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President Barack Obama does not believe the recently disclosed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance of phone records and Internet data has violated Americans' privacy rights, his chief of staff said on Sunday. _0"> Denis McDonough, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, also said he did not know the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who said he was the source of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post about the agency's monitoring of phone and Internet data at big companies such as Verizon Communications Inc, Google Inc and Facebook Inc.   The administration has said the top-secret collection of massive amounts of "metadata" from phone calls - raw information that does not identify individual telephone subscribers, was legal and authorized by Congress in the interests of thwarting militant attacks. It has said the agencies did not monitor calls. Asked whether Obama feels h

North Korea on Sunday proposed high-level talks with the United States to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, a week after it scrappped planned official talks with South Korea for the first time in over two years. _0"> North Korea National Defence Commission in a statement carried by KCNA news agency said Washington can pick a date and place for talks and the two sides can discuss a range of issues but no preconditions should be attached.   Earlier this year, North Korea threatened nuclear and missile strikes against South Korea and the United States after it was hit with U.N. sanctions for its February nuclear weapons test. (Reporting By Jane Chung, Editing by Jack Kim, Michael Perry)

A fire at a sprawling downtown Indianapolis recycling plant, fueled by propane tanks and a massive stockpile of rubber tires, forced the evacuation of homes and businesses within a five-block radius on Saturday, officials said. The fire started Saturday afternoon at the two-story, three-block-long brick warehouse that houses Nationwide OTR Recyclers, police and fire officials said. The blaze caused more than half the building to collapse, said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Christopher Wilburn.   The building has a number of businesses, including the recycling plant, which houses 85,000 square feet (7,900 square meters) of rubber tires and 60,000 square feet (5,570 square meters) of wood palettes, as well a 500-gallon (1,900-liter) propane tank and a number of smaller tanks, Wilburn said. By Saturday night, the fire was contained to the south side of the building, and firefighters were working to keep the large propane tank cool so it would not explode, Indi

Power outages hit the Mexican capital of Mexico City on Sunday after an earthquake struck the center of the country, and officials said there was no other damage reported. _0"> Some restaurants and residential buildings in the capital were evacuated as a precautionary measure, they said. Buildings shuddered in the city, a Reuters witness said. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) downgraded its initial measurement of the quake to magnitude 5.8 from 6.0. No one at state oil company Pemex was immediately available to comment but the group has no major installations near the epicenter of the quake, 14 miles west of Jolalpan in southwest Mexico, 76 miles south of Mexico City. (Reporting by Simon Gardner; Editing by Louise Ireland and Robert Birsel)  

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

A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday to demand protection for Edward Snowden, who leaked revelations of U.S. electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony. Marchers gathered outside the U.S. consulate shouting slogans denouncing alleged spying operations aimed at China and Hong Kong, but the numbers were modest compared to rallies over other rights and political issues.   "Arrest Obama, free Snowden," protesters shouted outside the slate grey building as police looked on. Many waved banners that said: "Betray Snowden, betray freedom", "Big brother is watching you" and "Obama is checking your email". In his first comments on Snowden's case, Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said late on Saturday that the government would handle it in accordance with established laws. "When the relevant mechanism is activated, the Hong Kong SAR Governmen

In the final months leading up to the launch of the key piece of President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms, the administration is preparing a public-education campaign designed to connect directly with the audience most critical for the law's success. The effort will focus on selling the merits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to 2.7 million Americans with little or no health coverage, who are 18-to-35 years old, mostly male, and largely nonwhite, including many who are black or Hispanic, officials involved in the planning told Reuters.   The idea is to get them enrolled in private health plans through online marketplaces that will offer coverage in all 50 states at prices defrayed by federal subsidies, which many should qualify for because of their lower incomes and lack of adequate insurance. Participation of young consumers is central to the success of the new state healthcare exchanges, and Obama's reform law, because the young tend to have little

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 st

North Korea on Sunday offered high-level talks with the United States to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but the White House said that any talks must involve Pyongyang taking action to show it is moving toward scrapping its nuclear weapons.   The offer came only days after North Korea abruptly canceled planned official talks with South Korea , the first planned talks in more two years. The North blamed the South for scuttling discussions that sought to mend estranged ties between the rival Koreas. The North Korea National Defence Commission in a statement carried by KCNA news agency on Sunday said Washington can pick a date and place for talks and the two sides can discuss a range of issues, but no preconditions should be attached. "In order to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula and to achieve regional peace and safety, we propose to hold high-level talks between the DPRK and the United States," said the spokesman for the North's National Defence Commission

Iranian president-elect Hassan Rohani, who won a landslide victory promising better relations abroad and more freedom at home, on Sunday paid his first visit since the vote to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who will ultimately decide the pace of any change. Rohani, a mid-ranking Shi'ite cleric, is an Islamic Republic insider who has held senior political and military posts since the 1979 Islamic revolution and maintained a good rapport with Khamenei, Iran's most powerful man.   Iranian media reported that Khamenei congratulated Rohani, wished him success, and gave him "the necessary guidance". Rohani's trouncing of his hardline rivals, who miscalculated the public mood and failed to overcome factional differences and field a single candidate, received a cautious welcome in Washington, although Israel warned against "wishful thinking" about Iran's future direction. While no reformer himself, Rohani gained the backing of the politically s

Russian President Vladimir Putin, arriving in Britain ahead of an international summit set to be dominated by disagreement over the U.S. decision to send weapons to Syria's rebels, said the West must not arm fighters who eat human flesh. In Syria , rebels fought back on Sunday against forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah allies near Aleppo, where Assad has announced a campaign to recapture the rebel-held north after seizing a strategic town this month.   After months of deliberations, Washington decided last week to send weapons to the rebels, declaring that Assad's forces had crossed a "red line" by using nerve gas. The move throws the superpower's weight behind the revolt and signals a potential turning point in global involvement in a two-year-old war that has already killed at least 93,000 people. It has also infuriated Russia , Cold War-era ally of Syria, which has sold arms to Assad and used its veto at the U.N. Security Counc

Sporadic clashes between police and protesters flared up in Istanbul overnight after a weekend in which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan sought to steal back the agenda, rallying his supporters and expelling demonstrators from an Istanbul park. Two union federations called a nationwide strike for Monday over the forced eviction of protesters from Gezi Park, a leafy corner of Istanbul's central Taksim Square and the focus of two weeks of fierce anti-government demonstrations that have spread to other big cities. Labour groups representing doctors, engineers and dentists said they too would take part. Hundreds of thousands of Erdogan supporters gathered to hear the prime minister speak at an Istanbul parade ground on Sunday as riot police fired teargas a few kilometres away in the city center to disperse protesters. A defiant Erdogan told a sea of flag-waving supporters that two weeks of unrest had been manipulated by "terrorists" and dismissed suggestions that he was be

Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein, chief executive of Liechtenstein's biggest bank LGT, said it was striking how fast opinions on tax evasion had shifted since 2008, when stolen data revealed hundreds of Germans had hidden assets in the principality. But the Prince, who runs the royal-family-owned bank, is not worried by an international push to fight tax evasion and expects Swiss and Liechtenstein banks to flourish if disputes over untaxed assets are settled quickly.   "The data theft of 2008 was the first example of that change of attitude but at least it put us ahead of the game. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," he said in an interview. Discussing the outlook for Liechtenstein banking over a lunch of monkfish and asparagus at a luxury Zurich hotel, Prince Max was relaxed about the future. "People are focusing on the threats but there are more chances than threats." Secrecy has fostered an usually large banking industry in the tiny princi

A Swiss government plan to protect the country's banks from U.S. criminal charges has been thrown into doubt by a Swiss parliamentary committee's rejection of the proposed bill on Tuesday. _0"> Lawmakers are deeply divided over the plan to allow Swiss banks, suspected of helping wealthy Americans hide their money, to disclose data to U.S. prosecutors to help settle investigations into tax evasion.   Switzerland's upper house of parliament is set to vote on the draft law, designed to solve the issue without overturning Swiss banking secrecy laws, on Wednesday followed by the lower chamber next week, a schedule aimed at meeting a U.S. ultimatum. If the draft law succeeds, Swiss banks then have 120 days to hand over the internal information to U.S. authorities. Possible outcomes include the following: BOTH PARLIAMENT CHAMBERS PASS DEAL Amid fevered last-minute haggling in Bern, potential concessions could still help swing the bill in parliament, even after the

New York's top financial regulator has called for a national moratorium on certain transactions by life insurance companies that potentially put policyholders and taxpayers at greater risk, according to a regulatory report. _0"> The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) said in a report published late on Tuesday that insurance companies use a method known as "shadow insurance" to shift blocks of insurance policy claims to shell companies — often in states outside where the companies are based, or else offshore — to take advantage of looser reserve and regulatory requirements. Such transactions aim to help an insurance company divert the reserves that it had previously set aside to pay policyholders to other purposes, the DFS said. However, the regulator said such transactions do not actually transfer the risk for those insurance policies as the parent company would still be liable for paying claims if the shell company's weaker reserves ar

The chief executive of hedge fund lobby the Alternative Investment Management Association, Andrew Baker, will step down at the end of 2013, AIMA said on Wednesday. _0"> Baker, who has been in the job since the start of 2009, will remain until his successor - who AIMA is in the process of identifying - has begun work. Baker said in a statement he was "looking forward to future challenges" but did not specify what he planned to do next. London-based AIMA, representing the interests of more than 1,300 corporate members, has spent recent years lobbying European policymakers to temper parts of an incoming Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, involving curbs on hedge fund pay and borrowing money to fund investments.   (Reporting by Tommy Wilkes; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

Switzerland cleared the first hurdle towards ending a long-running U.S. tax probe after one chamber of lawmakers voted to allow banks to sidestep strict secrecy laws to end the threat of criminal charges for helping wealthy Americans evade tax. The draft law is set to face far tougher opposition in Switzerland's lower house next week than in the upper chamber, which passed it by a decisive 24 votes to 15 on Wednesday.   The protection of client information has helped to make Switzerland the world's biggest offshore financial center, with $2 trillion in assets. But that haven has come under fire as other countries have sought to plug budget deficits by clamping down on tax evasion, with authorities probing Swiss banks in Germany and France as well as the United States. With some of its biggest institutions facing formal investigations and Switzerland's oldest private bank already a prominent victim in the probe, the Swiss government is seeking a swift compromise with t

Morgan Stanley is once again targeting pretax profit margins of 20 percent or more in its wealth management business, according to a presentation by CEO James Gorman on Wednesday. _0"> Morgan Stanley is targeting margins of 20 to 22 percent by 2015, assuming no change in interest rates or equity markets. The bank issued a 20 percent target when it first announced plans to acquire Citigroup Inc's Smith Barney brokerage business. It later scaled back its ambitions to a "preteens" margin by mid-2013 due to unexpected costs and delays related to the merger. Having met that goal two quarters early, it is now aiming for higher margins, according to Gorman's presentation.   (Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra; editing by John Wallace)

Raymond James Financial Inc has expanded its adviser force in Georgia with a veteran hire from top U.S. brokerage Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, the company said on Wednesday. _0"> Adviser Cynthia Woodsmall Jones, who managed more than $435 million in client assets at Morgan Stanley, moved to Raymond James in May after more than three decades with her former firm. She had an annual production of more than $1 million.   Jones joined Raymond James & Associates, the company's traditional employee broker-dealer division. She was joined by registered sales associate Brenda Meadows, also from Morgan Stanley, and is based in the firm's Columbus, Georgia, office. Jones specializes in asset management for high-net-worth individuals and families and advises on corporate retirement assets, including 401(k) plans. She started her career in 1981 at Robinson-Humphrey & Co, staying with the firm through a series of mergers and acquisitions before joining Morgan Stanley

If your idea of a client-wooing event is a steak dinner and an investment lecture, you may be missing out on a very big market: the children of your clients, whose tastes differ markedly from those of their parents. Ignore the kids and their preferences at your own peril. While younger clients tend to have small accounts now, they are expected to earn and inherit enough to make them a significant client base for advisers. Some $30 trillion in assets is expected to be shifted to younger generations over the next 30 years, according to Pershing LLC, a subsidiary of Bank of New York Mellon. And advisers typically lose half of the assets they manage when those assets are passed from one generation to the next, a 2011 study by consulting firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers found.   In a survey of 317 advisers conducted in February and March, Pershing found that more than half of their affluent clients had adult children, but advisers had talked about finances with only about a third of those

Long-term-care insurance has always been an expensive product, but now it is getting a lot pricier - especially for single women who may most need help in old age. Providers are raising rates for old policies and new ones - by as much as 60 percent, according to state filings. But the latest development is gender-based pricing. Genworth, a leader in this field, has started selling plans in 31 states that charge more for women than men. John Hancock is also embracing gender-based pricing, and other insurers are expected to follow suit. Long-term-care insurance covers the costs associated with assistance in daily living - when a person needs help dressing, bathing, preparing food and the like. Women live longer than men, on average, and long-term-care insurance companies are experiencing higher payouts for women policyholders than for men. For example, a 60-year-old man or woman buying three years of $6,000-a-month coverage in Illinois - which doesn't have gender-based pricing n