LONDON/WASHINGTON When the once toxic Rebekah Brooks returns to run Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers on Monday she will face the toughest challenge of her career — rebuilding her reputation and the company in the harsh glare of the public spotlight. Brooks,... More »
VENICE So the question that will arise — if only jokingly — with the premiere of the transgender movie “The Danish Girl” on Saturday at the Venice Film Festival is should Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne win another for best actor or best actress? The British actor... More »
VENICE Eddie Redmayne said transgender people helped him prepare for his portrayal of transsexual pioneer Lili Elbe in “The Danish Girl” that opened on Saturday at the Venice Film Festival, even if no transgender person got the main role. “Across the board the... More »
VENICE With Kristen Stewart of “Twilight” fame and Nicholas Hoult of “X-Men”, the science-fiction film “Equals” is sure to have some box-office draw, but it failed to win much critical acclaim when screened in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Stewart a... More »
BOSTON Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services on Friday recommended Bank of America Corp shareholders vote to strip Chief Executive Brian Moynihan of his additional title of chairman, joining a chorus of critics ahead of a Sept. 22 shareholder meetin... More »
VENICE Johnny Depp says he did not have to dig deep to tap into his evil side for his portrayal of the Irish-American gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in the film “Black Mass”, screened out of competition on Friday at the Venice Film Festival. “I found the evil ... More »
(Reuters Health) – Intimate partner violence or abuse can take the form of birth control sabotage, pregnancy pressure or coercion, which can have devastating consequences including unintended pregnancy, abortion and psychological trauma, according to a new rev... More »
(Reuters Health) – Weight-loss surgery beats medication for controlling type 2 diabetes in obese people, according to the longest-term trial ever to compare the two approaches. Half of the patients treated with weight-loss surgery in the study were diabetes-fr... More »
SAN FRANCISCO Ride services Lyft and Uber have poached dozens of key Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) employees over the past year, including top engineering managers, to help personalize their apps. Twitter’s management turmoil and 44 percent stock fall over the last 12 ... More »
NEW YORK A Latvian man pleaded guilty on Friday to engaging in a scheme to transmit a computer virus that infected more than a million computers worldwide and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses. Deniss Calovskis, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court i... More »
BERLIN Insomniacs, light sleepers and others who blink bleary eyes every morning could be the next target of technology companies looking to come up with ideas to improve any given aspect of consumers’ lives. Samsung Electronics Co and Panasonic Corp both show... More »
DETROIT Toyota Motor Corp is collaborating with two top U.S. universities on artificial intelligence and robotics research aimed at ramping up the Japanese automaker’s efforts to develop self-driving cars. Toyota said on Friday that it would spend $50 million ... More »
VENICE Venice may be the world’s oldest film festival, but this year it is pioneering what may well become the future of cinema as Netflix screens two films here, one of them its first feature and a contender for the top prize. “Beasts of No Nation” stars Idri... More »
As the fall wedding season begins, advisers should make sure they have a comprehensive plan to help clients who are getting married. Advisers need to look at the big picture, like if the couple’s retirement goals align, and the nitty gritty, such as insurance ... More »
ROME Pope Francis slipped out of the Vatican on Thursday evening to make a surprise visit to a Rome optician’s shop to get a new pair of eyeglasses, insisting that his old frames be re-used and that he would pay for them. Francis was driven to Ottica Spiezia o... More »
NEW YORK Leon Cooperman and Steven Einhorn’s Omega Advisors remains bullish on U.S. stocks and blames much of August’s market turmoil on so-called risk parity funds and momentum investors known as CTAs, according to a letter the fund sent to investors. Omega c... More »
NEW YORK Before they found fame, or found each other, what did celebrity couples like Dr Phil and Robin McGraw do in their first jobs? In the latest in Reuters’ monthly ‘First Jobs’ series, we talked to couples who work as TV personalities, actors, models or a... More »
WASHINGTON Scientists have discovered why TNT is so toxic to plants and intend to use this knowledge to tackle the problem of cleaning up the many sites worldwide contaminated by the commonly used explosive. Researchers on Thursday said they have pinpointed an... More »
SYDNEY Around 40 kilograms (88 lb) of wool has been sheared from a sheep found near Australia’s capital, the RSPCA said on Thursday, making him unofficially the world’s woolliest. The animal, named Chris by his rescuers, was discovered on the northern outskirt... More »
WASHINGTON It was a creature that one scientist said resembled “a strange, gluttonous lizard that swallowed a small Frisbee.” But a sophisticated skull analysis showed that this reptile called Eunotosaurus africanus that lived in southern Africa 260 million ye... More »
LONDON Rebekah Brooks, the Rupert Murdoch protegee cleared last year of orchestrating a criminal campaign that damaged the British establishment, will return to her old job running the tycoon’s British newspapers next week in a stunning comeback. Brooks, who w... More »
PARIS French media group Vivendi (VIV.PA) reported higher second-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by strong growth in its Universal Music division, and said recent asset sales could enable it to consider more acquisitions in the future. The company, with a ... More »
WASHINGTON Japan’s Nikkei media group won U.S. antitrust approval for its $1.3 billion purchase of the Financial Times from Britain’s Pearson PLC, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday. The transaction was on the list of deals that the FTC and Justice... More »
LONDON A London skyscraper that made headlines for reflecting sunlight at an intensity that melted parts of a Jaguar car in the street below has been awarded the annual Carbuncle Cup that highlights perceived architectural horrors. Officially called 20 Fenchur... More »
BERLIN If you could go back in time to change your city, what would you do? What kind of a place do you want to live in? Would you try to stop gentrification? These are some of the questions being posed by a Berlin-based collective of artists, called copy & wa... More »
BERLIN German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday that Spain’s economic development showed that the euro zone was tackling its crisis well. “Spain is the best example that we’ve done a lot of things quite right in Europe,” Schaeuble said at a b... More »
LOS ANGELES Taylor Swift may have won the most Moonmans on Sunday but it was her reunion with rapper Kanye West on the MTV Video Music Awards stage that stole the show, as West declared he will run for the U.S. presidency in 2020. West, who famously stormed th... More »
BEIJING The removal of a stone plinth sign written by former Chinese president Jiang Zemin at the entrance of a key Communist Party training center is not a sign of disrespect, a senior official said on Monday, after rumors of destabilizing party infighting. J... More »
BERLIN Returning from her summer break in mid-August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised some eyebrows by describing Europe’s refugee problem as a bigger challenge than the Greece crisis, which had overshadowed all else in the first half of 2015. No one in... More »
BNY Mellon Corp (BK.N) expects to fix the computer glitch that disrupted pricing of U.S. mutual funds and exchange-traded funds before markets open on Monday, its chief executive said. The resolution of the issue, which affected the calculation of billions of ... More »
NEW YORK Citigroup plans to rebuild its long-neglected equities franchise seeking to capitalize on a retrenchment by rivals in the face of new rules designed to make the financial system less risky, according people familiar with the bank’s plans. A lack of in... More »
Prolific horror filmmaker Wes Craven, who directed the slasher classic “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” died on Sunday afternoon, his family said in a statement. He was 76. Craven, who was also behind the 1990s horror hit “Scream,” died surrounded by his loved one... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Monday will officially restore Denali as the name of North America’s tallest mountain, siding with the state of Alaska in ending a 40-year battle over what to call a peak that has been known as Mount McKinley. The historic ... More »
LOS ANGELES Justin Bieber might be making a comeback and Taylor Swift is leading nominees, but at Sunday’s annual MTV Video Music Awards, all eyes will be on the show’s wildcard host, Miley Cyrus. After twerking her way into national headlines with a latex lin... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The box office underwent a religious conversion this weekend as Christian crowds flocked to “War Room,” lifting the low-budget salute to prayer above the Zac Efron drama “We’re You’re Friends” and the Owen Wilson thriller “No Escape... More »
(This 28 August 2015 story was refiled to add the dropped word “court” in the first paragraph) Planned Parenthood filed a complaint in Alabama federal court on Friday seeking to stop the state from defunding its health clinics after the release of covertly rec... More »
TORONTO The owner of adultery website Ashley Madison had already been struggling to sell itself or raise funds for at least three years before the publication of details about its members, according to internal documents and emails also released by hackers as ... More »
BOSTON A pair of skeletal sculptures that harness the power of the wind to walk strutted around Boston’s City Hall on Friday at the start of the U.S. tour of Dutch artist Theo Jansen’s “Strandbeests.” Constructed of PVC tubes and about the size of large sport-... More »
LONDON Rebekah Brooks will return to her old job heading Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper division, the Financial Times reported, just over a year after being cleared of criminal charges in a phone-hacking scandal. Her return to News Corp could be as soon as... More »
TORONTO Bank of Nova Scotia, which reported a quarterly profit that beat market expectations on Friday, said bad loans in the energy sector climbed as the oil price selloff took a toll. Shares of Scotiabank, Canada’s third-largest bank, were down nearly 1 perc... More »
BNY Mellon Corp’s (BK.N) computer glitch this week has disrupted pricing on nearly 5 percent of U.S. mutual funds and exchange-traded funds with about $404 billion in assets, according to data from Morningstar Inc and Lipper Inc. On Thursday, for example, 1,30... More »
Charles Schwab Corp said that customer access to online accounts was restored on Friday morning, just minutes before U.S. stock markets opened for trading. Earlier, the company said access to accounts and online trading platforms were unavailable. The problem,... More »
LONDON/BOSTON Investors are being poorly served by a haphazard approach from fund managers to the growing threat of cyber crime damaging the companies in which they invest, with a lack of clarity from the businesses themselves compounding the problem. Banks ha... More »
College and professional athletes may be clients financial advisers love to get, but many also find good homes on the other side of the desk. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, for example, is discovering that its three-year, $1.5 million sponsorship, through... More »
BOSTON Hedge fund mogul William Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings portfolio fell 13.1 percent this month, leaving the fund down 4.3 percent for the year, the firm said on Thursday. The performance numbers cover returns through Tuesday, Aug. 25. On Wednesday, A... More »
MELBOURNE, Fla. Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, one of the first Americans to land on the moon, will spearhead a new research institute in Florida aimed at paving a path toward Mars exploration and settlement, officials said on Thursday. The Buzz Aldrin Space In... More »
NEW YORK British actor Clive Owen swaps Hollywood for the stage in “Old Times”, making his Broadway debut in a revival of Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter’s 1971 play. The “Children of Men” and “Closer” actor, who has London theater credits to his name, will appea... More »
BERLIN Knut, the star polar bear who was hand-reared at Berlin zoo after his mother rejected him, had a type of auto-immune inflation of the brain that is found in humans, scientists said on Thursday. Knut, who was just four when he drowned at the zoo in 2011,... More »
LONDON The piano used to play the glissando that kicks off ABBA’s disco hit “Dancing Queen” will be one of the star attractions at a rock and pop auction at Sotheby’s next month where it is expected to sell for up to 800,000 pounds ($1.24 million). The instrum... More »
WARSAW U.S. media group Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI.N) bought nearly all remaining shares in Polish broadcaster TVN TVN.WA, planning to delist the company from the Warsaw bourse GPW.WA, a brokerage running the deal said on Thursday. SNI, which already ow... More »
SHANGHAI China’s Bank of Communications Co Ltd, the country’s fifth-largest listed bank by assets, reported a 1.5 percent rise in first half net profit, even as its bad debts continued to rise. BoCom on Thursday posted a net profit of 37.32 billion yuan ($11.0... More »
FRANKFURT European broadcaster RTL will focus on buying online businesses and content producers as it seeks to build itself into a video powerhouse that goes beyond traditional broadcast, its finance chief told Reuters on Thursday. RTL has TV and radio channel... More »
BOSTON Investors in Discovery Communications Inc, including Manning & Napier Inc and BlackRock Inc, withheld support for a member of the company’s compensation committee, recent securities filings show, after the cable network operator gave its CEO the richest... More »
SANTIAGO When the creators of an elaborate 2013 Cadillac commercial began to scout for shooting locations three years ago, they began in Argentina, where varied landscapes and creative talent had long attracted ad producers. But when it came time to import the... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on Wednesday called for an emergency meeting with Dish Network Corp and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc over the continuing blackout affecting 129 TV stations. Sinclair, the largest U.S. broad... More »
MILAN A 1896 film of a woman plucking babies from a cabbage patch marks a whimsical start to a Milan exhibition that examines artistic representations of motherhood, but the mood turns more sinister as the show moves into the 20th century. “The Great Mother” r... More »
Dish Network Corp said subscribers have lost access to more than 100 local stations due to a distribution dispute with Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc, affecting viewers of a string of ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC channels. Dish said 129 stations in 36 states and the D... More »
LONDON Benedict Cumberbatch delivered a “Hamlet” for our time in London in a production that played to his strengths, dresses up Shakespeare for a younger crowd and had the British actor’s fans roaring in approval at the end. Ever since the 12-week run was ann... More »
British IndyCar driver Justin Wilson died on Monday after suffering a severe head injury during a wreck in the closing laps of a race the previous day at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, IndyCar officials said. He was 37. Wilson, a former Formula One driver and... More »
TORONTO/OTTAWA Canadian banks are expected to begin feeling the impact of an extended downturn in the energy sector as they exercise caution with new and existing loans to companies and individuals. Investors will this week be poring over the balance sheets an... More »
U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said on Monday it was ludicrous to describe his use of the term “anchor babies” as offensive to immigrants, saying his original comments referred more to Asians coming to the United States to give birth. Bush’s rem... More »
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. A star running back for Florida State University’s football squad was acquitted on Monday of a misdemeanor battery charge despite testimony from a young woman who told jurors he punched her in the mouth outside a bar in June. The jury deliber... More »
Infidelity website Ashley Madison and its parent company have been sued in federal court in California by a man who claims that the companies failed to adequately protect clients’ personal and financial information from theft, saying he suffered emotional dist... More »
Mac Sykes, an analyst at asset management firm Gabelli & Co, spent Sunday evening, the second night of his summer vacation in New England, watching stock prices tank. “I went to bed close to midnight and was up again around 4:30 am,” said Sykes, who works at G... More »
LOS ANGELES Country singer Luke Bryan held onto the top spot of the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Monday, holding off Ed Sheeran and Dr Dre. “Kill The Lights,” the fifth studio album from Bryan, sold 83,000 albums, 114,000 songs and was streamed 6.8... More »
NORRISTOWN, Pa. Pennsylvania’s attorney general, accused of illegally leaking grand jury information to embarrass a political foe and then lying about it, was ordered on Monday to stand trial on perjury, obstruction of justice and other corruption charges. Cap... More »
LONDON/LOS ANGELES One Direction member Niall Horan said Monday that the hugely successful British boy band will take a “well earned break” next year, but are not splitting up. Horan, 21, told his 23 million fans on Twitter that the group will continue to tour... More »
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Monday said his use of the term “anchor babies” to describe U.S.-born children of non-citizen parents was taken out of context and not derogatory, saying he was referring solely to activity he views as fraudul... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday temporarily allowed former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell to remain out of prison as he fights his corruption conviction. In a brief order, Roberts said an appeals court ruling rejecting McDonnell’s bid ... More »
NEW YORK Confidence among affluent investors was already slipping before the stock market rout in China sent U.S. markets plunging last week and on Monday, according to a monthly index calculated by Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based research company. Yet when st... More »
NEW YORK/BOSTON With Chinese stocks down nearly 9 percent on Monday and Latin American countries already hurting, some top-performing emerging market fund managers are throwing in the towel when it comes to playing once-hot overseas growth stories. Instead, th... More »
NEW YORK DoubleLine Capital co-founder Jeffrey Gundlach, widely followed for his investment calls, warned on Monday that the U.S. equity markets face another round of selling pressure. “The U.S. stock market is in a mode of uncertainty, at best,” Gundlach said... More »
BlackRock Inc’s (BLK.N) chief investment officer of fundamental fixed income, Rick Rieder, believes the window for the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates is closing, he said in an interview on Monday. While Rieder hopes the Fed will still begin raisi... More »
NEW YORK Scotland’s Calvin Harris on Monday topped a Forbes list of the world’s highest paid DJs, earning an estimated $66 million in an annual payday that surpassed “Hunger Games” actress Jennifer Lawrence and reflected the explosion of electronic dance music... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Too few women and minorities are entering certain medical specialties in the U.S., researchers say. Diversifying the physician workforce may be key to addressing health disparities and inequities, Dr. Curtiland Deville of Johns Hopk... More »
TORONTO At least two people may have committed suicide following the hacking of the Ashley Madison cheating website, Toronto police said on Monday, warning of a ripple effect that includes scams and extortion of clients desperate to stop the exposure of their ... More »
A pedestrian bridge designed by Olafur Eliasson has opened in Copenhagen, inspired by the Danish-Icelandic artist’s childhood in Iceland. Reminiscent of sailing boats, Cirkelbroen, or circle bridge, is made of five circular platforms in different sizes, each w... More »
AMSTERDAM The national Rijksmuseum gallery in Amsterdam is close to finalizing a 160 million euro deal to purchase two portraits by the Dutch master Rembrandt from the French Rothschild family, museum director Wim Pijbes said on Monday. The portraits, which da... More »
NEW YORK Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, said Monday that turmoil in stock markets was creating opportunities for investors, but could prevent the Federal Reserve from hiking interest rates next month. El-Erian also said that equity mar... More »
NEW YORK Hey, remember that newsletter that let you sign up for a free trial? Didn’t think so. How about that old domain name you registered, or your kid’s gaming membership, or the magazine subscription that was initially offered as a freebie. Forgot about th... More »
Tracy Morgan, a star of comedy series “30 Rock” and cast member of “Saturday Night Live”, married his long-time fiancee on Sunday, 14 months after suffering life-threatening injuries in a deadly car wreck, People magazine reported on its web site. Morgan, 46, ... More »
Rapper Wiz Khalifa was handcuffed and then released by U.S. Customs officers after refusing to stop riding his hoverboard at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said on Sunday. A video on Khalifa’s Instagram site shows three U.S. Customs and Border ... More »
BENICASSIM, Spain An American Jewish musician who was controversially barred from a reggae festival in Spain before being invited back to play performed to catcalls from some pro-Palestinian protesters on Sunday, though the concert passed off peacefully after ... More »
AUSTIN, Texas The sweeping archives of award-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro will be heading to a University of Texas research library, including a discarded opening chapter for his best-known book, “The Remains of the Day,” the university said. The novelist, ... More »
COPENHAGEN European Tour journeyman Andreas Harto stole the show at the Made In Denmark event by proposing to his girlfriend during the tournament in Farso on Friday. The Dane celebrated sinking a five-foot birdie putt at the par-three 16th by going down on on... More »
MEXICO CITY Archeologists have discovered a massive ceremonial skull rack from the heyday of the Aztec empire in the heart of Mexico City, a find that could shed new light on how its rulers projected power by human sacrifice, the team said on Thursday. The sku... More »
The New York Daily News is no longer for sale, according to a memo sent to employees by the newspaper’s owner, Mort Zuckerman, on Thursday. The memo from the media and property mogul said that, after meeting with several potential suitors, he had “decided to w... More »
Financial news agency Bloomberg plans to cut about 100 jobs in its editorial division, the New York Post reported. The announcement could come as soon as Labor Day in early September, the Post said, citing sources. Many of the layoffs will affect political and... More »
SEOUL His father was afraid to fly, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has taken to the skies, building a series of small runways long enough to land light, private aircraft next to some of his palaces, satellite imagery shows. Construction on Kim’s personal ... More »
ROME The museums that house masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Venus will soon be run by foreign directors for the first time as Italy overhauls what a senior official called its “sclerotic” museum management. Following an international... More »
Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal said on Tuesday it had invested $200 million in online publisher BuzzFeed, the latest move by the media conglomerate to tap into a younger audience. NBCUniversal invested $200 million last week in Vox Media, owner of tech-focused we... More »
JOHANNESBURG South African mobile phone operator Vodacom is in talks with pay-TV giant Naspers to deliver movies and television programs to mobile devices, it said on Monday, part of a search for new sources of income from fast-growing data consumers. “We are ... More »
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. Forensic archaeologists on Friday began excavating a highway embankment in eastern Pennsylvania, looking for more bones believed to be from impoverished victims of the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic in 1918. The state highway department, ... More »
WASHINGTON Scientists have invented a speedy method to make potent painkilling opioids using bioengineered baker’s yeast instead of poppies, but need to fine-tune the process to make it commercially viable, according to a study published on Thursday. The new m... More »
News Corp (NWSA.O) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by cost cuts in its news and information services business that includes Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. Shares of the company, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, rose a... More »
LONDON British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor said on Wednesday he would take legal action based on copyright concerns after noting a close similarity between a huge stainless-steel, globe-like sculpture in China and his “Cloud Gate” sculpture in Chicago. The sc... More »
BERLIN British artist and anti-surveillance activist James Bridle is illuminating Germany with artwork exploring the darkest state secrets, cover-ups and information blackouts. Bridle’s “The Glomar Response”, showing this month at the newly opened Nome gallery... More »
MUMBAI/ NEW DELHI The Indian government has filed a lawsuit against Swiss food firm Nestle’s Indian unit, seeking 6.4 billion rupees ($99 million) in damages on behalf of consumers after the country’s worst packaged food scare in a decade. Nestle, the first fo... More »
LEHIGH COUNTY, Penn./NEW YORK It’s easy to find female fans of Donald Trump in this cluster of former factory towns in the hills west of New York City even after his comments about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly that have been widely interpreted as referring to h... More »
MUMBAI The Indian government has filed a class action suit for 6.4 billion rupees ($99 million) against Nestle’s Indian unit on behalf of the country’s consumers, citing unfair trade practices and the sale of defective goods. Nestle is the first foreign firm t... More »
