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| China blames religious extremism for attack in Xinjiang Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:56 PM PST Chinese police said the nine people responsible for a deadly "terrorist attack" in the western region of Xinjiang were promoting religious extremism, state media reported on Tuesday. Xinjiang is home to a Turkic-speaking, Muslim people known as Uighurs, some of whom resent what they see as oppressive treatment by the government. The Xinjiang government said police shot dead eight people on Monday during the attack in Yarkand county close to the old Silk Road city of Kashgar in Xinjiang's south. State news agency Xinhua said late on Monday an initial probe showed the gang, led by Usman Barat and Abdugheni Abdukhadir, had gathered to watch terrorist videos and promote religious extremist ideas since August. Full Story | Top |
| Stocks say sayonara to a successful 2013 Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:55 PM PST  The yen remained on the defensive, having been bowled over for much of the year by the Bank of Japan's money-printing, while the euro was again proving surprisingly resilient. Activity was sparse on Tuesday with Asia absent its star performer as the Tokyo market is shut for the rest of the week. Full Story | Top |
| Trapped ship passengers set to ring in New Year in Antarctic ice Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:04 PM PST  Fog and heavy snow mean passengers on a Russian ship stranded in Antarctica for over a week are likely to ring in the New Year trapped in the ice, as a rescue helicopter on a nearby Chinese ship waits for the weather to clear. The helicopter on board the Snow Dragon will be used after an Australian icebreaker on Monday failed to reach the trapped Akademik Shokalskiy, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on Tuesday. The Russian ship left New Zealand on November 28 on a private expedition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of an Antarctic journey led by famed Australian explorer Douglas Mawson. The Akademik Shokalskiy's 74 passengers include scientists and tourists, many of them Australian, and 22 Russian crew. Full Story | Top |
| ACLU sues for details of U.S. surveillance under executive order Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:46 PM PST  By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Monday, seeking to force the U.S. government to disclose details of its foreign electronic surveillance program and what protections it provides to Americans whose communications are swept up. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, came three days after the ACLU lost a bid to block a separate program that collects the phone calls of millions of Americans. The latest lawsuit seeks information related to the use of Executive Order 12333, which was signed in 1981 and governs surveillance of foreign targets. Under the order, the National Security Administration is collecting "vast quantities" of data globally under the order's authority, "inevitably" including communications of U.S. citizens, the lawsuit said. Full Story | Top |
| Berkshire Hathaway to buy Phillips 66 unit for around $1.4 billion Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:45 PM PST  Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc struck a deal to buy a Phillips 66 business that makes chemicals to improve the flow potential of pipelines for around $1.4 billion of stock. Phillips 66 said on Monday that Berkshire will pay for the unit, Phillips Specialty Products Inc, using about 19 million shares of Phillips 66 stock that it currently owns. "I have long been impressed by the strength of the Phillips 66 business portfolio," Buffett said in a statement. "The flow improver business is a high-quality business with consistently strong financial performance." The exact number of shares Berkshire will pay for the unit will be determined by their price on the closing date, the companies said. Full Story | Top |
| Train collision in North Dakota sets oil rail cars ablaze Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:10 PM PST  By Alicia Underlee Nelson FARGO, North Dakota (Reuters) - A BNSF train carrying crude oil in North Dakota collided with another train on Monday, setting off a series of explosions that left at least 10 cars ablaze, the latest in a string of incidents that have raised alarms over growing oil-by-rail traffic. Local residents heard five powerful explosions just a mile outside of the small town of Casselton after a westbound train carrying soybeans derailed, and an eastbound 104-car train hauling crude oil ran into it just after 2 p.m. CST, local officials said. Residents within 5 miles to the south and east of Casselton were urged to evacuate to avoid contact with the smoke. Half of the oil cars have been separated from the train, but another 56 cars remain in danger, said Cecily Fong, the public information officer with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. cracks open skies to testing, use of aerial drones Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:33 PM PST  By Alwyn Scott NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government took a step on Monday toward opening the skies to aerial drones, authorizing six sites where unmanned aircraft can be tested for a variety of uses. The Federal Aviation Administration already had approved limited use of drones in the United States for law enforcement, surveillance, atmospheric research and other applications. Monday's decision will give companies, universities and others place to test much broader uses, such as crop spraying, catching exotic-animal poachers or delivering packages, as Amazon.com Inc recently suggested. "It provides the platform for this research to be carried out on a very large scale across the country," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told reporters. Full Story | Top |
| Boeing tells state leaders 777X wing plant is at risk Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:33 PM PST  By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - Boeing Co will not build the wing for its new 777X jetliner in Washington state if members of its largest union reject its latest contract offer in a Friday vote, company executives told Seattle-area elected officials on Monday. "They made it very clear that if there is a 'no' vote on the contract, they will not build the composite wing here," said Suzette Cooke, mayor of Kent, Washington. "It left the other parts of the plane in question." The location of the final assembly and wing fabrication is in question because union members rejected Boeing's contract offer, prompting Boeing to look for other locations around the country, and prompting 22 bids from rival states. The new 777X jet program, an updated version of Boeing's best-selling wide-body plane, represents a good slice of Washington state's aerospace future. Full Story | Top |
| Three dead in south Yemen blasts Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:28 PM PST Three people including a suicide bomber were killed in three explosions targeting security offices in Aden, the main city in southern Yemen, al-Arabiya news reported early on Tuesday. Hundreds of security officials have been killed in explosions and shootings over the past two years in southern Yemen, where the government and allied tribal militias are fighting against Islamist militants allied to al Qaeda. Security in Yemen is a priority for the United States and Gulf Arab countries because of its location next to the biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia and big crude shipping routes through the Red Sea. This month al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen's branch of the movement, said it was behind an assault on a Defence Ministry complex in the capital Sanaa in which more than 50 people were killed. Full Story | Top |
| Fed's Fisher says his FOMC vote will reflect concerns on bond buying Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:25 PM PST  Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said his votes on the central bank's policy panel in 2014 will reflect his concern that the Fed's bond-buying risks stoking inflation and exposing the institution politically. In an interview conducted on December 2 but posted to the Internet as a podcast on Monday, Fisher called the excess reserves piling up in the U.S. banking system potential "tinder" for inflation, and he said the central bank's plans to eventually unwind its extraordinary policies relied on an untested "theoretical exit strategy." "I expect that my own voting behavior will reflect this concern I've just stated," Fisher said in the interview hosted by the private educational foundation Liberty Fund. "I worry about the fact that we've already painted ourselves into a corner that's going to be very hard to get out of." Fisher, who rotates into a voting spot on the Fed's policymaking Federal Open Market Committee next month, expressed concern that as interest rates rise the Fed could begin to face paper losses on its massive portfolio. Full Story | Top |
| LinkedIn, Pinterest more popular than Twitter: study Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:56 PM PST  More U.S. adults use LinkedIn and Pinterest than Twitter, but that website attracts a greater proportion of blacks and young adults than do its social media peers, a Pew Research Center study released on Monday showed. The figure was 22 percent for LinkedIn and 18 percent for Twitter, holding roughly steady from a year ago. About 29 percent of the blacks surveyed by Pew made use of Twitter, well above 16 percent for whites and Hispanics, the study showed. (http://r.reuters.com/fyc75v) Twitter ranks higher than Pinterest in terms of engagement, however: 46 percent of users surveyed go onto the online messaging service daily, versus 23 percent for Pinterest and just 13 percent for LinkedIn. Full Story | Top |
| Merrill taps rich investors for ex-convict social-impact bond Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:42 PM PST  Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust reached out to some high-powered clients this quarter to invest in a social-impact bond whose proceeds finance a program to lower recidivism rates among ex-convicts in New York. The project raised $13.5 million over 60 days from clients of the Bank of America Corp-owned brokerage and wealth management firms. Investors included former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Sommers, Utah philanthropist James Sorenson, hedge fund founder Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Foundation and billionaire investor and oil trader John Arnold, according to the bank. "They are looking for new and creative ways ... to have a more direct connection between the dollars they are investing and the impact it is having on a social problem that they care about," Andy Sieg, head of global wealth and retirement solutions at Merrill Lynch said during a telephone news conference on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Australia cyclone heads inland after battering iron ore ports Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:26 PM PST  Australia's Pilbara iron ore shipping and mining region, the world's largest, faced cyclonic winds and torrential rains on Tuesday after a cyclone made landfall after intensifying over the last few days in the Indian Ocean. The key shipping ports of Dampier, Cape Lambert and Port Hedland bore the brunt of the storm after clearing dozens of iron ore freighters and evacuating staff over the weekend. Cyclone Christine, the second to batter Western Australia in the November 1-April 30 cyclone season, forced mining companies Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals to suspend loading until emergency authorities sound the all-clear, expected over the next day or two. Full Story | Top |
| KKR reports stake in chipmaker Marvell Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:26 PM PST (Reuters) - Private equity firm KKR & Co LLP has reported a 6.8 percent stake in chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd, according to a regulatory filing. Marvell's shares rose about 5 percent in extended trading after closing at $13.76 on the Nasdaq on Monday. KKR also said the firm may engage in discussions with the board and the company's management that may include a merger or reorganization of the business. About 47 percent of Marvell's revenue last year came from storage customers such as Western Digital Corp and Seagate Technology, for whom it makes chips used for reading and writing data on hard-disk and flash drives. Full Story | Top |
| Congo's army repels attacks in Kinshasa, dozens killed Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:18 PM PST  By Bienvenu Bakumanya KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese troops killed dozens of armed youths who attacked the airport, a military barracks and state television headquarters in the capital Kinshasa on Monday in incidents claimed by a disgruntled religious leader. Before transmission was shut down at state television, the attackers shouted slogans in favor of pastor Paul Joseph Mukungubila and against President Joseph Kabila. Several corpses lay on the rain-soaked ground outside the brightly painted gates of the state television center after the attack, a Reuters witness said. The broadcaster reported that security forces had killed 46 of the attackers, while government officials said about 20 more had been arrested. Full Story | Top |
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