China steps up effort to diversify FX reserves

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has set up a new unit to help diversify its $3.31 trillion holdings of official reserves, the country's currency regulator said on Monday.The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said the SAFE Co-Financing office had been created to explore new investment options that preserve and increase the value of the world's largest currency reserve stockpile."In recent...

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U.S. economy to grow 2.5 percent this year: Fed's Evans

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is expected to grow by 2.5 percent in 2013, improving to 3.5 percent growth in 2014, top Fed official Charles Evans said on Monday.Evans also forecast the U.S. unemployment rate would be 7.4 percent this year, easing to about 7 percent in 2014."One good indicator of labor market improvement would be if we saw payroll employment increase by 200,000 each month...

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Chicago-area RTA: United running 'sham' business

CHICAGO (AP) — A transportation agency plans to file a lawsuit Monday alleging that United Airlines is falsely claiming to buy huge amounts of jet fuel out of a small, rural Illinois office that doesn't even have a computer to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars in taxes in Chicago, where the purchases are allegedly being made.The Regional Transportation Authority alleges United Aviation Fuels...

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Sweden scraps rule, paves way for more north Americans

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Swedish Ice Hockey Association has cleared the deck for more players from north America in its clubs by deciding to scrap a rule that limits teams to two non-EU players."There has been a desire from clubs to avoid having to limit themselves only to the European market," association chairman Christer Englund told Aftonbladet newspaper."Instead of forcing clubs to limit themselves,...

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Mediators unable to breathe life into stalled labor talks

NHL and the NHL Players Association regarding the difficulties of their current labor …more (Reuters) - National Hockey League (NHL) owners and players appear no closer to ending a lockout that could wipe out an entire season after working with U.S. federal mediators for a second consecutive day on Thursday.The mediators and NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) Executive Director Donald Fehr were back...

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Labor dispute moves into courts with talks stalled

(Reuters) - After three months of failed negotiations, the labor dispute between the National Hockey League and locked out players moved into the courts on Friday, with the league filing a class action complaint against the players' union.The league asked U.S. courts to confirm the legality of the lockout. It also filed an unfair labor practice against the players' union.The move appears to be a...

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Local Leaks Tipsters Allege Steubenville Victim Was Drugged

The latest information posted to Local Leaks, the Wikileaks-like site that has devoted itself to finding details about Steubenville's so-called "Rape Crew", is what they say is an account from the night of the alleged gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl. Local Leaks, which uses and utilizes hacks and tipsters driven to the site from the hacktivist group known as Anonymous, posted what they say is a basic...

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Android’s explosive content consumption growth threatens Apple

Smartphone market share surveys from IDC and Kantar have shown for a long time that the Android phone volume surge is leaving the iPhone in the dust in major growth markets from Brazil to India. But one thing that Apple has had on its side has been the propensity of iPhone owners to consume far more content than Android phone owners. One argument has been that it does not matter if iPhone has a 5%...

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Look Who's Already in Trouble Over the Steubenville Rape Case

If this was the week that the whole country found out about the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in football-crazedSteubenville, Ohio, next week might be the one when the punishments arrive. Steubenville High's famed football coach may resign as soon as Monday, and the recent graduate whose shocking video confession was leaked by hackers who took the case nationalmay be...

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Egypt's ultraconservative party names new leader

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's largest ultraconservative Islamist party, which has emerged as a potent political force in the country, elected a new leader on Wednesday after the previous head broke away to form his own political group following months of infighting.Younis Makhyoun, a 58-year-old cleric and trained dentist, was selected in a consensus vote to lead the Salafi Al-Nour party, one of several religion-based...

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