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| China signs deals with Ethiopia as premier starts Africa tour Monday, May 05, 2014 12:31 AM PDT  By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - China signed a raft of agreements with Ethiopia on Sunday as Premier Li Keqiang arrived for the first leg of his four-nation Africa tour aimed at shoring up burgeoning Sino-Africa ties that saw their trade top $200 billion last year. This is Li's first visit to Africa since he became premier last year, and follows a trip to the continent by President Xi Jinping in March 2013, when he renewed an offer of $20 billion in loans to Africa between 2013 and 2015. Africans broadly see China as a healthy counterbalance to Western influence but there are growing calls from policymakers and economists for more balanced trade relations. In Ethiopia, Chinese firms have invested heavily in recent years with their worth swelling well over $1 billion in 2014, according to official figures. Full Story | Top |
| Etisalat to sell W.African units to Maroc Telecom for $650 mln Monday, May 05, 2014 12:22 AM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - Etisalat has agreed to sell its operations in several West African countries to Maroc Telecom for $650 million, the United Arab Emirates operator said in a statement on Monday. Maroc Telecom will buy Atlantique Telecom, Etisalat's wholly-owned West African subsidiary, which has mobile operations in Benin, Central African Republic, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Niger and Togo. "The total consideration in return for Etisalat's equity in and receivables, including shareholder loans, from these seven companies amounts to $650 million," Etisalat said in the statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's rand near 3-week high vs dollar, jobs data due Monday, May 05, 2014 12:20 AM PDT  South Africa's currency strengthened to 10.4500 to the dollar at 0630 GMT, 0.24 percent firmer than its close in New York on Friday. "Emerging markets seem to have been the beneficiaries of improving global investor sentiment and the escalating violence in the Ukraine pushing a reallocation of new offshore inflows to the local economy," Rand Merchant Bank's Thando Vokwana said in a note to clients. The dollar was under some pressure from a U.S. jobs report on Friday that showed an increasing number of Americans have stopped looking for jobs. South Africa will release its own employment data at 0930 GMT, where expectations are for an increase in the jobless rate to 24.6 percent in the first quarter. Full Story | Top |
| Two migrants drown, 30 missing after boats capsize off Greek island Monday, May 05, 2014 12:17 AM PDT Two migrants drowned and about 30 were missing after their boats capsized off the eastern Greek island of Samos early on Monday in seas where hundreds have died attempting the crossing this year alone, the Greek coast guard said. Thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East pack into often unsafe boats to get into the European Union via Greece, Italy, Malta and other coastal states. Two vessels carrying about 68 migrants capsized about four nautical miles off Samos in the eastern Aegean Sea, close to the Turkish coast, a coast guard official said. "Two drowned bodies were found and 36 migrants have been rescued ... About 30 are missing," the official told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Nokia invests $100 million in car connectivity Monday, May 05, 2014 12:16 AM PDT  HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish mobile communications equipment maker Nokia on Monday said it had started a $100 million fund to invest in companies working on connecting cars. The fund will be run by the company's venture capital arm Nokia Growth Partners and will cooperate with Nokia's location unit HERE, it said. "Our new $100 million venture fund launched today further underlines our belief that the connected car is a significant growth opportunity," Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said in a statement. (Reporting by Sakari Suoninen; Editing by Jussi Rosendahl) Full Story | Top |
| Panama leader's deputy-turned-rival wins presidency Sunday, May 04, 2014 11:46 PM PDT  By Christine Murray and Elida Moreno PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's vice-president, running as an opposition candidate, won the presidential election on Sunday after a campaign in which he took credit for outgoing leader Ricardo Martinelli's successful economic policies while promising a cleaner government. Juan Carlos Varela of the center-right Panamenista Party (PP) helped Martinelli get elected as president in 2009 but later fell out with him. Varela had 39 percent support with about 80 percent of votes counted, enough for a comfortable victory over his two main rivals, Jose Domingo Arias or the ruling Democratic Change party (CD) and left-leaning former Panama City mayor Juan Carlos Navarro of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). There will be an honest, humane government of national unity, a government of social peace," Varela told Reuters at a Panama City hotel after the election tribunal declared him the winner. Full Story | Top |
| Shares stumble over China PMI, bonds in demand Sunday, May 04, 2014 11:27 PM PDT  By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian share markets took a turn lower on Monday after a survey of Chinese manufacturing disappointed, while the simmering conflict in Ukraine kept gold and sovereign bonds well bid. Early gains evaporated when HSBC's final reading of its April PMI for manufacturers in China eased back to 48.1 from a preliminary reading of 48.3. At least China's services industry fared better, according to a separate official PMI released on Saturday. Australia's market reversed course to end flat , while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.26 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Governments pledge won't give up search for Malaysia Airlines jet Sunday, May 04, 2014 11:12 PM PDT  By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - Government officials from Australia, China and Malaysia pledged on Monday not to give up searching for a Malaysia Airlines jetliner that disappeared almost two months ago, despite lingering questions about how to proceed and who will pay. No trace of Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished on a scheduled service from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, despite the most intensive search in commercial aviation history. But after weeks of scouring millions of square kilometers without finding any sign of debris, Australian authorities have called off the air and surface search. Financial responsibility is a major focus of the talks and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss seemed to open the door to Boeing, which produced the 777-200ER jet, and engine maker Rolls Royce, to contribute financially. Full Story | Top |
| Novartis says Signifor LAR drug helps control acromegaly disease Sunday, May 04, 2014 10:47 PM PDT  ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis said on Monday a final-stage trial of its Signifor LAR therapy allowed for greater disease control in patients with the endocrine disorder acromegaly than existing therapies. Acromegaly is caused by a benign tumor in the pituitary gland that secretes excess growth hormone, and can lead to the enlargement of body parts, including the hands, feet and facial features. Worldwide regulatory filings for pasireotide LAR in acromegaly are currently underway based on these results, Novartis said. (Reporting by Alice Baghdjian) Full Story | Top |
| Nine badly hurt in U.S. circus 'hair hang' accident Sunday, May 04, 2014 10:22 PM PDT  By Victoria Cavaliere NEW YORK (Reuters) - A mid-air circus apparatus with acrobats suspended from it collapsed on Sunday during a performance in Rhode Island, injuring up to 20 people, nine seriously, and shocking a packed house of spectators. The all-female team with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus crashed up to 40 feet to the floor when the rig tethering them by the hair gave way at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence. Full Story | Top |
| China's 'ordinary' billionaire behind grand Nicaragua canal plan Sunday, May 04, 2014 10:03 PM PDT  By Matthew Miller BEIJING (Reuters) - Wang Jing, the enigmatic businessman behind Nicaragua's $50 billion Interoceanic Grand Canal, shrugs off skepticism about how a little-known entrepreneur can be driving a huge transcontinental project, insisting he's not an agent of the Beijing government. "You believe there are people from the Chinese government in the background providing support. Why, in the end, is only Wang Jing out front?" High-ranking Chinese officials including President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and former leaders Jiang Zemin and Wen Jiabao have all visited the state-connected wireless communication technologies company Wang took control of four years ago. Wang, whose entrepreneurism went mostly unnoticed in China and elsewhere before last year's Nicaragua announcement and a subsequent $3 billion Black Sea port development plan, has not helped matters by refusing to talk in detail about himself or broad swathes of his career. Full Story | Top |
| China gives 10-year sentence to leaker of military secrets Sunday, May 04, 2014 09:35 PM PDT China has handed a ten-year prison term to an individual who leaked secret military documents and photographs to a foreign spy, state media reported on Monday, without naming the country involved. China is working to strengthen its internet security after revelations that the U.S. government spied on a top Chinese telecommunications firm. The individual, surnamed Li, was approached by a foreign intelligence agent via a popular social media platform, state media said. Li leaked 13 highly classified documents, the official China Daily reported, which featured in the second highest tier in the country's three-tiered system for ranking military secrets. Full Story | Top |
| Death toll lowered to 17 in road accident in southwest Haiti Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:46 PM PDT By Amelie Baron MIAMI (Reuters) - Authorities in southwest Haiti have revised the death toll from a road accident on Saturday saying that 17 people were killed and another 17 were injured. The mayor of the city of Jeremie, Ronald Etienne, told Reuters on Saturday that 23 people had died and 17 had been injured when a truck carrying passengers overturned on the main highway. A government civil protection official, Silvera Guillaume, said the initial death toll had been misreported by officials due to confusion after the accident as dead and injured were being transported to hospitals and a local morgue. Haiti's rural road infrastructure is in poor shape though foreign assistance after the 2010 earthquake has led to improvements on the national two-lane highway in the southwest. Full Story | Top |
| Hon Hai in talks to buy 22 percent of Asia Pacific Telecom: report Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:40 PM PDT  By Michael Gold TAIPEI (Reuters) - Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, which makes iPhones for Apple Inc, is in talks to buy 22 percent of compatriot mobile network provider Asia Pacific Telecom Co Ltd, local media reported citing unidentified sources. The deal will be worth T$11 billion to T$14 billion ($464.48 million) and represent all Asia Pacific Telecom stock held by government-owned enterprises, the Commercial Times reported on Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Two Chinese sailors die, six missing after boat sinks in Pacific Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:30 PM PDT (Reuters) - Two Chinese sailors died and six are missing after their boat caught fire and sank in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Air Force said on Sunday. The boat sank on Friday and the survivors were picked up by a Venezuelan fishing boat. Seven sailors were in good condition, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona said on its website. Two of the Chinese sailors died of burns and two were critically burned, it said. Full Story | Top |
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