| | |
| Sudan's president to announce government, constitution shake-up Monday, Jan 27, 2014 10:42 PM PST  Sudan's president will announce plans on Monday to redraw the constitution and bring opposition parties into government, a senior member of his party said, in a bid to shake-up a country beset by rebellions, protests and an economic crisis. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has had to wrestle with a sharp drop in oil revenues, the main source of government income, and rising inflation after losing the bulk of his active oilfields following the secession of South Sudan in 2012. Security forces responded swiftly, killing more than 200 protesters, opposition groups said. The government said 34 people died. Full Story | Top |
| Pirates kidnap two near Nigerian facility run by Eni-sources Monday, Jan 27, 2014 10:41 PM PST Pirates attacked a tugboat near the Brass River crude oil export terminal in Nigeria, kidnapping the ship's captain and an engineer, two security sources said. The Italian oil company Eni operates the terminal. Attacks by armed gangs are common along the winding creeks of the Niger Delta, home to Africa's biggest oil industry. Gunmen who were about seven in number ... boarded it", a Nigerian state security source said of Saturday's attack. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill at least 62 in Nigeria, including in church Monday, Jan 27, 2014 10:40 PM PST  By Imma Ande YOLA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected insurgents armed with guns and explosives killed at least 62 people in northeast Nigeria, including at a church service, in a region where Islamist sect Boko Haram is resisting a military crackdown, witnesses said on Monday. They killed 22 people by setting off bombs and firing into the congregation in the Catholic church in Waga Chakawa village in Adamawa state on Sunday, before burning houses and taking residents hostage during a four-hour siege, witnesses said. President Goodluck Jonathan is struggling to contain Boko Haram in remote rural regions in the country's northeast corner, where the sect launched an uprising in 2009. Boko Haram, which wants to impose sharia law on a country split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims, has killed thousands over the past four and a half years and is considered the biggest security risk in Africa's top oil exporter and second largest economy after South Africa. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. securities class-action suits rise, big Supreme Court case looms Monday, Jan 27, 2014 09:10 PM PST  Investors are pursuing more lawsuits accusing companies of fraud, according to a new study, but filings may plunge if the U.S. Supreme Court decides soon to remake the legal landscape. Plaintiffs filed 166 federal securities lawsuits seeking class-action status in 2013, up 9 percent from 152 in 2012, according to data released Tuesday by Cornerstone Research and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse. The Supreme Court, in a case involving Halliburton Co to be argued on March 5, could accelerate that decline as it reexamines a 1988 precedent that made it easier to pursue class actions against companies. A narrowing or overruling of Basic could have "seismic" implications, said Joseph Grundfest, a Stanford law professor who works with Cornerstone and a former commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in an interview. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. urges Ukraine president not to declare state of emergency Monday, Jan 27, 2014 06:41 PM PST U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich on Monday to urge the government not to declare a state of emergency and work with the opposition to bring a peaceful end to unrest. "Underscoring that no time should be lost, the vice president urged President Yanukovich to pull back riot police and work with the opposition on immediate measures to de-escalate tensions between protesters and the government." (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton; Full Story | Top |
| Brutal cold shuts schools, delays travel in U.S. Midwest Monday, Jan 27, 2014 06:21 PM PST  By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bitter cold and high winds from the arctic pushed wind chills to dangerous levels across the U.S. upper Midwest on Monday, forcing officials to close schools and slowing public transit and river traffic. A winter storm system is forecast to move through the U.S. South on Tuesday, bringing snow, freezing rain and high winds as bitter cold temperatures continue in the Midwest, according to the National Weather Service. Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and other parts of the upper Midwest are forecast to have a second consecutive day of subzero highs on Tuesday, while most of the Northeast will see highs in the single digits and teens on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Accuweather.com. National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Krein blamed the weather on a surge of arctic high pressure out of Canada that has spread over the upper Midwest and central plains. Full Story | Top |
| Talks on Iran nuclear deal expected in NY in February: U.S. Monday, Jan 27, 2014 03:18 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau and Justyna Pawlak UNITED NATIONS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - - The opening round of talks between Iran and six world powers on a long-term deal for Tehran to curb parts of its nuclear program in exchange for a gradual end to sanctions is expected to take place next month in New York, a U.S. official said on Monday. "It is our understanding that the first round of comprehensive negotiations will be in New York in mid-February with dates still being confirmed," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in an email. "New York - agreed to by EU High Representative (Catherine) Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister (Mohammad Javad) Zarif - has a similar support infrastructure to Geneva," Harf said. "We believe that United Nations and international support is important for work on a comprehensive agreement." A senior Western diplomat told Reuters that the six powers were looking at the early part of the week of February 16, though the talks were unlikely to begin before February 18 due to a U.S. holiday. Full Story | Top |
| Cosmonauts make repeat spacewalk for Canadian video venture Monday, Jan 27, 2014 03:01 PM PST By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of Russian cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station on Monday in a second attempt to set up cameras for a Canadian space video venture. Station commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy initially installed a telescope video camera and a medium-resolution still imager for Vancouver-based UrtheCast Corp during a December 27 spacewalk. However, cabling issues prevented ground control teams from verifying if the imagers were receiving power, so Kotov and Ryazanskiy brought both back inside the station so ground control teams could try to resolve the problem. Full Story | Top |
| Teenage polar explorer on quest to raise climate change awareness Monday, Jan 27, 2014 02:40 PM PST By Marina Lopes NEW YORK (Reuters) - Parker Liautaud, the teenage polar explorer who set the record last year as the fastest unsupported person to trek to the South Pole, said he set off on the 314-mile trip from the coast of Antarctica to draw attention to climate change. The 19-year-old California native broke the previous record held by Norwegian explorers Ottar Haldorsen and Jacob Meland by almost four days when he reached the South Pole on Christmas Eve after 18 days, four hours and 43 minutes. On the return trip Liautaud bored into the hostile terrain and took 6.5-foot-deep (2 meter) samples that he hopes will help scientists answer questions about global warming. Researchers at GNS Science, a New Zealand research institute, are analyzing the samples for changes in composition that could shed light on the pace of climate change in the region. Full Story | Top |
| TSX nears three-week low on emerging market fears Monday, Jan 27, 2014 01:51 PM PST  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index dropped on Monday to its lowest in almost three weeks, hit by a selloff in emerging market equities that was triggered by concerns about Chinese economic growth and the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus program. Data out of China has shown signs of weakness in the world's second-biggest economy and weighed on global equities. Investors also eyed the U.S. Federal Reserve ahead of a policy meeting this week to decide whether the central bank will further scale back its stimulus measures. The Toronto market traded in the red for a third straight day, following its biggest single-day drop in seven months in the previous session, and turned negative for the year. Full Story | Top |
| Helicopter crashes during Colorado power line inspection, three dead Monday, Jan 27, 2014 01:38 PM PST (Reuters) - A helicopter being used to inspect power lines in rural Colorado hooked one of the wires and crashed on Monday, killing all three people on board, law enforcement officials said. The helicopter went down shortly after 11 a.m. near the ranching community of Silt, about 17 miles west of Glenwood Springs in western Colorado, Garfield County Sheriff's spokesman Walter Stowe said. Full Story | Top |
| NASA puts out call for commercial lunar landers Monday, Jan 27, 2014 01:31 PM PST  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Under a new program called Lunar Catalyst, U.S. space agency NASA will provide free technical expertise, equipment, facilities and software to help selected companies develop lunar landers, officials said on Monday. "The intent of this initiative is to stimulate and help commercialization," Jason Crusan, who oversees NASA's advanced exploration programs, said during a conference call with prospective bidders on Monday. Development of commercial lunar landers would join a growing list of space transportation services that have attracted interest from U.S. companies, including Boeing Co and Alliant Techsystems Inc. NASA already has turned over cargo deliveries to the International Space Station to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Orbital Sciences Corp. The companies hold NASA flight services contracts worth a combined $3.5 billion. NASA wants a balanced approach in which its contributions will help accelerate the development of industry projects, Crusan said during a follow-on conference call with reporters. Full Story | Top |
| Sudan's president urges armed groups, parties to talk Monday, Jan 27, 2014 12:55 PM PST  Sudan's president called on armed groups and all political parties on Monday to meet and discuss ways of improving the country, but stopped short of promising a constitutional overhaul that was forecast by a senior member of his party. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has had to wrestle with a sharp drop in oil revenues, the main source of government income, and rising inflation after losing the bulk of his active oilfields following the secession of South Sudan in 2012. Rabie Abdelati, a senior member of Bashir's ruling National Congress Party earlier said Bashir would use a live television address on Monday to call for opposition groups to help redraw the constitution and join the government. Full Story | Top |
| Nasdaq cancels trades in erroneous transactions Monday, Jan 27, 2014 12:41 PM PST  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nasdaq MarketWatch said on Monday it was cancelling some trades in 11 securities that occurred within the first minute of trading on Monday. Some of the companies impacted by the move include Black Box Corp , Haynes International Inc , First of Long Island Corp , SP Plus Corp , WesBanco Inc and German American Bancorp . The canceled trades had price movements of 10 percent or more from the previous session's close. The transactions occurred during the first minute of trading, between 9:30 a.m. and 9:31 a.m. EST (1430-1431 GMT), the exchange said in an alert. ... Full Story | Top |
| SAC's Cohen wins partial dismissal of ex-wife's fraud lawsuit Monday, Jan 27, 2014 10:54 AM PST  By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steven A. Cohen's ex-wife, who accused the billionaire hedge fund founder of hiding $5.5 million during their 1990 divorce, can pursue fraud claims against him but cannot go after him for racketeering, a federal judge ruled on Monday. U.S. District William Pauley in New York dismissed civil racketeering claims against Steven Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital Advisors, but said Patricia Cohen's claims of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty would go forward. In doing so, Pauley noted each side's "seemingly inexhaustible legal resources" as one of the unusual circumstances that have transformed what would otherwise be a mundane marital dispute into a years-long litigation battle. The legal fight, which began with Patricia Cohen's request for increased child support in 1991, has lasted more than twice as long as the marriage, the judge noted. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment