into a coma has brightened the spirits of his loved ones, People Magazine reported on Saturday, citing a source close to his estranged wife Khloé Karda... More »
WASHINGTON When President Barack Obama announced this week that the United States would leave more troops than planned in Afghanistan, his vice president, Joe Biden, stood right at his side. And for Biden, still mulling a presidential bid, that could pose a pr... More »
Russian hackers had infiltrated Dow Jones & Co to steal information to trade on before it was made public, and the breach was “far more serious than a lower-grade intrusion” disclosed by the company, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. The Federal Bureau of In... More »
WASHINGTON Turmoil swirled again around the Republican-controlled Benghazi committee on Friday as it questioned a senior aide to Hillary Clinton, prompting fresh accusations that the panel was created to damage the Democratic front-runner’s presidential campai... More »
LOS ANGELES With actors not turning up on set, crew sicknesses, equipment going missing and unpredictable weather, the filming of war drama “Beasts of No Nation” is fast becoming a captivating tale in itself. “There were distinct, daily moments where I sat the... More »
SAN FRANCISCO International Business Machines Corp said on Friday it allows certain countries to review, under strict control, portions of the U.S. technology company’s product source code to detect any security flaws in its software. China is among those coun... More »
LOS ANGELES It has been a long time coming. Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams says his new album, “Get Up,” is the ideal follow-up record to his iconic “Reckless” album of 30 years ago. The album, released on Friday, features several fast, catchy tunes li... More »
NEW YORK Jeb Bush is leading the U.S. presidential campaign by at least one measure: financial support from Wall Street. The former Florida governor who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination received more financial backing than any competitor – Dem... More »
A U.S. jury on Friday ordered Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patent licensing arm more than $234 million in damages for incorporating its microchip technology into some of the company’s iPhones and iPads without permission. The... More »
NEW YORK Half a dozen Republican presidential candidates are edging toward financial crisis, raising the specter that some may be forced to drop out of the sprawling field of contenders. They all spent more than they took in during the third quarter, according... More »
NEW YORK Stocks in major world markets rose to a two-month high on Friday and the dollar ticked up, boosted by views that the European Central Bank may provide more stimulus to the euro zone economy. Oil prices rose nearly 2 percent as traders covered short po... More »
Micron Technology Inc said Chief Executive Mark Durcan will take a voluntary 50 percent cut in his base salary, amid cost-cutting at the memory chipmaker. The cut, which is temporary, reduced Durcan’s annual base salary to $525,000, effective Oct. 18, the comp... More »
Satellite TV provider DirecTV said it would restate financial statements for the quarter ended June, citing an incorrect measurement of assets of its Venezuelan subsidiary. Statements related to the quarter are being restated to record a pre-tax charge of abou... More »
Fans of the New York Mets had bemoaned the negative impact of the Bernie Madoff financial scandal on the Major League Baseball team’s payroll until Thursday night’s series-clinching victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. With believers now dreaming of the team’... More »
LOS ANGELES When actress Cate Blanchett researched an infamous CBS News expose of U.S. President George W. Bush’s military service that led to the firing of journalist Mary Mapes, she came away with more questions than answers. “It’s emblematic of the problem ... More »
Big fish Chinese gamblers afraid of a corruption crackdown and poorly paid Walmart workers in the United States might seem to have little in common. But in the global economy, they are in some ways two sides of the same coin, and to understand that is to under... More »
Cablevision Systems Inc and Viacom Inc have settled an antitrust lawsuit in which Cablevision had accused Viacom of forcing distributors and subscribers to buy channels they did not want. Cablevision and Viacom are simultaneously entering into “mutually benefi... More »
MILAN Telecom Italia said on Friday it would resume talks with the main shareholders of fiber optic company Metroweb over plans to build a broadband network in Italy. At stake in the negotiations is who will call the shots to implement the government’s 12-bill... More »
TORONTO Bank of Nova Scotia said on Friday it is creating a digital hub in downtown Toronto to help lure technology talent and drive innovation for Canada’s third-biggest lender. The “digital factory” will have more than 350 employees, including existing staff... More »
ZURICH/LONDON When Tidjane Thiam unveils his plans for Credit Suisse on Wednesday the Swiss bank’s new chief executive will likely rest his case on three Cs: capital, cuts and charm. Thiam will show his hand after taking the reins at Zurich-based Credit Suisse... More »
NEW YORK Wall Street bankers and traders are likely to get smaller bonuses for 2015 as trading revenue plunges. Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that it set aside 16 percent less money for compensation in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2014. ... More »
WASHINGTON A trove of 47 fossil human teeth from a cave in southern China is rewriting the history of the early migration of our species out of Africa, indicating Homo sapiens trekked into Asia far earlier than previously known and much earlier than into Europ... More »
(In this version of the Oct. 13 story, first sentence of third paragraph, corrects to ‘upper-stage liquid oxygen tank’ from ‘upper-stage engine’. In second sentence of third paragraph, corrects to ‘causing the tank’ instead of ‘causing the engine’.) By Irene K... More »
WASHINGTON Maybe we cannot blame late-night TV, endless Internet surfing, midnight snacks, good books, bothersome work deadlines and other distractions of modern life for encroaching on our sleep. Research unveiled on Thursday showed that people in isolated an... More »
NEW YORK Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal division plans to offer an Internet-based comedy channel featuring ad-free performances from Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poehler and others, testing viewers’ willingness to pay for niche online content. The $3.99 a month service call... More »
Investors questioned Netflix Inc’s premium valuation after the video-streaming service reported U.S. subscriber additions below its own expectations, a sign that competition from the likes of Hulu is intensifying. Netflix shares fell more than 9 percent to $10... More »
PARIS The Museum of Mankind in Paris re-opens its doors this week after six years of renovations that have breathed new life into France’s leading anthropological museum. President Francois Hollande inaugurated the Musee de l’Homme on Thursday after the instit... More »
Video-streaming service provider Netflix Inc reported third-quarter U.S. subscriber additions below its own forecast, blaming a transition to chip-based cards for the miss. Shares of Netflix, known for its original shows such as “House of Cards” and “Orange is... More »
FRANKFURT U.S. rate hikes could have greater global repercussions than in the past and affect the euro zone more in some respects than the domestic market, European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio said on Thursday. A Federal Reserve rate rise woul... More »
KARACHI The lean days appear to be over for Mor Sahib, an 87-year-old crocodile venerated by Pakistan’s tiny Sheedi community, as pilgrims once again flock to a shrine in Karachi that has been shunned for years amid fears of Taliban attacks. The aging reptile,... More »
NEW YORK AT&T Inc said it does not oppose the proposed merger of Charter Communications Inc and Time Warner Cable Inc, but in a letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission it asked for a careful review on the impact of cable deals on emerging online v... More »
LONDON There are thousands of artworks on display at London Frieze, the vast showplace and market for contemporary art that opened this week, so perhaps visitors will be grateful that one of the exhibits is a place where they can sleep. The installation by AYR... More »
WASHINGTON Scurrying under the feet of dinosaurs in swampy terrain in Spain around 125 million years ago was a furry chipmunk-sized critter with tiny hedgehog-like spines, horny body armor and an unpleasant fungal hair infection. This intrepid little guy now i... More »
BRUSSELS European Union leaders have postponed a deeper discussion of the future of the euro zone until December because of divergent views in the biggest countries and because of the more pressing migration issue, diplomats said. EU leaders, who meet on Thurs... More »
STOCKHOLM Swedish author David Lagercrantz will write two more books featuring tattooed hacker Lisbeth Salander, on top of his recent sequel to Stieg Larsson’s blockbuster “Millennium” trilogy of thrillers, publisher Norstedts said on Wednesday. The fifth book... More »
LONDON French fashion house Chanel is putting on display its haute couture creations, dazzling diamond jewelry and the makings of its famed No. 5 scent in a London exhibition unveiling the creative history of one of the world’s most luxurious brands. The “Made... More »
VANVES, France Asterix and Obelix are back in a new edition of the famed comic book, this time fighting their Roman foes in a propaganda war alongside a character inspired by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Two years after “Asterix and the Picts” saw the duo... More »
LONDON Marlon James became the first Jamaican to win the Man Booker fiction prize on Tuesday for “A Brief History of Seven Killings”, inspired by an attempt to kill reggae star Bob Marley, and said he hoped more Caribbean writers will follow. The 686-page nove... More »
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has dismissed as wide of the mark reports that he sprayed Russian President Vladimir Putin with the winner’s champagne after Sunday’s grand prix in Sochi. “I actually didn’t. I didn’t actually spray him. I think there’... More »
BRUSSELS Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (ABI.BR) CEO says a study of SABMiller’s (SAB.L) African beer markets and talks with top shareholders led to an “alignment of stars” that drew it to its nearest rival. But observers say the real catalysts for the $100 billion ta... More »
LONDON Some of Britain’s most senior former judicial figures criticized Prime Minister David Cameron’s government on Monday for its response to the EU migrant crisis, saying it was inadequate and was pushing people into the arms of smugglers. A statement, sign... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices rose on Monday as the number of U.S. rigs fell for a sixth week, while investors waited for Chinese trade data to be published later this week for clues whether the world’s second biggest economy and oil consumer was slowing down further. ... More »
ANKARA Turkey is targeting Islamic State in investigations of a double suicide bombing in Ankara that killed up to 128 people, officials said on Sunday, while opponents of President Tayyip Erdogan blamed him for the worst such attack in Turkish history. Govern... More »
BOSTON A rash of hacking attacks on U.S. companies over the past two years has prompted insurers to massively increase cyber premiums for some companies, leaving firms that are perceived to be a high risk scrambling for cover. On top of rate hikes, insurers ar... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and some leaders of the ruling party jointly demanded resolution of the 1MDB state fund scandal on Monday and condemned a crackdown on dissent, signaling a divide within the coalition. Mahathir has ... More »
MOSCOW Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday, RIA news agency quoted the ministry’s press department as saying. RIA said the information came in response to a question on wh... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Giants quarterback Eli Manning engineered his 27th career game-winning, fourth-quarter drive, connecting with tight end Larry Donnell on a 12-yard touchdown pass with 21 seconds left, giving New York a 30-27 victory over the San Francisc... More »
HONG KONG Asian shares rose on Monday, extending an October rally, as investors hunted for bargains in industrials and basic materials, fueled by a rebound in commodities while the dollar struggled as hopes of a Fed rate rise this year faded. European stocks w... More »
