Investor Carl Icahn abandons Apple share buyback effort
Activist investor Carl Icahn has announced he sees "no reason to persist" in his attempt to force Apple to return more money to shareholders.
Mr Icahn had been demanding Apple buy back $50bn (£30.5bn) of its shares.
However, he said he was satisfied with the recent efforts of Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook, to return cash to investors.
Apple said it had repurchased $14bn of its stock in the two weeks since the firm reported disappointing earnings.
"As Tim Cook describes them, these recent actions taken by the company to repurchase shares have been both 'opportunistic' and 'aggressive' and we are supportive," said Mr Icahn in an open letter.
Mr Icahn's announcement comes a day after a shareholder advisory service, ISS, recommended that Apple shareholders should vote against Mr Icahn's plan.
ISS said that Apple had "returned the bulk of its US-generated cash to shareholders via aggressive stock buybacks and dividends payouts".
In light of this, ISS said Apple's board's "latitude should not be constricted by a shareholder resolution that would micromanage the company's capital allocation process".
Apple's board had been scheduled to vote on Mr Icahn's proposal on 28 February.
Last month, Apple reported flat earnings, and many analysts were worried about the firm's outlook for the rest of the year.
Source-BBC
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg named top US philanthropist
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have been named joint top US philanthropists for 2013.
The couple gained the accolade after a donation of 18 million Facebook shares to a Silicon Valley foundation.
The donation, worth more than $970m (£590m), was the largest in the US in 2013.
The gift outstripped philanthropists such as Bill and Melinda Gates, the Chronicle of Philanthropy said.
Mr Zuckerberg and his wife made the $970m donation to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a charity that manages and distributes charitable funds.
The shares have helped to make the foundation one of the largest in the US, the Chronicle of Philanthropy said.
Over the past two years, Mr Zuckerberg and Ms Chan have donated about 36 million Facebook shares to the foundation.
Funds have broadly been distributed to education and health, with $5m being distributed to a health clinic in East Palo Alto, for example.
Philanthropists who have previously headed the list, such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have been making good on previous years' pledges.
Mr and Mrs Gates gave their foundation slightly more than $181.3m last year, and continue to honour a pledge of about $3.3bn they made in 2004.
'Dumb' Starbucks owner revealed to be comedy personality
The owner of a parody coffee shop in Los Angeles called "Dumb Starbucks" has been revealed to be Canadian television comedy personality Nathan Fielder.
Mr Fielder appeared in person at the store to make the announcement, where he said there are plans to open a second outlet in Brooklyn, New York.
There had been widespread speculation that the store, which uses Starbuck's trademarks, was a publicity stunt.
Starbucks said they were aware of the store but denied any affiliation.
"We are evaluating next steps and while we appreciate the humour, they cannot use our name, which is a protected trademark," a Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement.
"Dumb Starbucks" opened in a shopping centre on Friday and started giving away free drinks, generating long queues of people.
The decoration of the "Dumb Starbucks" is very similar to that of a real Starbucks.
The store front has the same green awning and round mermaid logo as Starbucks' coffee shops - except the work "Dumb" is placed in large letters above the word Starbucks.
The wall menu inside the pop-up store offered coffee that ranged from "horrible" to "bitter", as well as products called "dumb iced coffee" and "dumb white chocolate mocha."
The drinks were served in a white paper cup with a sticker of the Starbucks logo with the word "dumb" added to it.
None of the patrons were charged for their drinks, although there was a tip jar.
Source-BBC
UK seeing 'right kind of growth'
The UK economy is starting to see the right kind of growth, says employers organisation the CBI.
"Our forecast shows encouraging signs that business investment and net trade are starting to play their part," said CBI boss John Cridland.
He said the recovery was not a "debt-fuelled, housing bubble-led recovery", as some economists have feared.
However, Mr Cridland warned that political uncertainty ahead of the election could be a real "mood killer".
"There is no doubt that business leaders are concerned about political uncertainty as we enter a lengthy election campaign," he said.
"This could be a real mood killer when business leaders are faced with making big investment decisions in the months ahead."
The CBI, which represents some 240,000 businesses, predicts that business investment growth will rise at its fastest rate since 2007, helped by improving confidence amongst businesses and low borrowing costs.
In addition it is predicting that export growth will strengthen as the eurozone and the broader global economy pick up.
On housing, the CBI said that much of the price increases had been in London and the South East and were not being replicated across the country.
In line with other forecasters, the business group also upgraded its growth forecast for this year to 2.6%, up from 2.4% in November and said that it saw "no prospect" of an interest rate rise until late in 2015.
China and Taiwan in first government talks
China and Taiwan are about to begin the highest-level talks since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Wang Yu-chi and Zhang Zhijun, the top cross-strait officials from each side, will meet at the four-day talks in Nanjing.
Taiwanese officials said they would raise press freedom after Beijing denied access to some media outlets.
Beijing is likely to push Taiwan to pass a free trade deal that is currently stalled in parliament.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Taiwan, Mr Wang, head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, said: "My main aim during this visit to the mainland is to promote mutual understanding between the two sides."
In quotes carried by Taiwan news agency CNA, he added that he hoped the visit, which was "not easy", would go smoothly, and said the two sides would not be signing any agreements during the talks.
China insists that Taiwan is a part of its territory and has a stated aim of reclaiming the island.
Taiwan still calls itself the Republic of China and nominally claims the same territory as the Communist government in Beijing, although it does not press these claims.
The US is committed to defending Taipei, despite not formally recognising Taiwan as an independent country.
The situation has created a decades-long military stand-off between Beijing and Washington.
But cross-strait ties have improved since Taiwan's pro-Beijing President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008.
Cross-strait flights began in 2008, and tourists from the mainland have boosted Taiwan's economy.
Trade agreements have allowed Taiwanese technology firms to expand massively, investing billions of dollars in the mainland.
However, Mr Ma is unpopular and analysts say his governing Kuomintang party is likely to lose local elections later this year.
The talks are the first formal government-to-government dialogue since the 1949 split.
For years, mainland China and Taiwan dealt with each other indirectly, though so-called friendship associations and trade groups, the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing reports.
Amid all the smiles, tension remains: China refuses to retract its long-standing threat that it could eventually take back Taiwan, by force if necessary, our correspondent adds.
Taiwan negotiators are likely to propose the posting of permanent representatives on each other's territories.
But they will also face pressure to talk about press freedom after China refused accreditation to several media outlets.
"Press freedom is a universal value," Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.
"We've repeatedly said that the most important thing regarding news exchange between the two sides is the free and equal flow of information."
Many Taiwanese are sensitive to issues of press freedom, having lived under a dictatorship that tightly controlled the media until the 1980s.
Correspondents say Beijing's negotiators are likely to press for closer economic co-operation.
Source-BBC
White House 'Disappointed' N. Korea Withdraws Invitation
The United States says it is "deeply disappointed" by North Korea's decision to rescind an invitation for an American envoy to visit and discuss the release of an imprisoned U.S. citizen.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that the United States remains prepared to send Robert King, a State Department expert on North Korean human rights issues.
King was planning to visit North Korea to discuss the release of imprisoned U.S. missionary Kenneth Bae.
The State Department said it also supports efforts by U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson to help win Bae's release. It said Jackson has offered to travel to North Korea at the request of Bae's family.
It still is not clear what prompted the latest North Korean action. U.S. officials say it might be related to upcoming military exercises between the United States and South Korea.
Carney said the exercises should not be linked to Bae's case.
"We remind the DPRK that the U.S.-ROK military exercises are transparent, regularly scheduled and defense-oriented. These exercises are in no way linked to Mr. Bae's case, and we believe they know that."
South Korea announced Monday that military drills with the United States will begin later this month.
Also Monday, North Korea received a different American delegation.
A group led by Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul, arrived in Pyongyang Monday at the invitation of the North Korean Foreign Ministry. Lynn Turk, another former U.S. diplomat, who held talks in Pyongyang in the 1990s, said they were there "to build bridges" between their countries. Neither Turk nor Gregg mentioned Bae.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits South Korea later this week with issues concerning Pyongyang likely to dominate the talks.
On Friday, the U.S. State Department said the 45-year-old Bae has been transferred from a hospital to a labor camp.
North Korea arrested Bae in late 2012 and later sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor on charges of trying to overthrow the government.
Calls for his release on humanitarian grounds have gone unanswered.
Bae was born in South Korea and emigrated to the United States with his parents and sister in 1985. He was living in China as a Christian missionary for about seven years before his arrest.
Within the last few years, he began leading small tour groups, mostly of American and Canadian citizens, into a "special economic zone" designed to encourage commerce in northeastern North Korea.
Source-VOA
Car Bomb Instructor Accidentally Blows Up Iraqi Pupils
A group of militants attending a suicide bombing training class north of Baghdad died when their instructor unwittingly set off an explosives belt during a a demonstration.
At least 21 militants were killed in the huge blast Monday that alerted authorities to the existence of the rural training camp. Nearly two dozen people were arrested, including wounded insurgents trying to hobble away from the scene.
The militants belonged to a network now known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an extremist group that recently was disavowed by al-Qaida for not following orders.
The ISIL also has been known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
The militants are battling for control of mainly Sunni areas of western Iraq, in a key test of the Shiite-led government's ability to maintain security more than two years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
British Flood Crisis Swells on River Thames
Waterlogged British towns on the River Thames prepared Monday for days of new flooding, with officials issuing 14 more warnings as the fabled river burst its banks about 30 kilometers upstream of London.
The new alerts were issued as Prime Minister David Cameron toured parts of the devastated region for a second time in three days. Forecasters say new rains this week are expected to put thousands more homes at risk, with water levels surpassing record flooding in 2003 in much of the region.
Storms and tidal surges have battered Britain since December, inundating entire communities, destroying roads and infrastructure, and cutting rail connections between the southwestern city of Plymouth and the rest of England. Forecasters are calling the British winter the wettest in nearly 250 years.
Television footage Monday showed British troops and civilians piling sandbags to protect real estate in the village of Datchet, before the river breached its banks and left much of the community submerged.
There are no flood alerts in London itself, where river banks are protected by a series of giant metal gates known as the Thames Barrier. The gates can be closed against tidal surges, creating more space for excess water to pool upriver.
The flooding has sparked a political firestorm, with locals accusing Cameron's government of failing to dredge rivers and implement other flood prevention measures. The prime minister told reporters Monday his only interest is ensuring maximum government efforts to curb the impact of the disaster.
On Sunday, Communities Minister Eric Pickles acknowledged that the government made a "mistake" in not dredging area rivers. But he said the decision was based on the advice of the Environment Agency, a government body.
Pickles, a member of Prime Minister Cameron's Conservative Party, apologized for taking the advice, telling the BBC "we made a mistake."
Jamaicans Killed In Cayman Murder-Suicide
The media in the Cayman Islands are reporting an alleged murder-suicide yesterday morning involving two Jamaicans.
According to the Cayman News Service, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service identified the deceased as 21-year-old Nichelle Anna-Kay Thomas and 39-year-old Devon Roy Campbell.
The Cayman News Service says the two were found dead at an address in Lookout Gardens in Bodden Town on the island yesterday morning.
It is alleged that the woman was killed in a machete attack while the man hanged himself following the suspected murder.
A police spokesperson reportedly said the incident seemed to be a domestic tragedy.
Source- The Gleaner
Hundreds of workers picket offices in Dominican Republic
Hundreds of workers protested Monday morning in front of the headquarters of the country’s major business organization (CONEP), against an announced amendment to the labor code.
The workers grouped in the national unions CENUS, CASC and the CNTD also demand the preservation of the Dominican Social Insurance Institute (IDSS).
Chanting “respect for the labor code” the protesters called for a meeting of the National Wage Committee for June.
The CONEP has been urging an amendment to the Labor Code, especially the elimination of the Severance Pay, which business leaders say hurts competitiveness.
Source-Dominican Today