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| Detroit creditors want more time to vet city's bankruptcy plan Friday, Feb 28, 2014 06:21 PM PST  Detroit faces a long legal fight over its valuable art collection and other key matters in its historic bankruptcy case that make it imperative to push back the start of a trial on the city's debt adjustment plan, a bond insurer argued on Friday. In a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Syncora Guarantee Inc warned that lawsuits will be filed over the Detroit Institute of Arts' collection, which the city is not selling at this point to help pay its $18 billion in debt. Syncora, which guaranteed payments on some of Detroit's bonds, and other creditors have pushed for the sale of art works to raise more cash for the city to spread among its thousands of creditors, who face steep losses in the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. But critics of Christie's work suggested that the appraisal of only a small slice of Detroit's collection undervalued the art collection as a potential asset in helping to resolve Detroit's bankruptcy. Full Story | Top |
| Google loses bid to keep anti-Islamic video online during appeal Friday, Feb 28, 2014 05:43 PM PST  By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc on Friday lost its bid to keep an anti-Islamic film on its YouTube video sharing website while it appealed a federal appeals court order that the company said would have "devastating effects" if allowed to stand. Earlier this week, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to reject Google's assertion that the removal of the film "Innocence of Muslims," which sparked protests across the Muslim world, amounted to a prior restraint of speech that violated the U.S. Constitution. In a court filing on Thursday, Google argued that the video should remain accessible to the public while it asks that a larger, 11-judge 9th Circuit panel review the issue. Google called this week's opinion "unprecedented" and "sweeping." However, the 9th Circuit on Friday rejected Google's request in a brief order. Full Story | Top |
| Earnings of Blackstone's Schwarzman reach $374.5 million in 2013 Friday, Feb 28, 2014 05:05 PM PST  Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman's earnings from dividends and pay soared by 75 percent to $374.5 million in 2013, underpinning his firm's strong profits in real estate, private equity, credit and hedge funds, the company's annual report showed on Friday. The jump came as Blackstone's distributable earnings increased by 66 percent to $1.9 billion in 2013, thanks to favorable capital markets that allowed it to sell more assets at a higher valuation. Most of Schwarzman's profit came from the roughly one-fifth ownership stake he holds in Blackstone. He received $352.5 million in dividends and $22 million in executive compensation. Full Story | Top |
| Fast Retailing, E.Land interested in buying J.Crew: sources Friday, Feb 28, 2014 04:36 PM PST  By Soyoung Kim and Olivia Oran NEW YORK (Reuters) - Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co Ltd and South Korean fashion conglomerate E.Land Group are separately exploring a deal for large U.S. apparel chain J.Crew Group Inc, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. J.Crew, which was taken private by TPG Capital LP and Leonard Green & Partners LP for $2.8 billion in 2011, believes it should fetch at least $5 billion in any sale, one of the people said. It was not yet clear whether either Japan's Fast Retailing or South Korea's E.Land have held any substantial discussions with J.Crew about a deal. E.Land, one of South Korea's largest fashion and retail companies, is in talks with potential partners, which could include an Asian trading house, for a joint J.Crew bid, a second person said. Full Story | Top |
| Documents show 1990s effort to 'humanize' Hillary Clinton Friday, Feb 28, 2014 04:29 PM PST  By John Whitesides and Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aides in former President Bill Clinton's White House crafted a strategy to "humanize" then-first lady Hillary Clinton and work around her "aversion" to the national media, according to documents released on Friday. The documents also detailed the first lady's struggles in the early 1990s with her healthcare task force, including worries about resistance on Capitol Hill and an aide's warning the plan could not meet a pledge to allow patients to pick their doctors, a promise that also came back to haunt President Barack Obama. The release of nearly 4,000 pages of previously sealed documents by the Clinton Presidential Library served to revisit Hillary Clinton's record and early struggles with her image as she gears up for a potential 2016 run for the presidency. An August 31, 1995, memo by Clinton's press secretary Lisa Caputo suggested she do interviews with "regional media." "Hillary is comfortable with the local reporters and enjoys speaking with them," the memo states. Full Story | Top |
| Extra funds help float Noah's Ark replica in Kentucky Friday, Feb 28, 2014 04:09 PM PST A Christian ministry that plans to build a Noah's Ark replica in Kentucky has raised enough money to go ahead with the $150 million project - and is thanking an adversary for boosting its support. Creation Museum founder Ken Ham announced this week that a municipal bond offering has brought in enough money to begin the long-delayed "Ark Encounter," a theme park featuring a 510-foot-long model of Noah's Ark near the Kentucky-Ohio border. Ham credited the funding bump to Bill Nye "the Science Guy," a popular commentator on science issues who faced off against him in a widely publicized February 4 debate over evolution. Full Story | Top |
| Fashion disaster? Downpour douses Oscars red carpet Friday, Feb 28, 2014 04:00 PM PST By Mike Davidson LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The most glamorous of all runways, the 500-foot-long Oscars red carpet, might be a fashion disaster on Sunday. A rare heavy rain storm on Friday in Southern California has soaked parts of the red carpet laid down on Hollywood Boulevard, where movie stars and Tinseltown powerbrokers will make their grand entrance to the Academy Awards, film's highest honors. Dozens of workers spent the morning securing the red carpet from the pelting rain and overflowing street gutters 48 hours before hundreds of attendees will parade designer gowns, extravagant jewels and tailored tuxedos. Workers cleared pools of water that had collected atop the tent built to shield stars from the rain while others hustled to plug any leaks and a team wielding squeegees pushed standing water out of the protective plastic over the red carpet. Full Story | Top |
| Obama warns Russia of 'costs' for intervention in Ukraine Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:59 PM PST  By Steve Holland and Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned Russia on Friday that military intervention in Ukraine would lead to "costs," as tension with old foe President Vladimir Putin rose in a Cold War-style crisis. "We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine," he told reporters. Obama and European leaders would consider skipping a G8 summit this summer in the Russian city of Sochi if Moscow intervenes militarily in Ukraine, a senior U.S. official said. "The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine," Obama said in the White House briefing room. Full Story | Top |
| Citigroup reports fraud in Mexico unit, lowers 2013 results Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:47 PM PST  By David Henry and Elinor Comlay NEW YORK/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc said on Friday that it has discovered at least $400 million in fraudulent loans in its Mexico subsidiary and said employees may have been in on the crime. Citigroup's 2013 profit fell by $235 million to $13.67 billion after the write-down. Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat called the incident a "despicable crime" and said the bank believes it was an isolated episode. The bad loans were made to Mexican oil services company Oceanografia , a contractor for Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex . Full Story | Top |
| Comcast would consider a spinoff of subscribers: source Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:33 PM PST  Comcast is considering spinning off the 3 million subscribers it has offered to divest as part of its proposed $45.2 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, into a publicly traded company, according to sources familiar with the matter. The sources, who did not want to be named because the plans are private, said that Comcast had not yet made a decision and this is just one option it is considering. Comcast has said it is willing to divest 3 million subscribers to reduce U.S. regulators' competitive concerns. Comcast has said it plans to submit documents on its proposed Time Warner Cable acquisition to U.S. regulators by the end of March, when antitrust and public interest reviews will be launched. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. retailers' results drive up discretionary profit estimates Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:30 PM PST  The fourth-quarter profit growth estimate for S&P 500 consumer discretionaries jumped from 6.7 percent on Monday to 8.7 percent Friday, with results from Home Depot , Macy's and Priceline.com among the strongest influences, Thomson Reuters data showed. The S&P 500, by contrast, is up 0.6 percent for 2014 so far. "I think too many people were either too short or underinvested in the retail space, figuring the terrible weather we've had was going to persist and that the retail results were going to be underwhelming," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. "I think (results) we've seen this week justify higher valuations for the retail space in general," James said. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine's U.N. envoy: 'We are strong enough to defend ourselves' Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:20 PM PST By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Ukraine's U.N. ambassador on Friday accused Russia of illegally sending military planes and attack helicopters across the border of the former Soviet republic and declared that his country was strong enough to defend itself. Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev was speaking to reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council in a closed-door session on the escalating crisis in Ukraine. Armed men took control of two airports in Ukraine's autonomous Crimea region earlier on Friday in what the country's leadership described as an invasion and occupation by Russian forces. Russia denied involvement in the airport seizures. Full Story | Top |
| Sisters' jail visits to accused Boston bomber not confidential: prosecutors Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:11 PM PST  By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Joint prison visits to accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by his sisters and attorneys should not be treated as confidential lawyer-client meetings, U.S. prosecutors argued in court papers filed Friday. Responding to an October request by defense attorneys to loosen restrictions on their communication with the 20-year-old Tsarnaev, prosecutors argued they have the right for an FBI agent to be present at meetings between the defendant and social visitors - to insure that neither party was "soliciting or encouraging acts of violence or other crimes." Tsarnaev is accused of placing, along with his older brother, two homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the finish line of the April 15 Boston Marathon last year. Visits from Tsarnaev's sisters to the prison west of Boston, where he is being held awaiting trial, are not entitled to the same guarantees of confidentiality as those from his attorneys, even if his attorneys are present, prosecutors argued in the filing in U.S. District Court in Boston. Full Story | Top |
| Japan's Fast Retailing mulls buying J.Crew: source Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:10 PM PST By Soyoung Kim NEW YORK (Reuters) - Japan's Fast Retailing Co Ltd , parent of apparel chain Uniqlo, has expressed interest in buying J.Crew Group Inc from its private equity owners, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. J.Crew, which was taken private by TPG Capital LP and Leonard Green & Partners LP for $2.8 billion in 2011, believes it should fetch at least $5 billion in any sale, the person added, asking not to be named because the matter is not public. TPG and Leonard Green are in the early stage of exploring exit options for J.Crew, including an initial public offering, and have yet to make a decision on timing and avenue of its potential exit, other people familiar with the matter said. Leonard Green and TPG declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| FTC says considering lawmaker's concerns about Herbalife Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:09 PM PST  By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - The Federal Trade Commission on Friday refused to tip its hand on how it may be react to allegations that Herbalife is a fraud, but said it is taking a lawmaker's concerns about the company seriously and underscored its record of shutting down pyramid schemes. Billionaire investor William Ackman put a spotlight on the company when he made a $1 billion bet more than a year ago that the nutrition and weight loss firm is running a pyramid scheme and will go bust under regulatory scrutiny. So far, the bet has cost him hundreds of millions of dollars in paper losses as Herbalife's share price has climbed and no regulator has publicly disclosed its intention. In a letter sent to U.S. Senator Edward Markey, Edith Ramirez, the regulator's chairwoman, said various factors, including how consumers are affected, help determine whether the Commission acts. Full Story | Top |
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