For a talented, creative few, there’s David Letterman. For most, there’s a labyrinth of paperwork, hard decisions and painful sacrifices that could have dramatic repercussions on their financial health decades from now. Paying for college in America is hard. And a fight may be brewing in Washington that could leave college grads paying more – [...]
Read more here: College is expensive. And thanks to Washington, you might soon be paying more
BANGKOK (AP) — The price of oil fell Wednesday as investors waited for a report on U.S. crude stocks and the Federal Reserve’s latest views on the U.S. economy.
Read more here: Oil below $96 before crude stocks report, Fed
LILONGWE (Reuters) – Malawi’s luxury presidential jet, bought by late leader Bingu wa Mutharika, has been sold for $15 million to raise cash for the impoverished African country, a government official said on Wednesday. Mutharika, who left the economy on the brink of collapse after he picked a fight with donors whose support accounted for almost 40 percent of the budget, bought the jet for $22 million in 2009. He said the plane matched his status and was cheaper than flying commercially. …
Read more here: Impoverished Malawi sells presidential jet for $15 million
By Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday he would ask Iran's supreme leader to reverse a ban preventing his aide from running in next month's presidential poll, a test of stability after the violent trauma of the 2009 vote. The Guardian Council, charged with vetting all candidates, disqualified Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad's former chief of staff, on Tuesday, as well as ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from the June 14 election, leaving a field dominated by hardliners loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. …
Read more here: Iran's Ahmadinejad to challenge ally's ban from election
By Tim Kelly TOKYO (Reuters) – Few foreign activist investors have made much headway in forcing change in Japan, where a conservative corporate culture favors long-standing ties with banks, business partners and workers rather than shareholders seeking value. Struggling electronics giant Sony Corp, though, with more foreign and fewer bank shareholders, may prove something of an exception. That's the hope, at least, of Californian billionaire Daniel Loeb, whose Third Point hedge fund has built up a more than 6 percent stake in Sony, making it the group's biggest stockholder. …
Read more here: Entertaining change: Sony to look at activist's spin-off idea
BANGKOK (AP) — World stock markets were mixed Wednesday, hours before Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is to deliver remarks before Congress on the state of the U.S. economy.
Read more here: World stocks mixed ahead of Fed chief testimony
PRAGUE (AP) — A publicist for an upcoming Marilyn Monroe exhibition in Prague says that photographs of the star have been stolen.
Read more here: Monroe's photos for Prague exhibition stolen
VIENNA (AP) — Diplomats say Iran is moving ahead to update a program the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons, in a blow to years of high-level diplomacy aimed at stopping it from doing so.
Read more here: Diplomats: Iran expands nuke technology
By Saeed Azhar and Janeman Latul SINGAPORE/JAKARTA (Reuters) – Southeast Asia's largest bank merger now depends largely on cooperation between Singaporean authorities and Indonesian politicians. Indonesia's central bank gave Singapore's DBS Group Holdings Ltd its long-awaited approval on Tuesday to buy a 40 percent, or $2.7 billion, stake in PT Bank Danamon Indonesia Tbk , a year after DBS proposed a majority takeover. …
Read more here: DBS-Danamon deal hinges on Singapore's invite to Indonesian banks
By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) – Italy's new government, already sinking in opinion polls and riven by internal disputes, on Wednesday lays out its plans to address one of the main causes of public anger – soaring unemployment among young people. But the left-right coalition's room for maneuver even to address this pressing problem is restricted by Europe's second-biggest debt, the longest recession in at least four decades, and a long list of campaign promises. …
Read more here: Italy to outline youth jobs plan as government struggles
