NEW YORK – If you’re having a bad week, consider that Warren Buffett has lost $2 billion and it’s only Tuesday. Buffett is known for shunning the quick buck and focusing on the long-term performance of his investments. He’d best not change that this week. His Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) investment house holds big pieces of…
MOSCOW – Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive of French oil company Total, has died in an air crash in Moscow. His corporate jet collided with a snow plough and then was engulfed in flames. All four people on board were killed. The driver of the snow plough was drunk, according to Russian investigators. Mr…
BAHGDAD – Iraq’s parliament has approved new defence and interior ministers, completing the new Iraqi government after weeks of delay. Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, a Shia, was appointed interior minister, while Khaled al-Obeidi, a Sunni, was confirmed as defence minister. It comes as Iraq’s military seeks to tackle Islamic State (IS) militants who have seized large…
TEXAS – A second health worker in the US state of Texas has tested positive for Ebola, health officials say. Both health workers treated Liberian man Thomas Duncan, who died last week after becoming the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the US. Meanwhile, the UN’s Ebola mission chief says the world is falling behind…
BEIJING – The BBC’s website was blocked in China on Wednesday, one day after a video of Hong Kong police beating and kicking a pro-democracy protester began circulating online. The move appears to be the first time the British broadcaster’s website has been completely blocked in China since December 2010, when it was inaccessible for…
MADRID – Investigations are under way at a hospital in Madrid after a Spanish nurse became the first person known to have contracted the deadly Ebola virus outside West Africa. The nurse had treated two Spanish missionaries who died of the disease after being flown home from the region. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has…
BRAZILIA – Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after incumbent Dilma Rousseff fell short of an outright victory in Sunday’s election. She received 42% of the vote and will face centre-right rival Aecio Neves, who won 34%, on 26 October. In a surprise result, prominent environmentalist Marina Silva got only 21% despite…
WASHINGTON – US Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, who has been skewered by critics over the Sept. 19 White House security breach, has resigned, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “Today Julia Pierson, the director of the United States Secret Service, offered her resignation, and I accepted it,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson…
NEW YORK – The richest man in America, who leads one of the world’s biggest and most influential philanthropies, keeps time with a 10-buck wristwatch. And this summer, for his wife’s 50th birthday, Bill Gates and family headed to Austria for a “Sound of Music” vacation. Where he sang and, he admitted, wore Lederhosen. Such…
PARIS – A corruption investigation against French former President Nicolas Sarkozy has been suspended, French media say. They quote judicial sources as saying that Paris appeals court will now study a request by Mr Sarkozy for the case to be dismissed. Mr Sarkozy, 59, is still facing several other judicial investigations. Last week he said…
