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| Exclusive: Merck in final talks to sell consumer unit for near $14 billion - sources Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 12:21 PM PDT By Anjuli Davies, Olivia Oran and Soyoung Kim LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc is in the final stages of selling its consumer healthcare unit for close to $14 billion, with Bayer AG and Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc among final contenders to clinch a deal as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said. Germany's Bayer and British consumer products giant Reckitt have emerged as frontrunners to win the auction after each offering roughly $13.5 billion for the Merck consumer unit, best known for Coppertone sunscreen and Claritin allergy medicine, the sources said. Representatives for U.S. drugmaker Merck, as well as Bayer and Reckitt, declined to comment. The sale would be the latest in a wave of healthcare deals in recent days, including Zimmer Holdings Inc's $13.35 billion acquisition of orthopaedics rival Biomet Inc and the agreement between Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline Plc to trade more than $20 billion worth of assets, with Eli Lilly and Co buying Novartis' animal health business for $5.4 billion. Full Story | Top |
| GE boss to meet French minister as Alstom deal progresses Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 11:52 AM PDT  By Elizabeth Pineau and Benjamin Mallet PARIS (Reuters) - General Electric boss Jeff Immelt is due in Paris on Sunday and is expected to meet France's economy minister as he closes in on a deal to buy the global power arm of struggling French engineer Alstom, sources close to the matter said. Some put a $13 billion valuation on Alstom's turbines and power grid equipment business. Sources close to the government who flagged the likely meeting between economy minister Arnaud Montebourg and Immelt said Prime Minister Manuel Valls might also meet the chief executive, who heads one of the 10 largest investor-controlled companies in the world, should the more senior politician return from a visit to Rome in time. French media said a decisive Alstom board meeting, the second since Friday, would also take place on Sunday. Full Story | Top |
| Russia offered support in effort to free OSCE monitors: Germany Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 09:10 AM PDT BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Saturday welcomed an offer of support from his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to help efforts to free Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors held in eastern Ukraine. Steinmeier told reporters that Lavrov had offered his backing during a telephone call earlier in the day. "I very much welcome the fact that all three promised their help," said Steinmeier, adding he had spoken to Lavrov, Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk and Switzerland's Didier Burkhalter, who currently chairs the ... Full Story | Top |
| Explosion levels home in Chicago suburb, no serious injuries Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 09:08 AM PDT (Reuters) - An explosion possibly caused by a gas leak destroyed a house in a Chicago suburb and damaged up to 30 other homes on Friday night but did not leave anyone seriously hurt, a local sheriff's official said. The explosion was reported at about 10.30 p.m. local time in the village of Long Grove, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. It was loud enough to be heard two towns away, Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sergeant Gianni Giamberduca said on Saturday. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt discovers first case of potentially deadly MERS virus Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 06:33 AM PDT Egypt has discovered its first case of the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in an Egyptian citizen who had recently returned from Saudi Arabia, Egypt's Ministry of Health said on Saturday. Saudi Arabia, which has been hardest-hit by the MERS virus, announced on Friday it had discovered 14 more cases in the kingdom, bringing the total number to 313.[ID:nL6N0NH52I] Although the number of MERS infections worldwide is fairly small, the more than 40 percent death rate among confirmed cases and the spread of the virus beyond the Middle East is keeping scientists and public health officials on alert. A spokesman for the World Health Organisation in Geneva said on Friday it was "concerned" about the rising MERS numbers in Saudi Arabia urging for a speedy scientific breakthrough about the virus and its route of infection. Full Story | Top |
| OSCE sends team to work on freeing detainees in eastern Ukraine Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 06:05 AM PDT BERLIN (Reuters) - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has dispatched a negotiating team to try to secure the release of observers being held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, a German government source said on Saturday. "A negotiating team from the OSCE is on the way to the region," said the source, declining to give further details, including exactly where they were heading. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Victoria Bryan) Full Story | Top |
| Kenyan president says will not allow genocide in South Sudan Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 04:51 AM PDT  By Richard Lough NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's president said he would not let the conflict in neighbouring South Sudan descend into genocide, though he stopped short of spelling out any action to end the increasingly ethnic slaughter. Four months of fighting between government and rebels in the world's newest nation has raised fears of a wider conflict that could further destabilise a fragile region and send hundreds of thousands more refugees over borders. Uganda, another neighbour of oil-producing South Sudan, has already sent in troops to back the government. "We refuse to be witnesses to such atrocities and to remain helpless and hopeless in their wake," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement late on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| Angola LNG shut due to technical problems, restart time unknown Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 01:53 AM PDT By Shrikesh Laxmidas LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola's new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant has been forced to shut down production due to unspecified technical problems, a spokesman said on Friday, but he denied a report of an explosion at the plant. The $10 billion Angola LNG plant, operated by Chevron, has struggled to boost output since starting up last year and has suffered setbacks including a compressor leak, a rig capsize, electrical fires, and pipeline leaks. "The plant has experienced technical issues which has caused an unplanned interruption to production," the spokesman said. "No explosion, fire or injuries were caused as a result of this unplanned interruption, and the plant was safely shutdown in a controlled manner," he added. An investigation into the cause of the technical problems is under way. Full Story | Top |
| Homeland Security struggles to tempt, retain cyber talent Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 12:05 AM PDT  By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the race to attract cybersecurity experts to protect the government's computer networks, the Department of Homeland Security has a handicap money can't fix. "Even when somebody is patriotic and wants to do their duty for the nation, if they're really good they're not going to wait six months to get hired," said Mark Weatherford, the former cyber chief at DHS. After a spate of national security leaks and with cybercrime on the rise, the department is vying with the private sector and other three-letter federal agencies to hire and retain talent to secure federal networks and contain threats to American businesses and utilities. Phyllis Schneck, the former chief technology officer at security software company McAfee Inc who succeeded Weatherford in August, asked a U.S. Senate committee for help. Full Story | Top |
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