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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 |
| 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 |
| With new leader for Obamacare, White House shifts to election mode Friday, Apr 11, 2014 08:06 PM PDT  By Steve Holland, Roberta Rampton and David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kathleen Sebelius' departure as President Barack Obama's health secretary signals a new chapter in the White House's efforts to defend Obama's signature healthcare law and help Senate Democrats who face tough battles for re-election in conservative states this fall. In the tightly orchestrated transition that included Sebelius' resignation late Thursday and Obama's quick appointment of well-regarded budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell as Sebelius' replacement, the political calculus was clear: Having stood by Sebelius during a painful few months when Obamacare's rollout was marred by a balky enrollment web site, stinging criticism from Republicans and falling popularity ratings for Obama, the White House saw a chance to reset the national conversation over Obamacare amid good news, and with a new face in charge of the program. Full Story | Top |
| Obama lashes out at Republican efforts to restrict voting Friday, Apr 11, 2014 06:02 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason NEW YORK (Reuters) - Closing out a week of commemorating progress from the Civil Rights Movement, President Barack Obama on Friday sharply criticized Republicans for leading efforts in some parts of the country to prevent citizens from voting. Obama's administration has challenged states that have implemented voter ID laws and other restrictions in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that struck down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, designed to prevent discrimination at the polls. Strict voting rights laws are said to disproportionately affect minorities and lower-income Americans, many of whom tend to vote for Democratic candidates. "The stark, simple truth is this: The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago," Obama told a meeting of the National Action Network, a group founded by civil rights leader and MSNBC television anchor Reverend Al Sharpton. 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 |
| 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 |
| U.S. government contractor jailed in Cuba ends hunger strike Friday, Apr 11, 2014 02:51 PM PDT  A U.S. contractor imprisoned in Cuba ended a hunger strike on Friday after eight days of protesting his treatment by the Cuban and U.S. governments while serving a 15-year term for illegally attempting to establish Internet service on the island. "My protest fast is suspended as of today, although there will be further protests to come," Alan Gross said in a statement. Gross was arrested in 2009 while trying to establish an online network for Jews in Havana as a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It was his fifth trip to Cuba. 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 |
| Obama puts fresh face on Obamacare with new health secretary Friday, Apr 11, 2014 09:45 AM PDT  By Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he will promote budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to be his next health secretary, who will preside over the next difficult phase of his healthcare law in the months before November congressional elections. Burwell, whose nomination must be approved by the U.S. Senate, will replace Kathleen Sebelius, who became the public face of the disastrous rollout of Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans plan to exploit as they seek to take control of the Senate. But Obama made it clear he did not blame Sebelius for the problems. "But under Kathleen's leadership, her team at HHS turned the corner, got it fixed, got the job done, and the final score speaks for itself," he said, noting that 7.5 million people have signed up for health insurance under the program, exceeding expectations. Full Story | Top |
| Iran's oil exports surge above West's sanctions cap: IEA Friday, Apr 11, 2014 12:53 PM PDT  By Ron Bousso and Timothy Gardner LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran's crude oil exports have surged to their highest in 20 months, far exceeding a 1 million barrel-per-day limit set by the West under an interim deal on curbing Tehran's nuclear program. The International Energy Agency's monthly report revised February's global crude imports from Iran upwards by 240,000 bpd to 1.65 million barrels per day, the highest since June 2012. Under an interim deal signed in November between Iran and six world powers - known as the P5+1 - that came into effect on January 20, Iran's exports are supposed to be held to an average 1 million bpd through July 20. Tough international sanctions over the past two years have cut Iran's oil exports by about half. Full Story | Top |
| Investigators focus on wreckage in deadly California crash Friday, Apr 11, 2014 02:44 PM PDT By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - A probe into a California crash that killed 10 people focused on Friday on whether the truck driver lost consciousness, his vehicle had mechanical failure or another collision caused him to swerve across a median and slam into a bus full of students. Those killed in Thursday's crash include five high school students, the drivers of both vehicles and a college recruiter on their way to Humboldt State University in Northern California as part of a program to help disadvantaged college hopefuls. The powerful explosion that followed the collision was so loud it was heard throughout the nearby community of Orland, about 90 miles north of Sacramento, said Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones. "We don't know whether the Fed-Ex driver had fallen asleep, whether he experienced a mechanical failure with his vehicle or whether there was a separate collision on the southbound side that caused him to lose control," said Lieutenant Scott Fredrick, lead investigator for the California Highway Patrol. Full Story | Top |
| JPMorgan profit weaker than expected as trading revenue falls Friday, Apr 11, 2014 01:10 PM PDT  JPMorgan Chase & Co posted far weaker-than-expected quarterly profit as uncertainty about the U.S. economy weighed on investor trading volumes and consumer borrowing. JPMorgan's bond trading revenue plunged 21 percent, and mortgage lending revenue fell 84 percent from the same quarter last year. Most of the bank's big businesses, including commercial lending and credit cards, delivered lower profits. "It's not like selling cereal - it's not like your volumes go up 2 percent every day," Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said to reporters on a conference call. Full Story | Top |
| Documents show GM's sluggish response to deadly defect Friday, Apr 11, 2014 02:50 PM PDT By Eric Beech and Paul Lienert WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - Documents made public on Friday by a U.S. House of Representatives committee provided fresh details on General Motors Co's awareness of problems surrounding ignition switches in millions of its cars - long before the Detroit automaker recalled the vehicles. These documents also show that federal regulators were concerned that GM dragged its heels on safety measures at a time when ignition-switch failures in some of its smaller vehicles were being linked to deaths that now total 13. A top official with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told General Motors in a July 2013 email that the automaker was "slow to communicate, slow to act" on defects and recalls. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has collected more than 250,000 documents - mainly from GM but also from parts supplier Delphi Automotive Plc and a federal regulator - is trying to find out why it took GM more than a decade to notify the public of a safety problem linked to fatalities. Full Story | Top |
| Obama lashes out at Republican efforts to restrict voting Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:28 PM PDT By Jeff Mason NEW YORK (Reuters) - Closing out a week of commemorating progress from the Civil Rights Movement, President Barack Obama on Friday sharply criticized Republicans for leading efforts in some parts of the country to prevent citizens from voting. Obama's administration has challenged states that have implemented voter ID laws and other restrictions in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that struck down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, designed to prevent discrimination at the polls. Strict voting rights laws are said to disproportionately affect minorities and lower-income Americans, many of whom tend to vote for Democratic candidates. "The stark, simple truth is this: The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago," Obama told a meeting of the National Action Network, a group founded by civil rights leader and MSNBC television anchor Reverend Al Sharpton. Full Story | Top |
| Individuals targeted as San Francisco tech money protests intensify Friday, Apr 11, 2014 11:46 AM PDT  By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Demonstrations against the grip on San Francisco held by wealthy technology workers took a personal turn on Friday with protesters taking aim at a Google lawyer they say personifies the tensions being stirred by abundant tech money. Jack Halprin, a landlord in the city's gentrifying Mission district, became the focus of the latest blockade of a tech company commuter bus, with protesters demanding Google ask Halprin to rescind eviction notices he has sent his tenants. Protesters told Reuters they will increasingly target individuals as part of a strategy to draw attention to the growing divide between rich and poor in San Francisco, a rift widened by a tech industry boom that is inflating rents and exacerbating social problems such as evictions. "When you put a face on it, it suddenly becomes more real," Erin McElroy, an organizer at Eviction-Free San Francisco, said of what she views as a technology-driven housing crunch. Full Story | Top |
| Producer inflation accelerates in March Friday, Apr 11, 2014 09:28 AM PDT  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. producer prices recorded their largest increase in nine months in March, but that jump will probably not ignite inflation pressures as economic growth remains moderate. The Labor Department said on Friday its seasonally adjusted producer price index for final demand increased 0.5 percent last month, after slipping 0.1 percent in February. Probably, but not rapidly," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. Gus Faucher, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh, said harsh weather during the winter could have distorted producer prices. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Microsoft, Apple diverge on bankrolling big patent buyer Friday, Apr 11, 2014 11:27 AM PDT  By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Patent buyer Intellectual Ventures has persuaded Microsoft and Sony to invest in its latest acquisition fund while Apple and Intel, which invested with IV previously, declined to participate, according to people briefed on the fundraising. "Microsoft and Sony's investments give IV a fresh war chest to buy new patents," said Kevin Jakel, chief executive of Unified Patents, which advises tech companies on alternatives to patent aggregators like IV. But Apple and Intel's decision is significant because the biggest tech companies have supported IV in the past. Full Story | Top |
| Wells Fargo profit beats estimates, helped by one-time gains Friday, Apr 11, 2014 12:18 PM PDT  By Peter Rudegeair and Anil D'Silva (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, reported a higher-than-expected 14 percent rise in first-quarter net profit, as a series of cost cuts and one-time gains helped the bank offset the lowest volume of home loans it made in five-and-a-half years. The bank, the most profitable in the United States in 2013, has been hurt in recent quarters by declining demand for mortgage refinancing, as lending rates have risen. Income from mortgage banking fell by 46 percent to $1.5 billion from the same quarter last year. Wells Fargo's new home loans fell by two-thirds to $36 billion in the quarter from $109 billion a year earlier, the lowest since the third quarter of 2008, when the housing market was under heavy stress. Full Story | Top |
| Australian PM says searchers confident of position of MH370's black boxes Friday, Apr 11, 2014 05:10 AM PDT  By Swati Pandey and John Ruwitch PERTH/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Search and rescue officials in Australia are confident they know the approximate position of the black box recorders from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday. "Still, confidence in the approximate position of the black box is not the same as recovering wreckage from almost four and a half kilometers beneath the sea or finally determining all that happened on the flight." The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared more than a month ago, has sparked the most expensive search and rescue operation in aviation history. The search was focusing on a small patch of the Indian Ocean on Friday, after the latest "ping" seemed to lend credence to four previous "pings" detected by a U.S. Navy "Towed Pinger Locator" (TPL) towed by Australia's Ocean Shield vessel. But Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency supervising the search effort, said on Friday that analysis of acoustic data confirmed that the latest signal was unlikely to be related to the missing plane's black boxes. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Deadly GM ignition switches started with 2003 Saturn Ion Friday, Apr 11, 2014 11:41 AM PDT  By Paul Lienert and Marilyn Thompson DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 2003 Saturn Ion was supposed to be a pivotal car for General Motors Co. Instead, it came to represent the compromises and corner cutting that almost destroyed GM and now find the company in a global recall of some of its most popular models. The Ion debuted two years before the Chevy Cobalt, the model most associated with the current recall of 2.6 million vehicles, and it was the first car with the defective ignition switch linked to at least 13 deaths, when engines turned off, disabling airbags. Priced from $12,000, it was the automaker's answer to the class-leading Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, a small car that could finally be built at a profit to GM, which at the time was losing up to $2,000 on every compact it sold. The all-new Ion was to be a standard bearer for GM's import-fighting Saturn brand, as well as the advance guard for a new family of compacts, code-named "Delta," that eventually would include the 2005 Cobalt. Full Story | Top |
| Health secretary resigns after Obamacare launch woes Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:17 AM PDT  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning after overseeing the botched rollout of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, a White House official said on Thursday. Her departure removes one lightning rod for critics as Obama and nervous Democrats try to retain control of the U.S. Senate in November midterm elections, but Republicans continue to see problems with the Affordable Care Act as a winning issue. I think it's just going to embolden Republicans," said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. The October 1 launch of new Obamacare health insurance marketplaces, which was plagued by computer problems that stymied access for millions of people, has been condemned by Republicans as a step toward socialized medicine. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: SEC eyes test that may lead to shift away from 'dark pools' Friday, Apr 11, 2014 02:35 AM PDT  By Sarah N. Lynch and John McCrank WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators are considering testing a proposed reform that could drive business to major stock exchanges and away from alternative trading venues such as "dark pools" that critics say may be hurting investors by reducing the quality of pricing. The proposal, which has so far only been discussed among staff involved in policymaking at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, could limit how much trading occurs inside brokerages and in dark pools, according to people familiar with the matter. They say that the amount of trading being done in the "dark" means that publicly quoted prices for stocks on exchanges may no longer properly reflect where the market is, meaning that investors may not be getting the best prices for their trades. The measure under consideration, known as a "trade-at" rule, has long been sought after by exchanges like Nasdaq OMX and the New York Stock Exchange as a way to win back market share against off-exchange competitors such as Credit Suisse's Crossfinder, one of the largest dark pools in the United States. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine looks to Europe for gas as Russia ups pressure Friday, Apr 11, 2014 05:10 AM PDT  By Natalia Zinets KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Friday it would turn to Europe for gas and won a promise of help from Brussels after Russia warned it could cut supplies over Kiev's refusal to pay Moscow's "political, uneconomic price" for supplies. Presenting a united front a day after President Vladimir Putin wrote to the European Union warning that its supplies could be disrupted if Ukraine failed to cover its bills, European officials said they had little to fear and would help Ukraine pay. With Russia increasing the pressure on Ukraine's faltering economy, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan told parliament the EU would stand in solidarity with Kiev if Russia reduced supplies, making sure Moscow could not increase flows through alternative pipelines to bypass its neighbour. Full Story | Top |
| Israeli coalition partner threatens to quit over peace talks Friday, Apr 11, 2014 02:17 AM PDT  By Ari Rabinovitch JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A key partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition threatened on Friday to pull out of the government if a deal to salvage peace talks with the Palestinians includes the release of Israeli-Arab prisoners. The ultimatum by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, further complicates U.S. efforts to keep fraught negotiations from collapsing. Bennett's party has 12 of the 68 seats in ruling coalition, and should it quit, Netanyahu would have to find new allies to maintain a working majority in the 120-seat parliament. Bennett says the Palestinians should not have any say in how Israel deals with its own citizens. Full Story | Top |
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