All posts published in April 2016
BRUSSELS/BERLIN Overcoming years of poor health and crisis, the euro zone economy grew at its fastest pace in five years in the first quarter, driven by unlikely stars such as France and Spain. It now stands larger that in did at its peak before the financial ... More »
BRUSSELS Euro zone finance ministers will not meet on Thursday and need more time to discuss Greek reforms that would unlock new loans, signaling significant differences remain between Athens and its lenders on bailout targets. The meeting was a possibility be... More »
TOKYO Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (7011.T) on Monday said it was too early to decide whether to offer support to sister company Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T), which is facing a financial hit after admitting to falsifying fuel economy data on its vehicles... More »
BEIJING BMW (BMWG.DE) expects its car sales in China to rise by a mid-single-digit percentage this year, in line with the overall growth of the world’s biggest passenger car market, board member Ian Robertson said on Monday. Last year, BMW sold 460,000 cars in... More »
HANOVER, Germany/WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will announce on Monday he plans to send as many as 250 additional U.S. troops to Syria, a sharp increase in the American presence working with local Syrian forces fighting Islamic State militants, U.S. offici... More »
TOKYO Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking ahead of a visit to Beijing, said on Monday China was making the world “worried” with its military buildup and maritime expansion in the East and South China Seas. Ties between China and Japan, the world’... More »
TOKYO Tokyo 2020 organizers unveiled a new Olympic logo featuring traditional Japanese designs on Monday, seven months after they were forced to scrap the original motif over accusations of plagiarism. The new logo, chosen from more than 14,000 candidates, ado... More »
LONDON The yen recovered from a walloping at the end of last week on Monday, with investors focusing on a meeting of the Bank of Japan that many expect to deliver further easing of monetary policy in a bid to halt the currency’s rise. Bets on the yen to streng... More »
MAKHMOUR, Iraq Towering over his Kurdish partner at a checkpoint in northern Iraq, U.S. volunteer John Cole cuts an unusual figure on the road to the newest front in the war against Islamic State. Seven feet (2.1 meters) tall and holding his assault rifle upsi... More »
DUBAI Yemeni government forces and their allies killed more than 800 al Qaeda fighters when they advanced into the port city of Mukalla, the Saudi-led pro-government coalition said. Yemeni and Emirati soldiers seized the seaport on Sunday, depriving the group ... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices dipped on Monday as traders took profits after three weeks of gains and as a jump in the dollar late last week was priced into fuel markets. Front-month Brent crude was trading at $44.80 per barrel at 0710 GMT, down 31 cents from its last ... More »
LONDON Betting odds have moved sharply in favour of Britons voting to remain in the European Union after U.S. President Barack Obama cautioned last week against leaving the 28-member bloc. The implied probability of a vote to remain in the June 23 referendum r... More »
SAO PAULO Oi SA (OIBR3.SA) will start talks to restructure $14.3 billion of bonds as early as Monday, sources familiar with the situation said, pitting some of the world’s biggest investors against each other as Brazil’s most-indebted phone carrier fights for ... More »
Conor McGregor said on Monday he is back on the UFC 200 card though there has been no confirmation from the Ultimate Fighting Championship on the Irish featherweight’s return. UFC president Dana White said last week McGregor had been pulled from his rematch wi... More »
TOKYO Asian shares and the dollar dropped on Monday as investors took profits from the currency’s recent gains ahead of central bank meetings in the United States and Japan this week. Financial spreadbetters expected mixed openings for European markets, with B... More »
HANOVER, Germany U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday he would do whatever he could to advance a controversial trade deal with the European Union in his last eight months in office, but warned that time was running short. Obama has pushed to complete two... More »
TOKYO Japan’s central bank is likely to cut its price forecasts on Thursday and debate whether a strong yen, weak global demand and soft consumption have hurt inflation expectations enough to warrant another blow of stimulus. The policy decision will be a clos... More »
The attackers who stole $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank probably hacked into software from the SWIFT financial platform that is at the heart of the global financial system, said security researchers at British defense contractor BAE Systems. SWIFT... More »
DALLAS A Dallas County grand jury has indicted former NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel on a charge of misdemeanor assault with bodily injury after he allegedly struck his ex-girlfriend, media reported. A grand jury examined in the case against Manziel last week ... More »
BEIJING Sales of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in China will moderate over the remainder of 2016, compared with a 39 percent year-on-year growth in the first quarter, the brand’s China head said on Monday. Mercedes-Benz’s sales in China rose three times as fast as BM... More »
The Los Angeles Lakers fired coach Byron Scott on Sunday after he oversaw the two worst seasons in franchise history, clearing the way for a continued rebuild after the retirement of all-time great Kobe Bryant. “We would like to thank Byron for his hard work, ... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – It took the New York Islanders just shy of 23 years — 8,381 days, to be exact — to finally win a postseason series. They would like to wait only a couple weeks to win another one. Islanders captain John Tavares cemented his status in fra... More »
At an early 2015 investor conference, SunEdison’s then-chief financial officer, Brian Wuebbels, trumpeted the profit potential in the solar developer’s relationship with a venture it had recently spun off. SunEdison had established TerraForm Power Inc as a “yi... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Kyrie Irving is off to a great start in his effort to make up for lost time in the playoffs. A year after missing five games in the NBA Finals and two in the Eastern Conference finals with a knee injury and leaving people wondering what ... More »
DUBAI The International Monetary Fund said it was encouraged by the efforts of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab oil exporters to repair damage to their state finances as low crude prices slash export revenues. “I do see in a number of countries action to addre... More »
BEIJING Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCHA.MI) (FCA) is targeting “significant double-digit growth” for jeep sales in China this year, said Mike Manley, Chief Operating Officer for the Asia-Pacific region, speaking at the Beijing auto show. Manley told reporters ... More »
NEW YORK Argentina’s celebrated $16.5 billion return to international capital markets last week was the final mile of a tortured 14-year path from historic default through the U.S. court system. Along the way, the saga included a death threat against a judge, ... More »
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are expected to hold interest rates steady when they meet this week, but may tweak their description of the economic outlook to reflect more benign conditions, leaving the path open for future rate rises... More »
WASHINGTON Republican White House rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced a deal on Sunday to stay out of each other’s way in some upcoming state primaries in hopes of blocking front-runner Donald Trump from winning the party’s presidential nomination. Cruz’... More »
(Reuters Health) – While many forms of e-cigarette advertising increase the odds that teens will try the devices, a new U.S. study suggests that this generation of digital natives is most enticed by promotions they see online. Big U.S. tobacco companies are al... More »
JAKARTA A tax amnesty program planned by Indonesia’s government could potentially attract home 560 trillion rupiah ($42.38 billion) of assets stashed offshore, the central bank governor told a parliamentary commission on Monday. The amnesty program could also ... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Evan Turner called Boston Celtics teammate Marcus Smart the best player on the court on Sunday at TD Garden. He probably was right — and this was in a game that saw Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap go off for 45 points. Smart scored 20... More »
A promise that U.S. Republican front-runner Donald Trump will adopt a more presidential campaign style does not signal a retreat from core policies such as his pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border, his top adviser said on Sunday. Senior Trump aide Paul... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – For the Dallas Stars, the drama and the highs and lows, if they result in a playoff series win, are all part of the process. Dallas built a big lead Sunday afternoon and needed all of it to clinch its first-round playoff series with the ... More »
BEIJING/DETROIT Tomorrow’s cars will be all-electric, self-driving, connected to high-speed communications networks … and free. And probably Chinese. That, at least, is the vision of Jia Yueting, a billionaire entrepreneur and one of a new breed of Chinese who... More »
SAO PAULO If Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer takes power, former central bank President Henrique Meirelles would accept the position of finance minister under the condition he was given approval rights over members of the entire economic team, newspaper ... More »
WASHINGTON Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, a key source of financing for conservative Republican causes along with his brother, said Democrat Hillary Clinton might make a better president than the candidates in the Republican field. Koch, in an intervi... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Disney’s “The Jungle Book” showed serious traction at the North American box office, dominating moviegoing for a second straight weekend with $60.8 million at 4,028 locations. The family-friendly tentpole declined only 41% from its ... More »
MOSCOW Russia’s Onexim group, which manages the assets of tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, said on Sunday that it was not in talks to sell its RBC media group and power generating company Quadra. Russian online news site gazeta.ru reported earlier on Sunday, citing s... More »
HANOVER, Germany German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that she did not favor classical “safe zones” in Syria which would need to be protected by foreign forces but believed that peace talks in Geneva could agree areas where fleeing Syrians could feel... More »
HANOVER, Germany U.S. President Barack Obama said the European Union and United States must move forward with a trade free trade accord still under negotiation which supporters say could boost each economy by some $100 billion. “It is indisputable” that free t... More »
WASHINGTON The White House will likely make a decision by June on whether it will release some classified material withheld from the public 9/11 Commission Report, a former U.S. senator who co-chaired the congressional inquiry into the attacks said on Sunday. ... More »
British astronaut Tim Peake became the first man to complete a marathon in space on Sunday, running the classic 26.2 mile distance while strapped to a treadmill aboard the International Space Station. As part of the London Marathon, Britain’s biggest mass part... More »
ABIDJAN Congolese rumba music legend Papa Wemba died after collapsing on stage in the Ivory Coast in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to the private morgue where his body was taken. Wemba, born in 1949, was performing at the FEMUA 2016 festival whe... More »
WASHINGTON Former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell contends that if the Supreme Court agrees with prosecutors’ broad view of bribery law and allows his corruption convictions to stand, it would make a politician’s ordinary interactions with donors a crime an... More »
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. Reince Priebus, the unassuming head of the Republican National Committee, often plays the piano late at night, sometimes with a glass of wine nearby. Tickling the ivories is a lifelong passion for Priebus and he has been doing it “more than usu... More »
CHANHASSEN, Minn. Prince’s remains have been cremated and his family and friends attended a private ceremony on Saturday to pay their respects to the late pop superstar at the studio complex where he died in a suburb of Minneapolis, a Prince spokeswoman said. ... More »
Beyonce cemented her status as the queen of surprise releases on Saturday, releasing a completely new album and videos called “Lemonade” via a widely anticipated one-hour special on cable network HBO. During the show, which ignited social media as fans breathl... More »
HOLLYWOOD, Fla./WASHINGTON Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump attacked his top Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Friday, calling her “crooked,” and promised his supporters that he would not bore them by becoming overly presidential. The commen... More »
Police found no signs of suicide or obvious trauma in the death of U.S. music superstar Prince, but it could take weeks before autopsy results reveal how the groundbreaking performer died, authorities said on Friday. The intensely private musician, whose hits ... More »
LONDON Some of Shakespeare’s best known characters – Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and King Lear – will be featuring along a stretch of the River Thames this weekend, as part of celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of England’s greatest playwrigh... More »
VIENNA Europe and Japan’s central bank policies of negative interest rates are a “horror” and will run counter to the desired effect, Jeffrey Gundlach, the widely followed investor who runs DoubleLine Capital, said in an interview with a Swiss newspaper. Gundl... More »
BEIJING In the race to develop self-driving cars, the United States and Europe lead in technology, but China is coming up fast in the outside lane with a regulatory structure that could put it ahead in the popular adoption of autonomous cars on its highways an... More »
FORT WORTH, Texas Before that fateful day in Dallas in 1963, President John F. Kennedy spent one pleasant night in neighboring Fort Worth, which is the subject of an opera due to open in the Texas city this weekend. The opera called “JFK,” with music by compos... More »
The blocking of Apple mobile entertainment services in China poses fresh challenges for the tech company as it prepares to report its first-ever drop in iPhone sales. The news on Thursday that Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) online book and film services had gone dark in... More »
LOS ANGELES The late pop star Prince was known in life as an artist fiercely protective of his intellectual property, but how much others may profit from his legacy, including a large body of unreleased songs, hinges on how astute he was in arranging for contr... More »
The lackluster market debut of SecureWorks Corp, the cyber unit of Dell Inc, failed to rally the battered technology U.S. IPO market on Friday, a reminder that Wall Street does not welcome cash-burning companies without profits. “I don’t think it encourages an... More »
The music of Prince was brought to life a day after his death, as 1,000 Los Angeles high school students sang a tribute to the late singer. The students came together from 31 Los Angeles-area schools at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and sang “Purple Rain.” Prin... More »
NEW YORK Measures intended to control extreme swings in the U.S. Treasury market might end up hurting other markets and erode investor confidence in U.S. government bonds as a safe haven, according to a private report released on Friday. Some U.S. regulators h... More »
Ruth Porat couldn’t have been clearer: Alphabet Inc’s chief financial officer said on Thursday that Google’s parent needed to step up investment to boost traffic. Analysts agreed. Investors weren’t so sure. The company’s shares closed down 5.46 percent at $737... More »
DHAKA Bangladesh’s central bank was vulnerable to hackers because it did not have a firewall and used second-hand, $10 switches to network computers connected to the SWIFT global payment network, an investigator into one of the world’s biggest cyber heists sai... More »
CHICAGO U.S. health and safety officials issued new guidelines on Friday to help protect workers from exposure to Zika, a mosquito-borne and sexually-transmitted virus that causes the birth defect microcephaly and other neurological disorders. The new rules, i... More »
OKLAHOMA CITY An Oklahoma bill that could revoke the license of any doctor who performs an abortion has headed to the governor, with opponents saying the measure in unconstitutional and promising a legal battle against the cash-strapped state if it is approved... More »
CHICAGO, April 21 Older patients want to talk with their doctors about how they will die, but are doctors ready to have the conversation? Medicare began reimbursing physicians in January for time spent discussing their patients’ end-of-life wishes. While 95 pe... More »
BRUSSELS Viacom’s (VIAB.O) Paramount Pictures has offered EU regulators concessions aimed at averting a possible fine over geographical restrictions within Europe on movie licensing deals between Sky UK (SKYB.L) and six U.S. studios. The European Commission sa... More »
BERLIN Germany’s federal states appealed to media outlets on Friday to let prosecutors examine the full detail of the Panama Papers that revealed how offshore firms are used to stash the wealth of the world’s rich and powerful. The scandal broke in early April... More »
AMSTERDAM Greece should prepare a package of additional measures to guarantee it will reach fiscal targets agreed with international lenders to conclude the bailout reform review, the head of euro zone finance ministers said on Friday. “We came to the conclusi... More »
LONDON Investors withdrew $7.3 billion from stocks in the week to April 20, the largest outflows in nine weeks, while continuing to shovel money into corporate and emerging market debt, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) (BAC.N) said on Friday. The equity re... More »
HONG KONG The Hong Kong exchange has begun a Brexit impact assessment, and some Asian asset managers are looking to set up new bases in mainland Europe amid growing concerns their operations could be disrupted if Britain votes to leave the European Union in a ... More »
WASHINGTON The babies of a huge, long-necked dinosaur called Rapetosaurus that lived on the island of Madagascar did not just sit in a nest and look cute. They were born ready for action. Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery of fossils of a baby Rape... More »
CAMBRIDGE, England AstraZeneca, working with genome pioneer Craig Venter, is launching a massive gene hunt in the most comprehensive bet yet by a pharmaceutical firm on the potential of genetic variations to unlock routes to new medicines. The initiative, anno... More »
NEW YORK A New York lawyer was sentenced on Thursday to six months in prison for participating in a fraudulent scheme in which a con man impersonated his successful father in order to raise money to buy Maxim magazine. Harvey Newkirk, 40, was sentenced by U.S.... More »
Viacom Inc said on Thursday it has renewed a multiyear distribution contract with satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp, lifting the media company’s shares over 11 percent. The companies had been in talks for several months over whether Dish would continue t... More »
BRUSSELS – Warner Music Group and independent labels have urged EU regulators to fight Sony Corp’s bid to buy out Michael Jackson’s stake in its music publishing joint venture, saying the move gives Sony too much power. Sony last month signed a deal to acquire... More »
PRETORIA South Africa’s estimates for key crops such as maize have become increasingly accurate thanks to satellite imagery and as farmers’ often biased input has been cut out of the picture, a conference was told on Thursday. South Africa’s maize crop has bee... More »
FRANKFURT There is ongoing growth in the euro zone economy and this should continue, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Thursday. “We expect the economic recovery to proceed,” Draghi told a news conference, although he added that global risks... More »
LONDON Britain’s Supreme Court was urged on Thursday to maintain a ban on the English press naming a celebrity who was involved in an extra-marital threesome, even though the details are easy to find online. The case has stirred debate in Britain about whether... More »
BEIJING China will launch a “core module” for its first space station some time around 2018, a senior official told the state-run Xinhua news agency on Thursday, part of a plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022. Advancing China’s ... More »
The parent of Britain’s Daily Mail said on Wednesday it had not submitted its own bid to buy Yahoo Inc’s core Internet business, but was still in talks to partner with other suitors of the U.S. company. Yahoo, which has been struggling with falling ad revenue ... More »
SHANGHAI The new boss of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, Jack Ma, has promised not to interfere in editorial decisions, in an apparent bid to assuage concerns about the paper’s independence under his e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Critics ha... More »
TAIPEI A Taiwan artist has refused to see the big picture and instead captured the likeness of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen, to celebrate her inauguration next month, on a single grain of rice. Chen Forng-Shean, who has also sculpted the face of China’s late C... More »
LOS ANGELES A California judge on Wednesday rejected a bid by Sumner Redstone’s granddaughter to join the media mogul’s former girlfriend in a lawsuit that challenges the 92-year-old billionaire’s mental competency. The granddaughter, Keryn Redstone, argued in... More »
WASHINGTON Monkeys resembling today’s capuchins accomplished the astonishing feat of crossing at least 100 miles (160 km) of open ocean 21 million years ago to get from South America to North America eons before the two continents joined together. Scientists s... More »
BRUSSELS/ATHENS Euro zone finance ministers are ready to hold an extraordinary meeting next week if negotiations on the review of the Greek reform program are concluded, a senior EU official said on Wednesday, commenting that talks remained difficult. Discussi... More »
SYDNEY Australian scientists said on Wednesday that just seven percent of the Great Barrier Reef, which attracts around A$5 billion ($3.90 billion) in tourism every year, has been untouched by mass bleaching that is likely to destroy half the coral. Bleaching ... More »
LONDON A meticulous recreation of the 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, Syria, destroyed by Islamic State militants last year, has been erected in Trafalgar Square in what London Mayor Boris Johnson called an act of defiance. The 5.5-metre (20ft) mode... More »
BRUSSELS A new art museum has opened its doors in Brussels’ Molenbeek district hoping to help shed the negative image of the area, most recently linked to the deadly attacks in Paris and the Belgian capital. The Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art (MIMA) is ba... More »
CHICAGO Bonds valued at up to $1.5 billion would be issued under Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal to bring a museum, proposed by “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas, to Chicago, the city said on Monday. The museum will feature Lucas’ collection of paintings, illus... More »
MILAN Three late 15th century paintings missing since they were looted by Nazi troops from a Tuscan villa over 70 years ago have been recovered and two people have been accused of receiving stolen goods, police announced on Monday. The works, of religious them... More »
PRETORIA Disgraced Olympic and Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius will face sentencing in June following his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013. “The matter is postponed to the 13th of June 2016, and it wil... More »
TOKYO Tokyo is sticking with plans to raise the sales tax next year, barring a financial crisis or a major natural disaster, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday, without saying whether two deadly quakes in southern Japan qualified as such as disaster. The... More »
BEIJING China’s economy expanded a seasonally-adjusted 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016 from the fourth quarter of last year, National Bureau of Statistics data showed, the lowest quarterly expansion on record since 2010. The slower-than-expected quart... More »
AMSTERDAM Europe’s antitrust chief said on Monday that she was looking closely at Google’s (GOOGL.O) deals with phone makers and operators, concerned that conditions related to its popular Android mobile operating system may be restricting competition. The com... More »
TOKYO The Japanese share market plunged 3 percent on Monday after a series of earthquakes measuring up to 7.3 magnitude struck a southern manufacturing hub, killing at least 42 people and forcing major companies to close factories. About 30,000 rescue workers ... More »
KUWAIT Peace talks in Kuwait aimed at ending over a year of civil war and a Saudi-led intervention in Yemen will not begin on Monday as planned, officials from the warring sides said, amid objections over continued fighting despite an announced ceasefire. Dele... More »
BEIRUT Syrian rebel groups announced a new battle against government forces on Monday, a sign of escalating violence that has undermined a ceasefire deal and threatens to derail U.N.-led peace talks. The groups, which included factions fighting under the banne... More »
BAGHDAD U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter flew into Iraq on Monday to discuss offering more help in the fight against Islamic State, possibly including sending in more U.S. troops, officials said. Carter would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defe... More »
LONDON BHP Billiton (BHP.AX)(BLT.L) Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie said on Monday that businesses could face a decade of damaging uncertainty if Britain voted to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum. Mackenzie, boss of the world’s biggest mining ... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the OPEC producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel. Tensions between Saudi Ar... More »
JAGODINA, Serbia Ultra-nationalists are set to return to Serbia’s parliament in an April 24 election after an absence of several years, boosted by growing discontent with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s pro-European Union stance and austerity policies. They ... More »
