TOKYO Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co is considering buying a majority stake in Sharp Corp’s loss-making LCD business for up to 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion), Japan’s Mainichi newspaper said on Monday, without citing any sources. The newspaper said Hon... More »
ATLANTA Jordan Spieth identified his heart rather than his swing as the reason he was able to cap off a Player of the Year season by winning the Tour Championship and FedExCup playoffs jackpot on Sunday. “I didn’t feel comfortable striking the ball whatsoever,... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Hotel Transylvania 2” easily topped the weekend box office, sinking its teeth into an impressive $47.5 million, and providing a big win for star Adam Sandler and Sony Pictures, the studio behind the animated franchise. Both had end... More »
MENLO PARK, California Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a warm welcome at Facebook headquarters on Sunday for a town hall hosted by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that focused as much on the two men’s backgrounds as the business potential of the world’s secon... More »
SYDNEY Australia intends to refuse a visa for U.S. singer and hip-hop star Chris Brown, a government spokesman said on Sunday, following through on a threat made last week over the singer’s history of domestic violence. Brown, 26, had been due to perform at a ... More »
NEW DELHI A stately New Delhi mansion, once home to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and now a museum to his life, has emerged as a flashpoint in the growing ideological war between his heirs and the Hindu nationalist government.Since trouncing th... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and a host of celebrities kicked off a campaign on Saturday to make Internet access universal, saying this was critical to fulfilling the United Nations’ newly adopted agenda to com... More »
MUMBAI The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has revoked an approval issued in March to India’s Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company Ltd (SPARC) to launch a drug for seizures, citing manufacturing quality problems at its production site. The move comes as a se... More »
HANOI Vietnam will trim its state-run media and publishing sector, with the loss of about 10,000 jobs and some widely circulated newspapers, as the ruling Communist Party tightens its control over the booming industry, a report said on Saturday. The number of ... More »
LONDON Euro zone inflation and U.S. jobs data will offer clues to the health of major developed economies in the coming week while the malaise gripping emerging markets is expected to prompt India to cut interest rates. China may release monthly foreign exchan... More »
TOKYO Japanese centenarian Hidekichi Miyazaki set a fresh record as the world’s oldest competitive sprinter this week, one day after turning 105, but said he was disappointed at falling short of his own personal best. “I wanted to shave off a few more seconds ... More »
WASHINGTON The origins of the enamel that gives our teeth their bite is no ordinary fish tale.Scientists said on Wednesday fossil and genetic evidence indicates enamel did not originate in the teeth but in the scales of ancient fish that lived more than 400 mi... More »
BOSTON Apple Inc APPL.O said on Sunday it is cleaning up its iOS App Store to remove malicious iPhone and iPad programs identified in the first large-scale attack on the popular mobile software outlet. The company disclosed the effort after several cyber secur... More »
BEIJING British finance minister George Osborne said on Monday Britain would like to continue helping the gradual internationalization of the yuan and that it welcomed the potential for majority Chinese investment in future nuclear projects. Speaking at the st... More »
SINGAPORE Asian shares and emerging currencies fell on Monday after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates at record lows raised fresh concerns about growth globally, particularly in China. European markets were set to follow suit, with fin... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices rose by around one percent on Monday as U.S. drilling slowed and analysts estimated that $1.5 trillion worth of planned American production investment was uneconomical at prices of $50 per barrel or lower. Crude prices have plunged over 50... More »
ZURICH Zurich Insurance Group AG (ZURN.VX) abandoned its proposed 5.6 billion pound ($8.7 billion) bid for British insurer RSA Insurance Group PLC (RSA.L) on Monday after forecasting a $200 million loss in its general insurance business due to explosions at th... More »
BEIJING China and Russia are set to sign an agreement on developing a wide-bodied airliner before the end of the year, the China Daily reported on Monday, quoting the president of Russia’s state-controlled United Aircraft Corp, Yury Slyusar. United Aircraft an... More »
YANGON Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was touring her constituency on the outskirts of Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon on Monday, kicking off the third week of campaigning for the first free national vote in 25 years. In the run-up to the No... More »
HONG KONG Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday he hopes the economy will grow faster this year than last, and expects that Asia’s third-largest economy will not see a big hit from China’s slowdown. Jaitley, who is on a road trip meeting foreign ... More »
BEIJING Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to press ahead with mergers and acquisitions to improve their competitiveness and for the disposal of “zombie” enterprises, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday. St... More »
TOKYO Public support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fell after the passage of controversial national security bills, which could let troops fight overseas for the first time since the end of World War Two, polls published on Monday showed. Support for ... More »
China’s yuan slipped against the dollar on Monday after the central bank fixed a weaker guidance rate, traders said. The People’s Bank of China set the midpoint rate CNY=SAEC at 6.3676 per dollar prior to the market open, 0.11 percent weaker than the previous ... More »
TOKYO Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (2317.TW) offered to buy Sharp Corp’s (6753.T) struggling liquid panel display business and plans to seek funding from Apple Inc (AAPL.O), the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday. The report did not specify how... More »
(The Sports Xchange) – The St. Louis Cardinals were able to enjoy clinching their playoff berth a little bit more Sunday after holding off the Chicago Cubs 4-3 to avoid being swept. Manager Mike Matheny delivered a “quick talk” to his players to recognize thei... More »
LAKE FOREST, Illinois Jason Day claimed his fourth victory in six starts and surged to the world number one ranking after going wire-to-wire to win the BMW Championship by six shots on Sunday. The Australian closed out his tournament with a two-under-par 69 to... More »
SHANGHAI Profit margins at Chinese firms improved in the third quarter while loan demand remained weak, a private survey showed , with the overall results suggesting the stock market crash would have minimal impact on the broader economy. The quarterly survey ... More »
BOSTON Apple Inc APPL.O said on Sunday it is cleaning up its iOS App Store to remove malicious iPhone and iPad programs identified in the first large-scale attack on the popular mobile software outlet. The company disclosed the effort after several cyber secur... More »
DALIAN, China In a cavernous showroom on the outskirts of this port city in northeastern China, softly whirring lathes and svelte robot arms represent Dalian Machine Tools Group’s (DMTG) vision of an automated future for Chinese manufacturing. On closer inspec... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – Mobsters, mountain climbers, and teenage racers piled into multiplexes this weekend, lifting the overall box office, but preventing any one film from dominating ticket sales. “The Maze Runner: Scorch Trails,” a sequel to last year’... More »
FRANKFURT The falling cost of intelligent robots may help repatriate some car manufacturing work away from low-cost locations like China back to factories in Germany and North America, Donald Walker, Chief Executive of auto supplier Magna told Reuters. Rising ... More »
PARIS Business confidence data from China and the euro zone will offer some pointers this week to where the global economy is going after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept markets guessing about when it will begin raising rates. With a Chinese slowdown blamed for ... More »
Apple Inc is stepping up aid to the thousands of migrants that are streaming into Europe from war-torn countries, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told employees in an internal message on Friday. Cook wrote in a message on the company’s intranet site that the ... More »
PARIS British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor has decided to leave the anti-Semitic graffiti on his “Dirty Corner” installation at the Palace of Versailles near Paris, but will cover it up, palace authorities said on Friday. The 60-meter (197 feet) abstract steel... More »
MOSCOW/WARSAW Russia summoned Poland’s ambassador on Thursday to protest at the removal of a Soviet-era statue in a Polish town on the 76th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, highlighting increased tensions between the neighbors. Katarzyna Pelczynsk... More »
LONDON Dissident artist Ai Weiwei has had his run-ins with the authorities in his native China, but the Royal Academy of Arts is giving him all the space he needs for a mammoth retrospective opening in London on Saturday. Among the works on display are securit... More »
JAKARTA Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] denied on Monday that authorities in Jakarta had arrested some of its drivers after police in the city said they were cracking down on the car-hailing service because it was operating illegally. Police spokesman Mohammad... More »
CANBERRA Conservative Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott faced a challenge to his leadership when his popular communications minister launched a bid for the top office on Monday after months of speculation and poor showings in opinion polls. Malcolm Turnbul... More »
TOKYO Toshiba Corp (6502.T) swung to a first-quarter loss on weak PC and TV sales, raising pressure on its new chief executive, who is already tasked with improving governance after a $1.3 billion accounting scandal. Toshiba on Monday reported an April-June op... More »
(This version of the story corrects number of troops in paragraph 1 to 1,000 from 10,000- headline altered to reflect change) PADAMARAN, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesia said on Friday it will send more than 1,000 troops to fight fires in southern Sumatra, as s... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices dipped on Monday in Asia as weakening demand weighed on markets, although U.S. futures received some support from reduced American drilling. Front-month Brent crude futures were down 29 cents at $47.85 per barrel at 0649 GMT, although U.S.... More »
Google Inc said it named auto industry veteran John Krafcik as chief executive of its self-driving car project from late September. With the hiring of Krafcik, currently the president of automotive pricing terminal Truecar Inc and a former CEO of Hyundai Motor... More »
TOKYO Asian shares rose in choppy trade on Monday after Chinese markets were hit by soft economic data, while the dollar sagged as investors questioned whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will be confident enough to raise rates for the first time in almost a deca... More »
CANBERRA Embattled Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been asked to step down by two senior ministers, Sky TV reported on Monday, following mounting speculation about his position and concerns about the performance of his conservative coalition governme... More »
TOKYO Toshiba Corp (6502.T) is set to report an operating loss of more than 10 billion yen ($83 million) in the April-June quarter hurt by weakness in the consumer electronics business, the Nikkei business daily reported. Toshiba last reported a first-quarter ... More »
SYDNEY/SINGAPORE The dollar inched lower on Monday with investors sticking to the sidelines as the countdown begins on whether the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.1350 EUR=, ho... More »
Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), which recently slipped below their initial offering price after having rocketed 75 percent in their first two months of trading, could lose another 50 percent of their value, Barron’s said in the cover story of its... More »
SYDNEY The dollar, euro and yen all got off to a slow start on Monday with investors sticking to the sidelines as the countdown begins on whether the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The euro stood little changed ... More »
BEIJING China issued some details on Sunday on plans to reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including the introduction of “mixed ownership” by bringing in private investment, and said it expected decisive results by 2020. Reform of mammoth state-owned firms... More »
LONDON Concerns over the world’s major emerging economies, and in particular China, are growing as financial investors reassess the outlook for global growth, the Bank of International Settlements said on Sunday. After a month of turmoil for stocks and commodi... More »
FRANKFURT The U.S. Federal Reserve takes center stage in the coming week, eclipsing industry data from China, another grim inflation reading from the euro zone and rate decisions in Japan and Switzerland. Guessing whether the Fed hikes rates on Thursday or opt... More »
WASHINGTON Senior U.S. and Chinese officials concluded four days of meetings on Saturday on cyber security and other issues, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington later this month, the White House said. Cyber security has been a divisive ... More »
TOKYO Japanese prosecutors have filed charges against Mark Karpeles, the former head of defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, accusing him of stealing $2.7 million of clients’ money, media reported. The French-born Karpeles, 30, was arrested last month in connecti... More »
BRUSSELS Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (0001.HK) on Friday sought EU approval for its 10.25-billion-pound ($15.82 billion) bid for Telefonica’s (TEF.MC) British mobile unit O2, the same day regulators unveiled a tougher approach towards mergers in the sector. The Euro... More »
We may well not get a global recession in the coming year or two but if we do, bank on one thing: an inadequate policy response. Citibank Chief Economist Willem Buiter attracted attention this week with a call for a 55 percent chance of a global recession some... More »
LONDON Investors pulled another $19 billion from equity funds over the past week as they sought safety in government bond funds, which have enjoyed the longest run of inflows in four years, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch said on Friday. The exodus from emerging... More »
LONDON Britain’s Tesco (TSCO.L) has agreed to sell its South Korean unit to a group led by private equity firm MBK Partners for $6.1 billion, it said on Monday, in its first major disposal since it hit financial difficulties. Seeking to raise funds to revitali... More »
ISTANBUL Turkey’s military said on Monday its warplanes bombarded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets overnight after the militants staged a deadly attack in which, one security source told Reuters, 16 Turkish soldiers were killed. The PKK said it had killed... More »
LONDON The combined assets of the world’s largest 300 pension funds grew more than 3 percent in 2014 to a new high of more than $15 trillion, driven by retirement saving in North America and Europe, a study showed on Monday. Ageing populations in the developed... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Sixty-one bodies have been recovered from an overloaded wooden boat which sank off Malaysia carrying dozens of Indonesian illegal immigrants, maritime officials said on Saturday. The dead were mostly men, with one toddler on board, the maritime ag... More »
TOKYO Asian stocks were subdued on Monday, lacking clear direction as Shanghai shares see-sawed in and out of the red after the Chinese markets resumed trading following a four-day long weekend. Spreadbetters forecast Britain’s FTSE .FTSE, Germany’s DAX .GDAXI... More »
SHANGHAI China’s policymakers and regulators tried to soothe the country’s jittery markets on Monday, promising deeper financial market reforms and stressing the economy was showing signs of stabilizing, as stocks resumed trading after a four-day long weekend.... More »
TOKYO Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looks set to win a rare second consecutive term but economists predict he won’t use that victory to push through bold reforms such as labor market changes that are considered vital for long-term growth. Instead, Abe, wh... More »
TOKYO The dollar clawed back some of the ground it had lost against the yen on Monday, after skidding on mixed U.S. employment data that failed to bring much clarity to the timing of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s long-awaited interest rate hike. The dollar added ... More »
SHANGHAI China’s yuan weakened against the dollar on Monday in spite of a firmer midpoint, as investors sold the Chinese currency and the central bank was seen to be less heavily intervening in the market via state-owned banks. “Dollar sales by state-owned ban... More »
BEIJING China has revised its annual economic growth rate in 2014 to 7.3 percent from the previously released figure of 7.4 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. Gross domestic product stood at 63.6 trillion yuan ($10.00 trillion) last yea... More »
TOKYO The dollar nursed its losses on Monday, after dropping on mixed U.S. employment data that failed to bring much clarity as to the timing of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s long-awaited interest rate hike. Nonfarm payrolls rose a less-than-expected 173,000 last... More »
SHANGHAI China’s markets are more stable and risks associated with high levels of leverage have eased following a period of high volatility, the country’s stocks regulator said late on Sunday. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) added in a post o... More »
KABUL Plastic surgeon Abdul Ghafar Ghayur is practicing his own brand of welfare in Afghanistan, where access to healthcare is limited and many cannot afford private treatment. The money he makes from the hundreds of nose jobs and Botox injections he performs ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Sony’s faith-based drama “War Room” has the edge on N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton” with $9.3 million to lead the modest U.S. box office over the Friday-Sunday weekend. “Straight Outta Compton” took in $8.9 million at 3,094 lo... More »
XUZHOU, China Two years after China unveiled a sweeping plan to rebuild Silk Road trade links with Europe and Asia, machinery maker XCMG Group has opened a factory in Uzbekistan, sent 300 staff abroad and set ambitious goals to grow overseas. XCMG’s foreign ve... More »
MARINETTE, Wis. Big investments, lean manufacturing techniques borrowed from the automotive industry, and a more engaged workforce have revamped the Wisconsin shipyard where Italy’s Fincantieri SpA builds the Freedom variant of the U.S. Navy’s coastal warships... More »
BRUSSELS Deep divisions over how to cope with a flood of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia pose a threat to the European Union’s values and global standing and may diminish its ability to act jointly to reform the euro zone and ease Greece’s debt.... 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 »
ALMATY A Russian Soyuz spaceship safely delivered a three-man international crew, including Denmark’s first astronaut, to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, a day after having had to maneuver to avoid colliding with space debris. The Soyuz TMA-18... 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 »
NEW YORK Stocks edged higher on Wall Street in another volatile session on Thursday while the euro fell 1 percent on a darkening euro zone outlook as investors grew cautious ahead of the closely watched U.S. monthly jobs report. Global stock markets rallied ea... More »
LONDON/NEW YORK Global manufacturing and service sector activity expanded in August at the same pace as in July, with both the U.S. and euro zone doing better than Asia, according to purchasing manager surveys. “Scratching beneath the headline numbers, however... 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 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 China’s giant manufacturing industry contracted and euro zone and U.S. growth eased in August in data published on Tuesday, while the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for world growth this year. Stocks on major markets tumbled along with com... More »
SHANGHAI China stocks fell sharply on Monday before recovering much of their losses as regulators cracked down on speculators which Beijing blames for a 40 percent crash in the country’s stock markets since June. Both main indexes plunged more than 4 percent a... More »
HONG KONG Global financial markets looked set for another rough week on Monday, with stocks and commodities falling ahead of data that could give clues on when the U.S. will raise interest rates and surveys which are likely to point to further weakness in Chin... 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 »
TOKYO/SINGAPORE The dollar began the week under pressure on Monday, on track for monthly losses but off recent lows as investors kept alive hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates as early as next month. The dollar index .DXY, which trac... More »
BEIJING People whose apartments were damaged in explosions in the northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin can sell their homes to a group of property developers or choose to have the government renovate them, the official Xinhua news agency said. Hundreds of... More »
SHANGHAI， China’s yuan firmed on Monday after the central bank set a stronger guidance rate while it also appeared to continue using state-owned banks to support the Chinese currency, traders said. For August, the currency is set to depreciate 2.7 percent if i... More »
MANILA An influential Christian group in the Philippines ended a protest on Monday over the prosecution of its leaders, calling off a blockade by 20,000 members of a main road in the capital after talks with the government. The Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Chr... More »
TOKYO Japan’s industrial output unexpectedly fell in July in a worrying sign that high inventories and weak overseas demand could further hamper an economy struggling to recover from a slump in the second quarter. The 0.6 percent decline in output in July was ... More »
WASHINGTON The White House is considering applying sanctions against companies and individuals in China it believes have benefited from Chinese hacking of U.S. trade secrets, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The newspaper, citing several unidentified Ob... More »
TOKYO Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp (7269.T) said on Sunday it would buy back the 19.9 percent stake it sold to Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) after an international arbitration court ordered the German automaker to sell its holding. Their planned partnership soured wi... More »
SINGAPORE Carlyle Group’s nominee on the board of China Fishery Group (CNFG.SI) has stepped down, a few months after the U.S. private equity firm declined to take part in the Singapore-listed company’s rights issue. Patrick Siewert resigned as a non-executive ... More »
TOKYO The dollar began the week under pressure on Monday, on track for monthly losses but off recent lows as investors kept alive hope that U.S. jobs data later this week would give the U.S. Federal Reserve reason to raise interest rates as early as next month... More »
BEIJING China’s slowing economy has taken its toll on the first-half earnings of major construction machinery makers Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co Ltd (000157.SZ) and Sany Heavy Industry Co Ltd (600031.SS). Encouraged to expand after Beijin... More »
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. Central bankers from around the world are telling their American counterparts that they are ready for a U.S. interest rate hike and would prefer that the Federal Reserve make the move without further ado. In private and in public at last wee... More »
ISLAMABAD U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice warned Pakistani political and military leaders on Sunday that recent attacks in Afghanistan by militants based in Pakistan threaten regional security, an official said. Rice also delivered an invitation from... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama has invited Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, for a meeting at the White House on Oct. 22, the U.S. National Security Council said on Sunday. The invitation came during a visit to Islamabad on Saturday and Sunday by Nat... 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 »
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 »
