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| Two quakes strike near zinc mine in Alaska: USGS Friday, Apr 18, 2014 12:34 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two earthquakes, a magnitude 5.5 and a magnitude 5.4, struck near the Red Dog Operations zinc-lead mine in remote northwest Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It said the quakes, which struck minutes apart, were centered just a few miles (km) southeast of Red Dog Mine, the world's largest producer of zinc, which is operated by Canadian mining company Teck Resources. The quake was extremely shallow, the USGS said. (Reporting by Sandra Maler; Editing by Eric Walsh) nL2N0NA0OS Full Story | Top |
| Italy PM Renzi cuts taxes for 10 million low earners Friday, Apr 18, 2014 12:34 PM PDT  By Steve Scherer and Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Friday cut taxes for 10 million low earners to try to boost household spending after a two-year recession, making good on a promise he made after taking office two months ago. Renzi's cabinet passed a decree to reduce taxes for those earning between 8,000 and 26,000 euros a year by about 80 euros per month, starting next month. The 6.9 billion euros in tax cuts will be funded by a mix of spending reductions, one-off windfalls and a "review" of spending on Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet, Renzi told reporters. Italy is still struggling to recover from a recession that drove youth unemployment to over 40 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Biogen prices hemophilia drug on par with older therapies Friday, Apr 18, 2014 12:04 PM PDT  Biogen Idec Inc is pricing its newly approved long-acting hemophilia drug, Alprolix, to cost U.S. patients, and insurers, about the same per year as older, less convenient therapies whose price can reach about $300,000 annually. The move could pressure rivals such as Pfizer Inc to lower prices for existing hemophilia treatments, which provide patients with life-saving infusions of a blood clotting agent, according to doctors and industry analysts. Biogen last month won U.S. and Canadian approval for Alprolix to treat hemophilia B, the more rare form of the condition that affects about 4,000 people in the United States and about 25,000 worldwide. "We think we have priced (Alprolix) to create parity with existing therapies on an annual cost of therapy basis," Tony Kingsley, Biogen's head of global commercial operations, told Reuters in a telephone interview. Full Story | Top |
| Italy gives wife, daughter, of wanted Kazakh banker refugee status Friday, Apr 18, 2014 11:48 AM PDT The wife and daughter of a Kazakh tycoon who is wanted in three countries for alleged fraud have been granted refugee status in Italy, their lawyer said on Friday. Lawyer Anton Giulio Lana said in statement that an interior ministry committee had granted Alma Shalabayeva and daughter Alua a five-year, renewable permit of stay. Shalabayeva is the wife of oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, a political adversary of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev who has ruled for more than two decades and tolerates no dissent. Kazakhstan wants the return of Ablyazov from France, where he is currently being held, although on April 9, a French appeals court blocked his extradition from France to Ukraine or Russia, overturning a lower court ruling. Full Story | Top |
| Brazilian tycoon Batista investigated for financial crimes: reports Friday, Apr 18, 2014 11:20 AM PDT  Brazil´s federal police have opened an investigation into former billionaire Eike Batista for financial crimes, including insider trading, manipulation of markets and money laundering, Brazilian media reported on Friday. If the police probe leads to criminal charges against Batista, it would be yet another major blow for a businessman once hailed as Brazil's model entrepreneur and symbol of its economic success. Batista´s EBX oil, mining and logistics empire, which two years ago was valued at $60 billion, collapsed last year in a mountain of debt and massive filings for bankruptcy protection. A week ago, Brazil's securities commission, CVM, announced that Batista was under investigation for insider trading as chairman of his now-bankrupt oil-producing company Óleo and Gás Participações SA , formerly known as OGX, and its sister company, shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA . Full Story | Top |
| Trade deal eluding U.S., Japan, senior U.S. official says Friday, Apr 18, 2014 11:14 AM PDT U.S. and Japanese trade negotiators have been unable to reach a deal to open Japan's markets more widely to imports ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to Japan, a senior U.S. administration official said on Friday. Momentum behind the talks need not stall because negotiators have not struck a deal ahead of Obama's visit to Japan, the official said. Full Story | Top |
| Japan says trade talks with U.S. to resume on Monday, gaps remain Friday, Apr 18, 2014 11:14 AM PDT  By Krista Hughes and Kaori Kaneko WASHINGTON/TOKYO (Reuters) - Talks between the United States and Japan seen as vital to a broader regional trade pact are making progress and will resume again on Monday, Japan's economy minister said on Friday, as negotiators struggle to narrow gaps ahead of a summit between the countries' leaders. The TPP is central to U.S. President Barack Obama's policy of expanding America's presence in Asia. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for his part, has touted the TPP as a main element of his strategy to reform the world's third largest economy and generate sustainable growth. "We still have big differences," Japan's Economy Minister Akira Amari told reporters in Washington after another round of talks with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, according to Kyodo news agency. Full Story | Top |
| East Ukraine separatists stay put despite diplomatic deal Friday, Apr 18, 2014 11:07 AM PDT  By Pavel Polityuk and Thomas Grove KIEV/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Armed pro-Russian separatists were still holding public buildings in eastern Ukraine on Friday, saying they needed more assurances about their security before they comply with an international deal ordering them to disarm. The agreement, brokered by the United States, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union in Geneva on Thursday offered the best hope to date of defusing a stand-off in Ukraine that has dragged East-West relations to their lowest level since the Cold War. Enacting the agreement on the ground though will be difficult, because of the deep mistrust between the pro-Russian groups and the Western-backed government in Kiev, which this week flared into violent clashes that killed several people. Full Story | Top |
| Erdogan challenges social media in top Turkish court Friday, Apr 18, 2014 10:50 AM PDT  By Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan applied to Turkey's constitutional court on Friday to challenge the alleged violation of his and his family's rights by social media, a senior official in his office told Reuters. Erdogan's government blocked Twitter and YouTube in March, drawing international condemnation, after audio recordings, purportedly showing corruption in his inner circle, were leaked on their sites. The Twitter block was lifted earlier this month after the constitutional court ruled that it breached freedom of expression, a decision Erdogan has since said was wrong and should be overturned. YouTube remains blocked in Turkey. Full Story | Top |
| Telus in new agreement to buy Canadian startup Mobilicity Friday, Apr 18, 2014 10:44 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Telus Corp , one of Canada's dominant telecom providers, has reached a new agreement to acquire struggling wireless startup Mobilicity, in a renewed bid to overcome government objections on competition grounds. Mobilicity said late Thursday that it agreed to be acquired by Telus for C$350 million and that a court-appointed monitor has recommended the transaction. The government last year twice blocked attempts by Telus to buy Mobilicity on grounds the acquisition would create undue concentration of ownership of wireless spectrum. Under a deal blocked in June, Telus would have paid C$380 million. Full Story | Top |
| Amazon's tax-free European profits drop after IRS clamp-down Friday, Apr 18, 2014 10:06 AM PDT  By Tom Bergin LONDON (Reuters) - The amount of money Amazon.com Inc reports through a tax-exempt vehicle in Europe has dropped sharply in the past two years, even as European sales jumped, after the U.S. tax authority tightened rules it felt were being abused to shift profits. Amazon minimizes its tax bill by having the U.S. unit which owns its technology licenses lease the rights to re-license the technology to a tax-exempt partnership based in Luxembourg. The Group of 20 leading economies has vowed to crack down on corporate tax avoidance and the practice of shifting profits into low or no tax jurisdictions. Amazon has been a frequent subject of politicians' criticism in Europe over the way it channels all European revenues to Luxembourg where profits can be earned tax free. Full Story | Top |
| NASA robotic spacecraft ends mission with crash into the moon Friday, Apr 18, 2014 10:02 AM PDT By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A robotic U.S. spacecraft ended a pioneering mission to map dust and gases around the moon with a planned, kamikaze crash into the lunar surface early on Friday, NASA officials said. The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, had been flying at increasingly lower altitudes to study how dust is lifted off the lunar surface and what gases comprise the moon's so-called exosphere - the region of space surrounding the airless moon. NASA officials had planned to crash the spacecraft into the moon, after it transmitted its final batch of data. Before hitting the lunar surface, LADEE was traveling at 3,600 mph, three times faster than a high-powered rifle bullet, so the spacecraft not only broke apart upon impact, but pieces of it likely vaporized. Full Story | Top |
| Mega salaries are evil, papal preacher tells Good Friday service Friday, Apr 18, 2014 10:01 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican's official preacher, at a Good Friday service attended by Pope Francis, said huge salaries and the world financial crisis were modern evils caused by the "cursed hunger for gold". Father Raniero Cantalamessa, whose title is "preacher of pontifical household," weaved his sermon around the character of Judas Iscariot, who the Bible says betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. "Is it not also a scandal that some people earn salaries and collect pensions that are sometimes 100 times higher than those of the people who work for them and that they raise their voices to object when a proposal is put forward to reduce their salary for the sake of greater social justice?" he said. Francis, who has made caring for the poor a central theme of his pontificate, said in December that huge salaries and bonuses were symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality. Full Story | Top |
| Auto airbag maker Continental named in GM recall suit Friday, Apr 18, 2014 09:50 AM PDT  Plaintiffs' lawyers are seeking to draw Continental Automotive Systems U.S., the maker of airbag systems in recalled General Motors Co vehicles, into litigation over an ignition-switch defect that has been linked to 13 deaths. A lawsuit filed on Wednesday in federal court in California is the first to name Continental, a subsidiary of German automotive supplier Continental AG , in a growing wave of litigation over GM's recall, which has so far encompassed 2.6 million vehicles. Continental made airbag systems for the recalled cars, including sensors that determine if and when the airbags go off in an accident, according to the suit. The case is among dozens of proposed class actions that have been filed by customers accusing GM of concealing its knowledge of the defect for more than a decade, putting plaintiffs at risk of injury and causing them to suffer economic losses on their cars, including lower resale value. Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Algeria's Bouteflika, aging independence veteran, wins re-election Friday, Apr 18, 2014 09:41 AM PDT Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has won re-election for another five-year term with an officially tabulated 81.53 percent of the vote, despite suffering a stroke last year. He is seen by supporters as a symbol of stability after he helped to lead Algeria out of a civil war that lasted more than a decade. * Born on March 2, 1937, Bouteflika is a veteran of Algeria's war for independence from France. * Bouteflika's fortunes waned after the death of President Houari Boumedienne, and he went into self-imposed exile in 1981 to escape corruption charges that were later dropped. Full Story | Top |
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