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A Taliban suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in the heart of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 21 people including three United Nations staff and the International Monetary Fund's top representative in Afghanistan . Gunmen burst into the Lebanese restaurant spraying diners with bullets after the bomber blew himself up near the entrance around 7:30 p.m. local time on Friday, just as people had sat down for dinner. Thirteen foreigners were among those killed, according to police, and details about the victims began to trickle through on Saturday. The U.S. State Department said three U.S. private citizens were killed. Britain and Canada confirmed they each lost two nationals and Denmark said one of its citizens also died. The American University of Afghanistan said two of its U.S. employees died in the attack on La Taverna du Liban, a popular dining spot whose charismatic owner, Kamal Hamade, was also killed. "We are devastated by the n

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's administration threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy relief funds from a flooded town unless a redevelopment plan Christie favored was quickly approved, the mayor of Hoboken said on Saturday. _0"> The claim by Mayor Dawn Zimmer comes as Christie, a Republican seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2016, faces investigations into a traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge that was apparently politically motivated. Christie has denied any involvement in the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal, and a spokesman dismissed Zimmer's claims, calling them "partisan politics." Zimmer, a Democrat, told MSNBC television Hoboken received only a small part of the $127 million requested after Sandy, which flooded the town on the Hudson River in October 2012. Zimmer said Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie's community affairs commissioner, delivered messages in May 2013 on behalf of Chri

A Taliban suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in the heart of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 21 people including three United Nations staff and the International Monetary Fund's top representative in Afghanistan . Gunmen burst into the Lebanese restaurant spraying diners with bullets after the bomber blew himself up near the entrance around 7:30 p.m. local time on Friday, just as people had sat down for dinner. Thirteen foreigners were among those killed, according to police, and details about the victims began to trickle through on Saturday. The U.S. State Department said three U.S. private citizens were killed. Britain and Canada confirmed they each lost two nationals and Denmark said one of its citizens also died. The American University of Afghanistan said two of its U.S. employees died in the attack on La Taverna du Liban, a popular dining spot whose charismatic owner, Kamal Hamade, was also killed. "We are devastated by the n

China's Commerce Ministry has condemned a $1.1-trillion spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress last week over clauses that limit technological purchases from the Asian giant, saying they clash with the principles of fair trade. _0"> The bill, signed by President Barack Obama on Friday, included a cyber-espionage review process for federal purchases of technology from China , a measure incorporated last year amid growing U.S. concern over Chinese cyber attacks. In a weekend statement, China's Commerce Ministry said the move "went against the principles of fair trade" as it sought to curb purchases of Chinese technology and export of satellites and parts to China. "China is resolutely opposed," the ministry said in comments attributed to an unnamed official in its U.S. trade division. The bill sent a wrong message, did not aid exchanges and cooperation in the high-tech field and would have a negative effect on Chinese companies, besides harmin

The New Jersey mayor who added to Governor Chris Christie's woes with fresh claims that his office punishes uncooperative local officials stuck to her story on Sunday, overshadowing the governor's fundraising trip in Florida. Widely seen as a Republican contender for the White House in 2016, Christie avoided mention of his troubles at home while he raises funds on a closely watched trip to Florida this weekend. His office dismissed as false claims by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer that he sent his deputy to tell her she risked not getting requested funds for Superstorm Sandy relief unless she backed a redevelopment project in her city. But Zimmer stuck to her story on Sunday that two state officials, including Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, told her Christie would withhold funding if Zimmer did not support a bid by the New York-based Rockefeller Group to build on several blocks in the city. "She came and made a direct threat to me," Zimmer told CNN television, des

Retired basketball star Dennis Rodman has checked himself into an alcohol treatment program, his spokesman said Saturday, just days after returning to the United States from North Korea , where he ignited a furor over comments he made about an American citizen held prisoner there. _0"> Rodman voluntarily entered an alcohol rehabilitation facility several days ago, according to agent Darren Prince. The location of the facility was not disclosed. Rodman returned to the United States this week after a trip to North Korea where he attended the birthday party of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Earlier this month, Rodman apologized for comments in which he suggested Kenneth Bae, an American missionary imprisoned by Pyongyang, had himself to blame for the arrest. "It had been a very stressful day," Rodman said earlier this month. "My dreams of basketball diplomacy were quickly falling apart. I had been drinking. It's not an excuse but by time the interview ha

China is building its second aircraft carrier, which is expected to take six years, and the country aims to have at least four such ships, Chinese and Hong Kong media reports said on Sunday. _0"> After two decades of double-digit increases in the military budget, China's admirals plan to develop a full blue-water navy capable of defending growing economic interests as well as disputed territory in the South and East China Seas. The country's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning - a Soviet-era ship bought from Ukraine in 1998 and re-fitted in a Chinese shipyard - has long been a symbol of China's naval build-up. Successfully operating the 60,000-tonne Liaoning is the first step in what state media and some military experts believe will be the deployment of locally built carriers by 2020. In comments carried on Chinese news websites, Wang Min, the Communist Party boss of the northeastern province of Liaoning, where the first carrier is based, said the second ca

Twenty-eight people were wounded, seven seriously, in explosions on Sunday at a camp of anti-government protesters in Bangkok, the latest violence in a prolonged political crisis dividing the country and threatening the Thai economy. The explosion comes a day after the military urged both sides to settle their differences in the more than two-month long dispute, in which protesters are trying to bring down the elected government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. "There were 28 people injured from the blast at the Victory Monument," Suphan Srithamma, director general of the Bangkok Emergency Medical Centre, told reporters. "Among these 7 people were seriously injured." Witnesses said they heard two explosions. "The first blast I heard was from behind the stage," said Teerawut Utakaprechanun, who told Reuters Television he had been turning out for the protests every day. "People were looking around. I saw the security guards running after a

A bomb planted by Taliban insurgents ripped through a vehicle carrying Pakistani troops on Sunday, killing 20 soldiers and prompting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to cancel his trip to the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos this week. At least 30 others were wounded as the convoy prepared to leave the volatile northwestern town of Bannu for nearby North Waziristan, a lawless, tribal region on the Afghan border where many al Qaeda-linked militant groups are holed up. The bold, daylight attack - the biggest on Pakistani security forces in months - dealt a major blow to the army at a time when Pakistan is already under strong U.S. pressure to do more to contain the insurgency on its western frontier. The army said the bomb had been planted in a civilian vehicle rented locally in order to transport troops to North Waziristan. The device exploded as soldiers got inside the car and prepared to leave. "With the help of God we claim responsibility for this," Pakist

Well, now we know: monetary policy certainly isn't rocket science. Asked on Thursday if he was confident before implementing quantitative easing that it would work, outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke quipped: "The problem with QE is that it works in practice, but it doesn't work in theory." Seriously, imagine a NASA official after a moon shot joking that the booster rockets had worked in practice but not in theory. Think of the looks he might get from the astronauts standing alongside him. Now, of course, Bernanke should be permitted one joke per four-year term, and he did go on to say that the Fed's use of QE was grounded in practical experience from Japan and elsewhere as well as theoretical underpinnings from academia. Still. After years of the Fed engaging massively in QE, consensus about its effects is far stronger in terms of its effect on financial markets, where it is viewed as an electronic form of Viagra, than on the actual economy.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc suffered a steep drop in bond trading revenue in the fourth quarter, a stinging blow for two banks long seen as stalwarts of fixed income markets. The two banks performed worse in fixed income than rivals JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp, showing that even as bond market trading volume suffers from falling prices, some banks will endure more pain than others. "You have to be nimble to trade the debt markets these days. If you make a bad bet, it will show up in results, and profits will be harder to earn in 2014," said Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager and banking analyst at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel, which manages about $11 billion. Goldman's profit fell 21 percent, as revenue from bond trading dropped 11 percent after adjusting for an accounting charge, it reported on Thursday. The bank's shares closed down 2 percent at $175.17. Citigroup, which also reported on Thursday, said bond trading r

Capital One Financial Corp, one of the largest U.S. credit card issuers, reported lower-than-expected quarterly results as net interest income fell in both its credit card and consumer banking businesses. _0"> The company's shares fell about 3 percent in trading after the bell. Capital One's credit card and consumer loans held for investment fell in the fourth quarter ended December 31, dragging down overall revenue by 1.4 percent to $5.54 billion. Total net revenue from the bank's credit segment fell 10 percent to $3.40 billion. However, rival American Express Co's quarterly profit more than doubled as customers spent more in the holiday season in the United States, its core market. "AmEx is really exposed to the affluent transaction-oriented customers," KBW analyst Sanjay Sakhrani said. "Capital One is focused on the lending side and what we are seeing in the world of lending is consumers continue to be conservative resulting in weaker lo

Retail investors poured money into U.S.-based stock funds for a fourth straight week, but institutional investors shied away from those assets, adding to outflows in the previous week, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed on Thursday. _0"> Stock mutual funds attracted $5.06 billion in net new cash for the week ended January 15, the largest such inflows since the end of last year. In contrast, stock exchange-traded funds saw net outflows of $1.4 billion, a sharp pickup after such funds saw a modest $2.5 million exit in the previous period. Mutual funds are often considered to represent the behavior of retail investors, with ETFs considered more representative of institutional investors. Institutional investors may have thought stocks were overbought or they wanted to avoid risks, such as no trading on the upcoming U.S. market holiday on Monday, January 20, said Tom Roseen, head of research services for Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company. "They basicall

Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc suffered a steep drop in bond trading revenue in the fourth quarter, a stinging blow for two banks long seen as stalwarts of fixed income markets. The two banks performed worse in fixed income than rivals JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp, showing that even as bond market trading volume suffers from falling prices, some banks will endure more pain than others. "You have to be nimble to trade the debt markets these days. If you make a bad bet, it will show up in results, and profits will be harder to earn in 2014," said Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager and banking analyst at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel, which manages about $11 billion. Goldman's profit fell 21 percent, as revenue from bond trading dropped 11 percent after adjusting for an accounting charge, it reported on Thursday. The bank's shares closed down 2 percent at $175.17. Citigroup, which also reported on Thursday, said bond trading r

A few days before New Year's, my daughter came upon the free iPad app for the Furby Boom and fell in love with the toy. I usually do not fall prey to her whimsical wants, but with her 6th birthday approaching, it seemed like good timing to buy the toy, which is an interactive stuffed animal that responds to human voices and commands from the app. I thought I could pop into a discount chain and pick one up on a post-Christmas sale. Then I learned that buying a Furby Boom was like playing the stock market. The roly-poly fuzz ball, which is the latest iteration of a craze that started in 1998, sells out at most stores. It trades online at a premium high above its manufacturer's suggested retail price of $59. Since November, retail prices have fluctuated from a low of $29 to more than $100. When is the best time to buy a Furby Boom? To figure that out, I assessed price data to identify the timing of the next sale. Experts have access to up-to-the-minute price and inventory

Financial adviser Khloe Karova counsels her mostly female clients on a lot more than investments: career strategy, salary negotiations, budgeting - even life goals. She has been known to make house calls to keep them on track, questioning big-ticket purchases such as cars that haven't been accounted for ahead of time. "I have women across many different generations and backgrounds," says Karova, a Chicago-based adviser with $25 million under management. "I solve problems through the lens of finances." Karova's holistic approach toward her clients, most of whom are accumulating their wealth, is just one of the ways financial advisers are offering more comprehensive services to cater to the distinct needs of women, among the fast-growing groups of investors. The emphasis on women comes at a time when women in the U.S. outlive men by an average of six years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means women whose husbands die be

The Swiss National Bank will sell securities in companies that do not meet its ethical standards, including those of firms that commit serious human rights abuses, the central bank said on Friday. _0"> "Recently the board has decided in principle to refrain from shares of companies that produce weapons condemned by the international community, seriously abuse fundamental human rights or systematically cause grave damage to the environment," the SNB said in a statement, distributed on the sidelines of an event on Thursday evening. On Friday, the SNB, whose portfolio includes weapons producers and mining firms whose environmental record has been criticized, declined to specify which investments it would drop. A spokeswoman said the central bank was offloading shares it owns that it deems questionable and would avoid future investments in such stocks. The SNB holds just over 430 billion Swiss francs ($474.40 billion) in foreign currency investments, accrued while d

BNY Mellon Corp said on Friday its fourth-quarter profit rose slightly, meeting Wall Street expectations, but higher staff expenses weighed on results even as a buoyant stock market lifted investment management and performance fees. The bank's profit margin disappointed some analysts, sending its shares down 2.7 percent to $32.99 in mid-day trading. "This is a company, despite making operating improvements, that is struggling to deliver stronger operating profit margin," said Jim Shanahan, a stock analyst at Edward Jones. In addition, the long-term net inflows into the bank's mutual funds totaled $2 billion in the fourth quarter, its weakest showing in the past five quarters. Consistent, big inflows have been an important part of management's narrative to Wall Street. "They laid an egg, but it could be just a one-off thing," Shanahan said, referring to the flows. Excluding a one-time item, the world's largest custody bank earned $628 million,

Big investors fueled by rallying equity markets made large, fresh bets on hedge fund managers that pick stocks late last year, while shunning traditional long-only stock funds, data group eVestment said on Friday. Endowments, pension funds and other wealthy investors sent $30 billion into equity-oriented hedge funds in the second half of 2013, eclipsing the roughly $8.1 billion in outflows recorded in the first half of the year, the data show. The net $21.9 billion worth of inflows into equity-oriented hedge funds in 2013 stand in stark contrast to the $108 billion that investors pulled out of traditional long-only stock funds during the first nine months of the year, eVestment said. Investors may have wanted the upside potential that the rallying stock market was showing them, along with some protection if the market reversed - something traditional funds are less able to provide. "The return of interest in having some equity exposure in the second half of the year made the

Morgan Stanley posted stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results, as its retail brokerage and asset management businesses won more assets from clients and benefited from rising stock markets. The bank's retail brokerage business, which manages money for wealthy clients, reached the company's pretax profit margin target, and Morgan Stanley raised that target for the coming years. The results underscored how Morgan Stanley, the second largest U.S. investment bank, has retooled itself since the financial crisis. It now earns more revenues from brokerage and asset management than traditional investment banking businesses like underwriting stock offerings and trading bonds. Its shares rose 4.5 percent to $33.46. "We've said pretty consistently we're one step at a time management team," Chief Executive James Gorman said on a conference call, to explain gradual updates to the bank's strategic plan. Three years ago, he said, Morgan Stanley's return on

Wells Fargo & Co and U.S. Bancorp said on Friday they would stop offering customers a type of small, short-term loan that has come under regulatory scrutiny. The so-called deposit advance products are similar to payday loans, in that they are both small, short-term loans and have been criticized by consumer activists for their high fees. These loans are automatically repaid out of future direct deposits into checking accounts. A typical deposit advance loan can carry fees of $1.50 to $2 for every $20 borrowed. In November, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said they would make rules for deposit advance products more stringent. The regulators said they planned to impose additional limits such as requiring a one-month cooling-off period between the time one loan is repaid and another can be extended. "We are encouraging the banks we supervise to develop new and innovative programs to meet

Nextel mobile phone service, owned by NII Holdings Inc, will offer Apple Inc's iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C to its customers in Brazil . Shares of NII, which will offer an Apple smartphone in Brazil for the first time, jumped as much as 27 percent in morning trading. The latest iPhones will be offered to customers from January 31, NII said on Friday. "Having this it in its arsenal will at least allow NII Holdings to be part of the conversation as customers in Brazil are choosing their service," Wells Fargo Securities LLC analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said in a note. NII is also discussing with Apple to roll out the smartphones in other markets, company spokeswoman Claudia Restrepo told Reuters in an email. Nextel provides cellphone services primarily to businesses in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. The brand has been facing stiff competition in Brazil from Telefonica Brasil SA and billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil as they lure NII's higher-paying busin

A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. Crystal Cox lost a defamation trial in 2011 over a blog post she wrote accusing a bankruptcy trustee and Obsidian Finance Group of tax fraud. A lower court judge had found that Obsidian did not have to prove that Cox acted negligently because Cox failed to submit evidence of her status as a journalist. But in the ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Cox deserved a new trial, regardless of the fact that she is not a traditional reporter. "As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable," 9th Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote for a unanimous three judge panel. Attorneys for Obsidian and the trustee could not immediately be reached for comment. Eugene Volokh, a U

The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Friday. To inform us of other job changes, email to moves@thomsonreuters.com. MORGAN STANLEY The financial services company promoted 153 employees to the title of managing director on Thursday, an increase from the 144 that were elevated to the position last year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a company spokesman. The new class of managing directors includes 41 women, or 27 percent of the total - the highest in the firm's history, Morgan Stanley spokesman Wesley McDade Morgan told the Journal. LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP PLC The stock exchange said it has appointed former Facebook Inc executive Joanna Shields and start-up investor Sherry Coutu to its board to help encourage tech companies to list in the British capital. BANCA POPOLARE DI MILANO The Italian bank chose banking veteran Giuseppe Castagna as its new chief executive on Friday, filling a two-month power vacuum that has delayed a

A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. Crystal Cox lost a defamation trial in 2011 over a blog post she wrote accusing a bankruptcy trustee and Obsidian Finance Group of tax fraud. A lower court judge had found that Obsidian did not have to prove that Cox acted negligently because Cox failed to submit evidence of her status as a journalist. But in the ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Cox deserved a new trial, regardless of the fact that she is not a traditional reporter. "As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable," 9th Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. Steven Wilker, an attorney for Obsidian and the trustee, pointed out the 9th Circuit still concluded tha

A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. Crystal Cox lost a defamation trial in 2011 over a blog post she wrote accusing a bankruptcy trustee and Obsidian Finance Group of tax fraud. A lower court judge had found that Obsidian did not have to prove that Cox acted negligently because Cox failed to submit evidence of her status as a journalist. But in the ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Cox deserved a new trial, regardless of the fact that she is not a traditional reporter. "As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable," 9th Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. Steven Wilker, an attorney for Obsidian and the trustee, pointed out the 9th Circuit still concluded th

Intel Corp plans to reduce its global workforce of 107,000 by about 5 percent this year as the chipmaker, struggling with falling personal-computer sales, shifts focus to faster-growing areas, a company spokesman said on Friday. The announcement, equivalent to over 5,000 positions, comes a day after Intel posted a fourth-quarter earnings report that did little to dispel concerns about a slowing PC industry. "This is part of aligning our human resources to meet business needs," spokesman Chris Kraeuter said. The job reductions may include retirements, voluntary programs and other options, Kraeuter said, adding that Intel's typical annual attrition worldwide is about 4 percent. He declined to say whether details of the changes had been announced internally. On a conference call with analysts on Thursday after the earnings release, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith alluded to a reduction in employment this year and said that Intel would increase investments in areas