LIBOMAN

  TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese regional banks are aggressively expanding their unsecured retail lending business, lured by the segment’s fat margins now the country’s central bank has squashed already ultra-low interest rates into negative territory. Unsecured loans, typically offering up to 1 million yen ($8,800) in fast cash for anything from shopping trips to vacations, can command interest rates of close to 15 percent in some cases – way above rates for business like mortgages or small firm borrowing. Car loans are also popular. Small-sized loans combined with high profit margins make the risk of lending without collateral worth taking for the banks. In an over-banked, low-return market, the hunt for domestic yield is much more pressing for Japan’s scores of regional lenders than global giants like Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc <8306.T>, able to draw on overseas and investment banking. Bank of Yokohama Ltd <8332.T>, Japan’s No.2 regional lender...

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio addresses supporters during a campaign rally inside an aviation hangar in Sarasota, Florida, March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Steve Nesius WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Chicago Tribune endorsed Senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican presidential race on Wednesday, a week before Illinois’ winner-take-all presidential primary. The newspaper of the state’s leading city credited Rubio’s embrace of spending limits, a line-item veto and a balanced budget amendment. “Crucially, his foreign affairs expertise vastly exceeds that of his rivals,” it said.

  MONROE, N.C. (Reuters) – Donald Trump moved closer to capturing the 2016 Republican presidential nomination with his latest primary victories and on Wednesday urged the forces within the party who oppose him to get behind him or risk a loss to Democrats in November. The real estate tycoon struck a more conciliatory tone toward the Republican establishment that has fiercely resisted his advance – first by backing favorite candidates who failed to win votes, then by pouring money into campaigns against him. “If we embrace what is happening and everyone came together, instead of spending all this money on these ads that frankly are wrong, and they’re just false ads,” Trump told Fox News. “If everyone came together, no one could beat the Republican Party. We would walk into Washington.” Trump, the front-runner to win his party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 election, also praised U.S. House of Representative Speaker Paul Ryan after speaking with him by phone this wee...

Bill Gross speaks at the Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago, Illinois, June 19, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Young NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors pulled $1.57 million in February from the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund run by closely followed investor Bill Gross, down from cash withdrawals of $14 million in January, Morningstar data showed on Tuesday. The Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund’s assets under management stood at $1.26 billion at the end of February, Morningstar said. So far this year, the fund is up 0.84 percent, compared to its non-traditional bond fund category peers which are down 0.84 percent on average. “The fund is in the top quartile of its Lipper peer group in the past year, but it continues to struggle to gather assets despite the strong brand name of its visible portfolio manager,” said Todd Rosenbluth, Director of ETF & Mutual Fund Research at S&P Global Market Intelligence. “But active mutual funds are also under pres...

Fox Sports commentator and host Erin Andrews speaks during a presentation to announce Fox's new sports network "Fox Sports 1" in New York March 5, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Files (Reuters) – A jury on Monday found a Nashville hotel liable for a nude video of sportscaster Erin Andrews that went viral and awarded her $55 million in damages to be paid by the hotel and the man who shot the video. Andrews sued the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University over a 2008 video of her that was taken by a stalker in an adjoining room and posted on the Internet in 2009. Andrews, a Fox sportscaster who used to work for ESPN, had sought $75 million in damages. “We’re disappointed with the outcome,” defense attorney Marc Dedman told reporters. He said he would consult with his clients – the hotel owners and its former operators – on whether they would appeal. Jurors began deliberating on Monday morning after the two-week trial concluded on Friday. “I’ve be...

Signage for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. covers the front facade of the New York Stock Exchange November 11, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (Reuters) – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s <BABA.N> arm, Ant Financial Services Group, is seeking a valuation of nearly $60 billion in its current round of funding, a person familiar with the matter said. Ant Financial, which operates the “Alipay” online payment platform, is in talks to raise funds from existing and new investors, which could include CCB International, the person said on Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Monday that Ant Financial planned to raise up to 20 billion yuan ($3.07 billion), pegging its valuation at nearly $50 billion. Ant Financial declined comment on the Journal’s story. The company was not available to comment on the $60 billion valuation outside regular business hours. The latest round of funding is expected to be completed by mid-April, th...

Wrestler Hulk Hogan attends the Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 to promote Majesco Entertainment's "Hulk Hogan's Main Event" video game on Kinect for Xbox 360 in Los Angeles June 7, 2011. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Reuters) – Hulk Hogan’s attempted take down of the website Gawker over a secretly recorded sex tape began on Monday as lawyers asked a Florida jury to weigh privacy rights against public interest in a celebrity. A lawyer for the former professional wrestler said the online gossip site’s editors were motivated by power and brand promotion and intended to harm Hogan when they posted an excerpt of a video showing him engaged in an intimate sex act. “They have essentially replaced sticks and stones with clicks and phones,” lawyer Shane Vogt said during his opening statement, noting that 2.5 million people had viewed a clip of the sex-tape over six months. Hogan, 62, is seeking $100 million in damages from Gawker f...

South Korean defense ministry's Director General Major General Jang Kyung-soo (2nd R) talks with U.S. Forces Korea's Major General Robert Hedelund (3rd L) during their working-level talk to discuss the potential deployment of a THAAD missile defense system at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, March 4, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday in an annual test of their defenses against North Korea, which called the drills “nuclear war moves” and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive. South Korea said the exercises would be the largest ever following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month that triggered a U.N. Security Council resolution and tough new sanctions. Isolated North Korea has rejected criticism of is nuclear and rocket programs, even from old ally China, and last week leader Kim Jong Un ordered hi...

A tourist stands on the beach as a large reef fish digs for food in the reef flats on Lady Elliot Island and 80 kilometers north-east from the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 9, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray SYDNEY (Reuters) – Award-winning American environmental photographer Gary Braasch died on Monday while snorkeling at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Braasch, 70, from Portland, Oregon, was snorkeling with a companion at the Australian Museum’s Lizard Island Research Station, the museum said in a statement. He was documenting the effect of climate change on the reef. The cause of death was not immediately clear. Queensland police had been notified and were investigating, the museum added. A Nikon “Legend Behind the Lens” photographer, Braasch was an active climate change campaigner and had received many major awards and citations for his work. The Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage Site, is the world’s largest living ...

(Photo: Mike Sargent, AFP/Getty Images) 970 CONNECT TWEET 2 LINKEDIN 14 COMMENT EMAIL MORE In the first years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, his wife, Nancy, was widely considered a liability. After all, she spent lavishly on redecorating the White House and hosting glittering parties at a time when the country was struggling through a recession marked by both high inflation and unemployment. At the time, I was a reporter covering the Reagan administration for the Associated Press and later Knight-Ridder Newspapers. And, I admit, I was among the journalists who wrote many critical stories about the first lady: Her devoted gaze when she looked at the president. Her fierce protection of his image and zero tolerance for aides who exhibited the slightest disloyalty. Her ...

From left, Republican U.S. presidential candidates businessman Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The Republican nominating contest for president could be consolidating into a two-man race between businessman Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. By gobbling up the lion’s share of delegates awarded state-by-state, Trump and Cruz are eclipsing two other rivals: Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich. “I am very encouraged because if we continue to unite, we are going to win this nomination,” Cruz said late Saturday. He beat expectations by winning nominating contests in Maine and Kansas, and finishing a close second to front-runner Trump in Louisiana and Kentucky. Trump expressed no disappointment with the results. “I am very, very happy about it. Thank you, Louisiana, and thank you, Kentucky,” he said. While ...

An Apple iPhone is pictured next to the logo of Apple in Bordeaux, southwestern France, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau BOSTON (Reuters) – Apple Inc <AAPL.O> customers were targeted by hackers over the weekend in the first campaign against Macintosh computers using a pernicious type of software known as ransomware, researchers with Palo Alto Networks Inc <PANW.N> told Reuters on Sunday. Ransomware, one of the fastest-growing types of cyber threats, encrypts data on infected machines, then typically asks users to pay ransoms in hard-to-trace digital currencies to get an electronic key so they can retrieve their data. Security experts estimate that ransoms total hundreds of millions of dollars a year from such cyber criminals, who typically target users of Microsoft Corp’s <MSFT.O> Windows operating system. Palo Alto Threat Intelligence Director Ryan Olson said the “KeRanger” malware, which appeared on Friday, was the first functioni...

Senior Facebook executive Diego Dzodan, who was recently released from a Brazilian jail due to a disputed court order demanding data from the company's WhatsApp messaging service for a confidential drug-trafficking investigation, speaks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts March 5, 2016. REUTERS/Mary Schwalm CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) – A Facebook Inc executive who spent about 24 hours in a Brazilian jail this week said authorities treated him with respect and that the incident will not slow the company’s expansion in Brazil. Diego Dzodan, a Facebook vice president based in São Paulo, was arrested on Tuesday due to a dispute over law enforcement demands for data from the company’s encrypted WhatsApp messaging service for use in a secretive drug trafficking investigation. He was released on Wednesday after an appeals judge overturned a court order to arrest him. “I was treated with a lot of respect,” Dzo...

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz speaks at the Kansas Republican Caucus at the Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas March 5, 2016. REUTERS/Dave Kaup WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz solidified his claim to be front-runner Donald Trump’s prime challenger by splitting four nominating contests with the real estate mogul, and both turned their attention to a crucial showdown in Michigan on Tuesday. The wins for Trump and Cruz on Saturday were a setback for the Republican Party’s most powerful members, who have largely opposed Trump and hinted that they prefer Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator who was shut out in the four contests. “I think it’s time that he dropped out of the race,” Trump said of Rubio afterward. “I want Ted one on one.” The Republican campaign now moves to Puerto Rico on Sunday and contests on Tuesday in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii, where Trump will be ...

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is pictured in this handout photo presented as evidence by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston, Massachusetts on March 23, 2015. REUTERS/U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston/Handout via Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Massachusetts university attended by the man convicted in the Boston Marathon bombing has told filmmakers they cannot shoot scenes on campus for an upcoming movie about the deadly attack. Gerry Kavanaugh, the acting chancellor of the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, said in a statement that the school would turn down the request from CBS Films because a movie shoot would be “too disruptive to our campus community.” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a sophomore at the school when he and his older brother, Tamerlan, carried out the April 2013 bombing, which killed three and injured hundreds. The movie, called “Patriots Day,” stars Mark Wahlberg and is scheduled for release in December. Kavanaugh said the administrati...

A logo of Volkswagen is pictured on the wall at the 86th International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, March 1, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s <VOWG_p.DE> brand chief Herbert Diess said it will take months rather than weeks to reach an agreement with U.S. regulators on an emissions fix for 600,000 diesel cars, a newspaper reported on Saturday. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer last month turned up the heat on Volkswagen (VW) by setting a March 24 deadline to the carmaker to state whether it has found a fix that is acceptable to U.S. regulators. VW lawyer Robert Giuffra told Breyer at the Feb. 25 hearing that the carmaker was making progress in trying to reach a settlement with the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and California Resources Board. But Diess, in an interview with German regional newspaper Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung published on Saturday, said it may take months rather than wee...

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