MELBOURNE Australian tennis officials want to clear the air with Bernard Tomic and reinstate the country’s estranged number one into the Davis Cup team for the semi-final against Britain. The controversial world number 29 was booted off the team before the qua... More »
COPENHAGEN Chuckling “Ho ho ho” and waving to the public, dozens of Santas brought some Christmas cheer to the Copenhagen summer on Monday as they began their annual World Santa Claus Congress. Drawing Santas from around the world, the three-day event in the D... More »
SEOUL South Korean tycoon Chung Mong-joon, one of the most influential figures in Asian soccer, said on Tuesday that leaving Sepp Blatter at the helm of FIFA until a new president is elected shows those in power at the scandal-hit governing body “have yet to c... More »
SYDNEY Masters and U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth will return to Sydney in late November to defend his Australian Open title, organizers said on Tuesday. The 21-year-old American won the Stonehaven Cup by six shots last year and with his recent run of form i... More »
WASHINGTON Senator John McCain urged Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday to apologize to U.S. military families for saying prisoners of war are not heroes, in his first direct response to Trump’s remarks. Trump drew a barrage of criticism ... More »
RAGLAN, New Zealand Deep in New Zealand’s dairying heartland, drone maker Aeronavics tests aircraft designed to corner the fast-growing emerging market for unmanned aerial vehicles in the film and television business. The developer of drones used in the produc... More »
LONDON Buckingham Palace scolded Rupert Murdoch’s top-selling Sun tabloid on Saturday for publishing a previously unknown film from 1933 that appears to show Britain’s Queen Elizabeth performing a Nazi salute as a young girl. The black-and-white film from the ... More »
SYDNEY A space tracking station surrounded by cows in an Australian valley will on Tuesday become the first place in the world to get close-up images of Pluto, the most distant planetary body ever explored. After nine-and-half years of traveling 5.3 billion km... More »
SIEM REAP, Cambodia Pit, only two and with just one eye, needed only 11 minutes before he detected a deadly mine buried in a Cambodian field, work that humans with metal detectors could have taken up to five days to investigate. But Pit is not human. He is par... More »
VIENNA A senior Iranian negotiator voiced hope on Monday that a nuclear deal with six major powers would be completed but cautioned that there was work to be done and he could not promise the talks would finish by Tuesday night, Iranian media reported. “I cann... More »
LONDON Oil prices tumbled on Monday as Iran and six world powers closed in on a final nuclear deal that would end sanctions on the Islamic Republic and let more Iranian oil on to world markets. News of a unanimous agreement by European leaders on a bailout loa... More »
BEIJING China’s export sales unexpectedly rose for the first time in four months in June and imports fell again but posted their best performance this year, causing some optimism tepid trade flows are picking up. Yet hopes were offset by a realization that Chi... More »
NEW DELHI General Motors Co (GM.N) will recall 155,000 vehicles in India, its largest such exercise to date in the country, in order to fix wiring problems linked to a remote keyless entry accessory. The recall, also one of India’s biggest, follows a move in 2... More »
TOKYO Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.T) Chief Executive Satoru Iwata died after a long illness, the company said on Monday, months after he led the Japanese video-game maker’s belated entry into mobile gaming following years of declining sales. He was 55. The hands-on ... More »
LANCASTER, Pennsylvania Young South Korean Chun In-gee showed championship maturity on Sunday as she won the U.S. Women’s Open in a thrilling finish at Lancaster Country Club on Sunday for her first major title. The 20-year-old Chun, a seven-times career winne... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – “Minions” ruled the weekend box office, racking up a massive $115.2 million in North America, for the second biggest animated film opening in history. The Universal and Illumination Entertainment spin-off to “Despicable Me” just mi... More »
TAIPEI Companies such as electric motor scooter firm Gogoro could hold the key to Taiwan’s economic growth. In just three years, the start-up, which counts Japan’s Panasonic Corp as a strategic partner and Cher Wang, the founder of local smartphone maker HTC C... More »
TORONTO BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO), which has been coy about its ambitions to make a mainstream Android smartphone, fueled more speculation about its plans this week when it scooped up two Android-related domain names. Several blog posts in the last two days have ... More »
WASHINGTON Giant pandas eat vegetables even though their bodies are better equipped to eat meat. So how do these black-and-white bears from the remote, misty mountains of central China survive on a diet almost exclusively of a low-nutrient food like bamboo? Sc... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police raided the office of troubled state investment fund 1MDB on Wednesday, following a report that claimed investigators looking into the firm found nearly $700 million had been transferred to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s bank account... More »
SYDNEY Nick Kyrgios has accused Olympic great Dawn Fraser of being a “blatant racist” after she said tennis players should “go back to where their parents came from” if they did not set a better example to Australian youth. The former champion swimmer, after i... More »
SINGAPORE Crude oil prices steadied on Tuesday, after posting one of their biggest selloffs this year in the previous session over Greece’s rejection of debt bailout terms and China’s ongoing stock market woes. Front-month U.S. crude futures CLc1 were trading ... More »
TOKYO Tokyo prosecutors plan to release former Toyota Motor Corp executive Julie Hamp from custody after she was arrested last month on suspicion of illegally importing the painkiller Oxycodone into Japan, Kyodo News reported on Tuesday. Japan’s daily Yomiuri ... More »
SHANGHAI Chinese stocks fell on Tuesday, taking little comfort from a slew of support measures unleashed by Beijing in recent days, and unnerved by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s failure to mention the market chaos in a statement on the economy. Before the marke... More »
TOKYO Most Asian stocks drooped on Tuesday as Chinese equity markets went into a fresh tailspin, fraying investor nerves already strained by uncertainty hanging over the future of Greece and the European currency union. Chinese shares fell more than 5 percent ... More »
SHANGHAI Chinese investors sold off shares on Tuesday morning after Premier Li Keqiang was quoted on a government website saying that China has the ability to deal with economic risks but did not specifically mention the country’s embattled stock market. Inves... More »
LONDON Governments around the world should increase taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products to save lives and generate funds for stronger health services, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. In a report entitled “The Global Tobacco Epid... More »
TOKYO Sakari Momoi, who was recognized as the world’s oldest man and credited healthy eating and getting plenty of sleep for his longevity, has died at the age of 112, Japanese media said on Tuesday. Momoi was born in an area of Fukushima hit hard by the tsuna... More »
SEOUL South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) on Tuesday guided for weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings, as a supply shortage plagued its latest smartphone launch and tepid demand from key markets likely undercut sales. The guid... More »
SAN FRANCISCO Tumbling markets and economic uncertainty in China pose a risk to major chipmakers such as Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) that derive a big portion of their sales from the world’s second-largest economy. Consumer electronics giant Apple Inc (AAPL.O) could... More »
WASHINGTON Loss of U.S. Export-Import Bank financing would put Boeing Co (BA.N) at a “huge competitive disadvantage” since its rivals still have access to such financing support, the head of the company’s commercial aircraft division told reporters on Monday. ... More »
VIENNA A dispute over U.N. sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program and a broader arms embargo were among issues holding up a nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers on Monday, the day before their latest self-imposed deadline. “The Iranians want... More »
SEOUL Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) said on Tuesday that operating profit for the April-June quarter will likely be 6.9 trillion won ($6.13 billion), down 4 percent from a year earlier. This was worse than the 7.2 trillion won average forec... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama pledged to increase U.S. support for the moderate opposition in Syria’s civil war on Monday and said the United States needed to do more at home to prevent attacks and combat Islamic State efforts to recruit followers. Obama, ... More »
LONDON After three hours and two minutes of combat, Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson were forced off court in the twilight with their last 16 clash tantalizingly poised at two sets all and their Wimbledon audience begging for more. The match was halted as dus... More »
NEW YORK Greece’s sound rejection of a bailout at a referendum on Sunday increased the chances it may leave the euro zone, but Athens and its creditors could still reach a deal, said a top strategist for BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest asset manager. “It do... More »
ZURICH Tunisia has filed an objection to HSBC’s agreement to pay 40 million Swiss francs ($43 million) to settle a money laundering investigation at its Swiss private bank, a lawyer representing the North African country said on Monday. After four months of in... More »
ZURICH Tunisia has filed an objection to HSBC’s agreement to pay 40 million Swiss francs ($42.5 million) to settle a money laundering investigation at its Swiss private bank, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday. After four months of inquiries Ge... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Inside Out” delivered the firepower at the five-day holiday weekend box office as it finished in first ahead of “Jurassic World” and new entries “Terminator: Genisys” and “Magic Mike XXL.” In a tight race, Disney-Pixar’s animated c... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off on Friday to deliver a cargo ship loaded with food, water and equipment to the International Space Station, breaking a string of launch failures, a NASA TV broadcast showed. The Progress capsule, carrying... More »
SAO PAULO Swiss lender UBS AG made a whistleblower deal with Brazilian authorities investigating the suspected rigging of Brazil’s currency market and will receive no punishment in the case, a local newspaper reported on Friday. The investigation, which involv... More »
HONOLULU A Swiss man attempting to circumnavigate the globe with an aircraft powered only by the sun’s energy has broken a world record for the longest non-stop solo flight, the project team said on Thursday. The Solar Impulse, which took off from Japan on Mon... More »
LONDON The British Broadcasting Corporation will cut more than 1,000 jobs to cover a 150-million-pound gap in license fee income next financial year as millions of viewers turn off their televisions and watch programs on tablets and mobile phones. The BBC, the... More »
TOKYO Oil futures hovered below three-week lows on Tuesday as investors waited for developments in Greece following a bank shutdown, keeping them away from riskier assets and putting Brent crude on course for a second month of declines. Brent crude futures wer... More »
HONG KONG Asian shares held near five-month lows on Tuesday after Chinese stocks took another leg down while safe-haven assets received a boost as investors nervously awaited further developments in the deepening euro zone crisis. China’s stocks .SSEC tumbled ... More »
TOKYO Sony Corp said it plans to raise up to 440 billion yen ($3.6 billion) by issuing new shares and convertible bonds to invest in its fast-growing image sensors business. Sony said it expects to raise 321 billion yen from a public offering and 119 billion f... More »
TOKYO The euro slipped on Tuesday as traders braced for the near certainty that Greece will default on a repayment to the International Monetary Fund later in the day, putting the country at risk of disruptive exit from the euro zone. The euro fell 0.4 percent... More »
DUBAI Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, departed Tehran for Vienna with nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi and Hossein Fereydoon, a brother and close aide to President Hassan Rouhani, for nuclear talks, state news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday. Zari... More »
TOKYO Two passengers on a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train died after one doused himself in oil and set himself ablaze on Tuesday, media reports said. The train, carrying about 1,000 passengers, made an emergency stop on its way from Tokyo to the western city ... More »
SEOUL U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc has no plans to spin off its chips business at present, Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs said on Tuesday, despite recent investor pressure to do so amid intensifying industry competition. Hedge fund Jana Partners said in April Q... More »
BEIJING China’s trade deficit in services widened to $18.3 billion in May, as Chinese tourists continued to spend more abroad than foreigners visiting the country, the foreign exchange regulator said on Tuesday. The deficit was led by a $16.2 billion gap in sp... More »
WASHINGTON More than half a billion years ago, a peculiar little creature with rows of spikes on its back and delicate, feather-like front limbs to strain bits of food from the water thrived in the primordial seas of what is now China. Scientists on Monday ann... More »
CHICAGO Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) will start a business loan program for small sellers in the United Kingdom on Tuesday and is looking to launch it this year in seven more countries including China. Until now, the e-retailer has offered the service only in the U... More »
PARIS Hot prospects Warren Barguil and Simon Yates have been tipped to win the Tour de France one day, yet neither is riding for a team from their home country as they learn the ropes abroad. France’s Barguil, 23, is with Dutch team Giant-Alpecin while Briton ... More »
TOKYO U.S. stock futures edged up and the euro sagged in early Asian trading on Tuesday as Greece lurched toward defaulting on a debt payment due later in the session, raising the likelihood of the cash-strapped nation’s exit from the euro zone. Greece will no... More »
LONDON Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams made strong cases for the less is more approach to Wimbledon build-ups with resounding victories at a sunny All England Club on Monday. Defending men’s champion Djokovic, who has been training in the south of France ra... More »
ASHGABAT Turkmenistan, which rights groups view as one of the most repressive countries in the world, celebrated President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s 58th birthday on Monday by opening a park in the capital Ashgabat bearing his name. It was the latest tribut... More »
SYDNEY Justin Bieber arrived in Sydney on Monday to attend a week-long gathering at a Hillsong pentecostal church, after the pop star this year vowed to discard his hard-partying image. “Justin is here, like tens of thousands of others, as a delegate who is se... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – The party wasn’t as wild the second time around. Universal’s “Ted 2” debuted to an underwhelming $32.9 million across 3,442 theaters, roughly $15 million less than most analysts had expected the pot-smoking teddy bear comedy would ... More »
ORLANDO, Fla. Walt Disney Co will ban selfie sticks starting next week at its theme parks around the world, the company said on Friday, joining a growing list of attractions that restrict the camera accessories for safety reasons. Beginning Tuesday, the compan... More »
LONDON Scientists have identified a key gene used by poppies to make morphine, paving the way for better methods of producing the medically important drug, potentially without the need for cultivating poppy fields. The latest finding follows recent success in ... More »
A clothing designer area is pictured at TechShop in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, California April 24, 2014. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith In the shadow of Internet monoliths such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, it’s easy to forget that Silico... More »
