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| Cracks show in Republican unity on tax rates Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 06:05 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican unity against raising tax rates for the wealthy began to show cracks on Wednesday after a conservative congressman said he would back an agreement with President Barack Obama to raise rates on the rich but extend tax cuts for income below $250,000. With Congress scrambling to avert a series of tax increases and spending cuts due to kick in at the end of the year - known as the "fiscal cliff" - Representative Tom Cole said Republicans should approve a deal ensuring 98 percent of Americans do not suffer a tax increase that endangers the economic recovery. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. bans BP from new government contracts after oil spill deal Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 03:21 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government banned BP Plc on Wednesday from new federal contracts over its "lack of business integrity" in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, possibly imperiling the company's role as a top U.S. offshore oil and gas producer and the No. 1 military fuel supplier. The suspension, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, comes on the heels of BP's November 15 agreement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The British energy giant agreed to pay $4. ... Full Story | Top |
| SAC Capital says it could be charged by SEC Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 03:49 PM PST  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government is considering filing civil charges against SAC Capital Advisors over an insider trading case as regulators tighten the screws around Steven A. Cohen, the $14 billion hedge fund's founder and one of the industry's most famous traders. Cohen and a top SAC executive told investors on a 20-minute conference call on Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission recently had issued a formal warning called a Wells notice to the firm indicating charges are likely, according to two sources, who listened to the call. ... Full Story | Top |
| House speaker Boehner optimistic can avert fiscal crisis Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 08:43 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Speaker John Boehner voiced optimism that Republicans could broker a deal with the White House to avoid year-end austerity measures, saying on Wednesday that Republicans were willing to raise revenues if Democrats agreed to spending cuts. "I am optimistic that we can continue to work together to avert this crisis sooner rather than later," the Ohio Republican told reporters. "We (Republicans) put revenue on the table as long as it is accompanied by serious spending cuts to avert this crisis. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rice meets with Republicans, fails to win them over Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 05:19 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice failed on Wednesday to win over Republicans opposing her possible candidacy for U.S. secretary of state, and more senators - including a one-time supporter - questioned statements she made after the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi in September. U.S. Senator Susan Collins met with Rice for over an hour and said afterward she could not back Rice for secretary of state, if she were nominated by President Barack Obama, without more information. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt assembly seeks to wrap up constitution Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 10:35 AM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - The assembly writing Egypt's constitution said it could wrap up a final draft later on Wednesday, a move the Muslim Brotherhood sees as a way out of a crisis over a decree by President Mohamed Mursi that protesters say gives him dictatorial powers. But as Mursi's opponents staged a sixth day of protests in Tahrir Square, critics said the Islamist-dominated assembly's bid to finish the constitution quickly could make matters worse. Two people have been killed and hundreds injured in countrywide protest set off by Mursi's decree. ... Full Story | Top |
| Car bombs kill 34 in pro-Assad Damascus suburb Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 07:37 AM PST  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two car bombs killed at least 34 people in a district of Damascus loyal to President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday in the deadliest attack on the Syrian capital in months. The explosions struck the eastern neighborhood of Jaramana, home to many of Syria's Druze minority as well as Christians who have fled violence elsewhere, ripping through shops and bringing debris crashing down on cars. Once a bastion of security in Assad's 20-month campaign to crush an uprising against his rule, Damascus has been hit with increasing regularity as the rebels grow bolder. ... Full Story | Top |
| Strong European support for Palestinian statehood move Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 02:00 PM PST  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Palestinian bid for indirect U.N. recognition of statehood received vows of support from more than a dozen European nations as of Wednesday, and diplomats said this backing may deter Israel from harsh retaliation against the Palestinian Authority for seeking to upgrade its U.N. status. A Palestinian resolution on Thursday that would change its U.N. observer status from an "entity" to a "non-member state," implicitly recognizing the sovereign state of Palestine, is expected to pass easily in the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran "will press on with enrichment:" nuclear chief Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 10:56 AM PST  DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will go on refining uranium "with intensity" and the number of enrichment centrifuges it has operating will rise substantially in the current year, the country's nuclear energy chief was quoted as saying on Wednesday. The comments by Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, signaled continued defiance in the face of international demands that Tehran halt enrichment to the higher 20 percent fissile purity level, close down its Fordow enrichment plant, and ship out its stockpile of the material. ... Full Story | Top |
| New home sales stagnant, cast shadow on housing Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 12:27 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. single-family home sales fell slightly in October and sales for the prior month were revised sharply lower, casting a faint shadow over one of the brighter spots in the U.S. economy. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales dropped 0.3 percent last month to a 368,000-unit annual rate, while September's sales pace was revised to 369,000 from 389,000. The housing sector has been a point of relative strength this year in an economy beset by flagging business confidence and cooling demand from abroad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cracks surface in Republican unity on tax rates Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 03:15 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican unity against raising tax rates for the wealthy began to show cracks on Wednesday after a conservative congressman said he would back an agreement with President Barack Obama to raise rates on the rich but extend tax cuts for income below $250,000. With Congress scrambling to avert a series of tax increases and spending cuts due to kick in at the end of the year - known as the "fiscal cliff" - Congressman Tom Cole said Republicans should approve a deal ensuring 98 percent of Americans do not suffer a tax increase that endangers the economic recovery. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rice meets with Republican senators, doesn't win them over Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 03:50 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Susan Rice's attempts to ease the concerns of her Republican critics seemed to have little effect on Wednesday, as more U.S. senators - including a moderate one-time supporter - raised new questions about her despite two days of meetings at the Capitol. U.S. Senator Susan Collins met with the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for over an hour, over the September 11 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Collins said afterward she could not back Rice for secretary of state, if she is nominated by President Barack Obama, without more information. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama to host Romney at White House on Thursday Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 01:02 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will host Mitt Romney for a private lunch at the White House on Thursday, their first meeting since Obama defeated him in this month's presidential election. The encounter follows Obama's promise, in the aftermath of the bitterly fought November 6 election, to consult the former Republican governor of Massachusetts by the end of the year. It also comes amid Obama's efforts to work out with congressional leaders a way to avoid a looming "fiscal cliff" that could push the U.S. economy back into recession. ... Full Story | Top |
| New York nanny pleads not guilty in deaths of two kids Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 09:03 AM PST  NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York nanny accused of the stabbing deaths of two young children pleaded not guilty to murder charges Wednesday in a judicial proceeding conducted in the hospital where the 50-year-old woman is handcuffed to her bed as she recovers from self-inflicted wounds. Yoselyn Ortega was indicted two weeks ago on two counts each of first- and second-degree murder in the killings of Lucia Krim, 6, and her brother, Leo, who was days shy of his second birthday, in their parents' luxury apartment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain to overhaul rescued banks as condition of aid Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 09:51 AM PST  BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) - Three nationalized Spanish banks will more than halve their balance sheets in five years, cut jobs and impose losses on their creditor bondholders in return for a euro zone rescue, while a fourth will be sold off, the European Commission said. The measures, approved by the Commission on Wednesday, are a condition of 40 billion euros ($52 billion) in aid that offers hope for an end to a banking crisis which has pushed Spain to the brink of a sovereign bailout to keep the government afloat. ... Full Story | Top |
| Euro zone central banks may roll over their Greek bonds Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 07:15 AM PST  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone central banks may decide to roll over their holdings of Greek state debt to reduce by 5.6 billion euros the amount governments will need to provide Athens by 2016, according to a document seen by Reuters. Such a move would cut the amount to 2 billion euros from 7.6 billion, the document, which emerged from this week's euro zone finance minister's meeting, showed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Congo M23 rebels say withdrawing forces Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 07:28 AM PST  GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have started withdrawing from towns captured since last week from government troops, following a deal brokered by Uganda, their military leader said on Wednesday. Such a pull-out would mean the M23 rebel group was giving up gains from a lightning offensive carried out in the past week, but there was no indication they were ending their eight-month-old insurgency. The rebellion, which U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. declines to name China currency manipulator Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 12:35 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Tuesday that China's currency remained "significantly undervalued," but stopped short of labeling the world's second-biggest economy a currency manipulator. Although Beijing controls the pace at which the yuan can rise, the U.S. Treasury said in a congressionally mandated semi-annual report that China did not meet the legal requirements to be deemed a currency manipulator. The label is largely symbolic, but would require Washington to open discussions with Beijing on adjusting the yuan's value. It has been 18 years since the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Confusing hard and soft power in emerging markets Tuesday, Nov 27, 2012 10:54 PM PST LONDON (Reuters) - Deserting debt-laden, recession-racked North Atlantic and Japan for the fast-growing emerging market world may have been irresistible for some investors but many others still remain timid. Why? It may be a case of "hard power" versus "soft power". If investment decisions hinged solely on the former - measured by raw data such as economic output, population size and military spending - then convergence between rich and developing nation blocs is nigh on complete. ... Full Story | Top |
| The biggest struggle yet for Citi's repairman Tuesday, Nov 27, 2012 10:11 PM PST  (Reuters) - When Citigroup Inc's board of directors was looking for a chief executive in 2007, it called Michael O'Neill, who had turned around Bank of Hawaii Corp a few years before. O'Neill spoke to a Citigroup board member on the telephone, but the board was reluctant to consider O'Neill seriously because he had never run a bank of Citigroup's size or complexity, according to a person familiar with the situation. Five years later, O'Neill, 66, is effectively running Citigroup, which is more than 130 times bigger than Bank of Hawaii was last decade, as measured by assets. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: U.S. pilots vote on deals, other airline staff agitate Tuesday, Nov 27, 2012 10:04 PM PST  (Reuters) - Pilots at United Airlines and American Airlines are due to vote in coming weeks on new labor contracts that in some cases offer the first significant raises in almost a decade. The pay gains reflect better financial times at airlines, and partially offset years of concessions the pilots made as airlines went through bankruptcies and endured huge losses. But other groups of workers at U.S. airlines are not being treated as generously. ... Full Story | Top |
| Greece, markets satisfied by EU-IMF Greek debt deal Tuesday, Nov 27, 2012 10:15 PM PST  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The Greek government and financial markets were cheered on Tuesday by an agreement between euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund to reduce Greece's debt, paving the way for the release of urgently needed aid loans. The deal, clinched at the third attempt after weeks of wrangling, removes the biggest risk of a sovereign default in the euro zone for now, ensuring the near-bankrupt country will stay afloat at least until after a 2013 German general election. ... Full Story | Top |
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