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West Virginia official who called Michelle Obama ’ape in heels’ fired

The director of a West Virginia nonprofit agency who called first lady Michelle Obama ”an ape in heels” in a Facebook post has been fired and the institution put under outside management, state officials said on Tuesday. Pamela Taylor, director of the Clay County Development Corp (CCDC) which provides services to poor and elderly residents, drew international condemnation after her comment last month about Obama went viral. She resigned in November but was reinstated last month, prompting West Virginia to review its contracts with the nonprofit. Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s office said the state had secured an agreement under which the Appalachian Area Agency on Aging will manage the CCDC for six months. ”Following the state’s request for specific assurances that the CCDC is following policies, we have been assured that Pamela Taylor has been removed from her position as CCDC director,” Tomblin’s office said in a statement. Taylor could not be reached for comment. The nonprofit in Clay, West Virginia, a small town about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Charleston, the state capital, receives state and federal funding. After the Nov. 8 election, Taylor went on Facebook to praise the switch from Obama to former model Melania Trump, the wife of Donald Trump, a Republican. ”It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified first lady back in the White House. I’m tired of seeing an ape in heels,” she wrote. Beverly Whaling, Clay’s mayor, resigned after coming under fire for replying to Taylor’s comment: ”Just made my day Pam.” The Charleston has reported that the nonprofit received about $1. 5 million in federal funding and $363, 000 in state funding in 2014. (Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Alan Crosby) 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.

Argentines declare $90 billion in tax amnesty, recession lingers

Argentina said on Tuesday that $90 billion in assets had been declared so far under the government’s tax amnesty plan, which outgoing Finance Minister Alfonso called ”an extraordinary success.” Other government data published Tuesday showed economic activity fell 4. 7 percent in October from the same month in 2015, as the economy remains in recession a year into President Mauricio Macri’s administration. The economy was flat in October compared with September, and had contracted 2. 6 percent cumulatively through the first 10 months of the year. The government hopes that funds declared under the tax amnesty will help growth and boost tax revenue. Argentine bonds and shares listed on the Merval stock index jumped on the news of the assets declared so far, as any figure above $60 billion would have been seen as a success. Argentines are thought to have more than $400 billion in undeclared overseas assets. Under the tax amnesty program, they have until Dec. 31 to declare those assets while paying a 10 percent fine to protect themselves from prosecution for tax evasion. They can still declare until March 31, though the penalty for estate assets will jump to 15 percent. Billions more are expected to be declared, particularly in properties, for which a 5 percent fine would remain unchanged. Last week, Argentina signed a tax information exchange agreement with the United States, a factor in the success of the program, tax attorneys said. The government had collected 82 billion pesos ($5. 27 billion) in fees paid by those who declared assets in the tax amnesty through Monday evening, representing about 1 point of Gross Domestic Product, or nearly double what similar efforts in other countries have yielded, said. That would help the government stick to its target for a fiscal deficit of 4. 8 percent of GDP in 2016, even though revenues had fallen short as the economy performed worse than expected, said. will leave his post at the end of the week after Macri asked for his resignation, cabinet chief Marcos Pena said on Monday, citing disagreements over management style and team structure. The Finance Ministry will be split into two. Current finance secretary Luis Caputo will lead a division focused on sovereign debt management while economist Nicolas Dujovne, considered more of a fiscal hawk than focuses on the budget. (Additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein, Juliana Castilla and Jorge Otaola; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Richard Chang) 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.

Wing flap fault main theory behind Black Sea Russian jet crash

Russian investigators looking into the crash of a military plane that crashed, killing all 92 on board, believe a fault with its wing flaps was the reason it plunged into the Black Sea, an investigative source told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday. The plane, a belonging to the Defence Ministry, disappeared from radar screens two minutes after taking off on Sunday from Sochi in southern Russia, killing dozens of Red Army Choir singers and dancers en route to Syria to entertain Russian troops in the to the New Year. The three black box flight recorders from the aircraft were found on Tuesday, Russian news agencies said, amid unconfirmed reports that authorities had grounded all aircraft of the same type. The Defence Ministry confirmed one box had been found. The Life. ru news portal, which has close contacts to law enforcement agencies, said it had obtained a readout of one of the pilot’s last words, indicating a problem with the wing flaps: ”Commander, we are going down,” the pilot was reported to have said. There was no official confirmation of the readout. The Interfax news agency separately cited an unnamed investigative source as saying preliminary data showed the wing flaps had failed and not worked in tandem. As a result, the aging plane had not been able to gather enough speed and had dropped into the sea, breaking up on impact. If confirmed, the technical failure will raise questions about the future of the which is still actively used by Russian government ministries but not by major Russian commercial airlines. Interfax cited an unnamed source as saying Russia had grounded all planes until the cause of Sunday’s crash became clear. There was no official confirmation of that. The Defence Ministry says the jet, a plane built in 1983, had last been serviced in September and underwent more major repairs in December 2014. Russian pilots say the is still flightworthy, though major Russian commercial airlines have long since replaced it with planes. Experts say only two are registered with Russian passenger airlines with the rest registered to various government ministries. The last big crash was in 2010 when a Polish jet carrying Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland’s political elite went down in western Russia killing everyone on board. The Defence Ministry said search and rescue teams had so far recovered 12 bodies and 156 body fragments. (Editing by Alison Williams) 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.

Flight booking systems lack basic privacy safeguards, researchers say

Major travel booking systems lack a proper way to authenticate air travelers, making it easy to hack the short code used on many boarding passes to alter flight details or steal sensitive personal data, security researchers warned on Tuesday. Passenger Name Records (PNR) are used to store reservations with links to a traveler’s name, travel dates, itinerary, ticket details, phone and email contacts, travel agent, credit card numbers, seat number and baggage information. The codes act as pincodes for locating travel records, albeit with vital differences that make them highly insecure compared with even the simple usernames and passwords that consumers use to access email or websites, the researchers said. The world’s three major global distribution systems (GDS) Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport manage a majority of travel reservations but face growing competition from airlines and corporate travel and online booking sites. ”While the rest of the Internet is debating which second and third factors to use, GDSs do not offer a first authentication factor,” researchers at Security Research Labs said in a statement. authentication works when users offer separate pieces of evidence of their identity such as something they know, like a password, pincode or security question, and something they possess, like a bankcard or a phone linked to them. With just a passenger’s last name, the researchers were able to use computer guess work to find associated booking codes within hours and thereby gain access to travel records. ”Given only passengers’ last names, their bookings codes can be found over the Internet with little effort,” said SRLabs’ Karsten Nohl, who, with Nemanja Nikodijevic, will detail their research this week at the Chaos Communications Congress, Europe’s biggest annual event on hacking. Nohl has previously exposed major security threats in phones, cars, payment terminals and data storage devices. Security Research Labs acts as a security consultant to major global clients, including banks. Two of the three big booking systems Amadeus and Travelport assign booking codes sequentially, making computer guesswork easier. Of the three, Amadeus, through its web portal CheckMyTrip, is especially vulnerable, Nohl said. ”Amadeus is assessing the findings of SR Labs on travel industry security,” a company spokeswoman told Reuters. ”We will take these findings into account and work together with our partners in the industry to address the issues that have been exposed here and seek solutions to potential problems,” she said, referring to airlines and other travel industry partners. ”As a matter of course Amadeus does protect its systems, including Check My Trip, from the type of automated robotic attacks outlined in this report.” Sabre told Reuters: ”We have numerous layers of security in place. Discussing how we maintain security and the privacy of travelers undermines those safeguards and the security of our systems.” Travelport did not respond to a request for comment. VULNERABILITIES Travelers will never know who accessed their information, because PNR data is not logged, the researchers said. Users have no option to secure these codes themselves because the credentials are arbitrarily assigned by airlines using the booking systems. The researchers call for the airlines to adopt modern safeguards against brute force attacks such as limiting the number of PNR requests per Internet address and offer passengers a changeable password as minimal protections against such attacks. Nohl said the vulnerabilities he found with travel databases are not new. They have been described, conceptually, by San travel privacy campaigner Edward Hasbrouck, who has waged a sometimes lonely campaign to expose them for years. Hasbrouck, author of the 2001 traveler’s rights book ”The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace” said that since the airline attacks on U. S. cities, industry and public attention has focused on government access to travel data to insure flight safety instead of such data’s commercial abuse. Fifteen years ago, he warned: ”Privacy is the Achilles’ heel of Internet travel planning”. Hasbrouck said the SRL research vindicates his arguments. ”If the data protection laws that have been in effect since the early 1990s in the EU and Canada had been enforced, (travel systems) would have been required to make changes that would have significantly reduced some of the vulnerabilities. .. and that SRLabs has now demonstrated can be exploited” he said. (Editing by Hugh Lawson) 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.

Obama says he would have outrun Trump, but Trump says, ’No way!’

U. S. President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Monday that he would have won most Americans’ support if he had been able to run against Donald Trump for a third term. ”No way!” Trump countered in a tweet, citing as liabilities U. S. companies taking jobs overseas, the fight against Islamic State militants and Obama’s signature healthcare law. Barred by the U. S. Constitution from seeking a third the president told his former adviser David Axelrod in a podcast that Americans would have backed Obama’s vision. ”I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama said, referring to his 2008 campaign message of hope and change. A wealthy businessman, the Republican Trump will assume his first public office when he succeeds Obama on Jan. 20. He defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8 with a promise to clean up Washington. In a tweet, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said Obama would have beaten Trump and Clinton would have won if not for an FBI statement shortly before the election disclosing new material on Clinton’s email practices as secretary of state. Clinton’s aides have said FBI Director James Comey’s announcement, which led to no charges, swung the election, a charge Trump’s team has dismissed. Obama said Clinton ”performed wonderfully under really tough circumstances.” He said she focused on Trump’s flaws and could have argued more that the Democratic Party agenda helped working people. Trump garnered more than 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win the presidency. Clinton won 48. 2 percent of the popular vote compared with 46. 1 percent for Trump, according to the Associated Press. (Reporting and writing by Emily Stephenson with Obama in Hawaii; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller) 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.

Australia’s Woolworths sells petrol chain to BP for $1.3 billion

Australia’s top grocer Woolworths Ltd ( ) said on Wednesday it will sell its chain of petrol stations to BP plc ( ) for A$1. 8 billion ($1. 3 billion) the latest disposal in a bid to return the company’s focus to its core supermarket business. The sale of the fuel business, comprising 527 petrol stations and 16 development sites was flagged in September and follows its earlier exit from a disastrous foray into hardware, which led to a A$1. 8 billion impairment charge. ”Hardware wasn’t so great . .. this is another area of their business that they weren’t really managing well,” said Juliana Roadley, a market analyst at stockbroker Commonwealth Securities. Woolworths ”didn’t understand” the fuel business and would be best to concentrate on selling groceries, she added. The fuel sold at Woolworths’ petrol stations is currently supplied by Caltex Australia ( ) which also bid for the business. Under the new arrangement BP will eventually supply and sell the fuel. The fuel business reported earnings before tax and significant items of A$117. 8 million for the year ended June 30. Its sale ”is not expected to have a material impact on Woolworths Group earnings” the company said. ”The release of A$1. 785 billion from the sale will be used to strengthen our balance sheet and reinvest in our core businesses,” Woolworths Chief Executive Brad Banducci said. The company posted its first annual loss since its 1993 listing in August, hit hard by the hardware impairment and squeezed margins amid a price war with rival Coles, owned by Wesfarmers Ltd ( ) and new entrants such as Germany’s ALDI Inc [ALDIEI. UL]. The deal, which was signed on Christmas Eve, is subject to regulatory approval and is not expected to be completed until January 2018 at the earliest, the statement said. It also involves an agreement to continue a fuel voucher scheme and the parties will jointly trial a convenience business at 200 of the petrol stations. Woolworths shares rose 2. 7 percent to a high in early trade, while the broader market rose 0. 73 percent. BP downstream chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic said in a separate statement that it has similar and successful partnerships globally with retailers such as Marks and Spencer ( ). Caltex Australia chief executive Julian Segal said in a statement he was ”disappointed” that his company’s supply arrangement with Woolworths would end. Caltex shares fell as much as 2. 6 percent in early trade. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Additional reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Alison Williams and Richard Pullin) 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 .

Lactalis launches buyout bid to delist Parmalat

France’s Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy firm, said on Tuesday it was launching a buyout offer for shares in Italian group Parmalat ( ) it does not already own, with the aim to delist the company from the Milan stock exchange. The announcement comes as French media group Vivendi’s ( ) raid on Silvio Berlusconi’s broadcaster Mediaset ( ) has rekindled concerns about Italian companies falling into foreign hands. Lactalis for years denied speculation that it planned to delist Parmalat, which was relaunched in 2005 after going bankrupt following a financial scandal two years earlier, to have free rein in running the group. In a statement on Tuesday, Sofil the investment vehicle of the Besnier family that owns Lactalis said it would continue to support Parmalat’s growth, adding that this goal would be easier to reach with a smaller shareholder base. Shares in Parmalat, based outside Parma and best known for its milk, jumped more than 10 percent on Tuesday to touch their highest level in more than nine years. By 1100 GMT (6:00 a. m. ET) they hovered around 2. 82 euros, a notch above Lactalis’ bid price of 2. 80 euros per share. ”Some investors may be thinking of keeping the shares to trigger an upwards revision but 2 cents (above bid price) is nothing,” a trader said. In the statement, Sofil said the buyout offer targeted 12. 26 percent of Parmalat. The price represents a premium of 8. 5 percent on Parmalat shares’ closing level of Dec. 23. Lactalis took control of Parmalat, Italy’s biggest listed food company, in 2011 in a deal that triggered fears in Rome over foreign takeovers. However, an Italian for the food giant failed to emerge. That takeover remains to this day a sore point with investors and the Italian government. Criticism mounted after a big chunk of Parmalat’s cash pile was used in 2012 to buy Lactalis’s sister unit LAG, a U. S. cheese manufacturer, leading to an investigation into the deal. The civil part of the case was shelved by an appeals court in 2014, although a related criminal probe is still open. Parmalat was founded in 1961 but collapsed at the end of 2003 with a 14 billion euro ($14. 63 billion) hole in its accounts, following a scandal that forced management to seek bankruptcy protection and triggered a criminal fraud probe. A streamlined version of the dairy group relisted in 2005. With operations in 24 countries, Parmalat last year generated revenues of 6. 42 billion euros and core earnings (EBITDA) of 444. 5 million euros. (Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi and Stefano Rebaudo, editing by 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 .

In parting shot at Israel, Kerry warns Middle East peace in jeopardy

U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said Israel’s building of settlements on occupied land was jeopardizing Middle East peace, voicing unusually frank frustration with America’s longtime ally weeks before he is due to leave office. In a swiftly issued statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Kerry of bias. He said Israel did not need to be lectured to by foreign leaders and looked forward to working with Donald Trump, who has vowed to pursue more policies. In a speech, Kerry said Israel ”will never have true peace” with the Arab world if it does not reach an accord based on Israelis and Palestinians living in their own states. Kerry’s remarks, and Netanyahu’s reply, marked the closing chapter of a bitter U. S. relationship during President Barack Obama’s administration over differences on and the Iran nuclear deal signed last year. Ties reached a low point last Friday when Washington cleared the way for a U. N. resolution that demanded an end to Israeli settlement building, prompting Israeli government officials to direct harsh attacks against Obama and Kerry. ”Despite our best efforts over the years, the solution is now in serious jeopardy,” Kerry said at the State Department. ”We cannot, in good conscience, do nothing, and say nothing, when we see the hope of peace slipping away.” The United States had appealed to Israel in public and private to stop the march of settlements countless times, Kerry said. ”In the end, we could not in good conscience protect the most extreme elements of the settler movement as it tries to destroy the solution,” he said. ”We could not in good conscience turn a blind eye to Palestinian actions that fan hatred and violence. It is not in U. S. interests to help anyone on either side create a unitary state.” His parting words were unlikely to change anything on the ground between Israel and the Palestinians or salvage the Obama administration’s record of failed Middle East peace efforts. Netanyahu said Kerry ”obsessively dealt with settlements” and barely touched on ”the root of the conflict Palestinian opposition to a Jewish state in any boundaries”. In a statement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was convinced peace with Israel was achievable, but stood by his demand that Israel halt settlements before talks restart. Netanyahu, for whom settlers are a key constituency, has said his government has been their greatest ally since Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. Some 570, 000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, together home to more than 2. 6 million Palestinians. ERA Israel expects to receive more favorable treatment from Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20. But Israelis fear Kerry’s remarks will put them on the defensive, prompting other countries to apply pressure, including by adding fuel to the boycott, divestiture and sanctions movement against Israel, especially in Europe. Trump denounced the Obama administration’s treatment of Israel before Kerry’s speech. ”We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U. S. but not anymore,” Trump said in a series of tweets. ”Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!” Trump has vowed to move the U. S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which would upset many countries, and has appointed as ambassador a lawyer who raised money for a major Jewish settlement. Kerry’s speech provided some insights into an issue that he personally feels passionate about and had hoped to resolve during his nearly four years as secretary of state. Peace talks have been stalled since 2014. The United States abstained rather than veto the Dec. 23 U. N. resolution, in what many saw as a parting shot by Obama. Kerry vigorously defended the resolution. “It is not this resolution that is isolating Israel. It is the permanent policy of settlement construction that risks making peace impossible.” In a pointed reply to Netanyahu who said last week that ”Friends don’t take friends to the Security Council” and who has insisted the Obama administration had orchestrated the resolution, Kerry hit back, saying: ”Friends need to tell each other the hard truths, and friendships require mutual respect.” Kerry defended Obama’s commitment to Israel’s security and U. S. support for Israel in international platforms. Earlier this year, the United States and Israel agreed $38 billion in military assistance over the next decade. In Jerusalem on Wednesday, Israel approved construction of a multistory building for settlers in annexed East Jerusalem, an NGO said, after postponing authorization of hundreds of other homes. Washington considers the settlement activity illegitimate and most countries view it as an obstacle to peace. Israel cites a biblical, historical and political connection to the land which the Palestinians also claim as well as security interests. PARAMETERS FOR PEACE DEAL Emphasizing that Washington could not impose an outcome, Kerry outlined principles for a solution which envisioned secure and recognized international borders between Israel and a viable and contiguous Palestine based on the 1967 lines before it seized the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The two sides would agree to land swaps. Netanyahu has described the 1967 lines as indefensible and has said Israel would never return to them. Kerry also called for an agreed resolution for Jerusalem as the ”internationally recognized capital of the two states.” Kerry’s speech drew praise from U. S. Jewish group J Street but was rejected by AIPAC, an influential lobby group, which called the speech ”a failed attempt to defend the indefensible”. “We salute the clear, courageous and committed speech of John Kerry in favor of peace in the Middle East and the solution for the two States, Israel and Palestine,” French Foreign Minister Ayrault said. France will convene some 70 countries on Jan. 15 for a Middle East peace conference in Paris. Kerry’s proposals did not depart from longstanding U. S. views on the building blocks of a future deal, and echoed elements of a speech former President Bill Clinton gave in 2001 as he prepared to hand over power to George W. Bush. But back then ”the parties were closer, and the United States and Israel were not at such sharp odds,” said David Makovsky, a former senior adviser at the State Department on the issue. (Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Jeffrey Heller and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Maya Nikolaeva in Paris; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Alistair Bell and Howard Goller) 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.

Largest drop in two months as Wall St. rally loses steam

U. S. stocks fell in low volume on Wednesday in a broad decline triggered in part by a sharp drop in home resales. Contracts to buy U. S. homes fell in November to their lowest level in nearly a year, a sign that rising interest rates could be weighing on the housing market. The PHLX housing sector index . HGX fell 1. 2 percent to close at its lowest in three weeks. The S&P 500 posted its largest daily decline since Oct. 11. Technology was the largest weight on major indexes, however, with Nvidia ( ) down 6. 9 percent to $109. 25 after short seller Citron Research said the market was overlooking the headwinds for the stock which had earlier touched a record high. The S&P 500 tech sector . SPLRCT fell 0. 9 percent after closing on Tuesday at its highest closing level since the year 2000. ”There was enough bad news during the day” to pull the market lower, said Keith Bliss, senior at Cuttone & Co in New York referring to the housing data. He said U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments that Israel’s building of settlements on occupied land was endangering Middle East peace, made some traders nervous and exacerbated the decline with two allies publicly at odds. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 111. 36 points, or 0. 56 percent, to 19, 833. 68, the S&P 500 lost 18. 96 points, or 0. 84 percent, to 2, 249. 92 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 48. 89 points, or 0. 89 percent, to 5, 438. 56. About 4. 82 billion shares changed hands in U. S. exchanges, below the 7. 2 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. Average daily volume this week last year was 5 billion. Boeing ( ) fell 0. 9 percent to $156. 10 a day after Delta Air Lines ( ) said it had reached an agreement with the planemaker to cancel a $ order for 18 Dreamliner aircraft. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2. ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2. ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 11 new highs and 4 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 98 new highs and 46 new lows. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Nick Zieminski) 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 tax reforms could depend on little-known ’scoring’ panel

Donald Trump’s goal of overhauling the U. S. tax code in 2017 will depend partly on the work of an obscure congressional committee tasked with estimating how much future economic growth will result from tax cuts. Known as the Joint Committee on Taxation, or JCT, the nonpartisan panel assigns ”dynamic scores” to major tax bills in Congress, based on economic models, to forecast a bill’s ultimate impact on the federal budget. The higher a tax bill’s dynamic score, the more likely it is seen as spurring growth, raising tax revenues and keeping the federal deficit in check. As Trump and Republicans in Congress plan the biggest tax reform package in a generation, the JCT has come under pressure from corporate lobbyists and other tax cut advocates who worry that too low a dynamic score could show the legislation to add billions, if not trillions of dollars to the federal deficit. ”The problem is that the Joint Committee staff has adopted a whole series of assumptions that truly minimize the effects and underestimate the impact that a properly done tax reform could have,” said David Burton, an economic policy fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. A low dynamic score could force Republicans to scale back tax cuts or make the reforms temporary, severely limiting the scope of what was one of Trump’s top campaign pledges. Other analysts warn that pressure for a robust dynamic score raises the danger of a politically expedient number that could help reform pass Congress but lead to higher deficits down the road. Until last year, JCT used a variety of economic models in its arcane calculations, reflecting the uncertainties in such work. But House of Representatives Republicans changed the rules in 2015 to require that a bill’s score reflect only a single estimate of the estimated impact on the wider economy and resulting impact on tax revenues. Next year’s anticipated tax reform package would be the biggest piece of legislation that JCT has scored using this new, narrower approach, presenting the committee with a daunting challenge. JCT Chief of Staff Thomas Barthold acknowledged the challenge of dynamic scoring in an interview with Reuters. ”The U. S. economy is so darn complex, you really can’t have one model that picks up all of the complexity and nuance. So the essence of modeling is to try to slim things down, try to emphasize certain points,” he said. Tax reform is still months away. But the initial legislation expected in 2017 is likely to fall somewhere between two similar but separate plans, one backed by Trump and the other by House Republicans including Speaker Paul Ryan. The proposals lean heavily for fiscal legitimacy on dynamic scoring. Even the most robust independent scores show both plans adding to the deficit. But dynamic scoring, like any economic modeling technique, is far from precise and, when it comes to fiscal policy, any theoretical flaws could lead to very real consequences for taxpayers and the U. S. economy. The JCT has included macroeconomic analyses in its tax bill scores since 2003, providing a range of estimates on economic effects built on a variety of assumptions. When Dave Camp, as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, produced a tax reform bill in 2014, JCT used two models and forecast revenue gains ranging from $50 billion to $700 billion. The committee also provided economic growth forecasts from as low as 0. 2 percent to as high as 1. 8 percent. The tax package likely to emerge next year will probably be even more complex than Camp’s, prompting some to worry that budgetary and economic forecasts will range even more widely. Some critics, including lobbyists for major corporations that stand to gain from big tax cuts, want JCT’s numbers to look more like the nonpartisan Tax Foundation’s, a research group whose work has been embraced by Trump and House Republicans. The Tax Foundation estimates that the House Republican tax plan would lead to a 9. 1 percent higher gross domestic product over the long term, 7. 7 percent higher wages and 1. 7 million new jobs. It predicts the plan would reduce government revenue by $2. 4 trillion over a decade, not counting macroeconomic effects, but by only $191 billion once economic growth is taken into account. By contrast, the centrist Tax Policy Center estimates the House plan would add 1 percent to GDP over 10 years and erase $2. 5 trillion of revenue, even with positive macroeconomic feedback, due to higher federal debt interest. (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Leslie Adler) 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. set to announce response to Russian election hacking: sources

The Obama administration plans to announce on Thursday a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking into U. S. political institutions and individuals and leaking information in an effort to help Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, two U. S. officials said on Wednesday. Both officials declined to specify what actions President Barack Obama has approved, but said targeted economic sanctions, indictments, leaking information to embarrass Russian officials or oligarchs, and restrictions on Russian diplomats in the United States are among steps that have been discussed. One decision that has been made, they said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, is to avoid any moves that exceed the Russian election hacking and risk an escalating cyber conflict that could spiral out of control. One example of an excessive step might be interfering with Russian internet messaging. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency and Office of Director of National Intelligence agree that Russia was behind hacks into Democratic Party organizations and operatives ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. There is also agreement, according to U. S. officials, that Russia sought to intervene in the election to help Trump, a Republican, defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Russia has repeatedly denied hacking accusations. Trump has dismissed the assessments of the U. S. intelligence community. Obama, in an interview earlier this month with NPR, said, ”We need to take action and we will” against Russia for interfering in the U. S. election. Trump seemed to suggest the United States should not impose sanctions on Russia. ”I think we ought to get on with our lives,” Trump told reporters in Florida on Wednesday when asked about remarks by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who said Russia and President Vladimir Putin should expect tough sanctions for the cyber attacks. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, promised retaliation on Wednesday against Washington in the event of new economic sanctions. Jim Lewis, a cyber security expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said further sanctions may be an effective U. S. tool in part because they would be difficult for Trump to roll back and because Russia ”hates” dealing with them. ”For the rest of the world, it’s like having ’scumball’ stamped on your forehead,” Lewis said. How to respond to the growing problem of cyber attacks carried out or sponsored by foreign powers has bedeviled Obama, whose eight years in office witnessed a torrent of major hacks against the U. S. government and private organizations that were attributed to China, North Korea, Iran and Russia. In past cases, administration officials have decided to publicly blame North Korea and indict members of China’s military for hacking because they decided the net benefit of public shaming — and increased awareness brought to cyber security — outweighed potential risks. But determining an appropriate response to Russia’s actions has proven more complicated in part because Russia’s cyber capabilities are more advanced and due to fears about disrupting other geopolitical issues, such as the civil war in Syria. Obama may choose to invoke an April 2015 executive order that empowered him to levy sanctions in response to cyber attacks perpetrated by foreign groups targeting infrastructure, such as transportation, or done for economic purposes. One option, said a U. S. government official who has participated in discussions on possible retaliation, would be leaking material on Russian officials or actions that the United States already has obtained in a way that would “parallel what the Russians did, but be impossible to prove. ” The official compared that option to Russian military and civilian intelligence agencies providing hacked material to the group WikiLeaks and trying — unsuccessfully, the official said — to cover their tracks. Another option would be further economic sanctions against Russia. Washington has already sanctioned Russia over the past two years to punish Moscow for its role in annexing Crimea. But former U. S. officials say the existing measures leave Washington plenty of room to slap new, tougher sanction on Russia in response to cyber intrusions. The Ukraine sanctions were “narrowly tailored” to hurt specific sectors of Russian industry, such as the energy sector, without causing the nation’s economy to tank, said Juan Zarate, a former assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes. The United States took a more measured approach, in part, to reserve tougher measures in case the situation worsened, said Zarate, chairman of the Financial Integrity Network, a private consulting firm that advises on financial threats. The United States is still unlikely to impose blanket embargoes against Russia because of the danger it could harm the economies of Western Europe, said Peter Harrell, a former senior State Department official who worked on sanctions policy. Instead, the United States may target specific Russian intelligence officials or military divisions believed to be involved in the cyber intrusions. “The Russian defense sector would be fair game,” Harrell said. Looming over any action the Obama administration takes against Russia is whether Trump will seek to reverse course once he takes office on Jan. 20. In addition to casting doubt on the conclusions of the U. S. intelligence community about the hacks, Trump has repeatedly praised Putin and nominated people seen as friendly toward Moscow to senior administration posts. (Reporting by Dustin Volz and Joel Schectman in Washington; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan in Palm Beach, Florida; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker) NEW YORK Tesla Inc shares slid more than 7 percent on Wednesday, their biggest percentage decline in more than a year, on delivery numbers, yet the luxury electric carmaker’s stock price remained above analysts’ median target. NEW YORK In the world of financial technology, where startups are the focus of M&A chatter, a $10 billion combination of two processors whose roots date to the 1970s might seem unusual.

Sprint, OneWeb say 8,000 jobs announced by Trump are part of SoftBank pledge

U. S. Donald Trump on Wednesday said telecommunications group Sprint Corp ( ) and a U. S. satellite company OneWeb will bring 8, 000 jobs to the United States, and the companies said the positions were part of a previously disclosed pledge by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. SoftBank ( ) holds stakes in both companies and its chief, billionaire businessman Masayoshi Son, earlier in December said he would invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50, 000 jobs. Sprint in January said it had cut 2, 500 jobs as part of its plan to cut $2. 5 billion in costs. On Wednesday it said it would create 5, 000 jobs in areas including sales and customer care by the end of its fiscal year ending in March 2018. Sprint spokesman Dave Tovar said the jobs were part of the pledge made by Son but would be funded by Sprint. SoftBank and OneWeb had announced on Dec. 19 that the Japanese company was leading a $1. 2 billion funding round. OneWeb plans to use the funds to build a plant in Florida to produce satellites, creating almost 3, 000 jobs at the company and its suppliers. SoftBank described its $1 billion share of the funding as the first tranche of the $50 billion promised by Son in a meeting with Trump. It is not clear whether the $50 billion SoftBank investment would be part of a $100 billion tech investment fund that the head of SoftBank and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund had announced earlier in the year. ”I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they are going to be bringing 5, 000 jobs back to the United States, they are taking them from other countries,” Trump told reporters outside his estate in Florida. ”And also OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3, 000 people. So that’s very exciting,” he added. Shares of Sprint Corp, which is 82 percent owned by SoftBank, were barely changed in trading. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Heather Somerville; Writing by Ayesha Rascoe and Peter Henderson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) NEW YORK Tesla Inc shares slid more than 7 percent on Wednesday, their biggest percentage decline in more than a year, on delivery numbers, yet the luxury electric carmaker’s stock price remained above analysts’ median target. NEW YORK In the world of financial technology, where startups are the focus of M&A chatter, a $10 billion combination of two processors whose roots date to the 1970s might seem unusual.

Writedown fears wipe $5 billion off Toshiba’s value as it weighs options

A looming writedown at Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp ( ) has wiped almost $5 billion off its value in two days and prompted a credit rating downgrade on Wednesday, as the company grapples to plug a potential dollar hole. Toshiba said late on Tuesday that cost overruns at a U. S. nuclear business it bought from Chicago Bridge & Iron ( ) last year, CB&I Stone & Webster, meant it could face ’several billion dollars’ in charges, acknowledging a bruising overpayment. It did not comment on whether that would wipe out its asset value and tip the company into negative net worth. Executives said it could take until February to pinpoint the exact impact. Toshiba shares, however, took an immediate hit on Wednesday, falling 20 percent to hit the Tokyo exchange’s daily downward limit. That follows a 12 percent drop on Monday after initial warnings from the group. Investors fretted that a blow to the group’s finances could even weaken its competitiveness in its core semiconductor business specifically investment in 3D NAND, a new advanced type of flash memory or result in firesales and dilutive share issues. For the first time in seven years, the value of the group fell below that of tech rival Sharp ( ). Rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Toshiba, already in junk territory, to from B, with a ”negative” outlook. S&P said it expected shareholder equity to ”drastically shrink” as a result of the writedown, eroding the group’s resilience, while expected higher working capital would burn more cash. Toshiba’s credit default swaps, which measure the cost of insuring Toshiba’s debt, jumped by 40 basis points (bps) to bps TOSB5YJPAC=MG, meaning it would cost $111, 000 $136, 000 per year for five years to insure $10 million in bonds. Thomson Reuters data shows the yield on bonds due 2020 JP00526502=RRPS rose 17 bps to 1. 76 percent. ”Toshiba’s ability to enhance its shareholders’ equity is likely to continue to be difficult for the foreseeable future,” S&P said, adding it also saw ”persistently tough business conditions”. RAISING CASH Credit analysts at SMBC Nikko Securities said in a report that they saw three options as Toshiba deals with the imminent task of enhancing its capital base: making more profits faster, selling assets and increasing capital. Only the middle option is likely in the short term, however. Toshiba is still burning cash despite a positive bottom line in the first half of the financial year and cannot raise more capital on the stock market while it remains on Tokyo’s watch list, where it has been since a 2015 accounting scandal. ”I expect Toshiba to start with asset sales, and then to issue preferred shares if asset sales are not enough. They will start with measures other than (the chip business) listing,” one source close to the company said. Toshiba has said it will consider all options to bolster its finances, even ”the positioning” of its nuclear business which is centred around Westinghouse, a U. S. firm bought in 2006. (Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Kentaro Hamada, Ayai Tomisawa and Yoshiyuki Osada in TOKYO and Umesh Desai in HONG KONG; Editing by Clara and Sam Holmes) NEW YORK Tesla Inc shares slid more than 7 percent on Wednesday, their biggest percentage decline in more than a year, on delivery numbers, yet the luxury electric carmaker’s stock price remained above analysts’ median target. NEW YORK In the world of financial technology, where startups are the focus of M&A chatter, a $10 billion combination of two processors whose roots date to the 1970s might seem unusual.

Factbox: Toshiba’s dispute with CB&I over nuclear engineering unit

Click here to read the story: The following are the main issues at stake. WHAT IS NET WORKING CAPITAL? Net working capital is a measure of the financial strength of a business, defined as its current assets minus its current liabilities. When a company sells a business to another company, the sale agreement often includes a target figure for net working capital to ensure that the financial position of the business does not change materially from the time the deal is signed to when it closes. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT IN THIS CASE? The two companies agreed that CB&I would not be paid any money when the deal closed, and instead would receive earnouts down the line. How much CB&I stands to be paid by Toshiba, or owes to Toshiba, depends on how they calculate the net working capital of CB&I Stone & Webster Inc, the nuclear power plant construction unit that Westinghouse bought. What is more, CB&I funneled close to $1 billion to CB&I Stone & Webster between the end of June 2015 and the end of December 2015, when the deal closed, and therefore sees the net working capital mechanism as a way to be compensated for continuing to support the unit after the deal signed. The agreed target for the net working capital was $1. 174 billion, so CB&I would be owed money by Toshiba if CB&I Stone & Webster’s net working capital was more than $1. 174 billion at the time the deal closed, while CB&I would owe money to Westinghouse if the unit’s net working capital amount was below $1. 174 billion. WHY IS THE CALCULATION IN DISPUTE? CB&I has calculated the net working capital to be $1. 6 billion, suggesting it is owed $428 million by Toshiba. The Japanese company has calculated the amount to be minus $976. 5 million, indicating it is owed $2. 15 billion by CB&I. The vastly different amounts stem from four changes that Westinghouse made to CB&I’s calculations. Westinghouse reduced by 30 percent an outstanding receivable on the unit’s balance sheet, it adjusted it to reflect the cost of design changes in its projects, it raised the estimates of the cost to complete the projects by 30 percent, and added back a $432 million liability that CB&I had deducted. Westinghouse argued that CB&I’s methodology did not adhere sufficiently to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) while CB&I maintained that it has stuck to the accounting methodology it used before and Westinghouse previously accepted. HOW WILL THE DISPUTE BE RESOLVED? The contract for the sale of the business calls for an independent auditor to resolve accounting disagreements over the value of the net working capital, and this is expected to happen in 2017. CB&I has sued to prevent Westinghouse’s interpretation of the liabilities to be included in the net working capital calculations from being put before the independent auditor. Earlier this month, the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed that lawsuit, and an appeal by CB&I is pending. ARE THERE ANY SIMILAR CASES? There have been two previous cases in Delaware where net working capital calculations have been legally challenged; OSI Systems Inc v. Instrumentarium Corp in 2006, and Alliant Techsystems Inc. v. MidOcean Bushnell Holdings L. P. in 2015. In the case of OSI, the judge found that the GAAP compliance of net working capital calculations should be the subject of legal, rather than accounting, arbitration. In the case of Alliant, the judge found that it was for the independent auditor to decide on the admissibility of the accounting calculations, because it found the language of the contract to be more prescriptive. In the case of Toshiba, the judge decided the language of the contract was more similar to the Alliant case, and so dismissed CB&I’s lawsuit. HOW IS THIS RELATED TO THE WRITEDOWN TOSHIBA ANNOUNCED? The nuclear power plant construction unit’s liabilities affect not just the net working capital calculations, but also the valuation of the unit. Toshiba initially estimated the goodwill resulting from the transaction at around $87 million, but said on Tuesday it could be hit by a writedown in the billions of dollars. Toshiba executives have said it could take until February to pinpoint the exact impact. Sources: Court filings (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) 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.

Through reclusive Wa, China’s reach extends into Suu Kyi’s Myanmar

China is extending its sway over an autonomous enclave run by Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed group, sources in the region told Reuters, bolstering Beijing’s role in the peace process that is the signature policy of Aung San Suu Kyi. The ”foreign policy” of the Wa State is closely monitored by Beijing, senior officials in the administration run by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and its political wing said, with contact with Western governments, businesses or aid groups deemed particularly sensitive. Official known to Myanmar as ”Special Region 2” the remote territory is the size of Belgium and home to 600, 000 people. Largely closed to Westerners for decades, it was visited by Reuters in October. China’s influence is quickly apparent, with street signs in Mandarin and Chinese businesses and banknotes ubiquitous in the state’s capital, Pangsan, and other Wa towns that straddle the rugged border. ”We share the same language and we marry each other,” said the head of the Wa Foreign Affairs Office, Zhao Guo An, when asked about the Chinese influence on Wa politics. ”There’s nothing we can do about it. We use Chinese currency, we speak Chinese and we wear and use products from China. Very little of that is from Myanmar.” Delve a little deeper, and it is apparent that China’s reach extends much further than business and social ties. EYES AND EARS When Lo Yaku, the Wa agriculture minister, was asked about the drugs the statelet is accused of producing on an industrial scale, his secretary and a staffer from the official Wa News Bureau intervened to deflect the question. Both men are not Wa natives, but from China. ”This question was answered yesterday,” said I Feng, a news bureau reporter originally from western China. ”After the drug eradication campaign, our government encouraged agencies, individuals and Chinese investors to participate in activities,” said the minister’s secretary, Chen Chun, originally from Zhejiang province on China’s faraway east coast. A similar scene played out repeatedly during Reuters’ visit the first by a major international news organization questions on topics ranging from military funding to methamphetamine were mostly fielded not by the Wa minister but by an accompanying Chinese minder. These and other Chinese citizens Reuters found working in the administration in Pangsan said they were employees of the Wa government and did not work for the authorities in Beijing. But their presence hints at just how closely entwined the Wa State and its leaders are with their giant neighbor. ”China has its ears and eyes everywhere, including in the government and business, and is wary of any deepening of ties with the West,” said one minister from the Wa government, speaking on condition of anonymity due the sensitivity of the matter. ”We take this very seriously, and act so as not to anger China,” he said, adding that all dealings with Washington and Brussels, as well as every foreigner or NGO entering Wa territory, were scrupulously reported to China. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in response to a question from Reuters that ”as a friendly neighbor” it has ”consistently respected Myanmar’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and not interfered with Myanmar’s internal affairs”. OPENING UP The Wa State was formed in 1989, when the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) disintegrated into ethnic armies, and has been run as an autonomous region by the UWSA beyond the authority of the central Myanmar government since. The rare invitation to a small group of foreign journalists to visit made at Beijing’s urging according to two ministers from the Wa government appears to be part of a charm offensive aimed at the new civilian government led by democracy champion Suu Kyi. Reaching an accord with the Wa and other rebels is one of Suu Kyi’s biggest challenges as she grapples with the interlocking issues of ending decades of ethnic conflict and tackling drug production in Myanmar’s lawless border regions. While it has not fought the Myanmar army in years, the USWA whose leaders deny allegations from the United States and others that it is a major producer of methamphetamine has so far declined to actively participate in Suu Kyi’s peace process. ”It’s a good timing for us to open up. There’s a new political reality in Myanmar, so it’s good to engage in the political dialogue and open up to the outside world,” said Nyi Rang, a Wa government official. China also has its own interests in play, according to analysts. Beijing hopes Suu Kyi will restart a blocked, project, and wants to protect its extensive mineral interests in the country after the removal of U. S. sanctions has opened it up to Western competitors. ”China is playing a complex game in Myanmar aimed at safeguarding and extending its considerable economic, commercial and strategic interests while at the same time deterring any encroachment by Western or Japanese interests along its southwestern border,” said Anthony Davis, a analyst for security consulting firm ’s. ”In this game the UWSA is unquestionably the biggest stick Beijing wields plausibly deniable diplomatically, hugely influential as a strategic for allied ethnic factions, and itself far too powerful to be taken down militarily.” WEAPONS SALES The Wa relies heavily on China as a market for its exports of rubber and metals such as tin. As well as occupying government posts, Chinese citizens, mainly from neighboring Yunnan province, dominate local markets and the Wa elite send their children to Chinese schools and elderly to its hospitals. ”We don’t make anything here. The stuff we eat, we wear and we use is all from China,” said Chu Chin Hung, district office chief in the Wa border town of Nan Tit. ”Every Saturday morning there is a farmers’ market, but almost all of the vendors are from China.” Experts such as ’s Defence Weekly have previously reported that China has sold a variety of weapons to the Wa. For the first time, a Wa minister, who declined to be identified, confirmed some of those reports and described the process. ”The Wa State has bought military trucks directly from China and light weapons from China indirectly through Laos,” said the minister. ”Those weapons include rifles and cannons. They don’t want to anger Myanmar by selling directly.” The Chinese Defence Ministry denied selling weapons to the Wa. ”China has consistently and strictly adhered to a military equipment export policy that benefits the recipient country’s present defense needs, does not harm regional or world peace, security and stability, and that does not interfere in the internal affairs of the recipient country,” it said in a statement to Reuters. (Additional reporting by Shwe Yee Saw Myint, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Alex Richardson) 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.

New York eases proposed cyber regulations after industry complaints

The rules from the New York State Department of Financial Services are being closely because they lay out unprecedented requirements on steps that financial firms must take to protect their networks and customer data from hackers and disclose cyber events to state regulators. ”Many organizations are going to have a lot of work to do to come into compliance with these revised regulations,” said Jed Davis, a partner with law firm Day Pitney and former U. S. federal cyber crimes prosecutor. The state revised the rules in response to more than 150 comments on its initial proposed regulations. The New York Insurance Association in one letter called the regulation ”too much of a ’one size fits all’ rule” that was overly specific and too broad. A New York Bankers Association letter warned of unintended consequences that would ”hamper efforts to protect the public and may defy its purpose of preventing cyber attacks.” The revised regulations include easing some timelines and requirements, including standards for encrypting data and authenticating access to networks. They also provide more time for compliance, expanding the transition from six months to as long as two years. The agency said it would finalize the rules after a comment period. ”This updated proposal allows an appropriate period of time for regulated entities to review the rule before it becomes final and make certain that their systems can effectively and efficiently meet the risks associated with cyber threats,” Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo said in a statement. The American Bankers Association, a critic of the original draft, praised the revisions. ”Some good work has been done,” association Senior Vice President Doug Johnson said in a phone call. ”Once we have conversations with our membership, there may still be some operational concerns we will want to express.” Reuters first reported on the agency’s plan to delay the regulations last week. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Richard Chang and Lisa Shumaker) 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.

Senators ask Trump EPA chief pick to disclose energy industry ties

Democrats on the U. S. Senate’s environment panel on Wednesday asked Donald Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency to disclose his ties to the energy industry ahead of his confirmation hearing early next year. The six senators sent a letter to Scott Pruitt, who as Oklahoma Attorney General led several lawsuits against the Obama administration’s EPA to block its environmental rules. They asked him to list his connections to energy companies, to weigh whether these will influence his ability to run the agency. ”What that conduct says about your ability to lead EPA in a manner that is not beholden to special or secret interests is a subject that we expect will receive a full airing during your confirmation hearing,” the senators wrote in the letter. The senators raised concerns about a 2014 New York Times report, which found that Pruitt’s policy positions as Oklahoma’s top attorney reflected his close ties to Devon Energy Corp. For his part, Pruitt told The Oklahoman newspaper that Devon Energy was a constituent he represents and the company made people aware of regulatory overreach on fracking. The senators also noted Pruitt’s involvement with the Rule of Law Defense Fund, which they said supports initiatives by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, who have opposed the EPA’s climate change regulations. They asked Pruitt to submit details about his connections and contributions to the fund, his communications with the fund and a ”list of all federal and state legislation or regulations the Fund has taken a position on.” ”The confirmation process, starting with your responses to Committee questions before your hearing, is an opportunity for you to dispel the notion that the advocacy you have undertaken on environmental issues as Attorney General of Oklahoma has been directed by and for the benefit of the energy industry,” the senators wrote. The senators who sent the letter are Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse, former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, New Jersey’s Cory Booker, Massachusetts’ Ed Markey and Maryland’s Ben Cardin. Rule of Law Defense Fund spokesman Jordan Russell accused the Democratic senators of launching ”politically motivated attacks” against his organization, which takes positions on issues from healthcare to federalism. He said donor confidentiality has been upheld by the Supreme Court. “It is unfortunate that certain Democrat Senators appear willing to trample First Amendment rights in order to score cheap political points,” he said. (Reporting By Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio) 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.

Dollar gains; Wall St. lower on home sales; oil off after data

The U. S. dollar rose on Wednesday on expectations for stronger U. S. economic growth, while stocks fell broadly as home resales dropped sharply. The U. S. Treasury yield declined, but worries in Europe about rescue plans for shaky Italian banks drove the spread between the benchmark and German Bund yields to the widest ever. On Wall Street, shares fell across the board with the S&P 500 posting its largest daily drop since Oct. 11. Data showed contracts to buy previously owned U. S. homes fell in November to their lowest level in nearly a year, a sign that rising interest rates could be weighing on the housing market. ”There was enough bad news during the day” to pull the market lower, said Keith Bliss, senior at Cuttone & Co in New York referring to the housing data. He said U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments that Israel’s building of settlements on occupied land was endangering Middle East peace made some traders nervous and exacerbated the decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 111. 36 points, or 0. 56 percent, to 19, 833. 68, the S&P 500 lost 18. 96 points, or 0. 84 percent, to 2, 249. 92 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 48. 89 points, or 0. 89 percent, to 5, 438. 56. The FTSEurofirst 300 index edged up 0. 33 percent, while MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe . MIWD00000PUS fell 0. 44 percent. Emerging market stocks rose 0. 77 percent. Earlier, MSCI’s broadest index of shares outside Japan . MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0. 5 percent while Japan’s Nikkei closed little changed. The dollar . DXY rose on continued bets that the Federal Reserve will have to raise rates next year to keep up with inflation and growth brought by a planned fiscal stimulus from the incoming Trump administration. ”This is just a continuation of the trend” of dollar strength, said Axel Merk, president and chief investment officer of Palo Alto, Merk Investments. ”People are trying to be aligned with the winning positions.” The dollar index . DXY gained 0. 23 percent. The euro fell 0. 43 percent to $1. 041 and the British pound dropped 0. 39 percent to $1. 2222. Euro zone bond yields fell across the board as concerns about the strength of a rescue plan for Italian banks and normal caution pushed investors to the safety of government debt. Germany’s yields DE10YT=TWEB hit their lowest in seven weeks at 0. 181 percent. That in turn widened the yield gap to U. S. Treasuries, which act as the world’s benchmark borrowing rate. The spread was last at 235. 25 basis points. Benchmark U. S. Treasury yields fell to their lowest levels in two weeks, however, after a note auction enticed buyers into U. S. government debt. The U. S. Treasury yield hit a session low at 2. 503 percent. Benchmark notes US10YT=RR last rose in price to yield 2. 5099 percent. Oil prices edged up at settlement for a fourth consecutive session, edging close to their highest levels in years, but they turned negative in trade after API data showed a surprise build in U. S. crude inventories. A looming supply cut from many major producers is expected to give crude prices support. U. S. crude CLc1 last fell 0. 4 percent to $53. 67 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 traded at $55. 95, down 0. 3 percent on the day. Oil has surged about 50 percent in 2016 even after plunging in January to its lowest in more than a decade. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by David Gaffen, Dion Rabouin and Sam Forgione; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Richard Chang) 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.

Commentary: With Trump, nuclear brinkmanship is back

With barely a single working day left until Christmas, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump appeared to unexpectedly announce an intensified nuclear arms race. It was, perhaps, an early sign that relations between the U. S. and Russian leaders may not be as positive as some had expected. It is still not entirely clear exactly with last Thursday’s tweet that the United States “must strengthen and expand its nuclear arsenal until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. ” The tweet appeared to be a response to comments by Putin earlier in the day on strengthening Russia’s atomic arsenal and bragging of his country’s ability to defeat any potential adversary. What is clear is that Trump’s words seem a significant departure from the approach of Barack Obama, who was still trying to draw down Washington’s nuclear weapons stocks. In truth, however, the outgoing administration was itself in many ways more than any of its War predecessors in its own nuclear posturing. Faced with an increasingly aggressive Russia and belligerent North Korea in particular, the Obama administration has on several occasions made a point of sending nuclear capable and bombers to Asia and Europe to reassure allies and send a message to potential adversaries. Nuclear arms negotiations have traditionally been long, drawn out, and affairs. The fact that Washington’s incoming president is using Twitter to signal his intentions is a new development, and not necessarily one that will make the world a more stable place. The United States was already planning to update its Cold War era nuclear arsenal, much of which relies on outdated technology and which has suffered string of management and technical issues in recent years, some . Simultaneously, however, the Obama administration had been signaling its intention to tweak the U. S. perhaps ruling out Washington’s “first use” of nuclear weapons in any conflict. (Under previous U. S. doctrine, particularly during the Cold War, Washington always signaled it might be prepared to go nuclear first in order to hold an overwhelming conventional attack such as one by Russian forces in Europe.) That adjustment now seems unlikely not least because a new Trump administration might overturn it in less than a month. Trump has sent a range of mixed and often unconventional signals on nuclear policy. During the election campaign, he appeared to suggest that the Washington should roll back its historic position of pledging to respond in kind for a nuclear attack on close NATO or Asian allies, even appearing to suggest countries such as Japan and South Korea might do better to acquire their own atomic arsenals. Given widespread concerns in the U. S. security establishment over Trump’s potentially warmer approach to Putin, there will be many on both sides of the aisle who would welcome a tougher U. S. line. The risk, though, is that it reintroduces the risk of a potentially cataclysmic confrontation between two leaders who have yet to define their relationship. Outside the box thinking on nuclear strategy is not itself a bad thing — the reliance on since the early Cold War has its own measure of insanity. Maintaining that awkward and dangerous stability, however, has always been dependent on all sides acting in predictable ways. Without the threat of atomic Armageddon, the world’s superpowers might well have spent the last 75 years fighting conventional wars that could have proved almost as unpleasant. A concluded in 2015 that the risk of a major nuclear exchange had risen over the decade. On balance, they saw a 6. 8 percent chance of a major conflict in the next 25 years, killing more people than World War Two’s roughly 80 million. It’s hard not to conclude that the prospect has increased since that survey. North Korea continues its warhead and missile testing program, its clear aim to build a that would allow it to strike Japan, South Korea and regional U. S. bases. Tensions with Russia and China have also ratcheted up on a wide variety of fronts, with both also modernizing their own atomic arsenals. In an era of cyber attacks and hybrid warfare, the internationally understood rules governing such confrontations are also dangerously in flux. The very unpredictability of Trump and his untested, undefined approach to international affairs adds yet another wildcard. Russia, indeed, has about its new doctrine of the “ nuclear strike” — the concept of using the destination of a single nuclear warhead to force the end of a limited conventional conflict. It’s uncertain, however, whether that would work: NATO doctrine makes it clear nuclear force would most likely be responded to in kind. Ultimately, it could be argued that both Trump and Obama and perhaps also Putin have just been trying to publicly wrestle with a simple awkward reality: that the threat of a major nuclear exchange between major states, particularly Russia and the United States, never really went away. According to the one of the more respected estimators of nuclear arsenals Russia has some 7, 300 warheads in total, approximately 1, 700 immediately deployable via missiles and bombers. The United States has slightly fewer some 7, 000 warheads, approximately 1, 300 deployed. No one else has anything close the United Kingdom, France and China have approximately 200 to 300 each. India and Pakistan have an estimated 110 and 140 respectively. North Korea, which everyone worries over the most, was estimated to have a mere eight. The U. S. and Russian arsenals are much more limited than they were at the height of the Cold War. Then, the U. S. stockpile alone stood at more than 25, 000. Even today, however, a confrontation could devastate the entire northern hemisphere. As Putin made clear in his press conference last week, that is why Russia reacted so angrily to the development and deployment of relatively limited U. S. missile defenses, particularly in Eastern Europe. From Washington’s perspective, the focus of these systems was always on rogue states, the potential risk from places such as North Korea and Iran. For Russia, however, the defenses have always been seen as a Western strategy to negate Moscow’s atomic arsenal. Such worries were not, perhaps, entirely reasonable. Even the boldest suggested expansion of U. S. missile defenses would never have been able to shoot down more than a tiny proportion of Russia’s warheads. But with stakes like that, common sense is a relative concept. Trump may well be right about one thing. There seems little prospect of the world “coming to its senses” anytime soon. The risks of that are now coming back into plain sight in a way not seen in a generation and it will be his job to manage them. 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. shale companies to boost spending as banks loosen purse strings

The credit increase is small, but with major oil producers worldwide aiming to hold down production in 2017, U. S. shale drillers are looking to boost market share to take advantage of higher prices, and greater availability of capital will make that easier. North oil and gas producers are expected to increase capital investments by 30 percent in 2017, according to analysts at Raymond James. A number of shale producers including Pioneer Natural Resources Co, Diamondback Energy Inc and RSP Permian Inc have forecast bigger budgets and increased output for next year. Every six months, oil and gas producers negotiate credit with banks based on the value of reserves in the ground. Through the latest round of talks in the fall, 34 companies had their available credit lines raised an average of about 5 percent, or more than $1. 3 billion, according to data compiled by Reuters. The combined bank credit for the companies stood at $30. 3 billion, compared with $28. 9 billion at the end of spring 2016. The industry’s available credit had been cut by 40 percent over the past three reviews as it contended with a price rout. ”The ’animal spirits,’ seem to be coming back to the exploration and production market, albeit slowly,” said Reorg Research analyst Kyle Owusu, referring to the human emotion that drives confidence. Of the 34 companies, 12 saw increases of 5 to 90 percent, while 10 companies had their borrowing bases cut in the latest round, and 12 companies’ credit limits were left unchanged. In addition to the increased borrowing base, lenders have extended maturities on loans. Oil prices have risen by more than 45 percent this year, increasing the value of oil and gas reserves against which loans are decided. And a number of companies have seen their eligible proved reserves rise, in part due to acquisitions. Overall U. S. crude oil production is forecast to fall to 8. 8 million barrels per day in 2017 from 8. 9 million bpd this year, according to the U. S. Energy Department. But shale output could increase from 200, 000 to 500, 000 bpd in the coming year, analysts said. Shale companies generally use revolving credit to finance operations. But with tight credit over the past two years, they have relied on asset sales and stock issuance to fund routine operations, leaving less money for exploration and production. With borrowing bases raised, companies do not have to turn to capital markets to finance routine operations. They are expanding reserves with acreage purchases, particularly in prolific fields such as the Permian Basin in Texas. That in turn helps them negotiate higher borrowing bases with their lenders. Rice Energy Inc’s borrowing base was increased to $1. 45 billion from $1 billion last week after the company added to its reserves through the $2. 7 billion purchase of Vantage Energy Inc VEI. N. With expanded credit lines, companies can fund acquisitions and new exploration. Diamondback’s borrowing base rose to $1 billion from $700 billion. Its Viper Energy Partners LP unit had its credit limit boosted to $275 million from $175 million. ”I think we (will) continue to use that borrowing base as a way to fund acquisitions,” Kaes Van’t Hof, a Diamondback executive, said on a November earnings call. Some companies are going another route, selling more shares. Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc kept its current credit line at $600 million and sold $225 million in stock in October to fund more land purchases. Other companies are struggling to make up for borrowing base ”deficiencies,” which arise when their outstanding loans exceed its borrowing base. After the round of borrowing base redeterminations last spring at least six companies had overdrawn borrowing bases. Four of them have since filed for bankruptcy. (Reporting by Swetha Gopinath in Bengaluru; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) NEW YORK Tesla Inc shares slid more than 7 percent on Wednesday, their biggest percentage decline in more than a year, on delivery numbers, yet the luxury electric carmaker’s stock price remained above analysts’ median target. 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.

U.S. appeals court rejects SEC’s use of administrative law judges

The ruling by the 10th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in the case of Colorado businessman David Bandimere marked a major setback for the SEC amid attacks by defendants who question the fairness of its administrative court system. The holding on Tuesday marked a departure from the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which in August upheld the SEC’s use of judges. The Supreme Court often reviews matters where circuit courts are split. David Zisser, Bandimere’s lawyer, on Wednesday said he was ”delighted” by the ruling. The SEC said it was reviewing the decision. Administrative law judges are independent from the agencies where they work. Their employing agency can seek their removal, but the Merit Systems Protection Board must review such a move. Following the 2010 law’s passage, the SEC relied increasingly on its own judges to oversee cases. Critics call the court unfair to defendants, some of whom have challenged the system in court. In Bandimere’s case, the SEC accused him of acting as an unregistered broker from 2006 to 2010 in making sales of securities in two entities that enabled Ponzi schemes. He denied wrongdoing. Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot in 2013 found Bandimere liable for violating securities laws, barred him from associating with any broker, dealer or investment adviser and ordered him to pay nearly $1. 03 million. But in Tuesday’s ruling, U. S. Circuit Judge Scott Matheson said Elliot and the SEC’s other four judges held their offices in violation of the U. S. Constitution’s appointments clause. Writing for the majority, Matheson said the SEC’s judges were not employees but ”inferior officers” who had not as required been appointed by the president, a court or a department head. The SEC’s commissioners, who heard the initial appeal of Elliot’s 2013 ruling, previously held the judges were not inferior officers because they issued decisions subject to commission review. But Matheson said that fact ”does not transform them into lesser functionaries.” In a dissent, U. S. Circuit Judge Monroe McKay expressed concern the ”sweeping” holding had ”effectively rendered invalid thousands of administrative actions” through its potential impact on judges at agencies beyond the SEC. The case is Bandimere v. U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 10th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. . (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by David Gregorio) 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.

South Carolina church shooter seeks to keep mental health evidence from jury

Dylann Roof, the man convicted in a church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, asked a judge on Wednesday to keep details about his mental health sealed for the sentencing phase of his federal death penalty trial next week. Roof, a avowed white supremacist, was found guilty on Dec. 15 on 33 charges of federal hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and firearms violations stemming from the June 2015 massacre of nine people at a historic black church. The same jury that heard six days of testimony about the bloodshed at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church will reconvene on Tuesday for the trial’s penalty phase. Roof, handcuffed and wearing a prison jumpsuit, smiled and answered ”yes” when U. S. District Judge Richard Gergel asked if he still planned to serve as his own lawyer as prosecutors make the case that he should be executed instead of spending the rest of his life in prison without parole. ”I think it’s a bad idea,” Gergel warned, encouraging Roof to discuss his decision with his family and lawyers. The judge said he would allow Roof to change his mind up until the penalty phase gets under way. Roof said he planned to make an opening statement to jurors but did not indicate whether he would testify on his own behalf. He said he would present no evidence or witnesses. He made clear he wanted no details about his mental health revealed, asking Gergel to refrain from unsealing video interviews about his competency or the transcript from a hearing on the topic in November. ”The unsealing of the competency hearing is sort of against the purpose of my representing myself,” Roof said in court. Gergel said he had not decided how releasing the transcript might affect Roof’s state trial on murder charges, also due to start next month. Assistant U. S. Attorney Jay Richardson said the government planned to call 30 or more family members of victims to speak about the impact of the massacre. After defense lawyers raised concerns about Roof’s competency in the federal proceedings, Roof represented himself for a week during jury selection before asking for his attorneys back for the duration of the trial’s guilt phase. Roof’s guilt in the shootings was not disputed. But his defense lawyers, hoping to spare him from execution, asked jurors to consider what factors had driven Roof to commit the act and suggested he might be delusional. (Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Frances Kerry and Matthew Lewis) 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.

Massachusetts delays retail sales of marijuana by six months

Meeting during a week, the state’s House and Senate voted to push back the licensing of cannabis shops from Jan. 1, 2018, until July 1 that year, according to a copy of the legislation posted online. The delay frustrated those who championed a Nov. 8 ballot measure, easily approved by voters, to allow use of the drug by adults 21 and older in private places. Personal possession, use and cultivation became legal on Dec. 15, making Massachusetts one of eight U. S. states to take that step since voters in Washington and Colorado first approved the idea in 2012. Wednesday’s legislation does not change that. Hanging over all the states is what action Donald Trump will take after he is sworn in on Jan. 20. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and legalization by the states has occurred only because of the blessing of the outgoing Obama administration. Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, a Democrat, cited public health and safety as reasons for the delay in retail sales. ”This short delay will allow the necessary time for the legislature to work with stakeholders on improving the new law,” he said in a statement. ”Luckily, we are in a position where we can learn from the experiences of other states to implement the most responsible recreational marijuana law in the country,” he said. The legislation pushes back all deadlines related to retail sales, taxes and regulation. A ”cannabis control commission” that was to be appointed by March 1 is given a Sept. 1 deadline to take shape. Legalization advocates learned of the legislation only on Tuesday night, said Jim Borghesani, who ran the campaign to legalize marijuana in Massachusetts. ”We’re very disappointed with what they did and with the way they did it,” he said. ”We’re disappointed that they extended this awkward period we’re in now where possession is legal but sales are not.” Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican who is expected to sign the delay bill into law, will work with public health officials and others to put legalization into place, spokeswoman Lizzy Guyton said. California, Maine and Nevada also approved legalizing recreational use on Nov. 8, while voters in Arizona rejected it. (Reporting by David Ingram in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) 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.

U.S. fund investors cheer stocks at year’s end

Stock mutual funds and funds netted $1. 2 billion in the week through Dec. 21, while taxable bond funds added $1. 7 billion, the trade group said. Municipal bond funds, by contrast, posted $3. 9 billion in withdrawals. ”Investors have been embracing riskier assets and moving away from safer municipal bonds and Treasuries, as the economy strengthens, rates move higher and confidence in a stronger 2017,” said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA. He said that confidence is built on expectations of lower U. S. corporate taxes and fewer regulations following an election that gave Republicans who support those policies control of the presidency and the U. S. Congress, starting next month. The Russell 2000 has gained more than 14 percent since the November election. ”The U. S. stock market has climbed higher on lofty expectations of a new presidency, but we think greater caution is warranted,” Rosenbluth said. The ICI data also showed investors continuing to favor ETFs, which typically track the market, over generally mutual funds managed by stock and managers. The mutual funds posted $11. 8 billion in withdrawals in the latest week, while ETF inflows were $7. 9 billion. ”Investors are also embracing the ETF alternatives, regardless of the asset class,” said Rosenbluth. ”With lower expected returns for bonds in 2017, costs will matter more.” Mutual funds tend to report weaker sales in December. Investors sell the funds during the month to cut their tax bills, lock in earnings for the year or move cash to assets that performed better ahead of disclosing their investments at the end of the year. ETFs, where investors park some of that cash temporarily, tend to do well at the end of the year. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; 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.

Oil holds near annual peaks, awaiting OPEC cuts, supply data

Crude oil prices edged up for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, close to their highest levels since ahead of U. S. oil inventory figures and as the market awaits evidence of OPEC supply reductions in the new year. U. S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures CLc1 were up 30 cents, or 0. 6 percent, at $54. 20 per barrel by 1:29 p. m. EST (1829 GMT) not far from the year’s high of $54. 51 reached on Dec. 12. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 30 cents at $56. 39 a barrel. The international benchmark hit $57. 89 on Dec. 12, its highest since July 2015. Oil prices have gained 25 percent since helped by expectations for OPEC’s supply cut and solid U. S. economic figures that have also bolstered equity prices. Trading was thin, with just 238, 000 futures contracts changing hands in WTI by 1:29 p. m. EST, compared with a daily average of 525, 000 over the last 200 days. It is expected to remain quiet for the balance of the week. Five analysts polled ahead of weekly inventory reports from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U. S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated, on average, that crude stocks declined by 1. 5 million barrels in the week to Dec. 23. The API data will be released on Wednesday at 4:30 p. m. EST (2130 GMT) while the EIA report has been rescheduled to Thursday at 11 a. m. EST (1600 GMT) following the federal holiday on Monday because of the Christmas holiday. The market is taking a approach to the official start of the landmark deal reached by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and several members to reduce their output. The deal is set to kick in from Jan. 1. OPEC and producers are expected to lower production by almost 1. 8 million barrels per day (bpd) with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, agreeing to bear the lion’s share of the cuts. Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar Ali said on Wednesday his country, which has seen fast production growth in the past two years, would cut supply by 000 bpd from January. Luaibi said on a visit to fellow OPEC member Kuwait that he saw oil prices rising to $60 per barrel as the cuts would help ease the global glut of the past three years, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh also said on Tuesday he expected OPEC to abide by the deal. ”While competing, we do have engagement,” Iranian news agency Shana quoted him as saying. OPEC member Venezuela also said it will cut 95, 000 bpd of oil production in the new year. Statements from various officials ”holds market expectations at a high level, but also entails some risk of disappointment if actual January production data shows output only ramping gradually toward the lower target levels,” wrote Tim Evans, analyst at Citi Futures. (Additional reporting by Jane Chung in Seoul and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bill Trott) 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.

FBI analysis fingers Russian spy agencies for U.S. election hacks

The FBI squarely blamed Russian intelligence services on Thursday for meddling in the 2016 U. S. presidential election, releasing the most definitive report yet on the issue, including samples of malicious computer code said to have been used in a broad hacking campaign. Starting in Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the FSB, emailed a malicious link to more than 1, 000 recipients, including U. S. government targets, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a report with the Department of Homeland Security. ( ) While the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence had said Russia was behind the hacking in October, the report is the first detailed technical analysis provided by the government and the first official FBI statement. Russia has consistently denied the hacking allegations. The FBI issued its report on the same day that President Barack Obama announced a series of retaliatory measures, including the expulsion of 35 Russian intelligence operatives and the sanctioning of the GRU and FSB. The Kremlin denounced the sanctions as unlawful and promised ”adequate” retaliation. According to the FBI report, among the groups compromised by the FSB hacks was the Democratic National Committee, which was again infiltrated in early 2016 by another Russian agency, the military GRU. The report largely corroborates earlier findings from private cyber firms, such as CrowdStrike, which probed the hacks at the DNC and elsewhere, and is a preview of a more detailed assessment from the U. S. intelligence community that President Barack Obama ordered completed before he leaves office next month, a source familiar with the matter said. Much of the information provided in the report is not new, the source said, reflecting the difficulty of publicly attributing cyber attacks without revealing classified sources and methods used by the government. Some senior Republican leaders in the U. S. Congress have expressed outrage at what they called Russian interference in America’s elections, diverging from their own party’s . The allegations and sanctions mark a new War low in U. S. ties. Throughout the raucous campaign, a steady stream of leaked Democratic emails clouded the candidacy of party nominee Hillary Clinton. In the aftermath of her defeat, Democrats have accused Russia. Meantime, Trump, a Republican, has questioned whether Russia was truly at fault and told the Democrats to get over it. “It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things,” Trump said in a statement on Thursday. Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, tapped people seen as friendly to Moscow for administration posts and rejected assessments by intelligence agencies on the hacking. The FBI said hackers gained access to and stole sensitive information, including internal emails ”likely leading to the exfiltration of information from multiple senior party members” and public leaks of that information. The report did not name hacked organizations or address previous conclusions reached by the Central Intelligence Agency and FBI, according to U. S. officials, that Russia sought to intervene in the election to help Trump defeat Clinton. (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Lisa Shumaker) 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.

Clashes, air raids tarnish Russia and Turkey’s Syria truce

Clashes, shelling and air raids in western Syria marred a and ceasefire that aims to end nearly six years of war and lead to peace talks between rebels and a government emboldened by recent battlefield success. Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar announced the ceasefire on Thursday after forging the agreement with Turkey, a longtime backer of the opposition. The truce went into force at midnight but monitors and rebels reported almost immediate clashes, and violence appeared to escalate later on Friday as warplanes bombed areas in the country’s northwest, they said. Asaad Hanna, a political officer in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) a loose alliance of insurgent groups, told Reuters violence had reduced but had not stopped. ”We cannot be optimistic about someone like the Russians who used to kill us for six years . .. they are not angels. But we are happy because we are reducing the violence and working to find a solution for the current situation,” said Hanna. The ceasefire is meant as a first step toward fresh peace talks, after several failed international efforts this year to halt the conflict, which began as a peaceful uprising and descended into war in 2011. It has resulted in more than 300, 000 deaths, displaced more than 11 million people and drawn in the military involvement of world and regional powers, including Moscow and Ankara. The agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey, which said they will guarantee the truce, is the first of three ceasefire deals this year not to involve the United States or United Nations. Moscow is keen to push ahead with peace talks, hosted by its ally Kazakhstan. But the first challenge will be maintaining the truce, which looked shaky on Friday. WARPLANES AND HELICOPTERS Syrian government warplanes carried out nearly 20 raids against rebels in several towns along the provincial boundary between Idlib and Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Clashes between rebel groups and government forces took place overnight in the area, the Observatory and rebel officials said. Warplanes and helicopters also struck northwest of Damascus in the Wadi Barada valley, where government troops and allied forces clashed with rebels, the Observatory reported. A military media unit run by Damascus’s ally Hezbollah denied any Syrian government air strikes on the area. An official from the Nour rebel group said government forces had also tried to advance in southern Aleppo province. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military on Friday’s clashes. Residents of several areas, including towns and cities in Idlib province, used the relative calm to hold street protests against the Syrian government on Friday, the Observatory said. A number of rebel groups have signed the new agreement, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday. Several rebel officials acknowledged the deal, and a FSA spokesman said it would abide by the truce. Hanna, the FSA political officer, said late on Friday rebels were not yet responding to attacks by forces and had asked Turkey to make sure the attacks stop. ”If the breaks come again, we will reply to all the sources of fire. We are monitoring the fighting but our weapons are ready,” he said. PREVIOUS COLLAPSES The previous two Syria ceasefires, brokered by Washington and Moscow, took effect in February and September but both collapsed within weeks as warring sides accused each other of truce violations and fighting intensified. Putin said the parties were prepared to start peace talks intended to take place in Astana. Syrian state media said late on Thursday those talks would take place ”soon”. The Syrian government will be negotiating from a strong position after its army and their allies, including Shi’ite militias supported by Iran, along with Russian air power, routed rebels in their last major urban stronghold of Aleppo this month. Moscow’s air campaign since September last year has turned the war in Assad’s favor, and the last rebels left Aleppo for areas that are still under rebel control to the west of the city, including the province of Idlib. On Friday the Russian ambassador to the United Nations said Moscow had circulated a proposed resolution at the U. N. Security Council that would endorse the ceasefire, and said he hoped the council would vote on the resolution on Saturday. In another sign that the latest truce could be as challenging to maintain as its predecessors, there was confusion over which rebel groups would be covered by the ceasefire. The Syrian army said the agreement did not include the radical Islamist group Islamic State, fighters from ’s former branch the Nusra Front, or any factions linked to those jihadist groups. But several rebel officials said on Thursday that the agreement did include the former Nusra Front now known as Jabhat Fateh which announced in July that it was severing ties with al Qaeda. A spokesman for Jabhat Fateh criticized the ceasefire for not mentioning Assad’s fate, and said the political solution under this agreement would ”reproduce the criminal regime”. ”The solution is to topple the criminal regime militarily,” he said in a statement on Friday. The powerful Islamist insurgent group Ahrar said it had not signed the ceasefire agreement because of ”reservations” but did not elaborate. DETENTE The deal follows a thaw in ties between Russia and Turkey. Ankara backs rebels fighting against Islamic State, which has made enemies of all other sides involved in the conflict. In a sign of the detente, the Turkish armed forces said on Friday Russian aircraft had carried out three air strikes against Islamic State in the area of in northern Syria. Ankara has insisted on the departure of Assad but his removal has become a secondary concern to fighting the expansion of Kurdish influence in northern Syria. The chances of Assad’s opponents forcing him from power now seem more remote than at any point in the war. Turkish demands that fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement leave Syria may not please Iran, another major Assad supporter. Hezbollah has been fighting alongside Syrian government forces against rebels. On Thursday a senior Hezbollah official said the party’s military wing would remain in Syria. The United States, in the waning days of U. S. President Barack Obama’s administration, has been sidelined in recent negotiations and is not due take part in the Kazakhstan talks. Russia has said the United States could join a fresh peace process once Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. It also wants Egypt to join, together with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, Jordan and the United Nations. Trump has said he would cooperate more closely with Russia to fight terrorism but it was unclear what that policy would look like, given resistance from the Pentagon and the U. S. intelligence community to closer cooperation with Russia on Syria. (Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in Beirut, Suleiman in Amman, Jonathan Landay in Washington, Tulay Karadeniz and Orhan Coskun in Ankara and David Ingram in New York; Editing by 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.

Gang-ravaged Mexico stuck in weed ban as U.S. opens up

Mexican advocates for drug reform are voicing alarm about the country’s widening gap with the United States on marijuana legislation, as criminal violence surges again south of the border. Tens of thousands have been killed over the years in Mexico, on the front line of a U. S. war on drugs. The country’s prohibitionist approach to marijuana is increasingly at odds with the United States, where liberalization is advancing. California in November became the first state on the U. S. border to vote for comprehensive cannabis legalization, further pressuring Mexican legislators to change policy. Earlier this month Mexico’s Senate duly passed a limited medical marijuana bill. But it has yet to be approved by the lower house and critics say it is still far too little. ”It’s a teeny, tiny reform for an enormous problem in the country,” opposition leftist senator Mario Delgado said during the discussion of the medical marijuana bill. ”It’s absurd that on this side of the border we continue with the violence, the deaths; and on the other side . .. this same drug is considered legal for recreational use.” Driven by widespread gang violence, murders are on track to breach the 20, 000 mark in 2016 for the first time in four years, adding to more than 100, 000 deaths in the decade since the government began a crackdown on drug cartels. Many thousands more have disappeared. Pena Nieto said in 2014 that Mexico could not pursue diverging paths with the United States on marijuana. Earlier this year, he submitted a bill to close the gap on U. S. legislation. But his own lawmakers have been reluctant to follow his lead. Starting with Washington and Colorado in 2012, U. S. states have begun to legalize recreational use of marijuana, and many more now permit medicinal use, as does Canada. California, which has an economy roughly twice the size of Mexico’s, was widely seen as a bellwether for a shift in policy. Mexico’s Supreme Court last year set the ball rolling in a landmark case, granting four people the right to grow and consume weed, and inspiring hope for change. In April, Pena Nieto proposed decriminalizing possession of up to 28 grams of marijuana for personal use, and said it would allow people jailed for holding up to that amount to go free. But senators in his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) put the initiative on ice, saying it ”requires a greater analysis,” and only backed medical marijuana use. The PRI blamed heavy losses in state elections in June on Pena Nieto pushing a liberal agenda, notably his bid to legalize gay marriage, said Lisa Sanchez, drug policy director at the organization Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia. ”They immediately transferred that discussion into the drugs issue by saying, ’If we go too liberal, we might lose more elections,’” Sanchez said. Opinion polls show that while there is public support for medical marijuana use, Mexicans are still resistant to the idea of an outright liberalization of the drug for recreational ends. While Congress procrastinates, some people are even taking advantage of the U. S. opening, said Jaime Andres Vinasco, a doctoral student at university Colef in Tijuana, a border city synonymous with Mexican drug traffickers selling to U. S. buyers. In Tijuana, moneyed consumers enjoy medical marijuana brought over from California dispensaries that is more potent and of higher quality than local weed, said Vinasco, who has spoken to users and dealers for his research on the reverse flow. ”The cannabis from California, for the Tijuanenses, or residents of Tijuana, has become, for the great majority, a luxury item,” he said. ”Quite a paradoxical phenomenon.” (Reporting by Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein; Editing by Dave Graham and David Gregorio) 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.

New York, wary after Europe attacks, tightens security for New Year’s Eve

New York City will deploy trucks and thousands of police officers as part of a plan to protect revelers at this year’s New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square, mindful of two deadly truck attacks in Europe this year. As many as 2 million people are expected to gather on Saturday to welcome the new year and authorities said on Thursday they were aware of no credible threat to the annual festivities at the famed Manhattan crossroads. Even so, officials have redoubled efforts to prevent attacks like those in Germany and France this year in which suspected Islamic militants intentionally drove trucks into holiday crowds, killing dozens of civilians. ”People will be safe,” New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at a news conference, aiming to allay any security concerns about the Times Square celebration, where a giant crystal ball will descend from a tower to mark the start of 2017. ”We’re going to have one of the most events in one of the safest venues in the entire world given all the assets that we deploy here,” he said. New York Police Chief of Department Carlos Gomez said the truck attacks in Europe were taken into consideration in planning New York’s security plan. A truck attack at a holiday market in Berlin days before Christmas killed a dozen people and injured 56, while a similar incident in Nice, France, on Bastille Day this summer killed 86 people and injured more than 400. Revelers in New York City on Saturday will find 65 large sanitation trucks filled with sand placed in strategic positions to block potential truck attacks, as well as about 100 other smaller ”blocker” vehicles, officials said. More than 80 sand trucks were used to protect the Macy’s 90th Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York after Islamic State militants abroad encouraged their followers to target the event, which drew an estimated 3. 5 million people to the streets of the largest U. S. city. For New Year’s Eve, the nearly 2 million visitors expected to gather in the hours before midnight may notice heavily armed police teams, dogs, helicopters and bag searches in subways. Coast Guard and police vessels will patrol the waterways surrounding Manhattan. Officers also will make sweeps of area hotels, theaters and parking garages and monitor checkpoints where they scan for radiation and weapons, police said. Other less visible layers of security include plainclothes officers, hundreds of security cameras, the removal of trash cans, sealed manhole covers and rooftop observation points. All told, the New York Police Department has assigned nearly 7, 000 police to Times Square and throughout the rest of the city on Saturday, officials said. Umbrellas, large bags and alcohol are banned and portions of 57th and 59th streets will be closed to traffic. (Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Bill Trott) 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.

Brazil’s president to pursue tax reform in 2017

Brazil will seek to simplify its tax code in 2017, President Michel Temer said on Thursday, aiming to broaden his reform agenda following proposals to modify the pension system and labor laws. A government source familiar with the matter told Reuters the reform could include streamlining the tax regime of the oil and gas industry, changes to levies on the financial system, and the reduction of red tape in general. Since taking office after the ouster of his leftist predecessor Dilma Rousseff, Temer has pledged to pursue structural reforms to lift Brazil from its deepest economic recession in decades. This month, Congress sanctioned his proposal to limit growth of public spending for the next 20 years, clearing the way for votes on other measures. Brazil’s generous pension system must be overhauled if the spending cap is to have real effect, officials say. In a news conference in the capital Brasília, Temer said he expects Congress to swiftly approve his plans to simplify the hiring of workers on temporary contracts, saying lawmakers have shown ”strong support” for his agenda. ”Why not pursue tax reform now that plenty of bills have advanced?” Temer said, adding that his government would work hard to achieve the reform next year. Economists have long criticized Brazil’s complex tax system as a barrier to growth. Companies in Brazil spend on average 2, 038 hours to do their taxes or about 12 times the average in the wealthy OECD group of nations, according to the World Bank’s ”Doing Business” index. Temer’s advisers have floated a proposal to unify the federal PIS and Cofins taxes to fund social security. The government could also negotiate with states to unify an tax known as ICMS, a measure considered crucial to reduce legal uncertainties. The official, who asked not to be named because he is not allowed to speak publicly, said that in addition to changes for the oil and financial sectors, the broad reform could include the restructuring of the finance ministry’s tax appeals tribunal, known as CARF. ”These are the general ideas of what should be done. It is still in embryonic stages,” the source said. Despite Temer’s efforts at reform, unemployment has continued to rise. Data on Thursday showed the economy shed a net 116, 747 jobs in November, more than double economists’ expectations. Temer approved a modest increase of 6. 4 percent in the national minimum wage to 937 reais on Thursday, reflecting a slowdown in inflation. The president also promised to support Congressional efforts to reform Brazil’s political framework, a messy multiparty system that critics say makes Brazil’s electoral politics complicated and often corrupt. ”The theme of political reform belongs to Congress, but we’ll incentivize it and support it,” he said. Some lawmakers have called for rules limiting the proliferation of parties, blamed for fostering corruption by demanding broad coalition and in Congress. There are currently 35 parties registered in Brazil’s electoral court, with 26 represented in the lower house of Congress. (Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Bruno Federowski; Editing by W Simon and Lisa Shumaker) 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.

Bankers cautious on outlook for global equity deals after 2016 slide

Global equity raising fell by more than a quarter in 2016, data showed on Friday, hit by geopolitical shocks and a string of failed initial public offerings (IPOs) with the outlook for 2017 looking shaky. Companies raised $648. 9 billion in equity during 2016, against $873 billion last year, Thomson Reuters Equity Capital Markets (ECM) data up to Dec. 28 showed. Money raised from IPOs was down by almost a third at $130. 6 billion despite equity indices touching record highs in the latter stages of the year. ”The markets were volatile this year. There were times when IPOs got launched but didn’t get done, and there were also fewer rights offerings,” said Achintya Mangla, head of ECM in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at JP Morgan ( ) which topped the league table for global equity offerings and IPOs. ”2017 will continue to be uncertain and volatile and I’d expect IPO volumes will be in line with this year.” Mangla added that, though he does not expect IPO activity to rise, there could be higher overall ECM volumes with a potential increase in rights issues and financing. The year’s biggest IPO, for Postal Savings Bank of China ( ) in September, was priced at the lower end of an indicative range and traded flat before falling more than 10 percent. Share price falls following two big European IPOs payments company Nets ( ) and energy business Innogy ( ) put investors on edge, resulting in bankers being unable to drum up sufficient support for a string of other listings in the final quarter of 2016. Market volatility was blamed for some of the canceled listings, which normally require a window of at least four weeks to complete. In Europe, IPOs more than halved in volume terms compared with 2015. That could continue in 2017, with elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Britain formally triggering the process of leaving the European Union, expected to limit the number of suitable windows to launch IPOs. WAITING IN THE WINGS However, preparations are under way for a number of big deals that could help to lift ECM activity in the coming year. Telefonica ( ) has hired UBS ( ) Morgan Stanley ( ) and Barclays ( ) as global coordinators to list its British mobile business O2, which could fetch about 10 billion pounds ($12. 2 billion). A planned IPO of Siemens’ ( ) healthcare subsidiary and a capital raising by Bayer ( ) to finance the acquisition of Monsanto ( ) could also be deals. Italy’s UniCredit ( ) meanwhile, plans to raise 13 billion euros ($13. 6 billion) in the country’s biggest share issue to shore up its balance sheet and shield itself from a broader banking crisis. Credit Suisse ( ) aims to list its domestic operation to raise a sum that could reach as high as 4 billion Swiss francs ($3. 9 billion) and Deutsche Bank ( ) is said to be exploring options to beef up its capital. There is also the potential that messaging app Snapchat’s decision to file for an IPO could persuade other technology businesses to head for public markets. ”Tech companies have been able to achieve very attractive valuations in the private markets, but some of the heat has come out of the private funding arena and the IPO route is looking more attractive,” said Tom Johnson, Barclays’ of equity capital markets in EMEA. ”If a few large tech company IPOs go well in the United States, we would hope to see more here, too.” However, some bankers cautioned against taking investors’ apparent rotation toward equities and away from fixed income as a guarantee for easy share issues. ”It might look like a bull market, but investors will still be selective,” Johnson said. ”Market performance has been mixed this year so there is some caution and valuations have to reflect that.” (Editing by David Goodman) 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.

Britain avoids M&A collapse as foreign buyers go Brexit bargain hunting

Britain avoided a collapse in mergers and acquisitions activity after the shock Brexit vote as foreign companies used sterling’s spectacular devaluation against the U. S. dollar to snap up British companies, Thomson Reuters data shows. British M&A totaled $177. 5 billion in 2016, down sharply from the record $394. 8 billion reached in 2015 a year when the UK data was skewed by two of three biggest global deals but was in line with the longer trend. Total annual mergers and acquisitions values averaged $139. 3 billion for the five years to the start of 2015. Britain also retained its place as the third largest M&A market after the United States and China. Behind the headline numbers, there was another clear trend: foreign buyers such as Rupert Murdoch’s Century Fox ( ) shopping with dollars for bargains while domestic dealmaking fell off sharply. ”Brexit should never have been talked up as an Armageddon moment for UK M&A, especially with such a sharp devaluation in the currency which has clearly been a stimulus for overseas buyers,” Tim Gee, M&A partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie, told Reuters. ”Much of the activity in 2016 was skewed toward foreign buyers with less activity,” Gee said. ”Total activity levels were not really knocked that much by Brexit but who was doing the buying did shift deal values in 2016 are very similar to the historical trend.” Inbound M&A was $143. 7 billion, again down from 2015 but way above the $85. 9 billion annual average for the 5 years to 2015, while domestic M&A was $33. 7 billion, down from an average of $53. 4 billion over the same period. There were just 1, 355 domestic deals the lowest figure in nearly two decades of Thomson Reuters data. 2015 was a record year for dealmaking involving companies thanks to a series of jumbo deals including Inbev’s ( ) $110. 3 billion acquisition of SABMiller and Shell’s ( ) $53 billion merger with BG Group. BREXIT ’ARMAGEDDON’? The June 23 vote took many investors and chief executives by surprise, triggering the deepest political and financial turmoil in Britain since World War Two and the biggest ever fall in sterling against the dollar. On the day of the vote, sterling traded above $1. 50 but is now trading below $1. 23 and fell below $1. 15 at one point in October. While opponents of leaving the EU had warned that the United Kingdom’s economy would stall and investment stop if voters opted to exit, the data since the Brexit vote has shown the economy was resilient. Just a week after Theresa May entered Downing Street to replace David Cameron as British prime minister, Softbank ( ) founder Masayoshi Son made a $30. 7 billion move for chip designer ARM Holdings. ”I am one of the first people to bet with a big size on the UK after Brexit,” Son, who is ranked by Forbes as Japan’s second richest man with a $14. 9 fortune, told reporters in London at the time. ”Talking is easy. I am proving it . . . This is my big bet.” The second biggest deal of the year was struck by Murdoch: a $14. 6 billion deal to buy European firm Sky ( ). People familiar with the matter told Reuters the American media corporation pounced after the Brexit vote sent the pound down against the U. S. dollar and Sky’s share price tumbling. ”The worst predictions surrounding Brexit and its potential impact on our economy have so far failed to materialize,” Derek Shakespeare, of UK M&A at Barclays, told Reuters. ”With the weaker pound UK businesses have become 10 to 20 percent cheaper.” ”But the devil is in the detail: we have several years ahead of us to understand what the trading relationship with the EU will look like. So there’s a degree of caution when looking at transactions in Britain,” he said. ”BREXIT MEANS BREXIT” Goldman Sachs ( ) the world’s top dealmaker, was top again in Britain’s league tables, followed by JPMorgan ( ) and Lazard ( ) which rose to third place in Britain above Deutsche Bank, UBS, Centerview Partners LLC and Morgan Stanley ( ) Thomson Reuters data showed. ”Geopolitical events such as Brexit have impacted CEO confidence for over the first part of the year and through the summer,” said Gilberto Pozzi, of global M&A at Goldman Sachs. ”We are now seeing a rebound in M&A activity although boards remain quite cautious in reviewing the opportunities and the pros and cons of M&A transactions,” Pozzi said. Barclays’ Shakespeare said many private equity funds have recently sold assets and cashed out of high multiples thus boosting their ability to raise funds. So what will happen in 2017? Baker & McKenzie’s Gee said he expected low levels of activity among financial institutions and basic materials, resources and commodities while M&A hot spots would include technology, innovation and healthcare. ”It will be a mildly better performance next year than this years with overall uptick in deal value,” Gee said. ”There is a limit to how long you can sit on your hands.” Prime Minister May, who has repeatedly used the example of Softbank’s ARM purchase as evidence that investors are confident in Britain, has promised to trigger formal Brexit talks by the end of March. But May has given few details about what sort of exit deal she will seek to negotiate. ”Investment coming into the UK is down amid uncertainty around Brexit and that uncertainty will linger into next year,” said Dwayne Lysaght, head of UK M&A at JP Morgan. ”That said, I think uncertainty is becoming the new norm, and the fundamentals for dealmaking remain intact,” he said. (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Anna Willard) 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 .

Iraqi forces launch second phase of Mosul offensive against Islamic State

Iraqi security forces on Thursday began the second phase of their offensive against Islamic State militants in Mosul, pushing from three directions into eastern districts where the battle has been deadlocked for nearly a month. Since the offensive to capture Mosul began 10 weeks ago, U. S. forces have retaken a quarter of the jihadists’ last major stronghold in Iraq in the biggest ground operation there since the 2003 U. S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. More than 5, 000 soldiers and federal police troops, redeployed from Mosul’s southern outskirts, entered half a dozen southeastern districts, while forces advanced in and Karama districts after reinforcements arrived. Other soldiers pushed simultaneously toward the city’s northern limits. U. S. military advisers were seen watching operations as coalition aircraft circled overhead. ”At 0700 this morning, the three fronts began advancing toward the city center. The operation is ongoing today and tomorrow and until we liberate the eastern side of the city completely,” Lieutenant General Ali Freiji, who was overseeing army operations in the north, told Reuters. Iraqi forces have taken around half of the eastern side of Mosul, which is bisected by the Tigris river, but have yet to enter the western side, where markets and narrow alleyways are likely to complicate any advance. The fall of Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic State’s ambition to rule over millions of people in a caliphate, although the militants would still be capable of waging a traditional insurgency in Iraq, and plotting or inspiring attacks on the West. A U. S. coalition backing the Iraqis said Thursday’s operation had opened two new fronts inside Mosul and limited Islamic State’s ability to raise fighter numbers, move them or resupply. The U. S. military later said a coalition air strike that hit a van in the parking lot of a hospital compound on Thursday may have killed civilians, highlighting the challenge of targeting an enemy embedded within the civilian population. DEEPER U. S. ENGAGEMENT One elite Iraqi unit encountered sniper and machine gunfire as it advanced alongside federal police in Mosul’s Intisar district, an officer said. A plume of white smoke, likely to be from an air strike, rose from a southeastern district while heavy gunfire was audible on the northern front and a commander there said nine suicide car bombs had been disabled. State TV said Islamic State defenses were collapsing in the areas of Salam, Intisar, Wahda, Palestine and and that fighters’ bodies filled the streets there. A military statement later said forces had raised the Iraqi flag in . The government’s accounts are difficult to confirm as the authorities have increasingly restricted foreign media’s access to the battle fronts and areas retaken from Islamic State in and around Mosul. They have given no reason. The battle for Mosul involves 100, 000 Iraqi troops, members of the Kurdish security forces and Shi’ite militiamen. U. S. commanders have said in recent weeks that their military advisers will embed more extensively with Iraqi forces. An army colonel said Iraqi forces had suffered few casualties so far. ”The orders from the senior commanders are clear: no halting, no retreat until we reach the fourth bridge and link up with units,” he said. Coalition forces bombed the last remaining bridge connecting east and west Mosul late on Monday in a bid to block Islamic State’s access across the Tigris River. ”The enemy is currently isolated inside the left (eastern) bank of Mosul,” military spokesman Yahia Rassol said on state TV. ”In the coming days, Iraqi forces will liberate the entire left bank of Mosul and after that we will tackle the right.” TRAPPED CIVILIANS The United Nations has expressed concern that destroying the bridges could obstruct the evacuation of civilians. As many as 1. 5 million are thought to still be inside. Residents of eastern Mosul reached by phone described fierce clashes that included explosions, air strikes and bombardment by helicopters. ”My family and I cannot leave the room we are sitting in. We have sealed the windows for hours, but in the afternoon the Iraqi forces arrived and we saw them,” one resident said. Civilians in western Mosul said clashes were audible from the opposite bank of the river. One of them said Islamic State was boasting in radio broadcasts of attacking areas retaken by Iraqi forces, where many civilians are trapped. Three residents emerged from a northern village on Thursday, including an elderly man who sat down in the road and sobbed. He said his wife had been shot dead by Islamic State a day earlier as she collected water. Iraqi forces searched the civilians and let them continue to a nearby village. Mosul, the largest city held by Islamic State anywhere across its once vast territorial holdings in Iraq and neighboring Syria, has been held by the group since its fighters drove the U. S. Iraqi army out in June 2014. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider who had pledged to retake Mosul by the end of the year, said this week it would take three more months to rout Islamic State from the country. The operation has been slowed by concern to avoid casualties among civilians, who despite food and water shortages have mostly stayed in their homes rather than fleeing as had been expected. More than 114, 000 have been displaced so far, according to the United Nations. About 200 civilians who left villages north of Mosul on Thursday, many still with the full beards required by Islamic State, were taken by Kurdish security forces to a nearby camp. (Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Saif Hameed in Baghdad; Editing by Louise Ireland) 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.

Mexico fuel price increase seen boosting sales of more efficient cars

An imminent jump in Mexican gasoline prices should not reduce auto sales in the near term but will ultimately boost the market for more cars, a leading Mexican auto industry group said on Thursday. This week, Mexico’s finance ministry said gasoline costs would rise by up to 20. 1 percent in January as it moved to end years of prices, prompting economists to begin upwardly revising inflation forecasts for 2017. Higher driving costs could weigh on hitherto brisk appetite for new autos in Latin America’s economy. Vehicle sales in Mexico rose by 18. 5 percent to more than 1. 4 million in the year through November, official data shows. Guillermo Rosales, deputy director of the Mexican association of automobile distributors (AMDA) said higher fuel costs would likely boost demand for more cars. ”In the I don’t think there will be a decline in the number of vehicles sold,” Rosales said in a statement to Reuters. ”In the medium to long term, we’ll see a change in the trend that favors models which consume less (fuel).” Mexican motorists were downbeat about the immediate outlook, saying they would have to work longer hours and spend less to compensate for higher fuel costs. ”It’s going to have a huge impact,” said Juan Olivar, 35, a Mexico City taxi driver, noting that taxi fares would need to rise to make up for the fuel hike. Complicating matters further, parts of Mexico have also been hit by fuel shortages, partly due to theft via illegal taps in the pipeline network of state oil company Pemex. On Christmas Day, the company cautioned Mexicans against making ”panic buys” of fuel in the central state of San Luis Potosi as gas stations reported shortages. Gerardo Chavez, 54, a fuel attendant in the affluent Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City who depends on tips, said he had earned no tip money to buy food for his family one day last week when his station ran short of gasoline. ”With the fuel increase, people aren’t even going to tip us,” he said. (Editing by 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.

Run-DMC founder sues Amazon.com, Wal-Mart over trademark

A founder of on Thursday filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon. com Inc and Stores Inc of selling a wide variety of clothing and accessories bearing the pioneering rap group’s name without permission. Darryl McDaniels, the owner of Brand LLC, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, is seeking at least $50 million of damages from the retailers and other defendants over their alleged sale of glasses, hats, patches, wallets and other products that infringe the trademark registered in 2007. McDaniels called the brand ”extremely valuable,” and said it is the subject of several licensing agreements, including to endorse sneakers from Adidas AG. He said the defendants are confusing consumers into believing that endorsed their products and are trading on the goodwill associated with the name, in violation of federal trademark and New York unfair competition laws. ”Plaintiff will suffer immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage” unless the infringements are stopped, according to the complaint filed in the U. S. District Court in Manhattan. Other defendants include Jet. com, an online retailer that bought, and a variety of companies that do business with Amazon or sell products through Amazon. Amazon, and Jet. com did not immediately respond to requests for comment. McDaniels’ lawyer did not immediately respond to similar requests. was founded in the New York City borough of Queens in 1981 by McDaniels, Joseph ”Run” Simmons and Jason ”Jam Master Jay” Mizell. It became one of the rap acts of the 1980s, including for the album ”Raising Hell” and such songs as the Aerosmith cover ”Walk This Way” and ”My Adidas.” In 2009, became the second rap act inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The case is Brand LLC v Amazon. com Inc et al, U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. . (This version of the story was refiled to correct paragraph six to show has already bought Jet. com) (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler) 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.

Italy’s bailout fund makes offer for small banks’ bad loans: sources

Italian bank bailout fund Atlante has presented an offer for of the 3. 7 billion euros ($4 billion) of gross problematic loans of three small banks that were rescued last year, two sources close to the matter said. The move should help facilitate the sale of the banks Banca Etruria, Banca Marche and CariChieti to bigger rival and Italy’s lender UBI ( ). ”Atlante today presented an offer for the loans of the three good banks,” one of the sources said. A third source added that the banks’ boards may meet on Friday to discuss the Atlante deal. In November 2015, Italy rescued the three small lenders and a fourth, CariFerrara, by drawing nearly 4 billion euros from a crisis fund paid for by its healthy banks. The value of junior bonds and shares in the banks was written off in line with European rules for dealing with bank crises. Italy has struggled to sell the four banks as required by European regulators even though their weakest loans were spun off in the rescue. Since then the banks have been forced to class more problem loans as defaulting. The small lenders have turned into the latest banking headache for Italy’s government, which has already been called to the rescue of the world’s oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( ) after its plan to raise 5 billion euros from private investors flopped. UBI has expressed interest in buying three of the lenders, but set conditions including for the banks’ new loans to be taken off their balance sheets and the option to use its own internal risk models to weigh the lenders’ assets. The resolution fund which owns the banks is also expected to carry out a small share sale to bolster their capital ratios. Once all conditions are fulfilled, UBI would launch its own small cash call to ensure its core capital is not hit by the acquisition. The sale to UBI is unlikely to be completed by the end of the year as had initially been expected. ”There are still legal issues to be ironed out, so UBI’s signature is expected after the Epiphany (Jan. 6 holiday),” one of the sources said. UBI, whose board was meeting on the matter on Thursday, declined to comment. When the main banking unions met Roberto Nicastro, who acts as president of the four banks until they are sold, in early December, he expected a preliminary sale agreement to be signed this year, with closing expected by March 2017. The deadline for the sale, initially set for April 2016, has already been extended twice. (Reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia, writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) 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.

Italy criticizes ECB over Monte Paschi capital decision

Italy’s economy minister has said the European Central Bank should have explained more clearly why it nearly doubled its estimate of the capital shortfall for the ailing bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( ) which is being bailed out by the state. In unusually critical comments of the euro zone’s banking supervisor, Pier Carlo Padoan told a newspaper that the ECB’s new capital target was the result of a ”very rigid stance” in its assessment of the bank’s risk profile. ”It would have been useful, if not kind, to have a bit more information from the ECB about the criteria that led to this assessment,” Padoan told the financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. Monte dei Paschi, Italy’s third biggest lender and the world’s oldest, said on Monday the ECB had estimated its capital shortfall at 8. 8 billion euros ($9. 20 billion) compared with a 5 gap previously indicated by the bank. The higher capital requirement substantially increases the cost of the bank’s rescue by the government after it failed to raise the 5 billion euros on the market. The Bank of Italy said in a statement later on Thursday that based on its own calculations the Treasury may have to put up around 6. 6 billion euros to salvage the lender, including 2 billion euros to compensate around 40, 000 retail bond holders. The size of the state intervention has raised concern that Italy’s newly created bank bailout fund may not have enough money for other weak banks. The government says the fund is sufficient. The rest of the money Monte dei Paschi needs will come from the forced conversion of its subordinated bonds into shares, in line with European rules on bank crises. The lender fared the worst in banking stress tests published in July. Padoan said he expected the capital increase to take place in two to three months. The ECB told the Italian treasury of its decision in a letter, which Padoan said was just five lines long and which has not been made public. It irked the Rome government and has quickly turned into a political issue. A group of lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party asked Padoan and Italy’s foreign minister on Wednesday to explain in parliament what had happened. ”I was a bit surprised to receive the news, out of the blue and on Christmas day,” Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni told a press conference. ”It’s important that the reasons behind this assessment are shared and that there is a dialogue because we need to handle this issue together . .. We will stick to our guns.” The ECB has declined to comment on its rationale for the larger capital shortfall. The Bank of Italy said in its statement that Monte dei Paschi’s estimate of a 5 billion euros capital gap was based on the results of the stress test, conducted on data, and included assumptions such as the sale of its whole portfolio of defaulting loans a key part of its plan to raise money privately. Given that plan’s failure and the bank’s worsening balance sheet over the past year, the central bank said the 8. 8 billion euro capital requirement was justified by the need to reach an 8 percent Common Equity Tier 1 (CET 1) ratio a key measure of financial strength in an adverse scenario. A source said the ECB had wanted to ensure that Monte dei Paschi had enough capital to safely meet that requirement, so it would be able to restore investor and customer confidence. The source also said the ECB had offered to explain its stance to both the Italian treasury and Monte dei Paschi. At 8 percent under the adverse scenario, Monte dei Paschi would still be below the average of the ECB’s stress test, in which banks would see their CET 1 ratio fall to 9. 4 percent from 13. 2 percent. The 8 percent threshold in the adverse scenario was also a requirement the ECB set for ailing Greek banks in a 2015 review. Padoan said the exact amount of capital Monte dei Paschi will have to raise will be determined once it presents a new business plan to the ECB and the European Commission, but he played down the bank’s problems. ”The bank is in optimal condition and will have great success,” he said. (Additional reporting by Giulia Segreti and Agnieszka Flak in Milan and Giselda Vagnoni in Rome; Editing by Adrian Croft, Larry King) LISBON The sale of Portugal’s Novo Banco to U. S. private equity firm Lone Star should be concluded by November following a 500 million euro ($566 million) debt swap that will be launched soon, deputy finance minister said on Wednesday. FRANKFURT Deutsche Bank Chief Executive John Cryan has no plans to step down from running Germany’s biggest lender, he told German weekly Die Zeit in an interview.

Argentine court revives bombing cover-up case against Fernandez

An Argentine appeals court on Thursday revived a case accusing former President Christina Fernandez of trying to cover up Iran’s alleged role in the bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center in 1994. The prosecutor who first brought the allegation, Alberto Nisman, died mysteriously in January 2015, and a judge later threw the case out for lack of evidence. But that ruling was revoked on Thursday, opening Fernandez to prosecution. ”The evidence does not allow for a clear dismissal of the possible commission of illicit acts,” the country’s official CIJ Judicial Information Center said in a statement. ”The accusations must be weighed in advance of dismissal.” Argentine courts have accused Iran of sponsoring the attack, which killed 85 people at the AMIA Jewish community center. Nisman was found in his home shot through the head days after accusing Fernandez of trying to derail the bombing investigation as part of a plan to close the country’s energy gap by trading Argentine grains for Iranian oil. She dismisses the charge as absurd. Nisman’s death was initially classified as a suicide, but an official investigating the case said early this year that the evidence pointed to homicide. The prosecutor was just hours away from a scheduled appearance in Congress to brief lawmakers on his accusations against Fernandez when his body was found on the floor of his apartment, a pistol by his side. Iran has repeatedly denied any link to the bombing, and an Argentine judge in February 2015 dismissed Nisman’s accusations as baseless. A review panel later agreed by a vote, finding insufficient evidence to formally investigate Fernandez. She has faced several criminal charges since leaving office a year ago. She was indicted this week on charges arising from allegations she and top officials from her administration skimmed money intended for public works projects. (Additional reporting by Maximilian Heath and Nicolas Misculin, Editing by Steve Orlofsky) 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.

Trump populism comes to Canada as Conservatives seek leader

Canada’s answer to Donald Trump is a pediatric surgeon and former cabinet minister who, like the U. S. is railing against immigration and political elites. Kellie Leitch, 46, has vaulted to the front of the race to lead the opposition Conservative Party by pushing a ”Canadian values” platform that taps into discontent over the sluggish economy and Canada’s acceptance of 37, 000 Syrian refugees. Leitch is ahead of about a dozen candidates in the most recent opinion polls on the Conservative leadership election, scheduled to be held on May 27, 2017. The candidate chosen by party members will be their flag bearer for the October 2019 general election, against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. ”Elites pretend this isn’t an issue, but Canadians want to talk about it (immigration),” Leitch said in an interview last week from her farmhouse in rural Ontario. She has professed admiration for Trump’s embrace of the ordinary voter, and acknowledged similarities in their agendas. ”I am talking about screening immigrants, I am talking about building pipelines, I am talking about making sure Canadians have jobs, so yeah, some of the ideas and language are the same,” said Leitch, an energetic and former labor and women’s affairs minister. Just as Trump did not initially have the backing of mainstream Republicans, Leitch has alienated many in her party establishment who fear that she will struggle to win Canada’s urban, mainly immigrant, voter base in the general election. One of the reasons why the Conservatives had managed to hold power for almost a decade was their successful push into immigrant communities under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had convinced the party that rising immigration made newcomers a constituency. Canada takes in about 300, 000 immigrants every year. ”She may believe that swimming away from the broad center of the Conservative electoral coalition, the one that wins elections, may make sense. History and demographics argue otherwise,” said Hugh Segal, who has known Leitch for more than 25 years. Segal is a former senator and chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Still, a November poll by showed Leitch led a Conservative race with 19 percent support, and separate data showed she led fundraising as well. The pool of candidates running has since swelled to 14, and more may join, including businessman and reality TV star Kevin O’Leary, who has also drawn comparisons to Trump. ”There is absolutely room for a populist surprise in Canada,” said pollster Frank Graves of EKOS Research. ”The type of forces driving Brexit and Trump are very much at work in Canada, albeit somewhat more muted.” ECONOMIC MALAISE In a year marked by movements in Europe and the United States, Leitch’s vault from relative obscurity to Conservative is in part boosted by media fascination with the parallels between her ”Canadian values” and Trump’s ”Make America great again.” Like Trump, Leitch has been accused of being racist and targeting Muslims with her proposal to make every immigrant go through a interview before letting them in. She denies those charges, and says her screening plan is aimed at ensuring each immigrant is a good fit for Canada. ”Even if my colleagues are concerned about the backlash of the media or other elites, that’s okay with me because I’m quite comfortable . .. I don’t view it as racist in any way,” said Leitch, a practicing Catholic from the traditionally conservative, province of Alberta. Trudeau was elected in October 2015 and promised to accept more Syrian refugees more quickly than the Conservatives, who had been in power for nearly 10 years. But his timeline proved too ambitious, and sparked public criticism that the government was too rushed to adequately screen refugees for security concerns. Amid dissatisfaction with the economy and other issues, Trudeau’s approval rating has fallen 10 percentage points to 55 percent in the last three months, according to a December Angus Reid poll, though he remained more popular than any recent prime minister. While much can change in the next three years before the general election, Graves, the pollster, said a Conservative victory is possible in part because Canada’s economic malaise has sparked the same kind of working class resentment that helped propel Trump to victory. Canada’s economy has been hurt by a slump in oil prices, weak business investment and disappointing exports. The economy contracted in October and the manufacturing sector logged its biggest decline in nearly three years. ”The reason Trump got his momentum is he was the only candidate who was prepared to talk about immigration,” said Martin Collacott, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, a Conservative and a former ambassador. ”If Kellie Leitch plays it right, and refines her message, she could probably get quite a bit of support.” (Reporting by Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Amran Abocar and Tiffany Wu) 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.

Judge orders psychiatric exam for South Carolina church shooter

A federal judge on Thursday ordered a psychiatric examination for Dylann Roof, days before he is to represent himself as prosecutors make the case that he should be executed for the June 2015 massacre at a Charleston, South Carolina, church. U. S. District Judge Richard Gergel said in an order he was requesting the evaluation and would hold a second competency hearing ”in an abundance of caution” after Roof’s standby lawyers filed a motion about his mental fitness to stand trial. The motion was sealed, but Gergel said defense lawyers stated it was spurred by facts developed since the judge found Roof competent after a hearing held in November ahead of the guilt phase of his trial. Defense lawyer David Bruck, who filed the motion, and the lead prosecutor did not comment on the latest developments in the case. Jurors on Dec. 15 found Roof, a avowed white supremacist, guilty of 33 counts of federal hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and firearms violations stemming from the shooting deaths of nine people attending a Bible study at a historic black church. U. S. prosecutors will ask the jury to sentence Roof to death during the penalty phase of the trial set to begin Tuesday. At a hearing on Wednesday, Roof told Gergel he would offer no evidence or witnesses in his defense. That revelation may have left his standby counsel feeling ethically bound to seek another competency hearing, said Christopher Adams, a criminal defense lawyer in Charleston who is not involved in the case. Roof’s lawyers were not permitted to present any mental health evidence when they represented him during the guilt phase, and Roof said he would serve as his own lawyer for the sentencing trial. ”The best evidence of the mental illness is that he refuses to let anyone know it when it could save his life,” Adams said in a phone interview. ”This crime wasn’t the product of a normal brain.” Roof will be evaluated at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston by a psychiatrist over the weekend, and a competency hearing is set for Monday, Gergel said in his order. The judge said he was considering closing the hearing to protect Roof’s right to a fair trial but so far saw no reason to delay the sentencing proceedings. (Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) 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.

U.S. imprisonment rate falls to lowest since 1997: Justice Department

The U. S. prison population fell the most in almost four decades to 1. 53 million inmates in 2015, resulting in the lowest rate of incarceration in a generation, the said on Thursday. The drop has been driven by changes in federal and state corrections policies that include drug treatment programs and the sentencing of fewer nonviolent drug offenders to federal prisons, the department said in its report on prison populations. Roughly one in 37 U. S. adults was under some form of correctional supervision at the end of 2015, the lowest rate since 1994. The number of federal and state inmates at the end of 2015 was down by 35, 500, or 2. 3 percent, from the year before, in the biggest drop since 1978, it said. At the end of last year, there were 458 prisoners sentenced to more than a year in state or federal prison for every 100, 000 U. S. residents. That number was the lowest since 1997, when it was 444, the report said. Forty percent of the decline in the U. S. prison population was among federal inmates, whose numbers fell more than 7 percent to 196, 500, marking a third straight year of declines. The Justice Department’s early release of about 6, 000 nonviolent drug offenders in late 2015 accounted for much of the federal drop. President Barack Obama also has shortened the sentences of 1, 176 federal inmates, including 153 last week. In state prisons, the number of inmates decreased by almost 2 percent to 1. 33 million from 2014 to 2015, and 29 states showed a drop in the number of their prisoners. With the drop last year, the number of state and federal inmates has declined about 6 percent since peaking in 2009 but is still well above the level of 300, 000 in 1978, the oldest data provided in the report. On an average day in 2015, an estimated 721, 300 inmates also were being held in city or county jails, where prisoners normally are housed ahead of trial. When people on probation or parole were added to the prison and jail populations, an estimated 6. 74 million people were under the supervision of U. S. adult correctional systems at the end of last year, the report said. (Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Steve Orlofsky) 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.

U.S. refiners face severe labor shortage for deferred maintenance

Fuel producers such as Marathon Petroleum Corp ( ) and Valero Energy Corp ( ) have delayed routine work in the past 24 months amid high margins. Those margins collapsed this year in a global fuel supply glut, providing an incentive for refiners to undertake the shutdowns necessary for maintenance. But refiners are now competing for pipe fitters and ironworkers with a host of energy projects, including Cheniere Energy’s ( ) liquefied natural gas export terminals and a new petrochemical unit for Dow Chemical ( ). Without undertaking the work they need, refineries run the risk of more unscheduled outages at plants. Plant shutdowns can disrupt fuel supplies and are closely tracked by oil traders because they directly affect demand for crude and supply of fuel. ”Putting off work definitely affects the safety of the refinery,” said Ed Lee, an independent refinery safety consultant who worked at Royal Dutch Shell ( ) for three decades. Refiners can mitigate the risks but at a cost, by slowing output or avoiding types of crude that are difficult to process, Less said. In recent months, a spate of unexpected outages have hit refineries nationwide, taking hundreds of thousands of barrels off the market and boosting gasoline prices and margins. U. S. refiners are expected to spend $1. 26 billion on planned maintenance next year, up 38 percent from this year and the highest level since at least 2010, according to Industrial Information Resources (IIR) which tracks labor supply for refiners and other industrial companies. Many will struggle to execute those plans, said Anthony Salemme, a vice president at IIR. ”Refiners are going to have trouble finding even the lowest skilled workers, such as scaffold builders, and you can’t do work at a refinery without a scaffold,” Salemme said. ”That’s going to complicate scheduling and even extend outages.” FEW WORKERS, MANY PROJECTS IIR estimates that the coastal region from Brownsville, Texas to New Orleans the largest U. S. refining region will be short roughly 37, 400 craftsman needed to complete all of the planned capital projects in 2017. ”We are definitely feeling the labor shortages in skilled craft labor,” said Paul Tooze, construction manager for the oil, gas and chemicals business at Bechtel, one of the world’s largest industrial contractors. Tooze said the company spends a lot of time and money to attract and retain employees, but still has to bring in workers from other regions to complete projects. That typically requires $ travel allowances that drive up project costs. Bechtel employs between 40 percent and 70 percent workers requiring daily allowances on their Gulf Coast projects, Tooze said. The shortage will be most acute in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the home to several refineries and petrochemical plants. There, South African energy firm Sasol ( ) is investing billions on a chemical project, and the call on labor for the plant is one of the reasons the area will be short more than 18, 000 workers in 2017, according to IIR. Sasol raised its cost estimate on the project in August by 25 percent to $11 billion, in part due to rising labor costs. Chevron Phillips — the joint venture between Chevron ( ) and Phillips 66 ( ) — is spending $6 billion on building a petrochemical units in Baytown and Old Ocean in Texas. Labor costs would drive the projects’ costs up 10 percent from previous expectations, Phillips 66 President Tim Taylor said in an earnings call earlier this month. Fluor ( ) one of the world’s largest industrial contractors, took a $154 million charge on the plant in November due to cost overruns, including labor. Earlier this year, Fluor opened a skilled craft training center in the Gulf Coast, stating that while the firm could not train its way out of the shortage, it hope to alleviate the problem. COMPETITION FROM MANUFACTURERS Refiners are also competing for workers with a broader range of power companies, pharmaceutical firms and industrial manufacturers nationwide, which are also preparing for a spike in maintenance projects in 2017, according to IIR. In the southwest region that includes Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas, IIR counted 952 planned projects among the various groups it tracks, the most since at least 2010 and a 24 percent increase from this year. A recent survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America found that 74 percent of Texas contractors are having trouble filling hourly craft worker positions, and a majority of them believed they would continue to struggle over the next year. More than 60 percent of the respondents said they bumped up salaries to attract more skilled craft workers. ”These shortages have the potential to undermine broader economic growth by forcing contractors to slow scheduled work or choose not to bid on projects, thereby inflating the cost of construction,” said Stephen Sandherr, head of the Associated General Contractors. (Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Simon Webb and Brian Thevenot) 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.

U.S. goods trade deficit widens; labor market near full strength

A drop in U. S. exports last month pushed the country’s trade deficit in goods higher while the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week in a positive sign for the labor market. The two reports released on Thursday suggested that when Donald Trump becomes America’s president next month, the labor market will likely be at roughly full strength and international trade could be weighing on the economy. In an initial estimate that does not include trade in services, the Commerce Department said the country exported $1. 2 billion less in November than in October. Imports rose by $2. 2 billion during the month. The full trade report for November is due on Jan. 6. ”It appears net trade will again be a drag” on economic growth in the fourth quarter, said Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays in New York. Further details in the report showed an increase in retail and wholesale inventories in November, which could provide a temporary boost to economic growth. Trump campaigned heavily on promises to reduce America’s trade deficit and bring back jobs that moved abroad to countries with lower costs for manufacturing. Working against him could be a stronger U. S. dollar which could weigh on U. S. exporters. The trade deficit for goods widened by $3. 4 billion in November to $65. 3 billion. The dollar has surged about 5 percent since Trump won the Nov. 8 presidential election as investors bet wider budget deficits under his presidency will trigger higher inflation and more interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve. On Thursday, the dollar weakened and stocks rose slightly in light trading. Separately, initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 10, 000 to a seasonally adjusted 265, 000 for the week ended Dec. 24, the Labor Department said. It was the 95th straight week that claims were below 300, 000, a threshold associated with a healthy labor market. That is the longest stretch since 1970, when the labor market was much smaller. The department said in a statement there were no special factors affecting claims last week although estimating the data can be more difficult around holiday periods. The department said the actual number of claims was estimated by government staff for 10 states. Claims for the prior week were unrevised. Labor market strength contributed to the Federal Reserve raising its benchmark overnight interest rate earlier this month by 25 basis points to a range of 0. 50 percent to 0. 75 percent. The U. S. central bank forecast three rate hikes in 2017. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast applications for jobless benefits falling to 264, 000 in the latest week. The claims report also showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid rose 63, 000 to 2. 10 million in the week ended Dec. 17, the highest since September. (Reporting by 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.

General Cable to pay more than $75 million to settle bribery charges: U.S.

General Cable Corp ( ) a wire manufacturer, agreed to pay more than $75 million to resolve allegations that it had bribed officials in Angola, Bangladesh and China, the U. S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday. The company admitted its executives knew outside agents bribed officials in order to win business, according to the agreement signed with the U. S. Justice Department. The company agreed to pay a $20 million penalty to settle the Justice Department’s bribery allegations. Separately, General Cable agreed to pay $6. 5 million to settle a related U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, the agency said in a statement. The company also agreed to surrender $51 million in profits it made from the schemes. The U. S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it a crime for companies to bribe overseas officials to win business. General Cable said in a statement that it had cooperated with U. S. authorities and voluntarily disclosed the issues. The Justice Department said it agreed to a more lenient penalty with General Cable because the company came forward and disclosed the misconduct to authorities. Over the past year, the Justice Department has encouraged companies to disclose bribery allegations by offering lighter penalties if they fully cooperate. General Cable “voluntarily this misconduct to the government, fully cooperated and remediated,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell. “This resolution demonstrates the very real upside to coming in and cooperating with federal prosecutors and investigators. ” (Reporting by Joel Schectman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe 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.

Ukraine hit by 6,500 hack attacks, sees Russian ’cyberwar’

Hackers have targeted Ukrainian state institutions about 6, 500 times in the past two months, including incidents that showed Russian security services were waging a cyberwar against the country, President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday. In December, Ukraine suffered attacks on its finance and defense ministries and the State Treasury that allocates cash to government institutions. A suspected hack also wiped out part of Kiev’s power grid, causing a blackout in part of the capital. ”Acts of terrorism and sabotage on critical infrastructure facilities remain possible today,” Poroshenko said during a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council, according to a statement released by Poroshenko’s office. The statement said the president stressed that ”the investigation of a number of incidents indicated the complicity directly or indirectly of Russian security services waging a cyberwar against our country”. Relations between Kiev and Moscow collapsed in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, where fighting continues despite a ceasefire agreement. Among the 6, 500 attacks Poroshenko said the country had been hit by, the attack on the State Treasury halted its systems for several days, meaning state workers and pensioners had been unable to receive their salaries or payments on time. Cyber security firm CrowdStrike said last week a hacking group linked to the Russian government likely used a malware implant on Android devices to track and target Ukrainian artillery units from late 2014 through 2016. Its findings are the latest to support a growing view among Western security officials and cyber security researchers that Russian President Vladimir Putin has increasingly relied on hacking to exert influence and attack geopolitical foes. Russia has repeatedly denied hacking accusations. Poroshenko’s comments come as the Obama administration plans to announce retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking into U. S. political institutions and individuals and leaking information in an effort to help Donald Trump win the presidency. Trump has dismissed the assessments of the U. S. intelligence community. In December 2015, Ukrainian regional power company Prykarpattyaoblenergo reported an outage, saying the area affected included the regional capital . Ukraine’s state security service blamed Russia. Experts widely described that incident as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack. The U. S. cyber firm iSight Partners identified the perpetrator as a Russian hacking group known as ”Sandworm”. As a result of the cyber attacks, Ukraine’s security council agreed measures to protect state institutions, the statement said. It did not disclose what the measures were. (Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Alison Williams) 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.

Battered Toshiba out of easy options to plug nuclear hole

Faced with the prospect of a writedown that could wipe out its shareholders’ equity, Japan’s Toshiba is running out of fixes: it is burning cash, cannot issue shares and has few easy assets left to sell. The conglomerate, which is still recovering from a $1. 3 billion accounting scandal in 2015, dismayed investors and lenders again this week by announcing that cost overruns at a U. S. nuclear business bought only last year meant it could now face a crippling charge against profit. Toshiba says it will be weeks before it can give a final number, but a writedown of the scale expected as much as 500 billion yen ($4. 3 billion) according to one source close to Toshiba would leave the group scrambling to plug the financial hole and keep up hefty investments in the competitive memory chip industry, which generates the bulk of its operating profit. Shareholder equity, which represents its accumulated reserves, stood at 363. 2 billion yen at the end of September, already just 7. 5 percent of total assets. Toshiba cannot raise cash by issuing shares because of restrictions imposed by the stock exchange after last year’s scandal. One source close to the matter said Toshiba had been considering a share issue of around 300 billion yen, but the imminent lifting of those restrictions are now unlikely. Private equity funding could be an option, but financial sources and investors said Toshiba would likely be forced to sell off more assets and stakes, months after having sold its two most easily marketable businesses: white goods and medical devices. ”Toshiba’s immediate problem is that it is burning cash at an alarming rate, and this will be more than challenging,” said Ken Courtis, chairman of Starfort Investment Holdings. ”I see little option but to sell a slew of assets.” Its PC and TV businesses would be poor candidates for sale, while its many are unlikely to fetch enough. ”Toshiba doesn’t have many saleable assets in hand,” Standard & Poor’s analyst Hiroki Shibata said after the ratings agency downgraded Toshiba. ”It has mostly sold assets which have big price tags or that could easily find buyers already. It would be difficult to secure big funds through asset sales.” One source in the semiconductor industry said Toshiba could revive plans to list a slice of the memory chip business, which though highly profitable burns through cash for reinvestment. ”Toshiba will probably need to sell percent of the NAND business in an IPO to secure enough cash,” the source said, adding China’s aggressive drive into NAND flash memory chips could make the timing reasonable. The group has already said it could reconsider the ”positioning” of its nuclear business, deemed core last year, and has signaled it could trim an 87 percent stake. Toshiba has said it will consider a capital strategy, but has given no details. CASH GAP For now, creditor banks are expected to step into the liquidity breach, betting on Toshiba’s growing chips business though they were blindsided by the news and expressed concerns over continued governance and disclosure issues. Some bankers had been on a factory tour with Toshiba on the day before the announcement, two of the banking sources said. They were told about the writedown that night. Two days later, Toshiba’s top executives, including Chief Executive Satoshi Tsunakawa, were asking for help. ”We really need a proper explanation of how, and to what extent, President Tsunakawa came to know of this,” said an executive at one of Toshiba’s regular bankers. ”It just defies common sense that this would come out only now about a deal done a year ago.” Just last month, Toshiba raised its annual profit forecast, thanks to strong demand for its NAND flash memory chips. Bankers and analysts said the latest shock should at least push Toshiba to resolve headaches like its poor disclosure and governance, and could force it to offload some . One Toshiba shareholder estimated that the book value of all its would be about $3. 2 billion, and it could get more than that based on past experience. Sale options would include its roughly 50 percent stakes in Toshiba Plant Systems and Services and Toshiba Tec (6588. T) both worth around $670 million at current market prices, according to Thomson Reuters data. ”If the company wants to survive, it needs to go through a ’ ’ process,” said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. ”Right now, even if banks are assisting, it’s like they are throwing their money down the drain.” (Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Taro Fuse, Kentaro Hamada, Emi Emoto and Ayai Tomisawa in TOKYO; Additional reporting by Umesh Desai and Michelle Price in HONG KONG; Writing by Clara Ferreira Marques; Editing by Will Waterman) 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.

Peabody extends debt deadline amid creditor support

Peabody Energy Corp said on Thursday it extended a deadline for creditors to join financing deals aimed at bringing the largest U. S. coal miner out of bankruptcy amid growing creditor support for its plan of reorganization. Last week, Peabody unveiled its plan to eliminate more than $5 billion of debt and raise capital from creditors with a $750 million private placement and a $750 million rights offering. The financing agreements were funded by key creditors that signed on to a plan support agreement with Peabody, although a portion of those deals were reserved for other noteholders if they agreed to back Peabody’s plan by Wednesday. Peabody said in a statement the deadline was extended to Friday for Peabody noteholders to join the financing deals, which offer an opportunity to receive financial incentives. Peabody said a judge on Wednesday extended the deadline to Jan. 6 for a group of large investors holding about $444 million of the company’s securities who had filed a lawsuit to halt the financing process. The investors, Appaloosa Management, Latigo Partners, Capital Ventures International and Venor Capital Management, said they needed more time to review the financing plans Peabody unveiled last week. The coal industry has been recovering from the weak prices that pushed three of the four largest U. S. coal producers into bankruptcy over the past two years. Peabody this month took advantage of rising coal prices to seek court approval to repay a $500 million term loan ahead of schedule. Peabody said on Thursday it has growing support for its plan, with holders of 65 percent of its notes and 65 percent of its unsecured notes signing on to the financing deals and plan support agreement. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) 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 .

South Korea court issues arrest warrant for pension chief in corruption scandal

A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant on Saturday for the head of the national pension fund, the world’s third largest, in a corruption scandal that has led to President Park ’s impeachment, an official said. A special prosecutor probing the scandal has sought the arrest of the National Pension Service (NPS) Chairman Moon on charges of abuse of power and perjury. The Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant saying evidence supported the charges against Moon, an official at the court said, but did not provide further details. The special prosecutor’s office said on Thursday Moon had acknowledged that he had pressured the fund to approve an $8 billion merger between two Samsung Group units last year while he was Health and Welfare Minister. He denied during a parliamentary hearing in November that he had exerted pressure on the NPS, which is run by the ministry, to back the merger. His lawyer in a court hearing on Friday about the warrant again denied Moon had presured the NPS, local media reported. The merger last year of Samsung Group [SAGR. UL] affiliates Cheil Industries Inc and Samsung C&T Corp has become central to the investigation of the scandal that led parliament to vote this month to impeach Park. The merger has been criticized by some investors for strengthening the founding family’s control of Samsung Group, South Korea’s largest ”chaebol” or conglomerate, at the expense of other shareholders. The NPS, which had 545 trillion won ($451. 78 billion) under management at the end of September and was a major shareholder in the two Samsung affiliates, voted in favor of the merger without calling in an external committee that sometimes advises it on difficult votes. The special prosecutor’s office is probing whether Samsung’s support for a business and foundations backed by the president’s friend, Choi at the center of the corruption scandal, may have been connected to the NPS support for the merger. Park, 64, is accused of colluding with Choi to pressure big businesses to make contributions to foundations backing presidential initiatives. She has denied wrongdoing but apologized for carelessness in her ties with Choi, a friend for four decades, who has also denied wrongdoing. Choi is in detention while on trial. Park’s impeachment is being reviewed by the Constitutional Court, which has 180 days from the Dec. 9 parliament impeachment vote, to uphold or overturn it and reinstate the leader. A large crowd gathered in central Seoul for a 10th consecutive weekend rally to demand that Park step down immediately. They listened to speeches and music ahead of a march towards the presidential Blue House. (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Gareth Jones) 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.

Brazil says Greek ambassador murdered by wife’s policeman lover

A Rio de Janeiro policeman confessed to murdering Greece’s ambassador to Brazil in what investigators on Friday called a ”cowardly act” carried out at the direction of the diplomat’s Brazilian wife with whom the officer was romantically involved. Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was missing since Monday night. Françoise, his Brazilian wife and the mother of their daughter, reported him missing to police on Wednesday. Officer Sergio Moreira, 29, confessed to police on Friday that he killed the ambassador late Monday night in the Rio de Janeiro home the Amiridises owned in Nova Iguaçu, a hardscrabble neighborhood in the city’s sprawling, violent northern outskirts. Investigator Evaristo Magalhaes told reporters that Françoise, 40, and Moreira had arranged the murder a few days in advance. Both Amiridis’ wife and the officer are in custody. Police have also detained a cousin of the officer, who Magalhaes said acted as a lookout while the crime was committed and helped carry the body from the house with the promise that he would be paid 80, 000 reais ($25, 000). ”This was a tragic, cowardly act, but we worked tirelessly to crack this case as soon as possible,” Magalhaes told a news conference. ”It was a crime of passion.” Brazilian President Michel Temer, in a letter addressed to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, said the ambassador’s killing had caused him profound sadness and he extended his condolences to the ambassador’s family, friends and the Greek people. The Greek embassy in Brasilia declined to comment. In Athens, Greek foreign ministry spokesman Stratos Efthymiou said the government also had no comment. Amiridis served as Greece’s consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004. He was Greece’s ambassador to Libya from 2012 until he took the top Brazil post at the beginning of 2016. BLOOD ON COUCH Magalhaes said that blood was found on a couch inside the home and the ambassador was likely stabbed to death as no shots were reported in the area. However, he said it was not yet possible to determine the exact cause of death because the policeman had burned the ambassador’s body in an attempt to cover up the crime. A burned corpse was found on Thursday evening inside the car that Amiridis and his wife had rented. It was parked under a highway overpass in the area where the couple had been staying. On Thursday, police confirmed that the ambassador had been missing since Monday night, when he was last seen leaving the Rio home he shared with his wife, which was located near her family’s residence in Nova Iguacu. The incident is another blow to Rio’s image, just four months after it hosted the Summer Olympics. Crime in Rio has been rising and the state is deeply indebted, often unable to pay police and other salaries on time, if at all. The neighborhood where the car was found is dominated by powerful and politically connected armed groups comprised mostly of or retired police and firefighters who control vast areas. They often extort residents in exchange for keeping drug gangs from taking over the areas. The armed groups have grown for several years and often curry favor with local politicians by promising to deliver votes from entire neighborhoods as long as authorities allow them to carry out their crimes. ($1 = 3. 2532 reais) (Additional reporting by Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo and George Georgiopoulos in Athens; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Mary Milliken) 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.

Singapore blogger seeking U.S. asylum regrets posts in home country

A Singaporean blogger who is seeking political asylum in the United States said on Friday he regretted inflammatory posts that landed him in jail twice in his home country. Amos Yee, 18, who is currently detained in Illinois, told Reuters that videos he filmed insulting Singapore’s late prime minister and various religions were in bad taste. ”I told you, it is hate speech, it is overly rude, it isn’t good activism,” Yee said by telephone from the McHenry County Adult Correctional Facility in Illinois. ”I completely regret making those videos.” Yee’s posts, and subsequent trials and convictions in Singapore, have stirred debate in the conservative over censorship and free speech. His trials were watched closely by rights groups as well as the United Nations. Last year, Yee was convicted on charges of harassment and insulting a religious group over comments he made about former Singaporean Premier Lee Kuan Yew and Christians soon after Lee’s death. His sentence amounted to four weeks in jail. In September, Yee was sentenced to six weeks in jail after pleading guilty to posting comments on the internet critical of Christianity and Islam. Yee arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Dec. 16 and told U. S. Customs officials he was seeking political asylum. The blogger said that he wanted to live in Illinois and has no plans to return to Singapore, a Southeast Asian that has compulsory military service for males, which Yee said he would not take part in. Yee should have his first hearing in front of a judge within two weeks, according to his attorney, Sandra Grossman. Yee has had no contact with the Singaporean government since arriving, he said. While highly critical of actions of the U. S. government abroad, particularly drone strikes in the Middle East, Yee said the country provided the best platform for spreading his political message of anarchist communism and ending private property and wage labor. “It is not going to the best country. This is about going to the country that most effectively promotes my political philosophy of anarchical communism,” Yee said. (Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) 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 announces U.S. itinerary for president, upsetting China

Taiwan President Tsai will transit through Houston and San Francisco during a January visit to allies in Latin America, her office said Friday, prompting China to repeat a call for the United States to block any such stopover. Tsai’s office declined to comment on whether she would be meeting members of U. S. Donald Trump’s team, but the U. S. mission in Taiwan, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said the visit would be ”private and unofficial”. Trump angered China when he spoke to Tsai this month in a break with decades of precedent and cast doubt on his incoming administration’s commitment to Beijing’s ”one China” policy. An adviser to Trump’s transition team said he thought ”further engagement for the foreseeable future is unlikely” when asked if any meetings were planned. The adviser did not want to be identified by name. China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a island that Beijing regards as a renegade province, ineligible for relations. China’s Foreign Ministry repeated a previous call for the United States not to allow the transit and not send any ”wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces”. ”We think everyone is very clear on her real intentions,” the ministry said, without explaining. The United States, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, has acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only ”one China” and that Taiwan is part of it. Tsai is transiting through the United States on her way to and from visiting Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. She will leave Taiwan on Jan. 7 and return on Jan. 15. Tsai will arrive in Houston on Jan. 7 and leave the following day. On her return, she will arrive in San Francisco on Jan. 13, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang told a regular news briefing. The AIT said the transit did not contradict the ”one China” policy. ”President Tsai’s transit through the United States is based on U. S. practice and is consistent with the unofficial nature of our relations with Taiwan,” Alys Spensley, acting AIT spokeswoman, told Reuters. ”There is no change to the U. S. ’one China’ policy,” she added. Spensley said Tsai’s transits would be ”private and unofficial”. The U. S. State Department said AIT chairman Ambassador James Moriarty would greet Tsai in Houston and San Francisco. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communist forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang ’s Nationalists fled to the island. Speaking to members of China’s largely ceremonial advisory body to parliament on Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said next year China would make ”unremitting efforts” at unification and developing peaceful relations across the Taiwan Strait, state news agency Xinhua said. Taiwan had as many as 30 diplomatic allies in the but now has formal relations with 21, mostly smaller and poorer nations in Latin America and the Pacific and also including the Vatican. (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie 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.

Panama sees no change in Taiwan, China ties despite Trump

Panama does not expect any change in its relations with Taiwan or China, a senior official from the isthmus nation said on Friday, despite increased pressure from Beijing on Taiwan’s allies to sever ties. Taiwanese President Tsai will visit Latin America next month, against a tense backdrop after news of her phone call with U. S. Donald Trump angered China earlier this month. Panama is one of Taiwan’s oldest friends but some diplomats in Beijing have said the Central American country could become the next nation to break ties. ”Relations with Taiwan are good, in excellent condition as always,” Panama’s Deputy Foreign Minister Luis Miguel Hincapie said in an interview. ”They’ve been a cooperative partner of Panama for many years, and will continue to be so.” Tsai will not visit Panama on her trip, which will encompass Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. Hincapie also stressed that the country’s relationship with China was ”excellent,” and did not comment on whether there had been any pressure from China to break with Taiwan. ”China is an investor in Panama, a user of the canal, a very important user of the canal,” the minister said. Asked about what impact Trump’s support for Taiwan could have on Panama, Hincapie said: ”We have relations with Taiwan, the United States does not . .. so it’s an issue for the United States.” Tsai will transit through the United States on the trip, her office said on Friday, prompting China to repeat a call for U. S. authorities to block any such stopover. Since the almost a third of Taiwan’s allies have broken ties. It now has formal relations with just 21, mostly smaller and poorer nations in Latin America and the Pacific. (Additional reporting by J. R. Wu in Taipei; Writing by Christine Murray; Editing by Sandra Maler) 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.

Iraqi forces face fierce Islamic State combat in south Mosul

Iraqi forces faced fierce resistance from Islamic State militants in southern Mosul on Friday, the second day of a renewed push to take back the city after fighting stalled for several weeks. An officer in the federal police forces, which joined the battle on Thursday, said there were heavy clashes in the southeastern Palestine district, but they had made progress in two other neighborhoods, disabling a number of car bombs. Another officer, from an elite Interior Ministry unit fighting alongside federal police, said his forces were gaining ground in the Intisar district despite heavy clashes there. Iraqi forces in the east and north of the city were clearing areas they had recaptured on Thursday before advancing any further, officers said, and the army was trying to cut supply lines to the town of Tel Keyf, north of Mosul. Since the offensive began 10 weeks ago, U. S. forces have retaken a quarter of the jihadists’ last major stronghold in Iraq in the biggest ground operation there since the 2003 U. S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Recapturing Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic State’s caliphate, and Prime Minister Haider has said the group would be driven out of Iraq by April. Elite forces pushed into Mosul from the east in October but regular army troops tasked with advancing from the north and south made slower progress and the operation stagnated. After regrouping this month, they renewed the offensive on Thursday, advancing from the south, east and north of the city, which has been under militant control for more than two years. The second phase of the operation will see U. S. troops deployed closer to the front line inside the city. On Friday, a Reuters reporter saw a handful of Americans in their MRAP vehicles, that tower over Iraqi tanks, accompanying top commanders to meetings in a village just north of Mosul. Although the militants are vastly outnumbered, they have embedded themselves among Mosul residents, hindering Iraqi forces who are trying to avoid civilian casualties. Despite food and water shortages, most civilians have stayed in their homes rather than fleeing as had been expected. A civilian in the southeastern Wahda district, which is still under Islamic State control, said helicopters were visible overhead firing at Islamic State targets on the ground. ”One of them targeted a car carrying a rocket launching pad from which Daesh (Islamic State) was targeting counterterrorism positions in liberated areas,” he said over the phone. NORTHERN FRONT On the northern front, Iraqi forces have yet to enter Mosul itself but on Friday they were clearing areas on its periphery as well as trying to cut off Tel Keyf. ”The enemy had occupied this area and used it for resting and resupplying toward Tel Keyf and Mosul,” Major General Najm a top commander in the offensive told Reuters in the northern district of Sada, which was recaptured on Thursday. ”It (Tel Keyf) is surrounded from the other sides and by our forces here,” he said. Jubbouri said the U. S. coalition backing Iraqi forces had killed 70 militants since late on Thursday and were using Apache helicopters, HIMARS rocket launchers and fighter jets. Mosul is bisected by the Tigris river, and Iraqi forces have yet to enter the western side, where markets and narrow alleyways are likely to complicate any advance. Coalition forces bombed the last remaining bridge connecting east and west Mosul late on Monday in a bid to block Islamic State’s access across the Tigris River. A medical source in Mosul told Reuters a large number of wounded militants had been ferried across the river to the emergency hospital on the western side of city on Thursday. The source said the militants were denying wounded and sick civilians access to the hospital. More than 114, 000 civilians have been displaced from Mosul so far, according to the United Nations a fraction of the 1. 5 million thought to still be inside. (Additional reporting by Saif Hameed; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Louise Ireland) 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.

Merkel says Islamist terrorism is biggest test for Germany

Islamist terrorism is the biggest test facing Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday in a New Year’s address to the nation, and vowed to introduce laws that improve security after a deadly attack before Christmas in Berlin. Merkel, seeking a fourth term as chancellor in 2017, described 2016 as a year that gave many the impression that the world had ”turned upside down”. She urged Germans to shun populism and said Germany should take a leading role in addressing the many challenges facing the European Union. ”Many attach to 2016 the feeling that the world had turned upside down or that what for long had been held as an achievement is now being questioned. The European Union for example,” Merkel said. ”Or equally parliamentary democracy, which allegedly is not caring for the interests of the citizens but is only serving the interests of a few. What a distortion,” she said in a veiled reference to claims by the party Alternative for Germany (AfD) that is stealing votes from her conservatives. Ahead of the 2017 election, polls put her conservative bloc well ahead of rivals but a fractured electoral landscape risks complicating the coalition arithmetic. ”Election year 2017: For Merkel, nothing is certain any more” ran a headline in Saturday’s edition of daily Bild. The paper wrote that for an increasing number of voters the chancellor, 62, no longer appeared unassailable. ANCHOR OF STABILITY Liberals across the Atlantic have hailed Merkel as an anchor of stability and reason in a year that saw Donald Trump elected as U. S. president, Britain vote to leave the EU and U. relations deteriorate to Cold War levels. In her address, Merkel compared Brexit to a ”deep incision” and said that even though the EU was ”slow and arduous” its member states should focus on common interests that transcend national benefits. ”And, yes, Europe should focus on what can really be better than the national state,” Merkel said. ”But we Germans should never be led to believe that each could have a better future by going it alone.” She was alluding again to the populist AfD, which wants Germany to leave the EU and shut its borders to asylum seekers, more than one million of whom arrived in the country this year and last. The record number of migrants has hurt Merkel’s popularity and fueled support for the AfD, which says Islam is incompatible with the German constitution. But her conservatives are still expected to win the general election in nine months. Merkel has made security the main election platform for her Christian Democrats (CDU). In her speech, she said the government would introduce measures to improve security after a failed Tunisian asylum seeker drove a truck into a Christmas market in the capital on Dec. 19, killing 12 people in the name of Islamic State. He was shot dead by Italian police in Milan on Dec. 23 and investigators are trying to determine whether he had accomplices. (Additional reporting by Paul Carrel, Editing by Stephen Powell) 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.

Congo deal reached for Kabila to step down after 2017 elections

Congolese President Joseph Kabila will step down after elections to be held by the end of 2017 under a deal struck by political parties on Friday, the lead mediator of the talks said. Negotiators spent weeks in tense talks seeking to ensure Democratic Republic of Congo’s first peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1960. But it remains unclear if elections can be organized by the end of next year, or if leading politicians, including Kabila, will keep to the terms. ”The government is asked to take all steps so that the elections are organized by the end of 2017 at the latest,” said Marcel Utembi, president of Congo’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which has mediated the talks. Under the deal, which is expected to be formally signed on Saturday, Kabila will be unable to change the constitution to allow him to stay in power for a third term. Kabila’s mandate ran out on Dec. 19, but authorities have effectively extended it until 2018 because the government said it could not arrange elections before then. The parties agreed that Kabila will appoint a prime minister from the country’s main opposition bloc to oversee the transition, a major sticking point in the final stages of the talks. Neither Kabila nor the country’s leading opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, are expected to sign the deal, raising concerns about whether it will be respected. Spokesmen for the government and Kabila’s ruling coalition were not available for immediate comment. Election experts also question the feasibility of organizing presidential, legislative and provincial assembly elections together by the end of 2017. ”If the accord calls for organizing the three elections together, it (shows) a common will to not organize good elections, or at least to not organize them within the planned time frame,” Sylvain Lumu, a lawyer and election expert, told Reuters shortly before Utembi’s announcement. Kabila’s extension of his rule has sparked bloody confrontations. Security forces killed around 40 people last week protesting over the tenure of a leader who came to power in 2001 following his father Laurent’s assassination. Western and African powers feared the current impasse could lead to a repeat of conflicts seen between 1996 and 2003 in eastern Congo in which millions died, mostly from starvation and disease. A successful deal, however, is seen offering a boost to activists in other African countries and help buck a trend in which presidents have changed constitutions to stand for third terms. (Editing by Edward McAllister and Jason Neely) 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.

Factbox: U.S. stock market performance in 2016

U. S. stocks saw solid gains in 2016, buoyed by a rally that fueled the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its best performance since 2013 and while the S&P 500 fell just short of a return. Below is a list of major indexes, sectors, and the S&P’s best and worst performers for the year. Index RIC YTD Pct change S&P 500 +9. 5 Dow Jones +13. 4 Industrial Average Nasdaq Composite +7. 5 Russell 2000 +19. 5 S&P Smallcap 600 . SPCY +24. 7 S&P Midcap 400 . IDX +18. 7 Dow Jones . DJT +20. 4 Transportation Average MSCI . MIWD00000PUS +5. 6 Index S&P sector RIC YTD pct change Energy . SPNY +23. 7 Financial . SPSY +20. 1 Telecom . SPLRCL +17. 8 Industrials . SPLRCI +16. 1 Materials . SPLRCM +14. 1 Utilities . SPLRCU +12. 2 Technology . SPLRCT +12. 0 Consumer . SPLRCD +4. 3 Discretionary Consumer Staples . SPLRCS +2. 6 Real Estate . SPLRCR +0. 01 Healthcare . SPXHC .4 Best S&P Performers RIC YTD Pct change Nvidia ( ) +223. 8 ONEOK Inc ( ) +132. 8 ( ) +94. 8 Newmont Mining ( ) +89. 4 Applied Materials ( ) +72. 8 Worst S&P RIC YTD Pct change Performers Endo Int’l ( ) .1 First Solar ( ) .4 TripAdvisor ( ) .6 Perrigo Co ( ) .5 Vertex ( ) .5 Pharmaceuticals Dow 30 RIC YTD Pct change Caterpillar ( ) +36. 5 UnitedHealth Group ( ) +36. 0 Goldman Sachs ( ) +32. 9 Chevron ( ) +30. 8 JPMorgan Chase ( ) +30. 7 IBM ( ) +20. 6 3M Co ( ) +18. 5 Exxon Mobil ( ) +15. 8 Verizon ( ) +15. 5 Communications United Technologies ( ) +14. 1 Stores ( ) +12. 8 Johnson & Johnson ( ) +12. 2 Microsoft ( ) +12. 0 Merck & Co ( ) +11. 5 Cisco Systems ( ) +11. 3 DuPont Co ( ) +10. 2 Apple Inc ( ) +10. 0 Travelers Cos ( ) +8. 5 Boeing Co ( ) +7. 7 American Express ( ) +6. 5 Procter & Gamble ( ) +5. 9 Intel Corp ( ) +5. 3 McDonald’s Corp ( ) +3. 0 General Electric ( ) +1. 4 Home Depot ( ) +1. 4 Pfizer Inc ( ) +0. 6 Visa Inc ( ) +0. 6 Walt Disney Co ( ) .8 Co ( ) .5 Nike Inc ( ) .7 (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Richard Chang) 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.

Dollar, stocks log yearly gains, oil the biggest winner

The dollar, oil and U. S. stocks slipped on Friday in thin trading on the last trading day of 2016, but ended the session with sizable gains for the year. The dollar logged its fourth straight year of gains against a basket of major currencies, while oil prices notched up their biggest annual gain since 2009. Global markets have fared surprisingly well in a year marked by major political shocks, including June’s vote for Britain to leave the European Union and the unexpected election of Donald Trump as U. S. president in November. MSCI’s world index . MIWD00000PUS, which tracks shares in 46 countries, rose 5. 6 percent for the year, its best performance in three years. On Friday, the index retreated 0. 04 percent as weakness on Wall Street ate into earlier gains in Asia and Europe. U. S. shares slipped, dragged down by Apple Inc ( ) and other big tech stocks, and the S&P 500 ended lower for the third straight session. ”It’s been such a significant that there’s been a pause,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 57. 18 points, or 0. 29 percent, to end at 19, 762. 6, the S&P 500 lost 10. 43 points, or 0. 46 percent, to close at 2, 238. 83 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 48. 97 points, or 0. 9 percent, to finish at 5, 383. 12. The STOXX 600 index ended the session up 0. 3 percent. For the year, the index finished down 1. 2 percent, its first annual loss in five years. The dollar index . DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, gained about 3. 7 percent for the year, even as the euro briefly climbed nearly two full cents in overnight trading to $1. 0651, its highest since Dec. 14. The dollar has rallied hard since the Nov. 8 U. S. presidential election on expectations that Donald Trump’s plan to boost fiscal stimulus would benefit the currency. A faster projected pace of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve next year also helped the rally. Still, doubts linger about how much dollar appreciation a Trump White House will tolerate. ”Much depends on how the Trump presidency and the Chinese economy work out,” said Marshall Gittler, chief market analyst for retail broker FX Primus. Oil prices settled little changed on Friday but attained their biggest annual gain in seven years after OPEC and other major producers agreed to cut output to reduce a global supply overhang that has depressed prices for two years. Brent rose 52 percent this year and WTI climbed around 45 percent. On Friday, Brent crude LCOc1 settled down 3 cents, or 0. 05 percent, at $56. 82 a barrel, and U. S. crude CLc1 settled down 5 cents, or 0. 09 percent, at $53. 72. U. S. Treasury debt yields closed lower in a shortened session, falling for a third straight day to end a weak fourth quarter with a modest consolidation and round out a year of surprises. Treasury bonds were the worst performing asset this year by a wide margin, vastly underperforming both U. S. investment grade and corporate bonds and federally backed mortgage securities. The during the year’s final quarter was due largely to Trump’s election victory, analysts said, and the expectation of looser fiscal policy and rising interest rates based on his campaign promises of increased infrastructure spending and tax cuts. Benchmark Treasury notes US10YT=RR rose in price to yield 2. 446 percent. Precious metals had a strong year, with gold XAU= rising 8. 5 percent, snapping a three year losing streak. Palladium XPD= was the best performer, up more than 21 percent in 2016. (Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Additional reporting by Sam Forgione and Lewis Krauskopf; 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.

U.S. dollar posts 2016 gain on Trump victory, Fed forecasts

The U. S. dollar slipped on Friday but notched its fourth straight year of gains against a basket of major currencies. The dollar index . DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, gained about 3. 7 percent for the year. The index rose about 7. 1 percent during the fourth quarter, more than half that gain coming since the Nov. 8 U. S. presidential election on expectations that U. S. Donald Trump’s plan to boost fiscal stimulus would benefit the currency. A faster projected pace of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve next year also contributed. Several analysts have said the dollar’s uptrend remains intact next year, but noted the risk of dollar weakness given doubts surrounding how much dollar appreciation a Trump White House will tolerate. ”Much depends on how the Trump presidency and the Chinese economy work out,” said Marshall Gittler, chief market analyst for retail broker FX Primus. For the day, the dollar index was last off 0. 38 percent at 102. 290, down from a high of 103. 65 hit on Dec. 20, and was up 0. 18 percent against the yen at 116. 74 yen . The greenback was still set to post its first yearly loss in five against the Japanese currency, of about 2. 9 percent. Sterling, which fell roughly 16. 2 percent against the dollar to mark its worst year since 2008 on worries over Britain’s June 24 ”Brexit” vote to leave the European Union, was last up 0. 62 percent at $1. 2340. Sterling bore the brunt of concerns this year over Britain’s trade policy with Europe which flared up following the Brexit vote, said Jason Leinwand, founder and chief executive of FirstLine FX in Randolph, New Jersey. The euro was up 0. 39 percent against the dollar at $1. 0529, but was set to fall 3 percent for the year to notch its third straight yearly loss. The dollar posted sizable gains this year against the Mexican peso and the Chinese yuan of 20. 6 percent and 7 percent, respectively. [nL4N1EP2AM] The peso suffered from Trump’s proposals to build a border wall and rewrite trade agreements with Mexico, while the yuan has been pressured by worries about slowing Chinese economic growth. For more on the dollar’s performance in the fourth quarter and 2016, click: [nL1N1EP0Z0] (Reporting by Sam Forgione; Additional reporting by Patrick Graham in London; Editing by David Gregorio) 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.

Speculators raise net long dollar bets in final week of 2016

Net long bets on the dollar fell last week for the first time since October, but rebounded as currency speculators again took bullish positions on the future of the greenback in the last trading week of the year. Analysts told Reuters they expect the dollar’s strength to continue in 2017 with the greenback set to end this year up more than 3. 5 percent against a basket of major currencies. However, a good deal of uncertainty remained about what the incoming administration of Donald Trump will bring and how much dollar appreciation it will tolerate. ”Much depends on how the Trump presidency and the Chinese economy work out,” said Marshall Gittler, chief market analyst for retail broker FX Primus. ”In general, I expect the dollar to continue to gain.” Speculators also raised net short contracts on the Japanese yen for the ninth straight week to 87, 009 contracts, the most since August 2015. Net short contracts on the euro were reduced substantially, with speculators holding the lowest number of net shorts on the continental currency since July. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U. S. dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars. Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12, 500, 000 yen) $9. 265 billion 27 Dec 2016 Prior week week Long 40, 565 64, 200 Short 127, 574 139, 649 Net 009 449 EURO (Contracts of 125, 000 euros) $9. 071 billion 27 Dec 2016 Prior week week Long 123, 281 117, 460 Short 192, 689 195, 505 Net 408 045 POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62, 500 pounds sterling) $4. 379 billion 27 Dec 2016 Prior week week Long 50, 062 44, 152 Short 107, 161 103, 502 Net 099 350 SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125, 000 Swiss francs) $1. 228 billion 27 Dec 2016 Prior week week Long 14, 303 33, 476 Short 24, 394 26, 366 Net 091 7, 110 CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100, 000 Canadian dollars) $0. 118 billion 27 Dec 2016 Prior week week Long 36, 597 22, 246 Short 38, 195 34, 000 Net 598 754 AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100, 000 Aussie dollars) $0. 108 billion 27 Dec 2016 Prior week week Long 44, 076 38, 321 Short 45, 586 34, 380 Net 510 3, 941 MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500, 000 pesos) $1. 486 billion 27 Dec 2016 Prior week week Long 21, 411 20, 806 Short 83, 068 87, 487 Net 657 681 NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100, 000 New Zealand dollars) $0. 758 billion 27 Dec 2016 Prior week week Long 25, 448 28, 313 Short 36, 449 35, 266 Net 001 953 (Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and David Gregorio) 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.

Wall St. thinks stocks will rise in 2017 - What could go wrong?

Wall Street’s rally could be derailed by renewed worries about Donald Trump’s policies, a resurgent dollar or potential events like cyber attacks or a trade war, investors say as they look to 2017. Stocks are at record highs on optimism Trump will boost the economy, and strategists in a recent Reuters poll expect more gains next year. But they also worry about what could derail the market as a surprising 2016 wraps up and an uncertain 2017 awaits. Here are some potential roadblocks to more gains: TRUMP FALLS SHORT Many strategists’ top worry is that Trump’s efforts to boost the U. S. economy will be diluted or delayed by a Congress reluctant to widen the budget deficit. Trump’s promises to ease regulations, cut taxes and boost infrastructure spending have spurred sharp gains in shares of banks, health care and companies. ”As bold as people think these policy changes are going to be, maybe they get watered down,” warned Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management in Princeton, New Jersey. TRUMP AND TRADE Underscoring investor worries about Trump’s threats to renegotiate trade deals, retail shares fell 3. 5 percent on Dec. 22 on reports he is considering import tariffs as high as 10 percent. A day earlier, Trump named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line on trade with China, to head a newly formed White House National Trade Council. Tariffs on goods from countries like China and Mexico would bump up costs on imported goods for U. S. consumers. THE DOLLAR CRIMPS EARNINGS Further strength in the dollar, which has gained nearly 5 percent since the election, could hobble sales of U. S. multinationals. ”Companies are saying, ’You know, we’ve got this higher dollar that’s making our business overseas a little more difficult,” Doll said. A U. S. profit recession has just ended, but earnings growth needs to pick up or stocks will get too expensive. The S&P 500 is now trading at nearly 18 times forward earnings versus a average of about 15, Thomson Reuters data shows. THE FED GETS REALLY AGGRESSIVE Stocks racked up big losses earlier in December after the Fed signaled three rate hikes are likely in 2017. While a stronger economy boosts stocks, higher rates can hit spending. ”One risk would be the Fed being a little overzealous and maybe bringing rates up quicker than what makes sense,” said Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta, Georgia. POPULISTS DEAL TO EU candidates are on strong footings ahead of spring elections in the Netherlands and France, and victories for them could strike a critical blow to a European Union already weakened by Britain’s vote to leave. Ahead of the Netherlands election in March, surveys point to strong gains for the Freedom Party. In France, National Front leader Marine Le Pen’s popularity recently reached 27 percent ahead of a May election. ”There is still an overwhelming lack of recognition of the power of populist movements,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network. TOO HAPPY FOR THEIR OWN GOOD? Stocks are closing the year amid some of the highest readings of bullish sentiment in nearly two years, and that can mean tough sledding ahead. Citigroup’s U. S. equity strategy team’s Model shows that when investors are euphoric, stock prices are lower 12 months later more than 70 percent of the time, with a median decline of 12. 6 percent. Citi’s model is not yet in euphoria territory, but it has shot much higher since the election. Meanwhile, the American Association of Individual Investors’ final weekly sentiment survey of 2016, which is a component of the Citi model, showed investor bullishness holding near its highest level since January 2015. By contrast, about a year ago bearish sentiment was prevalent as commodity prices dived and China’s market gyrations roiled investors around the world. U. S. stocks had their worst start to a year ever, but 12 months later the S&P has delivered a 12. 5 percent total return. EXCESSIVE LEVERAGE U. S. stocks are owned with a level of borrowed funds, often the quickest money to leave at the earliest signs of weakness. Data from the New York Stock Exchange showed debt balances in margin accounts at the end of November stood at $500. 4 billion, just 1. 3 percent below the record level of $507. 2 billion in April 2015. It has risen by nearly 15 percent from February’s trough. After each of the last three major peaks in margin debt balances March 2000, July 2007 and April 2015 the market was lower a year later. CHINA’S CURRENCY KEEPS FALLING Chinese policymakers are wrestling with growing debt and property bubbles, while the yuan currency is near lows. Last year, fears of crisis in China’s financial markets sparked a global . As well as threatening to impose tariffs on China, Trump could formally label Beijing a currency manipulator. ”There is a chance for politics and economics and finance to intersect in a potentially disruptive way,” said Commonwealth Financial’s McMillan. CYBERATTACKS Allegations of hacking by Russia ahead of the presidential election, along with breaches at Yahoo YHOO. O, have heightened fears among investors of future, attacks that could harm the economy. ”I haven’t placed a trade with an actual broker in five years,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. ” and attacks on our way of life and our way of doing business are certainly something to keep in mind.” (Editing by Dan Burns, Dan Grebler and Nick Zieminski) 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.

Disney buying Netflix could be practical magic

(Reuters Breakingviews) Walt Disney may be looking for a bit of magic. The $160 billion entertainment conglomerate is on the hunt for technology to connect consumers directly with its movies and TV shows. It’s also in need of a successor to Chief Executive Bob Iger. A Netflix acquisition including founder Reed Hastings might just answer both dreams though it would be pricey. The Magic Kingdom lost some of its zip in 2015, when Iger indicated that fewer people were paying for its cable sports network and profit engine ESPN. Shares of Disney are off about 20 percent since then. All the same, the company has been one of the forward thinkers in its business when it comes to bypassing traditional cable boxes. ESPN is part of new packages like Dish Network’s Sling TV. Iger splashed out $1 billion for a stake in Major League Baseball’s streaming technology, with the option to buy it out. Disney could, however, think much bigger. Netflix could provide more streaming and 87 million subscribers worldwide. Hastings, meanwhile, has defied the odds in developing his creation from DVDs to an online leader and content producer. He could be a candidate to replace Iger, who is slated to step down in 2018. Netflix would be expensive, though. It trades at well over 100 times next year’s estimated earnings, compared with Disney’s 16 times multiple. Assuming a standard 30 percent premium, the purchase would cost $65 billion. To match the $15 billion uplift from the market price in terms, Iger would need to find over $2 billion in annual cost savings. That’s a big chunk, but Disney could plausibly substitute a third of the content Hastings plans to spend more than $6 billion a year to make and buy. Netflix would still offer Disney an inadequate financial return. Sometimes, though, there’s more at stake, like into the latest technology and securing the right leader. The House of Mouse paid nearly 50 times earnings for Pixar in 2006, but the purchase solved strategic problems and reinvigorated its animation studio. Asked recently about acquisitions including Netflix, Iger didn’t get specific but didn’t rule anything out either. Lots could go awry with a big, bold purchase, from a shareholder backlash to culture battles. Still, the storyboard is something Disney might want to sketch out. (Editing by Richard Beales and Martin Langfield) LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) Worldpay discovered on Wednesday that a couple of birds in the bush are sometimes worth a bit more than one in the hand. A day after Britain’s biggest payment processor said it had received approaches from both Vantiv and JPMorgan, the company plumped for the former’s offer of nearly $10 billion in a mix of cash and shares. That took the shine off the share price of both the buyer and its target. Perhaps because the deal only makes sense with some very charitable HONG KONG Tencent’s require some Hollywood stardust. The tech giant’s publishing arm may raise up to $800 million in a Hong Kong listing, according to IFR. Catering to bookworms isn’t very lucrative, even if more and more readers are paying for electronic literature. The real payoff will lie in turning stories into blockbuster films, video games and merchandise.

Actors seek posthumous protections after big-screen resurrections

(Story refiled to correct date in paragraph 11 from 1997 to 1977) By Lisa Richwine and Jill Serjeant Tuesday’s death of actor Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in ”Star Wars,” set off waves of remembrance among fans but also speculation over her character’s return in episodes. Filmmakers are tapping advances in digital technology to resurrect characters after a performer dies, most notably in ”Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” The film, in theaters now, features the return of Grand Moff Tarkin, originally played by a actor. The trend has sent Hollywood actors in the scrambling to exert control over how their characters and images are portrayed in the hereafter. ”Celebrities are increasingly involved in making plans to protect their intellectual property rights,” said Mark Roesler, an attorney and chairman of CMG Worldwide, an agency representing celebrity estates. ”They understand that their legacy will continue beyond their lifetime.” Roesler said at least 25 of his clients are engaged in actively negotiating the use of their or their loved ones’ images in movies, television or commercials. Employment contracts govern how they can be used in a particular film or commercial, while a performer’s will can address broader issues. Some actors or heirs worry that overexposure will tarnish a celebrity’s image, Roesler said. Some explicitly rule out posthumous depictions involving sex or violence, while others focus on drugs or alcohol. ”We have seen people address marijuana,” he said. ”We’ve seen liquor addressed.” California law already gives heirs control over actors’ posthumous profits by requiring their permission for any of use of their likeness. As technology has improved, many living actors there are more focused on steering their legacy with stipulations on how their images are used or by forbidding their use. Robin Williams, who committed suicide in 2014, banned any use of his image for commercial means until 2039, according to court documents. He also blocked anyone from digitally inserting him into a movie or TV scene or using a hologram, as was done with rapper Tupac Shakur at Southern California’s Coachella music festival in 2012 16 years after his murder. Virtual characters have been used when an actor dies in the middle of a film production, as when Universal Pictures combined CGI and previous footage for Paul Walker’s role in 2015’s ”Furious 7” after Walker’s 2013 death in a car crash. But ”Rogue One” broke new ground by giving a significant supporting role to a dead star. A digital embodiment of British actor Peter Cushing, who died in 1994, reprised his role from the original 1997 ”Star Wars” film as Tarkin. Walt Disney Co ( ) recreated Tarkin with a mix of visual effects and a different actor. A Disney spokeswoman declined to comment on whether Princess Leia would appear in films beyond ”Episode VIII,” set for release in 2017. Fisher had wrapped filming for the next ”Star Wars” episode before she died. She suffered a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles. Fisher had been expected to play a key role in the ninth installment of the saga, due for release in 2019. Fisher’s attorney, Frederick Bimbler, did not return requests for information on any stipulations the actress may have made about use of her image. Disney bought ”Star Wars” producer Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion. The two new films since released have sold some $2. 7 billion worth of tickets and boosted sales of toys and other related merchandise. Disney would need to negotiate ” fees” with Fisher’s estate to resurrect her character for future films, said Mark Litwak, an entertainment attorney in Los Angeles. The rights of actors’ heirs are rooted in a 1985 California law requiring filmmakers to obtain permission from a celebrity’s estate to use his or her image after death. The law was enacted after a campaign by the son of Dracula actor Bela Lugosi, a lawyer who objected to widespread use of his late father’s image. With today’s movie technology opening up so many possible scenarios, actors’ union is lobbying for all states to enact protections on the use of celebrity images after they die. Minnesota began considering such legislation this year following the death of music legend Prince, who was from Minneapolis. ”The issue for us is straightforward and clear: The use of performers’ work in this manner has obvious economic value and should be treated accordingly,” a spokesperson said. Celebrity deaths often spur big increases in sales of music and movies. Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley regularly top Forbes list of dead celebrities with annual earnings of tens of millions of dollars. If Disney decides to resurrect Leia, the costs could go much higher than what it might have to pay her surviving family. The technology and time involved in CGI recreations for major roles can make the prospect more costly than hiring even a actor. ”It’s very expensive,” Litwak said. What about other characters in the blockbuster franchise? James Earl Jones, who is 85, provided the menacing voice for Darth Vader in the original ”Star Wars” trilogy, in an animated TV series and again in ”Rogue One.” An assistant to Jones declined to comment on whether any provisions are in place regarding use of his voice after his death. A bigger question for and fans is whether the technology provides a realistic portrayal, Litwak said. ”Most people in the movie industry don’t think it’s quite there yet,” he said. ”It’s amazing what they can do, but it’s not as good as a real actor. It still seems a bit artificial.” Tarkin’s resurrection in ”Rogue One” sparked debate among fans over whether the portrayal was realistic, with some complaining it did not look human enough to be convincing. ”Does Disney want to have people scrutinizing how real that synthetic character is, rather than talking about the movie itself?” he asked about the prospect of Leia’s return. ”It would be a distraction.” (Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Jill Serjeant in New York; editing by Tiffany Wu and Brian Thevenot) 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.

European cities ramp up security for New Year after Berlin attack

European capitals tightened security on Friday ahead of New Year’s celebrations, erecting concrete barriers in city centers and boosting police numbers after the Islamic State attack in Berlin last week that killed 12 people. In the German capital, police closed the Pariser Platz square in front of the Brandenburg Gate and prepared to deploy 1, 700 extra officers, many along a party strip where armored cars will flank concrete barriers blocking off the area. ”Every measure is being taken to prevent a possible attack,” Berlin police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf told Reuters TV. Some police officers would carry guns, he said, an unusual tactic for German police. Last week’s attack in Berlin, in which a Tunisian man plowed a truck into a Christmas market, has prompted German lawmakers to call for tougher security measures. In Milan, where police shot the man dead, security checks were set up around the main square. Trucks were banned from the centers of Rome and Naples. Police and soldiers cradled machine guns outside tourists sites including Rome’s Colosseum. Madrid plans to deploy an extra 1, 600 police on the New Year weekend. For the second year running, access to the city’s central Puerta del Sol square, where revellers traditionally gather to bring in the New Year, will be restricted to 25, 000 people, with police setting up barricades to control access. In Cologne in western Germany, where hundreds of women were sexually assaulted and robbed outside the central train station on New Year’s Eve last year, police have installed new video surveillance cameras to monitor the station square. The attacks in Cologne, where police said the suspects were mainly of North African and Arab appearance, fueled criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to accept nearly 900, 000 migrants last year. The Berlin attack has intensified that criticism. In Frankfurt, home to the European Central Bank and Germany’s biggest airport, more than 600 police officers will be on duty on New Year’s Eve, twice as many as in 2015. In Brussels, where Islamist suicide bombers killed 16 people and injured more than 150 in March, the mayor was reviewing whether to cancel New Year fireworks, but decided this week that they would go ahead. PARIS PATROLS In Paris, where Islamic State gunmen killed 130 people last November, authorities prepared for a weekend, the highlight of which will be the fireworks on the Avenue des where some 600, 000 people are expected. Ahead of New Year’s Eve, heavily armed soldiers patrolled popular Paris tourist sites such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre museum. In the Paris metropolitan area, 10, 300 police, gendarmes, soldiers, firemen and other personnel will be deployed, police said, fewer than the 11, 000 in 2015 just weeks after the Nov. 13 attack at the Bataclan theater. Searches and crowd filtering will be carried out by private security agents, particularly near the where thousands of people are expected, authorities said. Across France, more than 90, 000 police including 7, 000 soldiers will be on duty for New Year’s Eve, authorities said. On Wednesday, police in southwest France arrested a man suspected of having planned an attack on New Year’s Eve. Two other people, one of whom was suspected of having planned an attack on police, were arrested in a separate raid, also in southwest France, near Toulouse, police sources told Reuters. ”We must remain vigilant at all times, and we are asking citizens to also be vigilant,” French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux told a news conference in Paris, noting that the threat of a terrorist attack was high. In Vienna, police handed out more than a thousand pocket alarms to women, eager to avoid a repeat of the sexual assaults at New Year in Cologne in 2015. ”At present, there is no evidence of any specific danger in Austria. However, we are talking about an increased risk situation,” Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said. ”We are leaving nothing to chance with regard to security.” In Ukraine, police arrested a man on Friday who they suspected of planning a Berlin copycat attack in the city of Odessa. (Additional reporting by Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt, Kirsti Knolle in Vienna, Teis Jensen in Copenhagen, Isla Binnie in Rome, Sarah White in Madrid, Robert Muller in Prague, Bate Felix and Johnny Cotton in Paris; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Louise Ireland) 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.