China services growth adds to economic revival hopes

BEIJING (Reuters) – Growth in China‘s increasingly important services sector accelerated in December at its fastest pace in four months, adding to signs of a modest year-end revival in the world’s second-largest economy.China’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the non-manufacturing sector rose to 56.1 in December from 55.6 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.Two...

Read More..

Asian shares up on US fiscal deal

2 January 2013 Last updated at 01:02 ETContinue reading the main storyAsian markets have risen after the US House of Representatives passed a deal to stave off the fiscal cliff.A failure to agree a deal would have triggered spending cuts and tax increases worth $ 600bn (£370bn).There had been fears that the measures would have derailed economic recovery in the world’s biggest economy and in a worst...

Read More..

Insight: How Colombian drug traffickers used HSBC to launder money

(Reuters) – When several Colombian men were indicted in January 2010 on money-laundering charges, the case in Brooklyn federal court drew little attention.It looked like a bust of another nexus of drug traffickers and money launderers, with mainly small-time operatives paying the price for their crimes.One of the men was Julio Chaparro, a 48-year-old father of four who owned three factories that made...

Read More..

Behind the Bidding War For a Gene Sequencing Firm

In June, Complete Genomics (GNOM), the struggling maker of the world’s most accurate gene-sequencing machine, put itself up for sale. Nothing happened initially. Analysts predicted the company would soon need to wind down operations.Cut to December. A pair of genomics superpowers, China’s BGI and San Diego-based Illumina (ILMN), have suddenly made competing bids to buy Complete, and politicians and...

Read More..

Starbucks expands cup campaign aimed at U.S. fiscal deal

(Reuters) – Starbucks Corp is expanding its campaign of using messages written on coffee cups to inspire U.S. lawmakers to reach a deal and avoid going over the “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax hikes and government spending cuts.As President Barack Obama and congressional leaders were in a final effort to reach a budget agreement before year’s end, Starbucks this week began urging workers in its roughly...

Read More..

Obama to make statement at 5:45 p.m.: White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a statement to the media at 5:45 p.m. ET, the White House said on Friday. The statement follows a meeting with congressional leaders on avoiding fiscal cliff tax increases and spending cuts.The president and lawmakers are working ahead of a January 1 deadline to come up with a compromise to prevent a fiscal shock that economists warn...

Read More..

In Bangladesh, the Garment Factories Keep Burning

On Nov. 24, a fire broke out in the Tazreen Fashions plant outside Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was the worst industrial accident in Bangladesh’s history, resulting in 111 deaths and provoking widespread calls for improved safety measures in the country’s garment industry.In the four weeks since the Tazreen fire, 17 additional conflagrations have broken out in Bangladeshi textile and garment factories, based...

Read More..

Brent holds near $111 on US fiscal uncertainty; Japan supports

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude held near $ 111 per barrel on Thursday as jittery investors stayed on the sidelines with a deadline to avert a U.S. fiscal crisis approaching, while hopes the new Japanese government’s policies will spur demand supported prices.U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers resumed talks on Wednesday over the so-called fiscal cliff – tax hikes and spending cuts...

Read More..

Sale shoppers ‘set to spend £3bn’

26 December 2012 Last updated at 00:11 ETBritish shoppers are expected to spend almost £3bn in the Boxing Day sales, experts have predicted.Millions of bargain-hunters are set to descend on High Streets and shopping centres across the UK.Shops will be cutting prices and opening as early as 06:00 GMT in a bid to tempt customers in.Market analyst Experian says online spending is expected to be the “biggest...

Read More..

Japan’s policy veteran Motegi likely to serve as trade minister: media

TOKYO (Reuters) – Incoming Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to pick policy veteran Toshimitsu Motegi as trade minister, who will also take charge of energy and other key economic policies, media reported on Tuesday.Motegi, 57, a former policy affairs chief for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), will tackle energy problems after last year’s Fukushima nuclear crisis, as well as issues such...

Read More..

For a Great Stocking Stuffer, Give a Kid a Vaccine

If you are looking for the perfect present to give kids this holiday season, what about immunity from a range of deadly communicable diseases? It is cheap and widely available at any good pediatricians’ office or vaccination clinic. Even so, this wonderful present is spurned by a growing number of parents in America and Europe.A big reason that more children than ever will be around to enjoy...

Read More..

Florida governor asks Obama to block possible ports strike

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida‘s Republican governor wants President Barack Obama to invoke federal law and order a cooling-off period if nearly 15,000 longshoremen walk off the job in a looming strike that would be a big blow to the state’s economy, according to a letter he sent the president this week.The International Longshoremen’s Association union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance grouping of shippers...

Read More..

Google trio win sentence appeal

21 December 2012 Last updated at 08:47 ETAn Italian court has overturned the conviction of three Google executives found guilty of breaking Italian law by allowing a video of a bullied teenager to be posted online.The clip was uploaded in 2006 and had featured a boy with autism.The employees were given six-month suspended jail sentences in 2010.Google had appealed against the ruling, saying it had...

Read More..

ICE Gets the NYSE For $2.8 Billion Less Than Nasdaq Would Have Paid

The New York Stock Exchange finally found a dance partner. Ten months after European regulators blocked its $ 9.5 billion attempt to merge with Germany’s Deutsche Börse, the 200-year-old stock exchange is selling itself to a much younger Atlanta-based rival, the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), for $ 8.2 billion.ICE (ICE), an options and futures exchange, is paying $ 33.12 a share, which at the time...

Read More..

After Newtown, Gun Control Steps We Can Take

In September 1994, President Bill Clinton signed an assault weapons ban into law. Some in the gun industry were distraught. “We’re finished,” Ron Whitaker, then the chief executive of Colt, told several other members of a firearm trade association. Colt made substantial profits from the AR-15, the quintessential assault rifle. Whitaker, it turned out, was wrong. The AR-15 was not finished. It was...

Read More..

A Banner Year for Sex Toys

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the po...

Read More..

“Fiscal cliff” hopes lift Asian shares, other risk assets

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares and other risk assets rose on Tuesday as signs of compromise sparked new optimism that the U.S. “fiscal cliff” budget tussle could be settled before tax hikes and spending cuts begin to bite early next year.Differences over how to resolve the fiscal cliff narrowed significantly Monday night as President Barack Obama made a counter-offer to Republicans that included a...

Read More..

Analysis: Huge mandate for Japan’s LDP may be less than meets the eye

TOKYO (Reuters) – Even Japan‘s next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, realizes that his party’s landslide election victory is not the sweeping mandate that it appears at first blush.An analysis of the vote as well as Abe’s own comments suggests he would be best served by focusing on what matters most to voters – the economy – and steering clear of divisive issues such as revising Japan’s pacifist constitution.That...

Read More..