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| Objectors in Detroit bankruptcy ask to appeal directly to circuit court Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 07:49 PM PST  Organizations that objected to Detroit's bankruptcy separately asked the U.S. judge overseeing the case late on Wednesday to allow an appeal of the case to go directly to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Groups led by Detroit's largest union - Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees - and the city's two pension funds filed requests with the bankruptcy court to bypass the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and go directly to the appeals court. Full Story | Top |
| China says told Biden airspace decision in line with international law Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 07:36 PM PST China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that China told visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Beijing's decision to set up an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea accorded with international law. "During the talks the Chinese side repeated its principled position, stressing that the Chinese move accorded with international law and practice and that the U.S. side ought to take an objective and fair attitude and respect it," ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a brief statement. Full Story | Top |
| China Mobile signs deal with Apple to offer iPhone: WSJ Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 06:43 PM PST  HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Mobile Ltd , the country's largest mobile operator, has signed a long-awaited deal with Apple Inc to offer iPhones on its network, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter. The news comes a day after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 4G licenses to China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom in another widely expected move. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Korea mulls disciplinary action against Goldman Sachs' local unit: sources Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 06:41 PM PST  A South Korean regulator informed Goldman Sachs' local unit this week of its intent to impose disciplinary action for possible breach of domestic capital markets rules, three regulatory sources said on Thursday. The Financial Supervisory Service had reviewed three brokerages, including Goldman, earlier this year for possible breach of domestic capital markets regulations. Regulators had focused their review on whether Goldman's sale of Malaysian state-backed securities to domestic investors had followed domestic capital markets regulations, such as requiring the sales to be transacted through a local unit licensed to sell products in South Korea. A Seoul-based Goldman Sachs spokesman declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| Obama says he's not allowed iPhone for 'security reasons' Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 06:21 PM PST  The troubled mobile phone maker BlackBerry still has at least one very loyal customer: U.S. President Barack Obama. At a meeting with youth on Wednesday to promote his landmark healthcare law, Obama said he is not allowed to have Apple's smart phone, the iPhone, for "security reasons," though he still uses Apple's tablet computer, the iPad. Apple was one of several tech companies that may have allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) direct access to servers containing customer data, according to revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Obama fought to keep his BlackBerry after coming to the White House in 2009, though he said only 10 people have his personal email address. Full Story | Top |
| Toronto Mayor Ford may have tried to buy crack video -police documents Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 06:03 PM PST  By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may have offered cash and a car to buy a video allegedly showing him using crack cocaine, according to notes from police wiretaps. Ford admitted early last month he had smoked crack cocaine, saying it was probably "in one of my drunken stupors," but he said he is not an addict and does not need help. The existence of an alleged video was initially reported in May by the Toronto Star newspaper and media website Gawker. Ford said at the time that he could not comment on a video he had not seen "or does not exist." But according to police notes of a recorded phone conversation involving two suspected gang members, Ford was aware of the video's existence in March, and offered to buy it. Full Story | Top |
| Google's mystery barge in San Francisco Bay under investigation Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 05:59 PM PST  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The agency that oversees development in the San Francisco Bay in California has begun a formal investigation into the construction of a secretive Google Inc barge on an island in the bay. The probe, which began in the past week, will examine what permits are needed to build the barge and whether the owners of the Treasure Island pier where the vessel is moored have the proper permits, said Larry Goldzband, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. "We want to make sure that the permits that are used by the owners of the pier actually allowed for construction to happen," Goldzband told Reuters on Wednesday, referring to what he described as "a preliminary and formal enforcement investigation." Google officials informed Goldzband in a recent meeting that they are in the process of making changes to the barge's design which have been requested by the U.S. Coast Guard. Jason Tama, a Coast Guard commander, said he could not comment on any specific cases, but noted that it was standard practice for the Coast Guard to inspect new construction to ensure that safety, security and environmental protection regulations are met. Full Story | Top |
| RBS, S&P sued by European investors for $250 million crisis losses Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 05:40 PM PST  Royal Bank of Scotland and rating agency Standard & Poor's have been sued by a group of European institutional investors for damages of up to $250 million suffered on complex financial products in the lead-up to the global financial crisis. The claim is the first group action of its kind to be launched in Europe against an investment bank and rating agency for their conducts prior to the crisis, litigation finance company Bentham IMF Ltd said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange on Thursday. The group of 16 European institutional investors filed the claim in Amsterdam on Wednesday for damages of up to $250 million suffered on investments in CPDOs - or constant proportion debt obligations - that were rated AAA by S&P. "This claim has no merit and we will oppose it vigorously," said S&P in a statement. "The ratings on these securities, which date back to 2005-6, were assigned in good faith based on the information available to us at the time." The case also follows the landmark judgment issued by Australia's Federal Court in November 2012, which found S&P had deceived 12 local government councils that bought the CPDOs. Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon focused on weapons, data fusion as F-35 nears combat use Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 05:16 PM PST  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet is making good progress as it nears initial combat use by the U.S. Marine Corps in July 2015, but the company must still finalize the software needed to deliver weapons and fuse data from its many sensors, the Pentagon's F-35 program chief told Reuters on Wednesday. "Getting to 2015 there's a whole lot of things that have to be put in place, not the least of which is the software on the program," Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, the Air Force three-star general who took over the helm of the $392 billion F-35 program around one year ago, said in an interview. Officials have also launched an "earnest effort" to ensure that planes already built for the Air Force and Marine Corps are modified to adjust for issues found in flight testing so they are ready for initial combat use, Bogdan said. The Air Force has said it plans to start using its conventional takeoff F-35 jets from mid-2016. Full Story | Top |
| Streetcar not desired in Cincinnati as council suspends project Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 05:11 PM PST By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Cincinnati City Council members voted on Wednesday to suspend construction on a $133 million streetcar project aimed at connecting urban communities so it can assess the feasibility of the project. The streetcar project, a 3.6-mile (5.8-km) loop with 18 stops connecting urban communities, is estimated to cost $133 million. About $45 million of the cost was to be paid for by the Federal Transportation Administration, with the city picking up the $88 million balance. Proponents of streetcar project argued suspending construction will put federal funds in jeopardy and open the city up to lawsuits from contractors. Full Story | Top |
| Prize-winning Dominican author in war of words over migrant court ruling Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:43 PM PST By Ezra Fieser SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz said a letter from Dominican authors and intellectuals questioning his loyalty to his country of birth was "a ham-fisted attempt to silence" his criticism of a controversial court ruling on birthright citizenship. Diaz and three other authors have come under attack in the Dominican Republic after they published a letter in the New York Times that criticized a September decision by the country's constitutional court that stripped Dominican citizenship from children of illegal immigrants, most of whom are descendants of Haitians. The letter drew a response from eight Dominican cultural figures, who, in an open letter published by media outlets in the country, suggested Diaz was adding to a "disinformation campaign aimed at curtailing our sovereignty." They went on to criticize Diaz's literary style, saying he had "little capacity for reflection and a disrespectful and mediocre use of the written word." Diaz, who in early December returned from a trip to the Caribbean country, told Reuters in emails that "sectors of the society in favor of this ruling seem convinced that dissension is not a healthy part of a democratic society." The dustup comes amid continued international pressure for the Dominican government to walk back the court ruling, which will remove Dominican citizenship from tens of thousands of people born in the country dating back to 1929. Full Story | Top |
| Chemical experts eye port to load Syria toxins onto U.S. ship Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:17 PM PST  The United Nations and the global chemical weapons watchdog are awaiting approval from a country to use its port to load Syria's most deadly chemicals onto a U.S. ship for destruction offshore, the head of the mission said on Wednesday. Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Syria mission, briefed the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday but did not identify which country she had been in talks with. The OPCW said on Saturday the United States had started modifying a U.S. naval vessel to be able to destroy Syria's 500 tons of chemicals, including actual nerve agents - neutralizing them offshore with other chemicals in a process known as hydrolysis. Italy, Norway and Denmark have offered to transport Syria's chemicals from the northern Syrian port of Latakia with military escorts. Full Story | Top |
| Ex-aide says Madoff workers duped investor's account postmortem Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:13 PM PST  By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - To hear his former aide tell it, even a client's death posed no problem for Bernard Madoff as he perpetrated his massive Ponzi scheme. Testifying in a trial in New York on Wednesday, the former aide, Frank DiPascali, said an estate lawyer wrote Madoff's firm a letter in 1995 seeking the account balances for the late Jacques Amsellem, who had been a Madoff client since the 1970s. Madoff typically decided how much money each account should earn in a given year, and Amsellem's account showed too high a balance at the time of his death, DiPascali said. So two of his employees, Joann Crupi and Annette Bongiorno, wrote up false statements for a new account with losses to counterbalance the unintended gains. Full Story | Top |
| Cyber experts uncover 2 million stolen passwords to global Web accounts Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:11 PM PST  Security experts have uncovered a trove of some 2 million stolen passwords to websites including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo from Internet users across the globe. Researchers with Trustwave's SpiderLabs said they discovered the credentials while investigating a server in the Netherlands that cyber criminals use to control a massive network of compromised computers known as the "Pony botnet." The company told Reuters on Wednesday that it has reported its findings to the largest of more than 90,000 websites and Internet service providers whose customers' credentials it had found on the server. The data includes more than 326,000 Facebook Inc accounts, some 60,000 Google Inc accounts, more than 59,000 Yahoo Inc accounts and nearly 22,000 Twitter Inc accounts, according to SpiderLabs. Full Story | Top |
| Southwest, Virgin America to buy LaGuardia slots: sources Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:10 PM PST  By Karen Jacobs and Diane Bartz ATLANTA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines and Virgin American will buy the take-off and landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport that US Airways Group Inc and American Airlines must sell as part of their agreement to merge, three sources said on Wednesday. Last month, US Airways and American agreed to divest 17 pairs of slots at LaGuardia, a busy airport with limited capacity, as well as certain other assets, as part of a settlement of an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department. Southwest, US Airways and American declined to comment on the question of LaGuardia slot pairs. Full Story | Top |
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