UNITED NATIONS Russia appeared to seize the initiative in international efforts to end the conflict in Syria on Sunday as Washington scrambled to devise a new strategy for the war-ravaged country and France sent warplanes to bomb Islamic State targets. As lead... 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 »
BERLIN Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has suspended the R&D chiefs of its core VW brand, luxury division Audi and sports-car maker Porsche, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. The carmaker’s supervisory board last Friday agreed to put a number of employee... 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 »
HELSINKI Earnings quality at Finland’s banks is at risk of being eroded by a struggling domestic economy and financial market together with low euro zone interest rates, the country’s financial watchdog said on Monday. With borrowing costs at historic lows, th... More »
ATHENS Greece’s third-largest lender Eurobank (EURBr.AT) said on Monday its non-performing loans rose slightly in the second quarter while core income before bad debt provisions grew 1.1 percent from the previous quarter. Providing a performance update before ... More »
COPENHAGEN Shares in Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) rose as much as 5 percent on Monday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the diabetes drug Tresiba, allowing the Danish drugmaker to prepare its largest ever drug launch. The FDA’s decision lat... More »
LONDON Oil company Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) is pulling out of exploration in Arctic waters off Alaska for the foreseeable future and could take a hit of up to $4.1 billion after failing to find enough oil. The unsuccessful drilling campaign is Shell’s second... More »
LONDON Talks between Vodafone and Liberty Global about exchanging assets to better compete in Europe’s converging mobile, broadband and TV markets collapsed on Monday because they could not agree on the value of their businesses. Vodafone, the world’s second-b... 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 »
LONDON The UK arm of discount supermarket Aldi said on Monday it would launch an online operation in Britain in 2016, initially selling wine, as it posted a dip in 2014 operating profit reflecting price cuts and higher staff costs. The privately-owned German g... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices dropped on Monday despite a fall in U.S. drilling activity for the fourth straight week, with analysts pointing to a poor economic growth outlook as the main reason for low crude prices. China’s August industrial profits dropped 8.8 percen... More »
SYDNEY A decision by Australia’s biggest tech company, Atlassian, to pursue a $3 billion listing in the United States is a blow to Australia’s ambitions to make technology a driver of the economy, a tech executive said on Monday. Atlassian’s defection comes ju... 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 »
MILAN Italian designer Giorgio Armani presented fluid silhouettes and overlapping layers in shades of pink inspired by a “summer breeze” on Friday as he showed next spring’s Emporio Armani collection for women at Milan Fashion Week. Armani, who celebrates four... More »
MILAN Italian fashion house Prada mixed masculine and feminine styles for next spring’s womenswear, presenting a reconstruction of skirt suits and outerwear in stripes, tweed and plaid. Under a ceiling of yellow fibreglass panels and cylinders, designer Miucci... 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 »
LONDON Britain is considering selling the Channel 4 public broadcaster as part of its drive to pay down debt, a government official has accidentally revealed. An official was photographed on Thursday outside No. 10 Downing St, the residence of Prime Minister D... More »
AMSTERDAM Norway’s Edvard Munch and Dutch master Vincent Van Gogh lived at the same time and both struggled to put their inner demons on canvas, but they never met in real life. A broad collection of their paintings, which greatly influenced modern 19th-centur... 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 »
BERLIN The head of the European Parliament said on Monday that he expects European Union interior ministers to agree on a voluntary scheme to relocate 160,000 migrants at their meeting on Tuesday. “There will be some discussions, but at the end there will be a... More »
FRANKFURT/HAMBURG Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) told U.S. dealers to halt sales of some 2015 diesel cars after regulators found software it designed for the affected vehicles gave false emissions data, the company said Sunday, announcing it had launched an investigat... 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 »
BERLIN The United States will increase the number of refugees it takes in by 15,000 over each of the next two years, bringing the total to 100,000 by 2017, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after talks with his German counterpart on Sunday. The remarks m... More »
LONDON London Fashion Week has sharpened its business focus over the past few years to usher in a new generation of fashion designers who blend creativity with a healthy dose of commerce. Long known as the little sister to Paris, Milan and New York, London is ... 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 »
NEW YORK Shari Cayle, 75, called “Miracle Mama” by her family ever since she beat back advanced colon cancer seven years ago, is still undergoing treatment and living alone. “I don’t want my grandchildren to remember me as the sick one, I want to be the fun on... 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 »
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 »
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 »
PARIS Altice NV (ATCA.AS), one of the most acquisitive European telecoms groups, made a major move into the U.S. market on Thursday with a deal to buy fourth-largest operator Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N) for $17.7 billion including debt. Altice founder Pat... 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 »
CAMBRIDGE, England Britain’s BBC will launch an online subscription service in the United States next year, boosting revenues for the public broadcaster and allowing viewers to watch shows on demand. “We’re launching a new OTT (over-the-top) video service in A... More »
FRANKFURT German publisher Axel Springer (SPRGn.DE) may want to increase its current 7 percent stake in U.S. news website Business Insider, German Manager Magazin reported on Thursday. Citing unnamed financial sources, the magazine said the publisher of Europe... More »
LONDON A year after Mario Draghi said European Central Bank interest rates had reached bottom, euro zone money markets are discounting a fair chance they could be lowered again – regardless of rising interest rates across the Atlantic. The low bank-to-bank len... More »
LONDON Reuters) – London’s tallest building, a 95-storey gleaming glass tower named the Shard, has changed more than the skyline. Completed in 2012, it spurred redevelopment at the ground level that ripped at southeast London’s cultural fabric by forcing the e... More »
News Corp said it would buy Unruly Holdings Ltd, a UK-based video advertisement technology company, giving it the technology that analyzes historical sharing behavior to predict the potential for video ads to go viral. Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp will ... More »
WASHINGTON Rising temperatures at the top of the world may be bad news for Arctic denizens like polar bears, but good news for the local mosquitoes, pesky bloodsuckers that prosper with warmer weather. Researchers said on Tuesday that increasing temperatures w... 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 »
LONDON Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, beloved of opera audiences for his command of the high registers, made a soaring stage debut as Orpheus in Gluck’s “Orphee et Eurydice” on Monday as the Royal Opera opened its 2015-16 season with a bang. In the role of ... 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 »
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 »
BELFAST When IRA-linked gunmen turned their fire on one other this summer they triggered a political crisis in Northern Ireland’s fragile government of pro-British unionists and republicans working for a united Ireland. They also revealed an uncomfortable trut... More »
PARIS Sanofi said on Monday a second late-stage Phase III study of its LixiLan diabetes drug had met its main target, readying it for regulatory submissions by the fourth quarter in the United States and the first quarter of next year in the European Union. Li... More »
MOBILE, Ala, Airbus Group NV (AIR.PA) threw a party for its new U.S. workers ahead of the formal opening Monday of its first commercial jet factory in the United States, and representatives of the machinists union joined the crowd. The International Associatio... More »
MOBILE, Ala. Airbus Group (AIR.PA) said on Sunday that its first U.S. factory, due to formally open on Monday, will be the most efficient in the world and will focus on building the largest version of the company’s single-aisle aircraft. The elegant, skylit fa... More »
PARIS French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin has ruled out allowing prime time advertising on public TV broadcasters, saying an increase in their funding should come from a slight increase in the TV tax. Last Tuesday Finance Minister Michel Sapin had raised th... More »
PARIS France is on the right path with reforms the Socialist government has undertaken but needs to go farther, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said on Sunday. Lagarde, who was finance minister in the government of conservative former presi... More »
American conductor Marin Alsop brought the 120th season of the Proms, the world’s biggest and longest running music festival, to a close in London on Saturday, with an acknowledgement of the power of music to help overcome inequality. “It’s clear inequality is... More »
VENICE Films from Latin America won two of the top prizes at the 72nd Venice Film Festival on Saturday, with Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas getting the Golden Lion best film award for “Desde Alla” (From Afar). Vigas, who won for his first feature film, abou... 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 »
BOSTON/NEW YORK Big mutual funds are likely to vote later this month to allow Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Brian Moynihan to retain his chairman title, based on their voting history, governance experts said. That support could leave investors seeking t... More »
LYON/PARIS, France (This 10 September, 2015 story was refiled to changes the headline, first paragraph to show Monsanto liable, not “guilty”, in the civil court ruling) A French court upheld on Thursday a 2012 ruling in which Monsanto was found to be liable in... 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 »
BRUSSELS International creditors expect the first review of Greek reforms under the latest bailout to start in October, bringing changes to a memorandum of understanding signed with Athens and paving the way for debt rescheduling talks, euro zone officials sai... More »
BERLIN Twenty-four years after it was buried, the head of a giant statue of Soviet revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin was dug up from woodland on the outskirts of Berlin on Thursday to be displayed at an exhibition in the German capital. The monument was unce... 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 »
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 »
SINGAPORE Oil prices fell on Monday as oversupply concerns, a firmer dollar and lackluster U.S. non-farm payrolls data weighed on global markets, but a rebound in Chinese stocks after a two-day holiday helped prop up prices. The long Labor Day holiday in the U... More »
VIENNA/MUNICH Austria said on Sunday it planned to end emergency measures that have allowed thousands of refugees stranded in Hungary into Austria and Germany since Saturday and move step by step “towards normality”. Austria had suspended its random border che... More »
ATHENS Turned down for a 10,000 euro ($11,100) loan, George Sarris is one of hundreds of thousands of small business owners shunned by Greek banks. Pointing to the parliament building overlooking his small cafe in Athens’ Syntagma Square, the 35-year-old blame... 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 »
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 »
NEW YORK The Williams Family show took center stage at the U.S. Open with Serena and Venus both cruising to straight set wins on Sunday to set up a monster quarter-final between the tennis siblings. Whenever the Williams sisters clash on court it is a major te... 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 Serena Williams moved within three wins of achieving the fourth women’s calendar-year Grand Slam by routing fellow American Madison Keys on Sunday and setting up a U.S. Open quarter-final clash with sister Venus. Williams beat the 20-year-old Keys 6-3... More »
LONDON Pfizer’s stop-smoking drug Chantix does not raise risks of heart attack or depression, contrary to previous reports, and should be recommended to more smokers wanting to quit, scientists said on Monday. In a study tracking 150,000 smokers in England for... 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 »
VENICE The usually decorous Ralph Fiennes dances wildly around a swimming pool to a Rolling Stones tune while Tilda Swinton mostly whispers in the offbeat French-Italian film “A Bigger Splash” which had its premiere in Venice on Sunday. Italian director Luca G... More »
CERNOBBIO, Italy U.S. computer company Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) is considering increasing investments and hiring new workers in Italy after years of downsizing, because, it says, it has faith, for the first time in a while, that the country is on the mend. “The... More »
VENICE Few people have been left untouched by the plight of desperate refugees trying to make it to Europe, and at the Venice Film Festival, actors and directors alike shared their distress over the crisis, pleading for tolerance and compassion. Mexican direct... More »
MOSCOW/FRANKFURT German publisher Axel Springer is withdrawing from its Russian business, Russian news agency RBC reported at the weekend, citing two media sources and a government source. A deal to sell an 80 percent stake to Russian publisher Alexander Fedot... 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 »
LONDON/WASHINGTON When the once toxic Rebekah Brooks returns to run Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers on Monday she will face the toughest challenge of her career — rebuilding her reputation and the company in the harsh glare of the public spotlight. Brooks,... More »
VENICE So the question that will arise — if only jokingly — with the premiere of the transgender movie “The Danish Girl” on Saturday at the Venice Film Festival is should Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne win another for best actor or best actress? The British actor... More »
VENICE Eddie Redmayne said transgender people helped him prepare for his portrayal of transsexual pioneer Lili Elbe in “The Danish Girl” that opened on Saturday at the Venice Film Festival, even if no transgender person got the main role. “Across the board the... More »
VENICE With Kristen Stewart of “Twilight” fame and Nicholas Hoult of “X-Men”, the science-fiction film “Equals” is sure to have some box-office draw, but it failed to win much critical acclaim when screened in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Stewart a... More »
CERNOBBIO, Italy A common euro zone budget should initially be funded through joint debt issuance and taxpayers’ money should only be used at a later stage, French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday. France wants the euro zone to have its own jo... More »
VENICE Johnny Depp says he did not have to dig deep to tap into his evil side for his portrayal of the Irish-American gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in the film “Black Mass”, screened out of competition on Friday at the Venice Film Festival. “I found the evil ... More »
Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA, Europe’s largest media group, is close to acquiring a minority stake in learning technology firm HotChalk, according to people familiar with the matter, as the educational technology sector continues to grow. Bertelsmann is leading a ... 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 »
ROME Pope Francis slipped out of the Vatican on Thursday evening to make a surprise visit to a Rome optician’s shop to get a new pair of eyeglasses, insisting that his old frames be re-used and that he would pay for them. Francis was driven to Ottica Spiezia o... 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 »
WASHINGTON Scientists have discovered why TNT is so toxic to plants and intend to use this knowledge to tackle the problem of cleaning up the many sites worldwide contaminated by the commonly used explosive. Researchers on Thursday said they have pinpointed an... More »
LONDON Rebekah Brooks, the Rupert Murdoch protegee cleared last year of orchestrating a criminal campaign that damaged the British establishment, will return to her old job running the tycoon’s British newspapers next week in a stunning comeback. Brooks, who w... More »
PARIS French media group Vivendi (VIV.PA) reported higher second-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by strong growth in its Universal Music division, and said recent asset sales could enable it to consider more acquisitions in the future. The company, with a ... 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 A London skyscraper that made headlines for reflecting sunlight at an intensity that melted parts of a Jaguar car in the street below has been awarded the annual Carbuncle Cup that highlights perceived architectural horrors. Officially called 20 Fenchur... More »
BERLIN If you could go back in time to change your city, what would you do? What kind of a place do you want to live in? Would you try to stop gentrification? These are some of the questions being posed by a Berlin-based collective of artists, called copy & wa... 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 »
BERLIN German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday that Spain’s economic development showed that the euro zone was tackling its crisis well. “Spain is the best example that we’ve done a lot of things quite right in Europe,” Schaeuble said at a b... More »
LONDON, Euro zone manufacturing growth eased last month, despite factories barely raising prices, adding to the European Central Bank’s woes as it battles to spur expansion and inflation, a survey showed. Tuesday’s disappointing readings come almost half a yea... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices fell in Asia on Monday as traders took profits, snapping gains last week that saw the biggest two-day rally in six years. Brent crude futures for October delivery LCOc1 slipped more than $1, or 2 percent, before recovering although that st... More »
