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| Textron to buy Beechcraft for $1.4 billion Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:21 PM PST (Reuters) - Textron Inc , maker of Cessna planes, said it will buy aircraft maker Beechcraft Corp for about $1.4 billion in cash, in a deal that sees Textron expand its aviation business. Shares of Textron were up about 3 percent in extended trading after the announcement of the deal. Beechcraft emerged from bankruptcy protection in February and was seeking buyers for its jet plane business which has been losing money. Textron, which also makes the Bell helicopter, said it plans to finance the deal through a combination of available cash and up to $1.1 billion in new debt. Full Story | Top |
| Motor racing-After 'Rush', F1 safety hits the screens Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:00 PM PST By Alan Baldwin LONDON, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Francois Cevert had the most piercing blue eyes, the presence of a movie star and a Gallic charm that melted hearts wherever he went. A pitlane heart-throb, the Parisian was a hero of more carefree times - one moment escorting Brigitte Bardot or playing the concert piano and the next risking his life in the most dangerous and glamorous of arenas. More than a decade before Alain Prost captured his first title in 1985, it was Cevert - Jackie Stewart's friend and team mate at Tyrrell - who had seemed destined to become France's first world champion. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests dozens under anti-terror law, one killed in Cairo Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 04:55 PM PST  By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt stepped up pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood a day after declaring it a terrorist group, using the new classification to detain dozens of its supporters on Thursday, while one person died in street clashes ignited by political tension. A bomb blast in a Cairo suburb wounded five people - the second attack this week after a suicide bomber killed 16 people north of the capital on Tuesday. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, said Egypt would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy and "expressed concern" about the terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and recent detentions and arrests in Egypt, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Full Story | Top |
| UPS glitches could boost U.S. delivery competition Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:53 PM PST  By Curtis Skinner NEW YORK (Reuters) - UPS scrambled on Thursday to deliver packages that had failed to arrive in time for Christmas as the No. 1 U.S. ground delivery service sought to limit the fallout from the delays. The lag in deliveries - which triggered intense criticism on social media - could encourage eCommerce companies, like online retail giant Amazon , to spread their shipping contracts across more companies to lower risk. "I do think it creates an opportunity for companies other than UPS and FedEx to make some inroads here," said Anthony Gallo, a senior air freight and logistics analyst with Wells Fargo Securities LLC. "There's no downside to the retailers at this point to have more competition on the delivery side." The bad press didn't seem to worry investors. UPS shares are up 42 percent so far this year, outperforming the Dow Jones Transports Index , which is up about 39 percent over the same period. Full Story | Top |
| Transient arrested on tarmac at Phoenix airport Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:47 PM PST By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - A homeless man was arrested after running onto the tarmac just after a Southwest Airlines plane landed at the Phoenix airport, police said on Thursday. Robert Bump, 49, hit the plane with his hand before being taken into custody on the taxiway at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport at about 5:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday, said Officer James Holmes, a Phoenix police spokesman. Full Story | Top |
| Attack on reporter restores passion to Ukraine demonstrations Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:31 PM PST  By Jack Stubbs KIEV (Reuters) - Protesters demanded Ukraine's interior minister resign on Thursday after an opposition journalist known for documenting the extravagance of the country's political elite was chased down in her car and savagely beaten in a midnight attack. Clutching pictures of Tetyana Chornovil's badly bruised face, hundreds marched on the Interior Ministry in the capital, Kiev. The attack on the 34-year-old restored passion to protests that have been losing steam more than a month after the government spurned a pact on closer ties with the European Union, turning instead to former Soviet master Moscow. Pro-EU demonstrators have been occupying central Kiev, but their numbers have been falling since Russia offered Ukraine a $15 billion bailout this month. Full Story | Top |
| Beyonce retains top spot on U.S. Billboard album chart Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:19 PM PST  Beyonce held onto the top spot on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart for the second consecutive week as her new self-titled album sold 374,000 copies in the lead-up to Christmas, according to figures released Thursday from Nielsen SoundScan. The pop star's fifth solo album, which was released on December 13, has sold a total of 991,000 copies through December 22, which was the final day for tallying this week's chart. Currently the year's 12th-best selling album, "Beyonce" is expected to crack the top 10 in just a few weeks' time, Billboard said. The album, Beyonce's first since 2011, was released exclusively through Apple's iTunes digital music store and was not available in other retailers until December 21. Full Story | Top |
| Discounts, promotions spur sales in U.S. holiday season Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:08 PM PST  Sales during the 2013 U.S. holiday season grew from a year earlier as deep discounting and increased promotions encouraged consumers to buy more. Holiday sales between November 1 and December 24 rose 2.3 percent, compared with 0.7 percent a year earlier, according to data published in the MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse report. "It was actually a Merry Christmas for retailers," Sarah Quinlan, senior vice president at MasterCard Advisors, told Reuters, adding that jewelry was the best-performing category. SpendingPulse tracks customer spending on apparel, electronics, jewelry, luxury and home furniture & furnishings categories during the holiday season. Full Story | Top |
| Miley Cyrus makes underwear top prop in new music video Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:04 PM PST  Miley Cyrus's latest music video, which features the provocative pop singer in just her underwear, leaked online hours before its scheduled release on Thursday, prompting a profane rebuke from the former Disney star. The video for Cyrus's most recent single, "Adore You," shows the singer writhing between bed sheets, sucking her thumb and rubbing her body before putting on a crocheted top and singing in the bath. "We all know Smilers would break another record if it wasn't for the (expletive) face who leaked my video. Her previous music video for the song "Wrecking Ball," directed by celebrity photographer Terry Richardson, showed Cyrus swinging from a wrecking ball clad only in boots. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests dozens under anti-terror law, bomb hits Cairo Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:41 PM PST By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt increased pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, detaining dozens of its supporters on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government, security officials said. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, said Egypt would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism. The government declared Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group on Wednesday in response to the suicide attack that targeted a police station a day earlier in the city of Mansoura. Full Story | Top |
| Retailers lead Dow, S&P 500 to record closing highs Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:17 PM PST  By Sam Forgione NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending at record highs as retail shares rallied following strong data about the holiday shopping season. The stock of Urban Outfitters rose 2.2 percent to $37.55 and was one of the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc , a Dow component, added 0.5 percent to $78.39. "There's no reason to sell stocks, but also not much reason to buy except for that fact that we continue to be poised to go higher." The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 122.33 points, or 0.75 percent, to end at 16,479.88, a record closing high. Full Story | Top |
| Boffo box office as slew of Christmas movies opens Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:09 PM PST By Andrea Burzynski NEW YORK (Reuters) - The holiday season's new films drew crowds of people to theaters on Wednesday to make it the second highest-grossing Christmas Day on record for the U.S. and Canadian box office, according to estimates from box office tracking site Rentrak. Yesterday's box office haul was estimated at between $76.5 and $78 million, topping 2012's $74.9 million Christmas day earnings. Ben Stiller's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" took $7.8 million on its first day in theaters to put it in fourth place for Christmas Day. Other Christmas debuts included Keanu Reeves' "47 Ronin," which opened with $7 million, boxing movie "Grudge Match" which earned $4 million, and "Justin Bieber's Believe" which took in $1.3 million. Full Story | Top |
| Fortress backs new LightSquared bankruptcy exit plan Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:13 PM PST LightSquared is proposing a new bankruptcy exit plan with financing from Fortress Investment Group and other backers, as the U.S. wireless communications company seeks to avoid a sale to highest bidder Dish Network Corp. LightSquared would receive $2.75 billion in fresh loans and at least $1.25 billion in equity investment from private equity firms Fortress and Melody Capital Advisors LLC, as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co and Harbinger Capital Partners, court documents filed late Tuesday show. Harbinger, billionaire Philip Falcone's hedge fund, is LightSquared's controlling shareholder. LightSquared scrapped that sale after Dish emerged as the only qualified bidder, with a $2.2 billion offer and terms that LightSquared found unappealing. Full Story | Top |
| Small jet makers see big chance as China prepares to open skies Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:07 PM PST  By Fang Yan and Matthew Miller BEIJING (Reuters) - Ferraris and Rolls-Royces have become common sights in China's cities as a new class of super-rich indulge a growing appetite for luxury, but tight regulation has meant the private jet, the ultimate status symbol of the global elite, remains rare. Recent rules changes, however, indicate that China is preparing to open its skies to private aircraft, in a move that may herald the greatest expansion of business and private aviation in the last 30 years. Last month, China's aviation regulator simplified flight approval procedures for private aircraft and lowered the threshold for obtaining a private pilot license. More importantly, the implementation of little-noticed guidelines issued by China's State Council and the Central Military Commission in 2010 will gradually lift the ceiling for low-flying aircraft by 2020. Full Story | Top |
| Food prices; a bricks and mortar problem for Indian economy Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:05 PM PST  By Rajesh Kumar Singh and Aditi Shah GURGAON, India (Reuters) - Three months since journeying more than 700 milesfrom his village in central India to take a job in this bustling city near the capital, New Delhi, Charan is already looking forward to a 10 percent pay rise. India's biggest cities face a worsening shortage of migrant manual laborers like 26-year-old Charan, who goes by only one name. While India has long suffered from a dearth of workers with vocational skills like plumbers and electricians, efforts to alleviate poverty in poor, rural areas have helped stifle what was once a flood of cheap, unskilled labor from India's poorest states. Struggling to cope with soaring food prices, this dwindling supply of migrant workers are demanding - and increasingly getting - rapid increases in pay and benefits. Full Story | Top |
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