BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel's domestic popularity has declined, a poll showed on Sunday, with 50 percent of Germans against her serving a fourth term in office after a federal election next year.
A series of violent attacks on civilians in July, two of which were claimed by Islamic State, have focused attention on Merkel's open-door migrant policy, which allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere into Germany last year.
Half of the 501 people questioned in the Emnid poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper were against Merkel staying in office beyond after the 2017 election, with 42 percent wanting her to remain.
In November, the last time Bild am Sonntag commissioned a survey on the issue, 45 percent had been in favor of Merkel serving a fourth term, with 48 percent against.
The head of Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Frank-Juergen Weise, told the newspaper that he expects a maximum of 300,000 refugees to arrive in Germany this year.
Merkel, asked about her plans for the 2017 election in an interview with regional newspapers published on Tuesday, said: "I will comment on that at the appropriate time. I'm sticking to that."
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by David Goodman)

Half of Germans against Merkel serving fourth term: poll


German Chancellor Angela Merkel's domestic popularity has declined, a poll showed on Sunday, with 50 percent of Germans against her serving a fourth term in office after a federal election next year.


Bolivia's President Evo Morales speaks during a news conference at the presidential palace in La Paz, Bolivia, August 26, 2016. Courtesy of Bolivian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
Riot policemen gather at a blocked main highway during a protest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales' government policies, in Panduro south of La Paz, Bolivia, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/David Mercado
Bolivia's Minister of Government Carlos Romero makes an announcement regarding the death of Bolivian Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes after Illanes was kidnapped by striking mineworkers, in La Paz, Bolivia, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/David Mercado
Independent miners block a main highway during a protest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales' government policies, in Panduro south of La Paz, Bolivia, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/David Mercado
Relatives of Bolivian Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes are seen in La Paz, Bolivia, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/David Mercado
Bolivian Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes is seen in this undated picture. REUTERS/APG Agency
An independent miner returns a tear gas capsule during clashes with riot police during a protest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales' government policies, in Panduro south of La Paz, Bolivia, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/APG Agency
Independent miners are seen among tear gas cloud during clashes with riot police during a protest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales' government policies, in Panduro south of La Paz, Bolivia, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/APG Agency
An independent miner returns a tear gas capsule during clashes with riot police during a protest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales' government policies, in Panduro south of La Paz, Bolivia, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/APG Agency
LA PAZ Bolivian miners lifted the roadblock where violent protests had taken place this week, a day after a government deputy minister was beaten to death, with President Evo Morales calling Friday a day of "deep pain" for the country.
Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes, 56, was killed on Thursday after being taken hostage by workers who had blocked a major highway in Panduro, around 160 km (100 miles) from capital city La Paz. Officials said he died of blows to the head.
The workers were demanding more mining concessions with less stringent environmental rules.
"Our natural resources belong to the people, which is why I call brother Illanes a hero in the defense of our natural resources," Morales told local media, calling for a three-day period of mourning.
Illanes had traveled to Panduro to negotiate with the miners. His body was found in the early morning by the side of the highway that connects La Paz with the city of Oruro, wrapped in a blanket, said Edwin Blanco, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation.
"The cause of death was basically bleeding in the brain. Ribs were also broken," Blanco told reporters.
Morales said the protests and Illanes' death looked to be part of a "political conspiracy rather than a legitimate social claim" made by the miners.
Morales, an ex-coca grower, nationalized Bolivia's resources sector after taking power in 2006, initially winning plaudits for plowing the profits into welfare programs.
But his government has been dogged by accusations of cronyism and authoritarianism in recent years. Some labor unions have soured on him as falling commodity prices have crimped spending.
The Panduro protest turned violent this week after a highway was blockaded. Two workers were killed on Wednesday after police fired shots. The government said 17 police officers had been wounded.
Bolivia's Panduro area has zinc, gold and silver mines. Most of the country's miners, including those involved in the protests, work in cooperatives. Unlike neighboring Peru and Chile, there are few foreign-owned mining companies.
(Reporting by Daniel Ramos; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Bolivian miners lift roadblock after official beaten to death


Bolivian miners lifted the roadblock where violent protests had taken place this week, a day after a government deputy minister was beaten to death, with President Evo Morales calling Friday a day of "deep pain" for the country.


The logo of Mondelez International is pictured at the company's building in Zurich November 14, 2012. REUTERS/Michael Buholzer
Mondelez International Inc (MDLZ.O), the maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates, said it was no longer pursuing the acquisition of Hershey Co (HSY.N), two months after the U.S. chocolate company turned down its $23 billion cash-and-stock bid.
The abandoned deal, which would have created the world's largest confectioner, underscores the grip that the charitable trust, set up by the company's founder Milton Hershey over a century ago to fund and run a school for underprivileged children, has on the maker of Hershey's Kisses and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
Hershey rejected a $107 per share acquisition offer from Mondelez at the end of June. An unrelated row between the trust and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office ensued over the trust's governance, which resulted in a reform agreement being announced at the end of July.
The agreement calls for the trust's board to be expanded from 10 members to 13, and for five members to resign in order for 10-year terms to be enforced. One trustee resigned last month, leaving a total of nine openings.
Mondelez's Chief Executive Officer Irene Rosenfeld approached Hershey Chief Executive John Bilbrey again last week, and indicated that Mondelez would be willing to offer up to $115 per share for Hershey, according to a source familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified because they were confidential.
Hershey responded that the trust would not be able to consider an offer until it is reconstituted next year, the source said. Even then, Hershey would not be willing to enter into deal negotiations for an offer of less than $125 per share, the source added.
Hershey did not respond to a request for comment. Its shares fell 11.4 percent in after hours trading in New York on Monday to $99.00.
"Following additional discussions, and taking into account recent shareholder developments at Hershey, we determined that there is no actionable path forward toward an agreement," Rosenfeld said in a statement.
The Hershey trust holds 81 percent of the company's voting stock, and so a sale is not possible without its approval. About two-thirds of its $12 billion in assets are in Hershey stock.
Mondelez's offer was half in cash and half in stock, sources have said. That means new board members of the trust, which must approve any sale of Hershey, could use such a transaction to substantially reduce its exposure in Hershey by partially cashing out on its stake.
"While we are disappointed in this outcome, we remain disciplined in our approach to creating value, including through acquisitions," Rosenfeld said on Monday.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Gayathree Ganesan and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey and Tom Brown)

Mondelez abandons pursuit for U.S. chocolate maker Hershey


Mondelez International Inc (MDLZ.O), the maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates, said it was no longer pursuing the acquisition of Hershey Co (HSY.N), two months after the U.S. chocolate company turned down its $23 billion cash-and-stock bid.


UPDATE 1-Facebook changes 'Trending' feature to rely less on human editors
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 26 Facebook Inc changed its popular "Trending" feature, which shows users the most-talked about topics of the day, to make it more automated and further eliminate the potential for human bias, the company wrote in a blog post on Friday.

BRIEF-Greenfields Petroleum Corp reports qtrly loss per share $0.12


Carlos, a member of the 51st Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is seen at a camp in Cordillera Oriental, Colombia, August 16, 2016. REUTERS/John Vizcaino
Eduar, a member of the 51st Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is seen wearing a cap with badges showing images of Che Guevara and FARC's late founder Manuel Marulanda at a camp in Cordillera Oriental, Colombia, August 16, 2016. REUTERS/John Vizcaino
A machine gun and a chair are pictured in at a camp of the 51st Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Cordillera Oriental, Colombia, August 16, 2016. REUTERS/John Vizcaino
A member of the 51st Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) walks at a camp in Cordillera Oriental, Colombia, August 16, 2016. REUTERS/John Vizcaino
Leidi, a member of the 51st Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), poses for a picture at a camp in Cordillera Oriental, Colombia, August 16, 2016. REUTERS/John Vizcaino
BOGOTA Colombia's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, said in a statement on Saturday they will hold their final conference on Sept. 13-19 to ratify a peace accord with the government.
The deal between the leaders of the leftist guerilla group, referred to as FARC, and the government was announced Wednesday in Havana, after almost four years of talks. The rebels have agreed to lay down arms after half a century of war.
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has sent the text of the accord to Congress, where legislators have 30 days to go over it before a national referendum on Oct. 2.
(Reporting by Helen Murphy; Writing by Alden Bentley; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Colombia's FARC rebels to hold final conference, peace vote September 13-19


Colombia's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, said in a statement on Saturday they will hold their final conference on Sept. 13-19 to ratify a peace accord with the government.


WASHINGTON U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday night that he would make a major speech on illegal immigration in Arizona on Wednesday.
The announcement came a day after Trump said he would crack down on illegal immigrants who overstay their visas, as he sought to clarify his views on how to overhaul the U.S. immigration system. Last week, Trump had said he was "softening" on his plan to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants.
That stance had aroused criticism from conservatives who wanted him to stand fast after he won the Republican presidential nomination in large part with a hard-line position that called for building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
"I will be making a major speech on ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION on Wednesday in the GREAT State of Arizona. Big crowds, looking for a larger venue," Trump, who had postponed an immigration speech originally planned for last Thursday in Denver, said in his tweet on Sunday.
In another tweet on Sunday night, Trump said both he and Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival for the Nov. 8 election, should release detailed medical records. "I have no problem in doing so! Hillary?"
In his speech on Saturday in Iowa, Trump said he would seek to institute a tracking system to ensure illegal immigrants who overstay their visas are quickly removed, and would propose an e-verify system to prevent undocumented residents from gaining access to welfare and other benefits.
"If we don’t enforce visa expiration dates, then we have an open border – it’s as simple as that," he said.
Trump said his first priority on taking office next January would be the immediate deportation of thousands of undocumented immigrants who remain in the United States despite having committed crimes.
"These international gangs and cartels will be a thing of the past," he said. "Their reign of terror will be over. In this task, we will always err on the side of protecting the American people – we will use immigration law to prevent crimes, and will not wait until some innocent American has been harmed or killed before taking action."
Trump did not explain how his plan would affect undocumented residents who have been in the United States for decades and obeyed U.S. laws.
(Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Bill Trott)

Trump to give speech on illegal immigration on Wednesday


U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday night that he would make a major speech on illegal immigration in Arizona on Wednesday.


The Kansas City area was flooded late Friday after a three-day downpour, forcing emergency services to conduct about 10 water rescues in Missouri's largest city, officials said.
News photos showed vehicles stopped or abandoned as flood waters swelled across streets. No injuries nor fatalities were reported.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency notice to the Kansas City area for the first time ever on Friday night that went into Saturday morning.
The flooding had receded within the urban center later on Saturday, but rivers in more rural regions north of the city were still overflowing, said Dan Hawblitzel, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Kansas City.
Rains and some thunderstorms were forecast in parts of the region on Saturday, but were not expected to cause further flooding, Hawblitzel said.
Widespread precipitation in the region had brought anywhere from 3 to 8 inches of rainfall to the city since Wednesday, causing waterways in the region including the Missouri River to overflow, Hawblitzel said.
"Some parts of the city received more rain last night than they had seen all summer long," he said in a phone interview, noting it was the first time the weather service had issued a flash flood emergency for the region since it began such notices in the past decade.
Kansas City's Fire Chief Paul Berardi posted the emergency warning on Twitter late Friday, adding the department was conducting water rescues in three parts of the city.
A spokeswoman for the Johnson County Emergency Management office on Saturday said they had received reports of approximately 10 water rescues and had no reports of injuries or fatalities.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Bernard Orr)

Kansas City area hit by floods after three days of downpour


The Kansas City area was flooded late Friday after a three-day downpour, forcing emergency services to conduct about 10 water rescues in Missouri's largest city, officials said.


A man looks at his phone as he walks past an authorised apple reseller store in Galway, Ireland August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
DUBLIN Ireland's cabinet may be given more time to decide on whether to back the finance minister's recommendation that Dublin appeal the European Commission's ruling against its tax dealings with Apple (AAPL.O), another minister said on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday he "disagreed profoundly" with the Commission's order that Apple should hand over to Ireland unpaid taxes of up to 13 billion euros ruled to be illegal state aid. He will seek approval for an appeal from cabinet at 1030 GMT.
The minority government led by Noonan's Fine Gael is reliant on the support of a number of independent lawmakers, a group of whom, the Independent Alliance, said on Tuesday that they were reviewing the decision and would need to further consult with Noonan, tax officials and independent experts.
If the Independent Alliance refused to back an appeal and pulled out of government, Fine Gael would no longer have sufficient support in parliament to pass legislation and the government could collapse.
"I'm sure, if people need time to understand this matter, that we will create the time and space to do this properly," Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe of Fine Gael told national broadcaster RTE when asked if Prime Minister Enda Kenny would allow the Alliance more time if they ask for it.
"We will be able to make a decision but it is appropriate that we give this the time it needs. I am very confident that this government will work its way through this issue and continue with the mandate the Irish people have given us."
Fine Gael is also reliant on an agreement with its biggest rival, Fianna Fail, to abstain on key votes to facilitate the minority government. Fianna Fail said on Tuesday it would back an appeal through the European Courts.
Both parties were criticized by left-wing Sinn Fein, the country's third largest party. It said the government should accept the Commission's ruling and impose the tax bill on the iPhone maker, which says it will also appeal.
"It is important that Irish taxpayers are represented at today's cabinet meeting. The Independent Alliance have an opportunity to do that. They should oppose any appeal and insist that the correct tax bill is paid by Apple," Sinn Fein's David Cullinane said in a statement.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)

Irish cabinet may need more time to decide on Apple appeal: minister


Ireland's cabinet may be given more time to decide on whether to back the finance minister's recommendation that Dublin appeal the European Commission's ruling against its tax dealings with Apple (AAPL.O), another minister said on Wednesday.


A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Twitter Inc said it would share some of the advertising revenue on videos created by its individual users in the United States as part of an expanded video advertising program.
The microblogging service provider's Amplify Publisher Program is currently restricted to large companies such as CBS Corp's CBS News and organizations such as the National Football League and Major League Baseball.
A user has to check a box prior to tweeting videos, after which ads will run on the video before it starts. "A portion of the ad revenue is then shared back with creator," Twitter said in a blog post on Tuesday. (bit.ly/2c8qoDx)
Twitter will share 70 percent of the revenue with the video creator, technology website Recode reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Google's YouTube shares 55 percent of the ad revenue, Recode said. Twitter's terms for individual video creators will be the same as those for its Amplify partners, the website reported. (on.recode.net/2coLtxB)
Twitter said individual users would also be allowed to share their videos on other platforms.
Under Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, the company has made a significant push into video, signing deals with several media companies and sports organizations to stream major events.
Twitter shares down slightly at $18.45 in noon trading.
(Reporting by Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)

Twitter to share ad revenue on videos by U.S. individual users


Twitter Inc said it would share some of the advertising revenue on videos created by its individual users in the United States as part of an expanded video advertising program.


The great stock buyback boom may be on the wane, undermined by falling company earnings.
U.S. company stock buybacks are down 21 percent in the first seven months of 2016 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to TrimTabs Investment Research, a fall driven in part by five consecutive quarters of year-over-year earnings declines among S&P 500 stocks.
Buybacks, which cancel shares and thus increase per-share earnings, have played a crucial role in supporting the stock market since the financial crisis, flattering earnings even for companies with static or falling revenues.
They, along with dividends, return cash to shareholders, a process often facilitated by borrowed money.
“My biggest concern, which I voiced at the start of the year and continue to worry about, is the sustainability of cash flows. Put bluntly, U.S. companies cannot keep returning cash at the rate at which they are today,” Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at New York University, writes in his blog.
(here)
Over the first six months of the year S&P 500 companies paid out 112 percent of their earnings in the form of either dividends or share buybacks. That, Damodaran argues, is the kind of figure you might expect to see when a recession had suddenly crimped company cashflows, not during a very long-running, if tepid, expansion.
The last time companies were paying out this much more than they are taking in was in 2008, when the financial crisis hammered revenues faster than companies could cut buybacks and dividends.
“Unless earnings show a dramatic growth (and there is no reason to believe that they will), companies will start revving down (or be forced to) their buyback engines and that will put the market under pressure,” according to Damodaran.
Facing difficulty in growing top-line revenues, companies have been able to fund outsized cash distributions and buybacks by selling bonds to a market hungry for an alternative to Treasury bonds and their extremely low yields. That same hunger, which has as its underlying cause extraordinary monetary policy, has also driven appetite for equities, as investors felt forced to take on more risk to gain even a modicum of reward.
RISING DEBT BUT FALLING ENTHUSIASM
Companies have issued debt in such size that net debt compared to a standard measure of earnings is now at an all-time high for non-financial companies in the S&P 500, according to data from FactSet, having almost doubled in about five years.
Yet investors seem less enthusiastic about company buyback plans. A Goldman Sachs basket of companies with the highest share repurchases has underperformed the broader market this year.
Certainly the very idea of buybacks has come under increasing scrutiny. While a share buyback improves per share earnings performance, it is a piece of financial engineering which increases leverage but does nothing to improve a company’s product offerings or market position, much less its long-term prospects. Indeed, the vogue for buybacks has happened at the same time as an otherwise puzzling lack of corporate investment, especially given that corporate profit margins are still high by historic standards.
For the buyback boom to truly end, one of two things must happen: companies must think better of it as a strategy, or funds must run short or become difficult to obtain. Even more likely, if money becomes more difficult to come by, the strategy rethink will become more urgent.
Corporate profits are still pretty high as a percentage of gross domestic product, but the trend, at least among the largest companies, is downward. If that carries on, and it clearly can even without the impetus of a recession, payouts must be cut or even more debt will be required.
As of yet, demand for corporate bonds remains strong. Yields on investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds are not far off all-time lows, driven by falling government debt interest rates. Volumes of bonds issued have been healthy too, though this year may see less issuance of corporate debt than last.
One potential problem for the corporate debt boom, and the accompanying buyback binge, would be rising interest rates.
While a return to historically normal rates seems far off, markets are now betting that the Fed makes its second interest rate hike in this tightening campaign in December, the anniversary of its first last year. As interest rates for safer instruments like Treasury bonds rise, the relative attractions of corporate debt and corporate leverage will fall.
Stocks won’t enjoy this process but long-term investors, who depend on company dynamism and on overall economic growth, should.
(Editing by James Dalgleish)

Kiss it goodbye, the great buyback boom is on the wane: James Saft


The great stock buyback boom may be on the wane, undermined by falling company earnings.


A drone photo shows the damages following an earthquake in Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano De Nicolo
Members of a Chinese rescue team are seen following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
A collapsed house is seen following an earthquake at Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
A coffee toy kit is seen on debris outside a damaged house, following an earthquake in Pescara del Tronto, central Italy August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
A woman stands next to a firefighter as he takes out belongings from her house following an earthquake in Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
The interior of a damaged house is seen following an earthquake at Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
A man sits on the rubble of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
The interior of a damaged house is seen following an earthquake in Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Rescue workers take a rest following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
A car covered by debris is seen near a collapsed house following an earthquake in Pescara del Tronto, central Italy August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
A car covered by debris is seen following an earthquake at Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
The partially collapsed school is seen following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
A road sign is seen in front of a collapsed house following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
Friars talk with a survivor in a tent camp set up as temporary shelter following an earthquake at Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Collapsed houses are seen following an earthquake in Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Two survivors hug at a tent camp set up as temporary shelter following an earthquake in Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
The interior of a damaged house is seen following an earthquake at Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
PESCARA DEL TRONTO, Italy Hopes of finding more survivors faded on Friday three days after a powerful earthquake hit central Italy, with the death toll rising to 267 and the rescue operation in some of the stricken areas called off.
Sniffer dogs and emergency crews continued to scour piles of rubble in Amatrice, a picturesque town popular with tourists which was leveled by Wednesday's quake and where 207 bodies have been retrieved so far.
But in nearby villages, such as Pescara del Tronto, rescuers pulled out after all the missing had been accounted for.
Italy plans to hold a state funeral for around 40 of the victims on Saturday, which will be held in the nearby city of Ascoli Piceno.
A day of national mourning was announced, with flags due to fly at half mast around the country for the dead, who include a number of foreigners.
The civil protection department in Rome said nearly 400 people were being treated for injuries in hospitals, 40 of them in critical condition. An estimated 2,500 people were left homeless by the most deadly quake in Italy since 2009.
Survivors with nowhere else to go are sleeping in neat rows of blue tents set up by emergency services close to their flattened communities.
"It was quite a tough night because you have a significant change in temperature here. During the day, it is very, very hot and at night it is very, very cold," said Anna Maria Ciuccarelli of Arquata del Tronto.
"There are still aftershocks preceded by booms and, for those of us who have just lived through an earthquake, it has a great effect, particularly psychologically," she said.
More than 920 aftershocks have hit the area since the original 6.2 magnitude quake struck early Wednesday.
"We have removed the last bodies that we knew about," said Paolo Cortelli, a member of the Alpine Rescue national service who helped to recover about 30 bodies from Pescara del Tronto.
"We don't know, and we might never know, if the number of missing that we knew about actually corresponds to the people who were actually under the rubble."
The foreigners who died in the disaster included six Romanians, a Spanish woman, a Canadian and an Albanian. The British embassy in Rome declined to comment on reports that three Britons, including a 14-year-old boy had died.
The area is popular with holidaymakers and local authorities were struggling to pin down how many visitors were present when the quake hit. The Romanian Foreign Ministry said 17 Romanians were still missing.
Italy has a large Romanian community, and some of the victims were resident in the country.
FUNERAL
The first funeral of a victim was held in Rome on Friday, for Marco Santarelli, the 28-year-old son of a senior state official, who died in the family's holiday home in Amatrice.
"I cannot find the words to describe the grief of a father who outlives his own children. Perhaps there are no words," Marco's father, Filippo Santarelli, told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Hardly a single building was left unscathed in Amatrice, which was last year voted one of the most beautiful old towns in Italy and is famous for its local cuisine.
"Amatrice will have to be razed to the ground," said mayor Sergio Pirozzi.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has declared a state of emergency for the region, allowing the government to release an immediate 50 million euros ($56 million) for the relief work.
He has promised to rebuild the shattered homes and said he would also renew efforts to bolster Italy's flimsy defenses against earthquakes that regularly batter the country.
"We want those communities to have the chance of a future and not just memories," he told reporters in Rome on Thursday.
Italy has a poor record of rebuilding after quakes. About 8,300 people who were forced to leave their homes after a deadly earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009 are still living in temporary accommodation.
Renzi declined to predict when the homeless might be rehoused. "This is not about setting challenges and making promises. We need the pace of a marathon runner," he said.
Most of the buildings in the area were built hundreds of years ago, long before any anti-seismic building norms were introduced, helping to explain the widespread destruction.
Cultural Minister Dario Franceschini said all 293 culturally important sites, many of them churches, had either collapsed or been seriously damaged.
Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe. Almost 30 people died in earthquakes in northern Italy in 2012 while more than 300 died in the L'Aquila disaster.
($1 = 0.8857 euros)
(This version of the story has been refiled to edit headline)
(Writing by Crispian Balmer and Philip Pullella, editing by David Stamp)

Italy quake death toll hits 267, state funeral planned


Hopes of finding more survivors faded on Friday three days after a powerful earthquake hit central Italy, with the death toll rising to 267 and the rescue operation in some of the stricken areas called off.


A general view at Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which is run by state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS), some 70 km (43.5 miles) from Adana February 19, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
BAGHDAD Iraq's government would consider selling crude through Iran should talks with the autonomous Kurdish region on an oil revenue-sharing agreement fail, a senior oil ministry official in Baghdad told Reuters.
Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) plans to hold talks with the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), possibly next week, about Iraqi oil exported through Turkey, Deputy Oil Minister Fayadh al-Nema said in an interview on Friday evening.
"If the negotiations come to a close" without an agreement "we will start to find a way in order to sell our oil because we need money, either to Iran or other countries", he said by telephone.
Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, depends on oil sales for 95 percent of its public income. Its economy is reeling under the double impact of low oil prices and the war against Islamic State militants.
The Kurdistan region produces around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) on its territory and exports those volumes via Turkey. Baghdad would not be able to reroute those volumes to Iran but could order shipments of some 150,000 bpd via Iran that are being produced in the nearby province of Kirkuk.
An agreement between Iran and Iraq could function in a similar fashion as oil-swap deals Tehran has had with Caspian Sea nations, according to an oil official who asked not to be identified.
Iran would import Iraqi oil to its refineries and export an equivalent amount of its own crude on behalf of Baghdad from Iranian ports on the Gulf. Iraq has ports on the Gulf but they are not linked to the northern Kirkuk fields by pipeline.
Iraq's state-run North Oil Company resumed pumping crude through the Kurdish-controlled pipeline to Turkey last week as "a sign of goodwill to invite them (the Kurds) to start negotiations," Nema said.
He said pumping had resumed on the instruction of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi following "some understanding" between Baghdad and Erbil. Abadi said on Tuesday the decision had been made to avoid damage to reservoirs.
The flow of crude extracted from Kirkuk by North Oil and pumped in the pipeline has been running at about 75,000 bpd since last week, or half the rate before it was halted in March, Nema said.
Should there be an agreement with the Kurds, flow through the pipeline would be increased to more than 100,000 bpd, not to the previous level of 150,000 bpd, he added.
Nema said about 20,000 bpd would be supplied to the refinery of Suleimaniya, in the Kurdish region, and 30,000 bpd would be refined locally in Kirkuk.
The pipeline carries crude to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, where the Kurds have been selling it independently on the international market, along with oil produced in their northern region.
The Kurdish government has been calling on Baghdad since March to resume the pumping of Kirkuk crude in full to help Erbil fund its war against Islamic State. Sources in Erbil have said splitting the Kirkuk flows would divide the Kurds and complicate the task of fighting the ultra-hardline militants.
A KRG spokesman in June told Reuters the Kurds are ready to strike an agreement with Baghdad if it guarantees them monthly revenue of $1 billion, more than double what they make currently from selling their own oil.
The dispute revolves around Kurdish oil exports that Baghdad wants to bring under its control.
"If Baghdad comes and says 'OK, give me all the oil that you have and I'll give you the 17 percent as per the budget', which equals to 1 billion, I think, logically it should be the thing to accept," KRG spokesman Safeen Dizayee said in June.
"Whether this oil goes to the international market or first to Baghdad and then to the market, it doesn't make any difference," he added. "We are ready to enter dialogue with Baghdad."
The Kurdish government stopped delivering crude oil to the central government about a year ago, a decision taken when Baghdad's payment fell under $400 million a month, Dizayee said.
It is also in a dispute with the central government over Kirkuk, where North Oil produces its crude and which the Kurds claim as part of their territory. The Kurds took control of the region two years ago, after the Iraqi army disintegrated when Islamic State overran a third of the country.
(Additional reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Exclusive: Iraq plans to sell oil through Iran if talks with Kurds fail


Iraq's government would consider selling crude through Iran should talks with the autonomous Kurdish region on an oil revenue-sharing agreement fail, a senior oil ministry official in Baghdad told Reuters.


EDINBURGH British Prime Minister Theresa May will not hold a parliamentary vote on Brexit before formally triggering Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday, without specifying sources.
May will not offer opponents the chance to stall the withdrawal and has consulted lawyers who say she has the power to invoke the exit without a parliamentary vote, the conservative newspaper said. A majority of the 650 lawmakers had declared themselves "Remainers".
Opponents maintain that since the EU referendum result is not legally binding, elected lawmakers should review the vote before the process is started.
The UK voted to leave the EU on June 23, but May has said she will not invoke Article 50, the formal two-year process for divorce from the bloc, before the end of the year to allow time to prepare the exit strategy.
No one at the prime minister's office was available to comment.
Senior members of the opposition Labour party have suggested that the issue could be subject to a vote by lawmakers or even a second public vote, and a law firm has initiated a legal challenge.
Two months ago 52 percent of Britons opted to leave the EU, but since then the process and what it could mean has been shrouded in uncertainty because the exit is unprecedented.
Gus O'Donnell, a former head of the civil service - the UK's professional administrative departments - said he hoped that by the time Britain leaves the EU it could be part of a "more loosely aligned" EU bloc because the process will take "years and years and years."
"While we can leave relatively quickly, what leaving means is a huge administrative and legislative change because of all of (the) rules and laws and directives that have been implemented over this last 40 years. My instinct is we will almost certainly stick with them and say, 'OK we'll keep them for now, so you can leave with everything in place,'" he told The Times newspaper.
The economic impact of Brexit is also unclear because, beyond a more than 10 percent fall in the value of sterling against other currencies, the signals are so far mixed.
(Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary and Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

British PM to trigger Brexit without vote by lawmakers: Telegraph


British Prime Minister Theresa May will not hold a parliamentary vote on Brexit before formally triggering Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday, without specifying sources.


Turkish armoured personnel carriers escort military vehicles on a main road in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Smoke rises from the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya, before rebels and residents start being evacuated under an agreement reached on Thursday between rebels and Syria's army, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki
A Turkish armoured personnel carrier escorts a military vehicle on a main road in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 26, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
ISTANBUL/KARKAMIS, Turkey Turkish forces will remain in Syria for as long as it takes to cleanse the border of Islamic State and other militants, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Friday, after a truck bombing by Kurdish insurgents killed at least 11 police officers.
The suicide bombing at a police headquarters in a province bordering Syria and Iraq came two days after Turkey launched its first major military incursion into Syria, an operation meant to drive Islamic State out of the border area and stop Kurdish militias from seizing ground in their wake.
Turkey, a NATO member and part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, has seen a series of deadly bombings this year blamed on the radical Islamists. But it also fears Kurdish militias in Syria will seize a swathe of border territory and embolden Kurdish insurgents on its own soil.
President Tayyip Erdogan said the bombing in Sirnak province would increase Turkey's determination as it fights terrorist groups at home and abroad. Yildirim said there was no doubt the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was responsible.
"From the beginning we have been defending Turkey's territorial integrity. We are also defending Syria's territorial integrity. The aim of these terrorist organization is ... to form a state in these countries... They will never succeed," Yildirim told a news conference in Istanbul.
"We will continue our operations (in Syria) until we fully guarantee security of life and property for our citizens and the security of our border. We will continue until Daesh (Islamic State) and other terrorist elements are taken out."
After he spoke, the PKK claimed responsibility for the attack on the police headquarters, according to a website affiliated to the group.
Syria has condemned the Turkish operation, codenamed "Euphrates Shield", as a breach of its sovereignty. Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes launched the incursion in support of Syrian rebels, mostly Turkmen and Arab, who quickly took the border town of Jarablus from Islamic State on Wednesday.
An alliance of 23 Kurdish parties in Syria also condemned the Turkish operation on Friday. In a joint statement, they called for a complete withdrawal of all Turkish forces from the country and accused Ankara of trying to occupy Syria under the pretence of fighting terrorism.
Turkish military vehicles shuttled in and out of Syria on Friday, Reuters witnesses said, including a construction machine that helped to flatten the route for a tank. Controlled explosions rang out around the Karkamis border crossing as Turkish security forces removed mines and booby traps left by Islamic State.
Ismail Metin, the commander of Turkey's second army responsible for the borders with Syria and Iraq, visited Jarablus on Friday, local sources said.
WEEKS OR MONTHS
Turkey has shown little sign so far of a quick withdrawal. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who met Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday, said Turkey was ready to stay in Syria for as long as it takes to destroy Islamic State.
A Syrian rebel commander in charge of one of the main groups involved in the Turkish-backed operation told Reuters the forces now aimed to move westward after taking Jarablus, an advance that could take weeks or months to complete.
Colonel Ahmad Osman, speaking to Reuters from Jarablus, said the priority was now to advance about 70 km (40 miles) west to Marea, a town where rebels have long had a frontline with Islamic State.
Turkey has long lobbied for a "buffer zone" in northern Syria controlled by what it regards as moderate rebels, potentially in border territory currently held by Islamic State and stretching about 80 km (50 miles) west of Jarablus.
Sweeping out Islamic State would deprive the group of a smuggling route taken by foreign fighters joining its ranks, and could also create a safe area for displaced civilians and help to stem the flow of refugees, Turkish officials have said.
They argue the proposal has become all the more urgent since Ankara began implementing a deal with the European Union to stop illegal migration earlier this year.
"The situation in Syria and Iraq is getting worse," Yildirim told a joint news conference with the visiting prime minister of Bulgaria, which has also been struggling to slow migrant flows.
"We're cleansing Islamic State and other terrorist elements (in northern Syria) so people living there are not forced to leave their homes. But the problem has to be comprehensively handled at the EU level. Solutions are needed quickly."
Syria's five-year conflict has killed at least a quarter of a million people and forced almost five million to flee the country, many of them to Turkey. The United Nations estimates that 6.5 million are internally displaced.
An agreement was reached on Thursday to evacuate around 4,000 civilians and 700 fighters from the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya, ending one of the conflict's longest stand-offs. Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) vehicles entered the area to prepare for the evacuation on Friday.
Syria's army has surrounded rebels and civilians and blocked food deliveries in Daraya since 2012, regularly bombing the area, one of the first places to see peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
OVERLAPPING INTERESTS
The suicide bombing in Turkey's southeastern town of Cizre is another reminder of the risks Ankara faces as its gets drawn ever more deeply into Syria's conflict, with the threat of reprisals from both Islamic State and Kurdish insurgents.
The provincial governor's office said 11 police officers were killed and 78 people, three of them civilians, wounded.
Large plumes of smoke billowed from the blast site.
Photographs showed a large three-storey building reduced to its concrete shell, with no walls or windows, surrounded by rubble.
Turkey views the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, as closely linked to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Washington, however, has backed the YPG in a separate campaign against Islamic State in northern Syria.
Turkish troops fired on YPG fighters south of Jarablus on Thursday, highlighting the cross-cutting of interests of two pivotal NATO allies.
The Cizre attack came as Turkey has been weakened by a failed July 15 military coup. More than 1,700 military personnel have been removed for their alleged role in the putsch, including some 40 percent of admirals and generals, raising concern about the NATO member's ability to protect itself.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Twitter that Islamic State, the PKK and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia were all attacking to take advantage of the failed coup.
Last week Erdogan accused followers of a U.S.-based Islamic cleric he blames for the coup attempt of being complicit in attacks by Kurdish militants.
The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, has denied any involvement in and denounced the coup plot.
(Additional reporting by Asli Kandemir, David Dolan, Can Sezer, Cagan Uslu, Edmund Blair in Istanbul; Dasha Afanasieva and Orhan Coskun in Ankara; Lisa Barrington and Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by David Stamp)

Turkey signals no quick end to Syria incursion as truck bomb kills 11


Turkish forces will remain in Syria for as long as it takes to cleanse the border of Islamic State and other militants, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Friday, after a truck bombing by Kurdish insurgents killed at least 11 police officers.


MOSCOW A fire in a warehouse at a Moscow printing works killed at least 16 people on Saturday morning, an Emergencies Ministry official told Rossiya-24 TV station.
"Sixteen bodies were found in a room, four injured were brought to hospitals in Moscow. The fire was completely put out by 0953 (0253 ET)," he said.
The ministry said on its website that 12 people were rescued. The TV station said the people, who lived and worked at the depot, were mostly from former Soviet Union countries.
The reason for the fire has not immediately been disclosed. Lax fire safety standards have often been blamed for such incidents in Russia.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by David Clarke)

Fire kills at least 16 in Moscow printing works


A fire in a warehouse at a Moscow printing works killed at least 16 people on Saturday morning, an Emergencies Ministry official told Rossiya-24 TV station.


Courteney Cox, director of the movie ''Just Before I Go'', poses at the premiere in Los Angeles, California, U.S. April 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo
Former "Friends" star Courteney Cox says she is now reconciled to looking older and regrets some procedures she had in the past to keep the wrinkles at bay.
Cox, 52, spoke out during an expedition with outdoor adventurer Bear Grylls in the Irish highlands, in which the pair abseiled down sheer cliffs and shared maggots found in a rotting sheep.
"Getting older has not been... I don't think it's the easiest thing. But I have learned lessons," Cox said in the "Running Wild with Bear Grylls" episode that aired on NBC television on Monday.
Cox, who spoke some years ago about using Botox and laser treatments to prolong her youthful looks, said she was now more relaxed.
"Sometimes you find yourself trying and then you look at a picture of yourself and go, 'Oh, God.' Like, you look horrible. I have done things that I regret, and luckily they're things that dissolve and go away. So, um, that's good, because it's not always been my best look. So, now I just have a new motto: 'Just let it be,'" she said.
Cox, who played Monica Geller for 10 years in the comedy series "Friends," is the latest star to speak out about the pressure women feel in Hollywood to maintain their looks.
Her "Friends" co-star Jennifer Aniston, 47, last month wrote that she was sick of the "sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily" in celebrity and other media, while "Bridget Jones" star Renee Zellweger, 47, slammed persistent speculation that she had undergone plastic surgery on her face or eyes.
"Too skinny, too fat, showing age, better as a brunette, cellulite thighs, facelift scandal, going bald, fat belly or bump? Ugly shoes, ugly feet, ugly smile, ugly hands, ugly dress, ugly laugh; headline material which emphasizes the implied variables meant to determine a person’s worth," Zellweger wrote in an August 5 blog for the Huffington Post.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Courteney Cox regrets 'horrible' bids to fight aging


Former "Friends" star Courteney Cox says she is now reconciled to looking older and regrets some procedures she had in the past to keep the wrinkles at bay.


Recording artist Chris Brown poses at the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Inglewood, California, in this file photo dated April 3, 2016. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
LOS ANGELES Police surrounded the Los Angeles home of Chris Brown on Tuesday in response to a pre-dawn 911 call from a woman there who asked for help, and media reports said the woman claimed the pop star had pointed a gun at her.
Brown, 27, denied any wrongdoing and said in posts on Instagram that he had woken up to find police outside and that they would need a warrant to enter the property in the Tarzana neighborhood in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.
"This morning, around three o'clock, officers responded to a radio call for a woman requiring assistance. The incident involved the residence of Mr. Chris Brown, where officers responded and met with that person," Lieutenant Chris Ramirez of the Los Angeles Police Department told reporters at a press conference.
Ramirez said the LAPD's robbery-homicide division would lead the investigation and interview any potential witnesses.
TMZ.com said the apparent stand-off outside Brown's home was triggered by an unnamed woman who had been a guest at the house on Monday night, and who told police the singer had pulled a gun on her. The woman has since left the house, TMZ said.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the woman said Brown had pointed a gun at her in a violent rage and that she had run outside to call police.
TMZ showed live-streamed images of police and fire vehicles stationed outside Brown's home and reported that his attorney, Mark Geragos, had also gone to the scene.
Geragos could not be reached by Reuters for comment.
In 2009, Brown assaulted his then girlfriend Rihanna, and in 2015 he finished a lengthy term of probation, community service and domestic violence classes. Brown has also been involved in several other incidents involving violence.
"I don't sleep half the damn night I just wake up to all these ... helicopters, choppers is around, police out there at the gate," Brown said on an Instagram video.
"What I do care about is you are defacing my name and my character and integrity," he added, saying he had done nothing wrong and criticizing police actions.
"I don't care y'all going to stay playing with me like I'm the villain out here, like I'm going crazy ... good luck when you get the warrant or whatever you need to do. You're going to walk right up in here and you're going to see nothing you idiots," he added.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Singer Chris Brown, police in standoff after 911 call by woman


Police surrounded the Los Angeles home of Chris Brown on Tuesday in response to a pre-dawn 911 call from a woman there who asked for help, and media reports said the woman claimed the pop star had pointed a gun at her.


NEW YORK One of the stars of "Ice Road Truckers," a reality TV show about the hazards of driving the frozen highways of northern Canada and Alaska, was killed in a plane crash in Montana over the weekend, a spokeswoman for the History channel said on Monday.
Darrell Ward, 52, was flying to Missoula to begin filming a pilot episode about the recovery of plane wrecks for a new documentary-style show, according to his Facebook page.
"We are saddened by the tragic loss of Darrell Ward, a beloved member of the History family," the channel said in a statement. "He will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time."
The co-pilot of the Cessna 182, 56-year-old Mark Melotz, was also killed when the plane crashed on the shoulder of Interstate 90 while trying to land at a nearby airstrip, according to local media. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Ward had finished filming the 10th season of "Ice Road Truckers," a show in which drivers haul cargo across dangerous frozen lakes and rivers to remote communities in Canada and Alaska.
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Frank McGurty and Paul Simao)

Star of reality TV's 'Ice Road Truckers' killed in plane crash


One of the stars of "Ice Road Truckers," a reality TV show about the hazards of driving the frozen highways of northern Canada and Alaska, was killed in a plane crash in Montana over the weekend, a spokeswoman for the History channel said on Monday.


Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera speaks at the launch of the Pirelli Calendar 2016 in London, Britain November 30, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall
Cast member Lupita Nyong'o poses at the premiere of 'The Jungle Book' at El Capitan theatre in Hollywood, California April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Cast member Kate Winslet poses for photographers at the closing night premiere of the film 'Steve Jobs' at the BFI London Film Festival October 18, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall
Actress Nicole Kidman arrives at the 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles, California January 30, 2016. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Penelope Cruz poses for a picture before the Spanish Film Academy's Goya Awards ceremony in Madrid, Spain, February 6, 2016. REUTERS/Susana Vera
LONDON Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Lupita Nyong'o have posed for the 2017 Pirelli Calendar, which features a host of Hollywood's biggest names.
The likes of Uma Thurman, Kate Winslet and 'House of Cards' actress Robin Wright are also among the 15 stars who appear in the calendar.
The photos were taken by the German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, who has shot for Pirelli twice before.
Other movie greats featured include Alicia Vikander and Helen Mirren, with the photos taken in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Le Touquet and New York.
The first Pirelli Calendar was published in 1963, and the publication has since featured many of cinema's best known performers.
(Reporting by Francis Maguire; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Hollywood stars pose for 2017 Pirelli Calendar


Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Lupita Nyong'o have posed for the 2017 Pirelli Calendar, which features a host of Hollywood's biggest names.


Nov 26, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) leaves the game with an injury during the second half of an NFL game against the Carolina Panthers on Thanksgiving at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
(The Sports Xchange) - Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo suffered a broken bone in his back on the third play of Thursday night's preseason game and coach Jason Garrett said the injury would cost the veteran a chunk of the 2016 season.
An MRI on Friday revealed Romo's back injury is much worse than anticipated, Garrett announced Saturday, two days after he was knocked out of the game against the Seattle Seahawks.
"We're confident that he's going to be coming back and playing football for us this year," Garrett said but provided no timetable on Romo's possible return.
A source told NFL Media's Ian Rapoport that the best-case scenario for Romo's return is during the middle of the season. According to a Pro Football Talk source with knowledge of the situation, Romo is expected to miss six to 10 weeks.
Romo underwent a pair of back surgeries in 2013 and he missed most of last season with a twice-broken left collarbone. Garrett said the injury is not related to the surgeries Romo had in 2013.
The Cowboys went 4-12 last season, including 1-11 with three backup quarterbacks, as Romo missed 12 games.
On Dallas' third offensive play on Thursday night, Romo scrambled from the pocket, then went into a slide near the line of scrimmage. He was crunched by Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril from the blind side.
After staying on the turf initially, Romo walked off on his own. He threw some passes on the sideline but was held out for the rest of the game by Garrett after lobbying to return. Romo completed his lone pass of the game for 11 yards.
"I was going into a slide," Romo said after the 27-17 loss to the Seahawks. "But in a weird way, I feel good about the fact that was probably as tough of a hit I've taken on the back as I've had in the last five years.
"From that regard, I feel very lucky that it can hold up and I can keep going."
Rookie fourth-round pick Dak Prescott likely will start the regular-season opener against the New York Giants on Sept. 11 if Romo is ruled out.
(Editing by Larry Fine)

Cowboys quarterback Romo has broken bone in back


(The Sports Xchange) - Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo suffered a broken bone in his back on the third play of Thursday night's preseason game and coach


PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Aug 31
The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

BRIEF-Boeing Commercial Airplanes announces passing of Joe Sutter on Tuesday


Aug 30 (Reuters) -* Boeing Commercial Airplanes announces passing of JoeSutter, known as the 'father of the 747', earlier on tuesday atthe age of 9


NEW YORK Six U.S. senators have urged President Barack Obama to prioritize cyber crime at this weekend's Group of 20 summit in China, in the wake of the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.
In the letter sent to the White House ahead of the Sept. 4-5 summit, Sherrod Brown, a senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and five other Democratic senators say they want the U.S. president to press leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies to commit in joint communiques to a "coordinated strategy to combat cyber-crime at critical financial institutions."
The letter, dated Monday, suggests that concern among U.S. lawmakers is growing over the February incident in which hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems and used the SWIFT banking network to request nearly $1 billion from an account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Some of the dozens of orders were filled, with much of the lost $81 million disappearing into Philippines casinos - prompting months of international finger-pointing, an ongoing investigation, and several requests from members of Congress for answers from the Fed and from SWIFT, the secure messaging service that banks use to transfer money around the world.
"Our financial institutions are connected in order to facilitate global commerce, but cyber criminals - whether independent or state-sponsored - imperil this international system in a way few threats have," the senators, headed by Gary Peters of Michigan, wrote in the letter to Obama.
"We strongly urge you to work with your counterparts and prioritize this discussion at the G20 leaders level in September," it said of the summit to be held in Hangzhou, China, adding that "executive leadership circles across the globe" needed to pay more attention to the risks.
A senator in the Philippines has said Chinese hackers were likely to have pulled off the Bangladesh Bank heist, citing a network of Chinese people involved in the routing of the stolen funds through Manila.
Beijing has dismissed the suggestion.
Copies of the letter from the U.S. senators were also sent to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
OBAMA-XI TALKS
The other senators signing the letter were Mark Warner and Martin Heinrich, both members of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence; Kirsten Gillibrand and Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
The White House expects G20 members at the summit "to affirm their commitment to cooperate to fight cybercrime and to enhance confidence and trust in the digital economy," a senior administration official said.
Asked generally about cyber security on Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a press conference: "I would anticipate that this issue more generally will be on the agenda" when Obama meets Chinese President Xi Jinping, the G20 summit host, later this week.
At a November summit, the G20 pledged not to conduct economically motivated cyber espionage, an agreement intended to reduce the estimated hundreds of billions of dollars worth of commercial trade secrets that are stolen by foreign governments seeking to benefit industry in their own countries.
Since then, the Bangladesh Bank attack and others that have emerged are only some of the threats posed by cyber criminals, the senators wrote. World regulators should "erect more robust defenses and collaborative systems to prevent and mitigate the impact of successful attacks," the letter said, noting that steps already taken by SWIFT are not enough.
Bangladesh said it supported raising the issue at G20.
"In most cases, cyber attacks and crimes take place from outside the country," said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, a junior government minister for information and communications technology.
"So while addressing fast growing cyber attacks, there should be a coordinated approach involving global stakeholders."
The Fed and other U.S. regulators said in a letter last week they were focused on cyber risks and controls at banks in the wake of the Bangladesh incident, though they offered few specifics.
Peters, a member of the Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told Reuters he is considering requesting a committee hearing on the heist.
"I am concerned about the response and what steps have been taken to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said in an interview. "You just need more collaboration and sharing of information... because often times all these entities aren't talking to each other."
(This story has been refiled with full name of Bangladesh minister)
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Dustin Volz in Washington and Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; Editing by Bernard Orr, Leslie Adler and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Exclusive: Six U.S. senators urge Obama to prioritize cyber crime at G20 summit


Six U.S. senators have urged President Barack Obama to prioritize cyber crime at this weekend's Group of 20 summit in China, in the wake of the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.


A pedestrian looks at an electronic board showing the various stock prices outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 4, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo
TOKYO Asian shares eased on Wednesday following modest losses on Wall Street, but were still on track for a monthly rise as investors waited to see if upcoming job data could prod the Federal Reserve into raising interest rates as soon as September.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.1 percent as traders awaited Friday's job report, but looked set for a near 2 percent gain in August.
Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 added 0.9 percent, poised to rise 1.8 percent for the month, as it got a boost from a weaker yen after upbeat U.S. data lifted the dollar overnight.
The dollar was steady at 102.93 yen JPY= after rising as high as 103.14 yen overnight, its strongest since July 29. It was up 0.9 percent for the month.
Data released earlier on Wednesday showed Japanese industrial output was flat in July from June, underscoring fragility in factory activity and falling short of economists' median forecast for a 0.8 percent rise.
Along with weak household spending data on Tuesday, Japan's latest gloomy data are reinforcing expectations the Bank of Japan will ease policy further in September even if many economists and businessmen think it won't do much good.
"While the latest string of Japanese data has been decent with the jobless rate improving and retail sales rising strongly in July, Japanese officials are clearly still frustrated with the weak growth in the economy," said Kathy Lien, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management.
If the U.S. unit breaks 103.50 yen, its next stop would be 104, Lien wrote in a note.
The euro was steady at $1.1146 EUR=, down 0.2 percent for August.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major counterparts, edged down slightly on the day to 96.010 .DXY but remained not far from its overnight high of 96.143, its highest since early August. It was on track to rise 0.5 percent for the month.
On Wall Street overnight, markets logged losses, dragged down by shares of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) after antitrust regulators ordered the company to pay about $14.5 billion in back taxes to the Irish government.
The S&P 500 .SPX fell for the fourth time in five sessions, but was still within 1 percent of its record closing high set earlier this month.
Friday's jobs report is expected to show employers added 180,000 jobs in August, according to the median estimate of 89 economists polled by Reuters. [ECONUS]
Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said in a television interview on Tuesday that the U.S. job market is nearly at full strength and the pace of the central bank's interest rate increases will depend on how well the economy is doing.
Markets were pricing in a 27 percent chance of a U.S. rate hike next month as of Tuesday, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. That probability would rise if the jobless figures were stronger than expected, showing U.S. employers continued their strong pace of hiring seen in recent months.
U.S. consumer confidence rose to an 11-month high in August, with households more upbeat about the labor market, data showed overnight.
Crude oil futures continued to slip after ending down for a second straight day on worries of oversupply and a strong dollar. [O/R]
Brent crude LCOc1 was down 0.1 percent at $48.31 per barrel after shedding 1.8 percent on Tuesday. U.S. crude CLc1 was down 0.2 percent at $46.24 after losing 1.3 percent overnight.
Spot gold XAU= edged up 0.1 percent to $1,311.66 an ounce after tumbling as low as $1,308.65 on Tuesday, its lowest since late June, pressured by the stronger dollar and growing expectations of higher U.S. interest rates.
(Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Asian shares ease, taking cue from Wall Street, oil slips


Asian shares eased on Wednesday following modest losses on Wall Street, but were still on track for a monthly rise as investors waited to see if upcoming job data could prod the Federal Reserve into raising interest rates as soon as September.


A worker sprays insecticide along the perimeter of a construction site, at an area where locally transmitted Zika cases were discovered in Singapore August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A worker mists the common area of a public housing estate with insecticide, near the vicinity where locally transmitted Zika cases were discovered in Singapore August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A worker mists with insecticide the perimeter of a construction site, at an area where locally transmitted Zika cases were discovered in Singapore August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A worker sprays insecticide along the common areas of a public housing estate at an area where locally transmitted Zika cases were discovered in Singapore August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su
SINGAPORE Australia, Taiwan and South Korea advised pregnant women and those attempting to get pregnant to avoid travel to Singapore after an outbreak of the Zika virus infected more than 50 people in the city-state.
The outbreak and the warnings come as a potential blow to tourism in one of the world's busiest travel hubs, which is already struggling to recover from a slump amid tepid global growth.
Singapore reported its first case of locally-transmitted Zika at the weekend, and the number of reported infections of the mosquito-borne virus has since jumped to 56. At least three dozen of those have since made a full recovery.
The Zika virus was detected in Brazil last year and has since spread across the Americas. It poses a risk to pregnant women because it can cause severe birth defects. It has been linked in Brazil to more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect where babies are born with abnormally small heads and brains.
The 56 confirmed cases in Singapore include only one woman.
Taiwan, Australia and South Korea advised pregnant women and those planning pregnancy to postpone trips to Singapore. Those returning from the country should avoid pregnancy for two months. South Korean travelers will receive text messages with the warning when they arrive in Singapore.
Malaysia and Indonesia, Singapore's closest neighbors, have stepped up protective measures following the outbreak, introducing thermal scanners at airports and border checkpoints.
Singapore's Tourism Board said it was monitoring developments, adding the city state remained a "safe travel destination", and it was premature to consider any impact.
More than 55 million people pass through Singapore's Changi airport every year. In the first half of this year, tourism arrivals reached almost 8.2 million, compared with around 7.3 million in the same period of last year.
Online retailer Lazada Singapore said on Tuesday it has seen sales of mosquito repellent and other deterrent products rise fivefold over the past three days compared to a week ago.
FOREIGN WORKERS
Authorities continued to inspect thousands of homes in seven parts of Singapore, including five foreign worker dormitories, on Tuesday. Officials sprayed insecticide and removed potential mosquito breeding habitats such as stagnant water and moist dirt from drains.
The majority of those infected with Zika in Singapore were foreign workers, but the government has not disclosed their nationalities. The High Commission of Bangladesh, which represents the largest community of foreign workers, said none of the workers were Bangladeshis.
The Chinese and Myanmar embassies in Singapore said they had not been notified by Singapore whether their citizens were among those infected. The Thai embassy did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Foreign workers in Singapore, employed mostly in the construction and marine industries, can earn as little as S$2 ($1.47) an hour, often work 12-14 hours a day and take few days off. They are unlikely to travel often.
The GuocoLand construction site, where the infected workers were found, remained closed on Tuesday morning, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene. It was ordered on Sunday to halt work and rectify the conditions that allowed mosquitoes to breed.
Regional health experts said the Zika virus is likely to be significantly under-reported across tropical Southeast Asia as local health authorities fail to conduct adequate screening.
(Reporting by Marius Zaharia, with additional reporting by Edgar Su, Aradhana Aravindan, Masayuki Kitano and Mark Tay in Singapore and Jeong Eun Lee in Seoul; Editing by Jane Wardell and Ian Geoghegan)

Australia, Taiwan, South Korea issue travel warnings for Singapore


Australia, Taiwan and South Korea advised pregnant women and those attempting to get pregnant to avoid travel to Singapore after an outbreak of the Zika virus infected more than 50 people in the city-state.


Juanita Gomez is shown in this undated booking photo in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma August 30, 2016. Courtesy Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS
A 49-year-old Oklahoma woman has been charged with first-degree murder on suspicion of killing her daughter whom she thought was possessed by the devil by jamming a crucifix down her throat and beating her, court records released on Tuesday showed.
Juanita Gomez was booked last week in the death of Geneva Gomez, whose body was found in an Oklahoma City home with a large cross on her chest, a probable cause affidavit said.
Local media said the daughter was 33 years old.
No lawyer was listed for Gomez in online jail records.
Police said Gomez confessed to the crime, telling officers she forced a crucifix and religious medallion down her daughter's throat until blood came out.
"Juanita saw her daughter die and then placed her body in the shape of a cross," the affidavit said.
Gomez was being held without bond at the Oklahoma County jail.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Oklahoma mother charged with using crucifix to kill 'possessed' daughter


A 49-year-old Oklahoma woman has been charged with first-degree murder on suspicion of killing her daughter whom she thought was possessed by the devil by jamming a crucifix down her throat and beating her, court records released on Tuesday showed.


Job seekers listen to prospective employers during a job hiring event for marketing, sales and retail positions in San Francisco, California, June 4, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/File Photo
NEW YORK U.S. private employers added 177,000 jobs in August, above economists' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 175,000 jobs, with estimates ranging from 135,000 to 225,000.
Private payroll gains in July were revised up to 194,000 from an originally reported 179,000 increase.
The report is jointly developed with Moody's Analytics.
The ADP figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department's more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment.
Economists polled by Reuters expect U.S. private payroll employment to have grown by 178,000 jobs in August, down from an increase of 217,000 the month before. Total non-farm employment is expected to have risen by 180,000.
The unemployment rate is forecast to tick down to 4.8 percent from the 4.9 percent recorded a month earlier.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

U.S. private sector adds 177,000 jobs in August: ADP


U.S. private employers added 177,000 jobs in August, above economists' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.


A mug-shot of Mark David Chapman, who shot and killed John Lennon, is displayed on the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death at the NYPD in New York December 8, 2005.
NEW YORK The man who shot and killed John Lennon in New York City nearly 36 years ago has again failed to persuade a state parole board to release him from prison on parole, officials said on Monday.
Mark David Chapman, 61, will remain behind bars at a maximum-security prison in Erie County near Buffalo, New York, after his request for parole was rejected for the ninth time since 2000.
Chapman, an obsessed fan of the musician and his former group the Beatles, was convicted of shooting Lennon as he arrived with his wife, Yoko Ono, at his apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side on Dec. 8, 1980.
Chapman received a sentence of 20 years to life after pleading guilty to a second-degree murder charge. His petition for parole has come up every two years since 2000.
"In spite of many favorable factors, we find all to be outweighed by the premeditated and celebrity seeking nature of the crime," the New York Board of Parole said in a statement on Monday rejecting Chapman's request.
"From our interview and review of your records, we find that your release would be incompatible with the welfare of society and would so deprecate that seriousness of the crime as to undermine respect for the law."
Chapman will next appear for a parole hearing in August 2018, according to online state records.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

John Lennon's killer denied parole for ninth time


The man who shot and killed John Lennon in New York City nearly 36 years ago has again failed to persuade a state parole board to release him from prison on parole, officials said on Monday.


Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim (C), flanked by Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar (L), Defense Minister Fikri Isik (R) and the country's top generals, leaves Anitkabir, the mausoleum of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, after a wreath-laying ceremony ahead of a High Military Council meeting in Ankara, Turkey, July 28, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Turkish armoured personnel carriers drive towards the border in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 27, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Turkish armoured personnel carriers drive towards the border in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 27, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
KARKAMIS, Turkey Turkey will not agree a truce with Kurdish militias in Syria as it considers them terrorists, officials said on Wednesday, after strains emerged with the United States over clashes between Turkish forces and the U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.
Washington has been alarmed by Turkey's week-long incursion into Syria, saying it was "unacceptable" for its NATO ally to hit militias loyal to Kurdish-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that Washington supports to fight against Islamic State.
U.S. officials on Tuesday welcomed what appeared to be a pause in fighting between Turkish forces and rival militias, although Ankara denied assertions from Kurdish fighters in Syria that a temporary truce had been agreed.
"The Turkish Republic is a sovereign state, a legitimate state. It cannot be equated with a terrorist organization," EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik told state-run Anadolu news agency, adding this meant there could be no "agreement between the two."
His comments were echoed by President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, who said Turkey would continue striking Kurdish militia until they withdrew from the region where Turkish forces are fighting.
Turkey's aim was to drive Islamic State out of a 90 km (56 miles) stretch of Syrian territory running along the border, Kalin said. Turkey has long said it wants a "buffer zone" in the area, although it has not used the term during this incursion.
After days when the border area reverberated with warplanes roaring overhead into Syria and artillery pounded Syrian sites, only the occasional thud of explosions in the distance was audible from the Turkish frontier town of Karkamis on Wednesday.
Karkamis lies just across the border from the northern Syrian town of Jarablus, which was swiftly captured from Islamic State by Turkish-backed forces when they launched the offensive dubbed "Euphrates Shield" on Aug. 24.
Since then, the Turkish army with its allies have pushed further south, seizing a string of villages in areas controlled by militias loyal to the Kurdish-backed SDF, which drove Islamic State out of the city of Manbij this month with U.S. help.
Turkey, which is battling a decades-long Kurdish insurgency at home, fears Kurdish-aligned forces will capture areas previously held by Islamic State, giving them control of an unbroken swathe of territory running along the Turkish border.
"UNACCEPTABLE"
Since the start of the campaign, the Turkish army has said it has bombarded dozens of targets that it says were held by the Kurdish YPG militia, a powerful force in the SDF. The YPG says its forces withdrew from the area long before Turkey's assault.
Turkey has demanded the YPG cross the Euphrates river into a Kurdish-controlled canton in Syria's northeast. U.S. officials have threatened to withdraw backing for the YPG if it did not meet that demand, but said this had mostly happened.
Turkey's EU affairs minister said some Kurdish fighters were still on the western side and called that "unacceptable."
Eager to avoid more clashes between Turkey and U.S.-backed Syrian fighters, the Pentagon said the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State was establishing communications channels to better coordinate in a "crowded battlespace" in Syria.
Turkey insists that it has not relented in the fight against Islamic State, which has been responsible for launching a spate of bombings inside Turkey.
Islamist militants bombed Istanbul international airport in June, killing 45 people and hammering Turkey's already struggling tourist industry. In July, the group was blamed for an attack on a wedding in southeast Turkey that killed 56.
Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Turkey had arrested 865 people since the start of 2016, more than half of the foreigners, in its crackdown on Islamic State and preventing the would-be jihadists crossing to join militants in Syria or Iraq.
As well as driving away Islamic State out of the border area, it is determined to ensure Kurdish forces do not link up two Kurdish-controlled cantons in north Syria - one east of the Euphrates and the other in the west near the Mediterranean.
Ankara fears that, if Kurdish militia control the entire area along Turkey's southern border with Syria, it could embolden the Kurdish militant PKK group which has fought a three-decade-long insurgency to demand autonomy on Turkish soil.
(Additional reporting by Asli Kandemir in Istanbul, Ercan Gurses in Ankara; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Anna Willard)

Turkey won't agree truce with Syrian Kurdish militia, despite U.S. unease


Turkey will not agree a truce with Kurdish militias in Syria as it considers them terrorists, officials said on Wednesday, after strains emerged with the United States over clashes between Turkish forces and the U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.


A man holds an iPhone 6 in a mobile phone shop in Moscow, Russia, September 26, 2014. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has been sued by owners of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones who say a design defect causes the phones' touchscreens to become unresponsive, making them unusable.
According to a proposed nationwide class-action lawsuit filed on Saturday, Apple has long been aware of the defect, which often surfaces after a flickering gray bar appears atop the touchscreens, but has refused to fix it.
The plaintiffs linked the problem to Apple's decision not to use a metal "shield" or "underfill" to protect the relevant parts, as it did on versions of the iPhone 5.
"The iPhones are not fit for the purpose of use as smartphones because of the touchscreen defect," according to the complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, California.
Todd Cleary of California, Jun Bai of Delaware and Thomas Davidson of Pennsylvania are the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which accuses Apple of fraud and violating California consumer protection laws. They seek unspecified damages.
Apple did not immediately respond on Monday to a request for comment.
Problems with iPhone 6 touchscreens were described online last week by iFixit, which labeled the issue "Touch Disease."
That company sells repair parts and has previously analyzed other Apple products.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, sold 166.4 million iPhones, generating $108.5 billion of net sales, in the first nine months of its current fiscal year.
The case is Davidson et al v. Apple Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 16-04942.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Apple is sued over unresponsive iPhone 6 touchscreens


Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has been sued by owners of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones who say a design defect causes the phones' touchscreens to become unresponsive, making them unusable.


US Defense Acquisition Chief Frank Kendall speaks to journalists at a news conference at the 2014 Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, southern England July 14, 2014. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty
WASHINGTON The Pentagon has ordered a review of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which is under construction and due to be delivered in November, a Defense Department spokesman said on Monday.
Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition Frank Kendall ordered the review, citing a list of problems with the ship, Bloomberg News reported.
"With the benefit of hindsight, it was clearly premature to include so many unproven technologies" on the carrier, Kendall wrote to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in an Aug. 23 memo, according to Bloomberg.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed to Reuters that Kendall had ordered the review. It was not immediately clear who would conduct it.
"We want to be sure we all have the same accurate picture of the reliability and performance aspects of the key new systems" on the carrier, Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said in a statement.
"Also, any impacts on the follow-on ships should be understood as soon as possible to allow for the time and knowledge to make proper decisions regarding their systems," he said.
The Pentagon hopes the carrier, being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc, will be finished "by the mid-November timeframe," Wright said.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Pentagon orders review of unfinished aircraft carrier


The Pentagon has ordered a review of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which is under construction and due to be delivered in November, a Defense Department spokesman said on Monday.


An Abercrombie & Fitch store is pictured on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., May 23, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co's (ANF.N) sales dropped for the 14th straight quarter, hurt by lower traffic, including from tourists, at its flagship stores.
The company's shares tumbled nearly 12 percent in premarket trading on Tuesday.
The retailer's comparable sales at stores open at least a year fell a slightly steeper-than-expected 4 percent in the second quarter ended July 30.
"Flagship and tourist locations continued to account for the vast majority of the comparable sales decline as traffic remained a significant headwind," Executive Chairman Arthur Martinez said.
"As we look to the rest of the year, we now expect flagship and tourist locations will continue to weigh on the business."
Abercrombie has also been hurt by fierce competition from fast-fashion retailers such as H&M (HMb.ST) and Inditex's (ITX.MC) Zara.
To win back shoppers, it has been remodeling its Hollister stores, hired designers from top brands to keep up with trends and shifted away from logo-centric designs.
Comparable sales at Abercrombie stores open at least a year fell 7 percent in the quarter. Analysts on average had expected a fall of 6.50 percent, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.
The company's total net sales fell 4.2 percent to $783.2 million.
The net loss attributable to Abercrombie increased to $13.1 million, or 19 cents per share, from $810,000, or 1 cent per share. Excluding items, it lost 25 cents per share.
Analysts on average had expected a loss of 20 cents per share and revenue of $782.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

Abercrombie & Fitch sales fall for 14th straight quarter


Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co's (ANF.N) sales dropped for the 14th straight quarter, hurt by lower traffic, including from tourists, at its flagship stores.


Former Republican U.S. presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie waves as he departs after speaking during the second session at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 19, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday vetoed a bill to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next five years.
The legislation would have made New Jersey the third state to adopt a $15 per hour minimum wage, Christie said in a statement.
State voters agreed to a previous wage hike in 2013, to $8.25 from $7.25. New Jersey's rate is tied to the consumer price index and is now at $8.38, according to a database from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
"Despite having a constitutional mandate in place, the legislature now wants to increase the minimum wage by almost 80 percent just three years later," Christie said in a statement about his veto.
Christie, a close ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said the wage bill passed by Democrats, who control both houses of state legislature, failed to consider the ability of businesses to absorb the increased labor costs.
Neighboring New York State, as well as California, became the first states to lift the minimum wage toward $15 earlier this year.
While California's higher rate will be in effect statewide by 2022, New York created a two-speed system, with different timetables for New York City and nearby counties, versus the "upstate" regions where incomes are lower and labor markets less robust.
Some cities are also stepping up to higher wage levels. Washington, D.C.'s minimum wage will reach $15 per hour by July 1, 2020, after it enacted a law this year. The city's current level is $10.50.
Washington and 29 states have set minimum wages above the federal rate of $7.25 an hour, according to the NCSL.
Michele Siekerka, president of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, praised Christie's veto, saying the increase was "too much too fast."
"Had this bill been signed, it would not only have hurt the New Jersey economy, but it would have hurt the exact workers the proponents of this policy are trying to help," she said in a statement.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, lead sponsor of the bill, said in a statement the wage increase is a key component to Democrats' strategy to combat poverty.
"A substantial minimum wage increase will help lift countless families out of poverty, decrease government dependency and boost commerce by pumping more dollars back into the economy," he said.
(Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Chris Reese)

New Jersey Governor Christie vetoes minimum wage hike to $15/hr


New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday vetoed a bill to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next five years.


A Google search page is seen through a magnifying glass in this photo illustration taken in Berlin, August 11, 2015. A U.S. Jury handed Google a major victory May 26, 2016 in a long-running copyright battle with Oracle Corp over Android software to run most of the world's... REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski/Files - RTX2EEFD
Alphabet Inc's Google is close to winning PayPal Holdings Inc as a client for its cloud business, potentially beating out Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, CNBC reported on Tuesday.
While Google is the front-runner, the online payments processor is evaluating the other providers and hasn't made any decision yet, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (cnb.cx/2bGbowT)
However, PayPal may not move its technology infrastructure in the fourth quarter, the peak period for online commerce, CNBC said.
PayPal has some existing business with Amazon Web Services, according to the CNBC report.
Google has been trying to beef up its presence in cloud computing, a market dominated by Amazon and Microsoft.
Google landed Home Depot Inc as a client in March, highlighting the momentum its cloud business has gained under the leadership of Diane Greene, a co-founder of VMWare Inc. Greene joined Google late last year.
Google also counts popular messaging app Snapchat and the world's biggest paid music streaming service, Spotify, as clients.
Overall, Google was the No. 4 player in cloud infrastructure services last year with a 4 percent market share, according to Synergy Research.
Amazon's AWS cornered 31 percent of the market, while Microsoft's Azure had 9 percent and IBM 7 percent.
Google, PayPal, Amazon and Microsoft did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Google cloud unit close to winning PayPal business: CNBC


Alphabet Inc's Google is close to winning PayPal Holdings Inc as a client for its cloud business, potentially beating out Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, CNBC reported on Tuesday.


Australia's Woolworths says hardware JV partner Lowe's takes it to court
SYDNEY, Aug 29 Woolworths Ltd said on Monday the U.S. company with which it had a hardware retail joint venture had started legal proceedings, five days after Australia's No.1 grocery chain said it was exiting the business.

BRIEF-Erytech Pharma completes patient enrollment phase 2b trial for eryaspase


A farm worker takes a break while picking table grapes in Maricopa, California, United States, July 24, 2015. California is in their fourth year of a catastrophic drought. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
SACRAMENTO, Calif. California would become the first state in the United States to require farmers to pay overtime to field workers and fruit pickers under a bill approved by the legislature on Monday and sent to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown for his approval.
The bill, which passed on a mostly party-line vote, would phase in overtime pay for farmworkers gradually between 2019 and 2022. Small farms that employ 25 or fewer workers would have an additional three years to phase in the pay.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Bill Rigby)

California lawmakers send governor bill authorizing farmworker overtime


California would become the first state in the United States to require farmers to pay overtime to field workers and fruit pickers under a bill approved by the legislature on Monday and sent to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown for his approval.


LONDON The British government has no legal obligation to consult parliament on triggering the formal divorce procedure with the European Union, but lawmakers will have a say, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday.
May has said she will not invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, beginning the formal two-year process for leaving the bloc, before the end of the year to allow the government time to prepare an exit strategy.
Some opponents of Brexit say that since the EU referendum result is not legally binding, elected lawmakers should review the vote before the process is started but the government has insisted the prime minister has the power to trigger an exit.
On Saturday the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported May would not hold a parliamentary vote before invoking Article 50.
"The will of the people must be respected and it must be implemented ... There is no legal obligation to consult parliament on triggering Article 50 - that position has been well set out," the spokesman told reporters, adding that parliament had overwhelmingly backed holding the EU referendum.
"Parliament will be involved, it will have a say, opinions will be aired."
London law firm Mishcon de Reya has begun legal action to demand the British government win legislative approval from parliament before triggering Article 50. A hearing is scheduled in mid-October.
The investment manager behind the legal challenge has said many British voters were fooled into backing Brexit without realizing there was no credible plan.
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison)

UK PM has no legal obligation to consult parliament on EU divorce: spokesman


The British government has no legal obligation to consult parliament on triggering the formal divorce procedure with the European Union, but lawmakers will have a say, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday.