Japan

A subway passenger was stabbed to death in front of horrified riders in a dispute with another man over a seat in the car early Saturday morning in midtown Manhattan, police said. The victim, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at the Seventh Avenue station at West 53rd Street, where the train stopped after the attack at about 2 a.m. The victim, who was in his mid-30s, was repeatedly stabbed in the neck and face with a knife, police said. He had boarded the train at the Rockefeller Center station, police said. Gerardo Sanchez, 37, of the Bronx, was charged with murder ... Read Full Story

The dollar rallied on Friday as investors shunned assets viewed as risky, such as the euro, amid fresh concerns about the strength of global economic recovery, analysts said. In late morning trading here, the euro sank to 1.4876 dollars from 1.4922 late in New York on Thursday. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar fell to 88.84 yen from 88.99 yen late on Thursday. "Over the past few days, patches of weakness in economic data have seen fears over the strength and durability of the economic recovery return," said NAB Capital strategist John Kyriakopoulos. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Thursday said ... Read Full Story

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group <8306.T> posted a 59 percent rise in quarterly profit helped by stronger lending, becoming the third major Japanese bank to post market-beating results, in a sign that Tokyo's lenders may now be on the mend. Japan's biggest bank also confirmed earlier reports that it would raise up to 1 trillion yen ($11.2 billion) by issuing new shares in order to meet stricter global capital rules. The fundraising is a record for a Japanese financial firm and the country's biggest in nine years. The bank also said it would rejig its plan to integrate its brokerage with Morgan ... Read Full Story

TOKYO (Reuters) - The likely $15.5 billion share issuance by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group <8306.T> and Hitachi Ltd <6501.T> is the latest blow to Japan's long-suffering investors, but it won't be the last. Japanese companies have already raised $40 billion through issuing common stock and convertible bonds this year, tapping a modest share market rebound for much-needed cash after the financial crisis -- but at the same time heavily diluting the holdings of their current shareholders. The fundraising, mainly from financial firms but including technology, industrial and real estate companies, has put pressure on stock prices across the board and sparked investor concern about ... Read Full Story

TOKYO (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc said on Sunday it has agreed to sell its stake in Japanese telemarketer Bellsystem24 to U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital for 93.5 billion yen ($1 billion). Bain has been widely expected to buy Bellsystem24 after securing exclusive negotiation rights earlier this month. Sources had told Reuters last week that Bain was close to finalizing a roughly 100 billion yen deal for the company, marking the largest buyout by a foreign private equity firm in Japan in nearly two years. Bain has beaten off rivals Permira and a team of CVC Capital and Blackstone, which had also made offers ... Read Full Story