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| Cameron speeds up launch of controversial housing plan Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 03:55 PM PDT  By William Schomberg and Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's prime minister launched a critical week for his party's run-up to the 2015 elections by unexpectedly bringing forward the launch of a mortgage guarantee programme that critics say risks stoking a housing bubble. Conservative leader David Cameron said on Saturday that the plan would be up and running next week, three months earlier than previously planned. The "Help to Buy" plan is aimed at people who have been frozen out of the property market by the soaring size of deposits required to get a mortgage. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. Security Council demands elimination of Syria chemical arms Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 03:34 PM PDT  By John Irish and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday that demands the eradication of Syria's chemical weapons but does not threaten automatic punitive action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government if it does not comply. The unanimous vote by the 15-member Security Council capped weeks of intense diplomacy between Russia and the United States. It was based on a deal between the two countries reached in Geneva earlier this month following an August 21 sarin nerve gas attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds. ... Full Story | Top |
| As Washington debates, some U.S. states proceed with food stamps cuts Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 01:42 PM PDT By Kevin Murphy KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) - As Congress and the White House debate proposed cuts in the federal food stamps program, Kansas and Oklahoma are going ahead with reductions that could leave thousands of people without subsidies for food if they do not find work, or sign up for job training. The two states will require healthy adults through the age of 49 with no dependents to work at least 20 hours per week, or be in job training, in order to be eligible for food stamps. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. watchdog allows delay to smooth transition to swaps trading Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 12:18 PM PDT By Douwe Miedema WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. derivatives regulator late on Friday gave a new and untested type of trading platform a bit more time to comply with some of its rules, to smooth the transition to regulated trading next week. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been rushing through permits for the platforms - called Swap Execution Facilities - that must open their doors for customers on Wednesday. The agency wanted to be ahead of a possible U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sailing-Australian wine mogul to challenge for America's Cup Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 11:28 AM PDT By Ronnie Cohen (Reuters) - An Australian winemaker and his son, who own an island off Australia's Great Barrier Reef, have officially challenged software mogul Larry Ellison's Oracle Team USA for the next America's Cup, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters. Bob Oatley and oldest son Sandy signed the challenge on behalf of their Hamilton Island Yacht Club in Queensland, Australia, the source said. ... Full Story | Top |
| German government dismisses report Schaeuble may raise top income tax to woo left Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 10:24 AM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government has dismissed a report that Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is considering raising the top rate of income tax to help Angela Merkel co-opt the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) in a possible "grand coalition". Weekly news magazine Spiegel reported that Schaeuble had asked experts days after the election to draw up plans on raising the top tax rate - currently at 45 percent on income over 250,000 euros - to between 46 and 48 percent. "Minister Schaeuble has frequently and clearly rejected tax increases. This position has not changed. ... Full Story | Top |
| JPMorgan nears multibillion-dollar mortgage settlement: NY Post Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 10:10 AM PDT  CHICAGO (Reuters) - JP Morgan Chase & Co could reach a multibillion-dollar deal as early as Tuesday, putting an end to the bank's woes from mortgage securities related investigations, the New York Post reported on Saturday. The bank and government officials met earlier this week to try to negotiate a settlement in the $11 billion range to resolve many of the probes into how it sold mortgage bonds before the financial crisis, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Race to get Obamacare online sites running goes to the wire Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 08:50 AM PDT  By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Just days before the launch of the new U.S. state health insurance exchanges that are the centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act, a nationwide push is still under way to test and patch the technology behind the online sites. Officials working on the sites have acknowledged that information technology (IT) failures will prevent many of them from functioning fully for weeks, and perhaps longer. That will slow the government's drive to enroll millions of uninsured Americans under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law starting Tuesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fiery car crash kills at least five in California Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 08:43 AM PDT By Noreen O'Donnell (Reuters) - At least five people were killed in Burbank, California early Saturday morning when a car hit a pillar, burst into flames and trapped them inside, police said. A Nissan vehicle was ablaze when rescue workers arrived at the scene, according to Burbank Police Sergeant Darin Ryburn. "It was fully engulfed," he said. "It struck a concrete pillar." At least five people were killed, he said, but police were uncertain of the number because of the condition of the car. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenya says "at war" with al Shabaab, faces security questions Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 07:21 AM PDT  By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and James Macharia NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya is "at war" with Islamist militants who attacked a Nairobi shopping mall, the government said on Saturday as it faced questions about whether it had received advance intelligence warnings of the deadly strike. A week after the raid on the Westgate shopping centre that killed 67 civilians and police and was claimed by the Somali militant group al Shabaab, the government has been trying to reassure Kenyans that it can protect them from further attacks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Norwegian Air takes Dreamliner out of service after breakdowns Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 07:17 AM PDT OSLO (Reuters) - Budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle is taking one of its brand new Dreamliners out of long-haul service and demanding that Boeing repair the plane after it suffered repeated breakdowns, the carrier said on Saturday. Boeing said the repairs would take "a matter of days". Norwegian Air Shuttle will instead lease an Airbus A340 from HiFly to keep its long-haul business going, a spokesman said. "The aircraft's reliability is simply not acceptable, our passengers cannot live with this kind of performance," spokesman Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU watchdog wants to charge foreign clearing houses Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 06:19 AM PDT  By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union's markets watchdog wants to charge foreign clearing houses seeking to cash in on new derivatives rules being introduced across the 28-country bloc, an EU document showed on Saturday. The move is a sign of how hard-pressed regulators are struggling to implement on time a welter of reforms called for by world leaders during the financial crisis. One set of new rules being phased in aims to make derivatives like credit default swaps and interest rate swaps safer after taxpayers were forced to bail out banks in 2008 that held large amounts of ... Full Story | Top |
| Metro CEO says Kaufhof doing well, still wants to sell: report Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 06:13 AM PDT  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German department store chain Kaufhof is doing well but its owner Metro wants to sell it, the group's chief executive Olaf Koch told WirtschaftsWoche magazine. "Kaufhof clearly has a better valuation compared to early last year when we were in talks to sell the chain," Koch was quoted as saying. "The company has made some fantastic progress." Despite the improvement, Koch still intends to sell the chain, he said. "The department store business cannot be internationalized in the same way as the wholesale or consumer electronics business. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hollywood dumps romantic comedies for raunchier laughs Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 06:04 AM PDT  By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - From "Some Like It Hot" to "Pretty Woman," "Sleepless in Seattle" to "The Wedding Planner," romantic comedies have long been Hollywood's box office darlings, but this fall raunchy R-rated comedies are getting top billing. Kicking off a season of coarse comedy is actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut "Don Jon," out in U.S. theaters this weekend, about a young, attractive man who struggles to connect with women due to his porn addiction. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dubai's Majid Al Futtaim says to wait for stability in Egypt, Syria before investing Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 05:51 AM PDT By Stanley Carvalho ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Dubai's Majid Al Futtaim Holding (MAF), the sole franchisee of hypermarket chain Carrefour in the Middle East, will not pursue investments in Egypt and Syria until stability returns to the two countries, a senior company official said on Saturday. MAF, also the only Carrefour franchisee in North Africa and Central Asia, had been in advanced talks to buy Egypt's largest supermarket chain Metro from the family-owned Mansour Group, sources told Reuters in April. ... Full Story | Top |
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