News Archive - 17 January 2016

>U.S. President Barack Obama pardoned three Iranian-Americans charged for violating sanctions against Iran, a lawyer for one of the men said, while prosecutors moved to drop charges against four Iranians outside the United States.Iran agreed to free five Americans including Rezaian and Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American Christian pastor...

>BEIRUT Iran's release from sanctions testifies to its new relationship with the United States as it moves from pariah state to regional power, a status that could come at the cost of Saudi Arabia, Washington's chief Arab ally.Enemies and allies alike must adjust to Iran becoming an uninhibited power...

>JERUSALEM Israel bristled on Sunday at the lifting of international sanctions on Iran and vowed to flag up any violations of its arch-foe's nuclear restrictions while drawing on U.S. defense aid to prepare for a possible military face-off in the future.The International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday ruled...

>SINGAPORE Oil prices hit their lowest since 2003 in early trading on Monday, as the market braced for a jump in Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against the country at the weekend.On Saturday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Tehran had met its commitments to curtail its...

>SYDNEY The safe-haven yen got off to a flying start on Monday, while the Australian dollar, usually sold off in times of market stress, stayed under pressure as Asian equities geared up for a torrid session following a big selloff on Wall Street.Investors also took aim at the Canadian...

>TOKYO Asian shares are set to slide to near their 2011 troughs on Monday following weak U.S. economic data and falls in oil prices that showed no sign of abating, stoking further worries about a global economic downturn.The Nikkei futures' Friday close <0#NIY:> suggests Japan's Nikkei .N225 is...

>Qualcomm officials in Beijing signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the government of Guizhou province and announced the Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology Co Ltd, a joint venture with initial capital of 1.85 billion renminbi.Qualcomm also will establish an investment company in Guizhou that will serve as a vehicle...

>"We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq," the State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said when asked about pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya's report that three U.S. citizens were said to have been kidnapped in Baghdad. "We are working with the...

>BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON The two largest American and European trade groups have warned of "enormous" consequences for thousands of businesses and millions of users if Brussels and Washington fail to wrap up talks on a data transfer pact by the end of the month.The United States and Washington accelerated negotiations on...

>WASHINGTON/NEW YORK Ted Wade hasn’t cared about politics enough to cast a vote in a U.S. presidential election for almost a quarter of a century, back when he supported Ross Perot’s independent candidacy in 1992.But Republican Donald Trump's 2016 White House bid has motivated Wade to get involved...

>The four men killed were guards for Brigadier General Shalal Ali Shayyeh, who survived a car bomb attack on his convoy on Jan. 4 amid an escalating wave of assassinations against security forces in the city.The government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has been grappling with lawlessness there since...

>ANKARA Iran's success in winning an end to international sanctions will only intensify a power struggle among the faction-ridden elite, and President Hassan Rouhani cannot count on domestic political support from the supreme leader before two critical elections.However, Tehran's leadership has now decided on a less confrontational foreign policy...

>The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday families of pro-government fighters were among those abducted."There is genuine fear for their lives, there is a fear that the group might execute them as it has done before in other areas," said the Observatory's head Rami Abdulrahamn.Deir al-Zor...

>The People's Bank of China (PBOC), which had established the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for offshore yuan participating banks in 2014, will return the rate to a normal level, the sources said, without specifying what that level would be. It had been set at zero.The change will also apply...

>There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on his Twitter page denied responsibility for the attack. There have been several bomb blasts in Afghanistan over recent weeks at a time when efforts are underway to restart a peace process with the Taliban. Islamic State in the...

>CHARLESTON, S.C. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released details on Sunday evening about his "Medicare-for-all" universal healthcare funding plan and how he would pay for it.The plan was released hours before Sanders was to square off in a Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, against...