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| Fading signals add urgency to search for missing jet Friday, Apr 11, 2014 09:08 PM PDT  By Swati Pandey and Ben Blanchard PERTH/BEIJING (Reuters) - The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner resumed on Saturday, five weeks after the plane disappeared from radar screens, amid fears that batteries powering signals from the black box recorder on board were about to die. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said signals picked up during the search in the remote southern Indian Ocean, believed to be "pings" from the black box recorders, were "rapidly fading". "While we do have a high degree of confidence that the transmissions that we've been picking up are from flight MH370's black box recorder, no one would underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Abbott told a news conference in Beijing. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared soon after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, triggering a multinational search that is now focused on the Indian Ocean. Full Story | Top |
| Lawsuit against NCAA over athlete pay headed for trial Friday, Apr 11, 2014 07:28 PM PDT By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. college athletes will get a chance to prove in court that sports team members should be paid, after a federal judge on Friday rejected the National College Athletic Association's attempt to head off a trial in the widely watched case. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, California, denied a request the NCAA made last year to decide the case in its favor before trial. The NCAA argued that the current system is justified because amateur status makes college athletics more popular and furthers competition. More than 20 current and former athletes sued, saying that players should share in the profits of college athletics, a highly lucrative business in which universities reap billions of dollars from men's football and basketball. Full Story | Top |
| Investigators focus on wreckage in deadly California crash Friday, Apr 11, 2014 07:20 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - The investigation into a fiery crash between a FedEx tractor- trailer and a bus that killed 10 people in northern California, five of them teenage students en route to a college recruitment event, focused Friday on what caused the truck to veer out of control. A day after the accident, it remained unclear whether the FedEx driver was somehow distracted or lost consciousness, or whether a mechanical failure occurred when his truck swerved across the median of Interstate 5 and slammed head-on into the motor coach full of students from the Los Angeles area. The California Highway Patrol also raised the possibility that a separate collision on the truck's side of the highway might have been a factor in Thursday evening's fatal crash. Full Story | Top |
| Documents show GM's early knowledge of switch defect Friday, Apr 11, 2014 07:02 PM PDT  By Eric Beech, Paul Lienert and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors engineers were well aware of serious problems with ignition switches in GM small cars, but rejected several opportunities to make fixes, according to dozens of confidential documents released on Friday by a Congressional committee investigating the deadly defect. Parts supplier Delphi Automotive also repeatedly tested switches and found they did not meet GM specifications, according to emails and other memos. The internal documents from GM, Delphi and a U.S. safety agency chart numerous examples of switch failure, of the sort that led GM earlier this year to recall 2.6 million cars to replace defective switches now linked to at least 13 deaths. The documents, the first tranche of some 250,000 pages, were released by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which last week grilled GM Chief Executive Mary Barra on the automaker's slow response to problems that GM first documented in 2001. Full Story | Top |
| A Minute With: Football's Arian Foster on acting and NFL draft Friday, Apr 11, 2014 06:35 PM PDT  By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Houston Texans running back Arian Foster tests his Hollywood acting skills on the big screen as a college football player waiting for his name to be called at the annual NFL draft in the film "Draft Day," which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday. Foster, 27, a three-time Pro Bowl selection in his five-year pro career, is one of the sport's noted underdog success stories, having been passed over in the 2009 draft after playing at the University of Tennessee. Foster spoke with Reuters alongside his "Draft Day" co-star, Terry Crews, who played briefly in the NFL before turning to acting. Together they talked about the career transition for NFL players once they leave the game, the draft and their beefs with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, now facing pressure from athletes wanting to unionize. Full Story | Top |
| Stocks face earnings blues after tech selloff Friday, Apr 11, 2014 06:26 PM PDT  "There's skepticism among investors about the outlook, and we're getting into the first-quarter earnings season, so you're going to see some positioning," said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Profit growth for Standard & Poor's 500 companies now is expected to have increased just 0.9 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, down from a January 1 forecast for 6.5 percent growth, Thomson Reuters data showed. Wall Street will get more readings on the U.S. economy in the coming week, with retail sales on Monday, the Consumer Price Index on Tuesday, U.S. housing starts and industrial output on Wednesday and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's business activity index on Thursday. The U.S. stock market will be closed for Good Friday. Full Story | Top |
| Home-owners more upbeat about selling - survey Friday, Apr 11, 2014 06:07 PM PDT  British home-owners are increasingly upbeat about the housing market and are more willing to sell than at any time since April 2011, a survey by mortgage lender Halifax showed on Saturday. Record-low interest rates and government-backed schemes have fuelled a rebound in the housing market, with prices now growing at almost 10 percent a year. Full Story | Top |
| Brazilian tycoon Batista faces insider trading probes Friday, Apr 11, 2014 06:04 PM PDT  By Jeb Blount and Juliana Schincariol RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Eike Batista, who was Brazil's richest man for most of the past decade, is under investigation for allegedly engaging in insider trading while he chaired his now-bankrupt oil-producing and shipbuilding firms, securities industry watchdog CVM said on Friday. In a statement sent to Reuters, Rio de Janeiro-based CVM confirmed that Batista is a respondent in six of nine probes that executives of his Grupo EBX conglomerate are facing for breaching securities rules. In two of them, regulators are examining whether Batista allegedly took advantage of his access to privileged information. CVM also listed a dozen probes questioning financial and other data unveiled by oil company Óleo and Gás Participações SA, formerly known as OGX, and four more firms he controlled through EBX. Full Story | Top |
| Parents of Texas 'affluenza' teen to pay part of state treatment Friday, Apr 11, 2014 05:09 PM PDT By Marice Richter FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas judge, who was criticized for sentencing a wealthy Texas teen to probation after he killed four people while driving drunk, on Friday ordered his parents to pay a small part of the cost of his treatment at a state-run facility. Judge Jean Boyd, whose sentence of 10 years probation and no jail time set off a backlash of criticism in December, ordered the youth's parents to pay about $1,100 a month. His parents had offered to pay for private treatment at a private out-of-state facility. The case set off an emotional debate after a psychologist for the teenager testified that his family's wealth had impaired the teenager's ability to take responsibility for his actions, saying he suffered from "affluenza." The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize "affluenza" as a diagnosis. Full Story | Top |
| FBI conducting a probe into Herbalife: sources Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:58 PM PDT  By Emily Flitter and Svea Herbst-Bayliss NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) - The FBI is probing Herbalife Ltd, the nutrition and weight loss company that hedge fund manager William Ackman has called a pyramid scheme, sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday. The news, first reported by the Financial Times, sparked a sharp sell-off that sent the stock price down nearly 14 percent. A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston declined to confirm or deny the investigation. Former Herbalife distributors reached by Reuters said they had been contacted by agents who were interested in finding out more about the multilevel marketing company's business practices, including how it recruits new members into its distribution scheme. Full Story | Top |
| G20 gives U.S. year-end deadline for IMF reforms Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:52 PM PDT  By Louise Egan and Anna Yukhananov WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Finance chiefs from around the globe on Friday gave the United States until year-end to ratify long-delayed reforms to the International Monetary Fund and threatened to move forward without it if it fails to do so. The inability to proceed with giving emerging markets a more powerful voice at the IMF and shoring up the lender's resources appeared the most contentious issue for officials from the Group of 20 leading economies and the representatives for all IMF member nations who met with them. In a final communiqué, G20 finance ministers and central bankers said they were "deeply disappointed" with the delay. "I take this opportunity to urge the United States to implement these reforms as a matter of urgency," Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey told reporters on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank spring meetings. Full Story | Top |
| Amid 'gas war' talk, Russia reassures Europe on supply Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:46 PM PDT By Natalia Zinets and Alexei Anishchuk KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to ease European fears of gas supply cuts on Friday after Brussels said it would stand with the new authorities in Kiev if the Kremlin carries out a threat to turn off the tap to Ukraine. Russia, which last month angered Western powers by annexing Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, has raised the price it charges Kiev for gas and said it owes Moscow $2.2 billion in unpaid bills. A repeat of that scenario could hurt Russia as well as EU customers for its gas because Moscow depends for its public revenues on selling gas in Europe. "I want to say again: We do not intend and do not plan to shut off the gas for Ukraine," Putin said in televised comments at a meeting of his advisory Security Council. Full Story | Top |
| Bank of Canada names Carolyn Wilkins senior deputy governor Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:42 PM PDT By Leah Schnurr TORONTO (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada named Carolyn Wilkins as its senior deputy governor on Friday, promoting an insider with strong financial markets expertise and credibility with Bay Street bankers as the central bank's No. 2 policymaker. Wilkins, with more than a decade of experience inside the bank and most recently as adviser to the governor, will start her seven-year term May 2. She replaces Tiff Macklem, who is leaving to become dean of a business school in Toronto and will be the first woman to hold the position. Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said the range of ideal qualifications for the job "just pop out of this candidate" and described Wilkins as a "jack of all trades." She has experience in economic research, forecasting and project management, he said. Full Story | Top |
| Brazil's Batista faces insider trading probes Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:26 PM PDT By Jeb Blount and Juliana Schincariol RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Eike Batista, who was Brazil's richest man for most of the past decade, is under investigation by securities industry watchdog CVM for allegedly engaging in insider trading while he chaired his now-bankrupt oil-producing and shipbuilding firms. In a statement sent to Reuters late on Friday, Rio de Janeiro-based CVM confirmed that Batista is a respondent in six of nine probes that executives of his Grupo EBX conglomerate are facing for breaching securities rules. In two of them, regulators are examining whether Batista allegedly took advantage of his access to privileged information. CVM also listed a dozen probes questioning financial and other data unveiled by oil company Óleo and Gás Participações SA and four more firms he controlled through EBX. Full Story | Top |
| British investors demand banks stick to lockups on share sales Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:05 PM PDT  By Chris Vellacott LONDON (Reuters) - British investors have called upon investment banks to stick closer to lock-up agreements on sales of company shares after a major transaction, saying it would ensure more stable markets. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) - whose members manage assets worth a quarter of the UK economy - has released a set of 'best practice' guidelines demanding bankers are clearer about how much time will pass before they launch further placings of shares. The call comes as frustration mounts among investors over an increasingly common disregard for lock-ups designed to prevent a selling shareholder, such as a private equity group, destabilizing the market. The lock-ups are meant to reassure investors buying into a share sale that the seller will not dump more of their stake on the market shortly afterwards, driving down the share price. Full Story | Top |
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