| | |
| Cyprus bourse to remain shut amid currency controls Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:37 AM PDT NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus's Stock Exchange extended an almost two-week shutdown after the island placed controls on currency transactions to prevent a run on deposits when banks reopen on Thursday. The exchange will remain shut during Easter, from March 29 to April 1, because the Target2 system of interbank payments throughout the European Union would not be working, it said. The last trading session of the Cypriot bourse was on March 15. (Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by David Goodman) Full Story | Top |
| S.Africa's Mandela back in hospital with lung infection Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:22 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been admitted to hospital with a recurrence of a lung infection, the government said on Thursday. A statement said the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader was admitted shortly before midnight. It gave no further details other than to say he was receiving the "best possible expert medical treatment and comfort". Mandela was admitted briefly to hospital earlier this month for a check up. However, he spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Austerity threatens EU's competitive edge in infrastructure Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:19 AM PDT  By Anthony Deutsch BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe's carefully maintained autobahns, high-speed TGV trains and vast network of modern airports have long been the envy of the world. But thanks to austerity budgets that are slashing infrastructure spending just as other parts of the world are ramping it up, that may not be true for much longer. European infrastructure spending rose just 1.5 percent last year to $741 billion, compared to global growth of 4.5 percent and a 7.1 percent rise in the Asia-Pacific, according to data compiled by Marketline, a business information provider. ... Full Story | Top |
| Red-tape Belgium falls behind euro zone peers Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:18 AM PDT  (Please note strong language in line 62) By Robin Emmott and Ben Deighton CHARLEROI, Belgium (Reuters) - Just a day after giving birth, Belgian entrepreneur Esmeralda Desart was back at work running her export business, putting in the kind of 16-hour day that has become the norm since she started up a company selling printer parts in 2007. Refused bank loans, looking after a baby was just one more concern as Desart confronted the problems of red tape and rising costs that entrepreneurs say are making her homeland at the heart of the euro zone a bad place for business. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's Mandela back in hospital with lung infection Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:14 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been admitted to hospital with a recurrence of a lung infection, the government said on Thursday. A statement said the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader was admitted shortly before midnight. It gave no further details other than to say he was receiving the "best possible expert medical treatment and comfort". Mandela was admitted briefly to hospital earlier this month for a check up. However, he spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones. ... Full Story | Top |
| First South Sudan oil to reach Sudan in mid April Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:08 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - South Sudan's first oil exports will reach Sudan in mid-April after resuming production, Sudan's state news agency SUNA said on Wednesday, citing a senior oil official. After months of negotiations both African countries agreed earlier this month to resume cross-border oil-flows after tensions between them eased. Landlocked South Sudan, which shut down its entire output in a row with Khartoum over oil fees last year, needs to export its oil through the Sudanese port of Port Sudan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cyprus is very special case, found right solution: German finance minister Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:08 AM PDT BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday Cyprus was a very special case and the European Union had found the right solution for it with its deal for a 10 billion euro ($12.78 billion) bailout tied to the imposition of losses on bank depositors. "Cyprus was a very special case, everyone knew that," Schaeuble told SWR radio. "And we found the right solution." Schaeuble also said Luxembourg had a totally different business model to the east Mediterranean island which is due to reopen its banks later on Thursday almost two weeks after they were shut. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cyprus reopens banks, under strict restrictions Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:39 AM PDT  By Karolina Tagaris and Michele Kambas NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriots are expected to descend in thousands on banks, which reopen on Thursday, with tight controls imposed on transactions to prevent fleeing depositors from cleaning out the vaults in a catastrophic bank run. The east Mediterranean island fears a stampede at banks almost two weeks after they were shut by the government as it negotiated a 10 billion euro ($12.78 billion) bailout package with the European Union to escape financial meltdown. ... Full Story | Top |
| Islamist leader threatens to oust Tunisian Prime Minister Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 12:00 AM PDT  By Tarek Amara Tunis (Reuters) - The fugitive leader of a radical Islamist group threatened on Wednesday to overthrow Tunisia's government, one day after the prime minister accused him of smuggling weapons into the North African country. Saif-Allah Benahssine, leader of radical Islamists Ansar al-Sharia, said in a statement on its web page that he would topple Prime Minister Ali Larayedh and throw him into the "dustbin of history" if the government interfered with the group. ... Full Story | Top |
| Woman arrested for transferring gun to suspected killer of Colorado prison chief Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:43 PM PDT By Keith Coffman (Reuters) - A 22-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday night for illegally transferring a handgun used by a white supremacist parolee linked to the shooting death of Colorado's prison chief, authorities said. Stevie Marie Vigil of Commerce City, Colorado, was arrested by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation on suspicion that she legally bought the gun and transferred the handgun to Evan Ebel, a convicted felon who was not allowed to legally own firearms, bureau spokeswoman Susan Medina said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenya's Odinga says technology failures led to vote fraud Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:34 PM PDT  By James Macharia NAIROBI (Reuters) - Lawyers challenging Uhuru Kenyatta's victory in the Kenyan presidential election said on Wednesday new technology meant to counter fraud had broken down, leading to a manipulated vote count. Losing candidate Raila Odinga is contesting the result in court and both sides have agreed to accept the outcome. A disputed vote five years ago ignited tribal violence that dented Kenya's reputation as a stable democracy but the presidential election on March 4 took place without bloodshed. ... Full Story | Top |
| IMF ups I.Coast 2013 growth forecast to 8 pct Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:32 PM PDT  ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund sees economic growth in top cocoa grower Ivory Coast reaching 8 percent in 2013, up from a previous forecast of 7 percent, a senior Fund official said on Wednesday. The West African state is in the midst of an economic revival after a brief civil war in 2011 that closed the book on a decade of political turmoil that hobbled growth. "In 2013 our (growth) figure is 8 percent," Michel Lazare, who headed a two-week evaluation mission to the nation, told a news conference in the commercial capital Abidjan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guinea picks global advisers for mining review Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:31 PM PDT By Bate Felix and Saliou Samb CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea has chosen global law firm DLA Piper and three other advisers to help review and, if need be, renegotiate mining contracts signed by previous governments, the head of the review body told Reuters. The review, pledged by President Alpha Conde after he came to power in 2010, will scrutinise contracts with companies such as BHP Billiton, Vale, Rio Tinto, RUSAL and BSGR to ensure the mineral-rich but impoverished West African nation is benefiting sufficiently from deals. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gabon still in talks with China over Belinga mine Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:30 PM PDT By Joe Bavier ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Gabon is still negotiating with its Chinese partner to develop the giant Belinga iron ore deposit, a project key to diversifying the country's oil-reliant economy, but it will likely bring in other miners and could break up the vast concession. Deputy Minister for the Economy Desire Guedon also said economic growth will slip to 7.0 percent this year, from 7.3 percent in 2012, and crude oil output will decline half of 1 percent. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ghana oil output jumps but no plans to loosen policy: C.bank Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:30 PM PDT By Joe Bavier ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ghana - set to upwardly revise its 2012 growth figures on a surge in oil output - will continue to bear down on inflation, acting Central Bank Governor Henry Kofi Wampah said. The country was Africa's fastest-growing economy in 2011 with estimated growth of 14.4 percent as it joined the ranks of the continent's oil producing countries and pumped the first crude from its offshore Jubilee field. ... Full Story | Top |
| Eritrean man gets 9 years in prison for aiding Somalia's al Shabaab Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:29 PM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Eritrean man who admitted to having ties to the al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabaab was sentenced on Wednesday to 9-1/4 years in prison, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan said. Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to provide material support to al Shabaab, and to conspiring to receive military-type training from the group. Ahmed, 38, was arrested in Nigeria in November 2009 and brought to Manhattan federal court to face U.S. terrorism charges in March 2010. He is an Eritrean national and a permanent resident of Sweden. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pockets of resistance still in Central African Republic Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:25 PM PDT  By Ange Aboa BANGUI (Reuters) - Rebel forces and international peacekeepers mopped up pockets of resistance on Wednesday in Central African Republic after a weekend coup but life in the capital was mostly returning to normal after three days of looting. Up to 5,000 rebels swept into the riverside town on Sunday, killing at least 13 South African soldiers in intense fighting and forcing President Francois Bozize to flee in the latest conflict to destabilise the landlocked former French colony. ... Full Story | Top |
| Libya considers aid for Egypt, no decision yet: PM Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:23 PM PDT  DOHA (Reuters) - Libya is considering extending financial aid to Egypt to help its North African neighbour overcome a severe economic crisis, Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zaidan said on Wednesday. Egypt, which has endured more than two years of political instability since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, is struggling with sliding currency reserves, falling tourism and a soaring budget deficit. OPEC-producer Libya is itself rebuilding after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. ... Full Story | Top |
| BRICS 'Big Five' find it hard to run as a herd Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:19 PM PDT  By Pascal Fletcher DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - At a summit in South Africa on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin likened the BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - to Africa's "Big Five" game beasts of trophy hunting lore - the lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros. The Russian president's comparison captures the dilemma of these muscular emerging global powers, which together present a formidable potential economic and political counterweight to the developed West, but individually could hardly be more different. ... Full Story | Top |
| Communal violence kills at least 27 in central Nigeria Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:16 PM PDT JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Clashes between rival ethnic groups in central Nigeria killed at least 27 people on Wednesday, witnesses said, in a region straddling the country's largely Christian south and mostly Muslim north that is prone to civil unrest. Witnesses said armed Fulani herdsmen attacked the villages of Da Jak and Attakar in Plateau state in the early hours, spraying residents with automatic gunfire and torching houses. "They came at night and overran the village. They were shooting people, just murdering, and burned down the houses," villager Dung Sati told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigerian agencies seek $11.5 billion oil spill payout from Shell Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:15 PM PDT  ABUJA (Reuters) - Two Nigerian government agencies told a parliamentary hearing on Thursday that Royal Dutch Shell should pay a total of $11.5 billion in compensation for damage caused by an oil spill at its offshore Bonga field in December 2011. Shell has said that there is no legal basis for the proposed fines and the Nigerian government has never publicly charged foreign oil companies large sums for oil spills. The national assembly can recommend fines the government should impose on oil companies but it has no power to enforce them. ... Full Story | Top |
| Democratic hopes dashed for Hong Kong 2017 election Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:11 PM PDT  HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hopes that Hong Kong's 2017 election will be genuinely democratic have been dashed after a senior Chinese leader said, regardless of the vote, Beijing will have the final say on who is appointed Hong Kong's next leader. Qiao Xiaoyang, chairman of the law committee of the National People's Congress, said China will not allow someone who "confronts" Beijing to become Hong Kong's leader. "First, the nomination committee will decide. Then voters in Hong Kong will decide. ... Full Story | Top |
| Small businesses spell big problems for Italy and Spain Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:10 PM PDT  By Silvia Aloisi and Sarah White MILAN/MADRID (Reuters) - Small companies struggling to repay loans in Italy and Spain signal bigger problems on the horizon for the euro zone after the dust has settled on Cyprus's last-ditch bailout this week. Defaults by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), easily the biggest employers in Spain and Italy, are rising at a worrying clip, spelling trouble for the banks and two countries at the heart of Europe's debt crisis. ... Full Story | Top |
| ANALYSIS: After pact, much still divides the Sudans Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 11:10 PM PDT  By Hereward Holland JAU, South Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudan's deal to sell oil to Swiss-based trader Trafigura, made public on Wednesday, shows how new detente with Sudan may revive trade, but much can yet derail a pact meant to stifle hostility along their disputed border. Landlocked South Sudan, independent since 2011 after decades of civil war, is to resume oil exports it shut off 14 months ago in a dispute over transit fees with Sudan's government in Khartoum. The Trafigura deal , to pump crude to Sudan's Red Sea terminal at Port Sudan, is a mark of its intent. ... Full Story | Top |
| Employment, home prices improve for major U.S. metros: Brookings Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 09:09 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment improved and housing prices rose in most major U.S. metropolitan areas in the final quarter of 2012, but output sputtered, according to a report released on Thursday by the Brookings Institution. The study found that among the 100 largest areas, 78 posted job gains during the fourth quarter, while job growth rates accelerated in 57 metropolitan areas. Still, employment levels returned to where they were before the 2007-2009 recession in only 14 metropolitan areas. Six of those areas were in Texas: Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, McAllen and San Antonio. ... Full Story | Top |
| George Zimmerman's brother says Twitter rant a "mistake" Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 08:25 PM PDT By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - The brother of George Zimmerman, the man charged in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, said on Wednesday he was wrong to tweet a series of racially charged comments about his brother's case. "I made a mistake," Robert Zimmerman Jr. said during an appearance on CNN's Piers Morgan Live. "It unfortunately may not have helped George." George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder for killing Martin, who was 17, after an altercation in a residential neighborhood in Sanford, Florida. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea to cut all channels with South Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 08:14 PM PDT  SEOUL (Reuters) - Reclusive North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with the South because war could break out at "any moment", it said on Wednesday, days of after warning the United States and South Korea of nuclear attack. The move is the latest in a series of bellicose threats from North Korea in response to new U.N. sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test in February and to "hostile" military drills under way joining the United States and South Korea. The North has already stopped responding to calls on the hotline to the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Despite threats, North Korea keeps border factories open Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 08:13 PM PDT  By Ju-min Park PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - A heavily armed border crossing between North and South Korea that allows the North access to $2 billion in trade a year, one of its few avenues to foreign currency, remained open on Thursday despite Pyongyang's move to cut communications. North Korea on Wednesday severed the last of three telephone hotlines with South Korea as it readied its troops to face what it believes to be "hostile" action from Seoul and Washington. ... Full Story | Top |
| Boston Mayor Menino will not seek sixth term: Boston Globe Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 07:48 PM PDT  BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston Mayor Tom Menino, a Democrat who has run the city for almost two decades, will not seek a sixth term, the Boston Globe reported on its website Wednesday night. Menino will announce his decision at a Thursday afternoon news conference, the newspaper said. Staff at the mayor's office could not be reached for immediate comment. The 70-year-old mayor was hospitalized for a month last year for a virus and back pain that cut short an Italian vacation. ... Full Story | Top |
| JP Morgan names Guyett, Priestley as new regional CEOs in Asia Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 07:48 PM PDT  (Reuters) - JP Morgan Chase & Co has named Greg Guyett and Rob Priestley as its new chief executives for the Greater China and ASEAN regions, respectively, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters on Thursday. These appointments follow a global restructuring of JP Morgan that began last summer, which saw the firm combine its corporate and investment banking operations into a single unit. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nations close to deal on U.N. arms trade treaty: envoys Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 07:39 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations members on Wednesday were close to a deal on the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, though delegates and rights groups said India, Iran or others could still block agreement. Arms control campaigners and human rights groups say one person dies every minute worldwide as a result of armed violence and a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses. ... Full Story | Top |
| Florida officials push for answers at boys' school graveyard Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 07:19 PM PDT By Bill Cotterell MARIANNA, Florida (Reuters) - Florida officials said on Wednesday they will seek federal money for a forensic investigation into unmarked graves on the grounds of a shuttered state reform school for boys that has been the target of numerous allegations of abuse and mysterious deaths of children. Dozens of unmarked graves have been uncovered at the Dozier School in the Florida Panhandle city of Marianna and investigators are trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths, which experts say probably occurred between 1914 and 1952. ... Full Story | Top |
| Documents show Arizona gunman's father had taken away his shotgun Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 07:02 PM PDT  By Brad Poole TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - The father of the man who wounded former U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in a 2011 mass shooting told police that before the rampage he had taken a shotgun from his mentally disturbed son and locked it in the trunk of a car, investigators said in documents released on Wednesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senate candidates in Massachusetts spar on abortion, gay marriage Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 06:21 PM PDT By Scott Malone NEEDHAM, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The five candidates running for Massachusetts' open seat in the Senate sparred on social issues on Wednesday, staking out opposing views on abortion and gay marriage in the first debate to feature candidates from both parties. But even those who took more conservative stances tried to draw a line between their personal beliefs and existing laws, in a nod to the liberal views of many of the New England state's voters. On the Republican side, former Boston U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Portugal government says no risk Cyprus deal can be template Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 06:19 PM PDT LISBON (Reuters) - The Portuguese government ruled out any chance of a tax on bank deposits under a bailout for Cyprus being used as a template for other euro zone states, and said its own depositors remain confident in Portuguese banks. "The Cyprus case in unique. There is no risk whatsoever, and this has been said by more than one European official, no risk that this solution may be generalized," Luis Marques Guedes, state secretary for cabinet matters, told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tensions in Cyprus over bailout underscore pitfalls ahead Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 06:19 PM PDT By Michele Kambas and Laura Noonan NICOSIA (Reuters) - The ink is barely dry on a deal struck in Brussels to save Cyprus from bankruptcy, but rising tension between the island's conservative president and the Communist-appointed governor of the central bank foreshadow difficulties ahead. Thinly veiled disdain for governor Panicos Demetriades expressed by officials close to President Nicos Anastasiades has reinforced the perception of a Cypriot leadership reeling under the backlash against an unpopular, last-minute accord hammered out in fraught negotiations in Brussels. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cyprus to cap cash withdrawals, scrutinise transactions Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 06:19 PM PDT NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus will limit the use of cheques to businesses, cap cash withdrawals to 300 euros per day and scrutinise all commercial transactions over 5,000 euros when banks reopen on Thursday, a Central Bank official said. Yiangos Demetriou, head of internal audit at the Central Bank, said the controls would allow unlimited use of credit cards within Cyprus, but set a limit of 5,000 euros ($6,400) per month abroad. He said the measures would remain in place for four days, contradicting an earlier report by the Athens newspaper Kathimerini that the controls would last seven days. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cypriot banks to reopen at 6:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday: central bank Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 06:19 PM PDT NICOSIA (Reuters) - Banks in Cyprus will reopen at midday (6:00 a.m. EDT) on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the island's Central Bank said, 10 days after they closed their doors to avert a run on deposits. The spokeswoman said banks would open their doors between midday and 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). The Cypriot authorities are expected later on Wednesday to detail the capital controls they plan to impose to prevent a flight of funds. (Reporting by Michele Kambas; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Giles Elgood) Full Story | Top |
| Former Chilean leader Bachelet seeking presidential comeback Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 06:01 PM PDT  By Alexandra Ulmer SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet ended months of speculation late on Wednesday by announcing she will run in a November presidential election that she is favored to win. A popular center-leftist who ruled the copper-exporting nation from 2006 to 2010, Bachelet will likely face a candidate from the right-wing bloc of President Sebastian Pinera, who is barred from seeking a consecutive term under the constitution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Banks seek to expand presence in Canada, Flaherty says Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 05:48 PM PDT  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Banks are lining up to expand their presence in Canada, and the government welcomes this as a way of fostering competition, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Wednesday. "Banks that have already established themselves in Canada as something less than the chartered bank level seek to move up the chain," Flaherty told reporters in Ottawa by telephone from Thailand, where he is promoting Canadian financial institutions. "We are interested in expanding the availability of bank products in Canada, and there are a number of pending applications. ... Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment