Liam Neeson movie The Grey tops US box office
Action movie The Grey, starring Liam Neeson as a survivor of an airplane crash, has gone straight to the top of the North American box office chart.
The film took $20m (£13m) between Friday and Sunday, according to industry estimates.
Neeson leads a group of survivors battling harsh weather and a pack of wolves in the Alaskan wilderness.
Underworld: Awakening was knocked down to second place, having taken $12.5m (£8m) over the same period.
Katherine Heigl's new comedy One for the Money, based on the novel by Janet Evanovich, finished in third place with $11.8m (£7.5m).
Oscar contenders Hugo, The Artist and The Descendants all enjoyed a box office boost after their nominations were announced last Tuesday.
Takings for George Clooney's The Descendants - $6.6m (£4.2m) - jumped 176% compared with last weekend, while The Artist increased by 40% to $3.3m (£2.1m).
Martin Scorsese's Hugo, which leads the Oscar race with 11 nominations, jumped 143% with weekend takings of $2.3m (£1.5m).
UK and Czechs refuse to join fiscal compact
Twenty-five of the EU's 27 member states have agreed to join a fiscal treaty to enforce budget discipline.
The Czech Republic and the UK refused to sign up. UK Prime Minister David Cameron said his government would act if the treaty threatened UK interests.
He still has "legal concerns" about the use of EU institutions in enforcing the fiscal treaty, he said.
The Czechs cited "constitutional reasons" for their refusal, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a Eurosceptic, may be reluctant to sign the treaty, analysts say.
The goal is much closer co-ordination of budget policy across the EU to prevent excessive debts accumulating.
Germany - the eurozone's biggest lender and most powerful economy - was particularly keen to get a binding treaty adopted to enforce budget rules.
The treaty will empower the European Court of Justice to monitor compliance and impose fines on rule-breakers.
The treaty also spells out the enhanced role of the European Commission in scrutinising national budgets.
The Czech Republic is not yet in the euro, but like the other new EU member states it is committed to joining.
European Union leaders also discussed ways to stimulate economic growth despite the stringent austerity budgets in many countries - and focused on how to reduce unemployment across the eurozone.
UK concerns
The UK and Denmark are the only states with explicit opt-outs from the euro.
Mr Cameron said "it's good that the new treaty is absolutely explicit and clear that it cannot encroach on the competences of the EU".
"They must not take measures that in any way undermine the EU single market," he said, adding: "we'll be watching like a hawk".
He insisted that the treaty would impose "no obligations on the UK".
Mr Cameron used his veto last month to opt out of the treaty, arguing that the UK needed to keep its authority over financial services in the City of London.
The eurozone crisis dominated Monday's summit, with debt-laden Greece still at risk of defaulting.
A general strike in Belgium, paralysing transport, reminded EU leaders of public discontent with austerity as they arrived for the summit.
The talks also concentrated on reducing unemployment, which is averaging 10% across the eurozone, though youth unemployment is often much higher.
There are fears that wide-ranging budget cuts will harm enterprise and training.
The leaders discussed measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), many of which complain of excessive administrative costs imposed by Brussels.
In a joint statement on economic growth they noted that cutting budget deficits was "not in itself sufficient".
"We have to modernise our economies and strengthen our competitiveness to secure sustainable growth," the statement said.
The EU will help to fund schemes to get young people into work or training in member states with the highest youth unemployment levels.
They pledged to speed up measures to develop the EU single market, including:
- agreement on a common EU patent system by July;
- better targeting of EU funds towards SMEs;
- national legislation to create a functioning single market in services and energy.
The European Commission says 82bn euros (£69bn; $107bn) of EU money is available for countries to spend on projects to boost jobs and growth.
Honda sees sharp drop in profit
Japan's third biggest carmaker, Honda, has announced a 41% drop in quarterly profit, as it continues to feel the impact of Japan's March disasters, the floods in Thailand, and the high yen.
Net profit for the third quarter fell to 47.6bn yen ($624m; £396m) from 81.1bn yen a year earlier.
Sales for the three-month period fell 8% to 1.94tn yen.
The company also slashed its annual forecast. It now expects a net profit of 215bn yen for the year to March.
In August it had estimated a profit of 230bn yen before withdrawing its guidance citing uncertainty due to the Thai floods.
Honda was the slowest carmaker to recover from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011. It also has a factory in Thailand, which has been closed since October's floods. It is expects to resume production there at the end of March.
In 2011, Honda's global output dropped by a fifth to 2.9 million cars, slipping below 3 million for the first time in eight years.
The firm also said it was seeing a "negative currency effect" due to appreciation of the Japanese yen.
A strong currency hurts exporters as it makes their products more expensive for overseas buyers.
Japanese auto parts firms to pay US anti-trust fine
Japan's Yazaki Corporation and Denso Corporation have agreed to plead guilty and pay fines for fixing prices of parts supplied to US manufacturers.
Yazaki will pay $470m (£300m), the second-largest antitrust fine in US history, while Denso has agreed to pay $78m.
The two auto part makers have been accused of fixing prices for as long as ten years.
Four Yazaki executives will also serve up to two years in a US prison.
"Our investigation is still active and ongoing," said Sharis Pozen of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.
'Pernicious cartel'
Yazaki and Denso are among the world's largest auto part suppliers. Any conspiracy to fix prices of parts by such major players is likely to have an impact on the overall cost of manufacturing the vehicles and also affect the selling price.
The Justice department's Ms Pozen said the consumers were financially hurt and authorities were working to ensure that such instances do not happen in the future.
"Criminal antitrust enforcement remains a top priority and the Antitrust Division will continue to work with the FBI and our law enforcement counterparts to root out this kind of pernicious cartel conduct," she said.
The Justice department did not give details of which US manufacturers were affected and how much extra they had to pay.
Yazaki said that it was fully cooperating with the US authorities and had also launched an internal probe into the matter.
"In order to prevent any recurrence, the company has intensified its various efforts including conducting thorough internal investigations, reviewing internal rules, conducting regular educational programs and monitoring activities," the firm said in a statement.
Cameron urges RBS to show 'restraint' over more bonuses
Prime Minister David Cameron has urged RBS to show "restraint" in the award of other bonuses for senior executives.
Although RBS chief executive Stephen Hester has waived his award of £963,000 in shares, senior colleagues are also in line for bonuses.
Mr Cameron told reporters at the EU summit there had to be a better link between pay and performance.
However, a Downing Street spokeswoman said the government would not block bonuses to other executives.
On Sunday, Mr Hester waived the 3.6 million shares package - his performance bonus for 2010 - after Labour MPs planned to force a Commons vote on the issue.
It came the day after it emerged that RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton had waived a shares-only bonus worth £1.4m.
Mr Cameron defended the government's role in the RBS bonus affair amid suggestions that it was Labour's threat of a Commons vote that forced Mr Hester's hand.
The prime minister said: "We made our views very clear... What needs to happen is a sense of restraint, and they have got to do a better job to demonstrate how pay is linked to performance."
Mr Cameron said he had made his views known to RBS, but said "voluntary restraint" was needed.
Earlier in the day, a Downing Street spokeswoman told the BBC that there would be no compulsory veto of bonuses.
"We are not going to micro-manage bonuses... They [the bank] are doing a good job and making good progress," she said.
She added it was absolutely essential that the RBS executive team was left in place to sort out its problems.
The spokeswoman added: "The prime minister's view was that he wanted the bonuses to be lower.
"He always made it clear that it was a matter for Mr Hester whether he took that bonus or not, and that should remain the case.
"Reward for good performance is not in itself a bad thing."
'Acknowledging hypocrisy'
Mr Hester was appointed chief executive at the end of 2008 to replace Sir Fred Goodwin, after the bank had to be bailed out by the government, which now owns 82% of it.
David Fleming, national officer for the Unite union, said: "Better late than never will be the feeling amongst the call centre, bank branch and processing staff at RBS, that Stephen Hester has finally bowed to public pressure to waive his nearly £1m bonus.
"This gesture goes some way in acknowledging the hypocrisy of an organisation, which has sacked over 21,000 staff, while still attempting to pay bumper bonuses to the bosses."
Lord Oakeshott, the former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: "I'm all in favour of Mr Hester or anyone else earning plenty of money from RBS - if he runs the bank to do what really matters and if he won't lend to small business, as he promised, he shouldn't get any bonus."
Fall in shares
Earlier this month, RBS announced it would cut 3,500 jobs from its global banking division.
The cuts will mean RBS has removed 11,000 employees from its staff, almost halving its 2007, pre-credit crunch headcount of 24,000.
Shares in the bank have fallen 36% in the last year, and were down 4.5% on Monday's open.
The overall bonus pool at RBS's investment banking arm, which will be revealed days before the results on 23 February, is expected to be about half of the £950m of the previous year.
Barclays, which unlike RBS received no direct state help during the credit crunch, is reported to be considering paying its chief executive Bob Diamond up to £10m in the forthcoming bonus season, compared with a total payout of £6.5m in the previous year.
However, no formal announcement has been made.
France cuts 2012 growth forecast
France has cut its growth forecast for this year to 0.5% from 1%, Prime Minister Francois Fillon has announced.
The revision was made to "take into account the deterioration of the economic situation", he said.
It comes as European leaders meet in Brussels to discuss the eurozone crisis, and are expected to focus on growth and job creation.
On Sunday, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to introduce a tax on financial transactions.
The 0.1% levy, to be introduced in August, is part of a package of measures designed to promote growth, set out by Mr Sarkozy in the run-up to April's presidential election.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund revised down its forecasts for several European countries, including France. It now expects the eurozone's second biggest economy to grow by just 0.2% this year, down from 1.4%.
China loses WTO appeal over raw materials exports
The World Trade Organisation's appeals body has upheld a ruling that China restricted exports of certain raw materials to protect its domestic manufacturers.
China had appealed a WTO ruling in July that it broke global trade rules.
The US, Europe, and Mexico argued that China's export block on such things as magnesium and bauxite drove up prices.
But China had argued that its export limits on nine raw materials were needed to protect the environment.
In a statement the appeals body said China must now "bring its export duty and export quota measures into conformity with its WTO obligations".
The issue has caused tension between China and some of its major trading partners.
In a statement, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk called the ruling "a tremendous victory for the US... particularly its manufacturers and workers".
While the case requires China to comply, the EU "continues to be deeply troubled by China's use of export restrictions'' for other rare earth and industrial raw materials, the European Commission said in a statement.
But China's WTO mission in Geneva said it "deeply regrets'' that the appeals body upheld major parts of the earlier ruling's conclusions.
However, China said it would abide by the organisation's findings.
Romney Leads Polls Heading into Florida Vote
Republican voters in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida are heading to the polls Tuesday in what is expected to be a pivotal contest in the race for the party's presidential nomination.
A recent survey of likely voters showed that multi-millionaire investor and former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney holds a 14-percent lead on his closest rival, former House speaker Newt Gingrich.
More than 600,000 Floridians also already have cast ballots in early voting leading up to Tuesday's primary, with polls showing most of those votes going for Romney.
Both candidates have campaigned hard in the state. Analysts expect the results to have a huge impact on who will face Democrat Barack Obama in the November presidential election.
Two other candidates are also on the ballot in Florida, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul, although poll show both far behind the front-runners.
Romney also needs a win in Florida to regain his momentum after losing to Gingrich by double-digits in the South Carolina primary January 21.
Gingrich lashed out at Romney on Monday, accusing him of being a liberal and running dishonest political ads. The former congressman says he expects a long campaign in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination.
Speaking after a church service Sunday near the city of Tampa, Gingrich called Romney a “pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase moderate from Massachusetts.”
Romney has said that Gingrich is making excuses for his debate performances, and blasted Gingrich for being found guilty of ethics violations that forced him to resign as House speaker.
UN Nuclear Watchdog Approves Japanese Nuclear Stress Tests
The United Nations' nuclear agency has approved the Japanese government's plan to assess the safety of its nuclear power plants.
The International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday turned over the results of its week-long fact-finding visit to officials with Japan's nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The 10-member IAEA team discussed the government's plan to conduct stress tests on its nuclear plants, and toured the Ohi plant in Fukui prefecture.
“In our review of the process that they did, we were able to see the review that NISA performed on the Ohi comprehensive safety assessment. And we were satisfied with the work they had done as part of their primary assessment. There's also going to be a secondary assessment that includes additional areas for them to review and we've made a few suggestions about how they can improve that process.”
Japan ordered the stress tests to determine if the nuclear facilities can withstand the kind of natural disasters that crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant last year.
“We were encouraged that the Japanese assessment was evaluated as valid. The review including our implementation of emergency safety measures and the efforts to ensure transparency in operations resulted as in line and consistent with the IAEA safety standard as well as in terms of international practices.”
The IAEA team recommended that authorities hold meetings with communities located near the power plants to discuss the findings of the stress tests.
The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last March triggered a meltdown of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi powerplant. The meltdown was the world's worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and eroded public confidence in Japan's nuclear power industry.
Beijing Increases Security in Tibetan Monasteries to Contain Protests
A top official in Chinese-ruled Tibet has ordered increased surveillance in Buddhist monasteries in an apparent effort to prevent the spread of anti-government protests by ethnic Tibetans in neighboring Sichuan province.
Qi Zhala, the Communist Party leader in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, was quoted in state media on Tuesday as saying that officials should work to “preserve stability” in Tibetan temples and monasteries.
He said authorities should “strike hard” at what he called “separatist” and “criminal” activities by those loyal to the Dalai Lama, saying not “even a small incident” should be allowed to occur.
Qi made his comments during an inspection of security facilities along a key roadway that connects the Tibetan capital to Sichuan province.
Witnesses and exile groups say up to seven Tibetan protesters died in Sichuan last week when Chinese police opened fire on them in three separate incidents.
The government is hoping the protest movement – the biggest challenge to its rule of Tibet in several years – does not spread to Tibet proper. It has ordered increased security along main highways in order to prevent “trouble-makers” from entering the region.
Beijing has acknowledged that two protesters were killed in the recent clashes. But it blames the violence on mobs that it says were attacking police. It accuses Western media and exiled Tibetan organizations of exaggerating the incidents.
The crackdown comes as authorities were already stepping up security ahead of the Tibetan new year, as well as several upcoming anniversaries of previous anti-Chinese uprisings.
China seized control of Tibet more than 50 years ago, forcing the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders to flee to northern India. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of wanting to split Tibet from the rest of China, a charge that he denies.