| | |
| Massive 8.2 earthquake off Chile coast sparks tsunami Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 09:25 PM PDT  By Anthony Esposito and Rosalba O'Brien SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A major earthquake of magnitude 8.2 struck off the coast of Chile on Tuesday, triggering a tsunami, causing landslides that blocked highways and leading to five deaths. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was shallow at 12.5 miles below the seabed and struck about 100 km northwest of the mining port of Iquique near the Peruvian border. The government said it had no reports of significant damage to coastal areas, but around 300 prisoners took advantage of the confusion and escaped from a female penitentiary in Iquique, Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said. About 16 of the women were soon recaptured, Chile's investigative police said, while security forces fanned out through the area amid reports of power outages. Full Story | Top |
| Chile says five dead following 8.2 magnitude quake Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 09:15 PM PDT SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said five people had died following a massive 8.2 quake that struck the north of the Andean country on Tuesday. (Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Ron Popeski) Full Story | Top |
| Philip Morris to stop cigarette production in Australia Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 09:02 PM PDT  American cigarette and tobacco company Philip Morris International Inc plans to stop manufacturing cigarettes in Australia by the end of the year, citing government production regulations that restrict its export opportunities. Philip Morris said it would shift manufacturing from Victoria state to South Korea, where it would not be bound by so-called "reduced-fire risk" laws which mean it must use particular paper and construction methods. "With any significant export opportunity restricted by Australian government regulations, our Moorabbin factory is significantly under-utilized, operating at less than half of its currently installed capacity," John Gledhill, managing director for Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands, said in a statement. But it said the introduction of the government's reduced-fire risk requirements in 2010, which are designed to ensure a cigarette self-extinguishes when dropped on the ground, led to taste changes that did not match consumer preferences in Asia. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Japan may only be able to restart one-third of its nuclear reactors Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:44 PM PDT  By Mari Saito, Aaron Sheldrick and Kentaro Hamada TOKYO (Reuters) - Three years after the Fukushima disaster prompted the closure of all Japan's nuclear reactors, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is moving to revive nuclear power as a core part of the energy mix, but many of those idled reactors will never come back online. This means Japan is likely to remain heavily reliant on imported fuel to power the world's third-largest economy, straining a trade balance that has been in the red for nearly two years. Hokkaido Electric Power Co and Kyushu Electric Power Co, both facing a third year of financial losses, are seeking capital infusions totaling nearly $1.5 billion from a state-owned lender. Kyushu Electric shares dropped as much as 7 percent on Wednesday to an 8-week low. Full Story | Top |
| BlackBerry ends licensing deal with T-Mobile Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:24 PM PDT  (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd said on Tuesday it will not renew its license with T-Mobile U.S. Inc to sell BlackBerry products after the current contract expires on April 25. The Canadian company said it will continue to provide service and support to existing customers on T-Mobile's network or those who will buy products from the carrier's inventory. "Regretfully, at this time, our strategies are not complementary and we must act in the best interest of our BlackBerry customers," BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen said in a statement. BlackBerry said it is "working closely" with other carrier partners to provide users with alternatives should they decide to switch from T-Mobile. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia releases transcript of last words from missing plane Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:22 PM PDT  Malaysia on Tuesday released the full transcript of communications between the Boeing 777 and local air traffic control before it dropped from civilian radar in the early hours of March 8 as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. "There is no indication of anything abnormal in the transcript," Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in the statement, without giving explanation for the changes in the reported last communication. "The transcript was initially held as part of the police investigation," he added. Minutes after the final radio transmission was received the plane's communications were cut off and it turned back across Peninsular Malaysia and headed towards the Indian Ocean, according to military radar and limited satellite data. Full Story | Top |
| Transcript of communications between Malaysia Flight MH370 and ground control Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:22 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Below is the full transcript of communications between missing Flight MH370 and air traffic controllers in Kuala Lumpur, released on Tuesday by Hishammuddin Hussein, minister of defense and acting transport minister. "The transcript has been shared with the families, and is attached as an Annex to this press release. There is no indication of anything abnormal in the transcript," said Hussein in an email. The last words from the cockpit were "Good night Malaysian three seven zero", changing the account from the previous "All right, good night. ... Full Story | Top |
| Renesas has talked with Apple, others on chip unit sale: source Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:04 PM PDT  Japan's Renesas Electronics Corp has talked with several companies, including Apple Inc, on a possible sale of its display chip design unit, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday. Renesas has been restructuring to focus on its business supplying semiconductors to the automotive sector and said on Wednesday it was considering a sale of Renesas SP Drivers, but declined to comment further. The Nikkei business daily said Apple was in talks to buy the unit and could pay 50 billion yen ($483 million), with a transaction due to be completed by summer. Apple did not respond to an email request for comment. Full Story | Top |
| Chile says tsunami alert to stay in place at least six hours Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:58 PM PDT SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said a tsunami alert for the country's coastline will remain in place for at least another six hours following a major earthquake. The magnitude 8.2 quake struck off the northern coast of Chile on Tuesday, triggering a tsunami that hit the northern part of the country, but the government said there was no serious damage and no reports of deaths. (Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Kim Coghill) Full Story | Top |
| Australia's Abbott faces tough mission on 'trifecta of trade' in Asia Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:46 PM PDT  By Maggie Lu Yueyang SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott wants to finalize a free trade agreement with Japan on his forthcoming North Asia trip, but will have to walk a fine line between Tokyo and Beijing over geopolitical tensions in the region. Abbott leaves for Japan on Saturday, kicking off a tour that also includes South Korea and China. China is Australia's top export market, followed by Japan and South Korea. Full Story | Top |
| 'Toy-like' drone that crashed in South Korea came from North: media Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:39 PM PDT A South Korean military inquiry into a drone found on a border island has concluded that North Korea flew the unmanned aircraft to conduct reconnaissance missions, a South Korean media report said on Wednesday. The discovery of the surveillance aircraft came less than an hour after a three-hour artillery barrage between South and North Korea in each side's territorial waters near a disputed maritime border on Monday. North Korea fired more than 100 artillery rounds into South Korean waters as part of a drill on Monday, prompting the South to fire back. Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday that the drone's flight route appeared to be from the North, citing unidentified South Korean government officials. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. eyes lessons learned from Malaysia jet at Asia defense talks Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:26 PM PDT  By Phil Stewart HONOLULU (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Tuesday he expected to discuss lessons learned from the search for a missing Malaysian jetliner at talks with southeast Asian defense chiefs, but stopped short of criticizing Malaysia's coordination effort. The so-far fruitless search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370 has been a massive international military undertaking that has included patrol flights by state-of-the-art U.S. spy planes. Hagel did not direct blame at Malaysia, which has sent its defense chief to Hagel's three-day gathering of ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A senior U.S. defense official, briefing reporters ahead of Hagel's trip, which will continue to Japan, China and Mongolia, said the Malaysia jet search effort highlighted "the importance of working together and cooperating." "On the one hand it has shown that we have a number of countries that can come together and put aside rivalries and differences to work together," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Full Story | Top |
| Another Japan nuclear operator turns to government for aid Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:00 PM PDT By Taiga Uranaka and James Topham TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Kyushu Electric Power Co has become the second nuclear generator to seek state support this week as reactors across the country remain idled and industry losses mount three years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Kyushu Electric, a regional monopoly that supplies power in southern Japan, said on Wednesday it was in talks with state-owned Development Bank of Japan for financial backing. On Tuesday, a source said Hokkaido Electric Power Co, which supplies Japan's northernmost island, had asked the same bank for financial assistance. All of Japan's 48 nuclear reactors have been shut down, pending stringent safety checks, since a massive earthquake and 13-metre-high (43-feet-high) tsunami smashed into the Fukushima nuclear complex in March 2011, triggering a meltdown in the world's worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Full Story | Top |
| Asian shares build on gains, yen hits 10-week trough Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 06:52 PM PDT  By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian share markets added to their recent rally on Wednesday as investors chose to accentuate the positive in a mixed bag of global economic data, pressuring the safe haven yen to a 10-week trough. Trading was cautious, however, ahead of Thursday's meeting of the European Central Bank and Friday's U.S. jobs numbers, both of which could move markets in major ways. The Nikkei outperformed thanks to the drop in the yen and climbed 1.3 percent. Full Story | Top |
| GM avoided defective switch redesign in 2005 to save a dollar each Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 06:50 PM PDT  By Paul Lienert and Marilyn Thompson DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Co in 2005 decided not to change an ignition switch eventually linked to the deaths of at least 13 people because it would have added about a dollar to the cost of each car, according to an internal GM document provided to U.S. congressional investigators. The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce released the documents on Tuesday as lawmakers asked CEO Mary Barra why GM failed to recall 2.6 million cars until more than a decade after it first noticed a switch problem that could cut off engines and disable airbags, power steering and power brakes. Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette cited a 2005 GM document that she said showed a cost of 57 cents per fix. However, Reuters obtained what appeared to be a separate document, a series of 2005 emails between GM engineers debating whether to make a change to the ignition switch. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment