BRATISLAVA Slovakia will be among the first to ask Greece to leave the euro zone if it fails to adhere to agreed conditions of further, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Tuesday. Fico told reporters that Slovakia was fundamentally against allowing any ... More »
SHANGHAI Officials from the world’s largest emerging nations launched the New Development Bank (NDB) on Tuesday, the second of two new policy banks heavily backed by Beijing that are being pitched as alternatives to existing institutions such as the World Bank... More »
FRANKFURT/STUTTGART SAP’s order pipeline for the second half of the year is “very healthy” and will offset a decline in sales from its packaged software products, which will pose no threat to the company’s full-year operating profit target, its finance chief s... More »
FRANKFURT German business software maker SAP posted quarterly profit at the low end of forecasts, hit by weak sales of its traditional packaged software and a rapid shift by customers to lower-margin cloud software delivered via the Internet. Like established ... More »
LONDON Gold was on the brink of five year lows on Tuesday, with more losses expected in the coming months following Monday’s “bear raid” when sellers dumped an estimated 33 tonnes in just two minutes. The sudden bout of selling in Shanghai and New York occurre... More »
BANGKOK/HONG KONG U.S. fund giant BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) has won a special new licence that will allow it to raise funds in China directly for the first time, a senior executive told Reuters, paving the way for the world’s largest money manager to expand in the... 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 »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla A faulty metal brace in an unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket likely triggered the explosion that destroyed the booster minutes after liftoff from Florida last month, company chief Elon Musk said on Monday. The June 28 accident, which destroye... More »
NEW YORK U.S. presidential contender Hillary Clinton’s proposed plan to overhaul capital gains taxes aims to foster long-term growth by taxing some short-term investments at higher rates, an aide for her campaign said on Monday. Although details of the plan ha... More »
NEW YORK Fund companies and brokerage firms should be able to weather a proposal by Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that would increase capital gains taxes for some investors, but some fund holders could see higher costs, managers and an... More »
NEW YORK U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would increase the incentives for corporate whistleblowers to come forward to report financial misconduct, she said on Monday. Answering questions from voters in an online chat, Clinton, the Democratic front... More »
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush vowed on Monday to cut government spending and more tightly limit lawmakers’ connections with lobbyists if he reaches the White House, part of an attempt to separate himself from a large pack of R... More »
ATHENS Once again Alexis Tsipras was struggling to make a decision. For hours on July 13, the Greek prime minister and Europe’s leaders had been trying to thrash out a new deal to bail out bankrupt Greece and keep the country in the euro zone. Now a clean copy... More »
LONDON British publisher Pearson (PSON.L) is exploring the sale of its Financial Times newspaper after receiving interest from potential buyers, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Pearson was sounding out possible bidders for... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON Scientists are about to embark on the biggest search yet for alien life, sweeping the skies for signals of civilizations beyond our solar system with $100 million from a Russian billionaire and the backing of physicist Stephen Hawking. Whe... More »
NEW YORK A couple of years ago, Emilie Hunt had to go to the emergency room with a stomach virus. The bill took a huge chunk of money out of her savings, more than $800, and kept her from saving for a couple of months. “I’m really bad at planning for unexpecte... More »
LOS ANGELES A new study by student lender Sallie Mae found the average amount spent on college education in the United States jumped for the first time in five years, thanks to greater outlays from high-income families and parental readiness to spend more. Fam... 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 »
PARIS French President Francois Hollande called on Sunday for the creation of a euro zone government and for citizens to renew their faith in the European project, which has been weakened by the Greek crisis. Reviving an idea originally put forward by former E... More »
BERLIN German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel criticized Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in a television interview to be broadcast later on Sunday for suggesting that Greece could quit the euro zone temporarily. Schaeuble has said that Greece could take a ... More »
BRUSSELS The latest paroxysm of Greece’s debt crisis has exposed growing rifts in the euro zone which, unless addressed soon, could lead to the break-up of European monetary union, the EU’s most ambitious project. The most worrying sign for European leaders is... More »
BERLIN More than half of Germans think the planned deal with Greece is bad and many would have preferred that the crisis-stricken country left the euro zone rather than getting the chance for further aid, according to an opinion poll. Lawmakers in Germany, the... 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 »
SEATTLE The world’s largest-diameter tunneling machine could resume drilling under downtown Seattle in late November after repairs are completed, allowing a central part of a years-delayed highway project to go forward, Washington state officials said on Frida... More »
NEW YORK Morningstar Inc said DoubleLine Capital’s flagship Total Return Bond Fund is “not ratable” for a second straight year, citing a lack of information about the firm’s investment process, succession planning and risk controls. The Chicago-based investmen... More »
BERLIN German lawmakers gave their go-ahead on Friday for the euro zone to negotiate a third bailout for Greece, but a warning from Chancellor Angela Merkel that the alternative was chaos failed to prevent a hefty rebellion in her own party. The Bundestag, the... More »
(This column has been corrected to fix spelling of co-author’s name to Straehl in seventh paragraph) By James Saft More »
BERLIN German lawmakers gave their go ahead on Friday for the euro zone to negotiate a third bailout for Greece, heeding a warning from Chancellor Angela Merkel that the alternative to a deal with Athens was chaos. The Bundestag lower house of parliament, whos... More »
BRUSSELS The head of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Friday he was “certain” there would be problems with Greece in the years to come after the euro zone’s bailout fund decided to open talks with Greece on a third bailout program. “It’s not going to ... More »
NEW YORK A U.S. judge ruled on Thursday that online television service FilmOn X LLC should be treated like a traditional cable system in order to transmit the programs of the nation’s broadcasters over the Internet. The ruling, coming as consumer TV-watching h... More »
LONDON Britain’s telecoms regulator is seriously considering a break up of dominant provider BT, after rivals accused it of abusing its market position and failing to invest in the broadband networks they rely on. Ofcom floated the idea of a forced separation ... More »
LONDON A quarter of dogs competing in the world’s biggest dog show are overweight, scientists said on Monday. An analysis of canines at Britain’s Crufts show – held annually since the reign of Queen Victoria – found 74 percent were in ideal condition but 26 pe... More »
BRUSSELS Euro zone leaders clinched a deal with Greece on Monday to negotiate a third bailout to keep the near-bankrupt country in the euro zone after a whole night of haggling at an emergency summit. “Euro summit has unanimously reached agreement. All ready t... 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 »
BRUSSELS Greece has secured debt restructuring and medium-term financing in a growth package worth 35 billion euros in a deal with its creditors that will allow the country to stay in the euro, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in Brussels on Monday. He said ... 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 »
ATHENS The Greek opposition party To Potami will not enter a national unity government with the ruling Syriza party, but will support a solution for the nation’s interests, a party official said on Monday. Euro zone leaders argued late into the night with near... 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 »
PARIS There is a “shared desire” among euro zone heads of state to keep Greece in the single currency, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Monday. He spoke after euro zone leaders argued late into the night with near-bankrupt Greece at an... 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 »
NEW YORK Presidential contender Hillary Clinton will pledge to “reform” capital gains taxation in coming weeks as part of her plan to fight an excessive focus on quick profits in capital markets, according to a campaign talking points document seen by Reuters.... More »
WASHINGTON Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton will put the fight for higher wages for “everyday Americans” at the heart of her economic agenda on Monday, when she makes the first major policy speech in her White House bid. Clinton will argue that ensuring ... More »
MILWAUKEE Scott Walker jumps into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Monday, needing to prove he has learned from early missteps and can appeal to voters beyond the conservatives who dominate the first nominating contest in Iowa. The W... 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 »
BRUSSELS Euro zone leaders told near-bankrupt Greece at an emergency summit on Sunday it must enact key reforms this week to restore trust before they will open talks on a financial rescue to keep it in the European currency area. Leftist Prime Minister Alexis... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is closing fast on an unexpectedly spotted Pluto, the most distant planetary body ever explored. From New Horizon’s position more than 3 billion miles (4.88 billion km) from Earth, radio signals, traveling at ... More »
LONDON Britain’s government will ask the BBC’s competitors to scrutinize the broadcaster’s remit and scale, the government said on Sunday, after years of controversy over how it has been funded. The BBC [TBBC.UL], the world’s largest broadcaster, has long been... More »
PHOENIX Boasting of his rising poll numbers, real estate mogul Donald Trump on Saturday railed against his rivals in the 2016 presidential race and criticized companies such as Macy’s that cut ties with him over his inflammatory comments about Mexican immigran... 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 »
WASHINGTON The federal government could find more cyber intrusions as it takes a close look at its sprawling and sometimes creaky systems in the wake of massive hacks, the nation’s chief information officer told Reuters. “I think it’s a realistic chance, and I... More »
NEW YORK/CHICAGO When Donald Trump described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers last month, Latinos took to social media to express their outrage and urge businesses to sever ties with the billionaire presidential candidate. In short order, more ... More »
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO U.S. government antitrust regulators are looking into claims about whether Apple’s treatment of rival streaming music apps is illegal under antitrust law, according to three industry sources. Apple recently launched a new music streami... More »
UNITED NATIONS Some $3.4 billion in pledges were made at the United Nations on Friday to help Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea stamp out Ebola and begin rebuilding health systems and economies devastated by the worst outbreak on record of the deadly hemorrhagi... More »
WASHINGTON The chief of the U.S. federal hiring office resigned on Friday after massive computer hacks at the agency that put the personal data of more than 22 million Americans at risk, including people seeking sensitive security clearances. The White House s... More »
SAN FRANCISCO Ellen Pao resigned as acting chief executive of Reddit Friday in the latest sign of turmoil at the site, recently roiled by the firing of a popular employee and ongoing tensions over the limits of free speech on its social-news platform. Reddit c... More »
MEXICO CITY Mexico City could become the first city in the world to limit the number of Uber cars, according to draft regulation that the company said on Friday also threatens to wipe out its most popular service in the giant metropolis. Aside from the fleet l... More »
CARACAS Origami-like boats made from Venezuela’s rapidly depreciating bolivar bills sit on the cash register of a small fruit and vegetable store in Caracas. Cashier Marisol Garcia makes the bolivar boats to illustrate roaring inflation and the currency’s tumb... More »
PARIS An attempt by Airbus to make history by crossing the English Channel in an electric plane ended in wounded pride on Friday after a French pilot claimed to have beaten it by hours. In a further twist, a Slovenian businessman said he might have beaten both... More »
(Editor’s Note: Please be advised that paragraph 2 contains language that some readers may find offensive) By Ben Klayman 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 »
NEW YORK “Go Set a Watchman,” the much-anticipated second novel by “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee, is the most pre-ordered print title on Amazon.com since the last book in the “Harry Potter” series, Amazon said on Thursday. The online retailer said ... More »
NEW YORK Which would you prefer: Naked pictures of yourself circulating on the Internet or a breach of your financial data? According to a new survey from Mastercard, 62 percent of Millennials would rather have their nude photos leaked online than have their f... More »
ATHENS With banks shut and the economy seizing up, some Greek newspapers like the Empros daily on the island of Lesvos are running out of paper and could be forced to stop sales altogether until the banks open again. The island’s biggest selling newssheet, Emp... More »
MILAN British mobile phone giant Vodafone has reached an agreement with Mediaset to offer pay-TV content of the Italian broadcaster to its customers in the southern European country, the two companies said in a joint statement on Thursday. The offer, which bun... More »
WASHINGTON A Falcon 9 rocket accident last month should not eliminate SpaceX from the competition to launch a new GPS satellite, U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah James said on Wednesday, since there would be “plenty of time” to test the rocket before any futur... 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 »
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 »
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 »
BRUSSELS/ATHENS Greece faces a last chance to stay in the euro zone on Tuesday when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras puts proposals to an emergency euro zone summit after Greek voters resoundingly rejected the austerity terms of a defunct bailout. With Greek bank... 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 »
ATHENS Euclid Tsakalotos, the mild-tempered professor who was appointed as Greece’s new finance minister on Monday, is a clear change in style from his combative predecessor Yanis Varoufakis. The 55-year-old Tsakalotos studied at prestigious private London sch... 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 »
WILLIAMSON, WV With coal trains chugging past in the distance, Jack Perry watches as his wife, Margie, plants row upon row of Hungarian pepper seedlings in the community garden that residents of this West Virginia coal town call the “Garden of Eatin’.” “Th... More »
SAN FRANCISCO When it comes to dashboard displays that are more like smart phones, two things are clear: Customers want them, and automakers are intent on supplying them. But are they really a good idea? Car companies answer with an emphatic yes. They say outs... 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 »
SAN FRANCISCO Facebook Inc’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is taking a seat on the board of SurveyMonkey, the online polling company that was run by her late husband, Dave Goldberg. SurveyMonkey, a privately held company valued at $2 billion, also ap... 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 »
CARACAS Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday said he was calling in the country’s ambassador in neighboring Guyana for consultations amid an escalating row over oil exploration in a disputed offshore territory. The OPEC nation in June demanded that Gu... 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 »
SAN FRANCISCO Reddit Chief Executive Ellen Pao on Monday issued an apology to users of the popular social news platform over the way the company handled the dismissal of a well-liked employee last week, a move that drew widespread outrage from users. The site’... 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 »
LOS ANGELES The “happiest place on Earth” will keep a special tax exemption in Anaheim, California, for 30 more years if the City Council approves the Walt Disney Co’s plan for a $1 billion-plus expansion of its theme park complex in the city. The five-member ... 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 »
