News For Thursday Dec 4, 2008 News For Thursday Dec 4, 2008

Business Business

UBS to change the way it pays senior managers - Added 2 weeks ago

UBS AG said Monday that starting next year it will stop making bonus payments to its chairman and that other top executives will be penalized if the bank performs badly to discourage irresponsible risk-taking. ...

Air France sees traffic back to normal Tuesday - Added 2 weeks ago

Air France traffic will be back to normal on Tuesday after a pilots' strike over retirement reforms disrupted the French airline's flights for four days. The strike is scheduled to end at midnight Monday, the company...

FDA to open China offices after product scares - Added 2 weeks ago

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will open three offices in China this week in an unprecedented effort to improve the safety of exports headed to America amid recurring product safety scares. The new FDA offices,...

Murdoch upbeat about the future of newspapers - Added 2 weeks ago

Global media magnate Rupert Murdoch says doomsayers who are predicting the Internet will kill off newspapers are "misguided cynics" who fail to grasp that the online world is potentially a huge new market of...

German's KfW reports 1.8 billion euro 9-month loss - Added 2 weeks ago

KfW, the German state-owned development bank, said Monday that write-downs and the bailout of IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG drove it to a 1.8 billion euro ($2.3 billion) loss in the first nine months of 2008. KfW said...

Euro-zone trade deficit swells in September - Added 2 weeks ago

The euro-zone swung to a trade deficit of 5.6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) in September from a 2.9 billion euro surplus last year as euro nations imported far more than they sold abroad, the EU statistics agency...

Hong Kong's main stock index ends flat - Added 2 weeks ago

Hong Kong stocks ended flat Monday in razor-thin trade as gains in mainland China's market helped offset Wall Street's dour performance and news Japan had slipped into recession. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost...

Filipino workers remittances rise despite crisis - Added 2 weeks ago

The millions of Filipino workers abroad sent home $12.3 billion in the first nine months of this year, a 17.1 increase despite a global slowdown that economists warned Monday may bite the local economy in 2009. ...

Thousands evacuate as Vietnam braces for storm - Added 2 weeks ago

Vietnam called its fishermen ashore and began evacuating 80,000 people from high-risk areas as a tropical storm churned toward the country's southern coast Monday. Weather forecasters said Tropical Storm Noul, packing...

Report: NKorea founder opposed nuclear weapons - Added 2 weeks ago

North Korea's late founder Kim Il Sung swore to Beijing in the 1960s that he opposed the development of nuclear weapons, a report said Monday, citing a newly declassified Chinese document. In a letter Kim wrote to...

Euro drifts lower against dollar - Added 2 weeks ago

The euro and the pound drifted lower against the U.S. dollar in European trading on Monday after a summit of world leaders in Washington failed to provide specific guidelines to ease the global financial crisis. The...

Hypo Real Estate Group 3Q loss 3.1 billion euros - Added 2 weeks ago

Troubled German lender Hypo Real Estate reported Monday a net loss of 3.1 billion euros ($4 billion) in the third quarter as the financial crises worsened, with a unit in Ireland hit especially hard by write-downs on...

Finnish union boycotts Stora Enso exports - Added 2 weeks ago

The Finnish Transport Workers Union says it has begun a boycott of handling Stora Enso's paper and wood exports at Finnish ports in protest at the paper maker's policies. Union leaders say workers were ordered not to...

Singapore's October exports plunge 15 percent - Added 2 weeks ago

Singapore's non-oil exports fell for a sixth month in October, a sign the city-state's economy will likely contract for a third consecutive quarter. Exports in October fell 15 percent to 13.4 billion Singapore dollars...

China shares rise for 4th day on stimulus optimism - Added 2 weeks ago

Chinese shares rose Monday for a fourth day in active trading on confidence in the government's economic stimulus package. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index opened lower after a weekend meeting of world leaders in...

Japan shares rise but pare gains, economy shrinks - Added 2 weeks ago

Japanese shares closed slightly higher Monday but well off the day's high as grim economic numbers confirmed the economy is in recession and underlined the gloomy outlook for corporate earnings. The benchmark Nikkei...

Many concerns left unanswered after weekend summit - Added 2 weeks ago

Analysts, investors and media around Asia expressed concern Monday that a weekend summit of world leaders aimed at tackling the global financial crisis _ and preventing future debacles _ was high on symbolism but low on...

Australia Lion Nathan in bid for Coca-Cola Amatil - Added 2 weeks ago

Australian brewer Lion Nathan Ltd. offered Monday to buy soft-drinks maker Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. for 7.6 billion Australian dollars ($4.9 billion), a deal that would create the nation's largest beverage company. But...

Credit crisis dims the lights for power industry - Added 2 weeks ago

As workers scramble to build an $800 million coal-fired power plant on a patch of farmland here, a crisis that began on faraway Wall Street threatens to stretch the nation's power supplies to the brink _ driving up...

UPS won't give annual peak shipping day projection - Added 2 weeks ago

Weak October retail sales and the uncertainty of the upcoming holiday season amid the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. in decades has prompted shipping giant UPS Inc. to decide not to release a projection for the...

Forecasters: tough road ahead for the economy - Added 2 weeks ago

The country is sinking deeper into the economic doldrums, and it's likely to stay there for a while. That's part of the latest outlook from forecasters in a survey to be released Monday by the National Association for...

UPS won't give annual peak shipping day projection - Added 2 weeks ago

Weak October retail sales and the uncertainty of the upcoming holiday season amid the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. in decades has prompted shipping giant UPS Inc. to decide not to release a projection for the...

Credit crisis dims the lights for power industry - Added 2 weeks ago

As workers scramble to build an $800 million coal-fired power plant on a patch of farmland here, a crisis that began on faraway Wall Street threatens to stretch the nation's power supplies to the brink _ driving up...

No bonus this year for Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein - Added 2 weeks ago

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein and six other top executives at the bank will not be receiving cash or stock bonuses for 2008, a spokesman said Sunday. The decision was made by the seven executives...

Stocks likely to be volatile again this week - Added 2 weeks ago

The stock market is trying to form a bottom, but the economic landscape keeps changing. With the Treasury switching its financial bailout plans and Congress fighting over a potential rescue package for automakers,...

Experts: Supplier woes put auto industry in danger - Added 2 weeks ago

The financial woes of U.S. automakers have grabbed Washington's attention, but similar problems at auto suppliers have the potential to set off a cataclysmic chain of events in the industry if key parts makers run out...

Colombia to help irate pyramid scheme investors - Added 2 weeks ago

Colombia's government readied emergency measures Sunday to appease irate investors who lost tens of millions of dollars in the collapse of pyramid schemes that caused riots, scores of arrests and two deaths. President...

OPEC head: oil production cuts unlikely this month - Added 2 weeks ago

More oil output reductions aren't likely this month because OPEC members haven't yet fully enforced previous quotas and the organization needs more data before it reaches a decision, the cartel's president said Sunday. ...

Credit crisis dims the lights for power industry - Added 2 weeks ago

!!-- pobj:MTMB101-1029081236 -->!!-- pobj:MTMB102-1029081237 -->!!-- pobj:MTMB103-1029081232 -->!!-- pobj:MTMB104-1110081248 -->As workers scramble to build an $800 million coal-fired power plant on a patch of farmland...

Report: UBS to hold back management bonuses - Added 2 weeks ago

Switzerland's largest bank plans to delay the bonuses it pays to senior managers to discourage the kind of risky short-term behavior that has cost it more than 45 billion francs ($40 billion) over the past year,...

Austria: Former Finance Minister dies at 85 - Added 2 weeks ago

Wolfgang Schmitz, former Austrian finance minister and president of the country's central bank, died early Sunday, his People's Party said in a statement. He was 85. Schmitz served as Finance Minister under Chancellor...

Central banker: Zimbabweans to blame for inflation - Added 2 weeks ago

Zimbabwe's central bank chief says ordinary Zimbabweans are to blame for the country's crippling inflation. Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono is quoted in The Sunday Mail, a state-owned newspaper, as saying inflation...

Natural gas rush stirs environmental concerns - Added 2 weeks ago

Advanced drilling techniques that blast millions of gallons of water into 400-million-year-old shale formations a mile underground are opening up "unconventional" gas fields touted as a key to the nation's energy...

Natural gas rush stirs environmental concerns - Added 2 weeks ago

Advanced drilling techniques that blast millions of gallons of water into 400-million-year-old shale formations a mile underground are opening up "unconventional" gas fields touted as a key to the nation's energy...

Air travel chaos continues in France - Added 2 weeks ago

Air France pilots vote to continue their strike despite government concessions on plans to push back their retirement age. Air France estimates the strike _ which began Friday and is due to last until Monday _ will...

EU faces recession threat - Added 2 weeks ago

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Saturday that Europe's biggest threat is recession and countries should be allowed leeway in running up deficits. "We are living in exceptional conditions: the...

UAW leader says blame economy for Detroit 3 woes - Added 2 weeks ago

Even as Detroit's Big Three teeter on collapse, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said Saturday that the problem is not the union's contract with the automakers and that getting the automakers back on their...

Saudi king: $400 billion investment in oil sector - Added 2 weeks ago

Saudi King Abdullah says he expects a government investment program in oil and other sectors to total more than $400 billion over the next five years. The king says the spending is targeted at helping shore up the...

Jamaica cuts growth forecast to 1 percent - Added 2 weeks ago

A top Jamaican finance official is warning of tougher times to come in the Caribbean country. Sen. Don Wehby says Jamaica is cutting its projected economic growth for next year from 3 percent to 1 percent. Wehby is...

Trade group: US ag exports to Cuba hit record - Added 2 weeks ago

A U.S.-Cuba trade group says the island has spent a record $536 million for American agriculture goods through the third quarter, already surpassing all annual amounts since 2001. The U.S. Trade and Economic Council...

Air travel chaos continues in France - Added 2 weeks ago

Air France pilots say they have voted to continue their strike despite government concessions on plans to push back their retirement age. Air France estimates the strike _ which began Friday and is due to last until...

G20 source: leaders to agree on action plan - Added 2 weeks ago

World leaders on Saturday are ready to task finance ministers with drawing up recommendations for improving the regulation and functioning of financial markets, according to a G20 official reading from a draft...

Senior UK politician warns of run on the pound - Added 2 weeks ago

Britain's government risks seeing the value of its currency collapse unless public borrowing is kept under control, one of the country's senior opposition politicians said in an interview published Saturday. ...

Senior UK politician warns of run on the pound - Added 2 weeks ago

Britain's government risks seeing the price of its currency collapse unless public borrowing is kept under control, one of the county's senior opposition politicians said Saturday. Conservative lawmaker George Osborne...

Natural gas rush stirs environmental concerns - Added 2 weeks ago

!!-- pobj:NYMG103-1022082300 -->!!-- pobj:NYMG104-1022082300 -->Advanced drilling techniques that blast millions of gallons of water into 400-million-year-old shale formations a mile underground are opening up...

Investors coming to terms with market's gyrations - Added 2 weeks ago

During the darkest days of the stock market's slide last month, Jack Bass withdrew stock from his retirement accounts and literally felt sickened by what was happening. "I certainly had a queasy stomach throughout...

Union says Opel has no liquidity problems - Added 2 weeks ago

Worker representatives and union leaders at automaker Adam Opel GmbH sought to allay fears about the company's solvency Saturday, saying Opel's appeal for loan guarantees from the government is just a precaution. They...

Sweden: banks may have to join guarantee scheme - Added 2 weeks ago

Sweden's financial markets minister is warning that the government's bank guarantee scheme could become compulsory for the Nordic country's main banks unless more of them sign up for it. So far Swedbank AB is the only...

EU slaps trade charges on Chinese candles - Added 2 weeks ago

Chinese candle exporters will be hit with extra charges when selling in Europe to punish some producers for selling below cost, the European Union said Saturday. The EU imposed antidumping charges for six months from...

Greenpeace occupies E.ON site in Rotterdam - Added 2 weeks ago

Around 100 Greenpeace activists have occupied a construction site in Rotterdam's harbor to protest against a coal-fired power plant German energy giant E.ON AG is building there. The environmental group says it hopes...