LONDONEuro zone private business growth remained tepid last month but activity in China’s services industry expanded at its fastest pace in three months, easing concerns about persistent weakness in its economy, surveys showed on Wednesday. There was little si... More »
ST PETERSBURG The first bodies from a plane crash in Egypt in which all 224 passengers, most of them Russians, died over the weekend arrived in St Petersburg early on Monday morning aboard a Russian government plane. The crashed Airbus A321 plane, operated by ... More »
ASTANA U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit London this week to discuss the situation in Syria and other matters, his spokesman said on Monday. “While in London, he will meet with British Foreign Secretary Hammond to discuss a range of bilateral and g... 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 Turkish Airlines Open champion Victor Dubuisson is less than pleased that he will be left twiddling his thumbs when the European Tour’s money-spinning Final Series continues in China on Thursday. The Frenchman sobbed like a child on Sunday after winning... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices dropped in Asian trading hours on Monday as analysts expected weaker demand from China in upcoming months, but firming Japanese economic data offered some support. Benchmark U.S. crude futures CLc1 had fallen 15 cents from their last settl... More »
TOKYO Asian stocks slid to their lowest level in nearly three weeks on Monday, as profit taking set in after soft Chinese factory surveys and U.S. consumer spending data raised concerns over the global economic outlook. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific sh... 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 »
LONDON British police have made a third arrest in connection with a cyber attack this month on telecoms company TalkTalk (TALK.L) in which the company said bank details of more than 20,000 customers were hacked. A 20-year-old man from Staffordshire, central En... More »
LONDON Vodafone UK (VOD.L) said on Saturday hackers had accessed the accounts of 1,827 of its customers this week, the second cyber attack on a British telecoms company this month. The attackers had potentially gained access to the victims’ bank sort codes and... 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 »
FRANKFURT Taxi-hailing service Uber Technologies is making a retreat in Germany to the cities of Berlin and Munich as it grapples with a ban from using unlicensed cab drivers. Uber will for now suspend services in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Duesseldorf, it said in... More »
NEW YORK Oil gained on Friday while stocks on Wall Street closed lower even as major U.S. and European stock indices posted their best month in at least four years, boosted in part by accommodative monetary policies in the euro zone and Japan. Oil prices rose ... More »
BOSTON Some big U.S. retailers are stepping up efforts to use personal identification numbers, or PINs, with new credit cards embedded with computer chips in a bid to prevent counterfeit card fraud. But they are being resisted by the banking industry, which se... More »
LONDON Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper the Sun is to take down its online paywall, after the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid failed to win enough readers in the latest troubled digital experiment for a traditional publisher. The scrapping of the online subscr... More »
NEW YORK Keira Knightley makes her Broadway debut in a new adaptation of Emile Zola’s “Therese Raquin”, taking to the stage as a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who begins an affair with her husband’s friend. The British actress, who has been nominated t... More »
NEW YORKKeira Knightley makes her Broadway debut in a new adaptation of Emile Zola’s “Therese Raquin”, taking to the stage as a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who begins an affair with her husband’s friend. The British actress, who has been nominated tw... More »
NEW YORKKeira Knightley makes her Broadway debut in a new adaptation of Emile Zola’s “Therese Raquin”, taking to the stage as a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who begins an affair with her husband’s friend. The British actress, who has been nominated tw... More »
LONDON Britain is seeking an “emergency brake” to allow countries which are in the European Union but outside the euro zone to delay decisions that could threaten their interests, the Financial Times reported. Britain, which is not a member of the 19-member si... More »
OSLO Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber, who made a triumphant return to the European stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Milan on Sunday, abruptly canceled his concert in Oslo on Thursday night after performing just one song. The singer, who found fame at ... More »
WASHINGTON Scientists have created a battery whose technology in principle could power electric cars and other energy-hungry devices far better than current lithium-ion batteries, but it remains years away from commercial use. Researchers at the University of ... More »
FRANKFURT German publisher Axel Springer appointed Jens Mueffelmann as head of its U.S. business on Thursday, a new post created in recognition of the growing importance of the market. Springer, which narrowly missed buying the Financial Times from Pearson thr... More »
BRUSSELS Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for insulting Islam and for cyber crime, was awarded the European Union’s prize for human rights and freedom of thought on Thursday. Badawi received the first of hi... More »
ATHENS They defied a vast Persian army in 480 BC, rejected Italy’s ultimatum during World War Two and told Europe to take a hike when presented with an unpalatable bailout deal in July, risking Greece’s place in the euro zone. Greeks celebrate ‘No’ Day, a uniq... More »
BRUSSELS The European Commission, which polices euro zone governments’ finances, will give more budget leeway to states that can prove to have suffered extraordinary costs to face the refugee crisis, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday. “W... More »
LONDON The Western-backed Free Syrian Army said on Monday it had not refused an offer of military support from Russia and that Moscow needs to stop targeting its bases in Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview broadcast on Saturday ... 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 »
WARSAW Poland’s eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) claimed victory on Sunday in a watershed election that risks putting the ex-communist state on a collision course with key European Union allies. Run by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Poland’s la... More »
WARSAW Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) would consider a partnership with rock star Pawel Kukiz and his anti-establishment grouping if they fall short of a clear majority in the final results of Sunday’s election, the party’s likely candidate for defense m... More »
AMSTERDAM Philips (PHG.AS) said on Monday the sale of its $3.3-billion Lumileds business to Go Scale Capital was uncertain, due to U.S. government concerns. Philips had announced in March an agreement to sell a stake of 80.1 percent in the business to Go Scale... More »
TOKYO Asian stocks on Monday were close to wiping out all their losses since China’s shock currency devaluation in August, as global equities rallied after the Chinese central bank cut rates and U.S. tech giants provided upbeat earning guidance. MSCI’s index o... More »
DETROIT Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and General Motors Co reached a tentative agreement on undisclosed terms for a new four-year labor contract, averting a threatened strike, the union said late on Sunday night. The proposed deal will now go to a c... More »
AUSTIN, Texas A downcast Nico Rosberg said he was at a loss to explain the error that gifted Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton both victory and a third Formula One world championship in a rollercoaster U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday. The German was leading when he ... More »
U.S. regulators are expanding their probe into Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE)(DB.N) as a money laundering investigation of a Moscow unit has widened into possible sanctions violations, the Financial Times reported, citing sources. The U.S. Justice Department and ... More »
AUSTIN, Texas An ‘overwhelmed’ Lewis Hamilton hoped to inspire others with his achievements, just as Ayrton Senna has fired his imagination as a boy, after celebrating the greatest day of his career with a third Formula One world title on Sunday. “I’m just ove... More »
LONDON British broadband provider TalkTalk said on Sunday it had hired defense company BAE Systems to investigate a cyber attack that may have led to the theft of personal data from its more than 4 million customers. TalkTalk said on Friday it had received a r... More »
LONDON British broadband provider TalkTalk said on Saturday it did not believe the authors of a cyber attack against it this week would be able to steal money from its customers. The firm said on Friday it had received a ransom demand from an unidentified part... More »
LONDON British business leaders on Saturday urged police to make cyber crime an urgent priority following an attack on broadband provider TalkTalk, saying firms face continual security breaches. TalkTalk said the private data of its more than 4 million custome... More »
LONDON A new play that opens in London next summer will pick up the story of Harry Potter where the seventh and final volume of J.K. Rowling’s saga left off, with a plot involving a grown-up Harry and his youngest son, Albus. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child... 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 »
MADRID Amancio Ortega, who transformed clothing group Inditex from a tiny family dressmaker into Spain’s biggest company, briefly overtook Bill Gates on Friday to become the world’s richest man. Although a 10 percent surge in the share price of Microsoft later... 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 »
ROME A boxy monument to Italy’s Fascist era is filling with workers for the first time in its 70-year history as fashion brand Fendi opens its new headquarters at the restored “Square Colosseum”. The travertine structure, formally known as the “Great House of ... More »
NEW YORK Stocks rose in the United States and Europe and the dollar hit a three-week high against the euro after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said further rate cuts were being considered to stimulate the euro zone economy. The ECB, as widely ex... More »
FRANKFURT Google says European media firms, often the search giant’s harshest industry critics, share a common threat because a surge in ad-blocking technology is a threat to all businesses dependent on advertising. Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, Google’s president for... More »
LONDON Alzheimer’s disease is moving out of the shadows as new plays tackle head-on the emotional pain of a condition that robs its victims of words, memories and coherent thought. For a generation of young playwrights, dementia is proving to be a touchstone i... More »
LONDON Had you seen Bob Dylan reinventing popular music on the stage of London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1966, you would never have believed that nearly 50 years later he would be treading the same boards and crooning the songs of Frank Sinatra. But there he was ... More »
PARIS Vivendi raised its stakes in French video games makers Ubisoft and Gameloft and indicated that it may buy additional shares later and seek board seats. Vivendi sold off its video games business Activision Blizzard in 2013 in the opening salvo of an asset... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices dipped on Monday as China’s economic growth eased in the third quarter to grow at the slowest pace since the start of the global financial crisis, raising concerns about demand. Brent for December delivery LCOc1 was down 27 cents at $50.19... More »
BERKASOVO, Serbia Thousands of migrants clamored to enter European Union member Croatia from Serbia on Monday after a night spent in the cold and mud of no-man’s land, their passage west slowed by a Slovenian effort to impose limits on the flow to western Euro... More »
PARIS Jean-Yves Le Drian will have to resign as French defense minister if he wins the presidency of Brittany in December’s regional elections, French President Francois Hollande said on Monday. “He is a candidate, and I have authorized him to be a candidate a... More »
HONG KONG Asian shares held two-month highs on Monday as a batch of Chinese data showed the economy slowing while still managing to reassure investors it was not in danger of a hard landing. Adding to optimism wee growing bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve wil... 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 »
PARIS U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday lobbied for the United States to be reelected to UNESCO’s board, promising to work with Congress to restore funding after Washington cut off its contributions in 2011 in protest over the Palestinians being adm... More »
NEW YORK Stocks in major world markets rose to a two-month high on Friday and the dollar ticked up, boosted by views that the European Central Bank may provide more stimulus to the euro zone economy. Oil prices rose nearly 2 percent as traders covered short po... More »
MILAN Telecom Italia said on Friday it would resume talks with the main shareholders of fiber optic company Metroweb over plans to build a broadband network in Italy. At stake in the negotiations is who will call the shots to implement the government’s 12-bill... 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 Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal division plans to offer an Internet-based comedy channel featuring ad-free performances from Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poehler and others, testing viewers’ willingness to pay for niche online content. The $3.99 a month service call... More »
PARIS The Museum of Mankind in Paris re-opens its doors this week after six years of renovations that have breathed new life into France’s leading anthropological museum. President Francois Hollande inaugurated the Musee de l’Homme on Thursday after the instit... More »
LONDON There are thousands of artworks on display at London Frieze, the vast showplace and market for contemporary art that opened this week, so perhaps visitors will be grateful that one of the exhibits is a place where they can sleep. The installation by AYR... More »
BRUSSELS European Union leaders have postponed a deeper discussion of the future of the euro zone until December because of divergent views in the biggest countries and because of the more pressing migration issue, diplomats said. EU leaders, who meet on Thurs... More »
LONDON French fashion house Chanel is putting on display its haute couture creations, dazzling diamond jewelry and the makings of its famed No. 5 scent in a London exhibition unveiling the creative history of one of the world’s most luxurious brands. The “Made... More »
VANVES, France Asterix and Obelix are back in a new edition of the famed comic book, this time fighting their Roman foes in a propaganda war alongside a character inspired by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Two years after “Asterix and the Picts” saw the duo... More »
LONDON Marlon James became the first Jamaican to win the Man Booker fiction prize on Tuesday for “A Brief History of Seven Killings”, inspired by an attempt to kill reggae star Bob Marley, and said he hoped more Caribbean writers will follow. The 686-page nove... More »
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has dismissed as wide of the mark reports that he sprayed Russian President Vladimir Putin with the winner’s champagne after Sunday’s grand prix in Sochi. “I actually didn’t. I didn’t actually spray him. I think there’... More »
BRUSSELS Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (ABI.BR) CEO says a study of SABMiller’s (SAB.L) African beer markets and talks with top shareholders led to an “alignment of stars” that drew it to its nearest rival. But observers say the real catalysts for the $100 billion ta... More »
LONDON Some of Britain’s most senior former judicial figures criticized Prime Minister David Cameron’s government on Monday for its response to the EU migrant crisis, saying it was inadequate and was pushing people into the arms of smugglers. A statement, sign... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices rose on Monday as the number of U.S. rigs fell for a sixth week, while investors waited for Chinese trade data to be published later this week for clues whether the world’s second biggest economy and oil consumer was slowing down further. ... More »
MOSCOW Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday, RIA news agency quoted the ministry’s press department as saying. RIA said the information came in response to a question on wh... More »
HONG KONG Asian shares rose on Monday, extending an October rally, as investors hunted for bargains in industrials and basic materials, fueled by a rebound in commodities while the dollar struggled as hopes of a Fed rate rise this year faded. European stocks w... More »
BEIJING China’s quality watchdog said on Monday it was “highly concerned” about the mechanism in Volkswagen AG’s (VOWG_p.DE) diesel cars designed to trick emissions tests and would take appropriate follow-up measures. The General Administration of Quality Supe... 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 »
SINGAPORE Oil prices rose on Monday as the number of U.S. rigs fell for a sixth straight week, while investors waited for Chinese trade data to be published later this week for clues on demand at the world’s top energy consumer. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (W... More »
Southwest Airlines Co said hundreds of its flights were delayed because of problems on its website, phone lines and airports on Sunday. In a statement on its website, Southwest said intermittent technical issues “are impacting website performance in creating n... 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 »
STOCKHOLM/MINSK Belarussian author Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday for her portrayal of the harshness of life in the Soviet Union and in her first public response denounced Russia’s intervention in Ukraine as an “invasion”. T... 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 Spanish artist Francisco Goya, best known now for depicting the horrors of war, was celebrated in his own time as a great portrait painter for royalty and aristocrats, generals and despots, politicians and friends. An exhibition at London’s National Gal... More »
LISBON Portugal’s president said on Tuesday he had asked Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho to begin consultations on forming a government that can ensure political stability in the euro zone nation. Passos Coelho’s center-right coalition won the most votes in... More »
PARIS/SINGAPORE Uber Inc’s aggressive global expansion is looking costlier and riskier than ever as the company struggles with regulatory and competitive obstacles in major markets. Just last week, the company faced a police raid on its European headquarters i... 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 »
PARIS Four people were still missing on Monday after flash floods on the French Riviera killed at least 17 people over the weekend, prompting the government to declare a natural disaster in the southeastern tourist region. Some 5,000 homes were still without e... More »
SEOUL Crude oil futures rose on Monday after Russia said it was ready to meet other producers to discuss the situation in the global oil market, where prices have more than halved from last year’s highs due to a persistent supply glut. A report showing a fifth... More »
TOKYO Asian stocks rose on Monday as expectations for a U.S. interest rate hike this year faded after weaker-than-expected employment data. Spreadbetters forecast a higher open for Britain’s FTSE .FTSE, Germany’s DAX .GDAXI and France’s CAC .FCHI as investors ... More »
ATHENS Greece will unveil a painful 2016 draft budget on Monday meant to satisfy international creditors, projecting the economy will stay in recession next year before returning to growth in 2017, in line with the estimates by the country’s lenders. After sev... More »
An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has revealed that more than 80 calls were made to ambulances by Sports Direct employees at its headquarters in Derbyshire for “life-threatening illnesses”. The figures, which came from a Freedom of... 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 »
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (RR.L) may announce a reduction of 400 management jobs in its marine division this week, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Chief Executive Warren East’s aim with the marine restructuring will be to s... More »
LONDON Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen kept his nerve to win the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship by two strokes at St Andrews on Sunday and ease the pain of narrowly missing out in 2012. Olesen, who recorded his third European Tour victory, led by three shots goi... More »
BERLIN Volkswagen’s (VOWG_p.DE) supervisory board will hold an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday at which finance chief Hans Dieter Poetsch is expected to be appointed as new head of the 20-member controlling panel, two sources said on Sunday. Europe’s bigges... More »
Investors pulled $2.3 billion in assets from Pacific Investment Management Co’s flagship fund in September, up from $1.8 billion the previous month, as market sentiment soured over persisting concerns of the impact of Chinese slowdown on the global economy and... More »
BRUSSELS Greece is likely to qualify for recapitalization funds for its banks by a Nov. 15 deadline because the payment depends mainly on financial sector reforms that it can implement by then, euro zone officials said on Friday. The euro zone bailout fund has... More »
LONDON British singer Sam Smith went straight to number one in the UK pop charts on Friday with “Writing’s On The Wall”, the theme song to the upcoming James Bond film “Spectre”, making it the first title track for a 007 movie to be a chart-topper. The song kn... More »
Dish Network Corp’s affiliates on Thursday surrendered 197 spectrum licenses to the U.S. government after they were held ineligible for $3.3 billion in small-business discounts earlier this year, according to a senior U.S Federal Communications Commission offi... More »
BENGALURU/LONDON World economic growth lost momentum in September, with China’s factory output shrinking again, euro zone manufacturing growth slowing, and U.S. activity steady. The latest business surveys across Asia, Europe and the Americas paint a gloomier ... More »
NEW YORK Global equities ended their worst quarter since the 2011 euro zone crisis on an upbeat note with a rally on Wednesday on hopes that Wall Street had bottomed and the commodities rout was over, while the dollar also rose. Major equity indexes around the... More »
GLASGOW This year’s Turner Prize nominees range from a collective selling handles, and costlier furnishings, online for 15 pounds ($23) a pop to a video display in which a woman talks about being brainwashed in Kentucky by aliens. Since the British contemporar... More »
FRANKFURT German publisher Axel Springer is to buy a further 88 percent of news website Business Insider for $343 million, increasing its stake to 97 percent and accelerating its push into digital, English-language content. Springer said it already owns about ... More »
