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| Canadian police charge Justin Bieber with assaulting limo driver Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 08:14 PM PST  By Allison Martell and Jeffrey Hodgson TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police charged Justin Bieber on Wednesday with assaulting a limousine driver in Toronto in December, the latest in a string of legal troubles for the young pop star. The incident happened in the early hours of December 30, when the limousine picked up six people including Bieber, 19, outside a Toronto nightclub, police said in a statement. Bieber struck the limousine driver on the back of the head several times during an altercation on the way to a hotel, police said. The driver got out and called police, but Bieber left before they arrived, according to the statement. Full Story | Top |
| Charges dropped against Chinese automaker BYD in U.S. wage dispute Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 08:10 PM PST  China's BYD Co Ltd said a California labor law watchdog had dropped charges against it over wage payments in a case that had put the Warren Buffet-backed automaker's labor practices under the spotlight. BYD was accused by the California Labor Commissioner's office in October of failing to pay five Chinese workers temporarily working in the United States the required minimum wage of $8 per hour. Full Story | Top |
| Lenovo to buy Google's Motorola in China's largest tech deal Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 07:32 PM PST  By Nadia Damouni, Nicola Leske and Gerry Shih NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Lenovo Group said on Wednesday it agreed to buy Google Inc's Motorola handset division for $2.91 billion, in what is China's largest-ever tech deal as Lenovo buys its way into a heavily competitive U.S. handset market dominated by Apple Inc. It is Lenovo's second major deal on U.S. soil in a week as the Chinese electronics company angles to get a foothold in major global computing markets. Lenovo last week said it would buy IBM's low-end server business for $2.3 billion. The deal ends Google's short-lived foray into making consumer mobile devices and marks a pullback from its largest-ever acquisition. Google paid $12.5 billion for Motorola in 2012. Full Story | Top |
| Lenovo CFO: no need to go back to debt markets for Google deal Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 07:32 PM PST Lenovo Group Ltd has no urgent need to go back to the debt markets to raise cash for its acquisition of Google Inc's Motorola handset division, the Chinese company's chief financial officer said on Thursday. Wong Waiming also told a media briefing that the company had $3 billion cash on hand last year and the total capital outlay for the Motorola deal and Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's low-end server business, announced last week, was about $2.8 billion. The Motorola acquisition is China's largest-ever tech deal as Lenovo buys its way into a heavily competitive U.S. handset market dominated by Apple Inc. (Reporting by Matthew Miller; Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon, GSA map out acquisition cybersecurity; tester finds issues remain Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 07:31 PM PST By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department and General Services Administration on Wednesday mapped out six broad reforms to improve the cybersecurity of more than $500 billion in goods and services acquired by the U.S. federal government each year. The guidelines come as the Pentagon's chief weapons tester warned that military missions remained at "moderate to high risk" since local network operators were not always able to defend networks against determined cyberattacks. A report released by the tester on Wednesday said scans of the networks used by weapons still showed missing software "patches" and vulnerabilities that allowed teams of government "hackers" to penetrate and exploit networks. In their guidelines, the Pentagon and GSA underscored the importance of beefing up cybersecurity and cited escalating cyber threats from U.S. adversaries, hackers and criminals, as well as unintentional vulnerabilities and counterfeit parts. Full Story | Top |
| Lenovo shares set to open 4 percent down after Google's Motorola deal Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 06:53 PM PST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares in Lenovo Group Ltd are set to open 4 percent lower on Thursday after the Chinese computer maker agreed to buy Google Inc's Motorola handset division for $2.9 billion, striking its second technology acquisition in a week. Lenovo shares were indicative to open at HK$10.52, while the broader Hang Seng index was set to open 1.4 percent lower. Lenovo shares are up 11.6 percent in 2014, compared with Hang Seng's 6.3 percent loss. (Reporting by Denny Thomas; Editing by Stephen Coates) Full Story | Top |
| Mobile ad revenue lifts Facebook past Wall Street targets Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 06:52 PM PST  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc delivered its strongest revenue growth in two years, beating Wall Street targets as the Internet company's mobile ad sales continued to accelerate. Shares of Facebook surged 12 percent to $59.98 in after-hours trading on Wednesday. The world's largest social networking company said that revenue from mobile ads represented 53 percent of its total advertising revenue in the last three months of the year, or $1.24 billion, versus the 49 percent proportion that mobile ads represented in the third quarter. Facebook said it now has 1.23 billion monthly users, with 945 million accessing the service on a smartphone or tablet. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Air Force, Boeing confident tanker program still on schedule Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 06:45 PM PST By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Air Force and Boeing Co officials on Wednesday expressed confidence that a $52 billion air refueling program would deliver its first 18 planes by August 2017 as scheduled, despite a Pentagon report warning that testing of the new aircraft could be delayed by at least six to 12 months. The tanker project known as KC-46, one of the Pentagon's biggest arms programs, calls for Boeing to build 179 new planes for the Air Force to replace the current fleet of 50-year-old KC-135 tankers. Air Force and Boeing officials have said the program is making good progress, with the last of four test planes to be completed this year. But a report released Wednesday by the Pentagon's chief weapons tester, Michael Gilmore, said Boeing and the Air Force needed more time to complete developmental testing and initial training before operational testing. Full Story | Top |
| Nintendo to stick with hardware platform strategy: CEO Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 06:42 PM PST  Nintendo Co Ltd President Satoru Iwata said on Thursday the company was sticking to its strategy centered on a combined hardware and software platform, which has come under criticism after the flagship Wii U console posted poor sales. Iwata said he remained committed to video game consoles, a day after the Japanese company posted dull quarterly earnings and announced a share buyback to soothe market worries about its strategic direction. "But our approach is not to put our games on smartphones." Nintendo's shares fell after Iwata's remarks, adding to the heavy pressure the stock has come under since the company announced earlier this month that it would post its third annual operating loss in a row. Kyoto-based Nintendo posted lackluster results for its traditionally strongest third quarter on Wednesday after disappointing sales for its flagship Wii U console forced it to slash its annual forecasts earlier this month. Full Story | Top |
| Oracle's Ellison plays down threat of NSA database snooping Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 06:40 PM PST  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Oracle CEO Larry Ellison played down concerns on Wednesday about possible government snooping in his business customers' private data. At an industry conference in San Francisco, an audience member asked the Oracle cofounder what to tell potential Oracle cloud-computing clients who worry that the National Security Agency could access their information. "To the best of our knowledge, an Oracle database hasn't been broken into for a couple of decades by anybody," Ellison replied. Oracle, Salesforce.com and other major Silicon Valley companies are increasingly offering Internet-based business services, like human resources, accounting and sales management, in a trend known as cloud computing. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Syria has shipped out less than 5 percent of chemical weapons Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 06:25 PM PST  By Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Syria has given up less than 5 percent of its chemical weapons arsenal and will miss next week's deadline to send all toxic agents abroad for destruction, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The deliveries, in two shipments this month to the northern Syrian port of Latakia, totalled 4.1 percent of the roughly 1,300 tonnes of toxic agents reported by Damascus to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Damascus needs to show it is still serious about relinquishing its chemical weapons, the sources told Reuters. The issue is to be discussed at a meeting of the OPCW's executive council on Thursday in The Hague, a senior U.S. State Department official told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Asia shares in retreat, China data darkens mood Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 06:22 PM PST  By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares took a spill on Thursday as strains in emerging markets returned with a vengeance and the Federal Reserve further scaled back its stimulus - sending investors scurrying to safety in bonds and yen. Japan's Nikkei was already down 3.1 percent at its lowest since mid-November. Markets have now shed all the gains made on Wednesday when the region had hoped that aggressive rate hikes by Turkey would shore up its currency and ease the risk of capital flight. Indeed, when South Africa's central bank surprised by lifting its rates half a percentage point investors reacted by dumping the rand. Full Story | Top |
| Russia to await new Ukraine government before fully implementing rescue: Putin Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 06:10 PM PST  By Steve Gutterman and Richard Balmforth MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin raised the pressure on Ukraine on Wednesday, saying Russia would wait until it forms a new government before fully implementing a $15 billion bailout deal that Kiev urgently needs. Putin repeated a promise to honor the lifeline agreement with Ukraine in full, but left open the timing of the next aid installment as Kiev struggles to calm more than two months of turmoil since President Victor Yanukovich walked away from a treaty with the European Union. A day after Prime Minister Myeloma Azarov resigned on Tuesday, hoping to appease the opposition and street protesters, Russia tightened border checks on imports from Ukraine in what looked like a reminder to Yanukovich not to install a government that tilts policy back towards the West. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: U.S. readies financial sanctions against Ukraine: congressional aides Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 05:46 PM PST  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is preparing financial sanctions that could be imposed on Ukrainian officials and protest leaders if violence escalates in the political crisis gripping Ukraine, congressional aides said on Wednesday. Congressional aides, who asked not to be identified by name because of the sensitive subject, said they had discussed the sanction preparations with administration officials. They said final details of the package have not been worked out, but it could be put in place quickly against government officials - or leaders of the protest movement - in case of widespread violence. Six people have been killed in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities in protests that erupted more than two months ago after President Viktor Yanukovich walked away from a treaty with the European Union under pressure from Russia. Full Story | Top |
| California weighs outlawing warrantless drone surveillance Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 05:34 PM PST  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Using drones to spy on Californians without a warrant could soon be outlawed under a bill making its way through the state legislature, tapping into public concern about unwarranted government intrusion into private lives. The measure comes even as California tries to entice companies to make and develop unmanned aircraft in the most populous U.S. state, where unemployment still lags the rest of the nation. "While we as a legislature and as a state try to attract the jobs in aviation, we also have to balance the growing concern about unmanned vehicles," the bill's sponsor, Republican Jeff Gorell, told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
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