All posts published in November 2013
(Reuters) – The UK government is set to announce a review of cigarette packaging in an effort to deter youngsters from smoking, British media reports said on Wednesday citing sources. The David Cameron government in July delayed plans to ban company branding o... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said the European Union should stop meddling in the fate of his rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and that her imprisonment should not hinder Kiev’s integration with Europe. Pouring scorn on t... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have finalized their divorce two years after separating, bringing official closure for one of Hollywood’s most prominent couples. The end to the eight-year marriage was made final on Tuesday in Los A... More »
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Manchester City continued their dynamic scoring blitz at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, brushing aside Viktoria Plzen 4-2 in the Champions League to keep up the pressure on Group D leaders Bayern Munich. City’s remarkable rece... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Real Madrid, Manchester United and Paris St Germain reached the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday on a night when the goals flowed all over Europe with United the highest scorers in a 5-0 win at Bayer Leverkusen. Real, Shakhtar Do... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Real Madrid made light of the first-half dismissal of Sergio Ramos to secure a thumping 4-1 win at home to Galatasaray on Wednesday that put them through to the last 16 of the Champions League as Group B winners. Real dominated the early sta... More »
LEVERKUSEN, Germany (Reuters) – Wayne Rooney set up three goals as Manchester United cruised to a 5-0 triumph at Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday, booking their Champions League knockout stage spot and snapping the Germans’ eight-game home winning streak in the c... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Taking a break from weighty matters of state and pitched battles with political foes, President Barack Obama exercised the lighter side of his authority Wednesday by sparing two magnificent turkeys the fate of becoming someone’s Thanksgi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House is nearing a decision on splitting up the eavesdropping National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, which conducts cyber warfare, a proposed reform prompted in part by revelations of NSA’s widespread snooping, indivi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Jerusalem and Ramallah next week to discuss Israeli-Palestinian peace and to consult Israeli officials about Iran, the State Department said on Wednesday. During his trip from December 3 ... More »
ROME (Reuters) – A Rome judge has decided to drop a criminal case against three former Telecom Italia managers accused of having inflated the number of mobile phone cards in use because there was no case to answer, a judicial source said on Wednesday. The thre... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration says it is on target to make its problematic health insurance website work smoothly for the “vast majority” of users by this weekend, but some Americans who want coverage by January 1 may not be able to get it – ... More »
(Reuters) – Solid-state hard drive maker OCZ Technology Group Inc said it had received an offer from Toshiba Corp to buy the company in a planned bankruptcy proceeding. OCZ shares tumbled as much as 80 percent on Wednesday after trading of the stock resumed on... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rapper Eminem climbed back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday after ousting last week’s chart-topper Lady Gaga. Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” reclaimed the top spot on the weekly album chart with sales of 120,... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co is expected to spend around $14 billion – more than Iceland’s GDP – on advertising and marketing this year, but it doesn’t always get value for money. The outlay buys the South Korean technology giant publicity in TV an... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Wednesday postponed online health insurance enrollment for small businesses under Obamacare for one year, a move quickly seized upon by critics as proof the healthcare reform law should be delayed or replaced.... More »
(Reuters) – Hewlett-Packard Co shares soared near their 52-week high on Wednesday after investors saw signs a turnaround plan was gaining traction, but Wall Street worried the improvement was coming at the expense of margins. HP shares jumped nearly 10 percent... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Wealthy investors may get more bang for their buck if they invest with brand new hedge fund managers, but they must also have a strong stomach to tolerate potential losses, a study released on Wednesday shows. Data from research firm Preqin ... More »
(Reuters) – Deutsche Bank is in exclusive talks with private equity firm Permira to sell the loss-making part of its wealth management business in the UK, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the negotiations. The German... More »
(Reuters) – Time Warner Cable Inc, being circled by potential buyers, could pay out more than $50 million to incoming Chief Executive Robert Marcus as part of his contract, if the company is bought while he is CEO and he gets replaced. Marcus, 48, is set to ta... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The skeleton of a diplodocus dinosaur that roamed what is now the United States some 160 million years ago was sold for 400,000 pounds ($651,100) to an unidentified public institution at an auction in Britain on Wednesday. Misty, as the dino... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled plans to limit European Union migrants’ access to welfare in Britain and said he wanted eventually to restrict migrants from poorer EU states relocating to richer ones, stirring a row with the European C... More »
(Reuters) – A comet that left the outer edge of the solar system more than 5.5 million years ago will pass close by the sun on Thursday, becoming visible in Earth’s skies in the next week or two – if it survives. “There are three possibilities when this comet ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors in U.S.-based mutual funds committed $5.4 billion to stock funds in the latest week on signals that the Federal Reserve would maintain its bond buying for some time, data from the Investment Company Institute showed on Wednesday.... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The euro zone’s future bank supervisor on Wednesday promised a warts-and-all probe into the bloc’s still fragile financial system, conceding that she and other supervisors had made mistakes in the past. Seeking the backing of the European ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid unexpectedly fell last week, but continued weakness in business spending on capital goods suggested slower economic growth in the fourth quarter. Initial claims for state job... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German engineer Siemens (SIEGn.DE ) expects its Infrastructure & Cities (I&C) business, which has been hit by project delays and restructuring, to reach its profitability target this financial year, it said on Wednesday. There has been sp... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said the European Union should stop meddling in the fate of his rival former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and said her imprisonment should not hinder Kiev’s integration with Europe. Pouring scorn on th... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The European Commission told Britain on Wednesday that European Union freedom of movement rules were non-negotiable and that London had to accept them if it wanted to remain in the bloc’s single market. “Free movement is non-negotiable,” Viv... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – James Franco has played a wizard, a doctor, a gangster rapper, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and himself, all in the past year. In addition to acting, Franco is a teacher, a spokesman for the Italian fashion brand Gucci, a published autho... More »
LONG BEACH, California (Reuters) – The extensive economic, legal and social reforms pledged this month by Chinese leaders have gone over well with investors. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 5.6 percent in the two days after details were announced. The upshot... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – You could say Jennifer Fugo, 33, is part of a new prenup generation. She and her husband aren’t rich. Fugo is a certified gluten-free health coach in Philadelphia and her husband – who just came off a four-year stretch of unemployment – wo... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – A group of the largest creditors in Detroit’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy case are pushing for an independent valuation of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ 66,000-piece collection, according to a federal court filing on Tuesday. This is the first co... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union backed down on Wednesday from threats to suspend agreements granting the United States access to European data, rejecting calls for a tougher stance over alleged U.S. spying. The move marks an abrupt about-turn for the E... More »
(Reuters) – Attention, shoppers: If you just decided to join the Black Friday shopping crunch but didn’t prepare well, don’t despair: Just pick up your smartphone. It could be your new best friend. Even if you haven’t invested a week or more reading sales circ... More »
LOMPOUL, Senegal (Reuters) – Encircled by moon-lit sand dunes, desert blues band Tamikrest from Mali’s northern city of Kidal was the headline act at a Sahel music festival this weekend, held seemingly light years away from unrest in the group’s native country... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – They have recorded in America and frontman Alex Turner lives in Los Angeles and affects an Elvis look in their latest stage show, but the Arctic Monkeys remain a British rock-and-roll phenomenon. None of the four members – all from Sheffield... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Times Co Chief Executive Officer Mark Thompson said the publisher is going to keep all its money losing operations under review – including those in China – as he seeks to negotiate the newspaper’s increasing shift towards a digit... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand has racked up more clichés about prostitution than most countries. But in her film “Karaoke Girl”, director Visra Vichit-Vadakan goes beyond the typically one-dimensional depictions of the women and lets the social message speak fo... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Gritty historical drama “12 Years a Slave” and dark comedy “Nebraska” led the nominees for the Independent Spirit Awards on Tuesday, both scoring nods in the best feature, best director and best acting categories. “12 Years a Slave,” a ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British actor Idris Elba will be the first to say that he doesn’t look like Nelson Mandela. But in playing the anti-apartheid leader and former president of South Africa in the biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” he figured that nai... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Vivendi’s supervisory board on Tuesday unanimously backed a plan to demerge the group’s SFR business as it reduces exposure to telecoms and focuses on media. The French group named Hearst Magazines’ Arnaud de Puyfontaine head of media and con... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters in Cairo on Tuesday after they defied a new law that restricts demonstrations. Protesters gathered to commemorate the death of a liberal activist killed in clas... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain on Tuesday accused Madrid of a “serious infringement” of diplomatic protocol after Spanish police opened a British diplomatic bag at the border with Gibraltar, inflaming a dispute over the contested British overseas territory. Spain ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks were little changed Tuesday during a holiday-abbreviated week as investors found few incentives to extend a rally that has repeatedly taken indexes to fresh highs. Wall Street has soared this year, boosted by expectations Feder... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Tuesday his group would shun a planned peace conference in Switzerland in January and would pursue its fight to topple President Bashar al-Assad regardless. General Salim Idriss’s sta... More »
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A Romanian court sentenced the ringleader of a gang that stole paintings from a Dutch museum in one of the world’s biggest art heists to six years and eight months in prison on Tuesday. Radu Dogaru and fellow gang member Eugen Darie, both... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Permits for future U.S. home construction rose to their highest in nearly 5-1/2 years in October and prices for single-family homes notched big gains in September, suggesting a run-up in mortgage interest rates has not derailed the housi... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence fell in November as Americans worried about their future jobs and earnings prospects, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday. The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer at... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s two biggest airlines, ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines, said they had agreed to a Japanese government request to stop filing flight plans demanded by China on routes through a new air defense zone it established on Saturday. Both airli... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence fell in November as Americans worried about their future jobs and earnings prospects, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday. The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer at... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s nuclear negotiators returned home as heroes on Sunday, greeted by jubilant supporters after securing a deal with world powers over the country’s disputed atomic program. Two days on, Iran’s political realities are sinking in. To ensure... More »
PISCATAWAY, New Jersey (Reuters) – When Nasdaq OMX Global Indexes director David Krein was a business school student in the late 1990s, the term “exchange-traded fund” was little known to most of Wall Street, let alone a university classroom. Now, Krein, who h... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has condemned the Real Betis fans who apparently directed racist chants at their own player Paulao after he was sent off in Sunday’s 4-0 derby defeat at Sevilla. A group of Betis fans were briefly shown on Spanish... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Silvio Berlusconi’s party will vote against the government in a confidence vote over the 2014 budget and will announce its withdrawal from the ruling coalition, a source in his Forza Italia party said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Enrico Letta is... More »
(Reuters) – Tiffany & Co on Tuesday said Chinese jewelry shoppers turned out in big numbers last quarter, mitigating ongoing softness in the United States, and the U.S. jeweler again raised its full-year profit forecast. Shares of Tiffany rose 7.7 percent to $... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s nuclear deal with the West will make it easier, cheaper and less stressful to trade its oil, thanks largely to a partial lifting of the European shipping insurance ban, a senior Iranian industry official said on Tuesday. Iran and six w... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A state governed by Indian opposition candidate for prime minister Narendra Modi has launched an investigation into allegations he ordered invasive surveillance of an architect, in a case his opponents say shows a tendency to abuse power.... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar dropped against a basket of six major currencies on Tuesday, as lower U.S. Treasury debt yields drove investors to trim long bets, giving a fillip to the euro that has so far proven resilient despite talk of looser monetary poli... More »
(Reuters) – Men’s Wearhouse Inc (MW.N ) struck back at Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc (JOSB.O ) with a $1.5 billion bid to acquire the suit and tuxedo retailer, only weeks after rejecting a takeover offer from its smaller rival. Men’s Wearhouse offered $55 per sha... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s Socialist government must carry out a proper tax reform that will cut the pressure on businesses and stop knocking the country’s entrepreneurs, France’s “boss of bosses” Pierre Gattaz said in an interview. President Francois Hollande... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi will vote against the government in a confidence vote over the 2014 budget law and will announce its break from the ruling coalition later on Tuesday, a source in his Forza Italia party said. Berlu... More »
(Reuters) – Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS.N ), the largest U.S. bookstore chain, reported an 8 percent drop in quarterly revenue as sales fell across all its businesses, including its stores and Nook e-readers and e-books. Barnes & Noble shares fell 3.8 percent to $... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Take-Two Interactive Software Inc on Tuesday said it was buying back all of Carl Icahn’s shares in the videogame publisher, and three directors nominated by the activist investor have resigned. The company, known for its Grand Theft Auto g... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission called on Tuesday for new protection for Europeans under United States’ law against misuse of personal data, in an attempt to keep in check the U.S. surveillance revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. EU ... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Talks on a worldwide trade agreement at the World Trade Organization in Geneva have reached an impasse due to last-minute backtracking but a deal may still be possible, WTO chief Roberto Azevedo said on Tuesday. After the failure of talks at... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – World shares and the dollar slipped on Tuesday as oil prices climbed amid doubts over the real impact of the Iran nuclear deal and renewed political tensions in the East China Sea. Wall Street was expected to see a steady start when trading ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s antitrust watchdog has dropped an investigation into Amazon after the world’s biggest Internet retailer agreed to stop forcing third-party merchants to offer their cheapest price when selling products on its platform. Amazon said i... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. government has issued a proposal that would likely increase risk payments in 2014 to health insurers offering plans on the Obamacare exchanges after the companies complained a recent policy change allowing people to keep their insurance po... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Producers of a new version of the Oscar-winning musical “The Sound of Music,” set for U.S. television next week, knew it would be a sacrilege to try and re-make the beloved 1965 movie classic starring Julie Andrews. And American country si... More »
GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuters) – An independent Scotland would keep the British pound, the queen and remain in the European Union but have its own defense force and collect its own taxes, First Minister Alex Salmond said on Tuesday. In a 670-page blueprint aimed ... More »
OSLO/LONDON (Reuters) – Bayer (BAYGn.DE ) has offered to pay $2.4 billion for Norway’s Algeta (ALGETA.OL ), its partner for a new prostrate cancer treatment, at a 27 percent premium to the stock’s last close, Algeta said on Tuesday. The deal would boost Bayer’... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s finance minister George Osborne has asked the Bank of England to consider whether it needs extra powers to restrain banks’ risk-taking and accelerate a timeframe for new rules agreed by international financial regulators. The BoE’s... More »
LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal is set to approve a 2014 budget on Tuesday, the last under its three-year EU/IMF bailout, but passing the measure is likely to trigger court challenges that could disrupt the country’s exit from the bailout program. As the last pre-... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman hit back at the European Union on Tuesday, saying it was wrong to criticize Russia over Ukraine’s decision to back away from a trade deal with the EU and draw closer to Moscow. “In this case it is inappro... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The euro zone should not go it alone and start assigning risk weightings to government bonds on bank’s books if such a move is not internationally agreed, European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said on Tuesday. Coeure ... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country’s biggest banks. The loans are a problem now because an increasing number a... More »
(Reuters) – China’s anti-trust investigation into Qualcomm, the world’s biggest smartphone chip maker, is likely tied to the impending $16 billion rollout of commercial fourth-generation services by China’s big telecoms carriers. The probe by the National Deve... More »
BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) – While growing up in Massachusetts in the 1960s and 1970s, Kasi Lemmons’ mother took her every year to see the Christmas musical “Black Nativity” in Boston. Now, the 52-year-old director of 2007 drama “Talk to Me” is bringi... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that additional polio cases had been confirmed in two new areas of Syria, including near Damascus and in the northern city of Aleppo near Turkey. “In addition to 15 polio cases in Deir al-Zor pro... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom expanded its already considerable media interests on Tuesday by buying metals tycoon Vladimir Potanin’s Profmedia. Through the deal the former Soviet gas ministry will add TV and radio st... More »
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – China wants to double trading volumes with central and eastern members of the European Union in the next five years, Li Keqiang said on his first visit to the former communist bloc as premier. China and the EU announced at a summit last w... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. advertising company Omnicom Group Inc and French peer Publicis Groupe SA have asked European Union antitrust regulators to approve their proposed $35.1 billion merger to create the world number one agency. Omnicom, the world’s second ... More »
(Reuters) – Roger Federer should play until he is 60 if he wants to, according to Romanian former world number one Ilie Nastase. The Swiss 17-times grand-slam champion has slipped down to sixth in the world rankings and won only one title this year, prompting ... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – President Barack Obama took on critics of a newly brokered nuclear deal with Iran on Monday by saying their tough talk was good for politics but not for U.S. security. Top Republicans – as well as U.S. ally Israel – have criticized Ob... More »
(Reuters) – Colin Kaepernick threw three touchdowns to snap San Francisco’s slump as the 49ers beat Washington 27-6 on Monday to heap more misery on the struggling Redskins. Both teams entered the night with a two-game losing streak and San Francisco (7-4) fou... More »
(Reuters) – The Republican Party of Florida called on Republican Congressman Henry “Trey” Radel on Monday to resign after he pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of cocaine possession. Lenny Curry, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States Defense Department has approved a deal under which the U.S. unit of Britain’s BAE Systems Plc would upgrade 134 older F-16 fighter jets for South Korea, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress o... More »
CERES, California (Reuters) – For most Republicans in the U.S. Congress, a large gathering of Hispanic voters to discuss immigration would be politically perilous – an invitation to complaints about the party’s longtime resistance to measures aimed at helping ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will land its first probe on the moon in early December which will deploy a buggy to explore its surface, an official said on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in the country’s space ambitions. China has already photographed the surf... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – United Kingdom won three International Emmy Awards on Monday, including one for Sean Bean as best actor, and producer-director J.J. Abrams received a special honor for his work on television series and films such as “Lost,” “Star Trek” and... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Thousands of fans of the Fox animated comedy series “Family Guy” signed a petition on Monday demanding that the network and show’s creator bring back a beloved talking-dog character whose death stunned viewers in the latest episode. Bri... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A speech by President Barack Obama aimed at putting pressure on the Congress to pass immigration reform was interrupted on Monday by a heckler unhappy with the deportation of undocumented people in the United States. As Obama neared t... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was looking into whether morning-after emergency contraceptive pills fail to work in women over a certain weight and will decide whether to add a warning to the drug’s label. The agency was reacting to ... More »
KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Afghanistan and the United States appeared even farther from a deal on Tuesday that would allow U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014 as a meeting between President Hamid Karzai and a senior U.S. official revealed new dif... More »
(Reuters) – Gamblers across New Jersey will be able to place bets online beginning at midnight after state regulators on Monday approved 13 internet gaming websites run by six Atlantic City casinos. If a five-day test phase has been any indication, demand in t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a “doomsday” cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud. The... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Progress in the battle against AIDS is widely divergent in different African countries, so much so that to talk about “AIDS in Africa” as one epidemic needing a single approach has become an anachronism, campaigners said on Tuesday. In an an... More »
FRANKFURT/OSLO (Reuters) – German pharmaceutical group Bayer is preparing a bid to acquire Algeta, its partner for its prostrate cancer treatment Xofigo, a German newspaper reported on Tuesday. The Frankfurter Rundschau, citing internal documents it obtained, ... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp is trying to sell its yet-to-launch Internet television service for $500 million and wants to complete a deal by year-end, Bloomberg reported on Monday. Verizon Communications, one of the suitors, has spoken with content pr... More »
