All posts published in April 2016
AUGUSTA, Georgia Englishman Danny Willett took advantage of a shocking back-nine meltdown by defending champion and runaway leader Jordan Spieth to win his first major title by three shots at the Masters on Sunday. Three strokes behind the pacesetting Spieth g... More »
AUGUSTA, Georgia Danny Willett was one of the last players to arrive in Augusta for the 80th Masters and he will certainly be the last to leave. With his wife Nicole scheduled to give birth on Sunday, the Englishman was set to miss the Masters until Zacharia a... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – It’s the Hassan Hour. The Miami Heat returned center Hassan Whiteside to the starting lineup for the first time since Jan. 20, and the move paid off in a 118-96 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Whites... More »
SHANGHAI China’s consumer price inflation rose less than expected in March, flattening out after a four-month strengthening trend, but wholesale prices remained stubbornly in deflation. Consumer prices in March rose 2.3 percent, below a median forecast of 2.5 ... More »
Will Smith, a prominent member of the New Orleans Saints team that won the NFL’s Super Bowl in 2010, was killed by a gunman who shot the retired football player after ramming his car near the city’s famed French Quarter, police said on Sunday. Investigators we... More »
AUGUSTA, Georgia World number one Jason Day was “absolutely shocked” while Lee Westwood pointed to the fine line between success and disaster at the Masters after Jordan Spieth’s astonishing collapse in Sunday’s final round. American Spieth, seeking a second c... More »
AUGUSTA, Georgia An English invasion at the 80th Masters marked the 20th anniversary of Nick Faldo’s third and final Green Jacket victory in fine fashion on Sunday. Winner Danny Willett, Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose each posted... More »
HONG KONG The Bank of Italy is carrying out an on-site inspection at the Italian offices of Bank of China Ltd (601988.SS), a Chinese state-owned bank already facing accusations of aiding illicit money flows from Italy to China, a source familiar with the situa... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will meet with U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Monday to discuss the economy and Wall Street reform, the White House said on Sunday. Vice President Joe Biden will also attend the meeting. The president and the Fed c... More »
SINGAPORE Scanning a bank statement into a computer may not sound particularly high-tech, but it’s unsettling some of Asia’s private bankers. By aggregating all the monthly statements mailed to high net worth individuals on the multiple accounts they hold at d... More »
The parent company of the British newspaper, the Daily Mail, is in talks with several private equity firms about a possible bid for Yahoo Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Daily Mail & General Trust PLC’s potential bid could take one of two form... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Melissa McCarthy’s star power lifted “The Boss” to an estimated $23.5 million opening weekend despite bad reviews and rough word-of-mouth for the R-rated comedy. If those projections hold, it will be enough to narrowly topple “Batma... More »
TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO) on Sunday said it had restarted the 590,000- barrel-per-day Keystone crude pipeline at reduced pressure after it received American authorization to do so. The Canadian energy company said the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safe... More »
CHICAGO Scientists in Brazil have uncovered a new brain disorder associated with Zika infections in adults: an autoimmune syndrome called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM, that attacks the brain and spinal cord. Zika has already been linked with t... More »
LOS ANGELES A passionate kiss, Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Revenant” bear encounter and a foul-mouthed hosting duo dominated Saturday’s profanity-laden MTV Movie Awards, where “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” came away the top winner. “The Force Awakens,” the third-hig... More »
The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States gained 8 cents in the past three weeks, according to a survey released on Sunday. Regular-grade gasoline climbed to around $2.10 a gallon in the Friday survey, from $2.02 a gallon on March 18, surv... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama said Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton never jeopardized national security in the handling of her emails as his secretary of state. Obama, in an interview broadcast on Fox News Sunday, said Clinton has ... More »
LONDON Usually concerned with top secret matters affecting national security, Britain’s eavesdropping spy agency GCHQ was also on the lookout for leaks of a yet-to-be-published Harry Potter book, its publisher has revealed. Shortly before the publication of on... More »
WASHINGTON – Bernie Sanders won the U.S. presidential Democratic nominating contest in Wyoming on Saturday, besting rival Hillary Clinton and adding to a string of recent victories as the two candidates gear up for a crucial matchup in New York. Sanders, a U.S... More »
TOKYO Japan’s government and auto giants Toyota Motor Corp Nissan Motor Co will join in an effort to develop intelligent maps by 2018, the Nikkei daily said, as competition heats up to improve the technology key for autonomous driving. Japanese automakers, map... More »
Headlines screaming “Deportations to begin” and “Markets sink as trade war looms” top a parody newspaper front page the Boston Globe posted on Saturday, with a scathing editorial denouncing Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s candidacy. The mock... More »
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s lawyers declined on Saturday to directly address sexual abuse allegations from federal prosecutors, who asserted that he molested at least four boys decades ago when he served as a high school wrestling coach. Hastert... More »
PHOENIX An Arizona man filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging the results of the state’s March presidential primary election, alleging misconduct by officials during a nominating contest that is already mired in controversy. The lawsuit filed by Tucson resident... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will speak at an event in the Vatican next week, likely broadening his appeal to Catholic voters ahead of crucial nominating contests in a series of Northeastern states. Like Pope Francis, Sander... More »
NEW YORK California rappers N.W.A. finally took their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Friday, jubilant about their transformation from one of the most hated bands in America to music’s mainstream. N.W.A., formed in the 1980s in the troubled Compton ... More »
A third of Republican voters who support Donald Trump could turn their backs on their party in November’s presidential election if he is denied the nomination in a contested convention, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The results are bad news for Trump’s ri... More »
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, convicted last year of a financial crime in a hush-money case, had agreed to pay $3.5 million to buy the silence of an individual who he sexually abused when the victim was a teenager, federal prosecutors said on Frida... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama is maintaining pressure on the Senate to approve his Supreme Court nominee, but the need for Republican U.S. senators seeking re-election to keep conservative voters happy before primary elections in the coming months is worki... More »
SYDNEY The head of Australia’s largest bank said its insurance business, CommInsure, had used an outdated and discredited definition of a heart attack to deny some claims from clients and he would apologize to any customers adversely affected. “I am saddened a... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on a NASA cargo run to the International Space Station on Friday, and its reusable main-stage booster landed on an ocean platform minutes later in a dramatic spaceflight first. The successf... More »
FRANKFURT Europe’s largest software company, SAP (SAPG.DE), warned late on Friday that first-quarter results would be weaker than expected due to slower sales of software licenses to corporate customers, particularly in Brazil and the United States. Software l... More »
Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil was cited for battery after he grabbed a woman by the hair when she sought an autograph of actor Nicolas Cage at a Las Vegas hotel, police said on Friday. Cell phone video posted on celebrity website TMZ showed Cage grabbing Neil ... More »
The U.S. Justice Department on Friday said it would keep fighting to force Apple Inc to open an iPhone in a New York drug case, continuing its controversial effort to require Apple and other tech companies to help law enforcement authorities circumvent encrypt... More »
BOSTON A U.S. magistrate judge in Boston in February ordered Apple Inc to assist law enforcement officers in examining the iPhone of an alleged gang member, according to a court filing unsealed on Friday. “Reasonable technical assistance consists of, to the ex... More »
The 17-year-old daughter of late actor Paul Walker has reached a $10.1 million settlement with the estate of the man driving the car that crashed and killed them both in 2013, her attorney said on Friday. Walker was a passenger in a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT dri... More »
Rock star Bruce Springsteen on Friday canceled a weekend concert in North Carolina to protest a new state law barring transgender people from choosing bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, as country music stars decried similar legislation proposed ... More »
A Colorado lawmaker is trying to outlaw marijuana-laced gummy candies that resemble children’s treats, the latest effort by a U.S. state to address the complexities and unintended consequences of pot legalization. In 2014 Colorado became the first state to all... More »
NEW YORK The steep decline and subsequent rebound in the U.S. stock market over the first three months of the year were a boon to U.S. small cap managers, who took advantage of what some considered a short window of low prices to add shares in companies rangin... More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday moved to revoke approval of a drug used to treat certain diseases in pigs because it could leave a cancerous residue that may affect human health. The drug, carbadox, is made by Teaneck, New Jersey-based Phibro A... More »
SAO PAULO Equity funds in Brazil are expected to post returns below the benchmark Bovespa stock index’s performance in coming months, partly as their preference for maintaining high cash holdings and heightened market volatility made them miss a recent rally. ... More »
WASHINGTON Security researchers and civil liberties advocates on Friday condemned draft legislation leaked from the U.S. Senate that would let judges order technology companies to assist law enforcement agencies in breaking into encrypted data. The long-awaite... More »
Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) has extended the deadline to bid for its businesses by a week to April 18, technology news website Re/code reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Yahoo, whose shares were up 1.7 percent in early trading, had set an April 11 deadli... More »
(Reuters Health) – Babies exposed to marijuana in the womb are likely to be born smaller than those not exposed, and more likely to need intensive care after birth, according to a new analysis of existing evidence. Mothers who smoke marijuana while pregnant ar... More »
MILAN/PARIS French media group Vivendi (VIV.PA) agreed on Friday to buy the pay-TV operation of Italian broadcaster Mediaset (MS.MI), completing a major step in billionaire businessman Vincent Bollore’s plan to build a southern European content and video-on-de... More »
NEW YORK Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump appears to have a passionate supporter in Joseph Hornick, a New Jersey man who faces a $2,000 fine or 90 days in jail for flying a flag emblazoned with the billionaire candidate’s name over his home. Local ... More »
BOSTON For days after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Americans were glued to the news, eager to know who had planted the homemade devices that ripped through the crowd at the finish line, killing three people. The world got its first look at the suspects th... More »
BERN/GENEVA Banking watchdogs across Europe have begun checking whether lenders have ties to a massive document leak from Panama that showed how offshore companies are used to stash clients’ wealth. Switzerland’s financial watchdog FINMA said on Thursday that ... More »
LISBON Portuguese Culture Minister Joao Soares resigned on Friday, a day after threatening to slap critics who had called him incompetent and rude. A post on his Facebook page saying he wanted to slap two newspaper columnists, followed by what was seen as a ha... More »
FRANKFURT Rupert Murdoch’s Sky could win all the live broadcast rights to Germany’s Bundesliga soccer again but would have to give up some of the online rights, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday. Germany’s soccer association is ... More »
NEW YORK Debt may be a drag for millennials, but apparently not as much as cooking their own dinner. A survey from Citizens Bank found that fewer than half (47 percent) of millennials, those in the 18-35 age group, who are college graduates, would be willing t... More »
NEW YORK Exchange-traded fund investors showed continued confidence in U.S. markets, delivering stock ETFs based in the country $3.5 billion and their sixth straight week of net new cash during the latest week, Lipper data showed on Thursday. Stock mutual fund... More »
NEW YORK A wooden chair used by J.K. Rowling when she wrote her first two “Harry Potter” books has sold for $394,000 at a New York auction – more than eight times its opening bid. The chair, on which the British novelist painted the words “I wrote Harry Potter... More »
LONDON Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority has asked 20 banks and other financial firms to check if they have any ties to Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, the regulator said on Thursday. A massive leak of documents from the firm released this week detailed h... More »
ST PETERSBURG, Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin said a friend of his named in the “Panama Papers” leaks had done nothing wrong and spent the money he earned from business on buying expensive musical instruments which he was donating to public institutio... More »
ZURICH/REYKJAVIK, Swiss police raided the European soccer body UEFA on Wednesday to seize information about a contract disclosed in the Panama Papers that was signed by Gianni Infantino, now head of the global soccer body FIFA. The impact of the leaked documen... More »
Lawyers acting for Sumner Redstone have reached a preliminary settlement with an ex-girlfriend over a lawsuit that challenged the 92-year-old media mogul’s mental competency, a person familiar with the situation said on Thursday. The settlement may avoid furth... More »
VIENNA Vienna’s Leopold Museum said on Thursday it had reached a settlement over five Nazi-looted works of art in its collection that will return two of them to the heir of their original Jewish owner, a victim of the Holocaust. The five pieces, all by Austria... More »
ISLE OF BUTE, Scotland A nearly 400-year-old copy of a first edition of William Shakespeare’s collected plays has been found in a vast aristocratic house on the Isle of Bute, off the western coast of Scotland. Published in 1623, the First Folio contains Shakes... More »
JERSEY CITY, N.J. With the push of a button, a perfectly healthy 34-year-old museum-goer named Ugo Dumont was transformed into a confused 85-year-old man with cataracts, glaucoma and a ringing in his ears known as tinnitus. Dumont had volunteered at Liberty Sc... More »
WASHINGTON When the first prehistoric people trekked into South America toward the end of the Ice Age, they found a wondrous, lush continent inhabited by all manner of strange creatures like giant ground sloths and car-sized armadillos. But these hunter-gather... More »
LONDON Dozens of journalists at oil-price reporting agency Argus Media are set to become multi-millionaires when a deal to bring an investor onboard goes through later this year, potentially valuing the firm at as much as $1.3 billion. Argus, which makes the b... More »
JOHANNESBURG With their economy flatlining, currency on the ropes and politics in turmoil, many South Africans are turning to humor for relief, mainly at the expense of President Jacob Zuma and his $16-million home improvements. Within minutes of Zuma survivin... More »
Lawyers for Viacom Inc Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone are in talks to settle a lawsuit challenging the 92-year-old media mogul’s mental competency, people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Depositions of Viacom Chief Executive Officer Philippe Da... More »
Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger could end up extending his term for a third time, analysts said on Tuesday, following the surprise announcement that Chief Operating Officer Tom Staggs, a potential successor, will step down in May. Disney’s shares were ... More »
LOS ANGELES Tom Staggs, the veteran Walt Disney Co executive who had been widely seen as the media company’s next CEO, will step down on May 6 as the board expands its search for a successor to Bob Iger, Disney said on Monday. The unexpected move came little m... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Orbital ATK is pressing U.S. lawmakers to end a 20-year ban on using decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) for launching commercial satellites and the effort has raised concern among companies that have invested million... More »
ATHENS Greece on Monday picked a local theater director to curate its most renowned annual summer arts festival after Belgian artist Jan Fabre quit following protests from artists that his plans excluded Greek works. Fabre resigned on April 2, complaining of a... More »
BRAZZAVILLE Police in Congo’s capital Brazzaville exchanged heavy fire with unidentified gunmen on Monday, witnesses said, in the first significant outbreak of violence since President Denis Sassou Nguesso won re-election last month in a disputed poll. Young o... More »
TOKYO Asian share prices held firm on Monday after solid U.S. payroll data underpinned investor risk sentiment while last week’s dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen kept the U.S. dollar in check. Oil prices showed signs of fatigue after las... More »
BERLIN At an hour-long meeting in Moscow on March 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov irritated his German counterpart by raising the case of a German-Russian girl who said she was raped by migrants in Berlin earlier this year. After the girl’s claims w... More »
DIKILI, Turkey/LESBOS, Greece Migrants sent back from the Greek island of Lesbos began arriving in Turkey on Monday under a disputed European Union scheme aimed at closing the main route by which a million people poured across the Aegean Sea to Greece in the l... More »
BAKU Three Azeri servicemen were killed in fresh fighting with Armenian-backed separatists over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on Monday, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said. Azerbaijan had halted its attacks but Armenia was still “aggravating the situat... More »
GAZA Israel on Sunday extended the distance it permits Gaza fishermen to head out to sea along certain parts of the coastline of the enclave, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas. The fishing zone was expanded from six nautical miles (11 km) to nine (16 km... More »
PHNOM PENH Cambodia’s parliament endorsed a new 26-member cabinet on Monday in a rare shuffle of an aging leadership as Prime Minister Hun Sen prepares for a 2018 election set to be his toughest political fight yet. During his three decades in power Hun Sen ha... More »
SYDNEY/PANAMA CITY Tax authorities in Australia and New Zealand are probing local clients of a Panama-based law firm at the center of a massive data leak for possible tax evasion. The leak involves more than 11.5 million documents from the files of law firm Mo... More »
LONDON The dollar struggled to recover on Monday after its worst week in two months, with Friday’s strong U.S. labour market report having failed to change the market view that the Federal Reserve will only raise interest rates once this year, if at all. The g... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices fell on Monday as the chances of Middle East producers agreeing to curb overproduction appeared to fade, while stubbornly high U.S. output and worries about Asia’s economic outlook also dragged on prices. Iran, returning to global oil mark... More »
MANAMA Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton says he has no concerns about Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg’s five-race winning streak or his own poor starts this season. The Briton, who has not won a race since clinching his third title in Texas last Octob... More »
SYDNEY Australian retail sales were surprisingly muted in February, a red flag for hopes that consumer spending could offset global headwinds and keep the economy accelerating through the first half. Combined with a very subdued private-sector reading on infla... More »
PANAMA CITY The head of a Panama-based law firm at the center of a massive leak of offshore financial data on Sunday denied any wrongdoing, and said his firm has fallen victim to “an international campaign against privacy”. German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – The Golden State Warriors play so well after they lose, it makes one wonder why they don’t do it more often. Actually, that is exactly why they don’t lose more often. The Warriors remained unbeaten in games following defeats Sunday, ridi... More »
HONG KONG Chinese telecom equipment and smartphone maker ZTE Corp will announce a new management team on Tuesday, a spokesman said. ZTE’s board of directors will meet to approve the new team, and a stock exchange filing is expected on Tuesday afternoon, ZTE sp... More »
LAS VEGAS Chris Stapleton, in his breakthrough year, took home more hardware at the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, winning Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year with “Traveller” and Song of the Year with “Nobody to Blame.” Before success on ... More »
SEOUL South Korea’s former short track world champion Noh Jin-kyu has died of cancer, the Korea Skating Union said on Monday. He was 23. Noh’s sister, Olympic speed skater Seon-yeong, wrote on her Facebook page that he had passed away at 8 p.m. local time on S... More »
WASHINGTON Donald Trump’s prediction that the U.S. economy was on the verge of a “very massive recession” hit a wall of skepticism on Sunday from economists who questioned the Republican presidential front-runner’s calculations. In an interview with the Washin... More »
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko became the youngest player to win two LPGA major championships when she birdied the par-five 18th to clinch the ANA Inspiration by one stroke in Rancho Mirage, California, on Sunday. For the 18-year-old world number one, who closed with ... More »
Calling him “the best hope for investors who want a Republican in the White House,” Barron’s announced its support for Ohio Governor John Kasich for president with a front-page editorial in its latest hard-copy edition. Barron’s had previously endorsed Democra... More »
MILWAUKEE Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are tussling in Wisconsin over who would best represent the Democratic Party against Republican front-runner Donald Trump. The competition was in full force on Saturday night at th... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – LeBron James said it felt like playing three games in three nights, yet as the Cleveland Cavaliers have for most of the season, they passed the test. James scored 31 points and passed for 12 assists, and J.R. Smith matched his season hig... More »
TOKYO Making preparations with other governments for a Group of Seven summit next month, Japan has sought to emphasize the role of fiscal spending in countering deepening uncertainty over the global outlook, the Sankei newspaper reported on Monday. Monetary po... More »
TOKYO Japanese companies’ long-term inflation expectations weakened in March from three months ago, a central bank survey showed, a sign January’s decision to adopt negative interest rates has failed to convince firms that price rises will accelerate over time... More »
American journeyman Jim Herman earned a last-minute invitation to the Masters when he secured a one-stroke victory at the Houston Open on Sunday. Herman, whose event preparation included a social round with U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, ... More »
ZURICHA member of the ethics committee responsible for rooting out corruption in soccer’s governing body FIFA has himself been placed under a preliminary investigation, the watchdog said on Sunday. Juan Pedro Damiani was being investigated over a possible busi... More »
LONDON Veteran film, television and stage actress Judi Dench picked up her eight Olivier Award on Sunday, a record tally at Britain’s biggest night for theater. The 81-year-old scooped the Olivier for best actress in a supporting role for “The Winter’s Tale”. ... More »
PARIS/LONDON When French Prime Minister Manuel Valls phoned billionaire Martin Bouygues on Thursday evening in an attempt to save a merger between Bouygues Telecom (BOUY.PA) and state-controlled Orange, it was already too late. The deal would have created the ... More »
LONDON Big British firms are delaying deals and hiring decisions ahead of a referendum on the country’s European Union membership, a survey showed on Monday, adding to signs that uncertainty around the vote is weighing on the economy. Chief financial officers ... More »
SEOUL Samsung Bioepis Co Ltd, which aims to become a force in the fledgling biosimilar drugs industry, has filed a lawsuit against the originator of the world’s best-selling drug, to stop it blocking the launch of its own version. The unit of South Korea’s Sam... More »
Spain’s Marc Marquez won the Argentine Grand Prix for Honda on Sunday to take the overall lead in the MotoGP standings after a shortened race overshadowed by concerns about tyre safety. Marquez’s first win of 2016, after taking the lead on the second lap, came... More »
ATHENS/WASHINGTON International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde denied on Sunday that IMF staff would push Greece closer to default as a negotiating tactic on a new Greek bailout deal, which she said was “still a good distance away.” Lagarde ... More »
Retired U.S. woman’s soccer star Abby Wambach was arrested in Oregon on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, an incident for which the popular player apologized on Sunday on social media. “I take full responsibility for my actions. This is all on... More »
