News Archive - 22 September 2016

>China's richest man Wang Jianlin, who started Wanda as a property developer in China's northeast and now operates malls and cinema chains in China, has said he wants to turn Wanda into a global entertainment giant, and bring Hollywood technology and capabilities to China.The alliance with China's biggest theater...

>FRANKFURT Samsung Electronics aims to re-launch its flagship Note7 smartphone across Europe well before year-end, but it could well be 2017 before the company fully rebounds from a global product recall tied to defective batteries, a regional executive said on Thursday. "We fully expect (new Note7s) to be available everywhere...

>UNITED NATIONS Britain should apologize for its 1917 declaration endorsing the founding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and should recognize Palestine as a state, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday.Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, Abbas said that the Palestinian people had suffered greatly because of...

>The BOJ on Wednesday shifted to targeting interest rates on Japanese government bonds as the focus of its massive monetary easing program, dropping its explicit target of increasing base money. Aso said the government should not rely solely on the central bank to boost the economy and defeat deflation. The...

>TOKYO Asian shares edged closer to 14-month highs on Friday while the dollar was on the defensive as investors grew more convinced that the Federal Reserve is settling into a phase of very gradual interest rate hikes. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was steady and within...

The subtlety of Iran’s presidential election next year has sparked many early speculations, from Zarif’s candidacy to Ahmadinejad’s withdrawal.

>"If universities want access to all of these federal tax breaks and tax dollars paid for by you," Trump told a rally in a Philadelphia suburb, "they have to make good faith efforts to reduce the cost of college."Trump did not offer specifics on how he would tie federal...

>SAN FRANCISCO A record number of local tax and bond measures will fill the California ballot this November, including over $32 billion of proposed funding for education, infrastructure and homeless services.Some 650 local measures will go before voters, including 427 revenue measures. That is considerably more than the number...

>The U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday but signaled it could still tighten monetary policy by the end of this year. The central bank projected a less aggressive rise in interest rates next year and in 2018, and it cut its longer-run interest rate forecast to...

>SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON A U.S. investigation into a leak of hacking tools used by the National Security Agency is focusing on a theory that one of its operatives carelessly left them available on a remote computer and Russian hackers found them, four people with direct knowledge of the probe told...

>Known by conservative opponents as the "death tax," the estate tax, levied on property transferred to heirs after its owner dies, currently is imposed only on inherited assets worth $5.4 million or more for an individual.Clinton's plan, posted on her campaign's website, would raise the estate tax from...

>WASHINGTON A behind-the-scenes congressional battle to avoid a U.S. government shutdown broke into public view on Thursday when Republicans produced a stop-gap funding bill that Democrats immediately rejected.The federal fiscal year ends on Sept. 30 and Congress must pass a spending measure by then to keep the government...

>PITTSBURGH Donald Trump on Thursday praised aggressive police tactics and condemned attacks on officers amid criticism of his plan to use "stop-and-frisk" tactics to reduce crime, in a speech following a second night of unrest that shook Charlotte, North Carolina."Crime and violence is an attack on the poor and...

>Trade ministers from EU countries will meet in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava on Friday to discuss the issue, which has raised deep concerns among several member states. Washington and Brussels are officially committed to sealing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves...

>The request comes after Wells Fargo earlier this month was ordered to pay $190 million to settle civil charges alleging its employees had set up 2 million fake accounts in customers' names without their knowledge or consent. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Bernadette Baum)...

>White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters the president will veto Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act within the constitutionally mandated 10-day window, which ends Friday evening. The Obama administration opposed the bill on grounds that other countries could use the law as an excuse to sue U.S. diplomats,...

>WASHINGTON Tesla Motors Inc Thursday sued Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and other state officials in federal court over the state's refusal to allow the Palo Alto, California automaker to sell vehicles directly to consumers.The suit at U.S. District Court in Michigan comes days after the state rejected the...

>The move comes as technology companies and automakers race to build autonomous vehicles and develop new business plans for what is expected to be a long-term makeover of personal transportation.Southeast Asia's Grab said its app will allow select commuters to book and ride start-up nuTonomy's driverless vehicles within a...

>MOSCOW Russia's national election authority said it would look into evidence found by Reuters of inflated turnout figures and people voting more than once at three polling stations in two regions during a parliamentary election at the weekend.The election saw Vladimir Putin cement his supremacy over Russia's political system...

>DUBAI/LONDON As far as OPEC decision-making is concerned, Algeria, which plays host to oil ministers next week, has always been the land of surprises. The last two meetings of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) held in Algeria -- in 2004 and 2008 -- shocked the market with...

>LONDON A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) is in talks to buy a portfolio of North Sea assets from Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) as the Danish group considers adding scale to its oil and gas business ahead of a planned spin off, banking sources said.Maersk announced on Thursday a...

>The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday existing home sales declined 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 5.33 million units.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales rising 1.1 percent in August to a 5.45 million-unit pace. July's sales pace was also revised lower...

>Instagram, the popular picture-sharing app that uses Facebook's ad technology to target highly specific audiences, has gained traction as the preferred platform used by ad agencies for social media campaigns.The app, which has more than 500 million users, also said more than 1.5 million businesses had switched to...

>Earlier, the government gave the long-awaited deal its approval and in a detailed statement, Baosteel said it will buy Wuhan Steel at 2.56 yuan ($0.3839) per share by issuing new shares at 4.6 yuan per share, valuing Wuhan at 3 billion yuan. The new entity will be...

>Windows were shattered and dust rose from smashed concrete on a busy shopping street, footage following the attack aired by on CNN Turk showed. The local governor, Ismail Catakli, said in a statement that six people, five of them children, were wounded in the attack.All six of the wounded...

>BEIRUT Warplanes mounted the heaviest air strikes in months against rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo overnight, as Russia and the Syrian government spurned a U.S. plea to halt flights, burying any hope for the revival of a doomed ceasefire.Rebel officials and rescue workers said incendiary bombs...

>WASHINGTON The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week to a two-month low, pointing to labor market strength that could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by December.The upbeat initial jobless claims data came a day after the U.S.

Ultraconservative weekly Lasarat once again showed how freedom of speech is realized to its fullest when it concerns hardliner media.

>Lennar's offer of $23.50 per share in cash and stock represents a premium of about 37 percent to WCI's Wednesday close. The transaction gives WCI an enterprise value of $809 million, the companies said in a joint statement. (Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)...

>WASHINGTON Republican Marco Rubio, the failed U.S. presidential contender, is battling to hold on to his U.S. Senate seat from Florida in what is shaping up to be the costliest congressional contest of 2016.More than $33 million has been raised and over $24 million spent so far...

>WASHINGTON Democrat Hillary Clinton, suddenly vulnerable in the presidential race, is under pressure to deliver a strong performance against Republican Donald Trump in their first debate on Monday, a moment that could be the most consequential yet of the 2016 election.Political veterans involved in preparing for past presidential debates...

>The breach exposed several hundred million user accounts, Recode reported. Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) bought Yahoo's core internet properties, including Yahoo search and Yahoo mail, for $4.83 billion in July. Yahoo could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)...

>U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve stood pat on interest rates in a widely expected outcome. The central bank said economic conditions were improving, but the recent slack in the labor market and inflation running below its 2 percent target gave it...

>UNITED NATIONS South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se accused North Korea on Thursday of "totally ridiculing" the authority of the United Nations through its nuclear and missile tests and said it was time to reconsider whether it was qualified for U.N. membership.In an address to the annual United...

>The army, backed by local police and Sunni Muslim tribal fighters, were still clashing with the ultra-hardline jihadists after taking control of the mayor's office, the municipal building and the hospital, said a source from the Salahuddin Operations Command, which oversees military operations in the area.Shirqat, on the Tigris...

>Britain's government is keen to ensure London retains its place as Europe's leading financial center even after the country leaves the EU, but the BoE said there was no case to loosen bank capital rules."Although financial stability has been maintained in the United Kingdom through a period of volatility ...

>The Syrian military, which is backed by the Russian air force, said late on Thursday it was starting a new operation against the rebel-held east, which is home to at least 250,000 people and was also targeted in heavy air strikes on Thursday.The Syrian military could not immediately be...