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| Chinese director Zhang Yimou apologises for violating one-child policy Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 08:17 PM PST  Acclaimed film director Zhang Yimou said he and his wife have three children after authorities summoned his agent amid speculation he had violated China's one-child policy and fathered seven children. In a statement posted on the verified Weibo account of Zhang's office late on Sunday, the director of epics "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" apologised for his actions. He said he was cooperating with family planning authorities in the eastern city of Wuxi and would accept any punishment. "Zhang Yimou and his wife Chen Ting confirm that they have two sons and a daughter," the Weibo post read. Full Story | Top |
| Japan Q3 capex rises, BOJ Kuroda warns of overseas risks Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 07:53 PM PST  By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leika Kihara TOKYO/NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese companies raised spending on factories and equipment in the July-September quarter, but the slow pace of increase casts some doubt on the strength of capital spending that is needed to help sustain economic growth. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said capital expenditure will likely increase as a trend, though he warned that overseas uncertainties were among key risks in meeting the central bank's goal of accelerating inflation to 2 percent in roughly two years. "Of course, we are ready to adjust monetary policy without hesitation if upside or downside risks materialize," Kuroda told business leaders in Nagoya, central Japan, on Monday. "If overseas economies perform worse than expected, this may affect Japan's economy," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Steady China factory growth in November underlines economic resilience Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 07:46 PM PST  China's factory growth stabilized in November aided by firm demand, a pair of surveys showed, a sign of resilience in the world's second-largest economy that augurs well for its plans for structural reforms. The upbeat results supported the Australian dollar -- a proxy for the Chinese growth engine -- in early Asian trade and heartened investors who worried that China's economic growth may slip in the fourth quarter. Qu Hongbin, an economist at HSBC, said the final HSBC PMI was revised up from its preliminary reading after firms reported more business, but said spots of weakness in the PMI poll should prevent China from tightening monetary policy. With the economy growing at a rate of over seven percent and house prices clinging stubbornly to record highs, China's leaders have signaled lately that policy may be tightened slightly to temper price pressures. Full Story | Top |
| Zao Wou-ki painting breaks record at Sotheby's China auction Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 06:29 PM PST By Adam Rose BEIJING (Reuters) - A work by modern painter Zao Wou-ki sold for 76 million yuan ($12.47 million) on Sunday at Sotheby's first major auction in China, breaking the record for the artist's work set earlier this year in Hong Kong. "I'm very, very thrilled," Sotheby's Asia CEO Kevin Ching told Reuters after the event. Zao, who's known for his abstract style, "will become, or may already be, the Picasso of China," he said. Sotheby's held the auction as competition between the New York-based auction house and its long-time rival Christie's moves into one of the world's hottest art markets amid a government crackdown on corruption and luxury spending. Full Story | Top |
| New York train derailment kills four, injures 63 Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 06:15 PM PST  By Noreen O'Donnell NEW YORK (Reuters) - A suburban New York train derailed on Sunday, killing four people and injuring 63, including 11 critically, when all seven cars of a Metro-North train ran off the tracks on a sharp curve, officials said. The crash happened at 7:20 a.m. (1220 GMT) about 100 yards (meters) north of Metro-North's Spuyten Duyvil station in the city's Bronx borough, said Metro-North spokesman Aaron Donovan. Full Story | Top |
| Asian shares edge lower, China PMI offers support Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 06:00 PM PST  By Lisa Twaronite TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares edged lower and the dollar gave up some of its recent gains against the yen on Monday, as investors cautiously awaited key U.S. data this week and took heart from a decent reading on China manufacturing. China's factory activity maintained steady growth momentum in November, boosted by resilient new orders, though the pace of expansion eased slightly from October, final HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) showed. "China's manufacturing sector kept relatively steady growth momentum in November, as the final manufacturing PMI was revised up from the flash reading on the back of faster new business gains," said Hongbin Qu, chief China economist at HSBC. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. ship Cape Ray readied for possible chemical arms destruction Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 05:55 PM PST By David Alexander and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has begun outfitting a ship in its reserve ready force with equipment to enable it to destroy some of Syria's chemical weapons at sea in the event Washington is asked to assist in the effort, a defense official said on Sunday. The Maritime Administration vessel MV Cape Ray is being equipped with the newly developed Field Deployable Hydrolysis System, which was designed by the Defense Department to neutralize components used in chemical weapons, a defense official said on condition of anonymity. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which supervising the disposal of Syria's chemical arms, said last week the United States had offered to destroy some of the components on a U.S. ship and was looking for a Mediterranean port where the work could be carried out. Full Story | Top |
| Bali talks to decide fate of WTO Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 05:52 PM PST By Tom Miles and Randy Fabi GENEVA/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Crisis is the natural state of world trade negotiations. Ministers meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali from Tuesday until Friday will decide the fate of the World Trade Organization, with two possible outcomes: a global trade agreement, the first since the WTO was created in 1995, or a failure that kills off the Doha round of trade talks and casts the WTO into obsolescence. The 159 WTO members have pushed the crisis to the brink by failing to finalize the text of a deal in Geneva, leaving a Swiss cheese of a draft after marathon talks that WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo finally halted at 7 a.m. last Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Japan corporate capex up in third-quarter but GDP seen little changed Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 05:11 PM PST  The 1.5 percent year-on-year rise in capital spending followed a flat reading in the prior quarter and marked the first gain in four quarters, Ministry of Finance data showed on Monday, but the result disappointed some economists who were expecting stronger gains. The reading suggests that Japan's gross domestic product growth for July-September is likely to be little changed, after preliminary data showed a 0.5 percent expansion from the previous quarter, or an annualized rate of 1.9 percent. The capital spending data will be used to calculate revised third-quarter GDP data, which is scheduled for release at 8:50 a.m. on December 9 (2350 GMT December 8). "There is not likely to be much change to GDP data," said Shuji Tonouchi, a senior fixed income strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. Full Story | Top |
| Freight train crash kills three in New Mexico Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 04:45 PM PST (Reuters) - A freight train derailed and the locomotive plunged into a ravine in southwestern New Mexico, killing all three people aboard, investigators said on Sunday. At least two of the dead worked for Southwestern Railroad Inc., which operated the train, said New Mexico State Police. The train was carrying magnetite, a type of iron ore, said Brian Beaty, manager of operations, safety and compliance for Southwestern Railroad. Railroad company officials were working with the Federal Railroad Administration to determine the cause of the accident. Full Story | Top |
| Thai protesters seek to topple PM after clashes Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 04:42 PM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai anti-government protesters vowed to demonstrate again on Monday and forge ahead with a "people's coup" campaign to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a day after battling riot police outside her fortified office compound. The protesters had set Sunday as "Victory Day" to oust the government but failed to achieve their goal of seizing the prime minister's office at Government House or occupying state buildings, despite intense clashes with riot police. It is the latest dramatic turn in a conflict pitting Bangkok's urban middle class and royalist elite against the mostly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister ousted in a 2006 military coup. Protest leader Suthep Thaungsuban said he met with Yingluck on Sunday but insisted there were no negotiations to end the worst political crisis since bloody political unrest in 2010. Full Story | Top |
| 'Cyber-Hindus' - India's new breed of political activists Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 04:26 PM PST By Sruthi Gottipati and Mark Bergen NEW DELHI/BANGALORE, India (Reuters) - Four men chatting in a Delhi bar are not, by their own admission, natural drinking buddies. The young professionals in their 20s and 30s come from vastly different regions of India and varied backgrounds. They first "met" on Twitter, spotting each other on the micro-blogging site where they voiced a common desire - to see Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi become the next prime minister. After online introductions, they met face-to-face on their own initiative, and, finding they had plenty in common, gather monthly in the nation's capital to talk about life, work, and, most importantly, how to make a difference in India's upcoming election. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: UK power price rises prompt questions of network owners, regulator Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 04:14 PM PST By Tom Bergin LONDON (Reuters) - In 2006, Britain's energy regulator reviewed how the gas and electricity market was functioning. Summarising its findings, it noted the possibility that its rules on pricing had been overly generous to the network owners. The report was one of many produced by regulator Ofgem, tasked by the government with overseeing an industry that was broken up and sold off by the state during the 1980s and 1990s. "The fact that network businesses .... have recently changed hands at a premium to the regulatory asset value (Ofgem's own valuation of the assets) suggests considerable appetite among the investment community and indicates, in hindsight, that past price control reviews could have been somewhat tighter than they were," Ofgem said in its 2006 report 'Financing Networks'. Full Story | Top |
| Speed factor in crash that killed 'Fast and Furious' star Walker Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 03:52 PM PST  (Reuters) - Speed played a role in the one-car crash that killed "The Fast and the Furious" actor Paul Walker in Southern California on Saturday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. Walker, 40, was a passenger in the red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT that crashed into a utility pole and burst into flames in the city of Santa Clarita on Saturday afternoon. "Speed was a factor in the solo vehicle collision," the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. Deputy Mark Pope said the accident was under investigation and he did not know how fast the car was going. Full Story | Top |
| Yen remains under pressure as China PMI, U.S. data eyed Sunday, Dec 01, 2013 03:47 PM PST  By Lisa Twaronite TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese shares could get support from a weaker yen on Monday, while investors were generally cautious as they awaited a Chinese manufacturing survey later in the session as well as key U.S. data this week. HSBC will release its final report on China's manufacturing sector, after its preliminary flash reading came in at 50.4. Official data released over the weekend showed China's factory growth held at an 18-month high last month on firm domestic and foreign demand. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down slightly in early trade, while ASX/200 index was up about 0.1 percent. Full Story | Top |
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