All posts published in November 2013
TORONTO (Reuters) – Rogers Communications Inc, one of Canada’s biggest cable companies, said on Monday the entire industry must be willing to offer viewers more choice when selling television packages even if that means some channels ultimately fail. The Toron... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned 23andMe, a company backed by Google Inc, to halt sales of its genetic tests because they have not received regulatory clearance. 23andMe, which was founded in 2006 by Anne Wojcicki, sells a $99 DNA t... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – FX Concepts, once the largest currency hedge fund in the world, has less than $2 million in assets now and $79 million in liabilities, according to the latest court filings on Monday. The fund filed for bankruptcy protection more than a mo... More »
(Reuters) – A penny stock financier based in Long Island, New York, and his companies agreed to pay $1.46 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they sold more than 3 billion shares in two microcap companies at a profit without ... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich acted on Monday to defuse pro-Europe street protests, saying a decision to suspend moves towards a trade pact with the European Union had been difficult and vowing to bring “European standards” to the coun... More »
(Reuters) – Canadian teams dominated the top end of Forbes’ annual list of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) most valuable franchises on Monday with the Toronto Maple Leafs leading the pack for an eighth consecutive year. For the first time since Forbes began... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Debate over when the Federal Reserve could trim its bond purchases monopolized market talk this year, but as a new Fed chief takes charge, more participants believe the key theme to emphasize for 2014 is low rates for longer. For the bond ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Sometimes the very name of a fund sounds like a security blanket if you’re a risk-averse investor. Case in point: “Managed volatility funds” promise some of the stock market’s upside with a cushion on the downside. This burgeoning class of ... More »
BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) – Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is relishing the prospect of a Premier League Christmas, a period he said on Monday that only the brave could survive. Mourinho, speaking ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League tie at Basel, also made l... More »
(Reuters) – AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri has denied that a handful of players failed to show up on time for Sunday’s training session. “There’s false news doing the rounds,” he told a news conference in Glasgow on the eve of Tuesday’s Champions League t... More »
(Reuters) – When Aimee Brittain’s team hits the stores in a commando-like fashion on Thanksgiving night in search of Black Friday deals, they’ll stand out from the crowd in their matching “very bright blue” shirts. They’ll scatter when they hit the store, and ... More »
BAMAKO (Reuters) – European Union observers and the United Nation’s mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Monday praised the West African nation’s weekend legislative election, despite low turnout and some voting abuses. Sunday’s vote was largely peaceful except for a ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The author of a report that criticizes Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS.L ) dealings with small businesses had lodged a complaint about the way his own business was treated by the British bank, a colleague of his told Reuters on Monday. Lawrenc... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L ) has appointed law firm Clifford Chance to conduct an inquiry into the treatment received by small business customers in financial distress, responding to suggestions it closed down viable businesses too quickl... More »
(Reuters) – Anchorwoman Katie Couric, who has hosted high-profile programs on all three major U.S. television networks, will head a team of global correspondents and help shape news coverage at Yahoo Inc., the Internet company announced on Monday. Couric will ... More »
(Reuters) – Distributor Lions Gate Entertainment Corp’s shares fell as much as 8.5 percent after the “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” failed to match the sky-high expectations of some box office forecasters despite a chart-topping domestic debut. The second i... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The Sundance festival will be heading back to London in April, 2014 as the popular independent film and music event ventures outside Utah to its only European venue for a third consecutive year, organizers said on Monday. The London branch o... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Country-pop star Taylor Swift scored big at the American Music Awards on Sunday, taking home four wins including the night’s top prize for artist of the year, as some of pop music’s biggest names came together for the fan-voted awards c... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – One of Britain’s longest and most bitter divorce battles culminated on Friday with a High Court judge branding a well-connected millionaire a liar and his ex-wife a conspiracy theorist. Far from being “penniless and hopelessly bankrupt”, as ... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – The U.S. military has began scaling back its emergency relief operations in the Philippines as work shifts to recovery and rehabilitation in typhoon-hit areas, a U.S. aid agency official said on Saturday. Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful st... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Space Agency on Friday launched three satellites it hopes will help understand why the magnetic field that makes human life possible on Earth appears to be weakening. The satellites, comprising ESA’s Swarm project, were launc... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A triangulated aluminum sculpture by Brazilian artist Lygia Clark that sold for $1.8 million at Phillips’ Latin American auction, capped a week of regional art sales in New York in which Brazilian works commanded the top prices. Clark’s 19... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – BT and Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers will both be able to show short online clips of Champions League soccer action from 2015, the companies said on Friday. Commercial broadcaster ITV has bought the rights to show more extensive match ... More »
(Reuters) – Comcast Corp is a potential bidder for Time Warner Cable Inc, CNBC said on Friday, citing people familiar with the situation. Comcast shareholders are encouraging management to consider a Time Warner Cable deal, these sources told CNBC. Shares of T... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Three women enslaved for 30 years in a London house were beaten during their ordeal, police said on Friday. The three were rescued from a house in south London and on Thursday police arrested a man and a woman, both aged 67, in what they sai... More »
HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) – An international maritime tribunal on Friday ordered Russia to release a Greenpeace ship and 30 people arrested in a protest against Russian Arctic oil drilling. The Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea said ... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The six largest Islamist rebel factions in Syria declared a new Islamic Front on Friday, forming the largest alliance of opposition fighters yet in the 2-1/2-year conflict. Syria’s fractious rebel forces have tried many times to unify their ... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Iran and six world powers struggled on Friday, after two days of talks, to overcome stumbling blocks to an interim deal under which Tehran would curb its contested nuclear program in exchange for some relief from economic sanctions. Russian ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Once a source of rich returns for yield-hungry investors, emerging markets are hammering home a long-ignored truism: banking on currency strength to enhance returns on stocks and bonds is not a one-way ticket to profits. Currencies such as t... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Ford’s (F.N ) European turnaround is gaining traction as the auto market stabilizes, though there is work to do controlling costs and launching new models before a promised return to profit, the U.S. carmaker’s regional chief said on Friday. ... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – In post-Soviet Europe, Russia looks to have won a decisive victory by convincing Ukraine to reject a trade deal with the European Union and deepen ties with Moscow instead. But the EU has reason to breathe a sigh of relief, too. Once any s... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to promote a string of allies in coming months as part of a sweeping reshuffle of the Communist Party, the government and the military, three separate sources with ties to the leadership said. The reshuffl... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks inched higher at the open on Friday after the Dow industrials closed above 16,000 for the first time, amid a dearth of data and ahead of a holiday-shortened week in the United States. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 4.11 ... More »
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Nico Rosberg led a Mercedes one-two in a wet first practice for the season-ending Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix at Interlagos on Friday. The German lapped the anti-clockwise circuit with a best time of one minute 24.781 seconds, set ea... More »
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Western states must persuade the Syrian opposition to attend talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s government which he said should take place as soon as possible. Russia, which... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British police have arrested the former chairman of the Co-operative Bank as part of an investigation into the supply of illegal drugs, ratcheting up pressure on the 141-year-old bank as investors mull plugging a $2.4 billion capital shortfa... More »
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) – Madagascar’s government has replaced a third of the country’s regional governors with senior military officers, raising concern that a run-off vote in the first presidential election since a coup in 2009 will be rigged. European and so... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Friday he saw no financing hole in the current aid program for Greece and any decision on further debt relief could only be taken once final data on the budget surplus is available next year. Sama... More »
BARCELONA (Reuters) – German business software group SAP may speed up a shift towards providing its products over the internet in order to tap demand for so-called cloud services and take advantage of Germany’s reputation for data privacy, it said on Friday. S... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – World shares were set to end a volatile week firmer on Friday and the dollar hovered near a 4-month high against the yen as worry dissipated about an early Fed move to start winding down its stimulus policy. U.S. stock index futures signaled... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Biogen Idec has won regulatory protection for its top-selling multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera in Europe, paving the way for its launch in markets that could account for a large proportion of future sales. The European Medicines Agency said... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Chelsea will be without striker Fernando Torres as they try to get their Premier League title challenge back into gear with victory at struggling West Ham United on Saturday. The Spaniard had “almost” recovered from the adductor muscle injur... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The benefits of combined hormonal contraceptive pills such as Bayer’s Meliane or Yasmin in preventing unwanted pregnancies continue to outweigh any risk of blood clots, Europe’s drugs regulator said on Friday. Announcing conclusions of a rev... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The euro rose to a four-year high against the yen and traded up against the dollar on Friday after much stronger-than-expected German business sentiment pointed to a continued rebound in Europe’s largest economy. The euro was 0.3 percent up ... More »
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the European Union on Friday of blackmail and pressure against Ukraine over its decision to suspend preparations for a trade pact that would have wrested the nation further from Moscow... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Jack Wilshere’s ankle injury means he will have to be carefully managed if he is to make it through the season, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on Friday. The England midfielder has been troubled by ankle and knee problems throughout his ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Formula One Chief Executive Bernie Ecclestone has identified Red Bull team boss Christian Horner as the man he wants to succeed him when he finally relinquishes his grip on the sport. Ecclestone, who has built Formula One into a global money... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday that the European Central Bank’s loose monetary policy risked giving governments an incentive to slow their reforms. “There is the danger that this monetary policy, in addition to ... More »
PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s chief economist said on Friday the euro zone faces deflationary pressures, and the bank’s president stressed that interest rates must remain low “because the economy is weak”. With euro zone inflation run... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – West Ham United defender Winston Reid has undergone ankle surgery and is ruled out for the foreseeable future, the Premier League club said on Friday. The New Zealand international center back, voted the London side’s player of the year last... More »
(Reuters) – A unit of Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N ) is being probed by federal investigators to determine if it had dumped train parts into the ocean off California as part of a scam to charge customers for parts they didn’t need, the Wall Street Journal reported. ... More »
KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko on Friday called on people to go out on to the streets to protest against the government’s decision not to sign a trade deal with the European Union, her lawyer said. The lawyer, ... More »
GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Striking workers at a Nokia factory in southern China on Friday threatened to extend industrial action after the company terminated the contracts of 59 employees for failing to return to work. Hundreds of employees stopped work on ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto (RIO.L ) (RIO.AX ) has signed a $7.5 billion revolving credit facility that refinances an existing loan, the company said on Friday. The new loan refinancing was agreed with a group of 28 relationship ... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Trade Organization may agree its first worldwide trade reform package before the end of the weekend, its director-general, Roberto Azevedo, said on Friday. Asked if a deal could be reached by Sunday night, Azevedo told Reuters: “I ... More »
HAMBURG (Reuters) – Germany’s IG Metall labor union called on management at EADS (EAD.PA ) to show its hand following reports that the European aerospace group is planning thousands of job cuts. EADS said in July it would combine its defense and space subsidia... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The editor-in-chief of India’s leading investigative magazine is being probed over claims that he sexually assaulted a woman colleague, a senior police official said on Friday, after the media, activists and politicians urged a criminal p... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Friday called for the early introduction of ‘bail-in’ rules to make creditors share the costs of winding up or rescuing euro zone banks. He urged banks to use the time before bank test resul... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When online retail giant Amazon decided to join Netflix and Hulu in the online original programming race, it didn’t have to look further than its own tech backyard to find a world ripe for comedy. “Betas,” starring newcomers Joe Dinicol... More »
BARCELONA (Reuters) – Enterprise software group SAP said it was debating whether to accelerate moving more of its business to the cloud, a change in strategy that could have a small impact on its target of growing sales to more than 20 billion euros. But co-ch... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Novartis is hot on the heels of Pfizer in developing a promising new type of breast cancer drug that analysts believe could generate billions of dollars in annual sales. The Swiss drugmaker, which has previously kept its research program und... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn was a model of consistency as he tamed Royal Melbourne with a three-under 68 to take a one-shot lead after the second round of the $8 million World Cup of Golf on Friday. The gritty 42-year-old bogeyed his first and... More »
BALANGIGA, Philippines (Reuters) – In the devastated coastal Philippine town of Balangiga, a Roman Catholic belfry with a maroon steeple rises from the rubble, a battered symbol of resistance for a people with mixed feelings about the U.S. military now helping... More »
(Reuters) – UBS AG (UBSN.VX ) has reached an immunity deal with European Union authorities that will protect the Swiss bank from further penalties for alleged manipulation of key interest rates, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the... More »
(Reuters) – The New Orleans Saints ground out a vital 17-13 win over the struggling Atlanta Falcons on Thursday to maintain their division lead over a surging Carolina Panthers. The Saints were far from their best in the road game but improved to 9-2 on the se... More »
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Two U.S.-born Puerto Rican artists, Marc Anthony and Draco Rosa, and the Colombian singer Carlos Vives on Thursday won the top Latin Grammy music awards in a night that rewarded comebacks and long careers. Top-selling salsa artist Anthony... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In the last days before the botched October 1 launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare website, the team in charge was seeing alarming results from performance tests, according to internal emails released by Republican lawmakers inv... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Activist investor William Ackman will renew his attack on Herbalife at a conference on Friday, almost a year since he shocked Wall Street with a $1 billion short bet against the weight-loss company, a person familiar with his plan said. Ackm... More »
(Reuters) – Sony Pictures Entertainment will produce fewer films as it makes a “significant” shift from motion pictures to higher-margin television production and to operating TV channels, Sony Corp executives told investors gathered at the company’s Culver Ci... More »
(Reuters) – Four-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has hired Sven Groeneveld as her new coach for the 2014 season. The Russian world number four made the announcement on her Facebook page on Thursday after being without a coach since parting ways with J... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors in U.S.-based funds poured $4.2 billion into stock funds in the latest week on signals from Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen that the central bank would keep its bond-buying in place for some time, data from Thomson Reuter... More »
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (Reuters) – Republican governors gathering for an annual conference in Arizona on Thursday sought to portray state leaders as the can-do wing of the party as they face elections, distancing themselves from colleagues unable to break the gri... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Best Buy Co Inc has seen high demand for the Sony PS4 gaming console and at one New York City location it had sold out, the retailer’s chief executive said on Thursday. Sony Corp’s new $399 PlayStation 4 console sold 1 million units in the... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A top lieutenant at Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors will leave the hedge fund in the new year as the once $15 billion firm converts to a family office, according to a memo sent to employees and seen by Reuters. Sol Kumin, the firm’s... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Australian actor Hugh Jackman said on Thursday that he had a skin cancer scare when doctors diagnosed a mark on his nose as cancerous cells. Jackman, 45, posted a photo of his face and a bandage on his nose on his Instagram page, saying... More »
NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) – Former “Jersey Shore” cast member Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino is facing a federal investigation into his finances, his publicist said on Thursday. The probe centers on his businesses, which include MPS Entertainment, Situatio... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A top lieutenant at Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors will leave the hedge fund in the new year as the once $15 billion firm converts to a family office, according to a memo sent to employees and seen by Reuters. Sol Kumin, the firms’... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors in U.S.-based funds poured $4.2 billion into stock funds in the latest week on signals from Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen that the central bank would keep its bond-buying in place for some time, data from Thomson Reuter... More »
SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) – A U.S. jury awarded Apple Inc about $290 million in a damages retrial against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, restoring a large chunk of a historic verdict the iPhone maker won last year. After a week long trial, the jury deliberat... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said on Thursday he would expand his company’s small contract manufacturing business, paving the way for more chipmakers to tap into the world’s most advanced process technology. With Intel far behind rivals i... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A broken heart and a graffiti-covered car door will be the first two pieces from street artist Banksy’s New York series to go up for public sale next month in Miami. The sale by an artist whose pieces have gone for as much as $1.87 million... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Thursday he was committed to moving ahead with a tougher Iran sanctions bill when the Senate returns from a holiday recess early next month, adding to pressure on negotiators meeting in Gene... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Many prominent managers at the Reuters 2014 Global Investment Outlook Summit believe the record-setting run-up in U.S. stocks is due for a reckoning but acknowledge that ample liquidity could push equities higher regardless of fears. The S... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Credit-rating agencies that also offer consulting and risk-management services are taking proper steps to mitigate potential conflicts of interest and should not face additional regulations, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on... More »
(Reuters) – Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb on Thursday disclosed a $1 billion-plus stake in Japan’s SoftBank Corp at an investment conference, while another top money manager warned in an interview of the “bubble-like” conditions of some stocks. Loeb was a spe... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee rejected a proposal on Thursday that would have required U.S. spy agencies to make an annual public accounting of the number of casualties caused by U.S. drone attacks on militants... More »
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – An overwhelming majority of Floridians would support legalizing marijuana when used for medical purposes in the Sunshine State, a poll released on Thursday showed. The Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters in the stat... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen moved closer on Thursday to becoming the first woman to lead the U.S. central bank after a Senate committee backed her nomination and the chamber changed its rules to make it easier for nominees to... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group of 14 Democratic and Republican U.S. senators said on Thursday they would work together on legislation to impose new sanctions on Iran over the coming weeks, and work to pass it as quickly as possible. “A nuclear weapons capable ... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine abruptly spurned an historic new alliance with its western neighbors on Thursday, suspending an imminent trade pact with the European Union and saying it would revive talks on a deal instead with Russia, its old Soviet master. Kiev’s s... More »
BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) – When British comedic actor Steve Coogan first read the mournful story behind his new film “Philomena” in a newspaper, he noticed that the two people in the accompanying picture were laughing. The photo showed Philomena Lee... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Best Buy Co Inc has “pretty much run out” of the new PlayStation 4 gaming console, the retailer’s chief executive said on Thursday. Sony Corp’s new $399 PlayStation 4 console sold 1 million units in the first 24 hours after its November 15... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s conservation foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to the World Wildlife Fund to help Nepal increase its tiger population. The WWF said on Thursday that the money from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, set up ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Being in good physical shape may help preserve people’s thinking and memory skills, suggests a new study. Researchers made this discovery by mapping participants’ physical fitness against the number of errors they made on a range of... More »
ROCKAWAY, New Jersey (Reuters) – When news of a hidden trove of Nazi-looted art in Munich came to light this month, an 87-year-old man in a quiet retirement community in New Jersey straightened a copy of a Rembrandt self-portrait hanging on his wall, completel... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Red and white wooden mazes sculpted by Brazilian artist Sergio Camargo topped Sotheby’s Latin American art sale in New York on Wednesday, selling for $2.1 million and setting a record for the artist. Camargo’s 1964 “Untitled (Relief No. 21... More »
(Reuters) – Sony’s Pictures Entertainment will produce fewer films going forward as it makes a “significant” shift from motion pictures to higher-margin television production and to operating TV channels, Sony Corp executives told investors gathered at the com... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine abruptly abandoned a historic new alliance with its western neighbors on Thursday, halting plans for an imminent trade pact with the European Union and saying it would instead revive talks with Russia. EU officials, who had been prepar... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The remaining members of British comedy troupe Monty Python announced on Thursday they would regroup for the first time since the 1980s to stage a comedy and musical show next year at one of London’s biggest venues. The one-off show on July ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock index futures held gain on Thursday after data showed jobless claims fell in the latest week and producer prices fell for a second consecutive month. S&P 500 futures rose 4.7 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates... More »
