World Gossip News

For the next few weeks UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service will be working overtime to make sure you get your holiday gifts on time, but if Amazon CEO Jeff bezos gets his way, in the future, it might be delivery drones working those extra hours.

In an interview with CBS’s 60 minutes on Sunday evening, Bezos unveiled Amazon Prime Air, a service that delivers packages via autonomous drones. With the service, Bezos said he hopes that the company will be able to deliver packages into customers hands within 30 minutes of the time they place an order.

The package is pulled off the lines by the octocopter, and then using GPS it is directed to the delivery address. When it arrives it releases the package on the doorstep. Because the octocopter has eight blades, Bezos said, if one broke the drone would still be able to safely drop off a package. As many have remarked, it looks like something out of the Jetsons.

An analyst is raising her rating and price target for American Eagle on Monday, saying the teen retailer is in the best position to take back market share next year compared with some of its rivals. American Eagle is in the best position as far as fashion and value when compared with Aeropostale Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. The analyst also feels that the chain will benefit from a stabilizing promotional environment based on the belief that the sector gets its inventory levels under control during the second half of 2014. The analyst lifted American Eagle Outfitters Inc. to "Buy" from "Neutral" and increased its price target to $20 from $17.

A fire at a machine business in Hollister, Missouri Sunday destroys the building, causing millions in damage. More than 50 firefighter from four fire departments responded Sunday to a commercial structure fire in Hollister. No one was injured, but initial estimates of damage total about $2 million. The district was notified of the fire at 1 p.m. and firefighters arrived on scene, heavy smoke was visible throughout the structure.  They attempted to make an interior attack on the fire but were pushed back by intense heat and zero visibility, the release said. A short time later, the building was full of flames and firefighters were forced to extinguish the fire from outside the building. 

A US jury has ordered two agencies - Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Getty Images - to pay a total of $1.2m (£740,000) for photographs they acquired through Twitter. The case is one of the first to address how images that individuals make available to the public through social media can be used by third parties for commercial purposes. And it could well prove to be a landmark decision, though the judgment in favour of freelance photographer Daniel Morel is open to appeal. He took pictures in the aftermath of an earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 and created a Twitter account (@PhotoMorel) to upload them. In the past, Twitter has stated that users maintain exclusive rights to any photographs featured on their site.

Russia and Italy have agreed to set up a mutual investment fund worth 1 billion euros, aimed at boosting trade and investment between the two countries. Under the agreement, each of the parties will contribute 500 million euros to the new investment vehicle. Russia and Italy hope that bilateral trade will reach $50 billion this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta in the northern Italian city of Trieste. The agreements included a landmark deal to ease customs procedures for Italian businesses exporting to Russia and one to establish a branch of Russia's Hermitage Museum in Venice. Five hundred Russian companies have attracted Italian investments, while 70 of them involve manufacturing. Italy is Russia’s 4th largest trade partner, behind China, Germany and the Netherlands.

Oil prices have fallen after Iran agreed a deal to curb some of its nuclear activities in return for easing of international sanctions against it. Iran holds the world's fourth-largest oil reserves but its exports have been hurt by the tough sanctions. Brent crude fell more than 2% in early Asian trade on Monday. It dropped by $2.42 to $108.63 per barrel, while US light sweet crude fell 84 cents to $93.64 per barrel.

The European Union's top court on Thursday ordered Italy to comply with a directive by the bloc's executive arm to fully reclaim 295 million euros ($400 million) of state aid payments that were made to U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa. Italy granted Alcoa Inc.'s local affiliate, Alcoa Trasformazioni, preferential electricity prices for two production sites over several years, but the commission in 2009 ruled that was market-distorting state aid. Italy has said the subsidy amounted to 257 million euros, plus 38 million euros in interest. Alcoa has since shut down or idled the two Italian production sites, citing uncertain prospects for economically viable long-term power supply, rising raw materials costs and falling aluminum demand.

New Taipei City Consumer Protection Commission officials today invited a large length-based food factory Co., Ltd., and Carrefour, Geant and other representatives, set the new Taipei City government to study and large system problems edible products produced by the company's return mechanism. Datong company said that the company produced all kinds of edible oil products, consumers can with the oil container, purchase invoices, purchase receipts or other supporting documents, the original purchase of the distributors handle returns, large companies will not refuse recycling system The distributor's return requirements. Consumer Protection Officer reminded manufacturing time due to the problem of oil industry can not be determined, regardless of when consumers buy, may request a return to large systems companies.

China is lifting some controls on bank lending rates, in a step toward a more market-oriented financial system. China's central bank said Friday it was canceling the "floor" on interest rates to be paid by borrowers, so that financial institutions can set the rates themselves. The central bank says it is not adjusting rates for mortgage lending in order to protect the country's property market from speculation. The overhaul is seen as an effort to help China's economy, because cutting lending controls could prompt banks to make more loans and therfore inject more capital into the economy for business and other investment. China's liberalization of interest rates could eventually lead to lifting limits on capital flowing in and outflows across China's borders.

The World Bank said on Thursday it has approved a $150 million loan for Jordan to help it deal with the cost of coping with the hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring Syria that have flooded into the country to escape the civil war. About half a million refugees, out of a total of more than 1.7 million, have fled to Jordan to escape fighting in Syria.

World Bank's  plan to lend Jordan $150 million in May. About $50 million will go towards medical supplies, $20 million to help the government's budget to provide medical services, and the rest for basic commodities such as bread and cooking gas.

Iran has not paid back any of its loans to the World Bank for more than six months, the bank said on Thursday, a further sign of the strains on the sanctions-hit Iranian economy. Faced with a combination of poor fiscal management and Western economic sanctions for its disputed nuclear program, Iran has suffered from spiraling prices and high unemployment in the last year. The World Bank said it took a hit of $81 million in the fiscal year that ended on June 30 due to Iran's non-performing loans, a tiny percentage of its multibillion-dollar lending portfolio. The United States and its allies have imposed hard-hitting sanctions against Iran's oil and banking sectors to choke off funding to its nuclear program. Western governments say Iran seeks to develop the ability to make weapons, while Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Iran owed the bank $697 million on June 30, of which $79 million was overdue.

Chinese state-run oil companies hope to develop seven new gas fields in the East China Sea, possibly siphoning gas from the seabed beneath waters claimed by Japan, a move that could further inflame tensions with Tokyo over the disputed area. China is already working on Huangyan I which has two fields approved. The Huangyan project is expected to cost more than 30 billion yuan ($4.9 billion), including 11 production platforms now under construction at Chinese shipyards. The greater issue is the political risk if Beijing approves the new gas fields. Tensions over the East China Sea have escalated this year, with Beijing and Tokyo scrambling fighter jets and ordering patrol ships to shadow each other, raising the fear that a miscalculation could lead to a broader clash. China and Japan in 2008 agreed to jointly develop hydrocarbons in the area, but Tokyo wishes to settle the issue of maritime boundaries before developing the gas fields.