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| Asian shares sag as Fed taper talk heats up, BOJ sounds easy Monday, Dec 02, 2013 08:20 PM PST  By Dominic Lau TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares eased and the dollar firmed on Tuesday as unexpectedly strong U.S. factory activity bolstered expectations the Federal Reserve will soon trim its stimulus, while the yen tumbled on speculation of further central bank easing. The U.S. Institute for Supply Management's index of national factory activity rose in November to its best showing since April 2011, while the pace of hiring also accelerated. ... Full Story | Top |
| Power outage plunges most of Venezuela into darkness Monday, Dec 02, 2013 08:06 PM PST  By Diego Ore and Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's second massive power outage of the year plunged much of the nation into darkness on Monday night, prompting renewed talk of sabotage from President Nicolas Maduro's government and cries of incompetence from its foes. Power went off in Caracas and other cities around the country soon after 8 p.m. local time (0030 GMT), to the intense annoyance of residents and commuters. Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who narrowly won a presidential election this year after the death of his mentor and former leader Hugo Chavez, accused the opposition then of deliberately sabotaging the power grid to discredit him. His powerful ally and National Assembly president, Diosdado Cabello, repeated the same accusation after Monday's blackout that affected more than half of Venezuela. Full Story | Top |
| Landmark moment in making: judge to rule on Detroit bankruptcy Monday, Dec 02, 2013 07:52 PM PST  By Joseph Lichterman DETROIT (Reuters) - The largest-ever municipal bankruptcy petition in U.S. history faces a watershed moment on Tuesday, as the judge overseeing Detroit's bankruptcy case is scheduled to rule whether the city is eligible for protection from creditors - an event that has citizens, public officials, creditors, retirees and others awaiting the judge's words and preparing responses. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday to announce his decision, which will be followed by the release of a written opinion. Rhodes' ruling will begin a new chapter in the case that first arrived in federal court with Detroit's July 18 bankruptcy petition. Full Story | Top |
| China's yuan surpasses euro as 2nd most-used currency in trade finance: SWIFT Monday, Dec 02, 2013 07:42 PM PST  China's yuan currency overtook the euro in October, becoming the second-most used currency in trade finance, global transaction services organization SWIFT said on Tuesday. The market share of yuan usage in trade finance, or Letters of Credit and Collection, grew to 8.66 percent in October 2013. The top five countries using the yuan for trade finance in October were China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany and Australia, SWIFT said in a statement. "The RMB is clearly a top currency for trade finance globally and even more so in Asia," Franck de Praetere, SWIFT's Asia Pacific head of payments and trade markets said. Full Story | Top |
| Biden urges Japan, China to lower tensions over air defense zone Monday, Dec 02, 2013 07:02 PM PST  By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged Japan and China to lower tensions that have spiked since Beijing announced an air defense zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea, while repeating that Washington was "deeply concerned" by the move. Biden will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday before flying to China the next day as part of an Asian trip in which he will seek a delicate balance between calming tensions over the zone while backing key ally Japan. "This latest incident underscores the need for agreement between China and Japan to establish crisis management and confidence building measures to lower tensions." Influential Chinese tabloid the Global Times, published by the Communist Party's official People's Daily, said Biden should not cozy up to Abe or offer effusive support to Japan. Full Story | Top |
| SAC portfolio manager kept Cohen in dark about insider info: witness Monday, Dec 02, 2013 06:15 PM PST  By Nate Raymond and Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager Michael Steinberg deliberately avoided telling his boss Steven A. Cohen that he was trading on Dell Inc with inside information, a former analyst at the hedge fund testified on Monday. Jon Horvath, the U.S. government's star witness against Steinberg in the insider trading case, told a jury in Manhattan federal court that Steinberg had to reassure Cohen in November 2008 about his bets on Dell U.S. prosecutors showed the court a November 17 instant message conversation in which Steinberg told Horvath that Cohen had been "drilling" him for more details about a call he had made on Dell's stock. Horvath said Steinberg, in describing his conversation with Cohen, emphasized to Horvath that he had left out the fact that the information came from a company insider. Full Story | Top |
| Homeless man held after high-speed ferry commandeered in Seattle Monday, Dec 02, 2013 06:06 PM PST By Bryan Cohen SEATTLE (Reuters) - A homeless man accused of leaping a fence at the Seattle waterfront and briefly commandeering a high-speed ferry used to shuttle passengers between Washington state and Canada was in jail on Monday with bail set at $200,000. U.S. authorities say Samuel Kenneth McDonough was able to set the high-speed catamaran adrift into the region's Elliott Bay shortly before dawn on Sunday, his 33rd birthday, with no one else on board before authorities intervened to stop him and found he had locked himself in the ferry's wheelhouse. "It first appeared the clipper ship was adrift," Seattle police said in a statement. Police had earlier said he wanted to take the boat to West Seattle. Full Story | Top |
| Companies, academics say budget cuts threaten U.S. competitiveness Monday, Dec 02, 2013 06:05 PM PST  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mandatory U.S. budget cuts known as sequestration are resulting in job losses across the country and threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in the global economy, industry executives and academics said on Monday, urging Congress to reverse the cuts. , one of the biggest U.S. weapons makers, said his company had already reduced its workforce by 19 percent in recent years, and more cuts were likely unless U.S. lawmakers ended the across-the-board cuts required under sequestration. Bush, who is also the chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, said arms makers realized that the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan meant U.S. military spending would decline and that weapons needed to become more affordable. But he said the additional cuts now facing the Pentagon and other government agencies were reducing funding for critical research and development programs, which could hurt the U.S. economy and threaten national security in years to come. Full Story | Top |
| Genetic test maker 23andMe stops marketing after FDA warning Monday, Dec 02, 2013 05:35 PM PST  (Reuters) - Home genetic test maker 23andMe, which is backed by Google Inc, stopped marketing its products last week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned that it did not have regulatory approval to do so, a company spokeswoman said. The FDA said last week it had sent a warning letter to the company on November 22 stating that products designed to diagnose, mitigate or prevent disease were medical devices that required regulatory clearance. Company founder Anne Wojcicki said in a November 26 blog post that the company had been talking to the FDA since 2008 and had submitted its first application for clearance in July last year, followed by another submission in September. "We stand behind the data that we return to customers - but we recognize that the FDA needs to be convinced of the quality of our data as well," Wojcicki wrote in the post. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: United Auto Workers considers first dues hike since 1967 Monday, Dec 02, 2013 05:13 PM PST  By Bernie Woodall DETROIT (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union is considering hiking membership dues by 25 percent, the first increase since 1967, as it faces dwindling membership and rising costs, a top UAW official and several union sources said. The UAW, the richest U.S. union with $1 billion in assets, is also one of the most politically influential, contributing to the campaigns of Democratic politicians from the state level to presidential candidates. UAW leaders are considering increasing dues to the equivalent of 2.5 hours per month, up from two hours per month for hourly workers in the automotive industry as well as governmental, nursing, academic and other fields represented by the union, several people familiar with the discussions said. Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president and the top union official for workers at Ford, emphasized that the rise in dues is "only in the discussion phase. Full Story | Top |
| Kayak fisherman dies after shark attack off Maui coast Monday, Dec 02, 2013 04:30 PM PST A man fishing from a kayak in Hawaii was attacked by a shark off the coast of Maui on Monday and died of his injuries as he was being brought to shore, marking the second fatal shark attack in the area this year, officials said. The man had been kayak fishing between Makena and the popular diving spot of Molokini when he was bitten, said Marian Feenstra, chief of aquatics with Maui Parks and Recreation. Feenstra said the incident marked at least the eighth shark attack this year off the island of Maui. "It is higher than usual," Feenstra said of the rate of shark attacks. Full Story | Top |
| RBS' services back on line after outage on Cyber Monday Monday, Dec 02, 2013 04:24 PM PST  (Reuters) - RBS said its customers were reporting that services were coming back on line after the bank's online and debit card payments failed Monday evening. "If customers have been left out of pocket as a result of these system problems, we will put this right," said RBS in a statement. Millions of customers across the United Kingdom were unable to withdraw cash, pay for goods or use telephone and online banking services as RBS and its retail banking unit Netwest's online systems and debit cards failed on Monday evening. The bank's Irish unit, Ulster Bank, also reportedly faced similar technology glitches. Full Story | Top |
| Apple buys startup Topsy; gets rich Twitter data Monday, Dec 02, 2013 04:16 PM PST  By Poornima Gupta SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc has acquired social media search and analytics startup Topsy, an unusual purchase for a hardware-focused company that has made few forays into social networking. Apple confirmed the acquisition but would not say why it bought the company, which specializes in analyzing Twitter data and providing insights into current sentiment on a variety of topics. The Wall Street Journal, which reported the news earlier, cited people familiar with the deal as saying Apple paid over $200 million. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said. Full Story | Top |
| Singer Rita Ora joins 'Fifty Shades of Grey' film Monday, Dec 02, 2013 04:10 PM PST  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British R&B singer Rita Ora will be the latest addition to Universal Pictures' "Fifty Shades of Grey" film, the Comcast Corp-owned studio said on Monday. Ora, 23, will play Mia Grey, the adopted younger sister of billionaire protagonist Christian Grey, in the film adaptation of E. L. James' best-selling "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy of erotica novels. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexican Congress committees give green light to electoral reform Monday, Dec 02, 2013 04:06 PM PST  By Adriana Barrera MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican congressional committees on Monday gave the green light to an electoral reform demanded by the opposition, paving the way for lawmakers to push ahead with the energy sector overhaul at the center of President Enrique Pena Nieto's reform agenda. The reform will allow federal lawmakers to serve consecutive terms, sets out rules for coalition governments and should strengthen Congress at the expense of the president. It is the last major hurdle to approval of the energy reform. The progress on the electoral bill comes after Mexico's main leftist party pulled out of a political pact that Pena Nieto's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) forged a year ago with opposition leaders to push through economic reforms. Full Story | Top |
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