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| Gunman opens fire at Los Angeles airport, killing security agent Friday, Nov 01, 2013 09:04 PM PDT  By Dan Whitcomb and Dana Feldman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A lone gunman stormed into a packed terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire with an assault weapon on Friday, killing an unarmed federal security agent before he was shot and captured, authorities said. The gunfire in Terminal 3 touched off panic and chaos at one of the world's busiest airports as hundreds of travelers ran frantically for safety or dove for cover behind racks of luggage and loud alarms blared. In addition to the Transportation Security Administration agent who was slain, at least one other was shot and wounded and a number of other people were hurt in the pandemonium. Streets around the airport were blocked off for hours, snarling traffic for miles. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Navy says notice of possible F/A-18 orders posted in error Friday, Nov 01, 2013 07:43 PM PDT F/A-18 fighter jets or EA-18G electronic attack planes due to "pre-decisional and internal budget discussions," a top Navy admiral said Friday. Vice Admiral David Dunaway, commander of Naval Air Systems Command, issued a statement after the Navy canceled the notice. It had sparked confusion since the Navy's current plans call for it to switch to the radar-evading F-35 built by Lockheed Martin Corp "The posting was the result of pre-decisional and internal budget discussions and was posted erroneously," Dunaway said of the incident, which triggered fresh questions about the Navy's tepid commitment to the $392 billion program - the Pentagon's largest weapons program.. "We took immediate actions and retracted the solicitation," said the admiral, who oversees the Navy's aviation programs. Full Story | Top |
| Embraer faces bribery inquiries from U.S. regulators Friday, Nov 01, 2013 06:49 PM PDT (Reuters) - U.S. and Brazilian authorities are investigating whether Embraer SA bribed Dominican Republic officials in exchange for a $90 million contract to provide the country's armed forces with attack planes, the Wall Street Journal said, citing law enforcement documents and people familiar with the case. The world's third-largest commercial plane maker has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission since 2010. According to documents reviewed by the Journal, the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Plunging eel stocks spell hard times for a global delicacy Friday, Nov 01, 2013 06:32 PM PDT By Sam Cage CRUMLIN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - From the food stalls and pie shops of Dickensian London to haute cuisine restaurants in Tokyo, the eel has a long and rich culinary history that transcends classes and national borders. But it is becoming an increasingly rare delicacy as stocks plummet and Europe's fishing industry shrinks to make itself sustainable. With an annual catch of about 600 metric tons (661.387 tons), Europe's largest commercial eel fishery - and the United Kingdom's largest lake - is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. Whenever I finish that will be the end," said Shane O'Neill, a sprightly 70 year old from the nearby town of Crumlin who has worked the lake since 1960. Full Story | Top |
| Northrop sees strong foreign interest in unmanned helicopter Friday, Nov 01, 2013 05:42 PM PDT on Friday said it saw strong foreign interest in its Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, but faced challenges in translating that demand into actual sales. George Vardoulakis, Northrop Grumman's vice president for medium-range tactical systems, told reporters the unmanned helicopter was also subject to tough missile control rules that made any foreign sales subject to extra scrutiny. "We certainly hope over time we can turn that interest into some real acquisition cases." Foreign sales would also help lower the cost of the Navy's purchases of the helicopter, he added. A larger and more powerful version of the Fire Scout made its first two flights on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Honda to recall 344,000 minivans in U.S. due to braking glitch Friday, Nov 01, 2013 05:17 PM PDT  Honda Motor Co said on Friday that it will recall about 344,000 Odyssey minivans in the United States to fix a software defect that may lead the vehicle to suddenly and harshly brake without the driver pressing the brake pedal. But Honda will not be able to make the necessary fix until next spring when the required part, called a yaw rate sensor, is available. The Japanese automaker said it is not aware of any crashes or injuries related to this problem, which affects minivans built for the 2007 and 2008 model years. In those models, the vehicle stability assist system can malfunction if the minivan is driven in a certain way, Honda said. Full Story | Top |
| Caterpillar unit is subject of U.S. criminal probe: filing Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:42 PM PDT  Federal prosecutors in California are investigating a unit of Caterpillar Inc Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar said in the filing that its Progress Rail Services Corp subsidiary received a grand jury subpoena on October 24 from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The U.S. attorney's office in that district told Progress Rail it is a target of a criminal investigation related to the subpoena, the filing said. The subpoena requested documents and other information from Progress Rail, Caterpillar and Progress Rail subsidiary United Industries Corp in connection with allegations that Progress Rail conducted unnecessary or improper rail car inspections and that it failed to properly dispose of equipment, parts, tools and other items, the filing said. Full Story | Top |
| Fairfax struggles to raise funds for BlackBerry bid: sources Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:22 PM PDT  By Soyoung Kim, Nadia Damouni and Nicola Leske NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd is struggling to raise financing for its $4.7 billion bid for BlackBerry Ltd, with several large banks declining to participate on concerns that the smartphone maker will not be able to reverse its fortunes, according to people familiar with the matter. Fairfax, which is run by Canadian financier Prem Watsa, is working with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets to put together a lending syndicate for a deal, but they have been turned down by several large lenders, the sources said. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BMO both have deep pockets themselves, and it is still possible they will muster the necessary financing for Fairfax to submit a definitive bid. Fairfax, the largest shareholder in BlackBerry with a 10 percent stake, reached a tentative $9-per-share deal with BlackBerry in late September, and has until November 4 to negotiate a definitive agreement. Full Story | Top |
| Shareholders voice displeasure with Oracle's pay watchdogs Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:22 PM PDT  have sent a message to the people who set Chief Executive Larry Ellison's pay, re-electing the directors on the board's compensation committee by much smaller margins than the rest of the directors, according to a filing on Friday. All board members received majority votes by wide margins except for the members of the compensation committee - Bruce Chizen, George Conrades and Naomi Seligman - who each won re-election with margins of about 53 percent or less, including non-voted shares, according to a filing on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Charter weighs bid for Time Warner Cable by year-end -sources Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:10 PM PDT  By Soyoung Kim, Nadia Damouni and Ronald Grover NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Charter Communications Inc is weighing a bid for Time Warner Cable Inc before year-end and is trying to devise a deal structure that would lure the No. 2 U.S. cable operator's shareholders, people familiar with the matter said. John Malone's Liberty Media Corp, which owns about a quarter of Charter, approached Time Warner Cable earlier this year about merging Charter and Time Warner Cable. Talks between the parties restarted over the past few days, according to a separate source close to matter, but Time Warner Cable's management remains cool to the idea of a tie-up. Time Warner Cable, which earlier this week indicated that it was open to a deal at the right price, has a market value of more than $34 billion, compared with Charter's market value of about $13 billion. Full Story | Top |
| TSA agent killed, six wounded in Los Angeles airport shooting Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:07 PM PDT By Dan Whitcomb and Dana Feldman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A lone gunman stormed into a crowded terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire with an assault weapon on Friday, killing a security agent and wounding six other people before he was shot and captured, authorities said. The gunfire in Terminal 3 touched off panic and chaos at one of the world's busiest airports as passengers fled or dove for cover behind racks of luggage as police shouted warnings to travelers and quickly evacuated the terminal. Departing flights were halted and arriving planes were diverted to other airports, as streets surrounding the airport were shut down, snarling traffic for miles around. "An individual came into Terminal 3 of this airport, pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire in the terminal," Patrick Gannon, chief of the Los Angeles Airport Police, told a news conference. Full Story | Top |
| German, Brazilian U.N. draft urges halt to excessive spying Friday, Nov 01, 2013 03:55 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Germany and Brazil circulated a draft resolution to a U.N. General Assembly committee on Friday that calls for an end to excessive electronic surveillance, data collection and other gross invasions of privacy. The draft resolution, which both Germany and Brazil made public, does not name any specific countries, although U.N. diplomats said it was clearly aimed at the United States, which has been embarrassed by revelations of a massive international surveillance program from a former U.S. contractor. The German-Brazilian draft would have the 193-nation assembly declare that it is "deeply concerned at human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications." It would also call on U.N. member states "to take measures to put an end to violations of these rights and to create the conditions to prevent such violations, including by ensuring that relevant national legislation complies with their obligations under international human rights law." The resolution will likely undergo changes as it is debated in the General Assembly's Third Committee, which focuses on human rights. Full Story | Top |
| Bankrupt LightSquared sues Deere & Co, GPS industry titans Friday, Nov 01, 2013 03:52 PM PDT By Nick Brown NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bankrupt LightSquared on Friday sued leaders in the GPS industry, including Deere & Co and Garmin International Inc, saying they kept mum about interference concerns stemming from LightSquared's wireless network until the company had already pumped $4 billion into building it. In a 65-page lawsuit in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, where LightSquared is fighting to keep control of its spectrum, the company alleged that farm equipment maker Deere, and GPS companies Garmin and Trimble Navigation Ltd led it to believe its network would not interfere with global positioning system devices. The complaint comes on the heels of a similar lawsuit against the GPS industry by Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital, LightSquared's controlling shareholder. Last month, LightSquared received permission from the bankruptcy judge overseeing its Chapter 11 case to pause the Harbinger lawsuit so that LightSquared could decide whether it wanted to join the suit or bring claims of its own. Full Story | Top |
| Pirate money promotes global criminal activity: report Friday, Nov 01, 2013 03:49 PM PDT WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Pirates hijacking ships off the Horn of Africa and Somalia from 2005 to 2012 garnered well over a quarter of a billion U.S. dollars in ransom and used the money for criminal activities worldwide, according to a report released on Friday. The study reveals the pirates engaged in human trafficking arms trafficking, funding militias and money laundering through trade in the stimulant known as khat, particularly in Kenya, as well as other illegal activities that divert money from the legal economy that would otherwise promote economic development. "Unchallenged piracy is not only a menace to stability and security, but it also has the power to corrupt the regional and international economy," said Stuart Yikona, a financial sector specialist at the World Bank and co-author of the report "Pirate Trails." It recommends a range of measures to combat the problem, including steps to deal with illegal cross-border cash smuggling, anti-money laundering measures and mechanisms to monitor financial flows through the khat trade. Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: U.S. officials mired in controversy over Obamacare rollout Friday, Nov 01, 2013 03:47 PM PDT  The troubled start of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law known as Obamacare has administration officials scrambling to address a host of problems, from the unreliability of the website HealthCare.gov to questions about who is responsible for hundreds of thousands of Americans losing their current coverage. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA Obama has been on the defensive about his healthcare policy since October 1, when HealthCare.gov was switched on and crashed the same night, preventing people from going online to create accounts and enroll in health insurance. Obama said on October 30 that "bad apple" insurance companies, not his healthcare law, are to blame for hundreds of thousands of people losing their coverage in the past few weeks. Obama has stood firm against Republican attempts to defund or delay the healthcare law - efforts that led to a 16-day government shutdown in early October. Full Story | Top |
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