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Europe's newest passenger jet, the A350, is "progressing well on its route to first flight," manufacturer Airbus said on Monday. _0"> The planemaker issued the comment after the first flyable aircraft left the paint shop in Airbus colors, ahead of final testing and a maiden flight expected in coming weeks. The paint job indicates the flight is fast approaching, but Airbus has abandoned the traditional grand "rollout" party as it gives priority to project execution following a series of industry delays, Reuters reported last week. The aircraft "will soon start the final tests before its maiden flight this summer," Airbus said in a statement. (Reporting by Tim Hepher)

An activist hedge fund's nominees to the Hess Corp ( id="symbol_HES.N_0"> HES.N ) board of directors said they were waiving their right to receive a special pay package from the fund if the oil and gas company outperforms its peers under their watch. _0"> Hess shareholders are set to vote on the board nominees later this week. Hess and the hedge fund, Elliott Management, have been working hard to lobby investors to back their nominees. Hess said last week that it would separate the posts of chairman and chief executive, stripping longtime CEO John Hess of his chairmanship.   If elected, the Elliott nominees would have been eligible to receive $30,000 from the hedge fund for every percentage point that Hess outperformed its peers over their first term as directors. In a letter to shareholders, the five Elliott nominees called the attention paid to their pay arrangements a distraction. "While each of us believes that these arrangements are appropriat

The European Central Bank said on Monday it was in touch with Bloomberg LP after the financial data and news company had allowed journalists to see some information about terminal usage. _0"> Bloomberg customers, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury, are examining whether there could have been leaks of confidential information.   "The ECB takes the protection of confidentiality in the usage of data products by ECB management and staff very seriously," an ECB spokesman said. "Our experts are in close contact with Bloomberg." The financial data and news company said on Friday it had restricted reporters' access to client data last month after a client complained. Bloomberg, whose terminals are widely used in the global financial industry, had allowed journalists to see some information about terminal usage, including when customers had last logged in, and how often they used messaging or looked up data on broad categories, such a

CBOE Holdings Inc ( id="symbol_CBOE.O_0"> CBOE.O ) won a long-running legal battle to prevent rival International Securities Exchange from listing options on two key U.S. stock-market indexes, after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider their dispute. The court's refusal to intervene leaves intact a lower court ruling that allows CBOE, the operator of the oldest and biggest U.S. stock market, to remain the sole market for options on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. CBOE's exclusive franchise on stock-index options is a lucrative one, generating 60 percent of CBOE's transaction fees, although they account for less than 40 percent of its trading volume. "We are vindicated after more than six years of lengthy and unnecessary litigation that the highest court in the land has validated our position and the intellectual property rights of index providers," CBOE's chief executive and cha

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will deliver testimony on May 22 on the outlook for the U.S. economy before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, according to an announcement on the website of committee chairwoman Amy Klobuchar. _0"> Bernanke's appearance will come as markets, weighing recent mixed indications on the strength of the U.S. economy, focus on the likely duration of continued bond purchases by the U.S. central bank to spur growth and hiring.   (Reporting By Alister Bull)

Hedge Fund Level Global Investors LP co-founder Anthony Chiasson was sentenced on Monday to 6-1/2 years in prison for insider trading. _0"> At a court hearing in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan also ordered Chiasson, 39, to pay a $5 million fine. Chiasson and Todd Newman, a former hedge fund portfolio manager with the now-defunct hedge fund Diamondback Capital Management, were convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and of securities fraud in December.   Sullivan sentenced Newman to 4-1/2 years in prison earlier this month. Federal prosecutors had requested that Chiasson serve as many as 10 years in prison. The two were accused of using inside information to trade in shares of computer maker Dell Inc ( id="symbol_DELL.O_0"> DELL.O ) and chipmaker Nvidia Corp ( id="symbol_NVDA.O_1"> NVDA.O ). Level Global made $68 million in illegal profits from the trades, according to prosecutors. (Reporting by Bernard Vaughan; Editi

An activist hedge fund's nominees to the Hess Corp ( id="symbol_HES.N_0"> HES.N ) board of directors said they were waiving their right to receive a controversial pay package under which the fund will pay them extra if the oil and gas company outperforms its peers under their watch. _0"> The pay package had become a point of contention in the heated proxy battle between the oil and gas company and hedge fund Elliott Management, which nominated the slate of directors. Hess said the pay -- which would not be available to the company's other directors -- compromised the nominees' independence.   Hess shareholders are set to vote on the board nominees on Thursday. Hess and Elliott Management, have been lobbying investors to back their nominees. Hess said last week that it would separate the posts of chairman and chief executive, stripping longtime CEO John Hess of his chairmanship. If elected, the Elliott nominees would have been eligible to receive

The chief executive of Plains Exploration & Production Co ( id="symbol_PXP.N_0"> PXP.N ) urged shareholders on Monday to vote in favor of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc's ( id="symbol_FCX.N FCX.N ) proposed takeover of the energy company. _0"> The open letter from CEO James Flores follows recommendations by two proxy advisory firms, ISS and Glass Lewis & Co, that shareholders vote against the $6 billion deal, arguing that it undervalues the oil and gas company.   _1"> Freeport said on Thursday that it does not plan to raise its offer, which values each Plains share at $25 plus 0.6531 of its common stock, calling the terms of the friendly deal "best and final. In December, copper miner Freeport announced plans to buy Plains as well as another oil and gas company, McMoRan Exploration Co ( id="symbol_MMR.N_2"> MMR.N ), aiming to diversify into the U.S. energy sector in a hedge against copper's uncertain outl

Stemcor's banks have appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to advise them as they assess the steel trader's proposal for a standstill on $1.2 billion of loans, people familiar with the situation said on Monday. Stemcor's advisors Ernst and Young and Goldman Sachs are helping the company to secure the standstill agreement as lenders form a co-ordinating committee to assess Stemcor's standstill proposal, the people said. Privately-owned Stemcor, the world's largest independent steel trading company and the fifth-largest private company in the UK, was forced to seek a standstill agreement after failing to refinance an $850 million loan. Stemcor had no official comment. Under a standstill agreement, lenders agree not to ask for repayment and work with the company to restructure the debt or extend its maturity. Stemcor is asking banks to keep its loans in place until it is able to repay them in the next couple of years by accelerating a restructuring program and selli

High-frequency trading firms increased their campaign contributions to federal lawmakers by 673 percent from the 2008 to the 2012 election cycle, according to a report that sheds light on their political connections in Washington and efforts to impact policymaking. The report by the Washington-based nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) comes as U.S. financial market regulators mull whether new rules should be adopted to rein in high-speed traders, whom some critics accuse of harming smaller investors.   It compiles the campaign and lobbying records for 48 different firms like Citadel Investments, Getco, Knight Capital ( id="symbol_KCG.N_0"> KCG.N ), Virtu Financial LLC and Tradeworx which engage in high-speed trading, a strategy that uses lightning-fast computers to search for ways to take advantage of tiny price moves in the marketplace. It also identifies lawmakers who raked in the most campaign dollars over the course of t

Dell Inc's special board committee asked activist investor Carl Icahn on Monday for details of his plan to buy the computer maker, including how he would finance a cash payout for shareholders and who would run the company if his preferred slate of board directors was installed. _0"> Last week, Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc offered $12 in cash per share or additional shares to existing investors as an alternative to Michael Dell's $24.4 billion bid to take the company private. And the billionaire investor warned he would put up his own roster of candidates for the board if shareholders greenlit the company founder's offer.   Icahn's plan assumes that only as much as 80 percent of the company's shareholding will opt for a cash payout, translating into a maximum outlay of $16.8 billion. Michael Dell, major shareholders such as Southeastern and Icahn are waging a battle over the future of the world's third largest personal computer make

Activist investor Guy Wyser-Pratte said he is seeking board seats at French phone directories company PagesJaunes ( id="symbol_PAJ.PA_0"> PAJ.PA ) to force its biggest shareholder - U.S. private equity firm Cerberus - to cut the group's debt. PagesJaunes has been struggling with big debts since a private equity buyout of the company in 2006. The firm has also had to cope with the impact of the Internet on its printed directories businesses. Wyser-Pratte, a U.S. investor who focuses on European companies, has built up a 0.85 percent stake in PagesJaunes, which he said was enough to mount a challenge to Cerberus CBS.UL.   Cerberus became PagesJaunes' biggest shareholder, with 28 percent of voting rights, via the purchase of debt from Mediannuaire, a holding company controlled by Goldman Sachs Group ( id="symbol_GS.N_2"> GS.N ) and private equity firm KKR & Co ( id="symbol_KKR.N_3"> KKR.N ). A restructuring earlier this year has cu

Retail sales unexpectedly rose in April, pointing to underlying strength in the economy and leading forecasters to bump up second-quarter growth estimates. The surprise gain in retail sales, which account for about 30 percent of consumer spending, was the latest sign of resilience in an economy that has been hit by belt-tightening in Washington as the government tries to cut its budget deficit. "It's more indication that our economy is growing. It's not growing as rapidly as a lot of people would like, but things are improving," said Tom Hall, an economics professor at Miami University's Farmer School of Business in Oxford, Ohio.   Retail sales edged up 0.1 percent after a 0.5 percent drop in March as households bought automobiles, building materials and a range of other goods, the Commerce Department said on Monday. Economists had expected a decrease of 0.3 percent. So-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline and building materials and corr

Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, apologized on Monday for allowing journalists "limited" access to sensitive data about how clients used Bloomberg terminals, saying it was "inexcusable", but that important customer data had always been protected. _0"> His statement came as the European Central Bank said it was in "close contact with Bloomberg" about any possible breaches in the confidentiality of data usage. The U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, said they were examining whether there could have been leaks. A source briefed on the situation said the U.S. Treasury Department was looking into the question as well.   The practice of giving reporters access to some data considered proprietary - including when a customer looked into broad categories such as equities or bonds - came to light in media reports last week. In response, the parent company, Bloomberg LP, said it had restricted such acce

Wall Street ended little changed on Monday as investors took a breather after indexes hit more record highs last week, but stronger-than-expected retail sales data kept declines in check. _0"> The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 26.73 points, or 0.18 percent, at 15,091.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 0.07 points, or 0.00 percent, at 1,633.77. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 2.21 points, or 0.06 percent, at 3,438.79.   (Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Transocean Ltd ( id="symbol_RIG.N_0"> RIG.N ) said on Monday that Chairman Michael Talbert will step down later this year, in a move that comes just days before the culmination of a fight between the offshore driller and investor Carl Icahn in which Talbert was a target. Talbert, a director since 1994 who was also chief executive from 1994 to 2002, told the board that if re-elected at the upcoming shareholder meeting on May 17, he will step down as chairman by November and leave the board no later than the 2014 annual meeting, Transocean said. Icahn, who owns 5.6 percent of Transocean, has opposed Talbert's re-election. The activist investor has been campaigning for a higher dividend payout for months and is calling for major changes to the Switzerland-based company's board ahead of the annual meeting. "We find it to be utterly absurd that a Chairman facing the prospect of losing his directorship would be so brazen as to ask shareholders to return him as

More than 30 years ago in the south of France , the camera switched its focus to the celebrity-obsessed artist Andy Warhol, who became the reluctant subject of a photo study that was then relegated to a storage cabinet filed under "W." _0"> Sometime last year, a friend of photographer Steve Wood happened upon the trove of 35mm slides and persuaded wood that the "lost" images deserved their Warhol-allotted 15 minutes of fame. The resulting exhibition, "Lost Then Found," opens on May 3 for 10 days in New York, and features unusual shots such as Warhol posing with a giant sunflower and backpack, or shown winking, with eyes closed and in close-up head shots. "These photographs reveal a different Warhol than most of us have ever witnessed," said Christopher Bollen, editor of Interview magazine, which Warhol founded in 1969 and which is supporting the exhibition.   "It's a testament to the photographer and an opportunity to re-a

An artist who paints portraits of imaginary people joined a French-born filmmaker, a British-German performance artist and a British multimedia artist on the shortlist for modern art's most prestigious and controversial award on Thursday. _0"> The portraits of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, the first black woman to be named a finalist for the annual 25,000-pound ($38,200) Turner Prize, appear traditional but are of imaginary people with invented histories, the Tate Britain museum said. Laure Prouvost's films employ quick cuts, montage and deliberate misuse of language to create "surprising and unpredictable work", said the Tate, which chairs the prize. British-German Tino Sehgal's "intimate works" consist purely of live encounters between people, and David Shrigley's "macabre" multimedia works dwell on black humor, it said.   The Turner Prize rewards British artists aged under 50 for an "outstanding exhibition or other presentat

In a closely watched case in the art world, American artist Richard Prince won a federal appeals court order Thursday holding that he did not infringe the copyrights of a photographer by incorporating his images into 25 paintings and collages. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reversed a lower court's finding that Prince must hand over artwork using the photos to Patrick Cariou, whose pictures of Rastafarians in Jamaica were incorporated into art, exhibited in 2007 and 2008.   "These twenty-five of Prince's artworks manifest an entirely different aesthetic from Cariou's photographs," U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote. The court battle has been considered a test to what extent the appropriation of artists' works is protected from claims of copyright infringement. The appeal drew friend-of-the-court briefs from a wide range of parties, from the Whitney Museum of American Art to Google Inc, which warned the lower court's ruling

Enlisting the drama of Prokofiev and the elegance of Tchaikovsky, St Petersburg's new Mariinsky theatre staged a gala opening on Thursday designed to silence critics of the starkly modernist building erected in the heart of Russia's imperial capital. The $700-million glass and limestone building, which critics have dubbed the "Mariinsky mall", glowed in the night sky, its glass and metal walkways humming with excited voices as the select crowd of 2,000 found their seats.   Just opposite, across a canal, the 19th century original opera house, one of the great showcases of Russian culture which became home to the Kirov opera and ballet companies in Soviet times, stood silent for the evening. "We need breathe life into the theatre. We want it to live, so that people are attracted and can feel the charm of modern technology. Then it will shine in all its glory," President Vladimir Putin told the guests, who included leading Russian businessmen. Calling th

With a billion dollars worth of art on offer at their spring auctions in New York, Christie's and Sotheby's are looking to the post-war and contemporary works to drive the market this month. The sales of the newer works are expected to exceed those of the once-dominant Impressionist and modern field by anywhere from 50 to 100 percent, according to estimates.   While both Christie's and Sotheby's have a pair of Impressionist or modern paintings valued at $20 million or $30 million-range, both houses' contemporary sales feature at least three works that are expected to fetch $30 million to $40 million, and possibly more. Records are likely to fall for artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Gerhard Richter, who already holds the record price for a work by any living artist at auction. "The supply of $30-million-plus paintings and high-quality material is far greater than what you can find in the Impressionist and modern field," said Brett Gorvy, Chri

With their black leather, studded jackets, ripped jeans, bondage trousers and messages of rebellion and anarchy, punks from the 1970s probably never envisioned that a major museum would be celebrating their influence on fashion 40 years later. But the Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is doing just that with a new exhibition, "Punk: Chaos to Couture," that opens on May 9 and runs through August 14. It includes 100 punk styles and ranges from the mid-70s at Vivienne Westwood's and Malcolm McLaren's London boutique and images of The Sex Pistols to examples of punk's impact on haute couture and designers such as Alexander McQueen, Helmut Lang, Miuccia Prada and John Galliano.   Films and music from the era and a re-creation of the graffiti-covered toilet at New York's CBGB punk rock club, where Blondie, the Ramones and Talking Heads played, add to the gritty authenticity of the exhibit. "Punk was all about celebrating the individual,

The spring auctions got off to a strong start on Tuesday with Sotheby's solid sale of Impressionist and modern art which took in $230 million, led by a $42 million Cezanne still life and a $26 million Modigliani portrait. A year after Sotheby's set the world auction record for any work of art with its sale of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" for $120 million, it managed a sale of works by Picasso, Rodin and Monet that saw 85 percent of 71 lots on offer finding buyers and came in just under its high pre-sale estimate of $235 million.   Calling its offerings "an extraordinary group of material," Simon Shaw, New York head of Impressionist and modern art for Sotheby's, said "it's very satisfying to see that the market agreed with us." "If anyone needed a signal that the Impressionist market is not just alive but thriving, this sale provided the evidence," Shaw added. The once-dominant Impressionist market has been eclipsed in re

A record was set for French artist Chaim Soutine on Wednesday at Christie's auction of Impressionist and modern art, which met expectations with a total of just under $160 million. The tightly edited sale of 47 works exceeded Christie's auction a year ago by more than $40 million, but the earlier evening featured only 31 lots. Still, an impressive 94 percent of the works on offer found buyers which officials said was its best sell-through rate since 2006.   "We saw high demand for blue-chip names such as Picasso and Monet," said Brooke Lampley, Christie's New York head of Impressionist and modern art. "But we also saw an educated marketplace for rarities like the Soutine and Chagall," she added, referring to the evening's two top-priced works. Officials also pointed to global presence, saying more than 30 countries participated in the auction which totaled $158.5 million, near the middle of expectations of about $130 million to $190 million.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of the new film "The Great Gatsby," and his foundation have teamed up with Christie's for a charity auction next week to benefit environmental causes. Thirty-three works, many created for and donated to the auction by some of the world's top artists, will go under the hammer on Monday in New York at The 11th Hour Auction, which aims to raise as much as $18 million to protect the last wild places on Earth and their endangered species.   "A lot of the works of this quality have never been at auction. We have what we believe are conservative estimates," Loic Gouzer, international specialist at Christie's and the head of the sale, said in an interview. "It is going to be the biggest one-time environmental fundraiser ever," he added. Zeng Fanzhi's "The Tiger," an oil on canvas, Bharti Kher's "The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own," a work on fiberglass, and Mark Grotjahn's &qu

New Orleans shooting, New Orleans police say that a dozen people have been shot during a Mother’s Day second-line parade. Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas told reporters at least 12 people were shot during the parade in the city’s 7th Ward. Police say the incident happened about 2 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Frenchmen and Villere streets. The Times-Picayune reports there were about 200 people at the event when gunfire erupted. Serpas told reporters the victims include a 10-year-old who sustained a minor wound. WDSU-TV reports at least four people were in surgery and others had been taken to four area hospitals. Nobody has been arrested. It’s unclear what sparked the gunfire. Police are said to be looking for three people in connection with the attack.

New Orleans shooting: NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas says that at least 12 people were shot at a Mother's Day second-line parade in the 7th Ward. The youngest victim in the shooting was 10 years old. Police say there were 200 people at the corner where shots rang out, and 300 to 400 people at the second line in all. EMS took nine people to University Hospital; eight were suffering from gunshot wounds, while another was injured in a fall while escaping the shooting. Three of those victims who were shot are in critical condition. There were about 10 cops on the scene trying to control the second line when the shooting happened. There were reportedly two different guns involved. Police believe three suspects were involved. They were seen fleeing toward Claiborne Avenue. There was a shooting nearby just last week at Frenchmen and Claiborne. We have a reporter at the scene and will have the latest during the 5:30 p.m. newscast

New Orleans shooting, The NOPD is on the scene of a shooting near the intersection of Frenchmen and North Villere Streets where 12 people were shot during a Mother's Day second line. Chief Serpas announced in a press conference that the youngest victim is believed to be a 10-year-old girl. Police say she suffered a graze wound. Police say about 300 people were attending a second line when gun shots rang out. Police are looking for three suspects in this incident. Around 12:30 p.m., police responded to a separate shooting the 2400 block of South Saratoga Street in Central City where another man was shot. His condition is unknown at this time.

Seth Meyers replaces Jimmy Fallon on his late night show time slot. On May 12, ABC News reported that this is going to happen in the upcoming season. What do you think of this news? That doesn't mean that Jimmy Fallon won't still be on TV. He will just be in a different time slot and Seth Meyers will have a show at this normal time. Fall is moving up to replace Jay Leno on his show and will be in that time slot from now on. News already came out about Fallon moving in to fill the shoes of Jay Leno. The fact that they are giving Seth Meyers has been a rumor, but is just now coming out for sure. Seth has been on the show "Weekend Update" and he is also a writer for "Saturday Night Live." What do you think of the addition of Seth Meyer to late night? Do you plan to watch him?

Lamborghini Egoista: The Egoista was dramatically revealed by brand boss Stephan Winkelmann at a dinner held to mark the end of the week-long drive by 350 Lamborghinis through Italy, organized in celebration of the marquee’s 50th birthday. Lamborghini has confirmed that the Walter De Silva designed car takes its name from the fact that it has just one seat. The styling is said to be inspired by that of an Apache helicopter, and early reports suggest the lightweight car is extensively made of carbon fiber and that the cockpit canopy can be removed to save weight. Power comes from a 5.2-litre V10 engine. De Silva is quoted as saying: "This is a car made for a single person, to have fun and to express their own personality. It is designed for people who want the most extreme and most special things in the world. This car represents extremes of hedonism; it is a car without compromise. In a word, it is selfish." Few details of the Egoista concept are currently available,

Least-safe cities, A recent poll found that residents around Memphis, Tenn. were the least likely to feel safe walking alone at night, while Minneapolis-St. Paul residents said they were most likely to feel safe. Only around 55 percent of Memphis residents said they felt safe walking alone at nighttime, a poll from Gallup found. In New Orleans, around 59 percent of residents felt safe, while only 61 percent of Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., residents said they felt safe, Gallup says. Sixty-three percent of Houston residents and 63 percent of Jacksonville, Fla., residents felt secure. In contrast, 80 percent of those who lived in the Minneapolis area said they felt secure. Regarding the most safe cities, 78 percent of Denver residents felt safe; 78 percent of Raleigh, North Carolina residents felt a sense of security; 77 percent of Boston residents felt the same; 77 percent of Salt Lake City residents said they felt safe; and 77 percent of Austin, Texas residents felt likewise, acco