KRAKOW, Poland A Polish court’s decision to deny the extradition of film-maker Roman Polanski to the United States over a 1977 child sex conviction became legally binding on Friday after an appellate prosecutor’s office said it found no justification to appeal... More »
ROME Five frescoed stone slabs stolen from a tomb in the ancient city of Paestum and trafficked by a notorious artifact smuggler went on display in Italy on Thursday after a 10-year investigation. Police were led to the pieces, all dating from around 400 BC, a... More »
LONDON, The World Health Organization’s failure to sound the alarm until months into West Africa’s Ebola outbreak was an “egregious failure” which added to the enormous suffering and death toll, global health experts said on Monday. A specialist panel convened... More »
ZURICH The Swiss National Bank should make more efforts to protect Switzerland’s economy from the impact of an overvalued franc, economists told several Swiss newspapers. The SNB abandoned its cap on the franc in January and is instead using negative interest ... More »
Novartis AG said on Friday it received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regular approval for a drug combination to treat an aggressive form of skin cancer. The FDA approved Tafinlar and Mekinist for treatment of metastatic melanoma based on two years ov... More »
LONDON The euro hit a 6 1/2-month low against the yen and was pinned down near 7-month troughs against the dollar on Monday after the deadly attacks in Paris led to a bout of global risk aversion and kept investors cautious on the common currency. The Swiss fr... More »
SYDNEY The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) could face recommendations that include suspension from the Olympics when the second part of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) report is released, according to one of the doping body’s in... More »
LONDON Swiss maestro Roger Federer will have an early chance to disprove the notion that Novak Djokovic is untouchable when they meet in their second round-robin match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Tuesday. Federer outclassed Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-2 to kicksta... More »
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES In recent days, the largest U.S. managers of private prescription drug benefits have cut off at least eight pharmacies that work closely with drugmakers, intensifying scrutiny of a system that helps inflate drug prices, officials at the be... More »
LONDONGlobal regulators set out their “final tools” on Monday for ending the phenomenon of “too big to fail” banks, seeking to draw a line under a period of intensive rule making after a financial crisis that tarnished the sector and weighed heavily on taxpaye... More »
LONDONThe dollar edged away from a 6-1/2-month high against the euro on Monday, as investors took profits on the greenback’s surge after bumper U.S. jobs data bolstered bets on the U.S. Federal Reserve raising interest rates in December. The only major currenc... More »
LONDONBanks struggled again to make money trading bonds, currencies and commodities in the third quarter, as regulatory changes squeezed liquidity and intensified the pressure to cut costs, staff and activity. Revenue and profit fell for most of the world’s ma... More »
LONDON The U.S. dollar fell on Monday, as appetite for risk waned amid downbeat Chinese factory surveys, which also lent support to the low-yielding euro and the safe-haven yen. Demand for both currencies has risen in recent times when worry about a sharp Chin... More »
LONDON Three of Europe’s top drugmakers – GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Sanofi – face health checks this week at high-profile presentations designed to show they can overcome looming market threats. The unusual confluence of investor days comes at a testing time ... More »
Six big U.S. banks need to raise an additional $120 billion, most likely in long-term debt, under a rule proposed on Friday by the Federal Reserve. The requirements are aimed at ensuring that some of the biggest and most interconnected banks, which include Gol... More »
KRAKOW, Poland Oscar-winning film-maker Roman Polanski said on Friday he was grateful and relieved after a Polish court rejected a U.S. request for his extradition over a 1977 child sex conviction. The case of the Polish-born Polanski, now 82, remains an inter... More »
LONDON, Anyone who goes down with flu in Europe this winter could be asked to enroll in a randomized clinical trial in which they will either be given a drug, which may or may not work, or standard advice to take bed rest and paracetamol. Those who agree could... More »
The president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, has formally entered the race to become FIFA president, the Bahrain News Agency reported on Sunday. The agency said Sheikh Salman had submitted his paperw... More »
BOSTON/NEW YORK A panel of medical experts said on Friday the prices of prescription medicines in the United States need to be brought in line with the value they bring to patients instead of continuing to let drugmakers set any price they choose. “Americans a... More »
GENEVA The world should stop vaccinating children against one of the three strains of the crippling polio virus as part of a drive to eradicate the disease once and for all, a group of health experts has advised the World Health Organization. There is no cure ... More »
FRANKFURT Deutsche Bank Chief Executive John Cryan will present details of a deep overhaul of Germany’s biggest lender on Thursday, hoping his changes will please investors after rival Credit Suisse’s plan drew a tepid response. One top 30 institutional shareh... More »
ZURICH The anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s national parliamentary election, keeping pressure on Bern to introduce quotas on people moving from the European Union. Success for the SVP, coupled with gains... More »
ZURICH/LONDON When Tidjane Thiam unveils his plans for Credit Suisse on Wednesday the Swiss bank’s new chief executive will likely rest his case on three Cs: capital, cuts and charm. Thiam will show his hand after taking the reins at Zurich-based Credit Suisse... More »
NEW YORK Wall Street bankers and traders are likely to get smaller bonuses for 2015 as trading revenue plunges. Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that it set aside 16 percent less money for compensation in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2014. ... More »
NEW YORK Two former Rabobank [RABO.UL] traders from Britain are set to become the first defendants to face trial in the United States on charges stemming from a global investigation into whether various banks sought to manipulate the interest rate known as Lib... More »
ZURICH Nestle’s health science division is investing $70 million in a product technology center that will become the unit’s new U.S. headquarters and research hub, the division said on Friday. The Bridgewater, New Jersey center will further Nestle’s healthcare... More »
ZURICH Swiss bank Credit Suisse plans to tap investors for a “substantial” capital raising to fund a restructuring of the bank under new Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam, the Financial Times said on Thursday. Since taking charge of Credit Suisse in July, Thiam ha... More »
LONDON The dollar nursed losses on Monday, falling around 0.4 percent against the euro and easing against a basket of currencies, after a weak U.S. jobs report drove traders to push back expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike to early 2016. The euro’s bou... More »
KABUL Police and residents said Afghan government forces had regained control of most of the besieged city of Kunduz on Monday, and some shops in the center of the provincial capital opened for the first time since it fell to Taliban fighters a week ago.Reside... More »
ATLANTA A dozen Pacific nations closed in on a sweeping free-trade pact on Sunday in Atlanta but failed to finalize terms on the fifth day of round-the-clock talks, dashing hopes raised by an earlier breakthrough on protections for new biotech drugs. U.S. offi... More »
LONDON The world’s nine biggest insurance companies will have to hold more capital under new rules just finalised by global regulators that aim to prevent taxpayer bailouts of the industry in a crisis. Regulators decided to look at the multi-trillion dollar in... More »
LONDON Glencore (GLEN.L) shares sank more than 10 percent to a new record low on Monday, with the mining and trading company’s drive to sell assets to cut heavy debts failing to soothe fears over slumping metals prices. Traders cited a bearish Investec note th... More »
ZURICH The Swiss competition regulator has opened an investigation into possible collusion in the precious metals market by several major banks, it said on Monday, the latest in a string of manipulation probes. Switzerland’s WEKO watchdog said its investigatio... More »
Switzerland’s Roche has a potential new multi-billion-dollar drug to help it diversify beyond cancer treatments following the success of ocrelizumab against a hard-to-treat type of multiple sclerosis. The injectable antibody medicine is the first product to sh... More »
LONDON The dollar edged back towards a five-week high against a basket of major currencies on Monday, as investors eyed U.S. payrolls numbers and Chinese data later in the week for confirmation of bets the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year. Th... More »
ZURICH Since the explosive indictments and arrests of international soccer officials in May, FIFA President Sepp Blatter — previously a prolific traveler — had only once left his home base of Switzerland. In the end, he wasn’t even safe in his own office. On F... More »
ZURICH Roche ‘s new immune-system boosting cancer drug has given positive results in tests on patients suffering from some lung and bladder cancers, according to data released on Sunday at the European Cancer Congress in Vienna that the company hopes will help... 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 »
Companies and organizations are pledging to provide funds, goods and services to help thousands of migrants arriving in Europe from war-torn and impoverished countries. Companies are helping through both corporate and employee schemes. Following are some examp... More »
NEW YORK Novak Djokovic closed out the grand slam campaign in style beating long time rival Roger Federer to claim the U.S. Open on Sunday, leaving the Serb a hair away from one of the greatest seasons of all-time. The 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-4 victory gave Djokovic thr... More »
NEW YORK Unlike the women’s U.S. Open final there was no center court retirement announcement on Sunday with Roger Federer putting aside the disappointment of losing to Novak Djokovic in the men’s final to tell fans he will be back. After winning the U.S. Open... More »
A new Novartis AG drug to treat heart failure should cost 17 percent less than its list price of $4,560 per year to keep health costs in line with growth in the overall U.S. economy, according to the nonprofit ICER. In a draft report released on Friday, the Bo... More »
BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the euro zone economy was in better shape than a year ago and said reform efforts by countries like Spain and Ireland had paid off. “If we look at the euro zone as a whole, we can say that there is ... More »
NEW YORK Top seed Novak Djokovic was made to work hard by Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut before he posted a 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-3 win at the U.S. Open on Sunday, moving him into his 26th consecutive grand slam quarter-final. After Djokovic won an opening-set groundst... More »
NEW YORK Swiss second seed Roger Federer faces a danger match against big-hitting American John Isner in fourth-round action at the U.S. Open on Monday. Five-times U.S. Open champion Federer will start a warm favorite, but will take nothing for granted when he... More »
ZURICH Novartis plans the first human tests next year of a “smart” contact lens it is developing with Google designed to help restore the eye’s natural autofocus. “This project is progressing well,” Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez told Swiss newspaper Le ... More »
NEW YORK Serena Williams is on the brink of the grandest achievement in tennis, the single season Grand Slam, and even the leading men at the U.S. Open championships starting on Monday are cheering her on. The 33-year-old American, with the 2015 Australian Ope... 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 »
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 »
ZURICH Syngenta AG, the Swiss agricultural chemicals maker, was seen opening up more than 7 percent after a source said Monsanto Co. had sweetened its takeover offer, according to premarket indicators in Zurich. U.S.-based Monsanto increased its offer to buy S... More »
LONDON British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca named Sean Bohen as its chief medical officer, in an appointment that it said could help accelerate the development of new oncology and immunology medicines. AstraZeneca, Britain’s second biggest drugmaker behi... More »
NEW YORK The U.S. dollar fell on Wednesday to its lowest in about a month against a basket of major currencies, on doubts over whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in September given China’s devaluation of the yuan. The euro hit its highe... 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 »
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 »
Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.VX) is in talks to settle allegations related to its Crossfinder “dark pool” trading venue, which could result in a fine running in the high tens of millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with... More »
TORONTO Serena Williams shook off some hard-court rust before rolling to a 2-6 6-3 6-0 win over Italy’s Flavia Pennetta at the Rogers Cup on Tuesday, but the home crowd failed to fire up local favorite Eugenie Bouchard, who slumped to another first round exit.... More »
TORONTO Eugenie Bouchard was hailed as the new face of women’s tennis just 12 months ago but the Canadian’s downward spiral continued on Tuesday with a humbling 6-0 5-7 6-2 loss to Swiss Belinda Bencic in the opening round of the Rogers Cup. Home fans had come... More »
SEOUL South Korea’s Chung Mong-joon will formally launch his bid to become president of world soccer’s scandal-hit governing body FIFA on Aug. 17 in France, the home of rival Michel Platini. Chung, a former FIFA vice president and fierce critic of outgoing pre... More »
MUMBAI India will seek damages of 6.39 billion rupees ($99.3 million) from Swiss group Nestle after a food scare involving reports of excess lead in the firm’s popular Maggi noodles forced a nationwide recall, a government official said on Tuesday. Nestle, whi... More »
GENEVA The remains of two young Japanese climbers missing on the Matterhorn mountain since a 1970 snow storm in the Swiss Alps have been identified through DNA testing of their relatives, police said on Thursday. Human bones spotted by a climber last September... More »
KUALA LUMPUR The head of world athletics vigorously defended the IAAF’s anti-doping record on Monday, as global sporting bodies called for a thorough probe of the latest allegations to plunge international sport into crisis. Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper an... More »
KUALA LUMPUR FIFA President Sepp Blatter was relieved of his International Olympic Committee ex officio membership on Monday, seven months before he will be replaced as the head of soccer’s governing body, IOC President Thomas Bach said on Monday. Blatter woul... More »
LONDON The dollar fell against a basket of currencies on Monday, weighed down by below-par wage growth data late last week that clouded the outlook over when U.S. interest rates are likely to rise. U.S. short-dated yields fell and the dollar was sold on Friday... More »
KUALA LUMPUR The head of world athletics said on Monday that any suggestion his organization had been negligent in drug testing of athletes was “laughable”. “There are allegations made, no evidence,” IAAF president Lamine Diack told Reuters in the Malaysian ca... More »
LONDON The Chinese slowdown is forcing many Western companies to take a hard look at their businesses there, leading many to reduce investments, costs and product lines and to tackle increasing bad debts. Double digit growth rates during the first decade of th... More »
MUMBAI An Indian court has concluded hearing a case filed by Nestle India challenging a local regulator’s report that Maggi instant noodles contained excess lead, a lawyer for the company said. The Bombay High Court will give a judgment at a later date, Rajesh... More »
LONDON/GENEVA The world is on the verge of being able to protect humans against Ebola, the World Health Organization said on Friday, as a trial in Guinea found a vaccine to have been 100 percent effective. Initial results from the trial, which tested Merck... More »
LONDON European shares retreated on Tuesday from their six-week high in the previous session, with the healthcare leading the market lower after Novartis (NOVN.VX) reported quarterly incomes below analysts’ expectations. The STOXX Europe 600 Healthcare Index .... 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 »
WASHINGTON If you feel like a human scream jolts the deep recesses of your brain, there’s a good reason for it. That is precisely what is happening, scientists say. Researchers who explored how the brain handles a scream said on Thursday the loud, high-pitched... More »
LONDON Gene therapy for deafness is moving closer to reality, with new research on Wednesday showing the technique for fixing faulty DNA can improve responses in mice with genetic hearing loss. Separately, a clinical trial backed by Novartis is under way to he... 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 »
MONTREUX, Switzerland Pop star Lady Gaga and crooner Tony Bennett brought a mix of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and even Edith Piaf to a sell-out crowd spanning generations at the Montreux Jazz Festival on Monday night. Legendary producer Quincy ... 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 »
LONDON It was a case of 7-7-7 for Roger Federer at Wimbledon on Monday as he fired down seven aces, won seven games on the trot and sat through a seven-minute injury timeout in an otherwise serene 6-2 6-2 6-3 win over Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard became... 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 »
ZURICH Greece has proposed a tax amnesty in an effort to collect revenue on billions of euros that its citizens are believed to have quietly stashed in Swiss bank accounts, the NZZ am Sonntag paper reported. The plan, which still needs Greek parliamentary appr... 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 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 »
NEW YORK (This version of the story corrects title of analyst in second paragraph, shows Thornburg has reduced, not eliminated currency in 10th paragraph.) The prospect of Greece defaulting on its debt has long been viewed as the recipe for a global stock mark... More »
