GM recalls Chevrolet Cruze over fire risk
US car manufacturer General Motors has recalled almost half a million cars to reduce the risk of fire.
It plans to modify Chevrolet Cruze sedans, a popular model, so that flammable liquids are not caught in the engine, GM said.
The recall affects 475,418 cars sold in the US, Canada and Israel that were assembled in Lordstown, Ohio, between September 2010 and May 2012.
GM said no crashes or injuries have been reported over the issue.
Recall notices are due to be sent out to Cruze owners in mid-July and the company estimates it will take about half-an-hour at a Chevrolet dealership to fix the problem, which has to do with the car's engine shield.
Cars of the same model built at other GM plants are not thought to have the same problem, the spokesman added, although its unit in Australia is investigating whether 10,000 cars sold there could be affected.
Nintendo to revamp 3DS handheld with bigger screens
Nintendo will start selling a version of its 3DS handheld gaming console with bigger screens from July.
The 3DS LL, which will be known as the XL outside Japan, will have displays that are almost twice as big as those on the current version.
It will be priced at 18,900 yen (£150) in Japan and $199.99 (£128) in the US. No European prices have been given.
The 3DS faces growing competition from smartphones, tablets and Sony's Playstation Vita handheld.
The gadget will go on sale in Japan and Europe from 28 July but will not reach the US until 19 August.
Screens on the 3DS LL will be 4.88in (124mm) and 4.18in (106mm) across as compared to 3.53in (90mm) and 3.02in (77mm) in the older model.
The larger size of the gadget will also mean it has a longer battery life. For 3D games, the device should run for more than six hours between recharges. For 2D games it should last up to 10 hours.
About 17 million 3DS devices have been sold since the device was released in 2011
In April, Nintendo reported its first annual loss as sales of its Wii console and other gadgets started to slow. It has hopes that a revamped games console, the Wii U, will return it to profitability.
Nintendo's shares have fallen 60% since the first 3DS launched in February 2011.
Eurozone four leaders agree economic growth package
Leaders of the eurozone's four biggest nations have agreed in principle to measures to boost growth equal to 1% of the currency area's economic output.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain outlined plans to push for a 130bn-euros (£104bn; $163bn) package.
But analysts suggest that with little or no new money involved, the significance of the agreement between the four was more symbolic than actual.
There is also still no consensus on issues such as common eurobonds.
"We want there to be a significant European growth package," said Italian PM Mario Monti.
He appeared at the press conference alongside Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
The four met in Rome ahead of an EU summit on the euro crisis next week.
The growth package is expected to comprise several measures already in the works to boost spending on infrastructure and other investments, backed by European taxpayer money:
- Increasing the capital of the European Investment Bank by 10bn euros, which would enable the EU government-backed institution to increase its lending capacity by several times that amount;
- Fully deploying unused money in the European Commission's regional funds;
- The creation of pan-European "project bonds" - common debts used to finance specific investment projects such as the construction of pan-european transport networks.
The agreement may represent a political victory for the recently elected French president, who has demanded a growth pact despite strong reservations expressed by his Germany counterpart.
The leaders also sought to agree other proposals on closer integration - including a banking union and a financial transactions tax - to be put forward at the broader EU summit.
However, at the end of less than two hours of talks, they did not reach any agreement on the idea of eurobonds - jointly-backed eurozone government debts used to finance EU government budgets.
'Here to stay'
Mr Monti had warned his EU peers that failure to agree on joint action would encourage market attacks on their economies.
He had predicted "progressively greater speculative attacks" without unified action from all the eurozone members.
Speaking after the talks, Mr Monti asserted in English that "the euro is here to stay, and we all mean it".
"We expect the conclusions of the EU summit will be more solid and credible compared with previous summits as far as growth is concerned," he predicted.
French President Francois Hollande, who made agreement of a European growth pact the central plank of his election platform last month, said the package would be "indispensable".
He said the four eurozone leaders had, he said, "made the prospect for growth much more concrete", asking whether anyone would have imagined a few weeks ago that the idea of growth would be on the agenda of the EU summit.
The French president said the four had also agreed to push for a pan-European tax on financial transactions - also known as a Tobin tax - another of the French President's election pledges.
The idea is opposed by the UK government, who says it would hurt the City of London unless the tax were also implemented in other non-European international financial centres, as well as by Sweden.
At the same time as the meeting in Rome, EU finance ministers - including the UK's George Osborne - agreed at a separate meeting in Luxembourg that no financial transaction tax would be applied to the EU as a whole, although some member states could push ahead with the idea on their own.
No agreement was reached on the idea of eurobonds - common eurozone government debts, which have been opposed, at least in the near term, by Germany.
Mr Hollande reasserted his support for the idea, saying "I consider eurobonds to be an option... and not in 10 years" - an implicit criticism of German Chancellor Merkel's position.
Spanish banks
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that growth and solid finances were two sides of the same coin and she stressed the importance of greater political integration.
Friday's talks had been expected to involve a formal Spanish request for eurozone financial assistance.
However, no mention of a request was made in the press conference following the talks.
Spain is expected to ask for up to 100bn euros to save its distressed banks.
The Spanish, Italian and French leaders have advocated a banking union for the eurozone, likely to entail much stronger central regulation and supervision of European banks, as well as the creation of a common Europe-wide deposit guarantee scheme.
Spanish and Greek banks have experienced significant withdrawals of deposits in recent months, on fears that they may be insolvent, or that their home nations may exit the euro.
All the banks in eurozone peripheral economies, including Italy, have found it very hard to borrow from other banks and money managers since last autumn, forcing the European Central Bank to provide them with an unprecedented trillion euros of three-year emergency loans over the New Year.
Chile's Lan and Brazil's Tam merge to create huge airline
Chile's Lan airline has completed a takeover of Brazil's Tam, creating the world's second largest airline by market value, to be known as Latam.
After two years of negotiations, Tam shareholders agreed to the takeover.
The new company will have its headquarters in the Chilean capital, Santiago.
Brazil and Chile have enjoyed years of economic growth, which has brought about a massive increase in air travel but also recently tougher competition.
Tam, once Brazil's leading airline, has seen its profits drop as rivals began to offer cheaper tickets and better deals.
Lan - a much bigger company flying to more than 20 countries - has the financial resources to make Latam Airlines Group a serious competitor in Brazil's huge internal market as well as overseas.
Latam's chief executive, Enrique Cueto, told the Reuters news agency that the new carrier "will focus on Brazil and will introduce important changes in the local airline market".
The combined revenues of Lan and Tam last year exceeded $13bn (£8.3bn). Their combined market value is second among the world's airlines to Air China.
Analysts say both companies gain from the deal.
The takeover is expected to save $700m in operating costs in the next four years.
Tropical Storm Debby Threatens US Gulf Coast
A tropical storm advisory has been issued for parts of four southern U.S. states as tropical Tropical Storm Debby, the fourth storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, makes its way to the Gulf Coast bringing heavy rains and thunderstorms.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center on Sunday afternoon said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour, and was expected to move northeast over the Gulf of Mexico over the next few days.
The storm is expected to make landfall on some of the low-lying coastal areas in Louisiana, prompting Governor Bobby Jindal to declare a state of emergency.
Tropical storm warnings also were issued for the Mississippi-Alabama border and parts of Florida.
Debby has forced the suspension of 8 percent of the region's oil and gas production.
Officials said nine production platforms and one drilling rig were evacuated. The reduced production is not expected to impact oil prices unless the storm strengthens and forces more production platforms to close.
This is the first time that four tropical storms have formed before July 1 during the Atlantic hurricane season, since record keeping began in 1851.
Western Powers Condemn Syria for Downing Turkish Military Jet
Western powers have condemned Syria for shooting down a Turkish military jet in a maritime border area, and have pledged to cooperate with Ankara in holding Damascus to account for Friday's incident.
In a statement issued Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the downing of the aircraft was a “brazen act” that reflects what she called Syria's “callous disregard for international norms, human life, peace and security.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said London is ready to purse “robust” U.N. Security Council action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said Rome will play an “active role” in a NATO meeting scheduled for Tuesday to respond to Syria's attack on the jet. A NATO spokeswoman said Turkey requested the NATO meeting under the alliance's founding treaty, which commits all members to protect one another's security and borders.
Details of the aircraft incident are still not clear.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused Syria on Sunday of shooting down the jet without warning in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. He said the jet's two pilots were on a training mission and inadvertently entered Syrian airspace for a brief period before leaving and being struck by Syrian fire several minutes later.
“The plane was not on a covert operation — it was on training mission to test radar, and the plane was unarmed.”
The Turkish pilots remain unaccounted for. Syria has said it fired on the jet because it was flying close to its coast, in violation of Syrian airspace.
Relations between Turkey and Syria have been tense since last year, when Ankara began criticizing Mr. Assad's deadly crackdown on an opposition uprising against his autocratic rule. Syria has criticized Turkey for hosting Syrian opposition forces. It accuses Turkish authorities of providing weapons and intelligence to the rebels.
Political observers in Turkey say the Turkish government's response to the attack on its aircraft has been restrained and measured so far. Ankara has promised to take strong, decisive and legitimate action once the facts of the incident are known.
In Syria Sunday, opposition activists said attacks by government and rebel forces killed at least 40 people across the country. They said fighting in the northeastern region of Deir el-Zour killed at least 13 people, while government shelling killed seven members of the same family in the northwestern province of Idlib.
Activists also said Syrian rebels captured a military post in the northern province of Aleppo, seizing a large amount of weapons. The activists' claims could not be independently confirmed.
Islamist Morsi Wins Egypt’s Presidential Election
Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi has been declared the winner of Egypt's presidential run-off, opening a new phase for the country following the toppling of Hosni Mubarak's government.
A huge cheer went up from Tahrir square, where supporters of Mr. Morsi gathered Sunday. The crowd celebrated with chants and fireworks — a big difference from nearly a year and a-half ago when Egyptians packed the square in anti-government protests.
Election officials say Mr. Morsi won nearly 52 percent of the vote, beating former prime minister and Mubarak-era official Ahmed Shafiq. Mr. Morsi becomes Egypt's first freely elected president.
Supporters of both Mr. Morsi and Mr. Shafiq had threatened a backlash should their candidate lose the closely contested election, but there were no reports of violence. Authorities deployed extra security around Cairo.
The United States issued a statement congratulating Mr. Morsi for his victory and urging him to advance national unity by “reaching out to all parties and constituencies” as he forms his new government.
Iran's foreign ministry and the Palestinian Authority also offered their separate congratulations to the region's newest elected leader.
Egypt's election commission was supposed to release the results Thursday, but said it needed more time to investigate fraud allegations against both candidates.
The office of the president emerges with fewer powers than the candidates expected when the army promised to hand over power to civilian rule by July 1.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces recently carried out a series of moves aimed at solidifying its power, including the court-ordered dissolution of the Islamist-dominated parliament. The council also declared an interim constitution that gives its generals and the courts final say over much domestic and foreign policy, as well as the process to create a new, permanent constitution.
Greece’s New Leaders to Miss EU Meeting
Greece has run into a snag in its efforts to renegotiate its European-led bailout, as health problems sidelined the new prime minister and finance minister ahead of a critical meeting with the European Union.
The government said Sunday that doctors had told Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to avoid travel after he had eye surgery on Saturday. Vassilis Rapanos was hospitalized with stomach pain Friday before he could be sworn in as finance minister.
Greece will be represented by Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos at the meeting in Brussels on June 28-29.
Mr. Samaras's week-old coalition government has called for the renegotiation of the harsh terms of the bailout, which is keeping Greece from bankruptcy.
Also, a visit to Athens Monday by officials of Greece's lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — has been postponed.
The debt inspectors were due to review the country's fiscal situation and resume talks that had been put on hold during Greece's nearly two-month political deadlock.
Turkey Accuses Syria of Shooting Down Jet in International Airspace
Turkey Sunday accused Syria of shooting down a Turkish military jet in international airspace and called for a NATO meeting on how to respond to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the pilots were testing the jet's radar capabilities when it was downed Friday over the Mediterranean Sea. The minister said the plane had entered Syrian airspace briefly, but had left about 15 minutes before it was shot down. Syrian and Turkish forces still are searching for the two missing pilots.
At Ankara's request, NATO officials say the alliance will meet Tuesday under Article 4 of its founding treaty, which commits all members to protect one anothers' security and borders.
Syria has acknowledged downing the plane, saying it trespassed on Syrian airspace. Syrian authorities said they shot down the jet in accordance with laws that govern such situations.
Relations between Turkey and Syria are tense, with Turkey condemning Syria's bloody crackdown on protests against the government of President Assad. Meanwhile, Damascus has accused Ankara of providing weapons and intelligence on its forces to Syrian rebels.
Turkey maintains that its plane was not involved in any covert activities.
Opposition activists in Syria say government forces and rebel forces continued to clash Sunday across the country, leaving some 40 people dead.
Turkey has joined nations such as the United States in saying President Assad should step down because of the uprising in his country.
A disapointing finish for Delano Williams at trials
Turks & Caicos tracks star Delano Williams took part in the Olympic trails on Sunday afternoon in the UK.
In his first trial, Delano ran 20.91 in the heats which was a significant qualifying time for the 200 meters, however had a bad start and came seventh in his final heat with a time of 21.5 coming seventh.
Speaking with Delano in the UK earlier, he lamented, "Today was just not my day, I had a bad start, I know what my error was and will be working on it."
RTC Sports has not yet received confirmation as yet as to whether his times will allow him to qualify for the UK team.