All posts published in April 2016
SYDNEY Australia’s parliament returned for a special sitting on Monday to debate crucial labor reform bills which are likely to be blocked in the upper house Senate, leading to the dissolution of both houses and an election on July 2. Prime Minister Malcolm Tu... More »
BRASILIA Brazil’s leftist President Dilma Rousseff suffered a humiliating loss in a crucial impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress on Sunday and is almost certain to be forced from office months before the nation hosts the Olympics. Fireworks lit up t... More »
BERLIN The next president of the European Central Bank should come from Germany, members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies said on Monday. German conservative politicians have complained loudly in recent weeks that the ECB’s ultra-low rates are cre... More »
TOKYO Tumbling crude oil futures knocked Asian shares on Monday after producers’ talks failed to agree on a plan to curb the global supply glut, while Tokyo stocks skidded as investors assessed the impact of a devastating earthquake in southwestern Japan. The ... More »
SYDNEY An Australian court let off the actress wife of Hollywood star Johnny Depp with a good behavior bond on Monday after she pleaded guilty to falsifying travel documents to sneak two pet dogs into the country. Depp accompanied his wife, Amber Heard, for th... More »
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE U.S. oil and gas major Chevron Corp has put all of its Myanmar gas block stakes up for sale, which at a combined likely valuation of $1.3 billion, would be the biggest deal involving Myanmar assets to date, financial sources familiar with t... More »
Luke Waid drives 20 miles each day to shower at a relative’s place, hauls bottled water back to his Flint, Michigan, home and worries about his 2-year-old daughter’s irritability. “I don’t know if that is a product of her being exposed to high lead levels, or ... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Shea Weber and Craig Smith scored in the second period to give the Nashville Predators a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in the second game of their Stanley Cup Western Conference quarterfinal series Sunday night in front of a sellout... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Chris Paul scored 28 points, dished out 11 assists and grabbed six rebounds, leading the Los Angeles Clippers to a 115-95 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of a Western Conference quarterfinal playoff series Sunday night ... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Thomas Hickey’s final goal of the regular season ensured the New York Islanders would return to the playoffs for the second straight season. His first career playoff goal put the Islanders another step closer to some place the franchise ... More »
MELBOURNE Australian former professional tennis player Nick Lindahl has avoided a jail term after pleading guilty to match-fixing charges relating to a game in 2013. Lindahl, 27, appeared for sentencing in Sydney’s Burwood court on Monday and was fined A$1,000... More »
MUMBAI Embattled Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya’s UB Group has denied allegations that it used 4.3 billion rupees ($65 million) of bank loans to now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines to buy property overseas. Mallya, a liquor baron and lawmaker, has been at an unknown l... More »
CUBATAO, Brazil On a warm September morning in 2014, the 10-man board of Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas met on the ninth floor of a blue glass tower in Sao Paulo. In the room, the board members grappled over whether to fire the company’s chief executive and two... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Defense carried San Antonio to the second-best record in the NBA this season but it’s likely to be the Spurs’ ability to get the most out of their offensive opportunities that will be the key for a push for a sixth championship since 199... More »
SYDNEY/SINGAPORE Commodity currencies slumped on Monday while the safe-haven yen soared after major oil producers failed to agree on an output freeze, sending oil prices tumbling anew. The Canadian dollar and its Australian counterpart were both marked more th... More »
WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court takes up a case on Monday probing the limits of presidential powers as the justices weigh whether President Barack Obama overstepped his authority with unilateral action to protect millions of people in the country illegally f... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – The Detroit Red Wings turned up their intensity and got back into their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Petr Mrazek made 16 saves for his third career playoff shutout in Detroit’s 2-0 win ov... More »
WASHINGTON Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei criticized Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, calling him “an irrational type” due to his proposal that tariffs on imported Chinese goods be increased to up to 45 percent. In an interview with the W... More »
A late handball call and a no-call punctuated a controversial 2-2 draw between Orlando City and New England Revolution in Major League Soccer on Sunday. The Orlando City Lions looked set to reap the benefits of a contentious stoppage time goal by midfielder Ke... More »
HONG KONG China’s home prices in March gained at the fastest pace in almost two years but that growth may slow as local authorities tighten home purchase requirements in the two top performing cities on fears of a bubble forming. The southern city of Shenzhen ... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – Luol Deng will have pleasant memories of his first playoff game with the Miami Heat. Deng scored 31 points as the Heat routed the Charlotte Hornets 123-91 Sunday in Game 1 of the teams’ first-round Eastern Conference playoff series. Deng... More »
MELBOURNE Former U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur will end a second stint with coach David Taylor after the French Open, local media reported on Monday. Australian Stosur, a former finalist at Roland Garros, reunited with Taylor in 2015, two years after parting w... More »
SEOUL South Korea’s finance minister stressed the importance of policy consistency following a parliamentary election that resulted in a defeat for the ruling party, the ministry said in a statement on Monday. “As much as there are concerns from ratings agenci... More »
NEW DELHI India’s finance ministry is asking for regular progress reports from tax collectors and has set a date for an amnesty to pay off arrears on undeclared domestic assets, as the government intensifies efforts to meet its ambitious deficit target. A seri... More »
LONDON British finance minister George Osborne said a vote to leave the European Union in a referendum in June would do permanent damage to the country’s economy, which he warned would be 6 percent smaller by 2030 than if it stayed in the bloc. The government ... More »
NEW YORK Intel Corp’s shift to higher-growth businesses such as server chips and embedded chips for cars could drive a 25 increase in its shares in a year, according to a report on Sunday in the financial publication Barron’s. While there is a risk Intel could... More »
HARRISBURG, Pa. Pennsylvania was poised to become the 24th U.S. state to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes after state legislators on Wednesday approved a bill that Democratic Governor Tom Wolf has promised to sign. The bill will allow use of marijua... More »
Actor-comedian Tracy Morgan performed a show near the site of a New Jersey car crash two years ago in which he was nearly killed for an audience that included medical staff who treated him, People magazine said on Sunday. The Saturday performance at the State ... More »
MELBOURNE Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose will join the remaining leg of Australian rock band AC/DC’s world tour, after front man Brian Johnson’s doctors raised concerns over his hearing loss. The band rescheduled concerts on their Rock or Bust World Tour in Mar... More »
DOHA A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart on Sunday after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite calls on Riyadh to save the agreement and help prop up crude prices. The development will revive oil industry fears that ... More »
WASHINGTON A senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Sunday accused rival Donald Trump’s campaign of taking a “banana republic approach” by complaining that party rules for selecting a nominee are rigged against him. Former Virginia Att... More »
WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on Monday that tests the boundaries of presidential powers, confronting the question of whether President Barack Obama exceeded his authority with unilateral action to spare millions of people in the country i... More »
NEW YORK The Pulitzer Prizes, established in 1917 with a bequest from trail-blazing publisher Joseph Pulitzer, are marking their 100th year on Monday with the announcement of the winners of what are regarded as the most prestigious awards in American journalis... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “The Jungle Book” dominated the weekend box office, grossing a massive $103.6 million, and extending the Walt Disney Company’s success in making live action versions of its classic animated features. That ranks as the second biggest... More »
WASHINGTON The United States is likely to see outbreaks of the Zika virus, with perhaps dozens or scores of people affected, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Sunday. The United States has se... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Italy’s “Cinema Paradiso” director Giuseppe Tornatore has struck a deal to make a movie with China’s Alibaba Pictures Group, the film making arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba. The deal was symbolically signed by Tornatore and Zhang Qi... More »
TOKYO Electronics giant Sony Corp on Sunday said production at its image sensor plant in Kumamoto, southern Japan, remained suspended as it assessed damage from a powerful earthquake. Operations at its image sensor plants in Nagasaki and Oita, also on the sout... More »
CASPER, Wyo. Republican U.S. presidential hopeful Ted Cruz won all 14 delegates at stake on Saturday in Wyoming, besting rival Donald Trump, who made little effort to win the rural state, and further narrowing the gap in the race for the party’s nomination. Cr... More »
WASHINGTON Actor and director George Clooney, a supporter of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, broke ranks over campaign financing on Saturday to condemn the “obscene” sums of money in U.S. politics and praised Clinton’s chief political rival in the process.... More »
LIMA Peruvian health authorities on Saturday reported the first case of the Zika virus having been sexually transmitted in the country, after a resident contracted the disease while traveling in Venezuela and then infected his wife once back in Peru. Zika has ... More »
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE Pope Francis said on Saturday that his meeting with Bernie Sanders, contesting the Democratic candidacy for the U.S. Presidency, was not meddling in politics and that anyone who thought otherwise should “look for a psychiatrist”. Sanders... More »
BAMAKO Mali bid a final farewell on Saturday to Malick Sidibe, an award-winning photographer considered a national treasure for his unique studio portraits and candid black-and-white depictions of popular culture in his West African homeland. From humble begin... More »
LOS ANGELES Singer Prince was released from an Illinois hospital on Friday after he was hospitalized with the flu following an emergency plane landing, celebrity news outlet TMZ said. A representative for the singer told TMZ that Prince had performed in Atlant... More »
WASHINGTON The Obama administration on Friday weighed in on the debate over allowing consumers to switch from pricey cable television boxes to less expensive devices, urging regulators to set an example for the rest of government on how to boost competition. C... More »
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Cirque du Soleil said on Friday it was canceling shows in North Carolina over a new state law that it called discriminatory, the performance group said on Friday, becoming the latest entertainment act to take a stance against the measure. “... More »
NEW DELHI India’s biggest cigarette maker ITC Ltd said it would resume production at its factories “consequent upon” a favorable court order, two weeks after it decided to shutter its plants over the government’s stringent new packaging rules. India ordered th... More »
Melbourne Australia Post has successfully field-trialled the use of drones to deliver small packages, clearing the way for test deliveries to customer homes later this year. The state-owned corporation said the drones will be used for the delivery of online sh... More »
TOKYO Electronics giant Sony Corp said a factory producing image sensors for smartphone makers will remain closed while it assesses the damage from two deadly earthquakes which hit southern Japan. One of its major customers is Apple, which uses the sensors in ... More »
An experimental once-daily combination hepatitis C treatment being developed by AbbVie Inc demonstrated very high cure rates across a wide range of disease genotypes, according to data presented on Saturday, likely giving the company a more competitive product... More »
CARACAS Venezuela on Friday reversed a half-hour time change that was one of the signature measures of former president Hugo Chavez’s idiosyncratic 14-year rule. Chavez turned Venezuela’s clocks back 30 minutes in 2007 so that children could wake up for school... More »
The movie “Barbershop: The Next Cut” may open on Friday, a Manhattan judge ruled on Thursday as he denied an injunction sought by a New York playwright to block the fourth of a series of comedies that he claims ripped off his stage play “Scissors.” Ronald Dick... More »
SAN FRANCISCO Oracle Corp and Alphabet’s Google unit failed to settle a long running copyright lawsuit over the Android operating system ahead of a retrial scheduled for May, according to a court docket. The case involves how much copyright protection should e... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON Apple Inc said the U.S. government had failed to show a continued need for its help accessing a locked iPhone in a New York drug case after a third party came forward with a solution to crack a different phone belonging to one of the shoote... More »
NEW YORK Jeffrey Gundlach, the widely followed investor who runs DoubleLine Capital, said on a webcast on Tuesday that the Federal Reserve’s rate hike cycle “increasingly likely” looks like a one and done scenario this year. Gundlach, who oversees $95 billion ... More »
NEW YORK Out of sight, out of mind? Not for Americans at tax time. Unlike most other countries, Uncle Sam requires its estimated 7 million expatriates, whether citizens or resident aliens, to file an income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. Those l... More »
NEW YORK U.S. business conditions are the strongest since the summer of 2014 as sentiment has recovered from a weak start to the year, signaling companies’ willingness to make capital expenditures, Morgan Stanley economists said on Friday. More investment in e... More »
Piper Jaffray cut its rating on Wells Fargo & Co to “underweight” from “neutral” citing concerns about the bank’s credit costs. The downgrade comes a day after Wells Fargo reported a 7 percent decline in quarterly profit. The bank has set aside more than $1 bi... More »
WASHINGTON The U.S. Treasury Department inched closer on Friday toward finalizing a rule requiring banks to identify the legal owners of shell companies, a move it hopes will help prevent illegal financial activities such as money laundering. The White House’s... More »
TOKYO Chacha the chimpanzee made his own great escape on Thursday, fleeing from a zoo in northern Japan and leading authorities on a dramatic chase. The male primate went missing from Yagiyama Zoological Park and was seen roaming in a neighborhood in Sendai. V... More »
LOS ANGELES A California judge declined to order a deposition of Sumner Redstone after lawyers for the 92-year-old media mogul said on Thursday they do not plan to call him to testify at a trial over his mental competence. Attorneys for Redstone’s former girlf... More »
KIEV Four Dutch masterpieces dating from the country’s 17th-century Golden Age have been recovered by security services in Ukraine over 10 years after they were stolen from a museum in the Netherlands, Ukraine Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Thursday. T... More »
SYDNEY Australian scientists say they have developed the world’s first WHO-approved “gluten-free” barley, a breakthrough for global beer manufacturers which have had to use alternatives to barley such as rice and sorghum to brew gluten-free beer. Australia’s C... More »
For a long time surrogate motherhood has been a a topic for stormy debates and controversies around the world. Many European countries still cannot legitimize this method of assisted reproductive technology (ART) because of religious and ethical reasons. Infer... More »
LONDON A team of sniffer dogs set up at a British airport at a cost of 1.25 million pounds ($1.7 million) have proved adept at discovering small amounts of cheese and sausages but not so good at finding smuggled drugs, a report said on Thursday. An inspection ... More »
WASHINGTON An Ohio man paralyzed in an accident while diving in waves can now pick up a bottle or play the video game Guitar Hero thanks to a small computer chip in his brain that lets his mind guide his hands and fingers, bypassing his damaged spinal cord. Sc... More »
Attorneys for Sumner Redstone’s ex-girlfriend say they should be allowed to depose the 92-year-old media mogul because Redstone plans to testify at an upcoming trial over his mental capacity, according to court filings made on Wednesday. Settlement talks betwe... More »
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. United Launch Alliance said on Wednesday its Atlas 5 rocket will need to be repaired before flights resume following an early engine shutdown on its last mission. “There will be corrective action,” Tory Bruno, chief executive of the joi... More »
LONDON A high-tech marine drone scouring the depths of Scotland’s Loch Ness for one of nature’s most elusive beasts has found a “monster” – but not the one it was looking for. Rather than the fabled Loch Ness Monster itself, the probe has discovered a 30-foot ... More »
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday offered up to $25,000 as a reward for information on seven Andy Warhol paintings stolen from a Missouri art museum last week. The “Campbell Soup” paintings, part of a set of 10 worth $500,000, were taken from the S... More »
PARIS A painting found in the attic of a house in southwest France two years ago was attributed to the Italian master Caravaggio by private French experts who hailed its discovery on Tuesday as a great event in the history of art. The work, which depicts Bibli... More »
NEW YORK Talks aimed at settling a lawsuit questioning the competency of media mogul Sumner Redstone have hit an impasse and attorneys are rescheduling the depositions of key players, an attorney for Redstone’s former girlfriend, who brought the lawsuit, said ... More »
WASHINGTON Major carmakers want U.S. auto insurance companies to help persuade millions of American car owners to get recalled vehicles fixed. The new push comes as a U.S. House panel will hold a hearing Thursday on efforts by the National Highway Traffic Safe... More »
CBS and Turner Broadcasting have signed an $8.8 billion, eight-year extension of their agreement to broadcast the NCAA’s Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship, according to an announcement by the league on Tuesday. The deal represents a 43 percent increase ... More »
BERLIN Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday Germany wanted to find a solution to the migrant crisis but this was separate to artistic freedom after the Turkish leader filed a complaint against a comedian for insulting him with a satirical poem. “I want to ... More »
Ailing Viacom Inc (VIAB.O) controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone opposes Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman’s plan to sell a minority stake sale in Viacom’s Paramount Pictures movie studio, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The report added to... More »
A morbidly obese Texas dachshund once dubbed “Fat Vincent” because his belly was so large it hit the ground when he walked, has found its way out of animal shelter care by dropping half its body weight, on track to become healthy enough for a new owner. The 7-... More »
FRANKFURT Almost a month after stoking a divisive debate about how far it should go in pumping money into the flagging euro zone economy, the European Central Bank is trying to soothe relations with Germany after unusually strong criticism from Berlin. Late la... More »
ADEN A shaky truce took hold in Yemen on Monday under a U.N.-backed effort to end a war that has made the country a front in Saudi Arabia’s region wide rivalry with Iran and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The war-damaged capital Sanaa spe... More »
SEOUL South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc said its first-quarter operating profit likely rose 66 percent, pointing to its best quarter in nearly two years with earnings apparently lifted by healthy appliance sales and falling television panel prices. The world’s ... More »
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India Indian police have detained five people after a fireworks display at a Hindu temple set off explosions and fire killing 108 people, an officer said on Monday, in one of the worst accidents at a religious festival. Thousands of people ... More »
WASHINGTON A U.S. Navy officer with access to sensitive U.S. intelligence faces espionage charges over accusations he passed state secrets, possibly to China and Taiwan, a U.S. official told Reuters on Sunday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, ... More »
HIROSHIMA, Japan John Kerry on Monday became the first U.S. secretary of state to pay his respects at Hiroshima’s memorial to victims of the 1945 U.S. nuclear attack, raising speculation that U.S. President Barack Obama might make his own visit in May. Followi... More »
PARIS French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was to meet student and youth leaders on Monday in an attempt to defuse opposition to proposed labor reforms that have triggered public demonstrations and a nocturnal protest movement in several cities. The labor bill s... More »
WASHINGTON Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton on Sunday dismissed the notion of a contested nominating convention and said she was not preparing for such a scenario, after her rival for her party’s presidential nomination racked up another victory. Bernie... More »
GOA, India U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter began a three-day visit to India on Sunday, seeking to advance a relatively new defense relationship with a country Washington sees as a counterweight to the growing power of China. In a sign of the importance Carte... More »
It is only April, but some on Wall Street are already predicting a rotten 2016 for U.S. banks. Analysts say it has been the worst start to the year since the financial crisis in 2007-2008 and expect poor first-quarter results when reporting begins this week. C... More »
NEW YORK U.S. banks are generally expected to post dismal results when their earnings season gets under way next week, but some analysts say to dig deeper: the fine print in the results, and what bank bosses say, could actually help these long-suffering stocks... More »
SINGAPORE Crude prices dipped on Monday as analysts, including Goldman Sachs, poured cold water on the prospects of a planned oil producer meeting successfully reining in global oversupply, although a firm demand outlook checked losses. U.S. crude eased to $39... More »
SINGAPORE A spat between Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his younger sister has blown into the open, one year after the death of their iron-handed father Lee Kuan Yew, who brooked no discord within the city-state’s political world. Lee’s sister ac... More »
LIMA Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a jailed former president, led Peru’s election on Sunday but she likely faces a tight run-off against centrist economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in a vote that would protect the country’s free-market economic model. Fujimori,... More »
BRUSSELS In Athens, walls have ears. The leaking of a conference call of International Monetary Fund officials on Greece’s latest bailout review has further undermined mutual trust in fraught debt talks, embarrassed the European Commission and infuriated the I... More »
Portland defender Nat Borchers turned the ball into his own net with six minutes left as the defending Major League Soccer champions were held to a 1-1 draw with Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday. Fanendo Adi took a pass from Diego Valeri before slotting home to pu... More »
(This version of the April 4th story fixes spelling of analyst name in 13th paragraph) By Joshua Franklin ZURICH On Jan. 19, Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam contacted the head of the Swiss bank’s markets business asking for more details ab... More »
TOKYO Asian stocks erased early losses and edged up on Monday as Chinese inflation data fanned optimism Beijing will continue with loose monetary policies, while Japanese shares slid as the dollar notched a fresh 17-month low against the yen. Financial spreadb... More »
ZURICH Roche Holding AG said on Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review for atezolizumab for treating people with a specific type of lung cancer. The designation covers treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic ... More »
BEIJING China’s online censorship system protects national security and does not discriminate against foreign companies, the country’s internet regulator said, after the United States labeled the blocking of websites by Beijing a trade barrier. The U.S. Trade ... More »
Nearly two years into an epic oil rout, U.S. shale drillers that have upended global energy markets are finally feeling a credit squeeze as banks make their biggest cuts yet to their loans. Every six months, oil and gas producers and their banks negotiate how ... More »
ATHENS Greece and its international lenders were edging closer to a compromise on signing off on a review of bailout reforms which could unlock more aid to the country, government sources said on Monday, after marathon talks with creditors. Just over ten hours... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – There are records and then there are monumental records. The quest for one record was thwarted Sunday when the Golden State Warriors beat San Antonio 92-86 to end the Spurs’ chance of completing the first undefeated home schedule in NBA ... More »
SYDNEY/TOKYO Demand for the yen showed little signs of abating on Monday, with the currency reaching a fresh 17-month high, prompting the Japanese government to warn that it could take steps to weaken the exchange rate. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga t... More »
