| Asia stocks up on Japan optimism; Europe opens up -  BEIJING (AP) — Asian and European stock markets rose Thursday, while and Japan's benchmark index hit its highest level in more than a year optimism a new government in Japan will stimulate the country's sluggish economy.
|
| Storm whips into Northeast bringing snow, rain -  CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A powerful winter storm is expected to drop one to two feet of snow on parts of the Northeast just a day after it swept through the nation's middle, dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas and ruining holiday travel plans.
|
| Exclusive: Profits up, but Britain gets less tax from big firms -  LONDON (Reuters) - Big companies in Britain now pay less tax than they did 12 years ago despite a big jump in profitability, a Reuters analysis of official data shows. Tax campaigners say the trend is the clearest signal yet that tax avoidance has blossomed under a more business-friendly strategy at the UK tax authority Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Large companies' payments of corporation tax - the UK equivalent of corporate income tax - totaled 21 billion pounds ($34 billion) in 2011/12, HMRC data shows. ...
|
| European shares steady, euro climbs as "fiscal cliff" push awaited -  LONDON (Reuters) - European shares were steady and the euro edged higher on Thursday, as U.S. lawmakers prepared to resume negotiations to avoid a fiscal crunch, while the yen hit a 21-month low on the prospect of drastic monetary easing. Returning from the Christmas holiday break, European shares opened little changed at 1137 points, with London's FTSE 100 , Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX between 0.1 percent lower and 0.4 percent higher. A 0.1 percent gain in U.S. stock futures suggested a firm Wall Street start. In a sign that there may be a way to break the deadlock in the U.S. ...
|
| Japan PM adviser urges unlimited BOJ easing, higher price goal - TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan should buy more long-dated government bonds and a wider variety of risk asset types, including foreign bonds, to achieve 2 to 3 percent inflation, Koichi Hamada, a special economic adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said on Thursday. Hamada, 76, professor emeritus of economics at Yale University, also called for revising the BOJ Law that guarantees the central bank's independence, to make it more accountable for achieving its policy objectives. "Generally speaking, the BOJ is making an effort. ... |
| Storm's high winds, snow, sleet lash Northeast -  A powerful winter storm system that pounded the nation's midsection, wrecking holiday travel plans and dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas, began lashing the Northeast on Wednesday with high winds, snow and sleet.
|
