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| Rosberg tops times in final practice in Australia Friday, Mar 14, 2014 09:18 PM PDT  By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets in final practice at the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday as rain, gusty winds and reliability problems dominated an eventful session. The German lapped the Albert Park circuit in one minute 29.375 seconds, well ahead of McClaren's Jenson Button by 1.391 seconds on a warm day in Melbourne. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was third fastest, with Lewis Hamilton, who topped the second free practice on Friday, fourth in his Mercedes. Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, was held up in the garage with a radio problem for much of the session, but emerged to post the seventh fastest lap for Ferrari. Full Story | Top |
| Motor racing-Rosberg tops times in final practice in Australia Friday, Mar 14, 2014 09:17 PM PDT By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE, March 15 (Reuters) - Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets in final practice at the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday as rain, gusty winds and reliability problems dominated an eventful session. The German lapped the Albert Park circuit in one minute 29.375 seconds, well ahead of McClaren's Jenson Button by 1.391 seconds on a warm day in Melbourne. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was third fastest, with Lewis Hamilton, who topped the second free practice on Friday, fourth in his Mercedes. Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, was held up in the garage with a radio problem for much of the session, but emerged to post the seventh fastest lap for Ferrari. Full Story | Top |
| Satellite data shows missing Malaysia plane may have flown thousands of miles: source Friday, Mar 14, 2014 08:32 PM PDT By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Analysis of electronic pulses picked up from a missing Malaysian airliner shows it could have run out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean after it flew hundreds of miles off course, a source familiar with official U.S. assessments said on Friday. The source, who is familiar with data the U.S. government is receiving from the investigation into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane, said the other, less likely possibility was that it flew on toward India. Two sources familiar with the probe earlier said Malaysian military radar data showed a plane that investigators suspect was Flight MH370 following a commonly used navigational route toward the Middle East and Europe when it was last spotted by radar early on March 8, northwest of Malaysia. The electronic pulses were believed to have been transmitted for several hours after the plane flew out of radar range, said the source familiar with the data. Full Story | Top |
| Fed nominee Fischer: policy decisions are best made early Friday, Mar 14, 2014 08:05 PM PDT  By Ann Saphir PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Stanley Fischer, U.S. President Barack Obama's pick for the No. 2 job at the Federal Reserve, said on Friday that decades of crisis-fighting have taught him the importance of making policy decisions quickly, even before all relevant data is in hand. "We tend to underestimate the lags in receiving information and the lags with which policy decisions affect the economy," he said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Stanford Institute on Economic Policy. "Those lags led me to try to make decisions as early as possible, even if that meant that there was more uncertainty about the correctness of the decision than would have been appropriate had the lags been absent." Fischer was in California to receive the institute's $100,000 prize one day after his nomination hearing in Washington, a session that shed little new light on his policy leanings but suggested he is largely supportive of the Fed's current super-easy monetary policy. That could be a critical insight into the thinking of a man likely soon to become the most influential U.S. central banker after Fed Chair Janet Yellen, just as the Fed faces the unprecedented task of unwinding its extraordinary stimulus measures launched in the depths of the last financial crisis. Full Story | Top |
| Lost Malaysian airliner may have run out of fuel over Indian Ocean: source Friday, Mar 14, 2014 07:34 PM PDT  By Niluksi Koswanage and Mark Hosenball KUALA LUMPUR/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Faint electronic signals sent to satellites from a missing Malaysian jetliner show it may have been flown thousands of miles off course before running out of fuel over the Indian Ocean, a source familiar with official U.S. assessments said. Analysis in Malaysia and the United States of military radar tracking and pulses detected by satellites are starting to piece together an extraordinary picture of what may have happened to the plane after it lost contact with civilian air traffic. The fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, and the 239 passengers and crew aboard, has been shrouded in mystery since it vanished off Malaysia's east coast less than an hour into a March 8 scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A U.S. source familiar with the investigation said there was also discussion within the U.S. government that the plane's disappearance might have involved an act of piracy. Full Story | Top |
| Beer makers drop out of St. Patrick's parades that ban openly gay marchers Friday, Mar 14, 2014 06:48 PM PDT  By Anna Hiatt NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two major beer manufacturers on Friday dropped sponsorship of St. Patrick's Day parades in New York City and Boston to protest bans on gays marching openly. Sam Adams pulled out of Boston's parade, which takes place on Sunday, and Heineken yanked its support of the New York City parade, slated for Monday. Both parades are allowing gay groups to march but are banning signage about sexual orientation. Sam Adams made the announcement after coming under pressure from Club Cafe, a Boston bar patronized by the gay community. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. government aims to shed control of Internet addresses Friday, Mar 14, 2014 06:30 PM PDT The Commerce Department maintains the master database for such top-level domain names as .com and .net, as well as the corresponding numeric addresses, but has contracted out that work to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Strickling said he asked ICANN to convene a process for a formal transition, which he said must "support and enhance the multistakeholder model" and "maintain the openness of the Internet." ICANN Chief Executive Fadi Chehadé said the process would be completed before ICANN's management contract with the Commerce Department expires in September 2015. The United States, which gave birth to the Internet, has long said it wants to hand over stewardship and has taken many steps toward that. The push has accelerated following disclosures from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, whose documents showed that U.S. intelligence officials scanned vast amounts of Internet traffic. Full Story | Top |
| Canadian class-action lawsuit filed against Mt. Gox, Mizuho Bank Friday, Mar 14, 2014 06:28 PM PDT  A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Canada against Mt. Gox, the leading bitcoin exchange that lost more than $400 million of customers' digital currency, along with Mizuho Bank Ltd, one of Japan's largest lenders. The lawsuit, filed Friday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, comes just days after Mt. Gox, based in Tokyo, filed for a U.S. Chapter 15 bankruptcy, which shields the company from lawsuits in U.S. courts. The plaintiffs are Canadian residents who allege they are owed currency and the value of bitcoins by Mt. Gox that they have been unable to withdraw. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of "all persons in Canada who paid a fee to Mt. Gox to buy, sell or otherwise trade bitcoins" and all those who had bitcoins or currently stored with Mt. Gox on February 7. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. judge will not change Pandora's songwriters licensing rate Friday, Mar 14, 2014 06:25 PM PDT By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge has left stable the rate U.S. Internet radio service Pandora Media Inc must pay songwriters to license their music, a performing rights organization said Friday. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers said the judge following a non-jury trial set Pandora's rate to license songs registered with the association at 1.85 percent for five years through 2015. The rate, set by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, left the royalty at the current rate paid by Pandora. But the judge also appears to have rejected an escalating rate structure proposed by ASCAP. Full Story | Top |
| Lawsuit kicks off class action claims against GM Friday, Mar 14, 2014 05:48 PM PDT  By Jessica Dye NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors was hit on Friday with what appeared to be the first lawsuit related to the recall of 1.6 million cars, as customers claimed their vehicles lost value because of ignition problems blamed for a series of fatal crashes. The proposed class action, filed in federal court in Texas, said GM knew about the problem since 2004, but failed to fix it, creating "unreasonably dangerous" conditions for drivers of the affected models. "GM's mishandling of the ignition switch defect....has adversely affected the company's reputation as a manufacturer of safe, reliable vehicles with high resale value," the lawsuit said. The recall has led to government criminal and civil investigations, an internal probe by GM, and preparations for hearings by Congress. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. warns American travelers in Russia, and border region Friday, Mar 14, 2014 05:37 PM PDT The U.S. State Department warned American citizens on Friday of possible military clashes along the Russian-Ukrainian border and potential anti-American activities in Russia as Crimea prepares to vote Sunday on whether to join Russia. In a "travel alert," the State Department said it had no information of military conflict inside Russia as a result of regional tensions or of any threat specific to U.S. citizens. "However," it said, "all U.S. citizens located in or considering travel to the border region ... should be aware of the potential for escalation of tensions, military clashes (either accidental or intentional) or other violence." In the worst East-West confrontation since the Cold War, Moscow shipped more troops into Crimea on Friday and repeated its threat to invade other parts of Ukraine in response to violence the night before in Donetsk. EU diplomats will choose from a list of possible Russian targets for sanctions on Sunday, as pro-Moscow authorities who have taken power in Crimea hold a vote on whether to join Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Sears' board approves spinning off Lands' End clothing business Friday, Mar 14, 2014 05:36 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Eddie Lampert-controlled Sears Holdings Corp said on Friday its board approved the spin off on April 4 of its Lands' End clothing business. The deal, which was announced in December, will make Lands' End an independent, publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol LE. Lands' End sells casual clothing, accessories, footwear, and home products online, through catalogs and in stores. Sears stockholders on record as of March 24 will receive about 0.3 shares of Lands' End common stock for each share of Sears they own. Full Story | Top |
| Pinkberry yogurt chain co-founder gets seven years in beating case Friday, Mar 14, 2014 05:34 PM PDT  By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A co-founder of the Pinkberry frozen yogurt chain who was convicted last year of beating a homeless man with a tire iron over a tattoo he considered disrespectful was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison. Young Lee, a 49-year-old South Korean kick boxer-turned-architect who parted ways with Pinkberry in 2010, was convicted in November of assault with a deadly weapon, along with special allegations that he caused great bodily injuries to his victim. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Lee was sentenced to the maximum of four years in prison for the assault, with an additional three years for the special allegations. Prosecutors say Donald Bolding was panhandling at a Los Angeles freeway off-ramp when he flashed a sexually explicit tattoo on his belly at Lee, his then-fiancee and another man in the couple's Range Rover. Full Story | Top |
| Sina Weibo files for $500 million U.S. IPO Friday, Mar 14, 2014 05:23 PM PDT  Twitter-like messaging service Weibo Corp filed on Friday to raise $500 million via a U.S. initial public offering, as Chinese companies flock to the American market in record numbers to take advantage of soaring valuations. Weibo, owned by Sina Corp, becomes the latest Chinese Internet giant to tap U.S. markets, following on the heels of search service Baidu and its own corporate parent. Alibaba, which owns a stake in Weibo, is expected to raise about $15 billion in New York this year, in the highest-profile Internet IPO since Facebook's in 2012. Full Story | Top |
| Investigators focus on foul play behind missing Malaysia plane: sources Friday, Mar 14, 2014 04:48 PM PDT By Niluksi Koswanage and Siva Govindasamy KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - An investigation into a missing Malaysian jetliner, now into its second week, is focusing more on the possibility of foul play as evidence suggests it was deliberately flown hundreds of miles off course, sources familiar with the Malaysian probe said. Two sources told Reuters that military radar data showed an unidentified aircraft that investigators suspect was Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 following a commonly used navigational route toward the Middle East and Europe when it was last spotted early on March 8, northwest of Malaysia. That course - headed into the Andaman Sea and towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean - could only have been set deliberately, either by flying the Boeing 777-200ER jet manually or by programming the auto-pilot. A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing more on the theory that someone with knowledge of navigational waypoints - used by airlines to track established commercial flight paths - had diverted the flight off its scheduled course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Full Story | Top |
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