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| Equities slide on disappointing China trade data, Ukraine crisis Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 08:28 PM PDT  By Shinichi Saoshiro TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks slid on Monday and the dollar stepped back from its recent highs as disappointing Chinese trade data and uncertainty over the crisis in Ukraine kept risk appetite in check. Investors greeted the new week in Asia on a cautious note after data issued on Saturday showed China's exports unexpectedly tumbled in February, swinging the trade balance into deficit and adding to fears of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. The soft Chinese data put a damper on risk sentiment, which had been temporarily boosted by stronger-than-expected U.S. nonfarm payrolls out on Friday showing employers had added 175,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, up from 129,000 new positions in January. "While non-farm payrolls surprised significantly to the upside on Friday, disappointing China data, escalating Russia/Ukraine concerns and the missing Malaysian aircraft have all contributed to a somber mood," IG market strategist Stan Shamu wrote in a note to clients. Full Story | Top |
| Softbank unit invests in Alibaba-backed online education firm Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 08:25 PM PDT  HONG KONG (Reuters) - An online education company backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Monday that a unit of Softbank Corp had made a strategic investment in the company for an undisclosed amount. The investment in TutorGroup from SBI Group, formerly known as Softbank Finance Group and one of Asia's biggest venture capital firms, follows a capital raising of nearly $100 million for TutorGroup in February from Alibaba, Singapore state investor Temasek Inc and China's Qiming Venture Partners. ... Full Story | Top |
| Search planes scour sea for missing Malaysian jetliner Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 07:54 PM PDT  By Niluksi Koswanage and Nguyen Phuong Linh KUALA LUMPUR/PHU QUOC ISLAND, Vietnam (Reuters) - Search and rescue planes scoured waters off the southern tip of Vietnam on Monday, searching for any trace of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner 48 hours after it vanished from radar screens with 239 people on board. Questions mounted over possible security lapses and whether a bomb or hijacking could have brought down the Beijing-bound plane, after Interpol confirmed at least two passengers used stolen passports and said it was checking whether others aboard had used false identity documents. Flight MH370 disappeared in the early hours of Saturday, about an hour into its flight from Kuala Lumpur, after climbing to a cruising altitude of 35,000 ft. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said on its website late on Sunday that a Vietnamese navy plane had spotted an object in the sea suspected of being part of the Boeing 777-200ER, but that it was too dark to be certain. "We are sending more planes there this morning." Shares in Malaysia Airlines fell as much as 18 percent to a record low on Monday morning. Full Story | Top |
| Zap! Australian scientists look at lasers to cull space junk Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 07:49 PM PDT  By Pauline Askin SYDNEY (Reuters) - It may sound like science fiction but an Australian team is working on a project to zap orbital debris with lasers from Earth to reduce the growing amount of space junk that threatens to knock out satellites with a "cascade of collisions". The project is very realistic and likely to be working in the next 10 years, Matthew Colless, director of Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, told Reuters. "It's important that it's possible on that scale because there's so much space junk up there," he said. Australia now has a contract with NASA, the U.S. space agency, to track and map space junk with a telescope equipped with an infra-red laser at Mount Stromlo Observatory. Full Story | Top |
| Cyclone brushes eastern Australia before heading back to sea Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 07:47 PM PDT Meteorologists were on Monday monitoring a slow-moving cyclone that has intensified off the east coast of Australia, but said it was unlikely to affect a key mining and commodity export district. Cyclone Hadi was moving in an east-southeaster direction at about 4 km per hour (2.5 miles) at 0200 GMT and should develop a northeasterly track during the day, remaining well off the coast, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Strong winds had eased along the coastline, where ports handle much of the 150 million tonnes (1 tonne = 1.102 metric tons) of coal mined annually in the Bowen Basin, as well as cargoes of base metals, livestock and agricultural goods, the bureau said. A second cyclone, named Gillian, was located 95 kms (60 miles) southwest of the northeastern tip of Australia -- some 1,000 km from the Bowen Basin and a major bauxite mining region -- and moving parallel to the coastline, according to the bureau. Full Story | Top |
| Tencent to buy 15 pct stake in JD.com in challenge to Alibaba Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 07:11 PM PDT  By Paul Carsten BEIJING (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings Ltd will buy a 15 percent stake in e-commerce firm JD.com for $214.7 million, as the two seek to challenge Alibaba Group Holding's dominant position in online shopping in China. Tencent also plans take an additional 5 percent of JD.com on a post-IPO basis, and Tencent President Martin Lau will take a seat on JD.com's board of directors. Although Alibaba is by far China's most dominant e-commerce firm, it has been losing ground to Tencent on mobile as smartphone and tablet usage has surged over recent years. Under the agreement, JD.com will take control of Tencent's own, unsuccessful e-commerce businesses, which will be 100 percent owned by JD.com. Full Story | Top |
| Timeline: Malaysia Airlines flight to Beijing missing in Asia Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 06:11 PM PDT Here is a timeline of events in the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner which vanished from radar screens on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early on Saturday: SATURDAY, MARCH 8 - Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Flight departs at 12:21 a.m. (12.21 p.m. ET Friday), and is due to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. (6.30 p.m. ET) the same day - On board the Boeing 777-200ER are 227 passengers and 12 crew. - Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) says plane failed to check in as scheduled at 1721 GMT while flying over sea between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh City. - Flight tracking website flightaware.com shows plane flew northeast over Malaysia after takeoff and climbed to altitude of 35,000 feet. - Malaysia and Vietnam conduct joint search and rescue operation. Full Story | Top |
| Magnitude 6.0 quake hits in Oaxaca, Mexico: USGS Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 06:06 PM PDT (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.0 quake hit in Oaxaca state in southwestern Mexico, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Sunday. The quake was centered 10 miles northwest of Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, at a depth of 13.7 miles, the USGS said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. (Reporting by Peter Cooney in Washington; Editing by Eric Walsh) Full Story | Top |
| China February exports tumble unexpectedly, heighten slowdown fears Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 05:35 PM PDT  By Kevin Yao and Adam Rose BEIJING (Reuters) - China's exports unexpectedly tumbled in February, swinging the trade balance into deficit and adding to fears of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy despite the Lunar New Year holidays being blamed for the slide. A resilient Chinese economy is good news for the world, particularly for major commodity exporters such as Australia. Full Story | Top |
| Central bank guidance soothes markets but also carries risks: BIS Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 05:30 PM PDT  Central bank efforts to become more predictable on future interest rate moves have smoothed out short-term upsets in financial markets but could also lead to excessive risk-taking, research from the Bank for International Settlements said on Sunday. Central bank forward guidance, whether publishing rate forecasts or promising rates will remain at certain levels for a given time or until certain economic conditions are reached, has been in the spotlight recently as economies recover from the financial crisis and investors try to pick the beginning of the end of easy money policies. Research published in the BIS quarterly review found guidance from the Bank of England, European Central Bank and Federal Reserve had a calming influence on markets and also helped shield the UK and euro zone economies from turbulence last year about when the Fed slowing asset purchases. But BIS economists said there were risks from markets focusing too narrowly on certain aspects of forward guidance and from central banks themselves potentially becoming too worried about markets' reaction, to the extent that it could delay a return to more normal policy settings. Full Story | Top |
| Maldives court sacks elections officials for disobedience Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 05:25 PM PDT The Maldives Supreme Court on Sunday dismissed the country's top elections officials for failing to follow its guidelines during last year's presidential polls and for disbanding eight political parties ahead of a parliamentary election this month. The court ordered the head of the commission, Fuwad Thowfeek, and his deputy, Ahmed Fayaz, removed from their posts and asked the parliament to appoint replacements within six days. The election commission came under the seven-member court's scrutiny last year when it went ahead with a presidential run-off after three previous attempts were annulled or postponed by the court. Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected president who was ousted in February 2012, narrowly lost a November 16 run-off to the current president, Abdulla Yameen. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Malaysia plane probe narrows on mid-air disintegration - source Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 05:23 PM PDT  Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished after climbing to a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing in the early hours of Saturday. "The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet," said the source, who is involved in the preliminary investigations in Malaysia. Full Story | Top |
| Comic film 'Neighbors' pits party-over against party-on Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 05:17 PM PDT Even Seth Rogen says so. As a married former party guy transitioning into suburban parenthood, Rogen wages war with the frat house next door in the raucous new Nicholas Stoller movie, "Neighbors," that screened this weekend as a work in progress at the SXSW Film Festival. Packed with crowd-pleasing Rogen-style jokes - including a cringe-worthy bumble with a breast pump - the war spirals into depravity between new parents Mac and Kelly Radner and the Delta Psi Beta frat next door, led by its slightly damaged president, Teddy, portrayed by Zac Efron. But as Mac and Kelly, played by Rogen and Rose Byrne, find themselves trying to shut down raging parties they would have loved to attend when they were 10 years younger, the film's biggest battle turns out to be internal. Full Story | Top |
| Bayern boss Hoeness goes on trial for tax evasion Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 05:05 PM PDT  By Jörn Poltz MUNICH (Reuters) - Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness, once one of Germany's most admired soccer managers, heads to court on Monday to face charges that he dodged taxes in a case that shocked the German public and spurred others to turn themselves in. Hoeness, who as a player won the World Cup with West Germany in 1974 and has been credited with turning Bayern Munich into one of the world's most respected clubs, has said he told tax authorities about his Swiss bank account and undeclared income of his own accord in January 2013. While he has now paid back the taxes and fines he owed, it is unclear whether he informed the tax office about his offence early enough or comprehensively enough. A regional court in Munich will decide on the 62-year-old's fate. Full Story | Top |
| Favreau goes from 'Iron Man' to stainless steel food truck in new film Sunday, Mar 09, 2014 04:40 PM PDT  By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Actor, director and screenwriter Jon Favreau traded the high-flying super hero antics of his "Iron Man" movies for a quieter new film about a celebrated chef who quits his job at a top-flight restaurant and takes to the road in a food truck. "Chef," a small-budget, independent comedy with a big-name cast, including Iron Man veterans Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson, made its premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin this weekend. For Favreau, "Chef" helped cleanse his palate after directing the first two of the three Iron Man films, which have a combined world box office of more than $1 billion. Full Story | Top |
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