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The leader of South Africa's AMCU union said on Friday a wage deal with the top three platinum producers was imminent, signalling a possible end to a crippling five-month strike that has disrupted global output of the metal. Workers from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) begged leader Joseph Mathunjwa on Thursday to end the country's longest mining strike and sign the latest offer - an increase of about 20 percent, or 1,000 rand ($93) a month. Mathunjwa told Johannesburg radio he would take the offer to more AMCU members at mines on Friday, before meeting with management at Lonmin , Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum later or over the weekend to relay the response of his miners to their offer. "At least there is light at the end of the tunnel, which is not the light of a goods train," he told Talk Radio 702. The main outstanding sticking point was whether the wage deal should stretch over three or five years, he said. "W

General Motors Co said on Friday it will recall 511,528 Chevrolet Camaro cars, mainly in North America, because a driver's knee can bump the key fob and turn it out of the "run" position, causing a loss of power. GM said it is aware of three crashes causing four "minor" injuries believed related to this issue. "The Camaro ignition system meets all GM engineering specifications and is unrelated to the ignition system used in Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars included in the ignition switch recall," GM said in a statement. GM earlier this year recalled 2.6 million small cars because of an ignition switch failure, linked to at least 13 deaths. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall ; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

China wants London's Heathrow airport to expand its capacity so that Chinese airlines can introduce more flights between China and Britain, China's ambassador to Britain said on Friday, saying he had written to the government about the issue. _0"> Speaking ahead of a visit to London next week by China's Premier Li Keqiang, the ambassador said the lack of capacity was a problem for three Chinese carriers who wanted to increase the number of slots they had. "We'd like to see an increase in capacity in Heathrow airport," Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to Britain, told a news conference in London. He said the British government had told him the airport, the world's third busiest by passenger numbers, had reached capacity. "We expect Heathrow will have a third runway," he said. British lawmakers and business leaders have identified the lack of new airport capacity as a possible drag on economic growth and agree that the country urg

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will meet its 2014 targets even though the Brazilian car market is set to remain difficult and Europe is showing no sign of improvement, Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Friday. "At the group level, we'll achieve them. This is not a problem," Marchionne told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Venice. Asked about a possible stabilisation of the situation in Brazil, he said: "Fiat will maintain its market share in the ups and downs. We expected it to be a difficult year. We see a difficult year until the elections." "The World Cup is distracting everyone but elections are the real problem," he added. A sluggish economy, expiring tax breaks and weak exports have put the brakes on Brazil's car industry, stoking fears of lay-offs in an election year. Marchionne said he saw no sign of changes in the European car market, which this year would remain "more or less in line" with 2013. "Its not

Thailand's military government lifted a curfew nationwide on Friday, citing the absence of any violence and the need to support the country's tourism sector. _0"> "As the situation has improved and there have been no incidents that can lead to violence ... and in order to improve tourism, the curfew will be lifted in all remaining provinces," the ruling military council said in a televised announcement. The curfew had been in place from midnight to 4 a.m. in 47 provinces including the capital Bangkok. It had lifted the curfew in 30 provinces, which include the country's main tourist hotspots, over the past week. (Reporting by Amty Sawitta Lefevre; Writing by Maertin Petty; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Investors braced on Friday for a UK interest rate hike later this year, pushing sterling to five-year highs and hurting property stocks, after the head of the Bank of England said rates may rise sooner than markets predict. Governor Mark Carney's surprisingly stark warning late on Thursday prompted investors to bring forward expectations for a first BoE rate hike by nearly four months, to December from the first quarter of 2015. Sterling's trade-weighted index posted its biggest one-day rise in four months, hitting 5 1/2-year highs. Short-dated UK government bond yields were on track for their biggest daily gain in more than three years. A rate hike by the end of 2014 is likely to come at least six months before the U.S. Federal Reserve tightens policy. It would contrast sharply with the European Central Bank, which cut rates last week and is likely to ease policy in the coming months. "The BoE seems to be slightly ahead of the Fed as far as rate hikes are concerned,&

A senior U.S. Treasury official on Friday rejected calls to recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying it would take at least 20 years to make sure they were adequately funded and that in the meantime taxpayers would be on the hook. In remarks to a housing conference, Treasury Undersecretary Mary Miller repeated the Obama administration's call that the two so-called government-sponsored enterprises be wound down. "Critics of reform would suggest that we can simply recapitalize the GSEs and avoid difficult decisions around creating a new system," she said. "Even if truly rehabilitating the GSEs were possible, recapitalizing them adequately would take at least 20 years." "During these 20 years, the taxpayer would remain at risk of having to bail out the GSEs during another downturn," Miller added Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages from lenders and repackage them into securities they sell to investors with a guarantee, were seized

The advance of Sunni militants in Iraq leaves Turkey facing a widening Islamist insurgency in two of its southern neighbours, endangering domestic security, threatening important trade routes and forcing it again to rethink Middle Eastern policies. Militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 110 km (68 miles) from the Turkish border, earlier this week and have since thrust southwards towards Baghdad, seat of the Shi'ite Muslim-led central government. Their lightning ascendancy in Turkey's second biggest export market and biggest oil supplier compounds the challenges confronting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, already contending with a slowing economy and the spillover from Syria's civil war where ISIL has also seized patches of border territory. Although analysts believe any ISIL encroachment would be quickly spotted by Turkish forces arrayed along the frontier, financial markets have been unnerved. Turkey'

Travel website owner Priceline Group Inc will buy restaurant reservation website operator OpenTable Inc for $2.6 billion, aiming to broaden its services outside the increasingly competitive online travel industry. Priceline's offer of $103 per share for the owner of OpenTable.com represents a premium of 46 percent to OpenTable's Thursday close. OpenTable's shares inched past the offer price to trade as high as $104.19 on the Nasdaq, suggesting that some investors expect a higher bid. Priceline's shares were down 1.6 percent at $1,205.50. Priceline, whose competitors include Expedia Inc and Orbitz Worldwide Inc, has a record of buying smaller companies and transforming them into large, successful businesses. With little room to expand, online travel companies are looking outside the industry to boost revenue and drive more customers to their websites by offering more of a one-stop shop for travelers by offering services at their destination. TripAdvisor Inc, for

Palladium tumbled to a one-month low on Friday, extending its biggest drop in nearly a year in the previous session, as investors awaited confirmation that South Africa's longest mining strike would end soon. Gold prices edged up after Thursday's 1 percent gain. The safe-haven metal, however, failed to rally further on market expectations that security conditions in Iraq will improve soon, traders said. The leader of South Africa's striking AMCU union said on Friday he hoped to meet the three major platinum firms over the weekend to give them formal feedback from workers about a wage offer that could mean the end of a five-month strike. On Wednesday, palladium had rallied to a 13-year high on speculation of a deadlock in wage talks. Palladium, however, tumbled as much as 5 percent on Thursday on news that platinum group metal (PGM) producers and the AMCU agreed in principle on a wage deal, taking a step closer to resuming operations after the longest strike in the 130-

Brazil's 3-1 win over Croatia in the World Cup opener on Thursday generated 58 million posts on Facebook, almost five times more than this year's Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, the social media company said on Friday. _0"> The most commented play on Facebook was Neymar's first goal, which levelled the match after Brazil fell behind early with an embarrassing own goal. The second most talked-about play was the controversial penalty that led to Neymar's second goal, putting Brazil ahead for the first time. With 16 million posts, Brazil was the most active country on Facebook during the game, followed by the United States and England. "That number represents more than 20 times the capacity of all the stadiums of the World Cup," Facebook said in a statement. The World Cup is a big business opportunity for companies like Facebook as fans around the world turn to social media to comment on live events. The most active demographic group during t

Major European stock indexes ended lower on Friday, with British equities slipping on the possibility of an early rate hike and travel stocks hurt by concern the Iraq conflict will raise oil prices. The STOXX Europe 600 Travel and Leisure index fell 1.7 percent, the top decliner in Europe, on concern higher energy prices will hurt profit margins of airlines and other transport companies. In Britain, the blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 1.0 percent, led by property firms, after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said interest rates might rise sooner than markets expected and it would consider controls on mortgage lending. A Reuters poll of economists on Friday suggested the first rate rise will come in the first three months of next year. In a May 28 poll, economists' expectations had been for rates to go up in the second quarter. In reaction, Land Securities and British Land , the country's top two listed property companies, fell more than 4 percent. Kingfisher, Europe'

Wal-Mart Stores Inc will launch its business-to-business e-commerce platform in the Indian cities of Lucknow and Hyderabad in the first week of July, its India boss said on Friday. The world's largest retailer has 20 wholesale outlets in India, including in Lucknow and Hyderabad, which will support its e-commerce services, its India Chief Executive Officer Krish Iyer said. It would look at rolling out the service to the remaining 18 outlets as well, Iyer said, but not for another six months at least. "We will not start rolling out to the other 18 stores for the next six months because we will learn from any teething problems and feedback from members," Iyer told Reuters. In April, Wal-Mart said it planned to open 50 more wholesale outlets in India over four to five years and start online operations to sell to small shopkeepers, several months after it decided against opening its own retail stores. The e-commerce service will be available only to its trader members,

Britain could become the first major economy to tighten monetary policy since the 2008 financial crisis, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has signalled, sending sterling shooting towards a five-year high against the dollar on Friday. British government bond yields soared, construction stocks tumbled and interest rate futures priced in a first hike by December after Carney said rates could rise sooner than markets had thought - his most hawkish comment to date. "There's already great speculation about the exact timing of the first rate hike and this decision is becoming more balanced," Carney said in a speech late on Thursday alongside British finance minister George Osborne. "It could happen sooner than markets currently expect." Few economists had expected rates to increase until the second quarter of next year given the central bank's previous guidance that there was plenty of scope for Britain's economy to expand further without causing infla

A federal judge said LinkedIn Corp must face a lawsuit by customers who claimed it violated their privacy by accessing their external email accounts, downloading their contacts' email addresses and soliciting business from those contacts. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, found that while customers consented to LinkedIn's sending an initial "endorsement email" to recruit contacts, they did not agree to let the professional networking website operator send two reminder emails when the initial email is ignored. This practice "could injure users' reputations by allowing contacts to think that the users are the types of people who spam their contacts or are unable to take the hint that their contacts do not want to join their LinkedIn network," Koh wrote in a 39-page decision released on Thursday. "In fact," she added, "by stating a mere three screens before the disclosure regarding the first invitation that 'We w

The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. _0"> * Iraq's government girded to protect the capital from advancing insurgents, as Iranian security officials said their forces had joined the battle on Baghdad's side and the United States weighed military assistance. ( r.reuters.com/xyw99v ) * Iran has deployed Revolutionary Guard forces to fight militants that have overrun a string of Iraqi cities, and it has helped Iraqi troops win back control of most of Tikrit, Iranian security sources said. ( r.reuters.com/zyw99v ) * Alibaba Group Holding Ltd IPO-ALIB.N, responding to concerns from investors that it has been too tight-lipped, plans to give out more details about its Internet empire as it readies its potential $20 billion initial public offering. The Chinese e-commerce company, which plans to go public in the next few months, is preparing a new regulatory filing that

Asian stocks slid and crude oil scaled nine-month highs on Friday as escalating civil war in Iraq dulled risk appetite which had been buoyant just days before. Spreadbetters expected the sour mood to linger on in Europe, forecasting Britain's FTSE to open as much as 0.4 percent lower, Germany's DAX down 0.25 percent and France's CAC 0.26 percent lower. The yen, however, benefited from its safe-haven status and a decline in U.S. Treasury yields following soft U.S. data that dented economic optimism. Sunni Islamist militants have extended their advance south towards Baghdad and prompted President Barack Obama to warn of possible U.S. military intervention, while Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of the Kirkuk oil hub amid the chaos. Weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales and jobless claims data published on Thursday further tempered economic optimism felt earlier in the week that had propelled Wall Street to record highs. Taking its cue from an overnight slide in U.S.

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Friday and offered a slightly more upbeat view on overseas growth, signalling confidence the economy is on course to meet its inflation target next year without additional stimulus. _0"> Following are comments from BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda at his post-meeting news conference: ON JAPAN'S ECONOMY: "The economy is moving roughly within our expectations. Household spending remains solid as a trend ... The positive cycle of the economy is firmly in place, accompanied by clear improvements in job conditions and income." "We expect Japan's economy to temporarily contract in the second quarter (due to the sales tax hike impact). But more companies have decided to raise regular pay and summer bonuses are set to rise, so job and income conditions will continue to clearly improve. "As such, we expect household spending to remain firm. The downturn in spending (in reaction to the rise ahead of the tax

The dollar was up around a third of a percent against the yen as markets listened to the Bank of Japan's latest comments on policy on Friday while sterling soared on the back of a surprise hint from the Bank of England that interest rates could rise this year. The big action overnight was all on the pound. BoE Governor Mark Carney sent money market rates spinning higher by telling the annual Mansion House dinner that rates may rise sooner than markets currently expect. That sent sterling to a 19-month high against the euro and close to key resistance around $1.70, up around 1 percent since the close of play in London on Thursday. "For us this was a clear signal that the first hike will come this year," said Lee Hardman, a strategist with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UTJ in London. "We think the first month for the bank to move will be November. The move was all the more shocking given how little faith the market has shown in sterling's ability to rise further ag

German bond yields edged up on Friday, tracking UK equivalents higher after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said interest rates could rise sooner than financial markets expect. Bund futures fell as much as 43 ticks when markets opened, before recovering by the time cash markets opened. German 10-year bond yields rose 1 basis point to 1.4 percent. "The Bund opened very weak but it is starting to come back a bit, showing that this first reaction was maybe somewhat an exaggeration of the European investors," said Piet Lammens, strategist at KBC. "The euro area should be a bit immune to UK rates, given the stance of the European Central Bank." While the BoE is gearing up to raise rates to cool its buoyant housing market and support economic recovery, the ECB has cut rates negative in a desperate attempt to stimulate bank lending and stoke low inflation. While the connectedness of global economies could not prevent the euro zone debt benchmark from following i

German bond yields edged up on Friday, tracking UK equivalents higher after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said interest rates could rise sooner than financial markets expect. Bund futures fell as much as 43 ticks when markets opened, before recovering by the time cash markets opened. German 10-year bond yields rose 1 basis point to 1.4 percent. "The Bund opened very weak but it is starting to come back a bit, showing that this first reaction was maybe somewhat an exaggeration of the European investors," said Piet Lammens, strategist at KBC. "The euro area should be a bit immune to UK rates, given the stance of the European Central Bank." While the BoE is gearing up to raise rates to cool its buoyant housing market and support economic recovery, the ECB has cut rates negative in a desperate attempt to stimulate bank lending and stoke low inflation. While the connectedness of global economies could not prevent the euro zone debt benchmark from following i

The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. _0"> THE GLOBE AND MAIL * A crash of China's shadow banking system would send shock waves through the Canadian economy, depressing commodity prices and triggering a housing market correction, the Bank of Canada warned in a new report. Other major risks to the Canadian system remain largely unchanged, including the threat of a house price collapse at home, sharply higher interest rates or the euro crisis. ( r.reuters.com/daz99v ) * More than a million encoded BlackBerry messages have been viewed by police as part of a crackdown against Quebec organized crime. In arresting more than 30 people on Thursday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took the rare step of publicly highlighting its interception of BlackBerry Inc's supposedly secure "PIN-to-PIN" communications. ( r.reuters.com/haz99v ) Reports in the busi

German bonds recovered after an earlier fall on Friday, as investors shrugged off worries that a rates rise in the UK would have a knock on effect for euro zone government borrowing costs. Bund futures, the most actively traded securities in euro zone bond markets, initially dropped as much as 43 ticks at Friday's open after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said UK interest rates could rise sooner than financial markets expect. However, by mid-morning, Bund futures made a full reversal, climbing to daily highs of 145.63, 37 ticks up on the day. Strategists said data confirming the euro zone's alarmingly weak inflation served as a reminder that the path of ECB policy had completely diverged from its peer across the channel. "These deflation pressures show the ECB will keep rates low for a very long time, which is the most important thing for investors," said Christian Lenk, strategist at DZ Bank. Fears around low inflation in the euro zone have centered on th

The dollar rose around a third of a percent against the yen as markets listened to the Bank of Japan's latest comments on policy on Friday while sterling soared on a surprise hint from the Bank of England that interest rates could rise this year. The big action overnight was all on the pound. BoE Governor Mark Carney sent money market rates spinning higher by telling London's financial community at Thursday's annual Mansion House dinner that rates may rise sooner than markets currently expect. That sent sterling to a 19-month high against the euro and close to key resistance around $1.70, up around 1 percent since the close of play in London on Thursday. "For us, this was a clear signal that the first hike will come this year," said Lee Hardman, a strategist with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UTJ in London. "We think the first month for the bank to move will be November." The move was all the more shocking given how little faith the market has shown in t

In the struggle to explain this year's collapse in volatility and volume in financial trading, one newly-nominated culprit is central banks' intent to use every tactic available short of raising interest rates too soon. It sounded like a deeply contrarian view on Friday after comments by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, but a study by analysts from market heavyweights HSBC this week argued that the use of macroprudential steps will make central bank interest rates in general less volatile in future. Implicitly that may mean markets see less marked swings. The global economy is right at the point, as the economic fates of Japan, Europe and the United States diverge, when an upturn in trading action could be expected due to the growing chances for arbitrage between future interest rates. Yet volatility, which traders depend upon for profits, is at rock bottom. Trading in currencies on the biggest platforms has fallen by a third to half in the past year; options contract

China and Britain will sign business deals worth at least $30 billion next week during a visit to London by China's Premier Li Keqiang, the Chinese ambassador to Britain said on Friday. _0"> "The total value may be record-breaking," Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to Britain, told a news conference in London, saying that over 40 separate agreements whose total value was at least $30 billion would be signed. The deals would cover a range of sectors, including energy, education and finance, he added. "This visit is a priority to China and the UK. Expectations are very high," he said, saying Li would be joined by over 200 Chinese business leaders. The two sides will discuss possible Chinese investment in Britain's planned HS2 high-speed rail network linking the north of England with London and in its nuclear sector, he said. There will also be banking deals. Li will meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron at his London residence on Jun

Britain's finance minister George Osborne this week rejected European Union plans to outlaw currency market manipulation and instead set out his own proposals to make rigging exchange rates a criminal offence. A panel led by the Bank of England and including the Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority will recommend new criminal sanctions which meet the needs of London, where much of the largely unregulated FX market takes place. Osborne's announcement comes as regulators around the world investigate allegations of collusion and price-manipulation in the $5-trillion-a-day market, by far the world's largest. Since the allegations first surfaced last year, some 40 traders have been placed on leave, suspended or fired by some of the world's biggest banks. No individual or bank has been accused of wrongdoing and no evidence of wrongdoing has been found. All the banks involved are cooperating with the regulators. Below is a timeline on the scandal engulfing the FX m

The dollar edged higher against a basket of major currencies on Friday for the first time in three sessions after violence in Iraq triggered a safety bid for the U.S. currency, while higher U.S. bond yields underpinned the move. Escalating insurgent conflict in Iraq resulted in a cautious mood, while renewed focus on the potential for more monetary stimulus in Japan and higher U.S. Treasury yields drove demand for the dollar. "The dollar is enjoying a safety bid on renewed instability in Iraq," said senior analyst Joe Manimbo at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington. Traders dismissed data showing slightly weaker-than-expected U.S. consumer sentiment in June. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary June reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 81.2, down from 81.9 the month before. The dollar also advanced against the Japanese yen after traders reconsidered the potential for more monetary stimulus from the Bank of Japan.

Britain could become the first major economy to tighten monetary policy since the 2008 financial crisis, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has signalled, sending sterling shooting towards a five-year high against the dollar on Friday. British government bond yields soared, construction stocks tumbled and interest rate futures priced in a first hike by December after Carney said rates could rise sooner than markets had thought - his most hawkish comment to date. "There's already great speculation about the exact timing of the first rate hike and this decision is becoming more balanced," Carney said in a speech late on Thursday alongside British finance minister George Osborne. "It could happen sooner than markets currently expect." Few economists had expected rates to increase until the second quarter of next year given the central bank's previous guidance that there was plenty of scope for Britain's economy to expand further without causing infla

Swiss bank Vontobel AG ( id="symbol_VONN.S_0"> VONN.S ) has seen private client inflows continuing at the same pace as in the first half of the year, private banking head Peter Fanconi said on Wednesday. _0"> "We have seen continuous stable inflows," he told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Geneva, adding that the rate was comparable to first-half net inflows of 700 million Swiss francs ($760.5 million), in line with an annual rate of increase in assets under management of 4-5 percent. Fanconi, who took over at the private bank in 2009, said he saw particularly good inflows in Switzerland and Germany, including in the onshore business Vontobel is building up as the Swiss offshore business model has come under fire. "If you are a fully transparent German client and you have the opportunity to book your assets in Zurich or Munich and you live in Munich that makes sense," he said. However, he admitted the bank would see outflows of a

Switzerland's banking industry is relying on its stability and expertise to ensure it has a bright future as a leading center for managing the assets of the rich, despite a concerted global attack on its tradition of secrecy. "Swiss banking is in a transformational process. Still as Switzerland and as Swiss bankers we have a lot to offer," Ivan Adamovich, Geneva head of the country's oldest private bank, Wegelin, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit. "There was too much talk about secrecy and taxes and not enough talk about what else is there. Service quality and so on," he said. Strict Swiss bank secrecy, which helped the country become the world's biggest offshore banking center, has come under heavy fire in recent years from cash-strapped governments clamping down on tax evasion, putting client confidentiality under threat. Switzerland has agreed to do more to help other countries hunt tax cheats, allowing UBS ( id="symbol_UBSN.VX_0&q