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| South Korea says likely North drone flew over Seoul's presidential palace Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 09:12 PM PDT A drone found last week while probably returning to North Korea had flown over the presidential palace in the South before crashing near the border, but would not have been able to carry a bomb, an official said on Thursday. The drone was the first of two unmanned aircraft found in a span of a week, with the second found soon after a three-hour artillery barrage between the neighbors in waters near a disputed maritime border. South Korea's military has been criticized for apparently failing to spot or stop the unidentified aircraft that entered its airspace and flew over its capital amid a tense standoff with the North, as both countries remain technically at war. Nearly 200 aerial photographs were recovered from a camera carried by the drone, including some taken directly above the presidential Blue House, but the aircraft had no equipment to transmit the images, defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. Full Story | Top |
| Plane rolls off runway after emergency landing at New York airport Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 09:21 PM PDT (Reuters) - A Delta Air Lines Inc flight made an emergency landing at a New York airport on Wednesday after a cockpit indicator signaled a hydraulic system problem, and the aircraft later rolled into a grassy area, an airline official said. Flight 886, which was carrying 118 passengers and five crew from an Atlanta airport to New York's LaGuardia Airport, was diverted to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) because it has longer runways, Delta spokeswoman Leslie Scott said. Full Story | Top |
| Morgan Stanley CFO says companies need more female executives Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:04 PM PDT  By Lauren Tara LaCapra NEW YORK (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat on Wednesday called on government and corporate leaders to encourage the promotion of women into senior business roles, saying the number of women in top positions at U.S. corporations is "an embarrassment." Porat, one of the most powerful women on Wall Street, said she supports a law proposed by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand that would create national paid family leave, and help women to have children without leaving the workforce. "Although the statistics in the U.S. are meaningfully better than they were 50 years ago and better than in many other markets, they're not where they should be and in fact I would say they are an embarrassment," Porat said at an event held by the Japan Society in Manhattan. Porat's comments come at a time when more women business leaders are speaking out about gender issues in the workplace. That conversation was sparked in part by the publication last year of "Lean In," a book by Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who argued that women need to become more aggressive about advocating for their rights. Full Story | Top |
| Asian stocks at four-month high on solid U.S. data, China hopes boost Nikkei Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:54 PM PDT  By Shinichi Saoshiro TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares hovered near four-month highs on Thursday as upbeat U.S. data underpinned risk appetite, while news China is taking steps to stimulate its economy spurred Tokyo's Nikkei to a three-weak peak. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1 percent to brush a new four-month high. The index has rebounded about 6 percent from a five-week low hit on March 20, supported by receding tensions in Ukraine and hopes China will take steps to stimulate its sagging economy. Tokyo's Nikkei outperformed to gain 0.9 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Armed men abduct Chinese, Philippine women from Malaysia resort: reports Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:52 PM PDT A Chinese tourist and a Philippine hotel worker were abducted by armed men at a diving resort in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah, Malaysian media reported on Thursday. The two abducted women were at the resort's jetty on Wednesday night when the men arrived by boat, Malaysia's New Straits Times newspaper cited Eastern Sabah Security Command Director Mohammad Mentek as saying. An employee at the Singamata Reef Resort, contacted by Reuters, confirmed an abduction had taken place, but declined to provide details. The report comes at a time when Malaysia's image has been tarnished in China by negative publicity over its handling of the March 8 disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people aboard, most of them Chinese nationals. Full Story | Top |
| Carney says interest rates may rise ahead of election - report Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:46 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Interest rates could increase ahead of the next general election, the Bank of England Governor told The Northern Echo, but he wants to see more jobs created in the North-East before he will intervene. Mark Carney warned bankers they need to be more professional to repair their shattered public image, according to the North East England-based regional daily. We also need to improve infrastructure, both in how markets are organised and the codes of conduct behind markets." The Governor told the Northern Echo that interest rates rises would be "gradual" even though Britain's economy is growing faster than any of the world's developed nations. It has to include the North-East," the Governor told Northern Echo in an interview. Full Story | Top |
| Chile assesses damage after massive quake, tsunami Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:44 PM PDT  By Anthony Esposito and Rosalba O'Brien SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean authorities on Wednesday were assessing the damage from a massive earthquake that struck off the northern coast, causing a small tsunami, but the impact appeared to be mostly limited. The 8.2 magnitude quake that shook northern Chile on Tuesday killed six people and triggered a tsunami with 2-meter (7-foot) waves. More than 2,600 homes were damaged and fishing boats along the northern coast were smashed up. The arid, mineral-rich north is sparsely populated, with most of the population concentrated in the port towns of Iquique and Arica, near the Peruvian border. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia PM visits search base for missing jet; sub joins hunt Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:31 PM PDT  By Swati Pandey and Niluksi Koswanage PERTH/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's prime minister visited the Australian search base for missing Flight MH370 on Thursday as a nuclear-powered submarine joined the near-four week hunt that has so far failed to find any sign of the missing airliner and the 239 people on board. Najib Razak joined his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott at RAAF Base Pearce, near Perth, where aircrews from seven countries have been flying dozens of missions deep into the southern Indian Ocean looking for debris from the Malaysia Airlines jet. It was briefly picked up on military radar on the other side of Malaysia and analysis of subsequent hourly electronic "pings" sent to a satellite led investigators to conclude the plane crashed far off the west Australian coast hours later. Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, said an international air crash investigation team with analysts from Malaysia, the United States, Britain, China and Australia was continuing to refine the search area. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Marines aim to move ahead with new combat vehicle Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:27 PM PDT The U.S. Marine Corps aims to kick off a competition for a new wheeled amphibious combat vehicle in coming months, with a formal request for proposals likely to follow in fiscal year 2015, a Marine Corps spokesman said Wednesday. Manny Pacheco, spokesman for the Marine Corps office in charge of land systems said the goal was to buy around 200 wheeled vehicles priced at $3 million to $6 million each under the first phase of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) program. The overall value of the program will depend on the number of vehicles, but the Marines' fiscal 2015 budget request included $977 million in funding for research and development through fiscal 2019. The program will be modest replacement for the tracked Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle that was being developed for the Marines by General Dynamics Corp before its cancellation in 2011 after big cost increases and technical issues. Full Story | Top |
| Reports of deaths at Chinese chemical protest false: state media Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:25 PM PDT  Reports that police killed 15 people and injured more than 300 during protests in southern China on Sunday are false, the website of the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper, reported on Thursday. Only two people were injured during the demonstration against a chemical plant in the southern city of Maoming, the newspaper's investigation found, and no one was killed. Full Story | Top |
| Hoboken, New Jersey, allows lawyer to testify in Christie probes Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:21 PM PDT  By Victoria Cavaliere NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Wednesday approved a measure that would allow a city attorney to cooperate with investigators probing claims of political intimidation by aides to Republican Governor Chris Christie, a likely White House contender. The Hoboken City Council voted 7-1 to allow City Attorney Joseph Maraziti to disclose private conversations he had with Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who accuses the Christie administration of withholding federal storm recovery money to pressure her. "This council has been left in the dark, and that is a major concern that I have," said Councilman Michael Russo. "On the other hand, I think it is imperative that the city of Hoboken participate in not only the state investigation but the federal investigation." Zimmer, a Democrat, alleges she was threatened by three top Christie aides who told her Hoboken would not get promised money to clean up from 2012's Superstorm Sandy unless she backed a development project favored by the governor. Full Story | Top |
| Vodafone to add 150 shops, create 1,400 jobs Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:06 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Vodafone Group Plc said on Thursday it would add 150 shops and create 1,400 jobs across the United Kingdom during the next 12 months in a 100 million pound investment. The British group said the expansion is part of the company's plans to invest 1 billion pounds in the United Kingdom in 2014 where it serves 19 million customers. Vodafone last year in June said that it would increase its UK expenditure by more than 50 percent to nearly 1 billion pounds. The opening of the new shops will increase the total number of Vodafone's branded UK outlets to more than 500, the company said. Full Story | Top |
| China services activity ticks up in March: HSBC PMI Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:47 PM PDT  Activity in China's services industry rose to a four-month high in March, a private survey showed on Thursday, even as persistent weakness in manufacturing has reinforced fears of a sharper-than-expected economic slowdown. The Markit/HSBC Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) increased to 51.9 in March from February's 51.0, buoyed by strong employment, a second successive rise taking it further above the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction. Earlier, the official services PMI showed a slight dip in the sector's growth in March, to 54.5 from February's 55.0, but activity remained well in expansion territor. "The HSBC China Services PMI suggests a modest improvement of business activities in March, with employment expanding at a faster pace," HSBC chief China economist Hongbin Qu said in a statement accompanying the release. Full Story | Top |
| After K-Pop and shopping, drivers' licenses lure Chinese to Korea Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:29 PM PDT  Chinese shoppers already have a seemingly insatiable appetite for South Korean pop music, TV dramas, cosmetics and fashion. Now they're after another must-have item: a driver's license. In China, would-be drivers can wait up to a year for a license and pay double the $420 that one costs in South Korea. At a driving school in the suburbs of Seoul, a buzzing operation which sees some 200 Chinese applicants a month, half of the class listens to a Korean-speaking teacher while the Chinese visitors fix their eyes on a TV screen showing sample questions for written tests in Mandarin. Full Story | Top |
| Russia could achieve Ukraine incursion in 3-5 days Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:19 PM PDT  By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia has massed all the forces it needs on Ukraine's border if it were to decide to carry out an "incursion" into the country, and it could achieve its objective in three to five days, NATO's top military commander said on Wednesday. Calling the situation "incredibly concerning", NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, said NATO had spotted signs of movement by a very small part of the Russian force overnight but had no indication that this was part of a withdrawal to barracks. Russia's seizure and annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region has caused the deepest crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War, leading the United States and Europe to impose sanctions on Moscow. They have said they will strengthen these if Russia moves beyond Crimea into eastern Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
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