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| GM hires crisis manager Jeff Eller: NYT Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 09:09 PM PDT  (Reuters) - General Motors has hired Jeff Eller as a crisis management adviser, the New York Times reported, as the automaker faces investigations over ignition switch defects linked to deadly crashes and mounting recalls. GM Chief Executive Mary Barra on Wednesday endured a withering attack at a U.S. Senate hearing that opened with accusations that the company fostered "a culture of cover-up. The creation of the team of outside advisers stands in marked contrast to GM's early approach to handling the crisis, when it looked primarily inward to set strategy, the newspaper said. (http://link. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fonterra fined by New Zealand court over botulism food scare Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 09:07 PM PDT  Fonterra Ltd has been fined NZ$300,000 ($256,200) for the way it handled the food safety scare last year about potentially contaminated products and the damage the false alarm did to New Zealand's reputation for quality dairy products. Fonterra said in August last year that it had found a bacteria that could cause botulism in a range of products sold by a number of multinational companies. Testing later showed there had been no botulism. The scare prompted the recall of products, including baby formula, from shelves from China to Saudi Arabia, and led several countries to place a temporary ban on some New Zealand products. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. warns China not to attempt Crimea-style action in Asia Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 08:58 PM PDT  By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China should not doubt the U.S. commitment to defend its Asian allies and the prospect of economic retaliation should also discourage Beijing from using force to pursue territorial claims in Asia in the way Russia has in Crimea, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Daniel Russel, President Barack Obama's diplomatic point man for East Asia, said it was difficult to determine what China's intentions might be, but Russia's annexation of Crimea had heightened concerns among U.S. allies in the region about the possibility of China using force to pursue its claims. Full Story | Top |
| China regulator to run stress tests on banks: paper Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 08:40 PM PDT  The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has said it will conduct regional and national stress tests after banks saw a spike in bad loans last year, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Friday, reflecting growing creditworthiness concerns. "All (CBRC) offices, supervisory departments, must organize stress tests of banking institutional organizations in a timely manner so as to analyze the impact of unfavorable situations in individual banks and the banking system and urge banking financial institutions to make emergency plans," the regulator was quoted as saying in guidelines sent to banks in March. Chinese banks' non-performing loan (NPL) ratio rose to its highest level in two years in the last three months of 2013, to 1.0 percent, the CBRC reported in February. "Banks should study the risk situation in key regions, focus on certain industries and on important clients," the paper quoted from the CBRC document. Full Story | Top |
| Geologist raised idea of removing homes from U.S. landslide area Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 08:40 PM PDT  By Jonathan Kaminsky DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - A contractor who studied the risks to a rural neighborhood in Washington state wiped out by a mudslide last month made recommendations more than a decade ago that included possible relocation of homes elsewhere. News of the recommendations, made in a report for a Native American tribe with traditional fishing rights in the area, emerged as searchers scoured a pile of mud and debris for victims of the March 22 slide that left dozens dead or missing. About 30 people have been confirmed dead from the slide, which roared over the north fork of the Stillaguamish River and state Highway 530, engulfing about three dozen homes on the outskirts of the rural town of Oso in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Jim Miller, a geological engineer with GeoEngineers, said his company prepared a 2001 report for the Stillaguamish tribe that warned of a "significant risk to human lives and private property" at the slide site. Full Story | Top |
| Soth Korea extending ballistic missile range to counter North's threat Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 08:13 PM PDT  South Korea has test-fired a new ballistic missile with a range of 500 km (310 miles) and will try to extend the range to 800 km so it can strike any site in North Korea, its defense ministry said on Friday, days after Pyongyang fired a mid-range missile. The new missiles are intended to counter the threat from North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said, but the move is likely to rattle the North, hit with U.N. sanctions for its own missile tests. South Korea adopted a voluntary ban on developing ballistic missiles with a range of more than 300 km, under an agreement with the United States, but the allies agreed in 2012 to allow the South to develop 800 km-range missiles. "We test-fired it, and we succeeded," Kim told a briefing, when asked if the military had recently conducted a 500-km missile test. Full Story | Top |
| After rampage, portrait of Fort Hood shooter starts to emerge Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 08:10 PM PDT When Ivan Lopez's mother died last year, the U.S. soldier suspected of killing three people at the Fort Hood base in Texas told friends the Army gave him just one day to attend her funeral in Puerto Rico. That brief allotted window appeared to compound his grief over a personal double-loss: The death in October of his mother, Carmen, a nurse, came soon after that of his grandfather, according to Edgardo Arlequin, the mayor of Lopez's hometown of Guayanilla. "That was one of the reasons why he was very upset," Arlequin said. Josue Blasini, a 36-year-old tattoo artist in Guayanilla introduced as a childhood bandmate of Lopez, said his friend had been deeply affected by his mother's passing and was upset by having to leave so quickly after her death. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. lawmakers urge revamp of Army vehicle competition Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 07:07 PM PDT A group of 10 U.S. lawmakers on Thursday urged Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall to revamp the U.S. Army's $5 billion competition for a new armored vehicle to allow both tracked and wheeled vehicles to compete. The letter came a day before the U.S. Army is due to rule on a protest by General Dynamics Corp, which argues that the Army's rules for the competition are skewed to favor BAE Systems Plc's Bradley Fighting Vehicle, while putting General Dynamics' wheeled Stryker vehicles at a disadvantage. Full Story | Top |
| Craft beer distribution battle brews in Florida legislature Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 06:56 PM PDT  By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Beer fans line up every winter at Intuition Ale Works in north Florida for the annual tapping of Underdark, a world-class dark brew aged for a year in bourbon barrels that sells out quickly even at $15 a bottle. But a bill pending in the Florida Senate that would cut into Underdark's profit has craft beer-makers crying foul. The law would force craft brewers to sell their bottled and canned beer directly to a distributor. If they want to sell it in their own tap rooms, they would then have to buy it back at what is typically a 30-40 percent mark-up without the bottles or cans ever leaving the brewery, according to Joshua Aubuchon, a lawyer and lobbyist for the Florida Brewers Guild. Full Story | Top |
| Funding gap threatens retirement for California teachers Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 06:55 PM PDT The pension fund for public school teachers in California faces a long-term shortfall of $74 billion, threatening its ability to pay for the retirement of nearly 1 million teachers and administrators in the nation's most populous state, officials said on Thursday. The gap is growing by about $15 million per day, the California State Teachers Retirement System said in a written statement, and the system could run out of money in 32 years. "CalSTRS has slightly less than 67 cents on hand for every dollar it owes its members," CalSTRS spokeswoman Gretchen Zeagler said in a statement. To make up the difference, participants - whether teachers, school districts or the state - will have to contribute more toward members' retirement, said CalSTRS Chief Executive Officer Jack Ehnes. Full Story | Top |
| Cargo ship sinks off South Korea, 11 North Korean crew missing Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 06:47 PM PDT  A Mongolian-flagged cargo ship has sunk off the southern coast of South Korea, with most of the 16 North Korean crew members on board missing, South Korean coast guard officials said on Friday. The Grand Fortune 1 was sailing from the Chongjin region on North Korea's east coast for a Chinese port carrying iron ore, said one official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The vessel sails regularly between North Korea and China, according to Reuters' ship tracking system. The rescued crew members were taken to a South Korean hospital for treatment, according to the coast guard. Full Story | Top |
| Judge grills Arizona sheriff's aide in racial profiling case Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 06:47 PM PDT  By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday grilled an aide to Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio for misleading local residents about a ruling that found deputies racially profiled Latino drivers. During the tense hearing in Phoenix, U.S. District Judge Murray Snow also threatened to personally attend training sessions for deputies to ensure his order from last year is complied with at Arpaio's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. "I am not going to tolerate any slip-ups any more," Snow said on Thursday. The judge has called for an independent monitor to ensure Arpaio's Sheriff's Office stops using race in making law enforcement decisions, in a ruling that stems from a 2007 lawsuit questioning whether police could target unauthorized immigrants without profiling Hispanics who are U.S. citizens or legal residents. Full Story | Top |
| Japan Aso: BOJ's aggressive stimulus should be appreciated Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 06:32 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday that the Bank of Japan's aggressive monetary easing, announced exactly a year ago, should be appreciated as it helped boost consumer inflation and drive economic growth. Aso made the remark when asked about how he would evaluate the central bank's aggressive monetary stimulus unleashed under Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. ... Full Story | Top |
| Daughter of slain Iraqi-American tells of hearing murder Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 06:17 PM PDT Fatima Alhimidi, taking the witness stand on the third day of her father's murder trial, said that she was sleeping on the morning of March 21, 2012, when she heard noises downstairs. "I heard my mom moan and a while after that I heard glass breaking," a sobbing Alhimidi, 19, told jurors, adding that she initially concluded that her mother, 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi, had probably broken a plate while cooking. Prosecutors accuse the father, 49-year-old Kassim Alhimidi, of bludgeoning her to death, possibly with a tire iron taken from one of the family's cars. El Cajon police and the FBI initially investigated the killing as a possible hate crime because of a threatening note found at the scene. Full Story | Top |
| California court revives suit claiming woman frozen alive in morgue Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 06:09 PM PDT By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California appeals court has revived a malpractice suit brought by the family of an 80-year-old grandmother they claim was prematurely declared dead by doctors then frozen alive inside a body bag in the hospital's morgue. A lower-court judge had dismissed the lawsuit brought in May 2012 by relatives of Maria de Jesus Arroyo against White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles over the woman's 2010 death, on grounds that the statute of limitations had lapsed. But a three-judge panel of a state appeals court sided with the family on Wednesday in agreeing they could not have known how Arroyo was alleged to have died until it was brought to light by a pathologist in an expert opinion he gave in December 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Guns, death and tears put Fort Hood in global spotlight, again Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 05:58 PM PDT By Eileen O'Grady and Lisa Maria Garza FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - At the home of the largest Army base in the United States, the people who bask in the pride of serving the country in wars abroad and are now reeling from blood being spilled in their backyard in the third mass shooting in about 20 years. The troubled soul-searching that took place when former Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009 was rekindled when another soldier shot dead three people on Wednesday before taking his own life. Many in Killeen, a town of well-worn American flags, pawnshops and businesses that cater to the some 45,000 military personnel assigned to the base, were tight-lipped about being thrust in the global spotlight for the second time in five years because of a deadly shooting rampage. Those who have been in Killeen a little longer can remember when George Hennard, who served two years in the U.S. Navy, rammed his pickup truck through the plate-glass door of a chain restaurant named Luby's in 1991, opening fire and killing 23 in one of the deadliest mass civilian shootings in the country. Full Story | Top |
| Senate panel votes to declassify report on CIA interrogations Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 05:56 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted on Thursday to declassify its long-awaited report on the CIA's use of brutal interrogation methods that critics say amount to torture. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who chairs the committee, said the vote was 11-3 to declassify what she called the "shocking" results of investigating the Central Intelligence Agency practices under Republican President George W. Bush. The vote to lift the blackout on the summary and recommendations of the 6,200-page report follows an unprecedented clash by Feinstein with the CIA, and would give the world its first official look at its regimen of interrogation and detentions in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. This is not what Americans do," Feinstein told reporters after the committee voted during a classified meeting. Full Story | Top |
| Texas executes man convicted of killing teenage girl Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 05:54 PM PDT By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - Texas on Thursday executed a suspected serial killer convicted of stabbing a teenage girl to death, a day after a federal appeals court rejected his challenge over the drugs to be used in his lethal injection. Tommy Lynn Sells, 49, was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m. CDT after receiving a lethal dose of drugs at a state prison in Huntsville, Texas, the state's Department of Criminal Justice said. Sells was the 15th person executed in the United States this year and the fifth in Texas, the state that executes more people than any other in the nation, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The appeals court said the case might be different if the state were using a drug never before used or unheard of, whose effectiveness was completely unknown, which was not the case. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. panel to weigh dangers of oil-by-rail cargo Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 05:47 PM PDT By Patrick Rucker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.N. panel will examine the rules for handling the kind of oil-by-rail shipments involved in several recent fiery derailments in a move that could rattle the fast-growing sector. The U.N. panel for shipping hazardous materials said this week it accepted a request from U.S. and Canadian experts to revisit rules that govern shipping the kinds of fuel produced in energy areas such as North Dakota's Bakken. Specifically, the panel will examine whether rules for shipping crude oil properly account for dangerous pressure and volatile gases. "Unprocessed crude oil may present unique hazards based on the specific gas content, posing different hazards in transport," the U.N. panel on transporting dangerous goods said in a statement seen by Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Army names Fort Hood shooter, says had mental illness Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 05:42 PM PDT  By Lisa Maria Garza FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - The soldier suspected of shooting dead three people before killing himself at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas was identified as Ivan Lopez, a man battling mental illness when he went on a rampage, the base commander said on Thursday. No motive was given for the shooting spree on Wednesday, which also left 16 wounded in what was the second mass killing in five years at one of the largest military bases in the United States, raising questions about security at such installations. "We have very strong evidence that he had a medical history that indicates unstable psychiatric or psychological conditions," Lieutenant General Mark Milley told reporters. Lopez, 34, originally from Puerto Rico, had been treated for depression and anxiety. Full Story | Top |
| Addition of Korean name for Sea of Japan becomes law in Virginia Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 05:34 PM PDT By Gary Robertson RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Legislation requiring that the Korean name for the Sea of Japan be included in new school textbooks has become law in the U.S. state of Virginia, a victory for Korean-American campaigners backed by the South Korean government. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed the law earlier in the week, a spokesman confirmed on Thursday. The law requires textbooks to add the name "East Sea," as the body of water that separate Japan and Korea is known in Korea. Passage of the legislation represents a significant victory for vocal campaigners among Virginia's 82,000 Korean-Americans, who greatly outnumber the state's 19,000 ethnic Japanese. Full Story | Top |
| Obama briefs congressional leaders on Ukraine crisis Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 05:16 PM PDT  By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama brought congressional leaders to the White House on Thursday for talks on the Ukraine crisis, with diplomatic efforts between the United States and Russia facing a hard slog. A week after a trip to Europe that was dominated by meetings to discuss ways to react to Russia's annexation of Crimea, Obama sat down with Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Obama last spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday by telephone. Full Story | Top |
| Australia in a fog over ban on branded cigarettes Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 05:10 PM PDT  By Jane Wardell SYDNEY (Reuters) - More than a year after Australia became the first country to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, there is little hard evidence to prove the trailblazing move is worth emulating. At the King of the Pack tobacconist in central Sydney, James Yu shakes his head despondently as he says his cigarette sales volumes have plummeted 30 percent over the past year. Yu's sliding sales should be music to the ears of the Australian government, a vindication of laws introduced in December, 2012, that forced tobacco companies to replace logos and branding with graphic images of smoking-related diseases on an olive green background. Cigarette sales in supermarkets, which account for a large portion of the market, shrank 0.9 percent overall by volume in 2013, according to the latest data available from Retail World, but there is no clear link to the plain packaging laws. Full Story | Top |
| Anadarko Petroleum settles U.S.-wide clean-up case for $5.15 billion Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:57 PM PDT  Energy company Anadarko Petroleum Corp agreed on Thursday to pay more than $5 billion to clean up areas across the United States polluted by nuclear fuel, wood creosote and rocket fuel waste that caused cancer and other health problems. The agreement resolves a long-running lawsuit against the Kerr-McGee energy and chemical company, which Anadarko bought in 2006. It was also seeking payment for claims from more than 8,000 people who said their exposure to Kerr-McGee's wood treatment plants in Avoca, Pennsylvania and Manville, New Jersey caused cancer, which in some cases led to death. "If you are responsible for 85 years of poisoning the earth, you are responsible for cleaning it up," the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, said at a news conference announcing the settlement. Full Story | Top |
| AIG sues NY regulator over probe of insurance marketing Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:53 PM PDT  Insurer American International Group Inc on Thursday sued New York regulators to force them to back off a threatened costly enforcement proceeding over possible violations of state law by a former unit. AIG's lawsuit against the New York State Department of Financial Services and its superintendent, Benjamin Lawsky, is unusual, with an investigation target trying to stop any action. The dispute centers on American Life Insurance Co, better known as ALICO, and another former AIG unit known as DelAm. MetLife Inc, another insurer, both bought units from AIG in 2010. Full Story | Top |
| KCG paid chief executive Coleman $10.4 million for 2013 Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:48 PM PDT  By John McCrank NEW YORK (Reuters) - Trading firm KCG Holdings awarded its chief executive, Daniel Coleman, $10.4 million in 2013, the year in which the company was formed by the $1.4 billion takeover of Knight Capital Group by rival Getco, according to a regulatory filing. Coleman, who had been CEO of high-speed trader Getco, earned a salary of $500,000, with the remainder of his earnings in stock and options awards, as well as a $700,000 cash bonus, according to the company's proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, released late Thursday. Coleman's compensation only included what he made after the takeover of Knight had been completed in July. Full Story | Top |
| Paula Deen closes restaurant at center of harassment lawsuit Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:45 PM PDT  By David Beasley ATLANTA (Reuters) - Celebrity chef Paula Deen's popular Savannah, Georgia, restaurant, which was at the center of a racially charged lawsuit against her, abruptly closed on Thursday after a decade in business. "Thank you for 10 great years," Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, owned by Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, told customers on its website. "Uncle Bubba's is now closed." A white employee of Uncle Bubba's sued Deen and her brother claiming she had been the victim of sexual harassment and that there was a pattern of racial discrimination against black employees at the restaurant. Deen said in a deposition in the case that she had used a racial slur, which prompted Scripps Networks Interactive Inc to drop her cooking show from its cable television channel, the Food Network. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. OKs portable antidote for painkiller overdoses Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:44 PM PDT  By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Thursday approved a portable device to treat painkiller overdoses that people without medical training can use in emergency situations, a move to combat the rise of deaths from the abuse of opioids, including heroin. The Food and Drug Administration said making the cellphone-sized device with the recovery drug naloxone available for wider use could help save lives as opiod drug overdoses increase. The approval means emergency responders or even family members could have an easy-to-use treatment in cases of suspected overdose of opioids, which include pain drugs like oxycodone, morphine, codeine and hydrocodone as well as heroin. "It's really an effort to make this very usable," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said. Full Story | Top |
| Daughter of slain Iraqi-American woman says parents clashed Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:43 PM PDT Fatima Alhimidi, taking the witness stand on the third day of her father's murder trial, said that arguments between her parents began during a trip to Iraq in mid-2011 and escalated until her mother sought a divorce early the following year. "She told me every time she wouldn't sleep with him, he wouldn't give her money for her and us." Alhimidi, who was 17 at the time of her mother's death, told police she found her mother, Shaima Alawadi, bloodied on the floor of their home in the El Cajon suburb of San Diego on the morning of March 21, 2012. Prosecutors accuse the father, 49-year-old Kassim Alhimidi, of bludgeoning her to death, possibly with a tire iron taken from one of the family's cars. El Cajon police and the FBI initially investigated the killing as a possible hate crime because of a threatening note found at the scene. Full Story | Top |
| Roche lung cancer pill gets reprieve in reversal Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:36 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on Friday reversed an earlier decision to limit the use of Roche's Tarceva cancer pill on the state health service in a move the drugmaker said would help around 2,000 patients a year. New draft guidance from NICE now backs use of Tarceva for people with non-small-cell lung cancer that has progressed after chemotherapy in wider circumstances than originally suggested. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mongolian-flagged cargo ship with North Korean crew sinks off South Korea Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:24 PM PDT A Mongolian-flagged cargo ship with 16 North Korean crew members has sunk off the southern coast of South Korea, a South Korean coast guard official said on Friday. The ship was sailing from the Chongjin region on North Korea's east coast and was headed for a Chinese port carrying iron ore, the official said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media. Full Story | Top |
| Singer Chris Brown turned over to federal marshals for D.C. trial Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:13 PM PDT  R&B singer Chris Brown was taken from his Los Angeles jail cell by the U.S. Marshals Service and will be transported to Washington, D.C. for a hearing in a 2013 misdemeanor assault charge, federal authorities said on Thursday. Brown, 24, was jailed last month after violating his probation when he was dismissed from a facility where he was receiving the court-ordered treatment related to his 2009 assault of his then-girlfriend, singer Rihanna. He will be taken to Washington, where he is scheduled to stand trial on April 17, U.S. Marshals Service spokeswoman Lynzey Donahue said. Brown's lawyer Mark Geragos had asked the court to have Brown released ahead of the trial into his custody so that they could prepare for the trial and travel together to Washington. Full Story | Top |
| Roche lung cancer pill gets reprieve in UK reversal Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:08 PM PDT Britain's health cost watchdog NICE on Friday reversed an earlier decision to limit the use of Roche's Tarceva cancer pill on the state health service in a move the drugmaker said would help around 2,000 patients a year. New draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) now backs use of Tarceva for people with non-small-cell lung cancer that has progressed after chemotherapy in wider circumstances than originally suggested. NICE said its decision to maintain Tarceva access followed new evidence on the clinical and cost effectiveness of the drug, and also took into account the side-effect profile of the chemotherapy alternative. Full Story | Top |
| Mylan sues Celgene for blocking Revlimid, Thalomid generics Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 04:08 PM PDT Mylan Inc on Thursday sued Celgene Corp to stop the latter's effort to keep generic versions of two drugs that generate $4.5 billion of annual sales off the market. The lawsuit accuses Celgene of maintaining unlawful monopolies over Revlimid, which treats disorders caused by poorly formed blood cells; Revlimid is a branded version of lenalidomide, and is a derivative of thalidomide, a drug introduced in the 1950s for which Thalomid is a branded version. Mylan said both drugs can cost more than $100,000 for a year's supply. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: U.S. states probing security breach at Experian unit Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:58 PM PDT  By Jim Finkle and Karen Freifeld BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A number of U.S. states are jointly investigating a data breach involving a subsidiary of Experian Plc that exposed the social security numbers of some 200 million people to potential criminal activity. A Vietnamese man last month confessed in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire to orchestrating the breach, so the focus of the multistate investigation will likely be on whether Experian and other parties followed laws requiring companies to properly secure consumer data and comply with breach disclosure rules. "It's part of a multistate investigation." Jaclyn Falkowski, spokeswoman for Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, said Connecticut is also looking into the matter. A spokesman for Experian, which is best known for providing consumer credit histories, declined comment on the probe, saying the company does not comment on such investigations as a matter of policy. Full Story | Top |
| Lloyds to seek bonus awards for top 400 staff - Sky News Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:52 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group will seek approval to boost the pay of up to 400 of its most senior staff, Sky News reported late Thursday. The news service said that the taxpayer-backed lender will say ahead of its annual general meeting that it wants flexibility in paying employees up to 200 percent of their salaries in bonus awards. From next year, bankers' bonuses in the 28-country EU can be no higher than fixed salary, or twice that amount if a bank's shareholders give their approval. The Bank of England said in March that it is scrutinising allowances awarded to top staff by banks in an effort to establish whether they are a covert way of avoiding a new European Union cap on bonuses. Full Story | Top |
| Death toll in Washington state mudslide rises to 30 Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:48 PM PDT  DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - The death toll in a Washington state mudslide that wiped out a rural community last month rose to 30 on Thursday as one more body was extricated from a pile of muck and debris, the Snohomish County medical examiner's office said. A rain-soaked hillside collapsed without warning above the north fork of Stillaguamish River on March 22, unleashing a torrent of mud that roared over the river banks and across state Highway 530, engulfing some three dozen homes on the outskirts of the tiny town of Oso. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bank of America near credit card deal with U.S. regulator Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:47 PM PDT  By Emily Stephenson and Peter Rudegeair WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp is close to settling with a U.S. consumer regulator over the sale of services sold as add-ons to credit cards, sources familiar with the talks said. The second-largest U.S. bank said in an August securities filing that it had been in discussions with regulators to address concerns over the sale and marketing of credit card debt cancellation products and identity theft protection services that it offered alongside its credit cards. News of the potential settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which also said Bank of America could pay more than $800 million to settle the allegations against it. Spokesmen for Bank of America and the CFPB declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| Obama's NSA overhaul may require phone carriers to store more data Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:46 PM PDT  By Mark Hosenball and Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's plan for overhauling the National Security Agency's phone surveillance program could force carriers to collect and store customer data that they are not now legally obliged to keep, according to U.S. officials. One complication arises from the popularity of flat-rate or unlimited calling plans, which are used by the vast majority of Americans. ... Full Story | Top |
| Anti-Assad allies rebuff Syrian presidential election plan Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:44 PM PDT  International powers who support the Syrian opposition have firmly rebuffed any idea of a presidential election organized by the Syrian government in the midst of a civil war, describing the plans as a "parody of democracy" that would kill peace talks. The Friends of Syria, an alliance of mainly Western and Gulf Arab countries, issued a statement on Thursday in light of recent developments in Syria, where there appears to be no end in sight after more than three years of conflict sparked by protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. Emboldened by failed peace talks in Geneva, and with the support of his allies Iran and Russia, Assad is looking increasingly likely to stand for a third term in July. "Elections organized by the Assad regime would be a parody of democracy, would reveal the regime's rejection of the basis of the Geneva talks, and would deepen the division of Syria," said the 11-strong group, which includes the United States, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Full Story | Top |
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