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Only the hardiest remain at Dakota protest camp

Two weeks after a victory in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, most protesters have cleared out of the main protest camp in North Dakota but about 1, 000 are still there, and plan to remain through the winter. These folks say they are dug in at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, despite the cold, for a few reasons. Most are Native Americans, and want to support the tribal sovereignty effort forcefully argued by the Standing Rock Sioux, whose land is adjacent to the pipeline being built. Others say they worry that Energy Transfer Partners LP ( ) the company building the $3. 8 billion project, will resume construction without people on the ground, even though the tribes and the company are currently locked in a court battle. Future decisions on the ( ) pipeline are likely to come through discussions with the incoming administration of Donald Trump, or in courtrooms. “I’ve seen some of my friends leave but I will be here until the end and will stand up to Trump if he decides to approve the permit,” said Victor Herrald, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, who has been at the camp since August. At one point the camp had about 10, 000 people, including about 4, 000 veterans who showed up in early December just before the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a key easement needed to allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River. After the Corps decision, Standing Rock chairman Dave Archambault asked protesters to go home. The camp’s population now runs from 700 to 1, 000, depending on the day, and many come from the nearby Standing Rock reservation where they live. Those left say they are there to ”show our strengths,” as Bucky Harjo, 63, of the Paiute tribe, from Reno, Nevada, put it, while the tribe deals with the legal battle. Logistics are key for those still at the camp, located on federal land. Theron Begay, a Navajo journeyman who is a certified construction worker and heavy machine operator, has been put in charge of winterizing the camp. He is training volunteers to build structures that can withstand temperatures and bitter winds, as well as compost toilets. Some people at the camp have gotten pneumonia, and they and others went to an emergency shelter that was built three miles away to escape the cold. Because the Oceti Sakowin camp is located on a flood plain, waste from the camp poses risks to the nearby Cannonball River. Tribal leaders have said the camp may need to move if it wants to remain active. Begay said the structures can be ”disassembled like a puzzle in two hours” and on drier ground. North Dakota’s Governor Jack Dalrymple said in a Tuesday statement that he and Archambault recently met to discuss reducing tensions between the tribe and law enforcement. They are discussing reopening the nearby Backwater Bridge on state highway 1806, which has been blockaded since Oct. 27, when activists set vehicles on fire. Harjo said he will leave ”when I see the drill pad removed and DAPL out of here, and when they reopen 1806 and when we are free to go at our own will and not be targeted on the highway.” NEXT STEPS Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, and a constant presence in the camp, said the protest is transitioning ”to the next level of our campaign” to stop the pipeline. Some still at the camp worry that if they leave, Energy Transfer Partners will restart construction. ETP asked a federal judge on Dec. 9 to overrule the government’s decision and grant the easement. The judge declined that request; the parties are due back in court in February. The Army Corps is considering alternatives, which could take months. Trump, who owned ETP stock through at least according to financial disclosure forms, could order the Army Corps to grant the permit. His choice for U. S. Energy Secretary, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, is on ETP’s board. Standing Rock Sioux representatives met with members of Trump’s transition team this week to urge the incoming president to deny the easement. Protesters who remain at the camp are still receiving donations of money and supplies from people across the United States. On a recent visit to the camp’s emergency shelter it was filled with boxes delivered via Amazon. com. Goldtooth said tribal leaders are talking about an exit plan for the camp. ”We will continue to provide infrastructure support to those who stay here,” he said. ”We’ll make sure they’re safe and warm.” (Reporting By Valerie Volcovici in Cannon Ball, N. D. additional reporting by Andrew Cullen and Ernest Scheyder; Writing by David Gaffen; Editing by Andrew Hay) WASHINGTON The issuance of U. S. visas, passports and other travel documents should be transferred to the Department of Homeland Security from the State Department, a consulting company commissioned by U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has recommended in a report. Gene Conley, the only man to win both a baseball World Series and an NBA championship in basketball, died on Tuesday at the age of 86, the Boston Red Sox said in a statement.

Senseless selfies, creepy clowns and Trump’s triumph make year of odd news

Searches for selfies led to many bad decisions, an outbreak of creepy clown sightings chilled even horror maestro Stephen King, and a campaign ended with the election of former reality TV star Donald Trump as president of the United States. Along with moments of triumph and tragedy, 2016 brought stories that ranged from weird to wonderful, funny to flummoxing. New York’s Museum of Modern Art rolled out an exhibit of emojis this month. In September, the Satanic Temple, which says it promotes separation of church and state rather than devil worship, found a new home in Salem, Massachusetts, best known for the witch trials. A man visiting New York in October sparked an evacuation of the city’s Metropolitan Opera when he sprinkled the cremated remains of his mentor, an opera aficionado, into the orchestra pit. SELFIE SNAFUS One common theme among the strangest stories was that access to a camera and a desire for attention was a recipe for bad ideas. A Texas teen in October crashed her vehicle into the back of a police car while trying to take a topless photo of herself. ”I asked her why she was not dressed while driving,” the arresting officer wrote in an affidavit. ”She stated she was taking a Snapchat photo to send to her boyfriend.” In April, a California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for setting one of the state’s worst wildfires after filming himself surrounded by the flames. Courts ruled that the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution protects the right of voters in states including New Hampshire and Michigan to take selfies with their ballots. The debut of Nintendo’s Pokemon GO game, which sends players hunting for imaginary monsters on public streets, brought a wave of complaints, notably in July when a pair of obsessed teens accidentally but illegally crossed the border from Canada into Montana. NO CLOWNING AROUND A spate of summertime sightings of creepy clowns lurking near playgrounds, standing alone in the rain or allegedly living in previously abandoned cabins in woods around Greenville, South Carolina, led to a series of strange stories. The alleged sightings spread north and caused panicked passersby to chase some pranksters. By Halloween, school principals were warning students not to show up in clown costumes. The stories unnerved even author Stephen King, whose dozens of novels include ”It,” the tale of a supernatural being that appears as a clown. ”If I saw a clown lurking under a lonely bridge (or peering up at me from a sewer grate, with or without balloons) I’d be scared, too,” King told his local newspaper, the Bangor Daily News, in September. TRUMP’S TRIUMPH The year 2016 also brought a race for the White House like none Americans had seen before, with the first female candidate, Democrat Hillary Clinton up against Republican Trump. The real estate magnate’s penchant for tweeting his opinions, as well as sometimes unsubstantiated allegations about rivals, colored the contest. As early as May, Trump was making headlines when he posted a photo of himself eating a taco salad in honor of the Cinco de Mayo holiday after he had threatened to deport millions of Hispanic illegal immigrants. ”Happy #CincoDeMayo!” tweeted Trump (@realDonaldTrump). ”The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!” The showed a bit of humor early this month when he wore a business suit to a major donor’s ”Villains and Heroes” costume party. Asked by reporters what he was dressed as, he mouthed the word ”me.” (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) The theft of a famed cocktail ingredient, a mummified human toe, has spurred the northern Canadian territory of Yukon to launch a campaign for an ”insurance” toe, in case the digit gets stolen again. OSTEND, Belgium A beach in Belgium has been transformed into a giant sandy gallery, featuring super heroes, cartoon characters and Cinderella’s castle, for one of the world’s biggest festivals.

British companies absorb Brexit shock, get on with business for 2017

Richard Bunce says he felt sick when voters decided to take Britain out of the European Union in June, forcing him into a emergency review of his firm’s expansion plans. But six months on, orders are strong and a new growth plan is in place, according to Bunce, managing director of Mec Com Ltd which sells devices to protect against power surges to clients such as Siemens ( ) and Alstom ( ). Far from the ”profound and immediate economic shock” predicted by Britain’s finance ministry in the event of a vote for Brexit, the economy has, so far, barely slowed. Bunce expects tougher times. But like many other executives trying to push their Brexit worries to one side, he invested nearly half a million pounds on a new machine over the summer. Now he plans to spend another 750, 000 pounds ($932, 000) on robotic equipment at Mec Com’s plant near Stafford, a town 135 miles (217 km) northwest of London, after landing a big contract with a British food processing firm. ”We believe that the opportunities we have got will, one way or another, find a way around Brexit,” Bunce said. To be sure, what Brexit means is far from clear. Britain is due to begin its divorce process with the EU early next year. Agreeing its new relationship could take a lot longer. Bunce is taking precautions in case his firm ends up facing tariffs on its exports to the EU. He recently traveled to Romania to discuss the possibility of expanding his company’s existing unit there in the event of a ”hard” Brexit. ”If that happens then we would need to find a way to switch very quickly, but as things stand we are planning for more UK business,” he said. INVESTMENTS PLANNED Many other companies seem to be taking a similar approach, including technology giants Facebook and Google which have announced plans to create jobs in Britain in recent weeks. According to official data, businesses increased investment in the three months after the referendum. Manufacturing body EEF says the sector is its most upbeat in a year and a half, helped by an fall in the pound since the vote, and investment and hiring plans are up. In construction, office building has slowed but some companies plan to ramp up next year. A survey by IHS Markit showed growth in the construction sector hit an high in November. Economists are now raising their predictions for British economic growth next year, after many of them initially warned June’s vote would quickly cause a recession. The Bank of England in November made its biggest ever growth upgrade, saying the economy would grow by 1. 4 percent in 2017, up from a forecast of 0. 8 percent it made three months earlier. Some investors think that even this looks too cautious. Percival Stanion, head of funds at investment firm Pictet, predicted growth of nearly 2 percent in 2017. ”The expectations of a collapse in the UK were massively ” Stanion said, blaming the views of many economists for skewing their forecasts. He said supermarkets and other retailers would probably absorb much of the inflationary hit caused by the fall in the value of the pound, rather than pass it on to customers. UNCERTAINTY For now the BoE which is helping the economy with its massive stimulus program is waiting to see who is right: the pessimistic investors who have pushed down the value of the pound by 13 percent since June or the country’s consumers who have carried on spending. Gertjan Vlieghe, one of the BoE’s setters, said he believed Britain was set for a ” ” slowdown. But the drag could be softer if there is progress toward a good Brexit deal for Britain, which would push up the value of sterling and ease the inflation hit, he said last month. Sterling’s rise over the past month could also soften the rise of inflation. Looking further ahead, the impact of Brexit is harder to quantify without no clarity on what it might mean for exports, investment and migration in coming decades. ”You can easily see what the negatives are but they are in the medium term rather than the immediate one or timeframe,” Stanion said. For now, companies are trying to get on with operations as best they can. The British unit of German car seat maker Brose announced a 10 investment on Dec. 13 in a new paint facility at its plant in the central city of Coventry which supplies clients such as Jaguar Land Rover ( ). Juergen Zahl, managing director of Brose UK, said there were question marks about whether carmakers in Britain might end up shifting production to other countries in the EU in the event of a Brexit deal that leaves the sector facing high trade tariffs. But Japanese carmaker Nissan’s ( ) decision in October to build more cars in Britain was a positive sign, he said. ”For us at the moment, other than this uncertainty that we have, it’s pretty much business as usual,” Zahl said. (Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Virtual assistants expected to top virtual reality in holiday sales

Interviews with nearly two dozen analysts indicate high hopes for holiday electronics sales, but estimates of what will be the hit have changed. VIRTUAL REALITY After dubbing virtual reality as the ”next mega tech theme” in a May 2015 industry report, brokerage Piper Jaffray will cut its 2016 estimate for sales of VR headsets by 65 percent to 2. 2 million units in an as yet unpublished report. Sales of VR headsets including Facebook Inc’s ( ) $599 Oculus Rift and Sony Corp’s ( ) $399 PlayStation VR headset altogether will be about 300, 000, reflecting supply constraints at Sony and the technological reality of Oculus and HTC Corp’s ( ) $799 Vive: only about 6 million to 7 million computers globally can run the software, said Paul Lee of Deloitte UK. ”With VR for a family of four one might be looking at $10, 000,” said Lee. Samsung Electronics Co’s ( ) under $100 Gear VR headset, which turns a phone into a VR device, will be the volume winner, because it will be given away with phones. VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS Two years after Amazon. com Inc ( ) introduced the Echo, a $179. 99 hands free speaker with virtual assistant Alexa, the virtual home assistant category is poised to beat out virtual reality and possibly a few other high tech competitors, according to the Consumer Technology Association. Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz estimated nearly 10 million to 12 million Amazon Echo and Google Home virtual assistants could sell during the holidays. ”Personal assistants are going to blow VR out of the water,” he said. Google launched its $129 Home assistant in time for the holidays, but the $39. 99 price of the Echo miniaturized version of the and a list of features two years in the making give the Echo the edge this year, said Tractica analyst Mark Beccue. ”I saw one feature in a hackathon where you list items in the fridge then Alexa tells you here’s what you can make for dinner tonight,” he said. WEARABLES The Pebble smartwatch is folding and selling its intellectual property to market leader Fitbit Inc ( ) which recently cut its holiday revenue forecast. Still, the Consumer Technology Association forecasts 12. 6 million wearables will be sold this holiday season, thanks largely to Apple Inc’s ( ) Watch, which the industry group expects to chalk up 5. 5 million sales. Fitness devices are losing ground, in market share terms, to multipurpose watches, said Forrester analyst Julie Ask. DRONES GoPro Inc ( ) recalled its highly anticipated Karma Drone in November, and industry sales for the year are expected to be 1. 2 million, according to the CTA. That is more than double 2015, helped by a wide range of prices, but drones have not broken beyond being a niche product. ”There are plenty of drones that are $100, $150, that would be more in competition with virtual reality than anything else in terms of appeal for the same age groups,” said Atherton Research analyst Jean Baptiste Su. Oppenheimer’s Uerkwitz put drones in the same basket as virtual reality, given price and limited use: ”probably going to underperform” the competition. (Reporting by Deborah M. Todd; editing by Peter Henderson and Lisa Shumaker) HELSINKI Telecoms network equipment maker Nokia and Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Technology have signed a patent licensing agreement, the companies said on Wednesday. SAO PAULO Financial technology firms in Brazil are targeting lending to and companies to fill a gap in the credit market left by large lenders deterred by rising delinquencies and narrow margins.

German courts should go after fake news on Facebook now: minister

German judges and state prosecutors need to crack down straight away on fake news disseminated through social media platforms such as Facebook, Germany’s Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in an interview published on Sunday. Maas, a Social Democrat in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition, has repeatedly warned the U. S. technology company to respect laws against defamation in Germany that are more rigid than in the United States. He told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper the principle of free speech did not protect against slander. ”Defamation and malicious gossip are not covered under freedom of speech,” Maas said, just days after other top government officials called for legislation to tackle ”hate speech” and fake news on Facebook and other social media platforms. ”Justice authorities must prosecute that, even on the internet,” he said, noting that offenders could face up to five years in jail. ”Anyone who tries to manipulate the political discussion with lies needs to be aware (of the consequences).” The issue of fake news has taken on new urgency after warnings by German and U. S. intelligence agencies that Russia has sought to influence elections and sway public opinion. German government officials have expressed concern that fake news could influence the parliamentary election expected in September, in which Merkel will run for a fourth term. Germany’s strict libel and slander laws are meant to protect citizens by making it a crime to defame others. More than 218, 000 cases involving insults were filed with prosecutors in 2015. But few internet cases were prosecuted. Maas said he wants to change that: ”We need to fully utilize all the legal authority at our disposal,” he said. Fears of fake news ahead of the election have increased after the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, Maassen, reported a rise in Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilizing German society. ”Facebook is earning an awful lot of money with fake news,” Maas told Bild am Sonntag. ”A company that earns billions from the internet also has a social responsibility. Prosecutable defamation must be deleted immediately, once reported. It needs to be made easier for users to report fake news.” On Friday, the parliamentary floor leader for Merkel’s conservatives, Volker Kauder, said the government wanted to introduce a law in early 2017 that would require social media firms to set up local offices to respond faster to complaints. Facebook Inc FB. O said on Thursday it would take measures to prevent fake news spreading. (Reporting by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Andrew Bolton) BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said. MEXICO CITY Billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil argued on Wednesday against rules brought in by an overhaul of the country’s telecommunications industry, saying in a statement they were unfair and had led to a loss of its business rights.

With water cannons and Southern belles, Trump ends ’thank you’ tour

U. S. Donald Trump wrapped up his ”thank you” tour on Saturday with celebratory geysers from water cannons, greetings from Southern belles and some gloating over the TV newscasters who had expected him to lose. In the last in a series of rallies Trump has staged during the past three weeks mainly in battleground states that gave him the margin of victory in the Nov. 8 election Trump came back to where it all began for his improbable presidential campaign. It was in Mobile, Alabama, last year where Trump, a real estate magnate and reality television star with no previous political experience, drew a huge crowd that gave notice to his rivals that he was a threat for the Republican presidential nomination. When his plane landed at the Mobile airport on Saturday, it taxied beneath blasts from two water cannon trucks. Stepping off the plane, a half dozen young women wearing Old South hoop skirts in a panoply of pastel colors were on hand to greet him. Speaking at Stadium, where there was a steady drizzle that he said would ruin his suit, Trump relived his tense election night when he went from big underdog to eking out a victory over heavily favored Democrat Hillary Clinton. Faced with predictions that he would lose, Trump said he told his wife, Melania, that he was at peace with his campaign because he had worked so hard. ”I went to my wife and I said, ’You know what, I don’t feel badly about this,’” Trump said. Trump said the faces of the newscasters seemed to sink as his fortunes improved, part of his running diatribe against the U. S. mainstream news media that he claims is stacked against him. ”They got paid a lot of money,” Trump said of television commentators. ”They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about, folks.” Trump, who will be sworn into office on Jan. 20, took swings at a few other favorite targets from his campaign: corporations that outsource jobs, Islamic State militants, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, and the political culture in Washington. But he pulled his punches when it came to first lady Michelle Obama, who in excerpts from an interview with Oprah Winfrey set to air on CBS on Monday, said: ”We feel the difference now. See, now, we’re feeling what not having hope feels like.” ”I honestly believe she meant that statement in a different way than it came out,” Trump said. Trump lost the popular vote by more than 2. 5 million votes but still won 306 votes in the Electoral College, plenty more than the 270 required to win. With some Democrats now saying the Electoral College should be abandoned and that the presidential election should be decided by the popular vote, Trump said he’s happy with the system the way it is now. ”I never appreciated it until now, how genius it was,” he said. (Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Paul Simao) MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

Under threat in Washington, first lady’s food legacy may live on elsewhere

Michelle Obama will be ceding the title of first lady to Melania Trump next month, but she may hold for some time the other distinction she earned during her time in the White House: America’s best known advocate for healthy food. The organization she helped create as first lady, Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) where she is honorary chair, will continue its work convincing food companies to improve nutrition content and labeling of products, the group said. ”Michelle Obama has been a tremendous leader in this space,” said Larry Soler, president and chief executive of the group. ”That legacy is going to continue for a long time after this.” When Donald Trump and a Congress take over on Jan. 20, lawmakers are expected to take aim at what one of them has called ”burdensome new rules” on food. School lunches and menu labeling standards are likely to be among the changes that may come under fire. Trump, a fan of junk food, has not been explicit on what he plans to do with food policy, although he campaigned for the Nov. 8 election on a broad promise to undo regulations on business. Nutrition advocates believe that, regardless of regulatory changes, private sector partnerships forged under Michelle Obama’s time at PHA are likely to endure. The first lady helped launch PHA in 2010, in conjunction with her broader ’Let’s Move!’ effort to tackle childhood obesity in the United States. Since then, the organization has inked voluntary deals with scores of food companies, universities, hospitals and hotel chains aimed at improving nutritional content in food offerings. Companies that have made such agreements, like the world’s No. 1 retailer Stores Inc and convenience store chain Kwik Trip, say they expect to uphold the commitments they have made regardless of any policy changes in Washington. ”Our commitment to provide healthy food — specifically for young people — will not only continue but it will grow,” said a spokesman for Kwik Trip, which agreed with PHA this year to offer more fruit, vegetables and foods at its stores at low cost. PHA said its work will continue unabated after the Obamas leave the White House, and expects that consumer demand will continue to drive companies to participate. The first lady expects to continue her work on the issue, though it is unclear exactly what her role will be. ”I will always be here as a partner in this effort — always,” she said earlier this year. ’ON HIGH ALERT’ Michelle Obama took her healthy eating agenda from the White House where she built an organic vegetable garden to the halls of Congress, where she lobbied lawmakers in the passage in 2010 of the Healthy, Kids Act. Republicans balked at renewing elements of the Healthy, Kids Act in 2015 and the House of Representatives introduced legislation that critics say would dial back access to the program. Republican Representative Todd Rokita from Indiana this year introduced legislation to overhaul the school lunch program, in part to make sure that ”the First Lady Michelle nutrition standards are revised so that school food is more edible.” He has also said he plans to work toward reforms of ”burdensome new rules” with the new president. Also under threat may be another measure to usher in more detailed labeling requirements for menus at restaurants and grocery stores, which passed as part of the 2010 health overhaul known as the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. Trump has said he will repeal Obamacare. ”We have a sense of (Trump’s) personal eating habits, but not his view of food policy. But given his rhetoric, we’re on high alert,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. A spokesman for Trump’s transition team did not respond to requests for comment. Melania Trump, who last month pinpointed as her cause as first lady, has not mentioned interest in the healthy eating issue. Trump’s early choices in building his administration have also triggered some concerns among healthy food advocates. He has nominated Representative Tom Price of Georgia to head the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health and works to develop dietary guidelines with the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Price is an opponent of Obamacare and voted for a bill that would have banned state labeling of ingredients. Trump has yet to select an agriculture secretary. Regardless of legislative repeals, supporters of Michelle Obama’s efforts to get healthier food into mainstream America believe the impact of her work cannot be undone. ”There was very little positive industry action before she got there. Health and obesity issues weren’t on their agendas,” said Sam Kass, a chef and former executive director of ’Let’s Move!’ who also served as President Barack Obama’s nutrition policy advisor. ”Now it is the top priority for every CEO.” (Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Mary Milliken) MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

Germany says Tunisian’s fingerprints found in Christmas market crash truck

Fingerprints from a Tunisian suspect have been found inside the truck that smashed through a Berlin Christmas market on Monday in an attack that killed 12 people, and investigators assume the migrant was at the wheel, officials said. A hunt is underway across Europe for Anis Amri, 24, as Germany reels from its worst attack in decades. A video clip from a dashcam obtained exclusively by Reuters appears to show the truck driving into the market at speed, immediately after which people run away from the scene. ”We can report today that we have new information that the suspect is with high probability really the perpetrator,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters on Thursday. ”In the cab, in the driving cabin, fingerprints were found and there is additional evidence that supports this,” he said. Frauke Koehler, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office, told reporters: ”At this point in the investigation, we assume Anis Amri drove the truck.” Police had carried out searches across Germany on Thursday but made no arrests, she said. Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing demands to take a much tougher line on immigration and security, said she hoped the perpetrator would be arrested soon. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, in which the truck mowed through a crowd of people and bulldozed wooden huts selling Christmas gifts and snacks beside a famous church in west Berlin. One of the 12 dead was the Polish driver from whom the truck had been hijacked. His body, stabbed and shot, was found in the cab. Amri had been identified by security agencies as a potential threat and rejected for asylum, but authorities had not managed to deport him because of missing identity documents. In Tunisia, two of Amri’s brothers, Walid and Abdelkader, said they feared the failed may have been radicalized by radical Islamists while he spent almost four years behind bars in Italy. ”He doesn’t represent us or our family,” Abdelkader told Sky News Arabia. ”He went into prison with one mentality and when he came out he had a totally different mentality.” The suspected involvement of a migrant one of more than a million allowed into Germany in the past two years has intensified political pressure on Merkel, who plans to seek a fourth term in elections next year. Armin Schuster of her Christian Democratic party told broadcaster NDR: ”We need to send the signal: Only set off for Germany if you have a reason for asylum.” Germany had until now been spared the kind of militant attacks that have hit France, Spain and Britain in recent years. No attack on German soil has claimed so many lives since 1980, when 13 people including the suspected bomber, a member of a group, were killed in an explosion at a Munich beer festival. MARKET REOPENS Ringed by concrete bollards, the Berlin market reopened on Thursday, with candles, flowers and flags laid amid the small festive huts in tribute to those killed. Bild newspaper cited a investigator as saying it was clear last spring that Amri was looking for accomplices for an attack and was interested in weapons. The paper said preliminary proceedings had been opened against him in March based on information he was planning a robbery to get money to buy automatic weapons and ”possibly carry out an attack”. In he spoke to two Islamic State fighters and Tunisian authorities listened in on their conversation before informing German authorities. Amri also offered himself as a suicide attacker on known Islamist chat sites, Bild said. Police started looking for him after finding an identity document under the driver’s seat of the truck. Broadcaster rbb said the perpetrator lost both his wallet and mobile phone while running away from the attack site. The attack has heightened concerns across Europe in days before Christmas. In France, target of three major attacks in the last two years, security around festive markets was strengthened with concrete barriers, and troops were posted at some churches. The Italian Foreign Ministry said an Italian woman named Fabrizia Di Lorenzo was among the Berlin victims, and the Israeli Foreign Ministry said an Israeli woman called Dalia Elyakim had been identified among the dead. (Reporting by Paul Carrel, Joseph Nasr, Michelle Martin, Michael Nienaber, Thorsten Severin, Victoria Bryan in Berlin and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; additional reporting by Sabine Siebold in Afghanistan; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Gunman wounds three in Zurich mosque rampage, motive unclear

A man stormed into a Zurich mosque on Monday evening and opened fire on people praying, injuring three, Swiss police said. They said they had collected evidence inside the building and would make more details available on Tuesday. They declined to comment on the potential motive. Two of the three men aged 30, 35 and 56 were seriously injured in the attack shortly after 5:30 p. m. local time (1630 GMT) near the main train station in Switzerland’s financial capital, Zurich police said. A third sustained less severe injuries. All three were brought to hospital. The unidentified suspect, a man around 30 years old who according to witnesses was wearing dark clothing and a dark wool cap, fled the mosque, police said. Police said a body was found nearby but would not comment on any link to the shootings while investigations continued. People at the scene told Reuters the Islamic Center on Zurich’s Eisgasse was used as a mosque, often by Somalis. ”We never once had a problem,” said Abukar Abshirow, a Somali who said he was a regular worshipper at the center that attracted Muslims from around the world. ”We never had anyone come and say why are you here. We never had that,” Abshirow said. He said the three victims were Somalis. Two thirds of Switzerland’s 8. 3 million residents identify as Christian but the nation has been wrestling with the role of Islam as its Muslim population has risen to 5 percent, swelled by the arrival of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. In 2009, a nationwide vote backed a constitutional ban on new minarets. The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland said the center was not a member and it did not have any direct knowledge of the incident. (Additional reporting by Arnd Wiegmann; Writing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Alison Williams and Anna Willard) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Exclusive: U.S. proposed $5 billion - 7 billion penalty on Credit Suisse on toxic debt - source

The U. S. Department of Justice has asked Credit Suisse to pay between $5 billion and $7 billion to settle a probe over its sale of toxic mortgage securities in the to the 2008 financial crisis, a source with knowledge of the matter said, but the bank has resisted settling for that amount. The size of the suggested settlement indicates that the cost to the bank may be higher than analysts had expected and explains why Credit Suisse management, according to a second source, has been seeking a smaller penalty. ”Credit Suisse is confident of reaching a better solution,” said the second person. Should talks break down, U. S. legal authorities could sue the bank, prolonging the uncertainty. In a sign that negotiations may be reaching their final stages, U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch last week met with Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam, another person familiar with the matter said. A potential resolution could come as early as this week. The sources did not want to be identified because the negotiations are not public. Credit Suisse and the Department of Justice declined to comment. The penalty stems from a 2012 initiative launched by U. S. President Barack Obama to hold banks accountable for selling mortgage debt while misleading investors about the risks, a practice that helped cause the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. The penalties, which for U. S. banks reached $46 billion, are set to deliver another setback to European lenders, many of which remain fragile, with scant capital, in the wake of the financial crash. After record settlements were reached with U. S. banks such as Bank of America and JPMorgan, the focus has turned to Europe’s Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse, Barclays, UBS and HSBC. News in September that the Justice Department made an initial demand of Deutsche of $14 billion to settle its case sent the German lender’s stock plummeting and raised fears Credit Suisse could also face a stiffer penalty. Just prior to Deutsche confirming that the Department of Justice was seeking $14 billion, JP Morgan analysts estimated Credit Suisse’s fine at around $2 billion. Deutsche Bank could this week agree its penalty over the sale of toxic mortgage debt, one person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday. The bank has said it expects to pay materially less than $14 billion. Credit Suisse’s litigation provisions at the end of 2015 totalled 1. 605 billion Swiss francs ($1. 56 billion). In November, the bank said it had upped litigation provisions by 357 million francs, mainly in connection with matters. In addition to the Justice Department probe, Credit Suisse is defending itself against lawsuits by the New York and New Jersey attorneys general over similar claims involving billions of dollars of investor losses. If Credit Suisse reaches a settlement with federal authorities, it will likely settle with the states as well. A New York attorney general spokeswoman declined to comment, and New Jersey did not immediately return a call for comment. Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20, which means key government players involved in the negotiations would change, complicating the banks’ efforts to reach settlements. (Editing by John O’Donnell, Carmel Crimmins and James Dalgleish) LONDON New Saba Capital Management, famed for its winning bet against the JPMorgan Chase trader known as the ’London Whale’ is closing its office in London’s Mayfair district, two sources close to the situation told Reuters. ROME Italian prosecutors have decided to take Morgan Stanley to court over allegations that the U. S. bank caused 2. 7 billion euros ($3. 1 billion) in losses to the state in relation to derivative transactions, a source familiar with the matter said.

Wall Street extends rally but Germany truck deaths reduce gains

All three major U. S. indexes ended higher but lost some steam after German police said a truck ran into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing nine people and injuring up to 50 others. That rattled U. S. investors already eyeing potential global troubles after the Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot dead in Ankara. ”Markets want to be sure whether this is an isolated incident. Will this disrupt economic activity in just this area or will it be a wider area and for how long? ,” said John Canally, chief economic strategist for LPL Financial. ”That’s the playbook by which markets have come to address these types of issues.” The S&P technology index . SPLRCT rose 0. 61 percent, with Microsoft, Intel, Apple and Amazon. com lifting the Nasdaq Composite to within a hair of last Tuesday’s record high close. U. S. stocks have been on a tear since the Nov. 8 presidential election, with the S&P rising nearly 6 percent on bets that Donald Trump’s plans for deregulation and infrastructure spending will boost the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average is less than 1 percent away from 20, 000, a level it has never breached. ”The Trump rally is still with us. Every time something’s down for two days, people jump on it. People are looking for buying opportunities,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, some investors warn that uncertainty around Trump’s policies and the uncertainty of whether they are approved by Congress pose major risks to current stock prices. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 39. 65 points or 0. 20 percent to end at 19, 883. 06. The S&P 500 ended up 0. 20 percent at 2, 262. 53 after trading as high as 2, 167. 47. The Nasdaq Composite added 0. 37 percent to end at 5, 457. 44. Microsoft ( ) rose 2. 12 percent, Amazon. com ( ) gained 1. 09 percent, Intel climbed 1. 60 percent and Apple ( ) climbed 0. 58 percent. All four provided the biggest boost to the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. United Technologies ( ) rose 2. 12 percent, helping lift the Dow, after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to ”outperform” and increased its price target. Walt Disney ( ) rose 1. 34 percent after its ”Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” movie scored the December opening in history. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1. ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1. ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 13 new highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 157 new highs and 38 new lows. About 6. 1 billion shares changed hands in U. S. exchanges, well below the 7. 5 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. (Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru and Rodrigo Campos in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Boeing airplane unit to cut more jobs in 2017, shares rise

Boeing Co’s ( ) commercial airplane unit said on Monday it would cut an number of jobs in 2017 after slashing its workforce by 8 percent in 2016, as it struggles to sell planes in the face of a strong dollar. Boeing and European rival Airbus ( ) are battling especially slow demand for their lucrative, jetliners, such as the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330, in a global climate of political and economic uncertainty. Boeing said last week that it would cut 777 production to five a month in August 2017, a 40 percent reduction from the current rate of 8. 3 a month, because of slow sales. The company did not say how many jobs it will cut next year, noting it is still assessing its 2017 budget and employment needs. But the announcement shows the world’s biggest plane maker is axing jobs more aggressively than it forecast earlier this year, and that it will not let up the pressure to cut costs under the new chief executive of the airplane unit, Kevin McAllister, who succeeded Ray Conner on Nov. 21. Conner is now vice chairman of Boeing Co. ”To successfully compete and win new orders that will fund future product development and growth requires us to achieve much better performance,” Conner and McAllister said in a memo to Boeing Commercial Airplanes employees on Monday, which was made public. Boeing ”will need to do more in 2017” to lower costs and make its planes more affordable, the memo said. Its shares closed up 1. 1 percent at $156. 18. Boeing is contending with a strong dollar that makes its products more expensive overseas, a U. S. Bank that hampers aircraft financing, and Donald Trump’s provocation of China, one of Boeing’s biggest markets. Trump has also targeted Boeing for criticism, saying the United States should cancel a pending order to buy modified Boeing 747s as new presidential aircraft, Air Force One, because the cost was too high. A Boeing spokesman said plane sales are getting more competitive, requiring additional beyond what was envisioned in 2016. ”We’ve got to perform better,” he said. ”It’s an ongoing process.” Boeing has booked just 468 net jetliner orders this year, down from 768 last year and 1, 432 in 2014. The figure is also well below Boeing’s target of having sales roughly match the 745 to 750 aircraft Boeing expects to deliver to customers this year. Boeing gets the majority of the payment on a plane when it is delivered. The company also is under pressure to cut costs as it tries to hit Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg’s goal of lifting its operating profit margins to the by 2020. The figure has averaged 6. 9 percent over the last decade. By comparison, Airbus’ margins have averaged about 3. 7 percent over the past 10 years. The company said last month it would cut about 900 jobs to restructure, reduce costs and prepare for tougher competition. For 2016, Boeing said it expects job reductions to total 8 percent of the commercial airplane workforce, including a 10 percent reduction in the ranks of executives and managers. The unit cut 6, 115 jobs, or 7. 3 percent, through November compared with the tally on Dec. 31, 2015, according to Boeing’s employment data. That suggests a further 565 job reductions in 2016, and more next year. In March, the company said it planned to cut about 4, 000 jobs at the unit. The company is offering a voluntary layoff program in early 2017, according to Monday’s memo, which added that involuntary layoffs may occur in some cases. A spokesman said employees participating in the voluntary layoff program will receive a lump sum payment of one week’s pay for each year served, for a maximum of 26 weeks. (Additional reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Tom Brown and Bill Rigby) WASHINGTON Federal Reserve policymakers were increasingly split on the outlook for inflation and how it might affect the future pace of interest rate rises, according to the minutes of the Fed’s last policy meeting on June released on Wednesday. One of the investors former drug company executive Martin Shkreli is accused of defrauding testified on Wednesday that Shkreli lied to him repeatedly, although he eventually made millions of dollars from the investment.

Gunfire erupts in Kinshasa as Congolese protest Kabila’s power

Gunfire could be heard in several districts of Kinshasa early on Tuesday as demonstrators demanded that President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate expired at midnight, and measures to curb dissent fanned fears of more violence. Reuters witnesses in various parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital city heard repeated gunshots, and one saw youths burning tires in the street. Protesters also set off fireworks and cheered, a Reuters witness said. Demonstrators in the districts of Kalamu, Matete and Lingwala as well as at Kinshasa University blew whistles to signal to Kabila that it was time to leave. Students at the university also burned tires, multiple witnesses said. Kabila faces potentially one of his biggest challenges since he took power after his father was assassinated in 2001. Critics accuse him of clinging to power by letting his term run out with no election to name his successor expected until 2018. Kabila has rarely spoken about the issue in public, but his allies say the election was delayed because of logistical and financial problems. The constitutional court has ruled that Kabila can stay on until the election takes place. Some opposition leaders agreed Kabila can remain in office. But opponents, especially in Kinshasa, a city of 12 million, are not buying it. Diplomats have urged Kabila to step down to avoid triggering a massive crisis and possibly another civil war. In what appeared to be an attempt at soothing opposition grievances, Kabila’s administration announced on state TV an expansion of the government by 17 ministerial posts to 65, many of them reserved for opposition members. The main opposition coalition, which refused to accept the deal enabling Kabila to stay on, is unlikely to be appeased. Scores of protesters have been arrested in the past 24 hours, mostly in the eastern city of Goma, according to human rights groups. Authorities have blocked most social media and outlawed protests in Kinshasa. Those measures have raised fears of more violence in a nation that has suffered near constant war and instability in the two decades since the fall of kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko. Western powers are nervous of a repeat of the conflicts between 1996 to 2003 that killed millions, drew in half a dozen neighboring armies and saw rebel fighters rape women en masse. (Reporting by Tim Cocks and Aaron Ross; Additional reporting by Amedee Mwarabu in Kinshasa; Editing by G Crosse and Leslie Adler) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

Protests erupt in Congo as Kabila’s mandate expires

Protests erupted in several neighborhoods of the Congolese capital Kinshasa late on Monday and police fired tear gas to disperse them, witnesses said, just before President Joseph Kabila’s mandate expires at midnight. Demonstrators in the districts of Kalamu, Matete and Lingwala and at Kinshasa University blew whistles to signal to Kabila that it was time to leave, and students at the university burned tires, multiple witnesses said. Hundreds of demonstrators earlier defied a ban on marches against the president’s plans to stay in office past the end of his term, and security forces faced off against groups waving red cards saying ”Bye, bye Kabila.” Opposition activists have accused Kabila of trying to cling to power by letting his term run out without an election to chose the next leader of Congo, which has not witnessed a peaceful change of power since independence in 1960. ”Kabila’s mandate finishes at 1159. . .. Tomorrow (Tuesday) it will be chaos,” said Hugue Ilunga, 21, as dozens of soldiers deployed nearby in the capital, an opposition stronghold of 12 million people. Shops shut in other parts of Kinshasa, and streets in the capital were largely empty. At least 80 protesters were arrested in the eastern city of Goma, the U. N. human rights office in Congo said, mostly activists who were simply wearing red shirts, an opposition color. Police said nine opposition demonstrators were detained. Kabila’s elite Republican Guard also arrested prominent opposition activist Franc Diongo in Kinshasa, Kikaya said, after Diongo’s private guards beat up three of them. Militia fighters raided a jail in eastern Congo’s Butembo trying to free prisoners, triggering clashes that killed a South African U. N. peacekeeper and a police officer. Seven attackers were also killed, Kabila’s chief diplomat, Barnabe Kikaya, told a news conference in Kinshasa. ”FLIRTATION WITH DISASTER” The government and elections officials have blamed logistical and financial problems for the delay in the vote, currently scheduled for April 2018. Some opposition leaders agreed Kabila can remain in office until then. The constitutional court has also ruled that Kabila, leader since his father was assassinated in 2001, can stay on. But the main opposition bloc rejects the deal as a ploy, though it said it would not call protests. Talks mediated by the Roman Catholic church failed to reach a compromise. ”Joseph Kabila will remain in office tomorrow,” Kikaya said. Authorities have blocked most social media and outlawed protests in Kinshasa, raising fears of more violence in a nation that has been plagued by war and instability for two decades since the fall of kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko. Diplomats fear any escalation could trigger a conflict like the 1996 to 2003 wars that killed millions, sucked in neighboring armies and saw armed groups clash over Congo’s mineral wealth and the use of mass rape as a strategic weapon. U. S. Great Lakes envoy Tom Perriello on Thursday said that Kabila’s hanging on was ”an entirely unnecessary flirtation with disaster,” in a speech at the United States Institute of Peace. Youth activists say they have taken inspiration from Burkina Faso in West Africa, where protests ousted Blaise Compaore in 2014 as he was trying to extend his rule. As in Burkina, protests in Congo are in part driven by economic desperation. Congo is Africa’s biggest miner of copper and metals used in gadgets, like cobalt and coltan, but a slowdown linked to falls in commodity prices has triggered steep budget cuts and a 30 percent fall in the Congolese franc. However, the country of 70 million people and more than 200 ethnic groups is fragmented. Previous protests achieved little. Former colonial master Belgium advised its citizens to leave before Monday. The United States warned against travel, telling expatriates who remain to stay indoors. Outside Congo, South African police used stun grenades to disperse protesters in Cape Town. (Additional reporting by Ed Cropley in Johannesburg and Amedee Mwarabu in Kinshasa; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Leslie Adler) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

From beauty pageants to bathroom battles, five major gains for LGBTI rights in 2016

DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) From bathrooms and beauty pageants to diplomatic disputes and Donald Trump’s U. S. presidential victory, 2016 was a turbulent year for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people worldwide. Gay and transgender rights took more prominence than ever in the global media spotlight after several legal battles, and celebrity and cultural endorsements. Yet LGBTI people worldwide still face discrimination in many aspects of life such as employment, education and healthcare, and are subjected to widespread violence, campaigners say. However, gay and transgender rights groups are being increasingly backed, and are fighting to change policies and laws to protect LGBTI people from violence and discrimination. Here are five of the biggest gains for LGBTI rights in 2016: 1) United Nations appoints first gay rights investigator The United Nations in September appointed its first gay rights independent investigator to help protect homosexual and transgender people worldwide from violence and discrimination. Vitit Muntarbhorn’s role was created by the U. N. Human Rights Council amid objections by Muslim countries, and several African states who sought to have his work suspended. Yet Muntarbhorn told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that even those countries perceived as the most virulent opponents of LGBTI rights may in fact have pockets of openness and tolerance. Muntarbhorn, an international law professor who has served on many U. N. bodies, including inquiries on Syria and as a special rapporteur on North Korea, also said he does not see his task in terms of how many people he might represent worldwide. ”One person might be affected 10, 20, 100 times . .. bullied at a young age, can’t go to toilet, laughed at, tortured, ultimately killed and defamed at the same time,” Muntarbhorn said. ”How many violations can you count?” 2) U. S. celebrities, corporations boycott North Carolina over transgender bathroom law Entertainers such as Bruce Springsteen and companies ranging from PayPal to Deutsche Bank have pulled events and jobs from North Carolina to protest a law restricting bathroom access for transgender people in government buildings and public schools. North Carolina in March became the only state in the country to require transgender people to use public restrooms and changing facilities that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity. Transgender rights have become an increasingly divisive issue in the United States, and the use of public bathrooms has been a flashpoint in the controversy over the past year. Republican lawmakers cited privacy and security concerns when they passed the law, but critics say the bill, which also blocks local measures protecting LGBT people from discrimination, is stigmatizing, insulting and unconstitutional. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory earlier this month conceded the state’s contested gubernatorial race to Democrat Roy Cooper, four weeks after the Nov. 8 election that many saw as a referendum on the transgender bathroom law. 3) Malta bans conversion therapy to lead way in Europe Malta became the first country in Europe to ban conversion therapy, a and discredited practice that aims to change sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The southern Mediterranean island nation criminalized conversion practices often referred to as ”gay cure” therapies with its parliament calling it a ”deceptive and harmful act”. Those who prescribe or perform the therapy can be punished with fines of up to 10, 000 euros ($10, 400) and one year in jail. Malta is widely considered as one of the most progressive nations in Europe when it comes to LGBTI rights, having made a raft of legal and social changes in recent years. It has introduced education, passed civil unions and allowed transgender people to change their legal gender without any medical or state intervention. Conversion therapy is still legal in most countries worldwide, but has been banned in several American states. 4) Belize scraps law Belize’s Supreme Court in September ruled that a law criminalizing homosexuality was unconstitutional, in a judgment LGBTI activists say will boost efforts to abolish laws in other former British colonies in the Caribbean. The law, which punished gay sex with up to 10 years in prison, was scrapped after years of advocacy by the gay rights activist Caleb Orozco of the United Belize Advocacy Movement. Belize became the third country to decriminalize gay sex in 2016, along with the South Pacific island of Nauru and the Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago, according to the U. S. Human Rights Campaign. Yet it remains illegal in 72 countries worldwide, most of which are former British colonies, the gay rights group said. 5) Beauty pageants, film industry shine spotlight on gay and transgender issues From the first openly lesbian Miss America contestant and Israel’s inaugural transgender beauty pageant to Emmy awards for the hit transgender TV series ”Transparent” the entertainment industry is shining a bigger spotlight on LGBTI stars and issues. The popularity of shows in recent years like ”Orange Is The New Black” and movies such as ”The Danish Girl” which feature transgender stars or focus on issues facing gay and transgender people, have seen LGBTI rights become mainstream in the media. Yet this success comes amid controversy within the LGBTI community over how transgender people are portrayed, and over the casting of straight men and women in transgender roles. ”I would be happy if I were the last cisgender male to play a transgender female,” actor Jeffrey Tambour said in September in his acceptance speech after winning an Emmy for his portrayal of transgender woman Moiré Pfeiffer in ”Transparent”. (Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news. trust. org) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

UK lawmakers call for tax transparency in British territories

A group of 81 UK lawmakers said they backed a legal amendment which would force the UK’s overseas territories to publish the names of the true owners of companies, in an effort to stamp out tax evasion and money laundering. UK overseas territories including the British Virgin Islands and the Caymans have built large financial industries based, in part, on offering clients anonymity. While the UK requires companies to disclose their true owners, to ensure criminals can’t conceal illicit money flows or hide assets from victims or creditors, the territories have resisted publishing any information about companies’ directors or owners. Member of Parliament Margaret Hodge said she planned to table an amendment on Tuesday to the Government’s Criminal Finances Bill that would force the Territories to adopt the same transparency standards as the rest of the UK by 2020. “The Government can’t possibly claim to be tackling corruption without getting a grip on the tax havens that are under the UK’s umbrella which facilitate all kinds of corruption and tax avoidance and evasion,” she said in a statement. She said she had enough parliamentarians from the ruling Conservative party to force the government’s hand on the issue. The UK overseas territories say international standards on transparency vary and that theirs are no worse than most others. (Editing by Greg Mahlich) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

U.S. charges Platinum Partners execs with $1 billion fraud

Top executives of New hedge fund manager Platinum Partners were arrested on Monday and charged with running a $1 billion fraud that federal prosecutors said became ”like a Ponzi scheme” as its largest investments lost much of their value. Led by Mark Nordlicht, Platinum was known for years for producing exceptionally high returns about 17 percent annually in its largest fund by taking an unusually aggressive approach to investing and fund management, as detailed by a Reuters Special Report in April. ( ) Nordlicht, Platinum’s founding partner and chief investment officer, was arrested at his home in New Rochelle, New York. Federal prosecutors accused him and six others of participating in a pair of schemes to defraud investors. ”The charges . .. highlight the brazenness and the breadth of the defendants’ lies and deceit,” Brooklyn U. S. Attorney Robert Capers told reporters. Capers added that the case was one of the largest and ”most brazen” investment frauds ever and Platinum was ultimately exposed to have ”no more value than a tarnished piece of cheap metal.” The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced parallel charges Monday against the same executives and two Platinum entities for similar civil fraud charges. A criminal indictment said since 2012, Nordlicht and four other defendants defrauded investors by overvaluing illiquid assets held by its flagship Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage funds, mostly troubled investments. This caused a ”severe liquidity crisis” that Platinum at first tried to remedy through loans between its funds before selectively paying some investors ahead of others, the indictment said. ”So to some extent, there is a aspect to this scheme,” Capers said. FLEEING TO ISRAEL Founded in 2003, Platinum until this year had more than $1. 7 billion under management, with more than 600 investors, authorities said. Some of those investors came from the same New Jewish community as Nordlicht and other Platinum executives. They have included a charitable trust set up by pioneer Aaron Elbogen; the Century 21 Associates Foundation, led by department store executive Raymond Gindi; and the SFF Foundation, a controlled by the Schron family, known for its real estate investments. Avi Schron declined to comment; Gindi and Elbogen did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The indictment describes how angry investors sought to take their money out in late 2015 and early 2016 as Platinum hinted to clients that some assets were in trouble. It also cites emails between Nordlicht and another unnamed executive in which the men discussed fleeing to Israel as pressure on the firm mounted. Prosecutors said David Levy, Platinum’s investment officer, and Uri Landesman, the former president of the firm’s signature fund, also participated in the scheme, which prosecutors said allowed Platinum to extract more than $100 million in fees based on inflated asset values. Nordlicht, Levy and Jeffrey Shulse, former chief executive officer of Platinum’s Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC [BLCELB. UL] also schemed to defraud bondholders of Black Elk, a Texas energy company, out of $50 million, prosecutors said. The indictment said the scheme involved using a group of reinsurance companies called Beechwood, partially controlled by Platinum’s principals, to rig a bond vote and pay the hedge fund manager ahead of creditors. Nordlicht, appearing in court in a checkered shirt and blue jeans, pleaded not guilty to charges including securities fraud and was granted bail by U. S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom on a $5 million bond secured by $500, 000 cash. Levy and Landesman also pleaded not guilty Monday. ”The complaint makes clear that Beechwood was kept in the dark about what Platinum has been accused of doing,” Davidson Goldin, a spokesman for Beechwood, said in a statement. Shulse, who was taken into custody in Houston, did not respond to requests for comment. A Platinum spokesman declined to comment. This year, a series of investigations tied to Platinum came to a head. The firm hired an independent monitor in July to unwind its funds, and a Cayman Islands court in August placed its main offshore funds into liquidation. Those moves came after the June arrest of Murray Huberfeld, a longtime Platinum associate, on charges in Manhattan federal court that he orchestrated a bribe to the head of the New York City prison guards’ union, Norman Seabrook, to secure a $20 million investment with the firm. Seabrook pleaded not guilty, as did Huberfeld who was also arrested. Two weeks later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U. S. Postal Inspection Service raided Platinum’s Manhattan offices in a separate fraud investigation that culminated in Monday’s indictment. Others indicted on Monday include Joseph SanFilippo, Value Arbitrage’s former chief financial officer; Joseph Mann, a former Platinum marketing employee; and Daniel Small, a Platinum managing director. The three men also pleaded not guilty. The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday that it was seeking a receiver for funds managed by Platinum Credit Management, the firm’s vehicle after Value Arbitrage. The case is U. S. v. Nordlicht et al, U. S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. . (Reporting by Nate Raymond and Lawrence Delevingne in New York; Editing by David Gregorio, Lisa Shumaker and Alan Crosby) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Trump wins Electoral College vote; a few electors break ranks

Republican Donald Trump prevailed in U. S. Electoral College voting on Monday to officially win election as the next president, easily dashing a push by a small movement of detractors to try to block him from gaining the White House. Trump, who is set to take office on Jan. 20, garnered more than the 270 electoral votes required to win, even as at least half a dozen U. S. electors broke with tradition to vote against their own state’s directives, the largest number of “faithless electors” seen in more than a century. The Electoral College vote is normally a formality but took on extra prominence this year after a group of Democratic activists sought to persuade Republicans to cross lines and vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. She won the nationwide popular vote even as she failed to win enough votes in the acrimonious Nov. 8 election. Protesters briefly disrupted Wisconsin’s Electoral College balloting. In Austin, Texas, about 100 people chanting: “Dump Trump” and waving signs reading: “The Eyes of Texas are Upon You” gathered at the state capitol trying to sway electors. In the end, however, more Democrats than Republicans went rogue, underscoring deep divisions within their party. At least four Democratic electors voted for someone other than Clinton, while two Republicans turned their backs on Trump. With nearly all votes counted, Trump had clinched 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227, according to an Associated Press tally of the voting by 538 electors across the country. ”I will work hard to unite our country and be the President of all Americans,” Trump said in a statement responding to the results. The Electoral College assigns each state electors equal to its number of representatives and senators in Congress. The District of Columbia also has three electoral votes. The votes will be officially counted during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. When voters go to the polls to cast a ballot for president, they are actually choosing a presidential candidate’s preferred slate of electors for their state. ’FAITHLESS ELECTORS’ The ”faithless electors” as they are known represent a rare break from the tradition of casting an Electoral College ballot as directed by the outcome of that state’s popular election. The most recent instance of a ”faithless elector” was in 2004, according to the Congressional Research Service. The practice has been very rare in modern times, with only eight such electors since 1900, each in a different election. The two Republican breaks on Monday came from Texas, where the voting is by secret ballot. One Republican elector voted for Ron Paul, a favorite among Libertarians and former Republican congressman, and another for Ohio Governor John Kasich, who challenged Trump in the race for the Republican nomination. Republican elector Christopher Suprun from Texas had said he would not vote for Trump, explaining in an in the New York Times that he had concerns about Trump’s foreign policy experience and business conflicts. On the Democratic side, it appeared to be the largest number of electors not supporting their party’s nominee since 1872, when 63 Democratic electors did not vote for party nominee Horace Greeley, who had died after the election but before the Electoral College convened, according to Fairvote. org. Republican Ulysses S. Grant had won in a landslide. Four of the 12 Democratic electors in Washington state broke ranks, with three voting for Colin Powell, a former Republican secretary of state, and one for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American elder who has protested oil pipeline projects in the Dakotas. Bret Chiafalo, 38, of Everett, Washington, was one of three votes for Powell. He said he knew Clinton would not win but believed Powell was better suited for the job than Trump. The founding fathers ”said the electoral college was not to elect a demagogue, was not to elect someone influenced by foreign powers, was not to elect someone who is unfit for office. Trump fails on all three counts, unlike any candidate we’ve ever seen in American history,” Chiafalo said in an interview. ’GREAT ANGST’ Washington’s Democratic governor, Jay Inslee, said after the vote that the Electoral College system should be abolished. ”This was a very difficult decision made this year. There is great angst abroad in the land,” Inslee said. states have laws trying to prevent electors most of whom have close ties to their parties from breaking ranks. In Maine, Democratic elector David Bright first cast his vote for Clinton’s rival for the party nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who carried the state in the party nominating contest. His vote was rejected, and he voted for Clinton on a second ballot. In Hawaii, one of the state’s four Democratic electors cast a ballot for Sanders in defiance of state law binding electors to the state’s Election Day outcome, according to reports from the Los Angeles Times and Honolulu newspapers. In Colorado, where a state law requires electors to cast their ballots for the winner of the state’s popular vote, elector Michael Baca tried to vote for Kasich but was replaced with another elector. In Minnesota, one of the state’s 10 electors would not cast his vote for Clinton as required under state law, prompting his dismissal and an alternate to be sworn in. All 10 of the state’s electoral votes were then cast for her. (Additional reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Del. Keith Coffman and Rick Wilking in Denver, and Roberta Rampton, David Morgan and Julia Harte in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney) MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

Lagarde keeps IMF job, escapes penalty after negligence conviction in France

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde escaped punishment and kept her job on Monday despite a conviction on negligence charges over a state payout made while she served as France’s finance minister in 2008. The executive board representing the IMF’s 189 member countries reaffirmed its full confidence in Lagarde’s ability to lead the crisis lender, hours after the verdict was issued by a panel of judges in Paris with no fine or jail term. Lagarde told reporters at IMF headquarters that she would not appeal the decision after vigorously fighting the charge since she took the IMF’s helm in 2011. ”I have been held negligent, but without penalty, without sanction, without registration of the decision,” she said. ”I am not satisfied with it, but there’s a point in time when one has to just stop, turn the page and move on and continue to work with those who have put their trust in me.” In Monday’s ruling, the judges did not find negligence in Lagarde’s decision to seek an settlement with tycoon Bernard Tapie, but they said her failure to contest the award to him of about 400 million euros ($417 million) was negligent and led to a misuse of public funds. The lead judge on the case, Martine Ract Madoux, explained the absence of any sentence by citing Lagarde’s preoccupation with the financial crisis that was raging at the time of the payout as well as her strong international reputation. The charge could have carried a maximum prison sentence. U. S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew called Lagarde a ”strong leader,” adding: ”We have every confidence in her ability to guide the fund at a critical time for the global economy.” But the conviction may still work against Lagarde in her campaign to push back against a wave of protectionist sentiment and populist mistrust of public officials. She has called on IMF member countries to better promote the benefits of trade and globalization and adopt policies that combat growing inequality. Reappointed to a term in February, Lagarde said on Monday that she would now ”focus all my attention, all my time, all my efforts, all my energy and enthusiasm to my mission as head of the IMF.” Lagarde, 60, who described the case as a ordeal, argued in the trial last week that she had acted in good faith and with the public interest in mind. She also said she had signed off on the arbitration against the advice of some Finance Ministry officials to end a costly legal battle between the government and Tapie, a supporter of Nicolas Sarkozy. The case dates back to when Tapie sued the French state for compensation after selling his stake in sports company Adidas to then Credit Lyonnais in 1993. He accused the bank of defrauding him after it resold its stake for a much higher price. With the case stuck in the courts, the two sides agreed to a private settlement and Tapie was awarded a 403 million euro payout, including interest and damages. The case was only the fifth ever heard by a special French court created in 1993 to try government ministers. The court of 15 judges, including 12 lawmakers, has never handed down a firm prison sentence. (Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington; writing by Leigh Thomas; editing by Mark Heinrich, Dan Grebler and G Crosse) SINGAPORE Most Asian stock markets fell on Thursday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed a lack of consensus on the future pace of U. S. interest rate increases, while oil prices inched higher following a steep decline a day earlier. WASHINGTON Federal Reserve policymakers were increasingly split on the outlook for inflation and how it might affect the future pace of interest rate rises, according to the minutes of the Fed’s last policy meeting on June released on Wednesday.

U.N. chief fears genocide about to start in South Sudan

United Nations Ban said on Monday he feared genocide was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action is taken, renewing his plea for the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the world’s newest country. ”If we fail to act, South Sudan will be on a trajectory towards mass atrocities,” Ban told the Security Council. ”The Security Council must take steps to stem the flow of arms to South Sudan.” Noting that his special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, has described genocide as a process, Ban said: ”I am afraid that process is about to begin unless immediate action is taken.” Political rivalry between South Sudan President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a shaky peace deal last year, but fighting has continued. Machar fled in July and is now in South Africa. Ban said reports suggested Kiir and his loyalists ”are contemplating a new military offensive in the coming days” against opposition troops, while ”there are clear indications that Riek Machar and other opposition groups are pursuing a military escalation.” Dieng told the council last month that he had seen ”all the signs that ethnic hatred and targeting of civilians could evolve into genocide,” and the head of a U. N. human rights commission said the country was on the brink of an ethnic civil war. ”How many more clues do you, do we all need to move from our anxious words to real preventative action?” U. N. aid chief Stephen O’Brien asked the council on Monday. U. S. PRESSES TO ”STOP ATROCITIES” South Sudan’s U. N. ambassador, Akuei Bona Malwal, on Monday said the descriptions were exaggerated and did not ”reflect the reality on the ground.” ”There have been no attempts, that we are aware of, on the part of the South Sudanese masses to turn against each other,” he told the Security Council. Following an outbreak of deadly violence in Juba, the capital, in July, the Security Council in August authorized a protection force as part of a U. N. peacekeeping force already on the ground and threatened an arms embargo if Kiir’s government did not cooperate. None of the new troops have yet deployed. ”Obstruction and defiance,” the U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said of Kiir’s government. U. N. peacekeepers have been in South Sudan since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011. There are currently some 13, 700 U. N. troops and police on the ground. The United States has been struggling to secure the minimum number of votes needed for the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan. To be adopted, a resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes. Diplomats have said that so far only seven members were in favor, with the remaining eight planning to abstain or vote no. While veto powers Russia and China are skeptical whether an arms embargo would achieve much in a country awash with weapons, diplomats did not expect them to block the measure. Power said she wants to put a resolution to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan to a vote before the end of the year. ”The situation is not getting better, it’s getting worse, and we’re sitting on our hands as a council,” Power said. ”We have to try to stop atrocities in South Sudan.” (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

Whippocalypse? U.S. ready-made whipped cream in short supply

American sweet tooths may suffer this holiday season as a whipped cream shortage could leave such favorites as apple pie or a mug of hot chocolate without a little extra on top. The creamy dessert topping is in short supply after an August explosion at an Airgas Inc facility in Florida disrupted the supply of nitrous oxide, the gas used to keep whipped cream airy and light, industry officials said. ”The timing is really unfortunate,” said Stephanie McVaugh, vice president of Natural Dairy Products Corporation, the maker of Natural by Nature whipped cream. Demand usually picks up in November as the holidays approach, she said, but her company produced its first run of whipped cream only last week after having none for a ”couple of months.” The U. S. market for products like whipped cream was expected to reach $505. 3 million in 2016, according to market research firm Euromonitor International, up from $407. 2 million in 2011. While the disruption has put some on edge, some culinary websites and blogs have noted there is no shortage of cream and that making ”real” whipped cream at home is a simple task. ”It’s only a whipped cream shortage if you don’t eat real whipped cream,” a post on the personal finance website the Penny Hoarder said on Monday. The real thing is relatively easy to make, the site added. There was not a ”Whippocalypse or Creamageddon in sight,” food website Serious Eats said. For those who prefer the version, Airgas, which distributes gas for industrial and medical purposes, said in an email it was making ”all possible efforts to remedy the situation as quickly as possible.” The company said serving medical customers is the first priority until supplies have stabilized. The Purchasing Association of Private Clubs warned in November of the shortage, saying ConAgra Foods Inc ( ) had halted all production of products. Lanie Friedman, a spokeswoman for ConAgra, said the company is ”doing the best we can to make it ( ) available to as many people as possible.” A full supply should be on hand by February, she said. Nate Formalarie, spokesman for Vermont’s Cabot Creamery Cooperative, said in an email there had been shortages but that ”there is light at the end of the tunnel.” (Editing by Ben Klayman and Matthew Lewis) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Russian ambassador shot dead in Ankara gallery

The Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot in the back and killed as he gave a speech at an Ankara art gallery on Monday by an police officer who shouted ”Don’t forget Aleppo” and ”Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire. President Tayyip Erdogan, in a video message to the nation, cast the attack as an attempt to undermine Turkey’s relations with Russia ties long tested by the war in Syria. He said he had agreed in a telephone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to step up cooperation in fighting terrorism. At a special meeting at the Kremlin, President Putin ordered increased security at all Russian missions and said ”the bandits” who committed the act would feel retribution. ”We must know who directed the killer’s hand.” The assassination of an ambassador, not least of a major power such as Russia, marks a dangerous escalation of tension in the region and beyond. Security sources said he was off duty and some witnesses said there was no security scanning machine at the entrance. The attacker was smartly dressed in black suit and tie and stood, alone, behind the ambassador as he began his speech at the art exhibition, a person at the scene told Reuters. ”He took out his gun and shot the ambassador from behind. We saw him lying on the floor and then we ran out,” said the witness, who asked not to be identified. People took refuge in adjoining rooms as the shooting continued. A video showed the attacker shouting: ”Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!” and ”Allahu Akbar” (”God is Greatest”) as screams rang out. He paced about and shouted as he held the gun in one hand and waved the other in the air. Russia is an ally of Syrian President Bashar and its air strikes helped Syrian forces end rebel resistance last week in the northern city of Aleppo. Turkey, which seeks Assad’s ouster, has been repairing ties with Moscow after shooting down a Russian warplane over Syria last year. The gunman was killed by special forces. Three other people were injured. ”We regard this as a terrorist act,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. ”Terrorism will not win and we will fight against it decisively.” GULEN Erdogan, who has faced a string of attacks by Islamist and Kurdish militants as well as an attempted coup in July, identified the attacker as Mevlut Mert Altintas, who had worked for Ankara riot police for two and a half years. CNN Turk TV said police had detained his sister and mother. A senior security official said there were ”very strong signs” the gunman belonged to the network of the U. S. cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says orchestrated the failed coup in July. Erdogan has denounced Gulen as a terrorist, but the cleric, a former ally, denies the accusation. Gulen described the killing as a ”heinous act of terror” that pointed to a deterioration of security in Turkey resulting from Erdogan’s purge of police as well as the army, judiciary and media following the coup bid. The government says Gulen, who has lived in exile in the U. S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, created a ”parallel network” in the police, military, judiciary and civil service aimed at overthrowing the state. Suspicion could also fall on a group such as Islamic State, which has carried out a string of bomb attacks in Turkey in the last year as Ankara has pressed a military campaign against the militants in Syria. The group has urged ”lone” attacks in the West. U. S. STATE DEPARTMENT Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was due to meet his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Russia on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Syria. Officials said the meeting would still go on, despite the attack. ”The attack comes at a bad time: Moscow and Ankara have only recently restored diplomatic ties after Turkey downed a Russian aircraft in November 2015,” the Stratfor said. ”Though the attack will strain relations between the two countries, it is not likely to rupture them altogether.” However, both Russia and Turkey indicated that they were looking to work together to find the combat militant attacks. The U. S. State Department, involved in diplomatic contacts with Russia in an attempt to resolve a refugee crisis unfolding around the city of Aleppo, condemned the attack, as did the United Nations Security Council. Tensions have escalated in recent weeks as Syrian forces have fought for control of the eastern part of Aleppo, triggering a stream of refugees. (Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun, Nevzat Devranoglu, Tulay Karadeniz, Ercan Gurses and Gulsen Solaker in Ankara; Humeyra Pamuk and Ece Toksabay in Istanbul; Andrew Osborn and Andrey Ostroukh in Moscow; Writing by Daren Butler and David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton and Mark Trevelyan) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

U.S. sees China returning drone as early as Tuesday in South China Sea

The United States expects China to return soon an underwater U. S. drone seized by a Chinese naval vessel last week, with one U. S. official telling Reuters the exchange could happen as early as Tuesday at an agreed location in the South China Sea. China’s seizure of the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) triggered a diplomatic protest and speculation about whether it will strengthen U. S. Donald Trump’s hand as he seeks a tougher line with Beijing. A Chinese warship took the drone, which the Pentagon says uses unclassified, commercially available technology to collect oceanographic data, on Thursday about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay in the Philippines. The U. S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said talks with Beijing on the timing of the exchange were advancing, with two saying they expected the incident to be resolved satisfactorily ”relatively soon.” One said the exchange could take place near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea as early as Tuesday, local time. A U. S. destroyer would likely receive the drone, although the mechanics of the exchange were unclear. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook at a news briefing said only that ”We’re working out the logistical details with Chinese officials”. In Beijing, China’s foreign ministry said the Chinese and U. S. militaries were having ”unimpeded” talks about the return. The seizure has added to U. S. concerns about China’s growing military presence and aggressive posture in the disputed South China Sea, including its militarization of maritime outposts. The U. S. Navy has about 130 such underwater drones, made by Teledyne Webb, each weighing about 60 kg (130 pounds) and able to stay underwater for up to five months. They are used to collect unclassified data about oceans, including temperature and depth. They are used around the world, but it is unclear how many are used in the South China Sea. KEEP THE DRONE! Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, waded into the dispute over the weekend, saying in a tweet: ”We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back let them keep it!” Trump has threatened to declare China a currency manipulator and force changes in U. S. trade policy, which he says has led to the greatest theft of American jobs in history. Trump has also raised questions about the most sensitive part of the U. S. relationship: whether Washington would stick to its nearly policy of recognizing that Taiwan is part of ”one China.” Asked about Trump’s comments, Hua said describing the drone as stolen was ”completely incorrect”. ”China’s navy had a responsible and professional attitude to identify and ascertain this object,” she said. ”If you discover or pick something up from the street you have to examine it and if somebody asks you for it you have to work out if it’s theirs before you can give it back.” Cook called the seizure illegal and said Washington was using military and diplomatic channels to secure the drone’s return. Pentagon officials have sought to be firm without escalating the incident. Another senior U. S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the somewhat muted U. S. response to the seizure, coupled with Trump’s abandonment of the Partnership trade agreement, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s erratic policies and Malaysia’s corruption scandal, has caused some U. S. allies to worry increasingly about the possibility of a declining American commitment to the region. The Philippines said it was troubling that the incident took place inside its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) saying it increased the likelihood of ”miscalculations that could lead to open confrontation” very near the Philippine mainland. DEEP SUSPICIONS China is deeply suspicious of any U. S. military activities in the South China Sea, with state media and experts saying the use of the drone was likely part of U. S. surveillance efforts in the disputed waterway. The overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily said in a commentary on Monday the USNS Bowditch, which was fielding the drone and was set to pick it up, was a ”serial offender” when it came to spying operations against China. Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, told Reuters he believed the Chinese navy probably had orders to take the drone. But Ni said the incident was very different from the 2001 intercept of a U. S. spy plane by a Chinese fighter jet that resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on Hainan. ”This is a much smaller incident, it won’t affect the overall picture of . S. relations,” he said, adding he did not expect China to seek an apology. The 24 U. S. air crew members were held for 11 days before being released, souring U. S. relations in the early days of President George W. Bush’s first administration. However, Greg Poling, a South China Sea expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U. S. military could feel compelled to take steps to further assert freedom of navigation in the region. ”For a lot of folks in the Pentagon, this that line between legal contestation and a military threat,” he said. While the U. S. Navy under the Obama administration has sent warships periodically sailing near artificial islands claimed by China over the last year or so, it has mostly acted cautiously, seeking to avoid escalation with Beijing, which claims large swathes of the waterway. In October, the United States carried out a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea, sailing within waters claimed by China, but not within the territorial limits of the islands. Despite Trump’s more aggressive tone, he has given no clear policy on how he plans to deal with the dispute in the South China Sea. (Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila and John Walcott in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast and James Dalgleish) CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis. WASHINGTON U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday it was important for U. S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to have a ”good exchange” over how they see the nature of the bilateral relationship.

Putin says Turkey ambassador murder is ploy to wreck Syrian peace process

President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the killing of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was a despicable provocation aimed at spoiling ties and derailing Moscow’s attempts to find, with Iran and Turkey, a solution for the Syria crisis. In televised comments, Putin, speaking at a special meeting in the Kremlin, ordered security at Russian embassies around the world to be stepped up and said he wanted to know who had ”directed” the gunman’s hand. He heaped praise on the murdered Russian ambassador, Andrei Karlov, who was shot in the back and killed as he gave a speech at an Ankara art gallery, and made clear that Moscow’s response to his assassination would be robust. ”A crime has been committed and it was without doubt a provocation aimed at spoiling the normalization of relations and spoiling the Syrian peace process which is being actively pushed by Russia, Turkey, Iran and others,” said a Putin. ”There can only be one response stepping up the fight against terrorism. The bandits will feel this happening.” Putin, who said he personally knew the slain envoy, said he had agreed in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan that Russian investigators would soon fly to Ankara to help the Turks with the investigation. ”We must know who directed the killer’s hand,” Putin told Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Sergei Naryshkin, the head of his SVR foreign intelligence service, and Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the domestic FSB security service. Putin ordered security at Turkish diplomatic facilities in Russia to be stepped up and said he wanted guarantees from Turkey about the safety of Russian diplomatic facilities. ”I also ask you to implement the agreed proposals on strengthening security at Russian diplomatic facilities abroad,” Putin told the meeting. The foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey are due to discuss the future of Syria in Moscow on Tuesday. The Interfax news agency cited Leonid Slutsky, a senior parliamentarian, as saying earlier on Monday that the talks would go ahead despite the murder. In an odd coincidence, Putin had been planning to attend a Moscow play on Monday night written by Alexander Griboyedov, Russia’s ambassador to Iran, who was murdered in 1829. Putin canceled when he heard his Turkish envoy had been murdered. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Alison Williams) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

U.S. judge orders unsealing of Clinton email probe search warrant

A U. S. judge on Monday ordered the unsealing of the application used to obtain a search warrant that allowed the FBI to gain access to emails related to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s private server before the Nov. 8 election. U. S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan directed the release by Tuesday of redacted materials used to obtain a search warrant after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey informed Congress of newly discovered emails on Oct. 28. Comey’s letter drew new attention to a damaging issue for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and roiled the campaign 11 days before the Nov. 8 election, won by Republican Donald Trump. The search warrant materials’ release sought by Randol Schoenberg, a Los lawyer, who in court papers said transparency was crucial given the potential influence the probe had on the election’s outcome. Sources close to the investigation have said the emails were discovered during an unrelated probe into former Democratic U. S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. In his order, Castel said he would allow the redaction of the identities of two unnamed individuals, one of whom is subject to an ”ongoing criminal investigation.” But he said the ”strong presumption of access attached to the search warrant and related materials is not overcome by any remaining privacy interest of Secretary Clinton.” Lawyers for Clinton and Abedin did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did the U. S. Justice Department. A lawyer for Weiner had no immediate comment. Clinton used the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. In July, Comey recommended no criminal charges be brought over Clinton’s handing of classified information in the emails, although he said she and her colleagues were ”extremely careless” in handling such information. In his Oct. 28 letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the Clinton server probe had been discovered in an ”unrelated case.” Sources close to the investigation have said the emails were discovered during an unrelated probe into Weiner following a media report that he engaged in sexually explicit cellphone and online messaging with a girl. Federal investigators got a warrant to examine the emails to see if they were related to the probe into Clinton’s private server. Only two days before the election, Comey disclosed that the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell and Alan Crosby) MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

Thousands evacuated from Aleppo after deal over besieged villages

Thousands of people were evacuated from the last enclave of Aleppo on Monday in return for insurgents allowing people to leave two besieged villages in nearby Idlib province. In bitter winter weather, convoys of buses from eastern Aleppo reached areas to the west of the city. More buses left the Shi’ite Muslim villages of and Kefraya for government lines, according to a U. N. official and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. The foreign and defense ministers of Russia and Iran, President Bashar ’s main supporters, and Turkey, which backs some large rebel groups, will meet in Moscow on Tuesday. The talks, aimed at giving fresh impetus for a solution in Aleppo, will go ahead despite the killing of Russia’s ambassador to Ankara by a gunman on Monday. The United Nations Security Council agreed a resolution calling for U. N. officials and others to monitor evacuations from east Aleppo and the safety of civilians still there. The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja’afari, denounced the resolution as propaganda, saying the last of the rebels were leaving and Aleppo would be ”clean” by Monday evening. U. N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura intends to convene peace talks in Geneva on Feb. 8, his office said. The recapture of Aleppo is Syrian President Bashar ’s biggest victory so far in the nearly war, but the fighting is not over. Large parts of the country are still controlled by insurgent and Islamist groups. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said 20, 000 civilians had been evacuated from Aleppo so far, but there were wide variations in estimates of how many people still sought to be taken out, from a few thousand up to tens of thousands. “Thousands of people still want to be evacuated,” ICRC spokesman Krista Armstrong said of Aleppo. An estimated total of 17, 000 people have been evacuated from the enclave since Thursday, including 7, 000 on Monday, she said. “There are still 40 buses inside the enclave of east Aleppo with more people who are proceeding with evacuation. The operation is still ongoing,” she said. Senior rebel official Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim group said ”the process is supposed to continue” throughout the night. Nearly 50 children, some critically injured, were rescued from eastern Aleppo, where they had been trapped in an orphanage, the United Nations said. The evacuation of civilians from the two villages had been demanded by the Syrian army and its allies before they would allow fighters and civilians trapped in Aleppo to depart. The halted the Aleppo evacuation over the weekend. ”Complex evacuations from East Aleppo and Foua & Kefraya now in full swing. More than 900 buses needed to evacuate all. We must not fail,” Jan Egeland, who chairs the United Nations aid task force in Syria, tweeted. INTENSE COLD, LONG WAIT Ahmad a medical aid worker heading a team evacuating patients from Aleppo, said more than 100 buses had left the city. ”Some evacuees told us that a few children died from the long wait and the intense cold while they were waiting to evacuate,” he told Reuters. For those still in Aleppo, conditions were grim, according to Aref a nurse and photographer there. ”I’m still in Aleppo. I’m waiting for them to evacuate the children and women first. It’s very cold and there’s hunger. It’s a long wait,” he told Reuters. ”People are burning wood and clothes to keep warm in the streets.” Photographs of people evacuated from Aleppo showed large groups of people standing or crouching with their belongings or loading sacks onto trucks. Children in winter clothes carried small backpacks or played with kittens. One older man, in traditional Arab robes and headdress, sat holding a stick. BUSES BURNED On Sunday, some of the buses sent to and Kefraya to carry evacuees out were attacked and torched by armed men. That incident threatened to derail the evacuations, the result of intense negotiations between Russia and Turkey. The fate of those stuck in the last rebel bastion in Aleppo is still at stake after a series of sudden advances by the Syrian army and allied Shi’ite militias under an intense bombardment that pulverized large sections of the city. They have been waiting for the chance to leave Aleppo since the ceasefire and evacuation deal was agreed late last Tuesday, but have been prevented from doing so during days of . In the square in Aleppo’s Sukari district, organizers gave every family a number to allow them access to buses. ”Everyone is waiting until they are evacuated. They just want to escape,” said Salah al Attar, a former teacher with his five children, wife and mother. CAMP IN TURKEY Thousands of people were evacuated on Thursday, the first to leave under the ceasefire deal that ends fighting in the city where violence erupted in 2012, a year after the start of conflict in other parts of Syria. They were taken to districts of the countryside west of Aleppo. Turkey has said Aleppo evacuees could also be housed in a camp to be constructed in Syria near the Turkish border to the north. For four years, the city was split between a eastern sector and the western districts. During the summer, the army and its allies besieged the rebel sector before using intense bombardment and ground assaults to retake it in recent months. A Reuters reporter who visited recaptured districts of Aleppo in recent days saw large swathes reduced to ruins, with rubble everywhere and sections of the famous Old City all but destroyed. Traders began to return to their stores in the Old City to see if they could be fixed up. One merchant, Jamal Deeb, said: ”We are all here to see what the situation is like, and to consider reconstructing the stores. We do not want to leave things as they are, hand in hand we want to rebuild everything once again.” Assad is backed in the war by Russian air power and Shi’ite militias including Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Iraq’s Harakat . The mostly Sunni rebels include groups supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies. East of Aleppo, several villages held by Islamic State have been captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of militias backed by the United States that includes a strong Kurdish contingent, the Observatory said. The advance is part of a campaign backed by an international coalition to drive Islamic State from its Syrian capital of Raqqa. (Reporting by Angus McDowall, Humeyra Pamuk, Stephanie Nebehay, writing by Giles Elgood and Anna Willard; Editing by Tom Heneghan) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

North Carolina considers transgender bathroom law repeal this week

In a surprise development, outgoing Republican Governor Pat McCrory called the state legislature to convene on Wednesday to reconsider the law adopted in March baring transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity. North Carolina’s law, the first of its kind, catapulted the state to the forefront of U. S. culture wars over lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. It has been blamed for hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses and the relocation of major sporting events. Earlier on Monday, the city council in Charlotte, the state’s largest city, voted to remove local measures that triggered the state’s bathroom legislation, calling for immediately repeal the law known as House Bill (H. B.) 2. ”Now that the Charlotte ordinance has finally been repealed, the expectation of privacy in our showers, bathrooms and locker rooms is restored and protected under previous state law,” McCrory said in a videotaped statement. He recently lost a election seen as a referendum on the bathroom debate. McCrory called Charlotte’s ”sudden reversal with little notice after the gubernatorial election” proof that opponents seized the issue for political gain. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said he had assurances from Republican legislative leaders on the special session to repeal H. B. 2. ”I hope they will keep their word to me,” Cooper said in a statement earlier in the day, noting a repeal will help bring back jobs and events lost in the boycott. Amid the fallout, the National Basketball Association and leading collegiate conferences pulled sporting events from the state. Performers including Bruce Springsteen, Maroon 5 and Pearl Jam canceled shows and companies such as PayPal Holdings and Deutsche Bank scrapped plans to add jobs in the state. Signaling ongoing discord, Republican legislative leaders called Cooper dishonest in a statement on Monday afternoon, while acknowledging they would heed McCrory’s call. Last week, the legislature passed measures to curtail the executive authority of the incoming Democratic governor. ”This will be an important step for North Carolinians to move forward, but it never should have come at the cost of protections for LGBT people living in Charlotte,” said Sarah Gillooly, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, one of the groups challenging the law in federal court. (Reporting by Letitia Stein and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Alan Crosby and Dan Grebler) WASHINGTON The issuance of U. S. visas, passports and other travel documents should be transferred to the Department of Homeland Security from the State Department, a consulting company commissioned by U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has recommended in a report. Gene Conley, the only man to win both a baseball World Series and an NBA championship in basketball, died on Tuesday at the age of 86, the Boston Red Sox said in a statement.

Global stocks, dollar edge higher but safe havens get bid after Turkey, Germany attacks

Stocks edged higher worldwide on Monday as Wall Street extended a rally that has pushed U. S. stocks near highs, while the dollar got a boost from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen who sounded optimistic about the U. S. labor market. Deadly attacks late in the trading day in Turkey and Germany made stocks pare their gains, while Treasuries prices rose and the yen firmed. U. S. stock indexes hit record highs last week as investors piled on bets that the anticipated fiscal boost from the incoming administration of U. S. Donald Trump would support riskier assets. That trend continued Monday with MSCI’s gauge of global equities finishing the session modestly higher, buoyed by gains in U. S. stocks, which were led by telecom and tech shares in a session. ”The Trump rally is still with us,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. ”Every time something’s down for two days, people jump on it. People are looking for buying opportunities.” Stocks pared their gains after news that a truck had plowed into a crowd in Berlin, killing nine people and injuring at least 50 others. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 39. 65 points, or 0. 2 percent, to 19, 883. 06, the S&P 500 gained 4. 46 points, or just under 0. 2 percent, to 2, 262. 53 and the Nasdaq Composite added 20. 28 points, or 0. 37 percent, to 5, 457. 44. The Turkish lira and Russian rouble fell to session lows against the greenback on news the Russian ambassador to Turkey was killed in a gun attack at an art gallery in the Turkish capital of Ankara. The lira was last down about 0. 6 percent at 3. 525 per dollar while the rouble hit a session low of 62. 045 per dollar before retracing to 61. 854, according to Reuters data. The Japanese yen added to gains after the reports of the ambassador being shot and the truck attack, rising 0. 75 percent against the dollar . The dollar edged into positive territory after the release of Yellen’s remarks to students at the University of Baltimore, eyeing a high against a basket of currencies touched last week. It was last up 0. 2 percent.[ ] U. S. Treasury prices also rose after news of the incidents, with benchmark notes gaining in price to yield 2. 538 percent. [ ] Europe’s index of 300 leading shares retreated from Friday’s high and fell 0. 07 percent. Germany’s DAX index rose 0. 2 percent while France’s CAC slipped 0. 22 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0. 08 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock index, which has benefited from the yen’s sharp fall against the dollar, snapped its winning streak, edging down from Friday’s high. MSCI’s world index that tracks stock markets around the globe rose 0. 14 percent. Oil prices edged lower but held just below $55 per barrel, with little news to influence the market. Brent futures fell 0. 8 percent to $54. 77 a barrel, while U. S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0. 2 percent to $51. 79. (Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and James Dalgleish) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Fed’s Yellen trumpets education in changing economy

Changing technologies and globalization have put a premium on completing a college education in order to get and keep jobs, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Monday. ”The drivers of this increasing demand for those with college and graduate degrees are likely to continue to be important,” Yellen said in prepared remarks to a University of Baltimore commencement ceremony at which she was due to receive an honorary degree. She did not mention monetary policy in her speech, which was solely focused on the world of work, but did note those graduating were entering the strongest jobs market in nearly a decade. The U. S. unemployment rate, at 4. 6 percent, is at its lowest level since 2007 and policymakers felt the economy sufficiently robust last week to raise interest rates for only the second time in a decade. In her speech, Yellen said that technology had allowed jobs to be replaced by automation while globalization had also caused jobs that require less education to move overseas. Yellen also said that while there were indications wage growth was picking up, productivity growth had been ”disappointing.” Low productivity growth and wages that have been slow to rise have vexed the U. S. central bank. Donald Trump has said he will cut taxes and boost innovation, both of which the Fed has said could have a positive effect on the economy. In part on Trump’s promises on tax cuts, spending and deregulation the Fed also upgraded its forecast for the number of rate hikes next year to three from two. However, Yellen and other policymakers have been quick to emphasize that policy changes that improve education, training and workforce development are required to raise productivity. Yellen reiterated this in her speech to the students, noting that college graduates annual earnings last year were, on average, 70 percent higher than those with a high school diploma. ”Economists are not certain about many things. But we are quite certain that a college diploma or an advanced degree is a key to economic success,” Yellen said. (Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir and Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

BOJ upbeat on economy, Kuroda shrugs off talk of rate hike

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda offered an upbeat view of the economy but sought to douse market talk the central bank may soon consider raising interest rates, vowing instead to keep policy loose to achieve the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation goal. Kuroda also said he did not see recent yen falls as a problem for Japan’s economy, saying that a weak currency helps accelerate inflation by boosting import costs and in so doing raise inflation expectations a crucial element in the BOJ’s plan to beat economic stagnation. ”We are still distant from our 2 percent inflation target. It’s therefore appropriate to continue with powerful monetary easing,” Kuroda told a news conference on Tuesday. ”It’s absolutely not the case that Japanese government bond yields are allowed to rise in tandem with overseas interest rates, or that (any such rise in Japanese yields) would prompt us to raise our yield targets.” Kuroda’s remarks came after the BOJ’s widely expected decision to keep unchanged its pledge to guide rates at minus 0. 1 percent and the government bond yield around zero percent. Japanese interest rates have risen in tandem with global bond yields on expectations of steady U. S. interest rate hikes and the perceived policies of incoming U. S. President Donald Trump. This has tested the BOJ’s resolve to cap the Japanese government bond (JGB) yield around its target. That in turn has led to some market expectations the BOJ may raise its target for the JGB yield, which briefly hit 0. 1 percent last week, as early as next year. ”Kuroda is not interested in raising the yield target and would not be bothered by further yen weakness,” said Hiroaki Muto, economist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center. ”Kuroda says he is not targeting the yen, but in reality he is. He looked happy with recent market moves.” Kuroda said the BOJ did not have a rigid range in mind in guiding bond yields ”around zero,” stressing that it won’t intervene just because yields exceed a certain level. ”It’s not as if JGB yields must be fixed rigidly at zero percent,” he said. MORE UPBEAT ON ECONOMY Market expectations of additional monetary easing have receded after the BOJ revamped its policy framework in September to one better suited to a battle against deflation. With inflation stubbornly shunning the BOJ’s 2 percent target, the bank is in no rush to raise its JGB yield target either, and sees any such move as a option. Still, the BOJ is more open to discussing the idea and may contemplate raising the target as early as next year if rates reflect clear improvements in the economy and keep rising, sources have told Reuters. Backing market expectations that the BOJ’s next move could be a hike not a cut in its yield targets, the bank upgraded its language to signal its confidence that the economy is headed for a steady recovery. ”Japan’s economy continues to recover moderately as a trend,” it said in a statement, offering a brighter view than last month when it warned of slow emerging market demand that weighed on exports and output. Underscoring its optimism on the outlook, the BOJ even revised up its view on private consumption considered a soft spot for the Japanese economy to say it was holding firm. But it maintained its sober view on inflation expectations to say they were on a weak footing, with consumer prices marking their eighth straight month of annual declines in October. Some market players have speculated that further yen declines could prompt the BOJ to raise its yield targets in the hope of stemming excessive yen falls, which hurt consumption by pushing up imported fuel and food costs. But Kuroda offered a sanguine view on recent currency moves, saying that they were more a case of a strengthening dollar than a weakening of the yen. ”It’s possible the divergence in monetary policy directions could affect currency moves. But for now, I don’t see current yen falls as excessive or posing any problem,” he said. Growth in the world’s economy has been subdued but exports and factory output have recently shown signs of life on a in emerging Asian demand. The BOJ may see plenty of reasons to sustain the trend by keeping rates steady and allow future Federal Reserve rate hikes to push up the dollar, giving Japanese exports a further boost, said Yasunari Ueno, chief market economist at Mizuho Securities. ”Kuroda is probably thinking that interest rate differentials must be left wide open in order to weaken the yen.” (Additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Minami Funakoshi; Editing by Eric Meijer & Shri Navaratnam) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

U.N. Security Council calls for Aleppo evacuation monitoring

The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously called for U. N. officials and others to observe the evacuation of people from the last enclave in Aleppo and monitor the safety of civilians who remain in the Syrian city. The council overcame divisions that have pitted Syrian ally Russia and China against Western powers over the Syrian conflict to adopt a resolution calling for U. N. officials and others ”to carry out adequate, neutral monitoring and direct observation on evacuations.” The recapture of Aleppo Syrian President Bashar ’s biggest victory in the nearly war has left thousands of people stuck in the last rebel bastion in the city’s east amid accusations by the United Nations and Western powers of atrocities against civilians by forces. U. N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura announced on Monday he intended to convene peace talks in Geneva on Feb. 8. Thousands of people were evacuated from eastern Aleppo on Monday. The U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said it was hoped the presence of monitors would deter crimes against civilians as they leave Aleppo or against those who choose to stay in the city. ”Of course the Syrian government doesn’t want more monitors,” Power said. ”If you’re doing bad things you don’t want monitors around to watch you doing them.” The United Nations said it has more than 100 people mainly Syrian national staff ready to monitor alongside officials from the International Committee for the Red Cross. ”We stand ready to scale up our presence and efforts across the entire city . .. This can be done immediately, but only if the parties live up to this resolution and their most basic legal obligations,” U. N. aid chief Stephen O’Brien said. The Security Council reached consensus on a text on Sunday after several hours of negotiations. Russia had planned to veto the original French draft over concerns about sending U. N. monitors unprepared into ”the ruins of eastern Aleppo,” U. N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said. Russia wanted U. N. Ban to arrange security for U. N. monitors to enter eastern Aleppo ”in coordination” with interested parties, meaning the Syrian government. The council agreed that such arrangements would be made ”in consultation” with interested parties. ”We keep contact with our Syrian colleagues here all the time . .. they did not raise any serious objections to what we delivered,” Churkin told reporters ahead of the vote. Syrian U. N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said the adopted resolution was already ”part of our continued daily efforts,” but he also described it as ”just another part of the continued propaganda against Syria and its fight against terrorists” a term it uses for all groups fighting Assad. ”The last terrorists in some districts of the eastern part of Aleppo are evacuating their strongholds and Aleppo this evening will be clean,” he told reporters. Russia, which has provided military backing to Assad’s troops, has vetoed six Security Council resolutions on Syria since the conflict started in 2011. China joined Moscow in vetoing five resolutions. Monday’s resolution ”demands all parties to provide these monitors with safe, immediate and unimpeded access.” Unlike previous heated Security Council meetings on Syria, no members spoke in the council chamber after the vote. Despite the government’s recapture of Aleppo, the fighting in Syria is by no means over, with large tracts of the country still under the control of insurgent and Islamist groups. A crackdown by Assad on protesters in 2011 led to civil war and Islamic State militants have used the chaos to seize territory in Syria and Iraq. Half of Syria’s 22 million people have been uprooted and more than 400, 000 killed. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Frances Kerry and Matthew Lewis) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

BlackBerry spending $75 million on autos hub over several years

Canada’s BlackBerry Ltd plans to invest C$100 million ($75 million) in a new autonomous vehicle testing hub over several years, the company’s chief executive said on Monday, as the fallen smartphone pioneer looks elsewhere for growth. Most of the money will go to engineering jobs, possibly hundreds in coming years, John Chen told reporters at the headquarters of its BlackBerry QNX subsidiary, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at his side. The company, which is racing to increase software sales as its handset unit and related legacy service access fees shrink, hopes to make itself indispensable in the automotive industry’s looming arms race. [L1N1E12EX] ”One could make the argument that QNX is the strongest asset in their portfolio right now, so it’s refreshing to see this investment,” said IDC’s consumer mobility analyst Brian Haven. But he said scaling the business and dealing with rivals with more money to throw at autonomous driving initiatives would be challenges for the company. BlackBerry is hoping its security and safety credentials help it win a seat at the table as an array of automakers, chip and sensor providers and software developers work in competitive to bring cars to the mass market. ”It will require significant cooperation between all those involved to be sure that the end product and its communication configuration is both safe and secure for the individuals that use them and those sharing the road,” said David Masson, Canada country manager at cybersecurity firm Darktrace. BlackBerry will initially work with middleware supplier PolySync and semiconductor company Renesas Electronics Corp, as well as its hometown University of Waterloo on its autonomous driving project, but hopes to welcome more companies to its Ottawa facility. The company’s shares were up 2. 9 percent at C$10. 40, after earlier rising as much as 4 percent to a high. The company’s QNX unit, renamed BlackBerry QNX, currently employs around 400 engineers, some of them at its facility in Kanata on the outskirts of Ottawa. BlackBerry has about 5, 000 employees in total. While the embedded operating system market is likely to grow quickly as autonomous driving takes off, BlackBerry faces numerous competitive threats, including from independent embedded operating system producer Green Hills Software as well as chipmakers such as Intel Corp. It must also convince system integrators including former QNX owner Harman International Industries Inc that its offering is compelling. ($1 = 1. 3392 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Ottawa; editing by Rod Nickel, Bernard Orr) HONG KONG Chinese Ofo said on Thursday it has raised more than $700 million in its latest funding round that was led by Alibaba Group and two others, in the largest such in the business that has drawn keen investor interest. BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said.

Trump nominates trading firm founder Viola as Army secretary

Donald Trump will nominate Vincent Viola, an Army veteran and founder of a trading firm, to be secretary of the Army, adding another figure from the business world without government experience to his Cabinet. Viola is a West Point graduate who founded the highly profitable trading firm Virtu Financial Inc in 2008, Trump’s transition team said in a statement on Monday. Viola is a former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where he began his financial services career, and is a leader in electronic trading. Along with Virtu CEO Douglas Cifu, he bought the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League in 2013. In the Army, Viola trained as an Airborne Ranger infantry officer and served in the 101st Airborne Division, the transition team said. ”Whether it is his distinguished military service or highly impressive track record in the world of business, Vinnie has proved throughout his life that he knows how to be a leader and deliver major results in the face of any challenge,” Trump was quoted as saying in a transition team statement. After the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, Viola helped found the Combating Terrorism Center at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. ”A primary focus of my leadership will be ensuring that America’s soldiers have the ways and means to fight and win across the full spectrum of conflict, Viola said in the statement. As Army secretary, Viola would oversee 473, 000 active duty soldiers. Trump met with Viola on Friday as the Republican considered candidates for top posts in his administration, which begins on Jan. 20. Cabinet positions yet to be filled include secretaries of agriculture and veterans affairs and the U. S. trade representative. Viola, 60, whose net worth is $1. 8 billion according to Forbes magazine, is the latest wealthy financier or businessman tapped to join Trump’s administration. Those nominees, with little or no experience in government, include Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Goldman Sachs chief operating officer Gary Cohn for director of the National Economic Council, private equity firm owner Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary and Andrew Pudzer, CKE Restaurants Inc chief executive as labor secretary. FROM WEST POINT TO TRADING Viola was a leading figure in the emergence of trading, in which machines place thousands of very bets, making markets and profiting on tiny price imbalances. In 2014, Virtu Financial received a letter of inquiry from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as part of a wider investigation of such firms, which came amid heightened attention to such trading after the publication of author Michael Lewis’ book ”Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.” The firm was never charged with anything and has always backed more regulation for trading and market making. If Viola is confirmed by the Senate as secretary of the Army, his ownership stake in the Panthers would be placed in a trust, while Cifu would take over Viola’s role as chairman and governor of the team’s parent company, Sunrise Sports and Entertainment, the Panthers said in a statement. Cifu currently has the role of vice chairman and alternate governor of the club. Viola was born to Italian immigrant parents in New York’s Brooklyn borough, and was the first in his family to attend college. He left the Army after five years because his father suffered a massive heart, he told the West Point Center for Oral History, which he helped fund. Friends in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where Viola grew up pointed him to Wall Street after he failed to find work elsewhere. Viola stood out on entering the trading pits in 1982 as a ”local” on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as many of the floor traders did not have a college education. Viola has said the principles of West Point duty, honor, country are overwhelming and become ingrained. ”It’s very hard to come here and not leave not having a selfless sense of what duty means, what honor is, and the importance of your country,” Viola said in 2011 the Oral History interview. (Additional reporting by Herb Lash in New York; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bill Trott and Andrea Ricci) NEW YORK Six in 10 American voters support the new ban on people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States unless they can show they have a close relative here, according to opinion poll results released on Wednesday. LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May will hold a bilateral meeting with U. S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg on Friday, a British government official said on Wednesday.

Vale sells fertilizer unit to Mosaic, to become top shareholder

Vale SA’s $2. 5 billion sale of its fertilizer business to Mosaic Co, the latest step in the Brazilian iron ore miner’s strategy to reduce debt, also makes it the U. S. company’s biggest shareholder. Mosaic, which made the deal to improve its access to Brazil’s vast agricultural markets, will pay $1. 25 billion in cash and $1. 25 billion in newly issued shares for the unit. In return, a Mosaic spokesman said, Vale will receive an 11 percent stake in Mosaic, bigger than those held by investment companies such as Vanguard, Franklin Advisers and BlackRock Inc. After the deal closes, expected by late 2017, Vale will have the right to name two members to Mosaic’s board. It will have to keep the stake for at least two years. Mosaic shares were down 6 percent at $27. 76 and Vale’s preferred shares were off 6. 3 percent at 22. 79 reais at the close of trading on Monday. Vale’s shares have risen 127 percent this year, as iron ore prices recovered, but Mosaic’s shares are up a mere 1 percent. Michael Underhill, chief investment officer of Capital Innovations LLC, a Mosaic shareholder, said he thought the price might have been too high for the U. S. company. ”We believe the price paid and the leverage involved could prove too though we understand the ’ opportunity’ to acquire large assets in the fastest growing market,” he said. Excessive global supply and attendant slumping prices are putting pressure on fertilizer makers and leading to consolidations such as a proposed merger between Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc and Agrium Inc. Brazil is a major producer of crops corn and sugar cane, and is a large importer of such crop nutrients as phosphate, making it a prized market. ”This deal enhances Mosaic’s position as the leading phosphate producer in the world,” Mosaic Chief Executive Joc O’Rourke told investors on a call. ”We’re getting first rate assets at a valuation reflecting the downside of the cycle and we will have the ability to benefit from a strongly growing Brazilian agricultural market as business conditions improve,” he added. In a video on Vale’s website, Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira said the company never had the opportunity to become a world leader in fertilizers as it has with iron ore and nickel. ”So we opted for an association with a highly competitive international company,” he said. Mosaic said it expects the deal to add to earnings per share by 2018. Brazilian unit will become Mosaic’s largest by trading volume, surpassing North America, Floris Bielders, the president of Mosaic’s Brazilian unit, told Reuters, adding that the North Americas unit will still lead in production. Vale said that it will use the proceeds to reduce net debt, which stands at nearly $26 billion, according to the company’s latest quarterly results. Vale, which posted a record $12. 1 billion loss last year, is selling assets after years of low iron ore prices that have slammed its balance sheet. It will retain control of its nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer assets in Cubatão, a city in southeast Brazil, but said it expects to sell them in 2017. Sources with knowledge of the deal told Reuters in October that Vale was also in talks to sell some of its fertilizer assets to Norway’s Yara International ASA. In a note to clients on Monday, Credit Suisse analysts estimated the remaining fertilizers assets may be worth $625 million. In addition to Vale’s phosphate assets in Brazil, Mosaic will acquire Vale’s stake in Peru’s Bayóvar mine and Canada’s Kronau potash project. Mosaic has yet to decide whether to include Vale’s Rio Colorado potash project in Argentina in the acquisition. Plymouth, Mosaic may pay an additional $260 million depending on future earnings of the fertilizer unit, the two companies said. Analysts at Banco BTG Pactual estimate Mosaic is paying 8. 6 times the fertilizer division’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) a gauge of operational profit, calling it an attractive multiple. On June 17, Reuters was first to report on the talks between Mosaic and Vale. (Additional Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Bruno Federowski in Sao Paulo and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Walker Simon and Steve Orlofsky) Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp will buy a stake in BeiGene Ltd and help develop and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational treatment for tumor cancers, the companies said on Wednesday. BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen .

Canada’s CCL to buy British bank note maker Innovia for $842 million

The acquisition of Innovia is expected to make CCL the world leader in the polymer banknote market. Britain is one of the largest economies to adopt plastic banknotes and they are already in circulation in Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia. But the new five pound note, made of a thin and flexible plastic designed to be cleaner and harder to forge, has fallen foul of thousands of people who object to the use of animal fats in their manufacture. The deal is the latest in a string of takeovers of British companies by foreign firms that have taken advantage of the sharp fall in the sterling since Britain voted to leave the European Union. British tech company ARM was snapped up by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp ( ) in the days after the Brexit vote and Rupert Murdoch’s Century Fox Inc ( ) has struck a preliminary deal to buy the 61 percent of firm Sky Plc SKY. L it does not already own. CCL is buying Innovia debt free and net of cash from a consortium of private equity investors managed by The Smithfield Group LLP. It expects Innovia to generate net revenue of about C$570 million for 2017. CCL’s annual sales are forecast to exceed C$5 billion after the deal, expected by the end of first quarter of 2017, the company said. Some of the stake is being sold by Epiris, the portfolio manager of Electra Private Equity ( ) which invested 40 million euros ($41. 53 million) in Innovia in 2014. For Electra, the deal comes in the midst of its separation from its investment management team that renamed itself Epiris this month, as part of a major shake up of Britain’s oldest private equity firms. It also comes a day after Electra’s portfolio manager agreed to sell Parkdean Resorts, an operator of caravan holiday parks, for 1. 35 billion pounds ($1. 69 billion). Electra said on Tuesday it would receive sale proceeds of 106 million pounds at current exchange rates, representing a return of about 3. 2 times cost and an internal rate of return of about 51 percent. Following the two sales, Electra’s net asset value per share is about 5, 251 pence, against which the company is trading at a 13. 9 percent discount, Liberum analysts wrote. ($1 = 1. 34 Canadian dollars) ($1 = 0. 9632 euros) (Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Louise Heavens) Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp will buy a stake in BeiGene Ltd and help develop and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational treatment for tumor cancers, the companies said on Wednesday. BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen .

Orlando nightclub victims’ families sue Twitter, Google, Facebook

The gunman, Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U. S. history, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group before police fatally shot him after the June attack, officials said. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Detroit federal court by the families of Tevin Crosby, Javier and Juan Ramon Guerrero, who were killed during the massacre. Similar lawsuits in the past have faced an uphill fight because of strong protections in U. S. federal law for the technology industry. The three families claim Twitter, Google’s YouTube and Facebook ”provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts they use to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds and attract new recruits.” The suit alleges the ”material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out, numerous terrorist attacks.” Facebook said on Tuesday there is no place on its service for groups that engage in or support terrorism, and that it takes swift action to remove that content when it is reported. ”We are committed to providing a service where people feel safe when using Facebook,” it said in a statement. ”We sympathize with the victims and their families.” Twitter declined to comment. In August, the company said it had suspended 360, 000 accounts since for violating policies related to promotion of terrorism. Representatives of Google could not immediately be reached. The three companies plus Microsoft Corp said this month they would coordinate more to remove extremist content, sharing digital ”fingerprints” with each other. Technology companies are protected from many lawsuits under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which says website operators are not liable for content posted by others. Monday’s lawsuit claims that the companies create unique content by combining ISIS postings with advertisements to target the viewer. It also says they share revenue with ISIS for its content and profit from ISIS postings through advertising revenue. The families in the case in Michigan, where one of the victims is from, are seeking damages and for the court to rule that the sites have violated the Act in the United States. (Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and David Ingram in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrew Hay) HONG KONG Chinese Ofo said on Thursday it has raised more than $700 million in its latest funding round that was led by Alibaba Group and two others, in the largest such in the business that has drawn keen investor interest. BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said.

Turkish police detain six after Russian ambassador shot dead

Turkish police have detained six people over the killing of Russia’s ambassador, security sources said, widening an investigation to relatives of the policeman who shouted ”Don’t forget Aleppo!” as he gunned the envoy down. Both countries cast Monday’s attack at an art gallery in the capital Ankara as an attempt to undermine a recent thawing of ties that have been strained by civil war in Syria, where they back opposing sides. The war, which has killed more than 300, 000 people and created a power vacuum exploited by Islamic State, reached a potential turning point last week when Syrian forces ended rebel resistance in the northern city of Aleppo. Russia, an ally of President Bashar supported that advance with air strikes. Karlov’s remains were sent back to Moscow from Turkey after a ceremony at the airport in Ankara. The white, red and blue Russian flag was draped on the casket as a Russian Orthodox priest recited prayers. Turkey identified the killer as Mevlut Mert Altintas, who had worked for the Ankara riot police for years. Altintas, who also shouted slogans associated with Islamist militancy after shooting ambassador Andrei Karlov, was killed minutes later by members of Turkey’s special forces. His mother, father, sister and two other relatives were held in the western province of Aydin, while his flatmate in Ankara was also detained, security sources said. One senior Turkish security official said investigators were focusing on whether Altintas had links to the U. S. Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for a failed July coup. Gulen has denied responsibility for the coup and Monday’s attack and has condemned both events. The slogans that Altintas shouted, which were captured on video and circulated widely on social media, suggested he was aligned to a radical Islamist ideology, rather than that of Gulen, who preaches a message of interfaith dialogue. ”Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria. You will not be able to feel safe for as long as our districts are not safe. Only death can take me from here,” he shouted in Turkish. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he and Russia’s Vladimir Putin had agreed in a telephone call to strengthen cooperation in fighting terrorism. Putin said it was aimed at derailing Russia’s attempts to find, with Iran and Turkey, a solution for the Syria crisis. The foreign ministers of three countries, meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, said they were ready to broker a Syrian peace deal. ’ALLEGIANCE TO JIHAD’ Turkey faces multiple security threats, including from Islamic State. Earlier this month a spokesman for the hardline Sunni Muslim group urged global sympathizers to carry out new attacks, singling out Turkish diplomatic, military and financial interests as preferred targets. Altintas also shouted ”We are the ones who swore allegiance to Mohammed for the jihad!” which the mass circulation Hurriyet newspaper said was a slogan commonly used in propaganda videos of the group formerly allied to al Qaeda in Syria. Media present at the event Karlov was attending, an exhibition of photographs from Russia, captured the killing in graphic detail. Altintas, dressed in a suit, necktie and white shirt, is caught in one photograph standing behind Karlov. In a video, Karlov is shown crumpling as he appears to be shot from behind. As special forces stormed the building, Altintas initially waited by the ambassador’s body and would not allow him to be treated, Hurriyet reported. An initial police report said that 11 shots were fired on the ambassador and nine were on target, the senior security official said. In a video message to the nation on Monday evening, Erdogan said Altintas had graduated from a police academy before joining the riot police. Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday, officials from the Kremlin and the Turkish presidency said. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the street where the Russian embassy is located would be named after the ambassador. The gallery where the shooting occurred is opposite the U. S. embassy. A gun was fired in front of the embassy overnight and the United States said its three missions in Turkey would be closed on Tuesday. (Additional reporting by Issam Abdallah in Istanbul; Denis Pinchuk, Peter Hobson and Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by John Stonestreet and) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Clinton lawyer blasts FBI after email search warrant release

The FBI acted inappropriately when it announced the revival of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email setup days before the Nov. 8 presidential election, Clinton’s lawyer said, citing search warrant documents made public on Tuesday. The pointed criticism from Clinton attorney David Kendall followed the release in federal court in Manhattan of documents related to an October search warrant targeting emails involving the Democratic presidential nominee. The warrant was issued two days after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey informed Congress in a letter on Oct. 28 of newly discovered emails that appeared ”pertinent” to his agency’s probe. Comey’s letter drew new attention to Clinton’s use of the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and roiled the campaign 11 days before the election, which Republican Donald Trump won. Clinton has blamed Comey and his letter for her defeat. In an affidavit unsealed on Tuesday, an FBI agent said there was ”probable cause” to believe emails involving Clinton were among ”thousands” found on a laptop in an unrelated probe that contained U. S. State Department correspondence. But the documents gave no indication the FBI had any evidence at the time of Comey’s letter that any of the emails on found on a laptop involved classified communications with Clinton. Kendall said the documents showed the ”extraordinary impropriety” of Comey’s letter, which ”produced devastating but predictable damage politically and which was both legally unauthorized and factually unnecessary.” The FBI declined to comment. The laptop belonged to former Democratic U. S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin who was the subject of an investigation after a report about cellphone and online messages he sent a girl. The search warrant materials’ release was sought by Randol Schoenberg, a Los lawyer, who contended that transparency was crucial given the potential influence the probe had on the election’s outcome. In a statement, Schoenberg said he saw ”nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin.” Brian Fallon, who served as the national press secretary for Clinton’s campaign, said on Twitter the search warrant ”reveals Comey’s intrusion on the election was as utterly unjustified as we suspected at time.” In July, Comey recommended no charges be brought over Clinton’s handing of classified information in the emails, although he said she and her colleagues were ”extremely careless” in handling such information. That determination followed what the search warrant materials called a ”criminal investigation concerning the improper transmission and storage of classified info on unclassified email systems and servers.” In his letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the investigation had been discovered in an ”unrelated case.” Federal investigators obtained the warrant to examine the emails on Oct. 30. Two days before the election, Comey disclosed the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York, additional reporting by Scot Paltrow and Mark Hosenball in Washington; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Tom Brown) MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

Mexico fireworks market blasts kill at least 31, injure scores

A series of massive explosions destroyed a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, killing at least 31 people, injuring dozens and leaving the market a charred wasteland. Television images showed a flurry of multicolored pyrotechnics exploding into the early afternoon sky as a giant plume of smoke rose above the market. Fireworks detonated in a peal of clattering bursts reminiscent of a war zone. It was the third time in just over a decade that explosions have hit the popular San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City. The detonations struck in the to the busy Christmas holiday, when many Mexicans stock up on fireworks. ”People were crying everywhere and desperately running in all directions,” said witness Cesar Carmona. Some children suffered burns to more than 90 percent of their bodies and were being sent to the U. S. city of Galveston in Texas for treatment, said Eruviel Avila, the governor of the State of Mexico in which Tultepec is located. He also vowed to find and punish those responsible and to provide economic assistance to those who had lost their livelihoods. The federal attorney general’s office opened an investigation, saying in a statement that six separate blasts caused the destruction. Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said earlier that a lack of safety measures was the likely cause of the blasts. The federal police said a forensic team had been sent to investigate and that at least 70 people had been injured. Videos from the scene showed people frantically fleeing, while aerial footage revealed blackened stalls and a flattened tangle of metal and wood. The state’s top prosecutor raised the death toll late on Tuesday to 31, most of whom died at the market. More than 80 percent of the 300 stalls at the market were destroyed by the explosions, said state official Jose Manzur. He said the market was inspected by safety officials last month and no irregularities were found. Mexican media reported there were 300 tonnes of fireworks at the market at the time of the explosions. The head of a local pyrotechnics association told online publication Animal Politico last week that the fireworks market was the safest in Latin America, featuring ”perfectly designed stalls” that could prevent any chain reaction in the event of a spark. Federico Juarez was present when the first explosion rocked the market. ”Everyone started running to escape as bricks and pieces of concrete fell everywhere,” he said. The blasts were the latest in a series of fatal explosions and industrial accidents that have rocked Mexico’s oil, gas and petrochemical industries. A blast struck the Tultepec fireworks market in September 2005 just before independence day celebrations, injuring many people. Another detonation gutted the area again almost a year later. ”I offer my condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured,” President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a tweet. Pena Nieto is the former governor of the State of Mexico, the country’s largest, which surrounds the capital. (Reporting by David Alire Garcia, Lizbeth Diaz and Josue Gonzalez; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter, Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

Taiwan loses another ally, says won’t help China ties

Taiwan accused China on Wednesday of using Sao Tome and Principe’s financial woes to push its ”one China” policy after the West African state ended ties with the island, with Taiwan saying China’s action would not help relations across the Taiwan Strait. China’s claim to Taiwan have shot back into the spotlight since U. S. Donald Trump broke diplomatic protocol and spoke with Taiwan President Tsai this month, angering Beijing. Trump has also questioned the ”one China” policy which the United States has followed since establishing relations with Beijing in 1979, under which the United States acknowledges that Taiwan is part of China. The election of Tsai from the Democratic Progressive Party this year infuriated Beijing, which suspects she wants to push for the island’s formal independence, though she says she wants to maintain peace with China. Taiwan Foreign Minister David Lee said Taipei would not engage in ”dollar diplomacy” after Sao Tome’s decision. ”We think the Beijing government should not use Sao Tome’s financing black hole . .. as an opportunity to push its ’one China’ principle,” Lee told a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday. ”This behavior is not helpful to a smooth relationship.” Tsai held emergency meetings with cabinet officials and security advisers on Wednesday, and told her ministers: ”Foreign diplomacy is not a game,” according to her office spokesman, Alex Huang. Tsai’s office said in a statement China’s use of Sao Tome’s financial woes to push its ”one China” policy would harm stability across the Taiwan Strait. ”This is absolutely not beneficial to the development of relations,” it said. China says Taiwan has no right to diplomatic recognition as it is part of China, and the issue is an extremely sensitive one for Beijing. In Beijing, China welcomed Sao Tome’s decision, without explicitly saying it had established formal relations with the former Portuguese colony or making any mention of a request for financial aid. ”We have noted the statement from the government of Sao Tome and Principe on the 20th to break ’diplomatic’ ties with Taiwan. China expresses appreciation of this, and welcomes Sao Tome back onto the correct path of the ’one China’ principle,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying declined to comment when asked when the two countries may exchange ambassadors, and dismissed a question on how much China may have offered Sao Tome to switch ties as being ”very imaginative”. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan at the end of a civil war in 1949 and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. In Africa, only Burkina Faso and Swaziland now maintain formal ties with Taiwan. President Tsai will visit Central American allies Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador next month. ”We now have 21 allies left. We must cherish them,” Lee said. China and Taiwan had for years tried to poach each other’s allies, often dangling generous aid packages in front of developing nations. But they began an unofficial diplomatic truce after signing a series of landmark trade and economic agreements in 2008 following the election of the Ma as Taiwan’s president. Sao Tome and Principe’s tiny island economy is heavily dependent on cocoa exports but its position in the middle of the Gulf of Guinea has raised interest in its potential as a possible oil and gas producer. Diplomatic sources in Beijing have previously said Sao Tome was likely high on China’s list of countries to lure away from Taiwan. In 2013, Sao Tome said China planned to open a trade mission to promote projects there, 16 years after it broke off relations over Sao Tome’s diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. (Editing by Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Congo forces kill 26 protesters against leader Kabila

Security forces shot dead at least 26 protesters who had gathered in the streets of Kinshasa and other cities of Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday to demand that President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate expired overnight. Scattered protests started on Tuesday, and opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called on the Congolese people to peacefully resist Kabila, who has remained in power beyond his constitutional mandate with no election to pick a successor. Human Rights Watch researcher Ida Sawyer said on Twitter that at least 26 people were killed by security forces. The government spokesman could not be reached for comment and a police spokesman had no information on deaths. Gunfire crackled in several districts of the capital, Kinshasa, a city of 12 million, as measures to thwart dissent raised fears of bloody repression. With a ban on demonstrations in force and a heavy military presence, Kinshasa’s normally busy main boulevards were mostly deserted as pockets of youths gathered in sidestreets only to be dispersed by volleys of teargas. By sunset, the city was calm, although littered with debris from earlier rioting. Youths played soccer in the streets. Scores of people were arrested, especially in the eastern city of Goma, rights groups said. Reuters witnesses saw more than a dozen young men who had been arrested seated in the back of a military truck near the university. ”I’m gravely concerned by the arrests of those who seek to express their political views,” the head of the U. N. mission, Maman Sidikou, said in a statement, adding that U. N. staff had not been able to consistently gain access to jails to gather information on how many people had been arrested. He called on Congo to end ”politically motivated detentions”. U. N. peacekeepers in armored personnel carriers patrolled the streets, at one point cheered on by a crowd shouting: ”Kabila, know that your mandate is finished!” In Lubumbashi, in the heart of Africa’s richest mining area, police and Kabila’s elite Republican Guard fired live bullets to prevent demonstrations, said Gregoire Mulamba, a local human rights activist. Local activist Muteba reported at least one death, a boy shot by police. A police spokesman said he did not have enough information to comment. The mayor of Lubumbashi, Jean Oscar Sanguza, told Reuters that security forces had intervened to stop looters. In the city of Kananga, in central Congo, fighting between security forces and a local clan militia shut down the airport. Kabila, who has ruled since his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated in 2001, rarely speaks about the issue in public, but his allies say the election was delayed because of logistical and financial problems. The constitutional court has ruled Kabila can stay on until the vote takes place. FEARS OF ESCALATION In a video posted on YouTube, opposition leader Tshisekedi called on people to ”not recognize the . .. illegal . .. authority of Joseph Kabila and to peacefully resist (his) coup d’etat. ”Authorities have blocked most social media. Western powers are nervous about a repeat of the conflicts between 1996 to 2003 that killed millions, drew in half a dozen neighboring armies and saw rebel fighters rape women en masse. Congo has never experienced a peaceful transition of power. The United States and European Union have called for Kabila to respect the constitution. Congo’s former colonial master, Belgium, said on Tuesday it would ” ” relations with Kabila, and France urged the European Union its links with Congo. (Reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Peter Cooney) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Nasdaq rises to record, Dow bats eyes at 20,000

The Dow Jones industrial average ended just 25 points shy of 20, 000, a level it has never breached, helped by a 1. 68 percent gain in Goldman Sachs ( ). U. S. stocks have been on a tear since the Nov. 8 presidential election, with the Dow up 9 percent and the S&P 500 gaining 6 percent on bets that Trump’s plans for deregulation and infrastructure spending will boost the economy. ”The market is focused on the Trump agenda, which is tax cuts, infrastructure spending and deregulation,” said Jeff Zipper, managing director for investments at Private Client Reserve at U. S. Bank in Palm Beach, Florida. Some investors believe stocks have become expensive. The S&P 500 is trading at about 17 times expected earnings, well above its average of 14, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. The Dow’s 20, 000 mark represents a major milestone on Wall Street and some investors believe that piercing that level would signal the recent rally may continue. The Dow first hit 10, 000 in 1999. ”To have enough energy to push through that barrier would mean there’s a lot of buying power in the system,” said Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer for Commonwealth Financial Network. ”Once we do crack through, that ceiling will tend to become a floor.” The Dow Jones industrial average rose 91. 56 points, or 0. 46 percent, to end at 19, 974. 62 points, a record high close. The S&P 500 gained 8. 23 points, or 0. 36 percent, to finish at 2, 270. 76 and the Nasdaq Composite had added 26. 50 points, or 0. 49 percent, to 5, 483. 94, also a record high close. Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors rose, with the financial index’s . SPSY 1. 12 percent rise leading the advancers. That brought the financial sector’s gain since the election to 19 percent as investors bet Trump will cut regulations including which was passed in response to the 2008 financial crisis but which some investors say is too restrictive. Wells Fargo ( ) rose 1. 59 percent and Citigroup ( ) added 1. 91 percent. The consumer discretionary index . SPLRCD rose 0. 78 percent. General Mills ( ) fell 2. 55 percent after the Cheerios ’s quarterly results missed expectations. After the bell, Nike ( ) rose 3 percent on a strong quarterly report from the sports apparel seller, which is a component of the Dow. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1. ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1. ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 37 new highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 235 new highs and 36 new lows. With some investors already away for the holidays, about 6. 1 billion shares changed hands in U. S. exchanges, well below the 7. 5 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. (Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by James Dalgleish and Meredith Mazzilli) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

U.S. sanctions companies, people over Russia actions in Ukraine

The United States on Tuesday targeted more Russian businessmen and companies over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Ukraine, slapping them with U. S. sanctions in a move Moscow criticized as hostile. The measures come a month before U. S. President Barack Obama hands over power to Donald Trump, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and said it would be good if the two countries could get along. Trump’s nominee for U. S. Secretary of State, Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson, has opposed U. S. sanctions on Russia, which awarded him a friendship medal in 2013. The United States introduced sanctions on Russia after it annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and expanded them over its support for separatist rebels in the East of the country. But it is unclear if the United States will maintain the sanctions on Russia under Trump, who could lift the executive orders that authorize the measures. In a statement, the U. S. Treasury named seven Russian businessmen, six of whom it said were executives at Bank Rossiya or its affiliates ABR Management and Sobinbank. The U. S. Treasury has called Bank Rossiya ”the personal bank for officials of the Russian Federation” and had previously sanctioned it and the two affiliates. One of the men named on Tuesday was Kirill Kovalchuk, whom Russian media have identified as a nephew of Yuri Kovalchuk, a major shareholder in Bank Rossiya. The United States sanctioned Yuri Kovalchuk in 2014, saying he was a close adviser to Putin and his personal banker. The U. S. Treasury also sanctioned several companies and government enterprises for operating in Crimea, including two Russian firms it said were helping to build a dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with the peninsula, a project important to Putin. The U. S. actions bar American individuals or companies from dealing with the sanctioned people or companies. Treasury also named 26 subsidiaries of Russian Agricultural Bank and gas producer Novatek, both of which had already been sanctioned in 2014. U. S. sanctions on those companies are relatively narrow and prohibit Americans from dealing in certain kinds of debt with them. Novatek is Russia’s largest gas producer. Its chief executive and major shareholder is Leonid Mikhelson, one of Russia’s richest men. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS news agency that the sanctions were hostile acts by the outgoing Obama administration and Russia would expand its sanctions lists against the United States in response. ”We retain the right to choose the time, place and form of our responsive actions in a way that suits us,” Ryabkov told TASS. RUSSIA HOPES FOR EASING OF SANCTIONS UNDER TRUMP U. S. State Department spokesman John Kirby in a news briefing on Tuesday denied suggestions that the timing of the measures was related to the transition next month. ”This decision by the Treasury Department had nothing to do with the time on the clock,” Kirby said. ”It had everything to do with Russia’s activities and support for the separatists in Ukraine and for their occupation of Crimea.” The U. S. move comes a day after the European Union formally extended its economic sanctions on Russia’s defense, energy and financial sectors until a move E. U. leaders agreed to last week. Trump’s election and the mutual praise between him and Putin has stoked hopes in Russia that Western sanctions might be eased or lifted under his presidency, potentially spurring investment in Russia’s economy. A reversal by Trump of existing sanctions, or a softer U. S. stance on enforcing them, could also weaken European sanctions resolve. Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, told a news conference on Tuesday that Trump’s forthcoming arrival in the White House promised to create the conditions for better U. S. relations. Commenting on what she referred to as ” sanctions,” Matviyenko, a close ally of Putin, said she was sure that Western sanctions would be eased or lifted altogether in 2017. Trump may face opposition to easing restrictions on doing business with Russia by the U. S. Congress, which has shown it has little patience for the Kremlin’s military adventures. Both Republicans and Democrats have expressed concerns about Tillerson’s ties to Russia, and many Republicans, in contrast to Trump, view Putin as a calculating, untrustworthy foe. (Additional reporting by Alexander Winning and Andrew Osborn in Moscow; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Cynthia Osterman) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

American Airlines wins $15 million in antitrust case against Sabre

American Airlines Group Inc ( ) on Tuesday won about $15. 3 million in an antitrust lawsuit that accused airline booking service Sabre Corp ( ) of harming competition and charging grossly inflated booking fees. The Manhattan federal jury awarded nearly $5. 1 million, a fraction of the up to $73 million American Airlines was seeking at trial. But the sum automatically will be tripled under federal antitrust law. American Airlines was suing under the name of US Airways, the carrier it merged with in 2013. US Airways had filed the lawsuit in 2011. American Airlines welcomed the verdict, saying it hoped the jury’s finding that Sabre had violated federal antritrust law in a 2011 contract with US Airways could result in changes in how the airline’s services are sold. The jury rejected a separate claim that Sabre conspired with its competitors to not compete with each other. Sabre said in a statement that it continued to believe it had operated ”fairly and lawfully.” The company said it would seek to have the verdict set aside and, if unsuccessful, pursue an appeal. Following the verdict, Sabre shares closed at $25. 15, down 35 cents, or 1. 4 percent, on Nasdaq. The case concerned fees that Sabre and other travel reservation systems collect from airlines to display flights for booking. At trial, Chuck Diamond, a lawyer for American Airlines, contended that Sabre used its power in the industry to ”bully” airlines into paying unfair fees and signing unfair contracts that suppress competition and maintain its position. The lawsuit claimed that provisions of a 2011 contract between US Airways and Sabre, including those governing what fares the airline makes available to a computerized network by Sabre used by travel agents, harmed competition. The airline also contended that Sabre conspired with its competitors to not compete with each other for airline content like flight and fare information at the expense of consumers and innovation. Sabre denied conspiring with competitors, and said its contract with US Airways benefited competition. Chris Lind, a lawyer for Sabre, told jurors US Airways was far from powerless as it could leave the network, causing agents to stop using it. The case is US Airways Inc v. Sabre Holdings Corp et al, U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. . (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; editing by Leslie Adler and Richard Chang) WASHINGTON Federal Reserve policymakers were increasingly split on the outlook for inflation and how it might affect the future pace of interest rate rises, according to the minutes of the Fed’s last policy meeting on June released on Wednesday. One of the investors former drug company executive Martin Shkreli is accused of defrauding testified on Wednesday that Shkreli lied to him repeatedly, although he eventually made millions of dollars from the investment.

Investors see Biogen CEO choice as friendly to potential takeover

The surprise selection of Michel Vounatsos to run Biogen Inc signals a shift toward a more commercial management focus after years of targeting ambitious scientific gains, and likely keeps the U. S. biotech in play as a takeover target. Vounatsos joined Biogen as chief commercial officer in April after 20 years leading various commercial operations at Merck & Co. Three months later, Biogen CEO George Scangos said he would step down, initiating a search for his successor that concluded with Monday’s announcement that Vounatsos would take the helm Jan. 6. Biogen shares rose more than 2 percent on Tuesday as investors viewed the choice of an internal CEO candidate as keeping alive a potential takeover of the company. Biogen has been subject of takeover speculation since August, when the Wall Street Journal reported it had received early stage overtures from several bidders, including Allergan Plc and Merck. ”The same strategic value of the assets are still there and the company is the same as it was last week. They still have the theoretical potential of being a target for players like Merck or Pfizer,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee said. While Biogen is still focused on producing treatments for devastating illnesses with few treatments, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, Vounatsos is being tasked with a more careful approach to how the company spends on development, and to make the most out of its existing flagship portfolio of multiple sclerosis treatments. Vounatsos stressed this goal during a call with Wall Street analysts on Tuesday, saying ”we will not leave a stone unturned in order to continue to grow this franchise.” After several years of impressive share price and earnings growth under Scangos, Biogen hit a major bump in the road in mid 2015, when its most important growth driver, the oral MS drug Tecfidera, badly missed sales estimates. That forced the company to lower its earnings forecasts and subsequently announce a reorganization and of its hemophilia business. Slowing growth of its MS drugs and fears of potential U. S. curbs on drug pricing that hit the entire biotech sector put additional pressure on Biogen shares. Vounatsos said he would be assessing company execution and resource allocation decisions and let Wall Street know in the first half of 2017 whether he will ”validate or slightly alter the path forward.” Cowen and Co analyst Eric Schmidt said many people had assumed Biogen would choose another leader with a scientific pedigree to maintain its traditional culture. Scangos, a scientist by trade, went on to head research for Bayer AG’s pharmaceutical division and led its biotechnology unit before becoming CEO of a discovery stage biotech Exelixis Inc. ”The board seems to be of the opinion that Biogen has matured into a complex commercial organization, and that protecting and growing the company’s $11 billion revenue base is now the most important priority,” Schmidt said. THE CONTENDERS Speculation about internal CEO candidates had centered on two highly regarded executives with longer Biogen tenure Chief Financial Officer Paul Clancy and Chief Medical Officer Al Sandrock. Some investors were hoping to see an outside candidate chosen to bring a fresh perspective to the company, although that would also likely send a clear message that Biogen intended to remain independent. ”Many investors were looking for more of a CEO or an external executive who has already been in a CEO role,” Barclays analyst Geoff Meacham said in a note, calling Vounatsos ”a safe choice.” Vounatsos said he would be looking for deals to help fill out all stages of the drug development pipeline. While he has yet to oversee a major new drug launch at Biogen, typically the best way to judge performance of a chief commercial officer, one is in the offing. Biogen is widely expected to get U. S. approval in coming months for the first drug that would treat spinal muscular atrophy, the leading genetic cause of death in infants. The drug, Spinraza, is seen as a breakthrough therapy and forecast to become a product if approved for all SMA patients. And then there is aducanumab, the experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug considered potentially the most valuable pipeline asset in biotechnology, and one that highlights Biogen’s current very very strategy. The drug has shown early promise. But it is at least a few years from reaching the market and could well fail, as over 100 previous attempts to develop an effective Alzheimer’s treatment have already. If it succeeds Biogen, or any company that buys Biogen, will own one of the great cash cows in pharmaceutical history. (Reporting by Bill Berkrot and Carl O’Donnell; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp will buy a stake in BeiGene Ltd and help develop and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational treatment for tumor cancers, the companies said on Wednesday. BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen .

Twitter CTO Adam Messinger to leave in latest executive exodus

Messinger had been working with Twitter for five years and became the CTO in March 2013. Prior to joining Twitter in 2011, he was vice president of development at Oracle Corp. ( ) Engineering Vice President Ed Ho will now take over all product and engineering and report directly to Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, Recode reported, citing people familiar with the restructuring. ”We’re taking steps to streamline and flatten the organization by elevating our engineering, product and design functions, with each area now reporting directly to Jack,” a company spokesperson said in an email. As chief technology officer, Messinger was responsible for engineering, product development, and design at the microblogging company, amid efforts to find new products and features to grow its user numbers. San Twitter has faced a string of departures, including in its product team, which has had three heads in less than a year. No one individual was essential, but the fact that they all left should be concerning, especially since Dorsey is splitting his time between Square Inc and Twitter, Wedbush Securities Inc analyst Michael Pachter said. Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain left the company last month, handing over the reins to Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto. Josh McFarland, vice president of product at Twitter, also said on Tuesday that he would leave the company to join Silicon Valley venture firm Greylock Partners. Twitter said in October it would lay off 9 percent of its employees and shut down video app Vine to keep its costs down. (Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee and Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) HONG KONG Chinese Ofo said on Thursday it has raised more than $700 million in its latest funding round that was led by Alibaba Group and two others, in the largest such in the business that has drawn keen investor interest. BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said.

Syrian army closes in on last Aleppo rebels

As President Bashar ’s army closed in on the last rebel enclave in Aleppo on Tuesday, Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal. The Syrian army used loudspeakers to broadcast warnings to insurgents that it was poised to enter their rapidly diminishing area during the day and told them to speed up their evacuation of the city. Complete control of Aleppo would be a major victory for Assad against rebels who have defied him in Syria’s most populous city for four years. Ministers from Russia, Iran and Turkey adopted a document they called the ”Moscow Declaration” which set out the principles that any peace agreement should follow. At talks in the Russian capital, they also backed an expanded ceasefire in Syria. ”Iran, Russia and Turkey are ready to facilitate the drafting of an agreement, which is already being negotiated, between the Syrian government and the opposition, and to become its guarantors,” the declaration said. The move underlines the growing strength of Moscow’s links with Tehran and Ankara, despite the murder on Monday of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, and reflects Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire to cement his influence in the Middle East and beyond. Russia and Iran back Assad while Turkey has backed some rebel groups. Putin said last week that he and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan were working to organize a new series of Syrian peace negotiations without the involvement of the United States or the United Nations. For his part, U. N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura intends to convene peace talks in Geneva on Feb. 8. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U. N. negotiations in Geneva had run into a dead end due to ultimatums from the Syrian opposition in exile. But in a telephone call Lavrov and U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed restarting negotiations between the warring sides, the Russian foreign ministry said. GRIM EVACUATION In Syria, an operation to evacuate civilians and fighters from eastern Aleppo has now brought out 37, 500 people since late last week, Turkey said. As more buses left the city on Tuesday, Turkish and Russian ministers estimated the evacuation would be complete within two days. But it is hard to know if that goal is realistic, given the problems that have beset the evacuation so far and the wide variation in estimates of how many have left and how many remain. The International Committee of the Red Cross put the number evacuated since the operation began on Thursday at only 25, 000. A rebel official in Turkey told Reuters that even after thousands left on Monday, only about half of the civilians who wanted to leave had done so. Insurgent fighters would only leave once all the civilians who wanted to go had departed, the rebel said. The ceasefire and evacuation agreement allows rebels to carry personal weapons but not heavier arms. Estimates of the number of people waiting for evacuation range from a few thousand to tens of thousands. The United Nations said Syria had authorized the world body to send 20 more staff to east Aleppo who would monitor the evacuation. A U. N. official said 750 people had been evacuated from the two besieged Shi’ite villages of Foua and Kefraya, which government forces had insisted must be included in the deal to bring people out of Aleppo. The evacuations are part of a ceasefire arrangement that ends fighting in Aleppo, once Syria’s most populous city. Conditions for those being evacuated are grim, with evacuees waiting for convoys of buses in freezing winter temperatures. An aid worker said that some evacuees had reported that children had died during the long, cold wait. PATRIOTIC MUSIC In parts of Aleppo, the mood was very different. A large crowd thronged to a sports hall in the city, waving Syrian flags and dancing to patriotic music, a large portrait of Assad hanging on one wall, in a celebration of the rebels’ defeat in the city that was broadcast live on state television. The rebel withdrawal from Aleppo after a series of rapid advances by the army and allied Shi’ite militias including Hezbollah since late November has brought Assad his biggest victory of the nearly war. However, despite the capture of Aleppo and progress against insurgents near Damascus, the fighting is far from over, with large areas remaining in rebel control in the northwestern countryside and in the far south. The jihadist group Islamic State also controls swathes of territory in the deserts and Euphrates river basin in eastern Syria. Assad is backed by Russian air power and Shi’ite militias including Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Iraq’s Harakat . The mostly Sunni rebels include groups supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies. For four years, the city was split between a eastern sector and the western districts. During the summer, the army and its allies besieged the rebel sector before using intense bombardment and ground assaults to retake it in recent months. (Reporting by Angus McDowall, Humeyra Pamuk, Stephanie Nebehay, Peter Hobson, writing by Giles Elgood, editing by Peter Millership) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

U.S. plays down absence from Moscow talks on Syria, says not ’sidelined’

The United States on Tuesday sought to downplay its absence from talks on the Syrian conflict among Russia, Iran and Turkey in Moscow, saying it was not a ”snub” and did not reflect a decline of U. S. influence in the Middle East. However, President Barack Obama’s decision to offer only limited support to moderate rebels has left Washington with little leverage to influence the situation in Syria, especially after Moscow began launching air strikes against rebels fighting President Bashar . Although Washington has long been a player in efforts to end the Syria civil war and other Mideast conflicts, the United States was forced to watch from the sidelines as the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, mounted an assault to pin down the rebels in east Aleppo that culminated in a ceasefire deal. Dennis Ross, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who was an adviser on Iran and the Middle East to both Democratic and Republican administrations, said the United States had made itself ”irrelevant” in Syria. ”The opposition finds little reason to be responsive to us and Assad. The Russians and Iran know that there is nothing we will do to raise the costs to them of their onslaught against Aleppo and other Syrian cities,” Ross said. ”Russia, having changed the balance of power on the ground, without regard to civilian consequences, has moved to make itself an arbiter.” A spokesman for U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed suggestions that America’s absence from the meeting indicated a change in influence. ”The secretary doesn’t see this as a snub at all. He sees it as another multilateral effort to try to get a lasting peace in Syria and he welcomes any progress towards that,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday. ”We would obviously refute any notion that . .. the fact that we weren’t at this one meeting is somehow a harbinger or a litmus test for U. S. influence and leadership there or anywhere else around the world,” Kirby said, adding that Washington was still engaged in the region on many other issues. ”We are not excluded, we are not being sidelined,” he added. At the meeting on Tuesday, Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal and they adopted a declaration that laid out the principles any agreement should follow. Still, the meetings on Tuesday resulted in a ”Moscow Declaration,” reflecting Russia’s growing links with Iran and Turkey, despite the murder on Monday of Russia’s ambassador in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, and reflects Putin’s desire to increase his country’s influence in the Middle East and more widely. It also shows that Russia is fed up with what it considers long and pointless talks with the Obama administration over Syria. ”RUNNING THE SHOW” A U. S. official acknowledged that the U. S. absence from the evacuation talks on eastern Aleppo was Russia’s way of showing that Moscow, not Washington, was running the show. ”The fact is that we have put ourselves in a position where Russia is making efforts to try to work with anybody else so they can isolate us,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. ”We let our differences with Turkey over the Kurds and our views over the northern part of Syria create gaps that the Russians have exploited.” Kirby said that in the end, the United States, Russia, Iran, and Turkey would like to see an immediate ceasefire and the ”urgent delivery” of humanitarian aid. Ultimately, he said, it was too soon to judge whether the talks were a success. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that he and his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, were working to organize new Syrian peace negotiations without the United States or the United Nations. Russia says that if they happen, the talks would be in addition to intermittent U. N. negotiations in Geneva. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he thought that what he called the troika was the most effective forum for trying to solve the Syria crisis. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by John Walcott and Leslie Adler) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

In Trump cabinet, Commerce Secretary will run trade policy

U. S. Donald Trump plans to put his pick for Commerce Secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, in charge of his trade policy, a transition team spokesman said on Tuesday. It is a signal of how Trump, who is also interviewing candidates to be the U. S. Trade Representative (USTR) plans to elevate a crackdown on competitors in the world market and the overhaul of trade deals that he says have hurt U. S. factory jobs. The USTR will not be merged with Commerce, but Trump transition team spokesman Jason Miller made clear that most trade policy decisions would be steered by Ross, who made a good part of his fortune by investing in distressed steel companies that benefited from stiff import tariffs imposed by former President George W. Bush in the early 2000s. ”Mr. Ross not only has negotiated some very good deals over his lifetime, he’s also the person who worked closely with the on crafting his trade policy over the administration,” Miller told reporters during a daily transition briefing. ”Mr. Ross will be playing a big role in any trade particulars in this administration.” The move also marks a notable shift from trade policy management in President Barack Obama’s administration, where USTR Michael Froman was seen as the main trade architect, negotiating a Pacific Rim trade deal that ultimately failed to win approval in Congress. ”It looks like the USTR office is being downgraded and subordinated to Commerce,” said Derek Scissors, a trade expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington. ”That’s a big change because USTR is this small elite trade agency right across from the White House. ” Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, blamed multilateral trade deals with Mexico and China for the loss of U. S. jobs, a core message during his campaign, and said he would push to renegotiate the agreements. Trump’s administration is expected to crack down on Chinese trade practices with enforcement cases, which has raised fears Beijing would retaliate. He has also pledged to hit companies that shift production from the United States to other countries with a 35 percent tax on their exports into the United States legislation he said his team would soon ”write up.” Ross has also been a key adviser on another top Trump priority: a proposal to use tax credits to help spur $1 trillion of private and public spending on roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Trump plans to delegate coordination of that plan to the head of an infrastructure task force, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources briefed on the plans. INTERVIEWS FOR USTR Trump has picked more than 20 nominees for his cabinet so far, packing his team with billionaires from the business world, retired generals, and loyalists. He is continuing to interview candidates for his cabinet this week at his Palm Beach resort, where he will spend the Christmas holiday including potential picks for the USTR job. Elevating Ross’ role as Commerce Secretary could make the USTR job less attractive to potential candidates with trade expertise, said Scissors at the American Enterprise Institute. Traditionally, the USTR takes the lead on negotiations for trade deals, while Commerce, a massive sprawling agency, handles enforcement actions including and investigations of imports. On Tuesday, Trump was slated to meet about the USTR position with Jovita Carranza, who was deputy administrator with the Small Business Administration in the George W. Bush White House and a former executive with United Parcel Service Inc. Carranza, now a consultant, was part of a group of Hispanic leaders who met with Trump in July, after he had come under fire for his hard line on immigration and criticism of an federal judge. She became part of his campaign’s Hispanic advisory council and ran a call center from her home during the campaign to boost support for Trump among Hispanic voters in North Carolina, Miller said. Trump has also discussed the USTR job with Robert Lighthizer, a former deputy USTR during the Reagan administration, and Dan DiMicco, former CEO of steel producer Nucor Corp. In 2012, Obama proposed to combine Commerce and the USTR with the Small Business Administration, Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation and U. S. Trade and Development Agency in one streamlined department a plan that was rejected by Congress. Trump has no plans to merge Commerce with the USTR, Miller said. (Additional reporting by Dave McKinney in Chicago; Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Andrea Ricci) NEW YORK Six in 10 American voters support the new ban on people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States unless they can show they have a close relative here, according to opinion poll results released on Wednesday. LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May will hold a bilateral meeting with U. S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg on Friday, a British government official said on Wednesday.

VW agrees to fix, buy back more polluting U.S. diesel vehicles

Volkswagen AG ( ) has agreed to a $1 billion settlement to fix or buy back another 80, 000 polluting diesel vehicles sold in the United States as the German automaker on Tuesday took new steps to put its emissions cheating scandal behind it. The settlement deal covered luxury VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3. engines, meaning Volkswagen has now agreed to spend as much as $17. 5 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners as well as federal and state regulators over polluting diesel vehicles. The world’s No. 2 automaker still faces the possibility of spending billions of dollars more to resolve a U. S. Justice Department criminal investigation and federal and state environmental claims, as well as oversight by a federal monitor. The new agreement, settling part of litigation brought against VW by federal and California regulators, ”is another important step forward in our efforts to make things right for our customers,” Hinrich Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in a statement. U. S. District Judge Charles Breyer announced the settlement during a hearing in San Francisco. Volkswagen also agreed to boost electric vehicle efforts in California and faces additional costs as it works to finalize an agreement to provide what Breyer called ”substantial compensation” to the owners of the 3. vehicles. Breyer in October approved VW’s earlier settlement worth about $15 billion with regulators and the U. S. owners of 475, 000 polluting diesel vehicles with smaller 2. engines, including an offer to buy back all of the cars. Breyer on Tuesday also said German engineering company Robert Bosch GmbH [ROBG. UL] which produced the software for the VW diesels, has agreed in principle to settle civil allegations made by U. S. diesel vehicle owners. Bosch confirmed it had reached the agreement, but said it was not accepting liability nor admitting to the allegations made in the lawsuit by owners who said the company was a knowing and active participant in VW’s emissions cheating scheme. Reuters reported on Monday that the settlement was expected to be worth more than $300 million. VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software known as ”defeat devices” in 475, 000 U. S. 2. diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner in testing than they really were. In reality, the vehicles emitted up to 40 times the legally allowable pollution levels. The company later admitted to also using ”defeat devices” in the 3. vehicles. The 80, 000 3. U. S. vehicles had an undeclared auxiliary emissions system that allowed the vehicles to emit up to nine times allowable limits. The scandal hurt VW’s global business and reputation, and led to its CEO’s ouster. POLLUTION REDUCTION VW previously agreed to contribute $2. 7 billion to a pollution reduction fund to make up for the excess emissions from its 2. diesel cars through programs like paying for school systems to buy newer, buses to replace older ones. Under the new settlement, VW agreed to contribute another $225 million to the fund to offset the excess emissions from its 3. diesel engines. Cynthia Giles, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency assistant administrator, estimated that the costs of buybacks, fixes and diesel offsets agreed to by VW in the new settlement amounted to about $1 billion. Under the deal, VW will buy back or fix 20, 000 of the 3. diesels and fix another 60, 000. The automaker still must get U. S. regulatory approval for those fixes. The judge still must give final approval to the deal. VW previously agreed to pay $5, 100 to $10, 000 in compensation to each of the U. S. 2. owners. If the new settlement follows this pattern, it could add $400 million to $800 million to the 3. settlement. But funds from Bosch’s settlement are expected to defray VW’s compensation costs. California said in a separate court filing that Volkswagen agreed to add by 2020 at least three additional electric vehicles, including an SUV, in California and must sell an average of 5, 000 electric vehicles annually through 2025. Volkswagen also agreed to pay California’s state air board $25 million, the state said. California Air Resources Board executive officer Richard Corey said the new settlement showed that ”cheaters will be caught and held accountable.” As part of the earlier settlement, VW agreed to spend $2 billion over 10 years to boost vehicle infrastructure. The buyback offer is for about 20, 000 Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7 diesel models. If VW had been forced to buyback all of the vehicles it could have added billions of dollars to the company’s costs. Breyer said owners of 3. vehicles would receive ”substantial compensation” for getting their vehicles fixed or repaired but said there were some remaining issues to be resolved, and set a another hearing for Thursday for an update. Volkswagen on Monday also agreed to spend up to $1. 6 billion to buy back up to 105, 000 polluting 2. vehicles in Canada. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Editing by Will Dunham) NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program. WARSAW The United Nations’ cultural body UNESCO has called on Poland to halt logging in its ancient Bialowieza Forest, saying it could otherwise decide to place it on its list of world heritage sites in danger.

Ford shutting Kansas City plant for a week, GM lays off shift in Detroit

Ford Motor Co ( ) will close its Kansas City, Missouri pickup truck and van plant for a week in early January to match production and demand, the automaker said on Tuesday. The plant makes pickup trucks and Ford Transit vans. Ford also closed the Kansas City plant for a week a couple of months ago. The move comes a day after GM announced it was closing five U. S. plants, mainly ones that make sedans, in January from one to three weeks. Later on Monday, GM also said that in March it will lay off about 1, 300 plant workers and cut the second shift at its plant. The plant makes the Chevrolet Volt hybrid, and three sedans: the Chevrolet Impala, Cadillac CT6 and Buick LaCrosse. Sedans remain essential for most auto manufacturers, but U. S. consumer appetite for them has waned in the past few years in favor of SUVs and pickup trucks. ”General Motors will explore placement opportunities at other GM facilities for those affected by this decision,” the company said in an emailed statement. The new layoffs are on top of 2, 000 as GM in January eliminates a shift each at plants in Lordstown, Ohio and Lansing, Michigan, which the company announced in November. The single week shutdown of the Ford Kansas City plant will allow ”time to perform maintenance” of the machinery at the factory, Ford said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. Data from the Automotive News, which reported the Kansas City shutdown earlier on Tuesday, shows there were 108 days of Transit inventory at the start of this month, up from 82 days a month earlier. The Kansas City plant is the only U. S. plant that makes the Transit van. The Volt has been among electrified vehicles, with sales up nearly 60 percent this year through November. However, it remains a niche product at about 2, 500 in U. S. sales in November. U. S. sales of the Impala are down 20 percent this year, and inventory data for the Buick LaCrosse shows a lofty 168 days of supply, and for the Cadillac CT6 it was 111 days, Automotive News data shows. Overall, Ford held 83 days of U. S. vehicle supply at the star to this month, down from 90 days a month earlier, and GM was holding 86 days supply, from 84 days a month earlier, the data shows. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by David Gregorio) BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen . NEW DELHI India is examining the use of private vehicles as shared taxis in an effort to reduce car ownership and curb growing traffic congestion in major cities, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Wall Street hits record highs, dollar rises to 14-year peak

U. S. equities touched record highs on Tuesday and the dollar rose to its highest level in 14 years as markets shrugged off risk aversion and continued the rally that has elevated Wall Street since Election Day. The Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq Composite both closed at record highs, with the index just below the 20, 000 level. European stocks steadied as reassurance over Italy’s plan to spend up to 20 billion euros ($21 billion) to rescue its troubled banks overtook uncertainty over Monday’s attacks in Turkey and Germany. The STOXX 600 closed up 0. 48 percent, with the German DAX French CAC 40 and British FTSE 100 all adding gains. ”Investors have become so fast in digesting bad news, and this explains the resilience in financial markets,” said Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM. U. S. stocks have rallied since the Nov. 8 election, with the S&P 500 rising nearly 6 percent on bets that Donald Trump’s plans will provide a boost to business. ”The market is focused on the Trump agenda, which is tax cuts, infrastructure spending and deregulation,” said Jeff Zipper, managing director for investments at Private Client Reserve at U. S. Bank in Palm Beach, Florida. The Dow rose 91. 56 points, or 0. 46 percent, to 19, 974. 62, the S&P 500 gained 8. 23 points, or 0. 363752 percent, to 2, 270. 76 and the Nasdaq added 26. 50 points, or 0. 49 percent, to 5, 483. 94. Emerging market shares edged up . MSCIEF while MSCI’s broadest index of shares outside Japan . MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0. 3 percent. China’s CSI 300 index slid 0. 6 percent on Beijing’s move to tighten supervision of shadow banking activities and on liquidity concerns. Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0. 5 percent after a late rally linked to the Bank of Japan’s decision to maintain its .1 percent interest rate on some deposits and monetary policy. The BOJ’s widely expected hold also sent Japan’s currency tumbling against the dollar. The yen was last down 0. 65 percent against the greenback. The dollar . DXY tracked U. S. bond yields higher US10YT=RR as the strong appetite for risk assets pushed traders out of bonds and into stocks. Positive comments on Monday from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on the state of the U. S. labor market also boosted the greenback. ”She didn’t use the opportunity to take the market back from being overly hawkish,” said UBS currency strategist Constantin Bolz, in Zurich. ”Maybe there were some people who . .. thought they would hold off from further dollar longs until she spoke, in case she were to row back.” The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose almost 0. 5 percent to 103. 65 . DXY, its highest level since December 2002. [ ] Benchmark U. S government bond US10YT=RRyields, which set the bar for global borrowing costs, hit session highs of 2. 59 percent, not far from highs touched last week. [ ] ”The dollar and bonds have been trading in lockstep,” said Ellis Phifer, senior market strategist at Raymond James in Memphis, Tennessee. ”There are still concerns spending will increase and more debt supply will be on its way.” Oil prices rose to peaks but settled below session highs after Libya announced the reopening of pipelines after a blockade that ended earlier this month. Brent crude LCOc1 was last up 0. 86 percent at $55. 39 a barrel, while WTI crude CLc1 added 0. 21 percent to $52. 23 a barrel. (Refiles to delete extraneous material at top) (Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Additional reporting by Richard Leong in New York, Nichola Saminather in Singapore, Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore, Marc Jones in London; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Dan Grebler) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Miners sharpen marketing strategies in hunt for marginal gains

The world’s big mining groups are sharpening their marketing strategies in a scramble for even tiny increases in profit, seeking marginal gains much like cycling teams in the Tour de France or Olympic velodrome. Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are using varying tactics to boost profitability on commodities such as copper, iron ore and coal, as the traditional model of simply producing more is under strain and the recovery from a deep downturn remains tentative. The one thing in common is a philosophy championed by cycling coach Dave Brailsford: achieve marginal gains in as many areas as possible and the overall performance of the rider or in this case the business will improve significantly. BHP and Rio Tinto, the biggest miners, have both appointed executives this year to extract the maximum value from every stage of their business process, from the mine to the consumer. For BHP and Anglo American, the strategies include commodity trading although on a far smaller scale than their rival Glencore, which began life as a pure trader and says income from this business helped it through the commodity slump. Overall, the object is to help cushion the mining groups from the kind of extreme price swings that the market has experienced in recent years. ”I am very confident that the culture changes we’re building on will allow us to move away from this boom and bust mentality,” Arnoud Balhuizen, BHP’s new head of marketing and supply, told Reuters. The strategic shift, which began with the price crash that knocked billions off the miners’ earnings in 2015, has gained momentum this year despite a revival on commodity markets. ”Prices have lifted, but the world will remain a very competitive place and everybody will still be looking for that extra dollar,” one industry source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Even after investors piled back into mining stocks this year, making them the biggest gainers on the London’s FTSE index, their prices are still barely back to where they were around the start of 2015. Chris LaFemina, a managing director of research at Jefferies investment bank, said the new strategies were necessary but they would not transform the miners’ fortunes. ”In a bull market, companies would not have been worried about incremental margins through marketing, but now everyone is focused on getting the maximum price and they can get a little bit of extra margin over a lot of tonnes,” he said. ”Small changes are important at the bottom of the cycle and it still matters, but it’s not going to change the investment case.” CUTTING OUT MIDDLE MEN Balhuizen, who was appointed to his position in May after more than a decade with BHP, said a traditional focus on selling large volumes through standard contracts may have been good for consumers, but not for producers. Following zealous over the last two years, the next stage was to assess every stage of the value chain. That led to the conclusion that the best price could be achieved if brokers were cut out, contracts torn up and specific products delivered to specific consumers. It’s an approach that echoes Glencore’s use of its network of an estimated 7, 000 customers to deliver a tailored service to clients willing to pay a premium over market prices. Balhuizen offered the example of coal, the price of which has surged this year after steep falls in 2015. ”You don’t want to sell too much coal to someone who doesn’t value it, because he won’t pay you for it,” he said. Mining groups have traditionally steered clear of speculative commodity trading as a source of income, reluctant to take on the levels of risk involved. This contrasts to Glencore, which remains an active trader despite becoming a major producer when it merged with mining group Xstrata in 2013. However, Balhuizen signaled a shift at BHP. The group gives no figures for how many marketing staff it employs, but he said traders which he defined as ”people who buy material on their own account and take risk” were among them. VALUE QUEST Anglo American also does some pure trading. While the group does not disclose volumes, it has said it met a goal set in 2014 that marketing activities should contribute $400 million in core earnings by 2016. This remains modest compared with Glencore, which expects trading to account for $2. $2. 7 billion of core earnings for the full year. Outside trading, Anglo American has also boosted platinum margins by as much as 5 percent. This followed the ending of a deal under which Johnson Matthey sold all its platinum directly to customers. Instead of selling at a discount to the spot market, it now it sells at a slight premium. Rio Tinto says it does not trade but under its CEO Jacques, who took over in July, it has a new division to analyze the group’s business and extract value at every opportunity. Steve McIntosh, who was appointed group executive of growth and innovation in July, told analysts in December the aim was to span ”the entire value chain from ore body to market” in pursuit of the extra dollar. Rio’s traditional big earner, accounting for roughly 60 percent of core profit, has been iron ore, a high margin, bulk product. GRAPHIC Big Four iron ore miners However, Jacques has put an emphasis on copper. This needs to be processed, and Rio is increasingly blending copper from a variety of sources as the best grade material is used up. Rio began buying copper from other sources to fill its smelter in the U. S. state of Utah because the quality of its own ores had declined. But the volumes are tiny a few hundred thousand tonnes compared with Glencore’s copper trade of around 3. 1 million tonnes per year. RISK While the strategies of Glencore and the rest overlap, the big difference is the level of trading risk that the miners are willing to take on. Glencore has presented its trading business as the opposite of risky in that it was a source of cash and stable earnings even when commodity prices were crashing. GRAPHIC Glencore’s business model Trading does not involve the huge capital expenditure and asset depreciation of mining, but needs credit and can go wrong. Glencore relies on complex funding arrangements with around 60 banks and sometimes investors are wary, with its shares among the biggest losers during the crash of 2015. But when all goes well, its trading can generate cash even in the deepest slump. Ultimately, the risk could be for Glencore, as more players scramble for dwindling margins. However, Glencore investors say it would take years for rivals to steal significant market share, and any gains for the others are helpful but only incremental. ”It’s extremely difficult to compete with someone who has the key relationships, logistics and infrastructure in place already,” David Neuhauser, managing director at Livermore Partners, a Glencore shareholder, said. ”As with any competitive situation, it could potentially erode margins or volume, but I’d be hard pressed to see how they could lose out to the others.” (Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov in London and John Tilak in Toronto; editing by David Stamp) SINGAPORE Oil prices nudged higher on Thursday on strong demand in the United States, but analysts cautioned that oversupply would continue to drag on markets. LONDON The West’s three biggest energy corporations are lobbying Qatar to take part in a huge expansion of its gas production, handing Doha an unintended but timely boost in its bitter dispute with Gulf Arab neighbors.

U.S. government loses to Russia’s disinformation campaign: advisers

Far more effort has gone into plotting offensive hacking and preparing defenses against the less probable but more dramatic damage from electronic assaults on the power grid, financial system or direct manipulation of voting machines. Over the last several years, U. S. intelligence agencies tracked Russia’s use of coordinated hacking and disinformation in Ukraine and elsewhere, the advisers and intelligence experts said, but there was little sustained, government conversation about the risk of the propaganda coming to the United States. During the presidential election it did to an extent that may have altered the outcome, the security sources said. But U. S. officials felt limited in investigating propaganda efforts because of free speech guarantees in the Constitution. A former White House official cautioned that any U. S. government attempt to counter the flow of foreign disinformation through deterrence would face major political, legal and moral obstacles. ”You would have to have massive surveillance and curtailed freedom and that is a cost we have not been willing to accept,” said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ”They (Russia) can control distribution of information in ways we don’t.” Clinton Watts, a security consultant, former FBI agent and a fellow at the nonprofit Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the U. S. government no longer has an organization, such as the U. S. Information Agency, that provided during the Cold War. He said that most major Russian disinformation campaigns in the United States and Europe have started at funded media outlets, such as RT television or Sputnik News, before being amplified on Twitter by others. Watts said it was urgent for the U. S. government to build the capability to track what is happening online and dispute false stories. ”Those two things need to be done immediately,” Watts said. ”You have to have a public statement or it leads to conspiracy theories.” A defense spending pill passed this month calls for the State Department to establish a ”Global Engagement Center” to take on some of that work, but similar efforts to counter less sophisticated Islamic State narratives have fallen short. The U. S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against U. S. political organizations in October, a month before the Nov. 8 election. U. S. ’STUCK’ James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who has worked for the departments of State and Commerce and the U. S. military, said Washington needed to move beyond antiquated notions of projecting influence if it hoped to catch up with Russia. ”They have RT and all we know how to do is send a carrier battle group,” Lewis said. ”We’re going to be stuck until we find a way deal with that.” Watts, who said he has tracked tens of thousands of Twitter handles since 2014, believes many of the most effective stories stoke fear of war or other calamities or promote a narrative of corrupt Western politicians, media and other elites. He and others said Sputnik shows the intensity of the Russian effort. Launched two years ago as a successor to the official Russian wire service and radio network, Sputnik does not merely parrot the Kremlin political line, according to experts. It has gone out of its way to hire outsiders with social media expertise, including left and Americans who are critical of U. S. policies. Sputnik News did not respond to a request for comment. During the election campaign, one of the most prominent fulltime Sputnik writers and commentators, Cassandra Fairbanks, shifted from an ardent protestor and supporter of socialist U. S. Senator Bernie Sanders to a vocal backer of Republican Donald Trump. Fairbanks said in an interview with Reuters that Sputnik had not told her to advocate for Trump, now . She said she was swayed by Trump’s opposition to overseas wars and international trade agreements. ”I did my best to push for him,” Fairbanks said, ”but that was of my free will.” A woman in her thirties with more than 80, 000 Twitter followers, Fairbanks was an activist with the hacking movement known as Anonymous before she joined Sputnik. The day before the election, Fairbanks said on a YouTube channel that it was ”pretty likely” that the authors of emails hacked from the account of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta were using code words for pedophilia when they spoke about pizza. The assertion fed the falsehood that Clinton supporters were operating a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor. The channel, with 1. 8 million subscribers, was run by Alex Jones, a radio host who has said the attacks were an ”inside job.” Joe Fionda, a veteran of the Occupy protests who worked briefly for Sputnik in 2015, said the organization’s articles and social media efforts overall were aimed at praising Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies such as Syria and dwelling on negative news in the United States, including police misconduct. Some U. S. officials and political analysts have said Putin could believe businessman Trump would be friendlier to Russia than Clinton, especially when it came to economic sanctions. Fionda said spreading hacked emails was a priority at Sputnik. He said his job included trying to create viral memes on a Facebook page called Mutinous Media, which did not list a Sputnik connection. Former workers of the Democratic National Committee, one of the groups infiltrated by hackers, said the U. S. government should consider providing funding for the technological defense of major political parties. They said that once hacked emails began appearing online, party functionaries were constantly behind in responding. They also said that the staff of Democratic President Barack Obama had been overly concerned about not appearing to defend its own party’s candidate. Obama has asked spy agencies to deliver an analysis of Russian meddling in the election that will include discussion of propaganda operations, Office of the Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Robert Litt told Reuters. Asked on Tuesday whether he thought the U. S. government had been caught off guard, Litt said: ”I’m not touching this with an pole. It is a very important issue that the intelligence community is looking at very carefully, and it will issue a report in due time.” (Reporting by Joseph Menn; editing by David Rohde and Grant McCool) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

Black Los Angeles deputy chief chosen to head San Francisco police

A black deputy police chief from Los Angeles was selected on Tuesday to head up the San Francisco Police Department, months after the city’s last police chief was pushed out amid protests over police killings of . The U. S. Department of Justice continues to review San Francisco’s police force after deadly police shootings and two racist scandals that sparked angry demonstrations and calls for a department . Bill Scott, the black officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, will replace Toney Chaplin and is expected to start late January. Chaplin, who is also black, has been serving as interim police chief since Greg Suhr was ousted from the top job. ”I admire San Francisco’s proactive approach to reform in the wake of incidents in the last two years, and I look forward to continuing this work,” Scott said in a statement. Scott has been with the Los Angeles police for 27 years and was promoted to deputy chief in 2015, according to the mayor’s office. He heads the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Bureau, which employs 1, 700 people and covers an area where some 640, 000 people live. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee reluctantly pressured Suhr to resign back in May, just hours after an officer fatally shot a black woman. That shooting occurred in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood, where police in December 2015 fatally shot a black man who was a suspect in a stabbing. Police said at the time that Mario Woods, whose family has since sued the city, was holding a knife and refused to drop it. Bystander video, which went viral after being published online, showed Woods being gunned down in a hail of bullets by a phalanx of officers. In April, the city’s public defender released racist and homophobic text messages sent by a San Francisco police officer, which marked the second such scandal in as many years. Amid escalating protests, the city and the U. S. Justice Department launched a collaborative review of the police department in February, which critics said fell short of a civil rights investigation. In October, reviewers released a report outlining deficiencies it found within the department, including apparent racial bias in traffic stops, searches and killings. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay) WASHINGTON The issuance of U. S. visas, passports and other travel documents should be transferred to the Department of Homeland Security from the State Department, a consulting company commissioned by U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has recommended in a report. Gene Conley, the only man to win both a baseball World Series and an NBA championship in basketball, died on Tuesday at the age of 86, the Boston Red Sox said in a statement.

Obama bans new oil, gas drilling off Alaska, part of Atlantic coast

U. S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday banned new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, in a push to leave his stamp on the environment before Republican Donald Trump takes office next month. Obama used a law called the Outer Continental Shelf Act that allows presidents to limit areas from mineral leasing and drilling. Environmental groups said that meant Trump’s incoming administration would have to go court if it sought to reverse the move. The ban affects 115 million acres (46. 5 million hectares) of federal waters off Alaska in the Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea and 3. 8 million acres (1. 5 million hectares) in the Atlantic from New England to Chesapeake Bay. Trump, who succeeds Obama on Jan. 20, has said he would expand offshore oil and gas drilling. A recent memo from his energy transition team said his policy could increase production in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, as well as the and south Atlantic. A Trump representative did not immediately comment on the announcement. Even if Trump tries to fight the move, few energy companies have expressed a desire to drill anytime soon off the coasts thanks to abundant cheap shale oil in North Dakota and Texas. Exploratory drilling in the Arctic is expensive and risky. Shell Oil ended its quest to explore in harsh Arctic waters in 2015, after a vessel it was using suffered a gash and environmentalists uncovered a law that limited its drilling. The American Petroleum Institute oil industry group disagreed about the permanence of the ban and said Trump could likely use a presidential memorandum to lift it. ”We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy,” said Erik Milito, API’s upstream director. JOINT ACTION WITH CANADA The White House and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jointly announced their move to launch ”actions ensuring a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem.” Obama said in a statement that the joint actions ”reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region’s harsh conditions is limited.” Canada will designate all Arctic Canadian waters as indefinitely off limits to future offshore Arctic oil and gas licensing, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine assessment. The law under which Obama is acting enables a president to withdraw certain areas from leasing or drilling ”for any public purpose,” such as to limit the impacts of climate change, according to a legal briefing by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earth Justice. Under that law, a president is not authorized to ”undo” a previous withdrawal, making it more difficult for Trump to target without a lawsuit. ”No president has ever tried to undo a permanent withdrawal of an ocean area from leasing eligibility,” said Niel Lawrence, Alaska director and attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The provision has been used by six presidents from both parties over the past 65 years, including to withdraw as much as several hundred million acres at a time, he said. ’SMART BUSINESS DECISION’ In 2015, just 0. 1 percent of U. S. federal offshore crude production came from the Arctic. At current oil prices, significant production in the Arctic will not occur, according to a Department of Interior analysis. There is currently no crude oil production in the Canadian Arctic. A number of companies including Chevron Corp, ConocoPhillips and Imperial Oil hold exploration licenses, but all three have put their drilling plans on hold, partly because of weak global oil prices. On the U. S. Atlantic coast, local groups have opposed offshore drilling and would fight the Trump administration’s attempts to open it up. ”The people of the Atlantic coast have refused to allow their way of life to be compromised,” said Jacqueline Savitz, senior vice president of ocean conservancy group Oceana. She said the Obama administration move to protect the Atlantic coast was a “smart business decision” since it would protect the lucrative tourism and fishing industries of East Coast communities. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Valerie Volcovici; Additional reporting by Andrea Hopkins in Ottawa; Editing by Peter Cooney) BERLIN Draft conclusions to this week’s summit of the Group of 20 leading economies acknowledge the United States’ isolation in opposing the Paris climate accord but agree to G20 collaboration on reducing emissions through innovation, a G20 source said. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

Former Flint emergency managers, others charged in water crisis

Michigan prosecutors on Tuesday charged four former government officials in Flint, including two city emergency managers, with conspiring to violate safety rules in connection with the city’s water crisis that exposed residents to dangerous levels of lead. Former emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose and former city employees Howard Croft, a public works superintendent, and Daugherty Johnson, a utilities manager, were the latest to be charged in the case, Attorney General Bill Schuette said. The defendants conspired to operate the city’s water treatment plant when it was not safe to do so, he told a news conference in Flint. ”Flint was a casualty of arrogance, disdain and failure of management, an absence of accountability,” Schuette said. Michigan has been at the center of a public health crisis since last year, when tests found high amounts of lead in blood samples taken from children in Flint, a predominantly black city of about 100, 000. Asked whether the investigation would lead to charges against state officials, Schuette reiterated that no one was excluded. Some critics have called for state officials, including Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, to be charged. Snyder has said he believed he had not done anything criminally wrong. Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton said by email that the state remains committed to helping Flint recover. Johnson’s attorney, Edward Zeineh, said his client pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday. ”We will vigorously defend these proceedings in court,” Zeineh said. Court documents did not list attorneys for the other three men. An attorney who previously represented Earley could not be reached for comment. The accused face felony charges of false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses. Each charge can carry prison terms of up to 20 years fines, officials said. Flint resident Gina Luster, whose daughter suffered lead poisoning, wants to see those charged pay a price for their roles in the crisis. ”To see convictions and jail time is the ultimate goal for me,” she said by text. Flint’s water contamination was linked to an April 2014 decision by a emergency manager to switch the city’s water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron in an attempt to cut costs. The more corrosive river water caused lead to leach from city pipes into the drinking water. The city switched back to the previous water system in October 2015. ”It’s all about numbers over people, money over health,” Schuette said. The initial change in the city’s water source was made while Earley, 65, was emergency manager. At hearings on the crisis in Washington last March, lawmakers criticized Earley for failing to ask enough questions about the safety protocols in place at the time of the switch. In his testimony, Earley blamed city and federal officials for the problems, and said the decision to switch was made before his tenure. ”A broad net is certainly being cast,” Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards, a water engineer who first raised the issue of Flint’s lead contamination, said by email. Lead can be toxic, and children are especially vulnerable. The crisis has prompted lawsuits by parents who say their children have shown dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. Thirteen current and former state and local officials have been criminally charged in relation to the crisis. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said the latest indictments also show the failure of the emergency manager system adopted by the state, as those not beholden to the city made decisions that endangered residents’ lives. She called on the state to send more financial aid to the city. (Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Timothy McLaughlin in Chicago and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Dan Grebler) TOKYO One man was dug out of a landslide without any signs of life and two women were injured as record rains battered southwestern Japan for a second day on Thursday, with flooded rivers forcing 400, 000 from their homes, officials and media said. SYDNEY The United Nations cultural body UNESCO has voted to leave the Great Barrier Reef off its ”in danger” list despite recent widespread destruction of the World Heritage Site.

Linde, Praxair agree $65 billion merger outline, ambitious cost savings

German industrial gases group Linde ( ) and U. S. suitor Praxair ( ) have agreed an outline for a $65 merger, with the combined company to be run out of the United States by Praxair’s chief executive. The agreement, unveiled on Tuesday, comes after Praxair provided new assurances to Linde over jobs and corporate governance in Germany, sources have said. As part of the agreement on key aspects of the planned merger, existing Linde and Praxair shareholders would each own about 50 percent of the combined company. The merged group will target $1 billion in cost savings, the two companies said in a joint statement, although some analysts said that figure looked overly optimistic. ”The transaction would unite Linde’s leadership in technology with Praxair’s efficient operating model,” the companies said. Alongside rivals Air Liquide ( ) and Air Products and Chemicals Inc ( ) Linde and Praxair are struggling with slower growth in demand from clients in the manufacturing, metals and energy industries. That has already led to consolidation in the industrial gases sector with Air Liquide buying Airgas Inc for $13. 4 billion. Linde shareholders will receive 1. 54 shares in the merged company for each of their shares, the two groups said. Praxair shareholders will get one share in the new holding company for each Praxair share. The main terms of the proposal had been flagged by Reuters earlier this month. The new entity, representing a combined $30 billion in 2015 revenues before antitrust will have a dual listing in New York and Frankfurt. Praxair’s previous approach for Linde failed in September partly because of disagreements over where to locate key activities and who would run the business. The two sides have now agreed that Praxair chairman and CEO Steve Angel will become CEO, based at Praxair’s current headquarters in Danbury, Connecticut. Linde’s supervisory board Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle, will take the role of chairman of the new group. The company will be domiciled outside of Germany in a member state of the European Economic Area which comprises the European Union as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. ”Corporate functions would be appropriately split between Danbury, Connecticut and Munich, Germany to help achieve efficiencies for the combined company,” Linde and Praxair said in their statement. Germany’s powerful IG Metall union has said it would support the merger after workers were given assurances such as maintaining Linde’s two biggest sites in Germany. CULTURAL COMPLEXITY Bernstein analyst Jeremy Redenius said the cost savings target of $1 billion would be difficult to achieve. ”We think the $1 billion synergies number is overly optimistic considering the cultural complexity of the combination and related gases business divestitures that could total $5 billion of annual sales,” he said. That echoed concerns previously voiced by analysts such as Equinet’s Knud Hinkel, who said a sizeable amount of disposals for antitrust reasons would likely strengthen rivals. Investment bankers have flagged possible divestments to ease antitrust concerns in the United States and Brazil for Linde and in Germany for Praxair, making it difficult to achieve the cost cutting targets with a smaller revenue base. Linde and Praxair declined to comment on possible divestments. Praxair’s finance chief Matthew White has previously made clear that cutbacks were the main driver behind its acquisition strategy, telling analysts last month: ”We buy on synergies, we’re not going to buy on assumptions of growth.” Once remaining secondary aspects of the deal are hammered out, the deal’s fate will lie with regulators and Praxair and Linde shareholders. Perella Weinberg and Morgan Stanley ( ) advised Linde, while Credit Suisse ( ) advised Praxair. Goldman Sachs ( ) and Bank of America ( ) provided a fairness opinion to Linde’s supervisory board. (Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Susan Fenton) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. Jana Partners LLC stepped up its criticism on Wednesday of U. S. natural gas producer EQT Corp’s deal to buy Rice Energy Inc arguing that EQT could save as much as $4. 5 billion if it separated its pipeline assets instead.

Apple’s new AirPods tough to recycle: report

Apple Inc’s ( ) new wireless headphones could be a problem for recyclers, according to an electronics firm that took apart the device to review its component parts. Apple has been promoting a more environmentally conscious image for the company after having come under fire in the past for constructing its devices so tightly that their components can be difficult to disassemble for recycling. But Apple’s latest wireless headphones, or AirPods, have tiny lithium batteries that make recycling difficult, said Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, the company which took apart the AirPods and has previously analyzed other Apple products. ”They’re basically saying this is the future of headphones,” said Wiens. He estimates Apple has sold 1. 4 billion pairs of iPhone and iPod headphones, weighing about 31 million pounds. Given that the iPhone 7 ships without a traditional headphone jack, AirPods may signal Apple’s future. ”There could easily be a billion of these things over the next 10 years,” Wiens said. Apple has said that the $159 AirPods can be returned to the company for recycling. A spokesman declined to comment further on recycling the devices. The headphones, which Apple released last week after a delay, have garnered positive reviews. The AirPods contain three batteries, one in each pod and one in an accompanying charging case. Recyclers can shred wired headphones and send them to a smelter that will melt them down for the copper inside. But the batteries in AirPods cannot be shredded because they could catch fire while being destroyed. The AirPods carry regulatory markings that say they are not intended to be thrown away in the trash and should be disposed of as electronics waste. Willie Cade, CEO of PC Rebuilders & Recyclers, who was briefed on the AirPods’ construction by iFixit, said the labor involved in removing the batteries would make it hard to recover any of the materials from the devices. ”I can’t do it by hand. It’s cost prohibitive,” Cade said, adding that the AirPods would need to go into a shredder, but that ”there’s a relatively high risk of fire”. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Peter Henderson and Himani Sarkar) HONG KONG Chinese Ofo said on Thursday it has raised more than $700 million in its latest funding round that was led by Alibaba Group and two others, in the largest such in the business that has drawn keen investor interest. BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said.

Libya pipeline restart cuts into oil rally

Oil prices rose on Tuesday but settled below session highs after Libya announced the reopening of pipelines after a blockade that ended earlier this month. Benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled up 43 cents, or 0. 8 percent, to $55. 35 a barrel after touching an intraday high of $55. 92. U. S. crude futures CLc1 rose 11 cents to $52. 23 a barrel. Prices came off highs in the afternoon after Libya’s National Oil Corp said pipelines from its western fields had been reopened. It expects to add 270, 000 barrels a day in state production in the next three months. Protesters agreed last week to end a longstanding blockade. Conflict and political disputes have cut Libya’s production to just 600, 000 barrels a day, far below output of 1. 6 million before uprisings in 2011. The market’s primary focus in recent months has been on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which has agreed to cut output by 1. 2 million barrels daily. producers also agreed to also limit output. Traders expect U. S. inventories to decline in coming weeks, but oil may trade in a range until early indications in January of whether producers are holding to their pledges. ”We think the next catalyst is not going to be until until we start to see details on who is cutting and who has upheld their end,” said John Macaluso, trader at Tyche Capital Advisors in Mineola, New York. OPEC’s agreement to cut supply did not include Libya, so its added production may undermine the group’s efforts to reduce a global crude glut. The deal to cut global supply among OPEC and producers struck this month has boosted oil prices to highs. The market is awaiting official U. S. data on weekly inventories, due Wednesday morning. Analysts polled by Reuters expected U. S. crude oil inventories to show a draw of 2. 4 million barrels in the week to Dec. 16. [ ] The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, will release its figures late Tuesday, ahead of official government figures. U. S. gasoline futures RBc1 rose 1. 8 percent at $1. 5917 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Traders expect low imports to result in an drawdown for products when the U. S. Energy Department releases new data on Wednesday. Crude stocks fell more than expected last week, feeding expectations for another large drop in this week’s figures. (Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore, Karolin Schaps in London and Jarrett Renshaw in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Lisa Von Ahn) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Jordanian policemen killed fighting gunmen near Karak: security source

Four Jordanian policemen were killed in clashes with Islamist militants near the southern city of Karak on Tuesday as the authorities hunted militants who killed 10 people on Sunday, security officials said. Two days earlier police tackled gunmen holed up inside a Crusader castle in Karak. Among the casualties was a Canadian tourist. Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the violence. Security forces then launched a wide manhunt to track down the militants’ support network. Government spokesperson Mohamad Momani told reporters that security forces were surrounding a house in a neighborhood in Karak where gunmen linked to the four militants who staged Sunday’s attack were taking cover and exchanging gunfire with security forces. ”We are talking about a number of raids that are being conducted by security forces in all parts of the kingdom, not just in Karak,” said Momani. He said at least one gunman was killed in the operation alongside the four policemen. At least 11 people, mostly security personnel, were wounded in the clashes, which were still going on, a security source said. Police said late on Sunday they had killed four ”terrorist outlaws” after flushing them out of the castle where they were holed up after an exchange of fire that lasted several hours. Security forces were able to release around 10 tourists unharmed. At least 30 people were taken to hospital. Jordanian officials have not publicly confirmed whether the four slain gunmen were militants linked to Islamic State. But they said that a large cache of weapons, ammunitions and several suicide belts were discovered in a hideout in a home in the desert town of Qatranah, 30 km (20 miles) northeast of Karak. Security sources said the gunmen were all Jordanian nationals. Officials worry about radical Islam’s growing profile in Jordan. Interior Minister Salamah Hamad said on Monday that the four had fled from the Qatranah area to Karak after an exchange of fire with the police. Based on the quantities of explosives and weapons, ”I don’t think the target was just Karak castle, it’s more,” he added. He would not elaborate, saying disclosing details at this stage could imperil national security. Jordan has been relatively unscathed by the uprisings, civil wars and Islamist militancy that have swept the Middle East since 2011. However, it is among the few Arab states that have taken part in a U. S. air campaign against Islamic State militants holding territory in Syria and Iraq. Many Jordanians oppose this involvement, saying it has led to the killing of fellow Muslims and raised security threats inside Jordan. Last November three U. S. military trainers were shot dead when their car was fired on by a Jordanian army member at the gate of a military base. Washington disputed the official Jordanian account that they were shot at for failing to stop, and said it did not rule out political motives. (Reporting by Suleiman ; Editing by Gareth Pitchford) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

EU accuses Facebook of misleading it in WhatsApp takeover probe

The European Commission has charged Facebook Inc ( ) with providing misleading information during its takeover of the online messaging service WhatsApp, opening the company to a possible fine of 1 percent of its turnover. However, the statement of objections sent to Facebook will not affect the EC’s approval of the $22 billion merger in 2014, the Commission said in a statement on Tuesday. Facebook becomes the latest Silicon Valley target of EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who has demanded Apple ( ) pay back $14 billion in taxes to Ireland and hit Google ( ) with two market abuse investigations. The issue regards a WhatsApp privacy policy change in August when it said it would share some users’ phone numbers with parent company Facebook, triggering investigations by a number of EU data protection authorities. The Commission said Facebook had indicated in its notification of the planned acquisition that it would be unable reliably to match the two companies’ user accounts. ”The Commission’s preliminary view is that Facebook gave us incorrect or misleading information during the investigation into its acquisition of WhatsApp,” said Vestager. The EU executive said it took the preliminary view that the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook users’ IDs with those of WhatsApp already existed in 2014 when Facebook sought EU approval for the merger. The Commission which approved the transaction without conditions said it did not only rely on the information about the possibility of matching user accounts when reviewing the deal. Facebook has until Jan. 31 to respond. If the Commission’s concerns are confirmed it can impose a fine on the U. S. company of up to 1 percent of turnover, or about $179 million based on 2015 revenues. Companies fined can appeal to the European Court of Justice, which has overturned some penalties in the past. ”We respect the Commission’s process and are confident that a full review of the facts will confirm Facebook has acted in good faith, a Facebook spokeswoman said. ”We’ve consistently provided accurate information about our technical capabilities and plans, including in submissions about the WhatsApp acquisition and in voluntary briefings before WhatsApp’s privacy policy update this year,” she added. The company will continue to cooperate and give the information officials need to resolve their questions, she said. Facebook informed the Commission of the planned change in January. In response to separate concerns from EU data protection watchdogs Facebook has agreed to stop sharing WhatsApp users’ information with Facebook for the purposes of improving Facebook products and advertising experiences. The watchdogs wrote to the company last week asking for more information about the privacy policy change. (Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop, Greg Mahlich) HONG KONG Chinese Ofo said on Thursday it has raised more than $700 million in its latest funding round that was led by Alibaba Group and two others, in the largest such in the business that has drawn keen investor interest. BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said.

Sanofi’s takeover talks with Actelion progressing: source

Talks between Actelion ( ) and Sanofi ( ) are making progress, despite investors’ fears that the Swiss biotech firm’s chief executive and founder might not want to sell, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday. The source said Actelion had now reached a point where the company needed to sign a deal and it could not call off negotiations with the French drugmaker without triggering an investor rebellion demanding the overthrow of its board. Actelion’s share price has fallen more than 7 percent in the last two days as a takeover valuing the Swiss biotech firm at up to $30 billion has failed to emerge, frustrating hedge funds that have bought heavily into the stock. ”You can count us in to the growing camp of hedge fund discontent about this process,” said Michael Wegener, managing partner at Hong Case Equity Partners. ”What is it that’s wrong?” Actelion’s and Chief Executive Clozel has fended off previous attempts to take over the Swiss firm, rejecting approaches by U. S. and European rivals as well as resisting pressure from U. S. activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors to find a buyer five years ago. The silence in recent days has unnerved investors who had been looking for a deal before the Christmas break, but the source said it would be ”neither impossible nor unusual” to see a big transaction coming between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. U. S. healthcare group Johnson & Johnson ( ) abandoned its efforts to buy Actelion last week but the source said it may still come back with a depending on what terms are agreed with Sanofi. Other sources familiar with the situation said Sanofi had stepped in soon after J&J made its initial approach with an offer. The French firm tried to win over Actelion’s board with a higher bid containing cash and a contingent value right (CVR) they said. The CVR similar to one that Sanofi provided when it bought U. S. rare diseases firm Genzyme for $20 billion in 2011 would pay out if certain Actelion drugs live up to commercial expectations. Investors said any offer where the CVR represented more than 20 percent of the overall value of the deal would not go down well with shareholders. Sanofi and Actelion declined to comment. After being trumped in August by Pfizer’s ( ) $14 billion bid for U. S. cancer drug company Medivation, Sanofi remains hungry for deals to broaden its drug as its key diabetes business comes under pressure. Actelion’s drugs for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension, a form of high blood pressure in arteries connecting the heart and lungs, would dovetail with its Genzyme rare diseases unit, analysts believe. The Swiss group was in 1997 by old Clozel and his wife, Chief Scientific Officer Martine Clozel. (Writing by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Greg Mahlich) Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp will buy a stake in BeiGene Ltd and help develop and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational treatment for tumor cancers, the companies said on Wednesday. BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen .

Exclusive: Blackstone Group winds down Senfina hedge fund

Blackstone Group ( ) is winding down its ”big bet” hedge fund Senfina Advisors LLC after it faced mounting losses on its investments this year, a spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday. It is a rare setback for the private equity titan, which invests roughly $70 billion in hedge funds, and launched Senfina, which means ”everlasting” in Esperanto, to great fanfare in 2014. The fund was one of last year’s top performers, gaining 20 percent, but is down 24 percent this year through November after bets in its center book where declines were most pronounced. Other ” ” hedge funds, which make leveraged concentrated bets on a range of securities, have also suffered this year after being by the pace of U. S. interest rate hikes and the rally in the United States. ”The market environment in 2016 for hedge funds was unprecedented. We did what was in the best interest of our investors to preserve their capital,” said Paula Chirhart, a Blackstone spokeswoman. A number of Senfina’s nearly one dozen portfolio managers, including Parag Pande, who joined Blackstone in 2014 and now heads Senfina, will be leaving the firm, said a source familiar with the decision who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Pande ran Senfina’s center book, featuring fund managers’ best ideas. Some Senfina managers are expected to stay on at Blackstone and much of the $1. 8 billion that Senfina invests for large clients, including state pension funds, is expected to stay at Blackstone, the source said. Blackstone’s Alternative Asset Management arm (BAAM) headed by J. Tomilson Hill, saw inflows of $1. 65 billion this year and overall performance for BAAM has been positive, Chirhart said. BAAM began laying the groundwork for Senfina years ago as demand for funds picked up. Blackstone started hiring fund managers, including Pande, who came from Ziff Brothers, in 2014. By the end of last year, Senfina was one of Blackstone’s crown jewels. But after 2015’s strong gains, some Senfina managers struggled early in 2016 as worries about slower growth in China and the pace of U. S. rate hikes sent stocks spiraling lower. Losses at the start of the year were deepest in the center book. In the period, Senfina lost 15 percent after a 12 percent gain in the second half of 2015. Things appeared to stabilize some in the second quarter with a 2 percent gain. Adjustments were made in the center book. Losses mounted anew in November with a 6 percent drop. Again the majority of losses were seen in the center book which was caught off guard by Donald Trump’s unexpected White House victory and the ensuing stock market rally. Some managers betting on industrial and consumer companies were also hurt as markets repositioned. Since its launch Senfina’s performance has slightly negative but redemption requests have been minimal, the spokeswoman said. Senfina isn’t the only hedge fund to struggle this year. Folger Hill Asset Management, founded by former SAC Capital Advisors chief operating officer Sol Kumin, is off 15. 3 percent through November. Managers like Senfina use large numbers of small investment teams and centralized risk oversight to keep bets on securities increasing in value, or long positions, roughly in balance with those on them declining, or shorts. The strategy also uses leverage, or borrowed money, which can exacerbate losses if risks are not properly controlled. The approach is supposed to preserve client money in any market environment. (Reporting by Svea . Editing by Carmel Crimmins and James Dalgleish) Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp will buy a stake in BeiGene Ltd and help develop and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational treatment for tumor cancers, the companies said on Wednesday. BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen .

Exclusive: U.S.-supplied drones disappoint Ukraine at the front lines

Millions of dollars’ worth of U. S. drones that Kiev had hoped would help in its war against separatists have proven ineffective against jamming and hacking, Ukrainian officials say. The 72 Raven Analog were so disappointing following their arrival this summer that Natan Chazin, an advisor to Ukraine’s military with deep knowledge of the country’s drone program, said if it were up to him, he would return them. ”From the beginning, it was the wrong decision to use these drones in our (conflict),” Chazin, an advisor to the chief of the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, told Reuters. The Ravens were one of the recent highlights of U. S. security assistance to Ukraine, aiming to give Kiev’s military portable, unarmed surveillance drones that were small enough to be used widely in the field. They are made by AeroVironment. But they appear to have fallen short in a battle against the separatists, who benefit from far more sophisticated military technology than insurgencies the West has contended with in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. Whether Donald Trump’s administration might seek to provide Kiev anything more robust, however, is unclear, given his stated desire to improve ties with Russia and prioritize the fight against Islamic militants. U. S. restrictions on technology exports could also limit new aid. The Air Force command of Ukraine’s armed forces acknowledged to Reuters that the Ravens supplied by the United States had a fundamental drawback: Russia and the separatist forces it supports can intercept and jam their video feeds and data. ”The complex is analog, therefore command channels and data are not protected from interception and suppression by modern means of electronic warfare,” it said. U. S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Russia’s electronic warfare capabilities were far more sophisticated than thought when the conflict began and that both the U. S. and Ukrainian militaries were adapting. Asked about Ukraine’s reaction to the Ravens, one official said it took a considerable amount of time for the drones to reach Ukraine and that by then ”they were much less effective than they would have liked, than we would have liked.” AeroVironment referred questions from Reuters about the Raven contract to the U. S. Army. The U. S. Army told Reuters it still uses Ravens but has upgraded to digital versions. ”STONE AGE” Some 38 Ukrainian students were trained at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama on how to operate the drones between March and July this year, a U. S. Army spokesman said. Ukraine said it distributed the Ravens across the services and gave one batch to the Zhytomry Military Institute for training purposes. There were mixed accounts on how much the Ravens were being used in Ukraine, which saw Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014 and which has been fighting separatist forces in the east. Nearly 10, 000 people have died in the conflict. The Air Force command of Ukraine’s armed forces said they were being used in the ” Operation” zone, including in combat situations. One Ukrainian official, however, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said that although drones were being used in the zone, they were not employed on the front lines. Chazin said they were largely in storage and called them a vulnerability, allowing the enemy to see Ukrainian military positions and, when it wanted, easily take them down. They had short battery life and were unable to reliably fulfill the key mission of gaining intelligence on artillery positions, he said. ”(Analog) basically puts you back in the stone age of the UAVs,” said James Lewis, director of the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, using an acronym for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones. ”I’m not being critical of the Raven. I love the Raven . .. But it’s a cheap, disposable UAV. And for more intense conflict, that may not cut the ice anymore.” TRUMP’S UKRAINE POLICY? The drones, along with other U. S. items like radar, kits, night vision and communications gear, fit into President Barack Obama’s strategy of providing military assistance while focusing on sanctions and diplomacy to end the war. Within that context, the miniature drones, even though small, were a noteworthy element of the more than $600 million in training and equipment that the United States has provided Ukraine so far. Ukraine pegged the Raven program’s value at over $12 million. How Trump might alter U. S. support remains unclear, particularly given cabinet picks that include retired Marine General James Mattis, who has been vocal about his concerns about Russia and was nominated to become U. S. defense secretary. Some of the most prominent Republican lawmakers in Congress have called for Ukraine to receive lethal arms. ”If anything, it creates a new opportunity,” said Luke Coffey at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington . Ukrainian officials have sought to put a brave face on Trump’s election, downplaying comments on the campaign trail that included appearing to recognize Crimea as part of Russia and contemplating an end to U. S. sanctions on Russia. Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko is expected to visit Washington next year, and U. S. assistance is sure to be high on his agenda. Topping Ukraine’s wish list are Javelin missiles made by made by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The top U. S. military officer in Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, told a Senate hearing this year ”there’s a requirement for an weapon, like Javelin.” One of the U. S. officials cautioned about limitations on America’s ability to export drones that can evade Russia’s electronic warfare capabilities. That could leave Ukraine’s military to continue building drones from commercially available technology. It now assembles them from components supplied by firms in countries such as Australia, China and the Czech Republic for only $20, 000 to $25, 000 apiece, Chazin said, and they are more advanced than the more pricey Ravens, which are often funded from private donations. (Reporting by Phil Stewart Additional reporting by Catherine Koppel in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

Turkish prosecutors probing why Russian envoy’s killer not taken alive: state media

Turkish prosecutors are investigating why the policeman who shot dead Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was not captured alive, state media said on Wednesday, as the number of people arrested over the killing rose to 11. Ambassador Andrei Karlov was gunned down from behind while delivering a speech in an Ankara art gallery on Monday. His killer was identified by Turkish authorities as Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, who shouted ”Don’t forget Aleppo” and ”Allahu Akbar” Arabic for ”God is greatest” as he fired the shots. Russian and Turkey both cast the attack as an attempt to ruin a recent thawing of relations chilled by the civil war in Syria, where they back opposing sides. The war reached a potential turning point last week when Syrian forces ended rebel resistance in the northern city of Aleppo. The Anadolu Agency said prosecutors were investigating why Turkish special forces, who stormed the gallery after the killing, did not take Altintas alive. Initial findings suggest he continued to fire at police officers, shouting: ”You cannot capture me alive!” Anadolu said. The officers shot Altintas in the legs, but he continued to return fire while crawling on the ground, it said. President Tayyip Erdogan defended the police actions. ”There is some speculation about why he wasn’t captured alive. Look what happened in Besiktas when they tried to capture an attacker alive,” Erdogan told reporters, referring to twin bombings this month outside the stadium of Istanbul’s Besiktas soccer team. people, mostly policemen, were killed and more than 150 wounded in the dual bombing, the second of which saw a suicide bomber detonating explosives while surrounded by police. A Reuters cameraman at the scene of Monday’s killing of the Russian envoy said he heard shooting from inside the art gallery for some minutes after special forces stormed the building. Anadolu also said the number of people detained in connection with the killing had risen to 11. Security sources told Reuters on Tuesday that six people including Altintas’s mother, father, sister and flatmate were in custody. At Russian President Vladimir Putin’s request, a joint investigation team has been set up. The Russian contingent is made up of 18 officials, including a prosecutor and two defense attaches, Anadolu said. More than 100 people from the Ankara police department, mostly from the unit, are involved, it said. The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was too early to say who stood behind the murder of its ambassador. It has also said the assassination was a blow to Turkey’s prestige, comments that are likely to unnerve Ankara. (Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker and Melih Aslan; editing by David Dolan and Mark Heinrich) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Yahoo email scan shows U.S. spy push to recast constitutional privacy

The order on Yahoo from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) last year resulted from the government’s drive to change decades of interpretation of the U. S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment right of people to be secure against ”unreasonable searches and seizures,” intelligence officials and others familiar with the strategy told Reuters. The unifying idea, they said, is to move the focus of U. S. courts away from what makes something a distinct search and toward what is ”reasonable” overall. The basis of the argument for change is that people are making much more digital data available about themselves to businesses, and that data can contain clues that would lead to authorities disrupting attacks in the United States or on U. S. interests abroad. While it might technically count as a search if an automated program trawls through all the data, the thinking goes, there is no unreasonable harm unless a human being looks at the result of that search and orders more intrusive measures or an arrest, which even then could be reasonable. Civil liberties groups and some other legal experts said the attempt to expand the ability of law enforcement agencies and intelligence services to sift through vast amounts of online data, in some cases without a court order, was in conflict with the Fourth Amendment because many innocent messages are included in the initial sweep. ”A lot of it is unrecognizable from a Fourth Amendment perspective,” said Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor and George Washington University Law School expert on surveillance. ”It’s not where the traditional Fourth Amendment law is.” But the general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Robert Litt, said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that the legal interpretation needed to be adjusted because of technological changes. ”Computerized scanning of communications in the same way that your email service provider scans looking for viruses that should not be considered a search requiring a warrant for Fourth Amendment purposes,” said Litt. He said he is leaving his post on Dec. 31 as the end of President Barack Obama’s administration nears. DIGITAL SIGNATURE Reuters was unable to determine what data, if any, was handed over by Yahoo after its live email search. The search was first reported by Reuters on Oct. 4. [nL2N1CA1OW] Yahoo and the National Security Agency (NSA) declined to explain the basis for the order. The surveillance court, whose members are appointed by U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, oversees and approves the domestic pursuit of intelligence about foreign powers. While details of the Yahoo search are classified, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters it was aimed at isolating a digital signature for a single person or small team working for a foreign government frequently at odds with America. The ODNI is expected to disclose as soon as next month an estimated number of Americans whose electronic communications have been caught up in online surveillance programs intended for foreigners, U. S. lawmakers said. [nL1N1EB1SU] The ODNI’s expected disclosure is unlikely to cover such orders as the one to Yahoo but would encompass those under a different surveillance authority called section 702. That section allows the operation of two internet search programs, Prism and ”upstream” collection, that were revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden more than three years ago. Prism gathers the messaging data of targets from Alphabet Inc’s Google ( ) Facebook ( ) Microsoft ( ) Apple ( ) among others. Upstream surveillance allows the NSA to copy web traffic to search data for certain terms called ”selectors,” such as email addresses, that are contained in the body of messages. ODNI’s Litt said ordinary words are not used as selectors. The Fourth Amendment applies to the search and seizure of electronic devices as much as ordinary papers. Wiretaps and other surveillance in the internet age are now subject to litigation across the United States. But in the FISC, with rare exceptions, the judges hear only from the executive branch. Their rulings have been appealed only three times, each time going to a review board. Only the government is permitted to appeal from there, and so far it has never felt the need. PUBLIC LEGAL CHALLENGES The FISC’s reasoning, though, is heading into public courts. The 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Dec. 5 cited FISC precedents in rejecting an appeal of an Oregon man who was convicted of plotting to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony after his emails were collected in another investigation. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are fighting the expansion of legalized surveillance in Congress and in courts. On Dec. 8, the ACLU argued in the 4th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a lawsuit by Wikipedia’s parent group against the NSA should not have been dismissed by a lower court, which ruled that the nonprofit could not show it had been snooped on and that the government could keep details of the program secret. The concerns of civil libertarians and others have been heightened by Donald Trump’s nomination of conservative Representative Mike Pompeo of Kansas to be director of the CIA. Pompeo, writing in the Wall Street Journal in January, advocated expanding bulk collection of telephone calling records in pursuit of Islamic State and its sympathizers who could plan attacks on Americans. Pompeo said the records could be combined with ”publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database.” Yahoo’s search went far beyond what would be required to monitor a single email account. The company agreed to create and then conceal a special program on its email servers that would check all correspondence for a specific string of bits. Trawling for selectors is known as ”about” searching, when content is collected because it is about something of interest rather than because it was sent or received by an established target. It is frequently used by the NSA in its bulk upstream collection of international telecom traffic. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an appointed panel established by Congress as part of its expansion of intelligence authority, reported in 2014 that ”about” searches ”push the program close to the line of constitutional reasonableness.” A glimpse of the new legal arguments came in a FISC proceeding last year held to review NSA and FBI annual surveillance targets and four sets of procedures for limiting the spread of information about Americans. Judge Thomas Hogan appointed Amy Jeffress, an attorney at Arnold and Porter and a former national security prosecutor, to weigh in, the first time that court had asked an outside privacy expert for advice before making a decision. Jeffress argued each search aimed at an American should be tested against the Fourth Amendment, while prosecutors said that only overall searching practice had to be evaluated for ”reasonableness.” Hogan agreed with the government, ruling that even though the Fourth Amendment was all but waived in the initial data gathering because foreigners were the targets, the voluminous data incidentally gathered on Americans could also be used to investigate drug deals or robberies. ”While they are targeting foreign intelligence information, they are collecting broader information, and there needs to be strong protections for how that information is used apart from national security,” Jeffress told Reuters. ODNI’s Litt wrote in a February Yale Law Review article that the new approach was appropriate, in part because so much personal data is willingly shared by consumers with technology companies. Litt advocated for courts to evaluate ”reasonableness” by looking at the entirety of the government’s activity, including the degree of transparency. Litt told Reuters that he did not mean, however, that the same techniques in ”about” searches should be pushed toward the more targeted searches at email providers such as Yahoo. Although speaking generally, he said: ”My own personal approach to this is you should trade off broader collection authority for stricter use authority,” so that more is taken in but less is acted upon. This position strikes some academics and participants in the process as a remarkable departure from what the highest legal authority in the land was thinking just two years ago. That was when the Supreme Court’s Roberts wrote for a majority in declaring that mobile phones usually could not be searched without warrants. After prosecutors said they had protocols in place to protect phone privacy, Roberts wrote: ”Probably a good idea, but the Founders did not fight a revolution to gain the right to government agency protocols.” With little evidence that the Supreme Court agrees with the surveillance court, it remains possible it would reverse the trend. But a case would first need to make its way up there. (The story corrects Kerr’s law school affiliation in seventh paragraph) (Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco; additional reporting by Dustin Volz, Mark Hosenball and John Walcott in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Grant McCool) BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said. MEXICO CITY Billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil argued on Wednesday against rules brought in by an overhaul of the country’s telecommunications industry, saying in a statement they were unfair and had led to a loss of its business rights.

Trump extracts pledge from Boeing on Air Force One costs

U. S. Donald Trump extracted a promise from Boeing Co’s chief executive on Wednesday that the cost of replacing Air Force One would not exceed $4 billion, his latest move to use the bully pulpit to pressure companies to help advance his economic agenda. Trump met with Dennis Muilenburg of Boeing and Marillyn Hewson, chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp two defense companies he has made an example of since his Nov. 8 election, sending defense shares tumbling with his complaints about projects he said are too expensive. He paraded the two CEOs in front of the cameras at the ornate front door of his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is spending Christmas. ”Trying to get the costs down, costs. Primarily the (Lockheed Martin) we’re trying to get the cost down. It’s a program that’s very, very expensive,” Trump told reporters after meeting with the CEOs and a dozen Pentagon officials involved with defense acquisition programs who he said were ”good negotiators.” Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has vowed to address government procurement costs as part of his industrial policy, which also includes taking a hard line on Chinese trade practices and renegotiating multilateral trade deals. Also on Wednesday, Trump named economist Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line on China, to head up his White House team on industrial policy. He also appointed billionaire investor Carl Icahn as a special adviser on regulatory issues, and said Icahn would help him choose the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. ’PRODUCTIVE’ MEETINGS Muilenburg, whose company was caught off guard by Trump’s broadside earlier this month on the costs for replacing aging Air Force One planes, called his meeting ”productive” and spoke admiringly of Trump’s ”business .” Trump has said Boeing’s costs to build replacements for Air Force One aircraft one of the most visible symbols of the U. S. presidency are too high and urged the federal government in a tweet to ”Cancel order!” ”I think we’re looking to cut a tremendous amount of money off the price,” Trump said on Wednesday. The Boeing are designed to be an airborne White House able to fly in security scenarios, such as nuclear war, and are modified with military avionics, advanced communications and a system. The company is currently under contract for $170 million to help develop plans for the planes. Trump has said the planes, which are in the early stages of development and are not expected to be ready until 2024, would cost more than $4 billion. “We’re going to get it done for less than that, and we’re committed to working together to make sure that happens,” Muilenburg said, telling reporters he gave Trump a ”personal commitment” that costs would not run out of control. Trump has publicly pushed other corporations to change tack, taking credit for forcing United Technologies Corp and Ford Motor Co to alter plans to outsource jobs abroad. Ford, however, said it had no plans to close any U. S. plants. Asked whether he had secured concessions from Lockheed Martin on its fighter jet program, which he has complained was ”out of control,” Trump said it was to soon to know. ”It’s a dance, you know, it’s a little bit of a dance. But we’re going to get the costs down and we’re going to get it done beautifully,” he told reporters. Lockheed Martin CEO Hewson, who left without speaking to reporters, said in a statement that her meeting was ”productive” and gave her the opportunity to talk about progress in cutting costs. ”The is a critical program to our national security, and I conveyed our continued commitment to delivering an affordable aircraft to our U. S. military and our allies,” Hewson said. The costs of the used by the Marine Corps and the Air Force, and by six countries, have escalated to an estimated $400 billion, prompting it to be described as the most expensive weapon system in history. [nL1N1E717N] Among the Defense Department officials who met with Trump was Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, the program chief for the Pentagon. (Writing by Roberta Rampton; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell) NEW YORK Six in 10 American voters support the new ban on people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States unless they can show they have a close relative here, according to opinion poll results released on Wednesday. LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May will hold a bilateral meeting with U. S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg on Friday, a British government official said on Wednesday.

Icahn tapped as Trump’s special adviser on regulatory issues

Icahn will serve as a special adviser, not a federal employee, and he will not have specific duties, Trump’s team said in a statement. He will not take a salary, a transition aide said. The pick could draw scrutiny because Icahn, whose major investments include insurer American International Group and oil refining business CVR Energy, could help shape rules meant to police Wall Street and protect the environment. In the transition team statement released on Wednesday, Icahn said it was time to ”break free of excessive regulation” and let businesses create jobs. Icahn, an early supporter of Trump’s White House bid who has at times been outspoken about regulation, has already helped the transition team weigh candidates to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. He has held meetings at his New York City office, not far from Trump Tower but away from reporters staked out there, people familiar with the talks said. Current SEC Chair Mary Jo White will leave in January. Candidates to replace her have included former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins and Debra Wong Yang, a former federal prosecutor, a source familiar with the matter said. Over the years, Icahn’s businesses have had occasional regulatory according to disclosures with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He is a large investor in nutrition supplement maker Herbalife, which said at one time it was investigated by the SEC. ”Voters who wanted Trump to drain the swamp just got another face full of mud,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Eric Walker said in a statement, referring to Trump’s pledge to clean up Washington. Icahn, who was once known as a corporate raider, said in a recent Reuters interview the 2010 banking law ”went too far.” He is a critic of the U. S. biofuels program that requires oil companies to use renewable fuels such as ethanol. ”I do believe that, to some extent, we have gone overboard concerning the environment. But I leave that to the experts in that area,” Icahn told CNN in a recent interview. Trump and Icahn share some history in the casino business. Icahn this year helped shutter the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resorts in Atlantic City, two years after buying it out of bankruptcy. The casino was once a prized part of Trump’s empire. (Reporting by Emily Stephenson, Sarah N. Lynch, Steve Holland and Diane Bartz in Washington, Svea and Chris Prentice in New York and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Alan Crosby) MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

U.N. creates team to prepare cases on Syria war crimes

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted to establish a special team to ”collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence” as well as to prepare cases on war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the conflict in Syria. The General Assembly adopted a resolution to establish the independent team with 105 in favor, 15 against and 52 abstentions. The team will work in coordination with the U. N. Syria Commission of Inquiry. Liechtenstein U. N. Ambassador Christian Wenaweser told the General Assembly ahead of the vote: ”We have postponed any meaningful action on accountability too often and for too long.” He said inaction has sent ”the signal that committing war crimes and crimes against humanity is a strategy that is condoned and has no consequences.” The special team will ”prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings in accordance with international law standards, in national, regional or international courts or tribunals that have or may in the future have jurisdiction over these crimes.” The U. N. resolution calls on all states, parties to the conflict, and civil society groups to provide any information and documentation to the team. ”The establishment of such a mechanism is a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a U. N. member state,” Syrian U. N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told the General Assembly before the vote. Syrian allies Russia and Iran also spoke against the resolution. The U. N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria was established by the U. N. Human Rights Council in 2011 to investigate possible war crimes. The Commission of Inquiry, which says it has a confidential list of suspects on all sides who have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity, has repeatedly called for the U. N. Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Russia and China vetoed a bid by western powers to refer the conflict in Syria to The court in 2014. A crackdown by Assad on protesters in 2011 led to civil war and Islamic State militants have used the chaos to seize territory in Syria and Iraq. Half of Syria’s 22 million people have been uprooted and more than 400, 000 killed. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols Editing by G Crosse and James Dalgleish) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

Aleppo endgame nears as evacuation resumes

Syrian President Bashar appeared close to victory in Aleppo on Wednesday, but United Nations and rebel officials denied that an operation to evacuate fighters and civilians from the city had been completed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said Assad had control of Aleppo after the last fighters were brought out of the city and only one small position on the western outskirts remained in rebel hands. But a U. N. official in Syria, asked about the Observatory report, told Reuters: ”That is not something we can confirm. Evacuations are still ongoing.” A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance, Osama Abu Zaid, told an Arab news channel that evacuations had been slowed by bad weather and would continue into the night. Aid workers also said the evacuation was not yet finished, while in Washington the State Department said it could not confirm that all rebel fighters had left. For Assad, the biggest prize of Syria’s nearly civil war would be the fighters’ departure, ending a battle which the Observatory said had cost the lives of 21, 500 civilians in and around the city. Earlier, buses carrying civilians and fighters began leaving Aleppo’s last enclave after being held up for a day. People had been waiting in freezing temperatures since the evacuation hit problems on Tuesday, when dozens of buses were stuck in Aleppo, and the evacuation of two Shi’ite villages outside the city, and Kefraya, also stalled. Rebels and government forces blamed each other for the . Charity Save the Children said heavy snow was hampering efforts to help injured children. ”Many have had to have limbs amputated because they did not receive care on time, and far too many are weak and malnourished,” a statement said. One girl had two broken legs, a broken arm and an open wound in her stomach, the statement said. Many of those who had escaped Aleppo were sleeping in unheated buildings or tents in temperatures. Children have been separated from their parents in the chaos as they run to get food when they get off the buses, the charity said. EVACUATION PLAN With obstructions to the evacuation plan apparently overcome, a news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah said 20 buses carrying fighters and their families moved from east Aleppo on Wednesday toward countryside. Syrian TV said a number of buses arrived in parts of the city from and Kefraya. Government forces had insisted the two villages must be included in the deal to bring people out of east Aleppo. So far, about 30, 000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Aleppo’s rebel zone is a wasteland of flattened buildings, rubble and walls, where tens of thousands lived until recent days under intense bombardment even after medical and rescue services had collapsed. parts of the economic center with its renowned ancient sites have been pulverized in a war which has killed more than 300, 000, created the world’s worst refugee crisis and allowed for the rise of Islamic State. But in the western part of the city, held throughout the war by the government, there were big street parties on Tuesday night, along with the lighting of a Christmas tree, as residents celebrated the end of fighting. Syrian state TV said on Wednesday the army would enter the last remaining sector of Aleppo as soon as all fighters had left. That would be a major victory for Assad, and his main allies Iran and Russia, against rebels who have defied him in Syria’s most populous city for four years. U. N. MONITORS EVACUATION The United Nations had said it had sent 20 more staff to east Aleppo to monitor the evacuation. Assad’s government is backed by Russian air power and Shi’ite militias including Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Iraq’s Harakat . The mostly Sunni rebels include groups supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies. For four years, the city was split between a east and west. During the summer, the army and allied forces besieged the rebel sector before using intense bombardment and ground assaults to retake it in recent months. Russian air strikes enabled Assad’s forces to press the siege of eastern Aleppo to devastating effect. Shi’ite militias from as far afield as Afghanistan also played an important role. But even with victory in Aleppo, Assad still faces great challenges. While he controls the most important cities in western Syria and on the coast, armed groups including Islamic State control swathes of territory elsewhere in the country. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Angus McDowall and Peter Millership; Editing by Giles Elgood) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Trump hotels reach deal with unions, ending labor board cases

More than 500 food and beverage and housekeeping employees at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas entered into a collective bargaining agreement effective Jan. 1 that guarantees annual raises and pension and healthcare benefits, Trump Hotels and Unite Here Culinary Workers Union Local 226 said in a joint statement. Under the agreement, the union will withdraw a series of cases filed with the U. S. National Labor Relations Board against the hotel, union spokeswoman Bethany Khan said. Those cases had been expected to be an early test of how Trump, who as president will have influence over the NLRB, would handle concerns over conflicts of interest raised by his business holdings. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Alan Garten, general counsel of the Trump Organization, said in an interview the company was moving to resolve legal disputes that could raise concerns about conflicts. ”(It is) certainly better to avoid distraction, but we’re going to continue to move forward on matters where we think we’re in the right,” Garten said. Trump Hotels also agreed to permit workers at the Trump International Hotel Washington D. C. which opened in October, to organize, the company said on Wednesday. Last week, Democrats in the U. S. Congress called on Trump to divest from the Washington hotel, which is in a building leased from the federal government, saying the lease would pose a conflict of interest because he would essentially be both its landlord and tenant once he is sworn in. Eric Danziger, chief executive of Trump Hotels, called Unite Here Local 25, the union organizing workers at the hotel, which is down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, an ”important partner” in a statement. ”We share mutual goals with the union, as we both desire to ensure outstanding jobs for the employees, while also enabling the hotel to operate successfully in a competitive environment,” he said. As part of the agreement, the Trump Organization will end its appeal of a November NLRB decision that said it violated workers’ rights to organize at the Las Vegas hotel. The Trump Organization still faces a pending case at the NLRB claiming it required thousands of U. S. employees to sign unlawfully broad confidentiality agreements. (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, N. Y.; Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson in Honolulu; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney) MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

Wall Street loses ground after Trump rally

The Dow briefly rose to within 15 points of 20, 000, a level it has never reached, but relinquished that gain and spent most of the session at a loss. U. S. stocks have rallied since the Nov. 8 election, with the Dow up 9 percent and the S&P 500 gaining 6 percent on bets that Donald Trump’s plans for deregulation and infrastructure spending will boost the economy. Some investors worry that the Trump rally has made stocks expensive and are concerned that legislators may resist strong tax cuts and other policies that could widen the federal deficit. The S&P 500 is trading at about 17 times expected earnings, well above the average of 14, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. ”People are taking a pause and they want to see what’s going to happen,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Cornerstone Financial Partners. ”In his first 100 days in office, it will be interesting to see what legislation they can get through Congress and what regulations they will repeal.” Providing the market with a degree of support this week, expectations of lower capital gains tax rates under Trump gave investors an incentive to not sell stocks until January, according to Zaccarelli as well as to Randy Frederick, vice president of trading & derivatives at Charles Schwab. ”If you can hold back on capital gains for two weeks, why not?” Frederick said. ”There’s just no incentive to sell right now.” So far in 2016, the S&P 500 has risen 11 percent, topping the 8 percent gain for the year that strategists predicted on average in a Reuters poll 12 months ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0. 16 percent on Wednesday to end at 19, 941. 96 points and the S&P 500 lost 0. 25 percent to 2, 265. 18. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0. 23 percent to 5, 471. 43. The healthcare sector . SPXHC dipped 0. 60 percent and the real estate sector . SPLRCR lost 1. 32 percent. Accenture ( ) shares fell 5 percent after the consulting and outsourcing software services provider’s revenue forecast missed estimates. The stock was the biggest drag on the S&P 500. Twitter ( ) fell 4. 69 percent after its chief technology officer said he would leave the social networking company. FedEx ( ) fell 3. 33 percent after delivering quarterly results that missed analysts’ expectations. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1. ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1. ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 22 new highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 192 new highs and 44 new lows. With some investors already away for the holidays, volume was very light. About 5. 4 billion shares changed hands in U. S. exchanges, well below the 7. 4 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. (Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

U.N. inquiry says air strike hit Syria aid convoy in September

A United Nations internal inquiry released on Wednesday found that a deadly attack on an aid convoy in Syria in September came from an air strike, but it could not conclude that the attack was ”deliberate” or who was to blame. At least 10 people died and some 22 were injured in the Sept. 19 attack on a U. N. and Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy at Urem near the city of Aleppo, which also destroyed 17 trucks, the inquiry found. ”The board found that, while the incident was caused by an air attack, it was not possible to identify the perpetrator or perpetrators,” according to a summary of the report by U. N. Ban which was submitted to the U. N. Security Council on Wednesday. However, the board noted that only Syrian, Russian and U. S. coalition aircraft had the capability to carry out such an attack, not opposition forces. It said it was ”highly unlikely” that U. S. coalition aircraft were involved in the attack. The inquiry found that ”multiple types of munitions deployed from more than one aircraft and aircraft type” struck the aid convoy. ”The board stated that it did not have evidence to conclude that the incident was a deliberate attack on a humanitarian target,” Ban’s summary read. U. S. officials believed Russian aircraft were responsible for the strike, but Moscow denied involvement and the Russian Defense Ministry said a U. S. drone was in the area at the time of the attack. The Syrian army also said it was not to blame. A United Nations expert with UNOSAT (U. N. Operational Satellite Applications Programme) which reviews only commercially available satellite images, said in October that analysis of satellite imagery showed that it was an air strike. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Leslie Adler) QAMISHLI, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a ”declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. CARACAS government supporters burst into Venezuela’s congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest of violence during a political crisis.

Honda, Alphabet’s Waymo in talks over self-driving tech

Honda Motor Co Ltd said it is in talks to supply vehicles for Alphabet Inc’s Waymo to test technology, in the latest instance of a carmaker teaming up with a tech firm to supplement its own automation efforts. The talks, which come just one week after Waymo became an independent company, could see Honda become the tech firm’s second partner after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV agreed in May to add the technology to its minivans. The moves illustrate how carmakers, faced with the high cost of developing autonomous driving tech are separating into those going it alone, such as General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co, and those teaming up to spread the costs. Honda already has with tech startups, notably with Southeast Asian service Grab. It has been working alone to develop cars which can drive themselves on highways by 2020 while stressing vehicles will always require drivers. But it said was interested in the approach of Google’s car project now Waymo to develop fully autonomous, driverless cars. ”There’s only so much technology a company can develop while focusing on one specific approach,” Honda spokesman Teruhiko Tatebe told Reuters. ”By approaching it from multiple angles it’s possible to come up with new innovations quicker.” At the same time, technology firms such as Waymo have started to form partnerships with automakers to finally get their technology seven years in the making in the case of Waymo into more vehicles. ”You’ve got Google, which is engaging with another automaker to apply its technology into different vehicles and different platforms,” said senior analyst Jeremy Carlson at researcher IHS Automotive. ”From Honda’s perspective, you get a look at some of the most capable technology in the industry today.” Honda has been developing automated driving functions and ways to connect vehicles to the internet, as well as artificial intelligence to enable vehicles to ”think” while driving. With Waymo, Honda said it may provide vehicles modified to accommodate the startup’s software as Fiat Chrysler has done with its Chrysler Pacifica minivans. It also said there was potential for ”close” cooperation between Honda and Waymo engineers. A Waymo representative said the company was ”looking forward to exploring opportunities to collaborate with Honda.” (Reporting by Alexandria Sage and Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Christopher Cushing) HELSINKI Telecoms network equipment maker Nokia and Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Technology have signed a patent licensing agreement, the companies said on Wednesday. SAO PAULO Financial technology firms in Brazil are targeting lending to and companies to fill a gap in the credit market left by large lenders deterred by rising delinquencies and narrow margins.

India’s crackdown on cash imperils pivotal national tax reform

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s crackdown on the cash economy has shattered the consensus needed for a new national sales tax, plunging his boldest reform into limbo and threatening to entrench an economic slowdown. Modi’s government already had its work cut out to finalize a deal with India’s 29 federal states to launch a Goods and Services Tax (GST) on April 1 that would transform Asia’s third largest economy into a single market for the first time. But his decision to scrap 86 percent of the cash in circulation, in a bid to purge the economy of illicit ”black money” has caused huge disruption. A slump in business activity stemming from the cash crunch has caused the revenue of state governments, which collect tax on goods and other duties, to slump by percent. The states won’t risk another setback by rushing the sales tax into force. ”The investment and economic environment in the country is in bad shape,” said West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, who earlier head a panel tasked with building a consensus on the GST. ”How is the country going to absorb the dual shock of GST and demonetisation?” The GST is India’s biggest tax overhaul since independence in 1947. It would replace a plethora of federal and state levies with one tax, easing compliance, broadening the revenue base and boosting productivity. It took Modi more than two years to forge a political compromise on the tax in August. Now, demonetisation ”has created a trust deficit,” said Kerala Finance Minister T. M. Thomas Isaac. ”After this, I am not going to sit and compromise. They don’t deserve it.” LEFT IN THE LURCH Failure to break the deadlock could tip India into a fiscal crisis: The GST would need to come into effect by when the old system of indirect taxation is due to lapse. The lingering uncertainty is worrying companies needing to understand financial implications of the new tax. ”With so many vital details still missing, they are feeling left in the lurch,” said Saloni Roy, a senior director at Deloitte. Modi’s shock move last month to scrap 500 and 1, 000 rupee notes was aimed at India’s shadow economy. But the ensuing cash crunch has caused job losses, disrupted supply chains and slowed construction activity. With cash shortages showing no signs of abating, some economists are calling for emergency stimulus to cushion the economy against the impact of demonetisation. Ambit Capital, a Mumbai brokerage, forecasts growth this fiscal year will be only half of the roughly 7 percent level many expect. The Reserve Bank of India has shaved its growth outlook by half a percentage point to 7. 1 percent. To make up for their losses, states are seeking compensation and will press their case at a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday and Friday with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He has already agreed to cover states’ revenue losses for five years after the GST’s launch, but further concessions would narrow his room for maneuver in his annual budget presented in February. One top finance ministry official dismissed demands for compensation for demonetisation as unreasonable. But states are adamant. ”They have brought it upon us,” V. Narayanasamy, chief minister of Puducherry, told Reuters. ”Now they must pay for our loss.” COUNTING COSTS The quibble is not just over lost revenue. Some states worry about the social and political costs of demonetisation. Take Kerala, where credit cooperatives that farmers and retired government workers rely on cannot swap old bills or issue fresh notes. The state alleges this has encouraged commercial banks to scout for their deposits, sparking a ”run” on them. Odhisa’s chief minister has written to Modi, saying curbs imposed on primary agriculture societies were making it difficult for farmers to access crop loans and procurement payments. With the states smarting, they have hardened their stance on how to collect the new GST, which will have federal and state elements. They want sole control over businesses with annual turnover of 15 million rupees ($220, 000) and ”dual control” over bigger firms. Jaitley opposes this, fearing tax collectors could end up at cross purposes. ”We reached this far because states were willing to compromise,” said Isaac, Kerala’s finance minister, told Reuters. ”If they want the GST, they will have to now concede to the states.” ($1 = 68. 0275 Indian rupees) (Additional reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi, Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar and Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Richard Borsuk) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Trump picks ’Death by China’ author for trade advisory role

Navarro is an academic and investment adviser who has authored a number of popular books and made a film describing China’s threat to the U. S. economy as well as Beijing’s desire to become the dominant economic and military power in Asia. Trump’s team praised Navarro in a statement as a ”visionary” economist who would ”develop trade policies that shrink our trade deficit, expand our growth, and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores.” Trump, a Republican, made trade a centerpiece of his presidential campaign and railed against what he said were bad deals the United States had made with other countries. He has threatened to hit Mexico and China with high tariffs once he takes office on Jan. 20. Navarro, 67, is a professor at University of California, Irvine, and advised Trump during the campaign. His books include ”Death by China: How America Lost its Manufacturing Base,” which was made into a documentary film. As well as describing what he sees as America’s losing economic war with China, Navarro has highlighted concerns over environmental issues related to Chinese imports and the theft of U. S. intellectual property. China is paying close attention to Trump’s transition team and the possible direction of policy, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said after being asked about Navarro’s appointment. ”Cooperation is the only correct choice. We hope the U. S. works hard with China to maintain the healthy, stable development of ties, including business and trade ties,” the spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, told a daily press briefing. While Trump in the statement praised the ”clarity” of Navarro’s arguments and the ”thoroughness of his research,” few other economists have endorsed Navarro’s ideas. Marcus Noland, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, likened a tax and trade paper authored by Navarro and Wilbur Ross, who has been named as Trump’s commerce secretary, to ”the type of magical thinking best reserved for fictional realities” for what he said was its flawed economic analysis. ’DON’T POKE THE PANDA’ Navarro has also suggested a engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. He argued that Washington should stop referring to the ”one China” policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei, saying: ”There is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda.” China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said in an interview carried on Thursday in the Communist Party of China’s official newspaper that . S. relations face new uncertainties but with mutual respect for core interests they will remain stable. ”Only if China and the United States respect each other and give consideration to other’s core interests and key concerns can there be stable cooperation, and effect mutual benefit,” Wang said. After his Nov. 8 election win, Trump stoked China’s ire when he took a telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai in a break with decades of precedent that cast doubt on his incoming administration’s commitment to Beijing’s ”one China” policy. In an opinion piece in Foreign Policy magazine in November, Navarro and another Trump adviser, Alexander Gray, reiterated the ’s opposition to major trade deals, including the Partnership (TPP). ”Trump will never again sacrifice the U. S. economy on the altar of foreign policy by entering into bad trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, allowing China into the World Trade Organization, and passing the proposed TPP,” Navarro and Gray wrote. ”These deals only weaken our manufacturing base and ability to defend ourselves and our allies.” Trump has vowed to pull the United States out of the TPP, a pact aimed at linking a dozen Pacific Rim nations that President Barack Obama signed in February. It has not been ratified by the U. S. Senate. The has also vowed to renegotiate the NAFTA pact with Canada and Mexico, saying it had cost American jobs. (Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham and David Chance in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Peter Cooney) NEW YORK Six in 10 American voters support the new ban on people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States unless they can show they have a close relative here, according to opinion poll results released on Wednesday. LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May will hold a bilateral meeting with U. S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg on Friday, a British government official said on Wednesday.

SK Hynix to invest $2.7 billion on memory chip output as demand soars

South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc said on Thursday it will invest 3. 16 trillion won ($2. 7 billion) in its home country and China to boost memory chip production, seeking to capitalize on an surge in demand. Most of the investment by the world’s No. 2 memory maker will go toward building a new plant to make NAND flash chips used for data storage. Booming demand for more firepower on mobile devices and the adoption of SSD storage in personal computers and data servers has also prompted rivals Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Toshiba Corp to boost spending on chip production. ”In order to grow further, it is important to secure production facilities in advance to deal with NAND Flash market growth to be led by 3D NAND solutions,” SK Hynix said in a statement. Some 2. 2 trillion won will be spent on the new NAND chip plant which will be located in South Korea, and another 950 billion won will be spent to boost DRAM capacity at its existing facilities at Wuxi, China. The robust demand for memory chips has also driven strong gains in share prices and lifted earnings for chipmakers. SK Hynix shares are up about 49 percent this year, on pace for their biggest gain since 2009. In Thursday morning trade, they climbed 2 percent to outperform a flat broader market. Toshiba’s shares are up more than 78 percent this year and it said this month that annual earnings at its chips and devices division are likely to beat forecasts, helped by NAND sales. Shares in Micron Technology Inc are up more than 45 percent and it has forecast quarterly profit. Analysts say strong demand for memory chips will likely continue in 2017 as it will take several years for capacity spending announced by key players to yield meaningful production growth. Supply will also be constrained as chipmakers shift to new production methods. In the NAND market, many manufacturers are converting existing production lines to 3D NAND technology. Research firm IHS expects NAND industry revenue to grow by 5. 9 percent to $35. 7 billion in 2017, up from 5. 7 percent in 2016. ($1 = 1, 193. 2100 won) (Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Edwina Gibbs) HONG KONG Chinese Ofo said on Thursday it has raised more than $700 million in its latest funding round that was led by Alibaba Group and two others, in the largest such in the business that has drawn keen investor interest. BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said.

Cause of deadly Mexico fireworks blasts still unknown

Forensic investigators scoured the charred remains of a fireworks market outside Mexico City on Wednesday for clues to what caused a series of massive blasts that killed at least 33 people, the third fiery accident there in 11 years. Dozens of people were injured in Tuesday’s disaster at the San Pablito market, which was crowded with shoppers just before Christmas. A smell of burning hung over the remains of the market where investigators dressed in white protective gear, police, and medical personnel searched through twisted metal frames and the wreckage of stalls. Soldiers with dogs appeared to be looking for human remains. Alejandro Gomez, the state attorney general, told Mexican television it was unclear what caused the explosions, adding he could not corroborate accounts pointing to a detonation at one stall that may have begun a chain reaction. Video of the blasts showed a spectacular flurry of pyrotechnics exploding high into the sky, like rockets in a war zone, as a massive plume of smoke billowed out from the site. The tragedy could weigh on the gubernatorial election in the State of Mexico next summer, where the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) aims to hold on to the populous region after a slump in President Enrique Pena Nieto’s popularity. The federal attorney general’s office opened an investigation, saying that there were six separate blasts. Alberto Teres, owner of one of few stalls remaining, saw the flames leap from stall to stall. ”The only thing you could do was run,” he said. ”It’s a catastrophe,” said Guadalupe Sanchez from nearby Cuautitlan Izcalli, as she searched on Wednesday morning for her uncle, 52, who owned a market stall, and two nephews, aged 15 and 9. It was the third time in just over a decade that explosions have struck the popular marketplace in Tultepec, home to the country’s fireworks shopping and about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City in the State of Mexico. In late 2005, explosions struck the market days before Independence Day celebrations, injuring scores of people. Another explosion gutted the area again almost a year later. A sign reading ”Tultepec, Firework Capital” stood at one of the exits to the market. It was particularly full on Tuesday as many Mexicans buy fireworks to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. Burned out cars with the paint peeled off and windows punched out by the force of the blasts ringed the site. ”Everything was destroyed, it was very ugly and many bodies were thrown all over the place, including a lot of children. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said housewife Angelica Avila, 24, tears running down her face. Avila spoke outside a nearby hospital on Tuesday night as she waited for an update on the health of her brother, a fireworks salesman, who she said was burned and also suffered a heart attack. Ten of the dead have yet to be identified, according to a state government website. State interior minister Jose Manzur said the vast majority of the market’s 300 stalls were completely destroyed. However, he noted that the site was inspected by safety officials just last month and that no irregularities were found. The botched investigation into the disappearance and apparent massacre of 43 student teachers in 2014 in the violent state of Guerrero was a major embarrassment for Pena Nieto’s administration, which has also been criticized for its handling of probes into deadly accidents at state oil company Pemex. The PRI controls the State of Mexico, but not the town of Tultepec, which is run by the leftist opposition, and State Governor Eruviel Avila accused the town’s mayor of seeking to use the tragedy for political ends. (Additional reporting by Veronica Gomez and Lizbeth Diaz, writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Alistair Bell and Lisa Shumaker) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Commentary: Yes, 2016 was bad. Next year could be worse

The to Turkey on Monday evening might have prompted comparisons to the 1914 assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, but it almost certainly won’t spark a World War conflict. The that killed 12 in Berlin a few hours later, however, could ratchet up the prospect of yet another political shock in Europe. 2016 looks set to keep throwing out unexpected, often brutal surprises right to its end. If 1989 — the year the Berlin wall fell — was the point at which globalization, liberal democracy and the Western view of modernity was seen to triumph, the year now concluding might yet be seen as when the wheels came off. That may be a dramatic overstatement. However, the electoral surprises of the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump — as well as dozens of other examples across the globe — are stark reminders of just how much consensus has unraveled. The next year could see a step back towards moderation. But it could equally see things spiral further out of control. The assault on a Christmas market in the German capital has made the return of the far right to power in Germany more plausible — even if it still looks unlikely to happen in next year’s national vote. The Berlin deaths could also of National Front leader Marine LePen in France’s 2017 presidential election. It is possible, of course, that the forces of moderation might stage something of a recovery next year — as we saw in even this year extremists have not always won. What 2016 has demonstrated most, however, is that nothing is truly unthinkable anymore — or at least, that a host of options previously judged unthinkable are much more likely than anyone previously thought. What is also clear is that we have yet to see the true implications of much that happened in 2016. Trump is not yet in the White House, but he — and particularly his Twitter feed — is already having a dramatic effect. It’s hard to predict exactly what that might mean, but the indication so far is that this will be a very different presidency. It may well, of course, mean temporarily better relations with Russia — Trump’s comments in the aftermath of Monday’s attacks explicitly tied the Ankara attack to that in Berlin and suggested he intends to follow through on talk of much closer collaboration with Russia, particularly on fighting Islamist militancy. That may also imply some kind of grand bargain on Syria, particularly with the fall of Aleppo making any opposition victory even more implausible. A Trump administration, however, may well swiftly find itself much more greatly at odds with China. Last week’s spat over the Chinese in the South China Sea may be a sign of things to come on that front. The one thing that has cemented Beijing into the international system over the last 25 years, after all, has been that it has benefited greatly from being part of an increasingly free international trading system — something Trump clearly intends to against, if not dismantle entirely. If British Prime Minister Theresa May is to be taken at her word, then in 2017 Brexit will really insofar as the UK will move to trigger Article 50 to quit the European Union. No one really knows what that will mean. In part, that is because no one has any concept of what the European continent will look like politically by the end of next year. The Berlin attack, will almost certainly ramp up political pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel for her policies on migrants, just as attacks in France have boosted LePen’s National Front. It seems less likely for now, that — the far right party that has taken up to a third of the vote in several key German states this year — could itself topple Merkel. But the party could perform well enough that she is replaced by another more moderate figure, either from her own party or elsewhere in the political mainstream. A European move to the far right is not inevitable — the failure of the Austrian far right to gain the presidency demonstrates that. Still, even the prospect that France, Germany and potentially other states might see the far right take a dominant if not controlling role makes the continent a very different place. If nothing else, 2017 looks set to see a major push back against the European — and to an extent much broader — liberal ideal of open borders and trade. The EU itself may not survive that. Nor, for that matter, can the ongoing endurance of the always troubled single currency. The earlier this month has left its government in a state of crisis, with the real prospect that the movement might take control. An Italian exit might well spell the end for the euro — at the very least, it would make Brexit seem relatively small fry. On Europe’s eastern flank, meanwhile, Russia waits — sometimes interfering to try to exacerbate political chaos and tilt things its way. Following the Trump victory, the future of NATO is also murky. For all the worries of inadvertent conflict after Monday’s assassination in Ankara, it’s particularly striking that Turkey, Russia and Iran made it clear they were making common cause and continuing with the meeting in Moscow to discuss Syria. Turkey might still be a NATO member, but under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may also be moving closer to Vladimir Putin. This has been a complicated year. Don’t count on 2017 being any easier. The views expressed in this article are not those of Reuters News. Iraqi officials have declared that Islamic State’s caliphate is finished. On June 29, after months of urban warfare and U. S. air strikes, Iraqi forces say they are on the verge of expelling the militants from their last holdouts in Mosul. “Their fictitious state has fallen,” an Iraqi general told state TV after troops captured a symbolically important mosque in Mosul’s old city. In Syria, U. S. rebels are moving quickly through the eastern city of Raqqa, another capital of the Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon must face North Korea’s nuclear reality: Pyongyang’s bomb is here to stay. When the two presidents hold their first summit on Friday, they need to drop quixotic efforts to stop Kim Jong Un from building a nuclear arsenal and instead focus on preventing its use.

U.S. existing home sales rise to near 10-year high

U. S. home resales unexpectedly rose in November, reaching their highest level in nearly 10 years, likely as buyers rushed into the market to lock in low interest rates in anticipation of further increases in borrowing costs. The third straight monthly increase in existing home sales, reported by the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday, suggested housing would contribute to economic growth in the fourth quarter after being a drag in the previous two quarters. Existing home sales increased 0. 7 percent to an annual rate of 5. 61 million units last month, the highest sales pace since February 2007. October’s sales pace was revised down to 5. 57 million units from the previously reported 5. 60 million units. Economists had forecast sales slipping 1. 0 percent toa 5. 50 pace in November. Sales were up 15. 4 percent from a year ago. They rose in the Northeast and South, but fell in the Midwest and West last month. Mortgage rates have surged in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Trump’s proposal to increase infrastructure spending and slash taxes is seen as inflationary. Since the election, the fixed mortgage rate has increased about 60 basis points to an average 4. 16 percent, the highest level since October 2014, according to data from mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac. Mortgage rates are expected to rise further after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark overnight interest rate last week by 25 basis points to a range of 0. 50 percent to 0. 75 percent. The U. S. central bank forecast three rate hikes next year. The prospect of higher mortgage rates could have pushed undecided buyers into the market, a trend that could persist into early 2017. A separate report from the Mortgage Bankers Association on Wednesday showed applications for loans to buy a home increased 3 percent last week from the previous week. The dollar was trading lower against a basket of currencies after the data, while prices for U. S. government bonds rose. U. S. stocks were little changed, with the Dow Jones industrial average still flirting with the 20, 000 mark. The PHLX housing index . HGX rose 0. 40 percent. TIGHT INVENTORY Despite last month’s rise, existing home sales remain constrained by a persistent shortage of properties available for sale. Housing is being supported by improving household formation as the tightening labor market improves employment prospects for young adults. The number of unsold homes on the market fell 8. 0 percent from October to 1. 85 million units. Supply was down 9. 3 percent from a year ago and has now declined for 18 straight months on a basis. At November’s sales pace, it would take 4. 0 months to clear the stock of houses on the market, down from 4. 3 months inOctober. A supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand. The dearth of homes for sale is keeping upward pressure on house prices. The median house price was $234, 900 last month, a 6. 8 percent increase from a year ago. Rising house prices are increasing equity for homeowners and encouraging some to put their homes on the market, but making it more difficult for buyers to purchase homes. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Commodity forecasting is a guessing game on China, Trump, OPEC

It’s that time of year when crystal balls get taken out and polished up, but forecasting commodity markets for 2017 is less certain than usual given the unpredictability of the three main likely drivers. After a largely stellar year in 2016, the outlook for major commodities is likely to come down to the actions of Donald Trump, the Chinese government and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Note the word ”actions” in the above paragraph, as what these three players actually do will ultimately have a far larger bearing than what they say they are going to do. Take China for example. This year saw most analysts surprised by the strength of both China’s coal and iron ore imports, which led to rallies in the prices of both commodities. While there are several reasons for this, the main one is that many analysts didn’t really believe that China would cut its domestic coal output, but did believe that it would close excess steel capacity. By November, China’s coal output was down 10 percent and while steel capacity was cut by close to the government target, this didn’t lead to a corresponding drop in production, which was up 1. 1 percent in the first 11 months of the year. So, what does this mean for coal and iron ore for 2017, given that China is the world’s biggest buyer of both? The authorities in Beijing have made their desire for increased domestic coal output clear, but the miners have so far struggled to deliver, perhaps because they have been enjoying the high prices. But it’s likely that domestic output of thermal coal will rise, at least during the high demand winter and summer peaks, meaning the price of imported coal will likely have to decline in order to remain competitive with rising local production. For coking coal used in it’s a slightly different story, as China may well remain short of this grade, especially if it does heed United Nations sanctions and lower imports from North Korea. Steel output is likely to also remain at least steady, perhaps biased weaker as the domestic property sector cools and exports struggle against mounting protectionism. This points to steady iron ore imports, rather than the 9. 2 percent gain seen in the first 11 months of 2016. Nonetheless, iron ore imports are likely to exceed 1 billion tonnes this year for the first time, and there is optimism that this level can be maintained, even if prices moderate in order to keep Chinese domestic output sidelined. But the main point with China is that much of the rally in major commodities this year was driven by increased demand, the first time in five years that demand was the main driver of prices, rather than excess supply. But what Chinese policymakers give, they can take away, and much will depend on how much rationalization of heavy industries Beijing undertakes and how much economic stimulus they allow in order to meet growth targets. TRUMP, OPEC KNOWN UNKNOWNS Another for commodities this year is what will a Trump presidency in the United States actually deliver. Investors have increasingly priced in the positive story of stronger fiscal spending on infrastructure, tax cuts for corporations and a loosening of red tape on developments. But they have largely ignored the negative possibilities of trade wars with China and other countries, a crackdown on immigration and a possible escalation of tensions given Trump’s tendency to shoot from the hip. It’s likely that the market has priced in too much good news and not enough bad news from Trump, making a likely once it becomes clearer what Trump will actually try to achieve in economic policy, and how much of this comes to fruition. This may affect the chances of industrial metals like copper and aluminum having winning years in 2017. For crude oil and products, much will depend on how well OPEC and its allies succeed in curbing their output. Early indications are that once again the burden inside OPEC will fall largely on Saudi Arabia, and on Russia for the group. The Saudis have indicated they will cut oil supplies to Europe and North America, but appear more reluctant to do so in Asia, where they are battling for market share against fellow OPEC producers Iran and Iraq, as well as Russia. There is also a question mark over how quickly and by how much U. S. shale drillers can boost output, and also whether major producers outside the OPEC and allies group, such as Canada and Brazil, can pump more oil to take advantage of higher prices. Much like what policies China and Trump will actually implement, the outlook for crude oil is largely dependent on the inherently unpredictable actions of some producers. In effect, accurate forecasting, already something of an oxymoron, is largely a guessing game in 2017. The best that can be done is to say that if OPEC is successful, crude oil prices should stabilize and find a floor above $50 a barrel. If China does pursue rationalization of sectors with excess capacity while maintaining economic growth of around 6 percent per annum, it should support coal, iron ore, steel, copper and perhaps even aluminum. If Trump does manage to fire up the U. S. economy, commodities will come along for the ride. But these are three big ”ifs”. (Editing by Richard Pullin) SINGAPORE Oil prices nudged higher on Thursday on strong demand in the United States, but analysts cautioned that oversupply would continue to drag on markets. LONDON The West’s three biggest energy corporations are lobbying Qatar to take part in a huge expansion of its gas production, handing Doha an unintended but timely boost in its bitter dispute with Gulf Arab neighbors.

Texas moves to cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood

Texas plans to block about $3 million in Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood operations in the state, a legal document obtained on Wednesday showed, a move the reproductive healthcare group said could affect nearly 11, 000 people. Planned Parenthood said it would seek court help to block the funding halt, which would cut cancer screenings, birth control, HIV testing and other programs. Planned Parenthood gets about $500 million annually in federal funds, largely in reimbursements through Medicaid, which provides health coverage to millions of Americans. Texas and several other states have tried to cut the organization’s funding after an group released videos last year that it said showed officials from Planned Parenthood negotiating prices for fetal tissues from abortions it performs. Texas sent a notice to Planned Parenthood in the state on Tuesday to alert it of the funding cut, the document showed, saying the basis of the termination was the videos. Planned Parenthood has denied wrongdoing, saying the videos were heavily edited and it does not profit from fetal tissue donation. It has challenged similar defunding efforts in other states, calling them politically motivated. It added that previous funding cuts in Texas have had devastating effects on healthcare for poor residents and the state rarely fills the void for lost services. ”Texas is a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation,” Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s president, said in a statement. ”With this action, the state is doubling down on reckless policies that have been absolutely devastating for women.” Republican Donald Trump has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood, and at least 14 states have tried to pass legislation or taken administration action to prevent the organization from receiving federal Title X funding. The state investigated Planned Parenthood over the videos and a grand jury in January cleared it of any wrongdoing. The state took no further criminal action against Planned Parenthood after that but has repeated its accusations that the abortion provider may have violated state law. ”Governor Abbott has made clear that Texas will not subsidize an organization that admits a willingness to alter an abortion procedure in order to profit off the harvesting of baby body parts,” his office said in a statement on Wednesday. Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said politicians in Texas ”are once again recycling these false accusations, regardless of how many women they hurt in the process.” Planned Parenthood has 34 health centers in Texas, serving more than 120, 000 patients, 11, 000 of whom are Medicaid patients, it said. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Alan Crosby) (Reuters Health) After surgery, people who get cosmetic procedures to remove excess tissue may have a better quality of life than those who don’t get this additional work done, a recent study suggests. LONDON tourism involving patients who travel to developing countries for treatment with unproven and potentially risky therapies should be more tightly regulated, international health experts said on Wednesday.

Nokia sues Apple for infringing patents, industry back on war footing

Nokia Corp ( ) said on Wednesday it had filed a number of lawsuits against Apple Inc ( ) for violating 32 technology patents, striking back at the iPhone maker’s legal action targeting the cellphone industry leader a day earlier. Nokia’s lawsuits, filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, Germany, and the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding. ”Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple’s products,” Nokia said in a statement. Apple on Tuesday had taken legal action against Acacia Research Corp ( ) and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc [GEGGIM. UL] accusing them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly from Apple. ”We’ve always been willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights of patents covering technology in our products,” said Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock. ”Unfortunately, Nokia has refused to license their patents on a fair basis and is now using the tactics of a patent troll to attempt to extort money from Apple by applying a royalty rate to Apple’s own inventions they had nothing to do with.” Acacia and Conversant did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Nokia was not immediately available to comment on the Apple lawsuit. The legal action by Nokia and Apple appear to mark a revival of the ”smartphone patent wars” that began five years ago, when Apple filed a series of patent infringement cases against Samsung Electronics ( ) around the world, with wins and losses on both sides. Apple’s lawsuit against Acacia, Conversant and Nokia was filed only one day after Conversant named Boris Teksler as its new chief executive. He had worked as Apple’s director of patent licensing and strategy from 2009 to 2013, the latter half of his tenure overlapping with the lawsuits against Samsung. Acacia is a publicly traded patent licensing firm based in Newport Beach, California. One of its subsidiaries sued Apple for patent infringement and was awarded $22 million by a Texas jury in September. Similarly, Conversant, which claims to own thousands of patents, announced last week that a Silicon Valley jury had awarded one of its units a $7. 3 million settlement in an infringement case against Apple involving two smartphone patents. Nokia, once the world’s dominant cellphone maker, missed out on the transition to smartphones triggered by Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007. The Finnish company sold its handset business to Microsoft Corp ( ) two years ago, leaving it with its telecom network equipment business and a bulging portfolio of mobile equipment patents. But this year, Microsoft sold its phone business to a new company called HMD Global. Nokia agreed to a licensing deal with HMD, which continues to market Nokia phones and plans to introduce new Nokia smartphone models next year. (Additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumaker) NEW YORK John McAfee, the creator of eponymous antivirus computer software, has settled a lawsuit against Intel Corp over his right to use his name on other projects after the chipmaker bought his former company. YORK A startup has joined up with Mastercard Inc to launch a payment card that allows users to retroactively choose a different credit or debit card for a purchase they have already made, in what they called ”financial time travel”.

Witnesses fearful in wealthy heir Durst’s L.A. murder case: prosecutor

Witnesses expected to testify in the Los Angeles murder trial of real estate scion Robert Durst are concerned for their safety, a prosecutor told a judge on Wednesday, citing the heir’s vast wealth and the deaths of people close to him. Durst, 73, whose ties to several slayings were chronicled last year in the HBO documentary ”The Jinx,” is charged with fatally shooting writer and longtime confidante Susan Berman in December 2000. Prosecutors say he killed her because of what she knew about the death of Durst’s wife in New York two decades earlier. Durst, who appeared on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in a wheelchair wearing a blue shirt and glasses with his hair cropped short, pleaded not guilty last month to murder in the Berman case. Deputy District Attorney John Lewin asked Judge Mark Windham to schedule a conditional hearing for February to record witness testimony, ahead of trial, saying witnesses ”understandably are concerned about their safety.” He said witnesses are concerned because Durst is accused of killing Berman over what she knew about his wife’s disappearance. They are also worried about the killing and dismemberment of a Texas neighbor of Durst, whom Lewin called ”a witness.” Durst was acquitted of murder in that case. Lewin told the court the real estate heir has some $100 million in assets. The prosecutor said among those he hopes to testify is an doctor and another unnamed witness who Lewin said could ”disappear, die, be murdered.” An attorney for Durst, David Chesnoff, rejected the argument that Durst, and incarcerated, poses any threat to witnesses, calling the remarks ”hyperbole.” Windham did not rule on the proposed condition examination hearing to speed up testimony. He did, however, grant prosecutors’ request that an independent expert be appointed to examine crates of documents confiscated by investigators and determine which papers should be excluded as material protected under privilege. Windham also said he would hold a hearing on the question of whether Durst waived his right to privilege over materials seized from Durst’s friend in New York State. Berman, 55, was found dead in her Los Angeles home, reportedly shot execution style, not long after police in New York reopened their investigation into the 1982 disappearance and presumed killing of Durst’s wife, Kathleen. Durst was questioned but never charged in that probe. After the hearing, defense attorney Dick DeGuerin told reporters that ”Bob Durst didn’t kill Susan Berman, doesn’t know who did, and we are ready to get down the road for a trial.” Durst was formally charged with the Berman murder a day after HBO aired the final episode of ”The Jinx,” in which Durst was recorded muttering to himself : ”What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” Durst told authorities after his arrest that he smoked marijuana daily and was high on methamphetamine during his appearance on ”The Jinx,” according to court records. (The story changes day to Wednesday from Tuesday in the first paragraph) (Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Steve Orlofsky) MUMBAI Amiruddin Shah has been described as India’s ”Billy Elliot” a young lover of dance who rises from humble beginnings to great things on the ballet stage. LONDON The final film in the rebooted ”Planet of the Apes” series will hit cinemas next week, promising an conclusion to a trilogy that has garnered both critical acclaim and box office receipts.

Viacom unit head overseeing MTV, Comedy Central to leave

Longtime Viacom Inc ( ) executive Doug Herzog, who oversees the networks Comedy Central and MTV, is leaving the company next month, according to a memo to employees sent Wednesday from chief executive Bob Bakish. Herzog, a veteran at Viacom known for helping develop such MTV hits as ”The Real World” and Comedy Central’s ”The Daily Show,” is leaving as part of a restructuring following the appointment of Bob Bakish as chief executive officer earlier this month, sources told Reuters. Herzog was most recently president of Viacom’s Music and Entertainment Group which also includes VH1, Spike and Logo. Bakish said in the memo that the brands in Herzog’s group will now directly report to him. Viacom named Bakish, former head of its international business, as acting chief executive officer at the end of October, then permanent CEO on Dec. 12 as it announced the end of merger explorations with CBS Corp ( ). He is the second executive to announce a departure this month. Viacom’s head of distribution, Denise Denson, a longtime executive who worked closely with former CEO Philippe Dauman, left earlier in December. ENVY OF PEERS? Bakish thanked Herzog for his ”incredible contributions” to Viacom, noting his ”sharp creative insight.” In his own memo to his staff, Herzog reciprocated Bakish’s praise, telling employees they were ”in very good hands” and predicting that Viacom would once again become ”the envy of its peers.” Herzog began his career at Viacom as president of MTV Productions in 1984 and became president of Comedy Central in 1995. After leaving the company for a few years, he returned in 2004 to head the music and entertainment group. While Herzog helped elevate MTV and Comedy Central during his tenure, over the past few years both networks have suffered from lackluster ratings and the loss of talent such as Jon Stewart, the former host of ”The Daily Show,” and Stephen Colbert, the host of ”The Colbert Report.” In an interview with Reuters in November, Bakish said fixing MTV is one of his top priorities. (Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco and Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Grant McCool) WASHINGTON Federal Reserve policymakers were increasingly split on the outlook for inflation and how it might affect the future pace of interest rate rises, according to the minutes of the Fed’s last policy meeting on June released on Wednesday. One of the investors former drug company executive Martin Shkreli is accused of defrauding testified on Wednesday that Shkreli lied to him repeatedly, although he eventually made millions of dollars from the investment.

Post-election rally pauses as stocks, dollar slip

Stocks edged down and the dollar eased from a high on Wednesday, giving back some of the gains chalked up since Donald Trump’s U. S. election victory as investors took profits on the rally in risk assets over the past six weeks. Wall Street was modestly lower with healthcare and real estate shares losing ground a day after the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit record highs. The Dow remained just below the 20, 000 threshold. U. S. stocks have surged since the Nov. 8 election. The Dow has jumped 9 percent and the S&P 500 has gained 6 percent, with traders betting that Trump and a Congress will embark on steep tax cuts and fiscal spending to stimulate the economy. ”People are taking a pause and they want to see what’s going to happen,” said Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer for Cornerstone Financial Partners. ”In his first 100 days in office, it will be interesting to see what legislation they can get through Congress and what regulations they will repeal.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 32. 66 points, or 0. 16 percent, lower at 19, 941. 96, the S&P 500 lost 5. 58 points, or 0. 25 percent, to 2, 265. 18 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 12. 51 points, or 0. 23 percent, to 5, 471. 43. The dollar index . DXY, which tracks the greenback against six other major currencies, fell 0. 3 percent, retreating after hitting its highest since December 2002 on Tuesday. U. S. Treasury note yields, which reached their highest in more than two years last week after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates and forecast more hikes in 2017 than most investors had expected, edged lower in light trading volume to 2. 54 percent US10YT=RR. Some traders likely reduced their dollar holdings on ahead of a big batch of U. S. economic data on Thursday and the Christmas holiday, analysts said. ”There are no big fundamental underpinnings to the move. It’s more a technical adjustment ahead of the holidays,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, director of currency strategy at Pioneer Investments in Boston. The euro, which touched a low on Tuesday, rose 0. 4 percent to $1. 0424 while the yen gained 0. 25 percent to 117. 55 per dollar. The Swedish crown rose 1. 4 percent against the dollar, its biggest gain in six months, to 9. 21 crowns after the Riksbank narrowly voted to add to its program. The STOXX 600 index fell 0. 21 percent, having hit an high on Tuesday, led lower by banking shares. . SX7P Chinese stocks rebounded as fears of a liquidity squeeze in the banking system subsided after risks from a bond scandal appeared contained, and on a pledge to deepen reforms in sectors. The CSI300 index rose 0. 91 percent, to 3, 339. 54 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1. 15 percent to 3, 138. 54, both snapping a losing streak. Tokyo’s Nikkei share average fell, pulling back from earlier highs to close down 0. 3 percent. The gains in some Asian bourses counterbalanced losses in the U. S. and Europe to leave MSCI’s measure of global equity markets . MIWD00000PUS little moved on the day. Oil prices fell after the U. S. Energy Information Administration reported an unexpected crude inventory build and Libya’s National Oil Corporation said it planned to boost oil production by 270, 000 barrels per day. [ ] Brent LCOc1 and U. S. WTI Clc1 crude both fell by around 1. 5 percent. (Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Additional reporting by Karen Brettell in New York and Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and James Dalgleish) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

EU reprimands ex-commissioner Kroes, recoups cash

The EU handed an unprecedented public reprimand to a former commissioner on Wednesday for taking allowances she was not entitled to but stopped short of legal action after recouping the money. A lawyer for Neelie Kroes, who was the Dutch commissioner for 10 years until late 2014, said she repaid 2, 000 euros when, in the course of preparing her defense in a separate ethics inquiry into an undeclared offshore directorship, she discovered her accountant had failed to report any of her income for 2015. That mattered because, like her colleagues, she continued to receive a ”transitional allowance” from the European Commission after leaving the EU executive a payment that would have been lower if she declared substantial sums from other activities. The Commission, which has been trying to douse accusations that the EU is run by a elite, said in a statement its ethics panel found Kroes, 75, broke rules on two counts. In the case for which she was initially investigated, prompted by leaks of Bahamas registers of company directors, it accepted her apology for not declaring an interest in a firm there when joined the Commission in 2004. She said she did not know she was still listed as holding the unpaid post. But in the financial case that then also came to light, the Commission said she ”did not act with the necessary diligence” a reprimand EU officials said was the first of its kind. Having been competition commissioner, Kroes later held the digital affairs portfolio under Jose Manuel Barroso. She irked Barroso’s successor as president, Juncker, when she criticized an EU antitrust ruling against Apple in late August. As Kroes is an adviser to another Silicon Valley titan, Uber, that intervention in the case was seen by critics as a conflict of interest with her previous roles. It also came after an outcry over Barroso joining U. S. bank Goldman Sachs to advise on Brexit, weeks after Britain’s vote to leave shocked the EU. In September, as the Bahamas Leaks story broke, Kroes’ lawyer Stijn Winters said she found an error in a filing on 2015 income to the Commission: ”She realized that the salary line on her declaration form with the EU had not been filled in.” The Commission said she reported no 2015 income in a January filing. But on Sept. 20, it said, Kroes sent it new figures. Neither the Commission or Winters would say how much Kroes did not declare but rules governing transitional allowances paid to for up to three years as they look for new jobs imply it could have been tens of thousands of euros. The allowance is worth up to about 160, 000 euros a year, or two thirds of a commissioner’s base salary. However, if they earn more than about 80, 000 euros from other activities, then the allowance is cut so it does not boost their total earnings above the roughly 240, 000 euros paid to serving commissioners. (Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; editing by John Stonestreet) U. S. credit card processor Vantiv agreed to buy Britain’s Worldpay for 7. 7 billion pounds ($10 billion) on Wednesday in a move expected to trigger further deals. MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Trump after Berlin, Turkey attacks: ’I’ve been proven to be right’

U. S. Donald Trump said on Wednesday that attacks this week in Berlin and Ankara proved he was correct to propose curbing Muslim immigration to the United States. ”What’s going on is terrible, terrible,” Trump told reporters, when asked about the truck attack that killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin and the killing of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Berlin killings though U. S. officials say they had seen no evidence that the militant group had directed the attack. The assassin in Turkey shouted about the war in Syria as he shot dead the envoy from Moscow, which aids Syrian President Bashar against rebels in that country’s civil war. Trump was asked by reporters outside his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, if Monday’s violence would affect his consideration of a ban on Muslims entering the United States or of a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries. ”You know my plans. All along, I’ve been proven to be right. 100 percent correct. What’s happening is disgraceful,” Trump said. At one point in his election campaign, Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country as a means of fighting terrorism, drawing widespread criticism at home and abroad. He later rephrased this to propose temporarily suspending immigration from regions deemed as exporting terrorism and where safe vetting cannot be ensured. However U. S. citizens, rather than immigrants, were involved in some of the main attacks in the United States in recent years, including the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub in June. On Monday, Trump issued a statement about the Berlin attack in which he said that Islamic State and other Islamist militants ”continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad.” But when asked about his reference to Christians, the on Wednesday appeared to soften his response: ”It’s an attack on humanity, and it’s gotta be stopped.” Current and former U. S. officials had reacted with dismay to Trump’s original language, saying it could inflame sentiment among Muslims and erode cooperation from Muslim communities that they view as central to quashing such attacks. Trump has been critical of Obama, and of his Democratic rival in the November presidential election, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for what he says is a reluctance to clearly name Islamist militancy as a threat. (Reporting by Melissa Fares and Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry and Alistair Bell) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Brazilian firms to pay record $3.5 billion penalty in corruption case

construction colossus Odebrecht SA and affiliated petrochemical company Braskem SA agreed on Wednesday to pay at least $3. 5 billion, the largest penalty ever in a foreign bribery case, to resolve international charges involving payoffs to Brazil’s state oil company and others. Odebrecht and Braskem pleaded guilty in U. S. federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to violate a U. S. foreign bribery law after an investigation involving political kickbacks at Brazil’s Petrobras unearthed the bribery scheme. The huge penalty was negotiated as part of a broad settlement with U. S. Brazilian and Swiss authorities. Some of the hundreds of millions of dollars used in bribes to secure lucrative business deals flowed through the American banking system and some of the schemes were planned in the United States, enabling U. S. authorities to claim jurisdiction in the case. Odebrecht is Latin America’s biggest engineering firm. Braskem, the region’s biggest petrochemical producer, is jointly owned by Odebrecht and Petrobras. Their guilty pleas were the first in the United States following a nearly investigation in Brazil dubbed ”Operation Car Wash” into corruption at Petrobras, which has led to dozens of arrests and political upheaval in Brazil. The total fines and penalties to be paid out by the companies exceeded a 2008 agreement in which German engineering company Siemens paid $1. 6 billion to U. S. and European authorities for paying bribes to win government contracts. Odebrecht and Braskem were charged with conspiring to violate the U. S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which is aimed at deterring companies from bribing officials overseas. ”Odebrecht and Braskem used a hidden but fully functioning Odebrecht business unit a ’Department of Bribery,’ so to speak that systematically paid hundreds of millions of dollars to corrupt government officials in countries on three continents,” U. S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Suh said in a statement. From 2001 to 2016, Odebrecht paid approximately $788 million in bribes in association with 100 projects in 12 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, according to the U. S. charging papers. The companies hid the bribes through carefully disguised payments routed through a network of shell companies as well as suitcases of cash left at preset locations, Suh said. The U. S. Justice Department said the penalty to be paid by the two companies amounted to at least $3. 5 billion, including $2. 6 billion from Odebrecht and $957 million from Braskem. Brazilian authorities gave a lower figure for the overall deal but did not explain the discrepancy. U. S. officials said most of the money would go to Brazilian authorities. Both companies also agreed to continue to cooperate with authorities, implement compliance improvements and become subject to oversight by external monitors. Odebrecht’s former CEO Marcelo Odebrecht is already serving a sentence after being found guilty on corruption charges last year in Brazil, Latin America’s biggest country. He turned state’s witness and is expected to be freed by the end of 2017. ’TURNING THE PAGE’ ”The company is glad to be turning the page and focusing on its future,” William Burck of U. S. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represented Odebrecht, said in a statement. Fernando Musa, Braskem CEO since May, said his company also was pleased to be settling the matter. ”We are implementing more robust practices, policies and processes across the organization,” Musa said in a statement. According to U. S. prosecutors, Odebrecht said it was able to pay $2. 6 billion although it agreed the appropriate criminal fine would be $4. 5 billion. The judge scheduled sentencing for April, when the deal would become finalized. Braskem also agreed to more than $632 million in criminal penalties and fines as well as additional money to the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Swiss and Brazilian authorities, the SEC said. In the sprawling ”Car Wash” investigation, named for a Brasilia gas station where some of the took place, prosecutors in Brazil have said more than $2 billion in bribes were paid over a decade, mainly to Petrobras executives, from construction and engineering companies. As part of the deal, Odebrecht agreed that 77 of its executives and employees would cooperate with the investigation, and they have already provided testimony expected to implicate upward of 200 Brazilian politicians. U. S. prosecutors want to use testimony from Odebrecht employees to pursue more criminal cases that fall under their jurisdiction, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the Odebrecht deal. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who Brazilian prosecutors say oversaw a scheme in which Odebrecht paid 75 million reais ($22. 18 million) in bribes to win eight Petrobras contracts, is among those already charged in Brazil. The scandal also contributed to the downfall of Brazil’s former president, Dilma Rousseff. She was ousted by Brazil’s Senate in August, ending an impeachment process that polarized her country amid the massive corruption scandal and a brutal economic crisis. Michel Temer, Rousseff’s vice president, then took over, but Temer himself has been cited in recently leaked testimony that Odebrecht officials have given, reportedly accused of accepting illegal campaign donations, allegations he has denied. (Reporting by Nate Raymond and Mica Rosenberg; Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo and Joel Schectman in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Lawsuit accuses Google of illegally curbing employee communication

In the class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday in California state court in San Francisco, the employee, identified only as ”John Doe,” says Google’s employment agreements are illegally broad and violate various state labor laws. The plaintiff says the confidentiality agreements that all Google employees are required to sign essentially bar workers from saying anything about the company, even to each other. The agreements define confidential information as ”without limitation, any information in any form that relates to Google or Google’s business that is not generally known,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit says the agreements violate state laws that provide that employers cannot bar workers from discussing their wages or disclosing information to government agencies. A spokesperson for Mountain View, Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, said in a statement that the claims were ”baseless,” and said the agreements were designed to protect sensitive business information and not to bar employees from discussing working conditions. ”We’re very committed to an open internal culture, which means we frequently share with employees details of product launches and confidential business information,” the spokesperson said. Google is facing similar claims from an unidentified employee in proceedings before the U. S. National Labor Relations Board, which recently struck down confidentiality agreements and other employment contracts that could discourage workers from discussing concerns at USA Inc, DirectTV and a number of other companies. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff says that to enforce its policies, Google forces workers to spy on each other through a program called ”Stopleaks” that requires them to report the disclosure of confidential information. Employees can be fired or sued for violating employment agreements or failing to report leaks, according to the lawsuit. ”Google continues to insist that Googlers refrain from plainly communicating with others that Google is violating the law or endangering consumers,” the complaint says. Plaintiffs in court cases are rarely allowed to proceed anonymously absent extraordinary circumstances. The Google worker says that being identified could harm his reputation at the company and his future job prospects. The plaintiff is seeking to represent all current and former Google employees who signed the agreements. The lawsuit says the company has about 65, 000 workers. The case is Doe v. Google Inc, California Superior Court, San Francisco County, number not immediately available. (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Leslie Adler) HONG KONG Chinese Ofo said on Thursday it has raised more than $700 million in its latest funding round that was led by Alibaba Group and two others, in the largest such in the business that has drawn keen investor interest. BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said.

U.S. university launches tool to show how fake news spreads

Researchers at Indiana University have developed a new tool that shows how fake news and unverified stories spread through social media. The search engine, dubbed Hoaxy, is the latest effort to combat the proliferation of fake news, which proliferated during the U. S. presidential campaign, with one bogus Day story sparking a event when a gunman fired shots into a Washington, D. C. restaurant. ”It is a very serious problem,” said Filippo Menczer, the director of the university’s Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research, which launched Hoaxy. Misinformation and propaganda are not new, but Menczer said social media has added a new component because the information is to be in line with people’s own opinions. ”Social media makes it more likely that I am more exposed to false information that I am likely to believe,” he added. Hoaxy does not determine whether a story is real but it shows how it is spread online and shows related . The free website, hoaxy. iuni. iu. edu, can be used by reporters, researchers and the public. If a user suspects a story is false they can search it in the website to see how it was spread and to what degree it went viral. ”There is no editorial judgment,” Menczer said in an interview. ”We don’t look at the claims, or vet them, or say they are true or false.” It examines websites, compiled by news organizations and sites, that are known to post satire, hoaxes or conspiracy theories. It also tracks links to the stories on Twitter and Facebook so users can see how often the stories have been shared. ”You can observe who are the hubs, who are the main spreaders and most influential who have spread these claims and ” said Menczer. News and tech companies including Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc are also trying to tackle fake news and have formed a coalition to improve the quality of information on social media. Menczer said he started looking into the phenomenon of false news in a research experiment several years ago. He created a website with celebrity stories clearly marked as fake and promoted them on social bookmarking websites that were popular at the time. A month after launching the site he received a check for ad revenue from the site. ”That early experiment demonstrated the power of the internet to monetize false information,” he said. (Editing by Matthew Lewis) HONG KONG Chinese Ofo said on Thursday it has raised more than $700 million in its latest funding round that was led by Alibaba Group and two others, in the largest such in the business that has drawn keen investor interest. BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and have set up a panel of experts to give a second opinion on the case, two people familiar with the matter said.

Actelion re-enters talks with J&J, sidelining Sanofi

Swiss biotech company Actelion ( ) has turned back to prospective bidder Johnson & Johnson ( ) for exclusive talks about a ”strategic transaction” in an that appears to sideline rival suitor Sanofi ( ). Actelion said in a brief statement on Wednesday it was in exclusive negotiations with the U. S. healthcare giant but that there could be ”no assurance any transaction will result from these discussions” declining to comment further. J&J confirmed the talks in a separate statement. The announcement could dash the hopes of French drugmaker Sanofi, which sources have said has been circling Actelion after J&J a little over a week ago said it had ended discussions with Actelion. Sanofi has been trying to broaden its drug as its key diabetes business comes under pressure. The French company has signaled it remained keen to make a takeover deal after being trumped in August by Pfizer’s ( ) $14 billion bid for U. S. cancer drug company Medivation. Sanofi declined to comment on Wednesday. Actelion had a market value of 23. 2 billion Swiss francs ($22. 6 billion) at Wednesday’s closing price of 215 Swiss francs in Switzerland. U. S. shares in Actelion rose 11 percent after the announcement. J&J shares were down 0. 3 percent at 1815 GMT. Actelion had told J&J before initial talks collapsed last week that it was confident it could attract an offer significantly higher than the approximately 250 Swiss francs per share the U. S. company had offered, one person familiar with the matter said. There were also disagreements about the proposed deal’s structure, the person added at the time. Actelion and Chief Executive Clozel has fended off previous takeover attempts, including a reported takeover approach by Shire ( ) last year and an activist campaign in 2011 by U. S. hedge fund Elliott Advisors. Acquiring the Swiss biotech firm would boost J&J’s drug pipeline and diversify its prospects. J&J’s biggest product, the arthritis drug Remicade, faces cheaper competition from Pfizer ( ). (additional reporting by Matthias Blamont in Paris) Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp will buy a stake in BeiGene Ltd and help develop and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational treatment for tumor cancers, the companies said on Wednesday. BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen .

Stone Energy reaches bankruptcy deal with shareholders

On Dec 14, the Lafayette, company joined a long list of oil producers that have filed for bankruptcy amid a slump in prices. Stone plans to use Chapter 11 to eliminate about $1. 2 billion in debt by transferring control to its noteholders. Stone’s two largest shareholders, Thomas Satterfield of Birmingham, Alabama, and Raymond Hyer of Tampa, Florida, have attacked the company’s Chapter 11 plan and requested the formation of an official equity committee. According to Wednesday’s filing, the pair have dropped that demand and are now backing the plan of reorganization, which Stone revised to increase the stake reserved for shareholders to 5 percent from 4 percent. The shareholders will also receive warrants for 15 percent of the stock in a reorganized Stone, up from 10 percent, and Stone agreed to pay up to $1 million of professional fees incurred by the shareholders. Stone’s stock plummeted 16 percent on Wednesday, surrendering the prior day’s sharp gains and then some, closing at $9. 33 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock had rallied on Tuesday after Hyer said in a securities filing that he would not support the restructuring plan. The shareholder settlement stipulates that no official equity committee will be appointed in the bankruptcy. Official committees can play a major role in negotiating a Chapter 11 plan and receive a budget from the bankrupt company to hire professionals and conduct investigations. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp will buy a stake in BeiGene Ltd and help develop and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational treatment for tumor cancers, the companies said on Wednesday. BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen .

Coke moves away from AB InBev with Africa bottling deal

Co ( ) has reached a deal to buy InBev’s ( ) majority stake in their African bottling venture for $3. 15 billion and hold onto it until it finds a new owner, the companies said on Wednesday. Coke said in October it would exercise a right to buy the stake formerly owned by SABMiller following SAB’s takeover by AB InBev. Coke has not said why it decided to buy back the stake, but it might be in its best interest to avoid partnering with AB InBev, which has no experience in Africa, and keep the beer giant at arm’s length. With little room left for AB InBev to grow meaningfully in beer, chatter among bankers has turned to whether the mega brewer will eventually move into soft drinks. That could put Coke at the top of its list, though Coke’s $180 billion market value would be a huge hurdle. AB InBev is already a large PepsiCo ( ) bottler in Latin America, but up until now has had no business in Africa, where distribution can be particularly challenging due to poor infrastructure. Coke and AB InBev, the world’s largest makers of soft drinks and beer, respectively, said in a joint statement that they had agreed the transfer of AB InBev’s 54. 5 percent stake in Beverages Africa (CCBA) the continent’s largest soft drink bottler, with operations in a dozen markets including South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. They also announced another deal for Coke to take other African territories not covered by CCBA, such as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, as well as bottling operations in El Salvador and Honduras. The price for those markets was not disclosed. Coke said it planned to hold all operations temporarily until they can be refranchised to other partners. That is in keeping with its global business model, which sees it handling marketing and innovation, and selling beverage concentrate to a network of regional and local bottlers who bottle and distribute the drinks. These bottlers include European Partners CCE. N, Hellenic ( ) and Icecek ( ) all of whom have been pegged by analysts as possible buyers. ”We are continuing negotiations with a number of parties who are highly qualified and interested,” said Coke Chief Executive Muhtar Kent in a statement. ”We look forward to refranchising these territories as soon as practical following regulatory approval.” Coke Icecek, which operates in Turkey, Pakistan and other central Asian countries, said in November that it was working with an investment bank to explore its options. Africa is an attractive market for packaged food and drink makers, due to the increasing appetite and discretionary budget of its growing middle class. Coke, which formed CCBA with SABMiller and the South African owners of bottler Sabco in 2014, had retained the right to buy SABMiller’s stake in the event of a change of control at the brewer. AB InBev has now raised some $27 billion from divestments of parts of SABMiller’s business, recouping more than a quarter of the 79 billion pounds ($97. 7 billion) it paid for the world’s second largest brewer. The transactions, subject to relevant regulatory and minority approvals, are expected to close by the end of 2017. Coke was advised on this deal by Rothschild, while AB InBev was advised by Lazard and Deutsche Bank. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Alexandra Hudson) Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp will buy a stake in BeiGene Ltd and help develop and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational treatment for tumor cancers, the companies said on Wednesday. BRUSSELS French carmaker PSA Group secured unconditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday to acquire General Motors’ German unit Opel, a move which will help it better compete with market leader Volkswagen .

Trump ’arms race’ comment sows more doubt on nuclear policy

U. S. Donald Trump sowed more doubt about his position on nuclear proliferation on Friday, reportedly welcoming an arms race even as his spokesman insisted that an atomic weapons was not likely to happen. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, caused alarm on Thursday on Twitter, saying the United States ”must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” On Friday, he had an phone conversation about the tweet with MSNBC TV host Mika Brzezinski, who said Trump told her: ”Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.” MSNBC did not play his comments on air. But Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said in a round of television interviews on Friday that Trump’s comments were meant to send a general message of strength to countries like Russia and China rather than indicate the United States planned to build up its nuclear capabilities. ”He is going to do what it takes to protect this country and if another country or countries want to threaten our safety and sovereignty, he is going to do what it takes,” Spicer said on CNN. ”If another country expands theirs (nuclear capability) the United States will act in kind . .. But I do believe that it won’t happen because I think what they have seen, domestically and internationally, is this is a man of action,” Spicer said. Russian President Vladimir Putin, at his annual news conference in Moscow on Friday, said he saw nothing new or remarkable about Trump’s tweet on Thursday, and made clear he did not see the United States as a potential aggressor. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia has never initiated an arms race and never will, the RIA news agency reported. In an apparent attempt to calm any tensions about his nuclear comments, Trump said in a statement on Friday that he had received ”a very nice letter” from Putin earlier this month calling for stronger relations between the two countries. A nuclear arms race is diametrically opposed to decades of Republican orthodoxy that has called for cuts in U. S. nuclear weapons since the Ronald Reagan White House. Trump’s tweet prompted analysts to question whether Trump was threatening to abrogate the 2011 New START treaty, which limits deployed warheads and delivery systems or would begin deploying other warheads. The United States is one of five nuclear weapons states allowed to keep a nuclear arsenal under the Nuclear Treaty. The others are Russia, Britain, France and China. The United States is in the midst of a $1 trillion, modernization of its aging ballistic missile submarines, bombers and missiles, a price tag that most experts say the U. S. cannot afford. Russia, also bound by the treaty limits, is also carrying out a modernization program but is not expanding its warhead stockpile. Twitter is Trump’s communication method of choice. But its limit does not lend itself well to talking about complex geopolitical issues like nuclear proliferation fraught with risk, analysts charged. ”He must have leaders around the world trying to guess what he means,” Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, said on Thursday. Shares of uranium producers and a nuclear fuel technology company have jumped on Trump’s comments with Uranium Resources Inc, Uranium Energy Corp, Cameco Corp and Lightbridge Corp all trading higher on Friday. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay, Susan Heavey, Eric Walsh and Dan Burns; Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Bill Trott and Alistair Bell) NEW YORK Six in 10 American voters support the new ban on people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States unless they can show they have a close relative here, according to opinion poll results released on Wednesday. LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May will hold a bilateral meeting with U. S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg on Friday, a British government official said on Wednesday.

Passenger removed from flight after confrontation with Ivanka Trump

A JetBlue airline passenger, who media outlets and a witness described as making angry remarks at the sight of Ivanka Trump on his flight, was removed from the plane on Thursday by the airline. JetBlue Airways Corp ( ) confirmed in a statement that a passenger had been removed from a flight set to depart from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, bound for San Francisco, but provided no other information about the incident. Another passenger on the flight, Marc Scheff, said that, when the man saw U. S. Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, he ”did a double take and said ’Oh my God. This is a nightmare! ’” JetBlue said in a statement: ”The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. In this instance, our team worked to the party on the next available flight.” Reuters was not able to identify the passenger who was removed. Matthew Lasner, a Twitter user cited by TMZ, said his husband was going to confront Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, at the airport. ”Ivanka and Jared at JFK T5, flying commercial,” Matthew Lasner (@mattlasner) wrote in a tweet, which has since been deleted. ”My husband chasing them down to harass them. #banalityofevil.” Lasner, a professor at New York’s Hunter College, did not respond to requests for comment directed to his Twitter account, which has since been taken offline, or to messages left at his office or sent to his Facebook account. ”To do that to a woman who was on there with her children, I don’t care what your political background is or what your thoughts are, that’s not the way we as Americans need to act,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Fox News. Scheff, 40, who told Reuters he was sitting in the row in front of Ivanka Trump on the flight, said the passenger who was later removed from the flight ”started shaking.” He said that after JetBlue staff approached the man to ”make sure he was calm,” the passenger said: ”They ruin our country, now try (to) ruin our flight!” Scheff said the passenger was ”clearly agitated” but did not ”scream or yell.” Ivanka Trump was en route to Hawaii for a vacation with her family, according to ABC News. Donald Trump and his family are spending the Christmas holidays at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida. (Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Additional reporting by Melissa Fares in Palm Beach, Florida, and Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Leslie Adler and Paul Tait) WASHINGTON The issuance of U. S. visas, passports and other travel documents should be transferred to the Department of Homeland Security from the State Department, a consulting company commissioned by U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has recommended in a report. Gene Conley, the only man to win both a baseball World Series and an NBA championship in basketball, died on Tuesday at the age of 86, the Boston Red Sox said in a statement.

Trump pressures Lockheed, says told Boeing to price out fighter aircraft

U. S. Donald Trump heaped pressure on Lockheed Martin Corp on Thursday, saying he viewed costs for the aerospace company’s fighter as too high and had asked Boeing Co to offer a price for an older aircraft that lacks the same stealth capabilities. Trump posted his Twitter message a day after the met with the chief executives of both aerospace companies, using the bully pulpit to press them on projects he says are too expensive. In trading following Trump’s tweet, Lockheed shares fell 2 percent and Boeing’s rose 0. 7 percent. ”Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin I have asked Boeing to a comparable Super Hornet!” Trump said. Lockheed declined to comment. The program is a critical sales generator for the company, accounting for 20 percent of last year’s revenue of $46. 1 billion. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said in an email that the company was committed to providing the capability and affordability to meet national security needs. While the program has been dogged by problems and costs have escalated to an estimated $379 billion, it is significantly newer than the which does not have the same stealth capabilities. ”They’re two completely different aircraft from different generations,” said Phillip Carter, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank. ”It’s like comparing an old jeep to a Humvee.” Dan Grazier of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit that investigates government contractors, said the ’s stealth capabilities drove the cost up, but its usefulness had not yet been demonstrated. He said canceling the program, however, would be ”disruptive.” On the campaign trail, Trump touted his negotiating skills as a businessman, and he appears to be using similar tactics as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20. It was not clear how his blunt style would translate to Pentagon procurement or international diplomacy. On Wednesday, Trump met the CEOs of Lockheed and Boeing at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg told reporters there that he had guaranteed costs would not get out of control for a replacement to Air Force One, the presidential plane, another project Trump calls too expensive. Lockheed Chief Executive Marillyn Hewson did not speak to reporters but said in a statement that the meeting was ”productive.” Trump told reporters he wanted to cut the program’s costs. If he scrapped the such a move by a new administration would have some precedent. Jimmy Carter canceled the bomber program in June 1977, although it was resurrected by his White House successor, Ronald Reagan. Trump’s jockeying for leverage via his Twitter account is likely to be a hurdle for all U. S. defense contractors in the next administration, Roman Schweizer, aerospace and defense analyst at financial services firm Cowen & Co, wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. ”We have no idea how this plays out but believe ’Twitter risk’ for defense companies could be a significant issue over the next four years,” Schweizer wrote. ”This is Lockheed Martin’s time in the barrel.” (Reporting by Emily Stephenson and Jeffrey Dastin; Additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham and Idrees Ali in Washington and Andrea Shalal in Berlin; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jonathan Oatis) MEXICO CITY A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U. S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. NEW YORK The U. S. government on Wednesday proposed to reduce the volume of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel fuel next year as it signaled the first step toward a potential broader overhaul of its biofuels program.

U.S. intended to allow passage of U.N. draft critical of Israel: officials

The United States intended to allow the U. N. Security Council to approve a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, two Western officials said on Thursday, a major reversal of U. S. practice, which prompted Israel to ask Donald Trump to apply pressure. In a day of intense diplomatic wrangling on one of the thorniest Middle East conflicts, Egypt, which had proposed the draft resolution, abruptly put off a vote that had been scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Diplomats said Cairo had acted under pressure from Israel and to avoid alienating Trump, who spoke to the Egyptian president and urged the White House to use its veto. By late Thursday, four Security Council members had given Egypt an ultimatum and threatened to put the draft resolution to a vote. The two Western officials said President Barack Obama had intended to abstain from the vote, a relatively rare step by the United States to register criticism of the building on occupied land that Palestinians want for a state. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had an acrimonious relationship with Obama, believes the Obama administration had long planned the council vote in coordination with the Palestinians, the senior Israeli official said. ”It was a violation of a core commitment to protect Israel at the U. N.,” the official said. The White House had no immediate comment. U. S. officials have voiced growing fears that a ” ” solution is imperiled by Israeli settlement building and have been more willing to voice open criticism, including, the two Western officials said, via Thursday’s planned vote. A U. S. abstention would have been seen as a parting shot by Obama, who has made the settlements a major target of his ultimately futile peace efforts. President Abdel Fattah of Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel, called Trump on Thursday, a Trump transition official said, saying they spoke broadly about laying the ground for Middle East peace. Sisi’s office said the two leaders spoke. ”The presidents agreed on the importance of affording the new U. S. administration the full chance to deal with all dimensions of the Palestinian case with a view of achieving a full and final settlement,” presidency spokesman Alaa Yousef said. The resolution would demand Israel ”immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem” and said the establishment of settlements by Israel has ”no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.” Egypt, currently a Security Council member, worked with the Palestinians to draft the text. The senior Israeli official said Israel remained concerned the resolution could still go ahead with another sponsoring country. New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal asked Egypt to clarify by midnight whether it planned to call a vote. ”In the event that Egypt decides that it cannot proceed to call for vote on 23 December or does not provide a response by the deadline, those delegations reserve the right to table the draft . .. and proceed to put it to vote ASAP,” the four states wrote in a note, seen by Reuters. They said ”the proposal for other delegations to take the lead . .. would also help Egypt by relieving it of the burden of carrying this draft alone.” They plan to meet on Friday morning to decide how to proceed, diplomats said. CONSTRUCTIVE RELATIONS WITH TRUMP? Officials in Netanyahu’s office spoke to Egyptian officials on Thursday about postponing the vote, an Israeli diplomat said. It was not clear what pressure Israel may have put on Egypt but there are several ways it could do so, including curtailing Israeli security cooperation in Egypt’s fight against Islamist militants in the Sinai desert. Netanyahu took to Twitter in the dead of night in Israel to make the appeal for a veto. Hours later, Trump backed fellow conservative Netanyahu on one of the most contentious issues in the conflict and the pursuit, effectively stalled since 2014, of a solution. The State Department declined to comment immediately on reports of the planned abstention. Israel’s and settler leaders have been buoyed by the election of Trump, who has signaled a possible change in U. S. policy by tapping a fundraiser for a major Israeli settlement as Washington’s ambassador to Israel. Netanyahu, for whom settlers are a key constituency, has said his government has been their greatest ally since the capture of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. The United States says continued Israeli settlement building lacks legitimacy, but has stopped short of adopting the position of many countries that it is illegal under international law. Some 570, 000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Russia, Britain or China to be adopted. The United States has vetoed dozens of Security Council resolutions on Israel and it is rare for it to abstain. The last time the Security Council adopted a resolution on Israel and the Palestinians was in January 2009, when Washington abstained on a resolution calling for ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. In 1979 the United States abstained on a resolution, when the council said Israeli settlements “have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East. ” Britain also abstained. (Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy, Susan Heavey, Arshad Mohammed, Matt Spetalnick, Emily Stephenson and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, John Irish traveling with the French foreign minister, Jeffrey Heller and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, and Amina Ismail and Ahmed Aboulenein in Cairo; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler) UNITED NATIONS The United States cautioned on Wednesday it was ready to use force if need be to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program but said it preferred global diplomatic action against Pyongyang for defying world powers by test launching a ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. WARSAW U. S. President Donald Trump meets eastern NATO allies in Warsaw on Thursday amid expectations he will reaffirm Washington’s commitment to counter threats from Russia after unnerving them in May by failing to endorse the principle of collective defense.

Uber takes self-driving cars to Arizona after California demands permit

Uber Technologies Inc on Thursday removed its test cars from California and put them on trucks bound for Arizona, shuttering the autonomous vehicle project in its home state after a battle with regulators. The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday revoked the registration of 16 cars in Uber’s fleet, which the regulator said lacked the proper permits. Arizona, however, does not require any special permits for cars, according to the state Department of Transportation. Autonomous vehicles have the same registration requirements as any other car. Uber’s program had been running in San Francisco for just a week, and all the while the company was embroiled in a dispute with the state DMV and attorney general. Both threatened legal action if Uber did not remove its cars from the road, which the company ultimately did on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Uber loaded its cars onto trucks belonging to Otto a truck company Uber acquired in August. ”Our cars departed for Arizona this morning by truck,” an Uber spokeswoman said in a written statement. ”We’ll be expanding our pilot there in the next few weeks.” San Francisco had been selected as Uber’s second testing ground for its cars after Pittsburgh, but the company immediately faced a backlash from the DMV, which requires that any company testing autonomous vehicles on public roads receive a permit. But Uber refused to apply for the permit, arguing that state regulations do not apply to its cars, which require constant monitoring and interference by a person in the vehicle. California defines autonomous vehicles as having the capability to drive ”without the active physical control or monitoring of a natural person.” Amid the fray, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey invited Uber to bring its cars to his state. ”Arizona welcomes Uber cars with open arms and wide open roads,” Ducey said in a statement released Thursday. ”While California puts the brakes on innovation and change with more bureaucracy and more regulation, Arizona is paving the way for new technology and new businesses.” Alphabet Inc’s autonomous car division Waymo is also testing in Arizona. (Reporting by Heather Somerville and Alexandria Sage in San Francisco; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Cynthia Osterman) HELSINKI Telecoms network equipment maker Nokia and Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Technology have signed a patent licensing agreement, the companies said on Wednesday. SAO PAULO Financial technology firms in Brazil are targeting lending to and companies to fill a gap in the credit market left by large lenders deterred by rising delinquencies and narrow margins.