NowMyNews

Brazil's Embraer SA , the world's third-largest commercial planemaker, cruises into the Paris air show with expectations mounting for the launch of its next generation of regional E-Jets, which have lifted its shares to near 5-year highs. Chief Executive Frederico Curado is likely to lay out plans on Monday for a re-engined commercial jet lineup entering service by 2018, analysts said. After two years of studies, the planemaker is poised to overhaul the E-Jets with new wings, upgraded avionics and geared turbo fan engines from Pratt & Whitney.   The more efficient engines should help Embraer hold its recent leadership of the 70- to 120-seat segment, fending off new challengers like the Mitsubishi Regional Jet while keeping pressure on smaller versions of rival Bombardier's CSeries. The big question is whether Embraer has the orders to launch its new lineup with a splash. On Friday, the company announced the late addition of a second airshow press conference regard

Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, expects to reach an agreement with the Pentagon within the next 30 days on a contract for engines to power a sixth batch of F-35 fighter jets, Pratt President David Hess told Reuters.   Hess said negotiations were still under way with the U.S. Department of Defense but he expected the final price of the contract to reflect a cost reduction of less than 10 percent, continuing a trend seen in recent years. Pratt says the cost of the engine has declined 40 percent since the program began in 2001. "We're making progress there. We've gotten an offer from the (Joint Program Office) and I expect we'll get that closed pretty quickly ... certainly within 30 days," Hess told Reuters in an interview ahead of the Paris air show. Hess declined to give details on the projected value of the contract, which analysts expect will exceed $1 billion. The company, which is the sole producer of engines for the single-seat F

Brookfield Asset Management Inc on Sunday said it had agreed to sell all its Longview Timber holdings to Weyerhaeuser Co for $2.65 billion, including assumption of debt. _0"> The company also said it will sell its Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging operations to KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp for $1.025 billion. "While the timing of the (separate) sale transactions is coincidental, for investors in our funds these transactions represent monetization at excellent returns and puts each of these assets into the hands of strategic buyers who will be able to take them to the next level," Cyrus Madon, Senior Managing Partner in Brookfield's Private Equity Group, said in a release.  

Brookfield Asset Management Inc on Sunday said it had agreed to sell all its Longview Timber holdings to Weyerhaeuser Co for $2.65 billion, including assumption of debt. _0"> The company also said it will sell its Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging operations to KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp for $1.025 billion. "While the timing of the (separate) sale transactions is coincidental, for investors in our funds these transactions represent monetization at excellent returns and puts each of these assets into the hands of strategic buyers who will be able to take them to the next level," Cyrus Madon, Senior Managing Partner in Brookfield's Private Equity Group, said in a release.

"Man of Steel," the big-budget reboot of the Superman franchise, leaped over the apocalyptic buddy comedy "This is the End," collecting a muscular $113.1 million to lead the domestic box office with the year's second-largest debut weekend and the biggest June opening ever.   "Man of Steel," starring British-born Henry Cavill in the first Superman movie released in seven years, carried a hefty budget of $225 million and took in a total of $125 million through Sunday including early screenings, according to BoxOffice.com. The special-effects laden film is the story of the infant Kal-El, who escapes his doomed home planet Krypton and grows up in the idyllic town of Smallville with his parents, played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. Amy Adams plays the budding super hero's girlfriend Lois Lane. The film, directed by Zack Snyder, with Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight," "Inception") serving as co-writer and one of its producer

Private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC is planning an initial public offering for Associated Materials, a maker of home-building products that it bought for $1.3 billion in 2010, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Associated Materials, a maker of products like vinyl and aluminum siding and vinyl fencing under brands including Gentek and Alpine Windows, was previously owned by Investcorp and Harvest Partners.   Hellman & Friedman is set to interview investment banks next week to select underwriters to handle the proposed offering, the people said, asking not to be identified because the situation is not public. A spokeswoman from Hellman & Friedman did not respond to a request for comment. Associated Materials had net sales of $1.1 billion in 2012, flat from the year prior. It had adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $107 million in 2012. A potential public float would come at a time when other firms are also

Potawatomi shooting : The Potawatomi shooting early Sunday morning at 1:30 a.m. inside Milwaukee’s Potawatomi Bingo Casino ended with a 23-year-old woman being shot in the leg and her 27-year-old boyfriend being arrested by Milwaukee police. After the Potawatomi shooting, the 23-year-old woman from Wauwatosa was taken to Froedert Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, reported CBS58 on June 16, 2013. Following the Potawatomi shooting, Milwaukee police arrested the 23-year-old woman’s boyfriend who shot his girlfriend during a fight at the casino. According to a statement released by Potawatomi officials, no other people were injured during the Potawatomi shooting and law enforcement as well as the casino’s security guards are being praised for their response. "We are thankful no one was hurt more seriously and that the situation was contained quickly. Response by local law enforcement as well as our security team was outstanding. Potawatomi Bingo Casino

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron will press its overseas tax havens to sign up to an international transparency treaty in London on Saturday, hoping to bolster British credibility ahead of next week's G8 summit. _0"> Britain is looking to ensure its self-governing regions, some of which are world-leading tax havens, are taking action to improve information sharing before Cameron meets leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) major economies to push for coordinated global action on tax avoidance and evasion. A government statement said Cameron would be asking 10 territories and self-governing regions to sign up to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters - an initiative led by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). "He will argue that there is no point in dealing with tax evasion in one country if the problem is simply displaced to another," a government statement released ahead of the talks said. Bermuda,

Stock investors eager to hear from the Federal Reserve about its plans for continuing economic stimulus may get some soothing words from the U.S. central bank next week. The Fed is unlikely to tip its hand about when it may begin to scale back its bond-buying program, but policymakers still may be inclined to try to tamp down recent volatility in financial markets with some mention of the issue.   The rally in stocks stumbled and Treasury bond yields rose to 14-month highs following Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments that the Fed may decide to begin scaling back its quantitative easing in the next few policy meetings if the economy improves. As part of its quantitative easing policy, adopted more than four years ago, the Fed has been buying Treasury and other bonds each month to keep interest rates low and promote growth. Interpreting Bernanke's words and recent signs about the economy have roiled markets since then. The Dow industrials climbed 200 points in eight of the 1

Juneteenth shooting - Authorities of Columbus say a teen is in custody after a shooting at a festival injured a 10-year-old boy. The shooting happened at a park just outside downtown Columbus at the Juneteenth Festival early Saturday night. Police tell media outlets that the boy’s injuries aren’t life threatening. He was at a Columbus hospital late Saturday in stable condition. Officers say a 15-year-old has been arrested and charged with felonious assault. Police say two others also may have been involved. Police shut down the festival after the shooting and say it won’t go on Sunday. They say four other young people had been involved in fighting and were arrested before the shooting. Juneteenth festivals celebrate the anniversary of the end of slavery in the United States.

The Columbus police authorities ended the annual Juneteenth Festival in Franklin Park a day early yesterday after a child was shot during the celebration. Police told WBNS-TV (Channel 10) that the victim, a 10-year-old boy who was in stable condition, was a bystander who was caught in the crossfire. He was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital for treatment.Lt. Bela Bernhardt said he decided to shut down the festival about 7 p.m. because he didn’t have enough officers to investigate the shooting while securing the Near East Side park. Four juveniles were arrested in fights before the shooting, he said. As a result, Columbus police decided to keep the festival closed today. “We’re not going to give them an opportunity for foolishness to continue,” Bernhardt said.An organizer for the planned three-day festival, which began Friday, declined to comment. Vendors had mixed reaction to the decision. Some agreed with the police, citing safety concerns. Others, however, were disappointed.“Yo

Juneteenth shooting : A Juneteenth shooting is the second shooting trend to make top news headlines today, as Vindy.com reported this Sunday, June 16, that a 10-year-old boy was shot by a teen during the summer festival. The teen is now in police custody. The Juneteenth shooting took place close by the Columbus Juneteenth Festival on Saturday night. A 10-year-old was seriously injured after an older teen fired a gun and hit the boy. Fortunately, it appears that the child is now stable, and the injuries he sustained from the gunshot are no longer life-threatening. A 15-year-old has been arrested in the Juneteenth shooting. He is being charged with a felonious assault for a minor, though officers believe that there may have been two others involved in the gunfire at the Festival in Columbus, Ohio, as well. An investigation is ongoing. The Juneteenth Festival has since been closed down, and will not reopen this Sunday, concluded the report. The summer celebration is me

Facebook and Microsoft have struck agreements with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive, a modest victory for the companies as they struggle with the fallout from disclosures about a secret government data-collection program. Facebook on Friday became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests, saying in a blog post that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 U.S. requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of its users' accounts. Facebook has more than 1.1 billion users worldwide.   The majority of those requests are routine police inquiries, a person familiar with the company said, but under the terms of the deal with Justice Department, Facebook is precluded from saying how many were secret orders issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Until now, all information about requests under FISA, including their existence, were deemed secret. Microsoft said i

Mitsubishi Motors Corp ( id="symbol_7211.T_0"> 7211.T ) is considering boosting output capacity in Indonesia and possibly building a new plant there to capitalize on brisk demand in emerging Asian economies. _0"> "It is true that we are considering strengthening our operations in Indonesia, but nothing has been decided as of now," a company spokesman said on Saturday. A Nikkei business daily report said the automaker, along with trader Mitsubishi Corp ( id="symbol_8058.T_1"> 8058.T ) and local partners, plans to build a new Indonesia plant by around March 2017, with investment totaling at about 40 billion yen ($422.90 million). The spokesman said Mitsubishi, the maker of Triton pickups, the Outlander Sport SUV and i-MiEV electric car, aims to post a net profit of 100 billion yen ($1.06 billion) by the year ending March 2017.   If it were to build a new plant, that would have an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles, he added.

The Bank of Japan will likely expand its purchase of Japanese real estate investment trusts (J-REITs) beyond its buying scheme announced earlier this year as part of the central bank's hyper easing steps, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday. _0"> The BOJ said in April that it would boost the balance of its J-REITs holding by 30 billion yen ($317.18 million) a year, and forecast 140 billion yen in holding for the end of 2013.   The central bank's aggressive buying, however, has already boosted the balance of its J-REITs holding closer to the 140 billion yen level, triggering a decline in the J-REITs market amid worries that the bank's buying spree will soon lose steam. The Nikkei said, without citing sources, that the BOJ is now expected to continue purchasing J-REITs so that the balance of the central bank's holding at the end of the year will likely exceed the 140 billion yen mark by up to 10 billion yen. The Tokyo Stock Market's J-REITs subi

Anglo American Platinum ( id="symbol_AMSJ.J_0"> AMSJ.J ) said on Saturday operations at its Thembelani mine in South Africa were back to normal after a "group of employees" on Friday prevented 2,400 workers from going above ground. _0"> "The situation at the mine is normal, people came above ground yesterday evening," Amplats spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said. The industrial action followed the dismissal of four union shop stewards for "inappropriate behavior".   (Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Saturday called on the European Central Bank to create a cheap funding scheme for small businesses, mirroring those used by authorities outside the euro zone to try and get credit flowing via banks. _0"> Rajoy, who has previously urged the ECB to change its collateral rules to help smaller companies access financing at better conditions, said the ECB could emulate plans such as a Bank of England scheme.   The British central bank launched a 'Funding for Lending' scheme in mid-2012 aimed at encouraging banks to give credit by providing them with cheap financing. "I would like the ECB to act like other central banks, to do as the Bank of England has done - giving cheap loans to financial entities so that these financial entities can lend at cheaper rates to small and medium-sized companies," Rajoy said at an event in Tarragona, northern Spain . Small companies in southern Europe are having to pay higher rates for fi

Tesco, the world's No. 3 retailer, has stopped sourcing clothes from a factory in Bangladesh after discovering serious problems with the safety of the site, the company said on Saturday. _0"> The move follows a survey the British-based supermarket chain conducted in the wake of the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Dhaka in April that killed 1,129 people.   "A structural survey of a site we source from in Bangladesh, owned by Liberty Fashions, has revealed serious problems with the safety of one of the buildings," Tesco said in a statement. Mozammel Huq, the owner of Dhaka-based garment maker Liberty Fashion, told Reuters that the building, in an industrial zone near Dhaka, met the required building codes. "I fully followed the building code, so the question does not arise that it is an unsafe building," Huq told Reuters by phone on Saturday. "The building is almost new - one phase I built only five years ago and the other one eig

Aetna Inc ( id="symbol_AET.N_0"> AET.N ) said on Saturday it has notified California's insurance regulator that it plans to stop selling health policies to individual consumers in the state at the end of 2013. _0"> The company will continue to offer health insurance to employers and Medicare beneficiaries in California, as well as dental and life-insurance products, Aetna spokeswoman Anjie Coplin told Reuters. But people with individual health coverage with Aetna will have to find alternative coverage by year's end. Aetna had informed California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones of its decision to exit the market, Coplin said, but it was still in the process of notifying members and brokers.   The move comes as California, the country's most populous state, prepares for the fall launch of a state health exchange authorized by President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. The exchange establishes new standards for health insurance products sold

Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( id="symbol_WMT.N_0"> WMT.N ) said on Saturday that its board has appointed James Cash Jr. as lead independent director. _0"> Cash, who joined Wal-Mart's board in 2006, replaces James Breyer, who served on the board for more than a decade, but was prevented from running again this year under the company's rules of corporate governance. A former faculty member at Harvard Business School, Cash is also a member of Wal-Mart's audit committee. That committee's oversight has been criticized amid allegations that Wal-Mart de Mexico bribed officials to expand quickly in Mexico and that Wal-Mart executives squelched an internal probe into those charges.   Earlier this month, Wal-Mart shareholders approved the election of all 14 director nominees at the company's annual meeting, despite the ongoing fallout from the scandal. (Reporting by James B. Kelleher; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Google Inc has launched a small network of balloons over the Southern Hemisphere in an experiment it hopes could bring reliable Internet access to the world's most remote regions, the company said late Friday. _0"> The pilot program, Project Loon, took off this month from New Zealand's South Island, using solar-powered, high-altitude balloons that ride the wind about 12.5 miles - twice as high as airplanes - above the ground, Google said.   Like the Internet search engine for which Google is best known, Project Loon uses algorithms to determine where the balloons need to go, then moves them into winds blowing in the desired direction, the company said. By moving with the wind, the balloons form a network of airborne hot spots that can deliver Internet access over a broad area at speeds comparable to 3G using open radio frequency bands, Google said. To connect to the balloon network, a special Internet antenna is attached to buildings below. The Mountain View, Cal

Google Inc has launched a small network of balloons over the Southern Hemisphere in an experiment it hopes could bring reliable Internet access to the world's most remote regions, the company said late Friday. _0"> The pilot program, Project Loon, took off this month from New Zealand's South Island, using solar-powered, high-altitude balloons that ride the wind about 12.5 miles - twice as high as airplanes - above the ground, Google said. Like the Internet search engine for which Google is best known, Project Loon uses algorithms to determine where the balloons need to go, then moves them into winds blowing in the desired direction, the company said. By moving with the wind, the balloons form a network of airborne hot spots that can deliver Internet access over a broad area at speeds comparable to 3G using open radio frequency bands, Google said. To connect to the balloon network, a special Internet antenna is attached to buildings below. The Mountain View, Calif

Steel girders jut from the low skyline of the Thai city of Udon Thani near the Laos border as workers lay cement for a new shopping mall, one of many illustrating a boom in the Thai economy beyond the bright lights of Bangkok. The malls, factories and construction sites in Thailand's northeast are emerging alongside its farms as a potent economic fuel in one of Asia's top emerging markets. Growth in Thailand, Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy, has begun to slow, but the economy of the northeast is in the grip of a boom. The economic renaissance of "Isaan", Thailand's poorest and most populous region, has coincided with expansionary policies - from wage increases to farm subsidies - that are enriching an area at the heart of a "red shirt" protest movement that backed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a 2011 election. As a new middle class emerges, investors and companies are taking note. CLSA emerging markets guru Chris Wood cites the r

Paul Soros, a shipping magnate, philanthropist and older brother of billionaire investor George Soros, died on Saturday at age 87, his son said. _0"> Paul Soros passed away at his New York City home, his son, Jeffrey Soros, said. The New York Times said Soros had been treated for Parkinson's disease, cancer, renal failure and diabetes. "Through his engineering innovations, philanthropy and personal relationships, he profoundly impacted many lives," Jeffrey Soros said in a statement. "He was loved dearly and will be sorely missed." Soros was born in Hungary in 1926, according to the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation for New Americans, a $50 million philanthropic organization he founded with his wife to assist struggling new immigrants in the United States. He studied mechanical engineering in Budapest and defected from Hungary in 1948 when the country was under Communist rule. Soros later found his way to the United States.   In 1956, he founded Soro

Saudi Arabia plans to block Internet-based communication tool WhatsApp within weeks if the U.S.-based firm fails to comply with requirements set by the kingdom's telecom regulator, local newspapers reported this week. _0"> This month the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) banned Viber, another such tool, which like WhatsApp is hard for the state to monitor and deprives telecom companies of revenue from international calls and texts.   The kingdom appears to be making a greater push for more control over cyberspace as Internet and smart phone usage soars, in part due to strict laws that limit opportunities for people to mix in person. "We have been communicating with WhatsApp and other similar communication platforms to get them to cooperate and comply with the Saudi telecom providers, however nothing has come of this communication yet," Abdullah Al-Darrab, governor of the CITC, told Arab News. Al-Darrab said Viber was blocked last w

When do you take the addict off the methadone? That's essentially the dilemma facing the U.S. Federal Reserve's 19 policy makers when they meet in Washington this week. Since the height of the financial crisis in 2008, the U.S. economy and everyone with a stake in it have become hooked on the massive amounts of stimulus injected by the U.S. central bank. Now, though, consensus is building among policy makers that the time is nearing to adjust their $85 billion-a-month asset purchase program, dubbed quantitative easing, but divisions remain over just when to start reducing the dosage. In recent weeks, even the program's most ardent supporters, including Chairman Ben Bernanke, have begun signaling a willingness to dial back the pace of bond buying before too much longer. Meanwhile, those who have never liked it insist the moment has arrived and worry the Fed's grip on markets is weakening the longer the program remains in full force. "We haven't taken step

The online grocery start-up Webvan may have been the single most expensive flame-out of the dot-com era, blowing through more than $800 million in venture capital and IPO proceeds in just over three years before shutting its doors in 2001. Twelve years later, though, Webvan is rising from the dead - in the form of an online grocery business called AmazonFresh.   Four key Amazon.com Inc executives - Doug Herrington, Peter Ham, Mick Mountz and Mark Mastandrea - are former Webvan officials who have spent years analyzing and fixing the problems that led to the start-up's demise. Kiva Systems, the robotics company that Amazon bought last year for $775 million in one of its largest-ever acquisitions, was built on ideas and technologies originally developed at Webvan and is a key part of the AmazonFresh strategy. Even Webvan's old Web address, webvan.com, is now part of the Amazon empire. "We had a lot of Webvan DNA in the room and we drew on that experience a lot," s