News

* Republican consultant is most prominent aide to plead guilty

Officers from Nigeria's financial crime agency visited the Lagos office of Standard Chartered's Nigerian operations on Friday, but bank said in a statement that there was no reason for the officers to be there and they left shortly afterwards.

Before gas explosions in Massachusetts sent its shares reeling on Friday, utility NiSource Inc was considered a secure play and its top investor was loading up on shares as part of a push into what it called "the safest, most defensive sector in the S&P 500."

Speculators' net long bets on the U.S. dollar fell to the lowest since mid-July, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. The value of the net long dollar position was $19.16 billion in the week ended Sept. 11, down...

Florence has weakened to a tropical storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday, adding that still life-threatening storm surges and catastrophic freshwater flooding are expected over portions of North and South Carolina.

The poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia has taken yet another dramatic turn. After UK authorities named two Russians – both said to be from the GRU military intelligence service – as suspects in the attack, Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the pair were...

* N. Carolina Governor: storm in 'violent grind' across state

* Republican consultant is most prominent aide to plead guilty

MSCI, the global stock index provider, is closely monitoring how Argentina is navigating its financial turmoil, reiterating the decision to reclassify it as an emerging market could be reversed should it restrict market access, the company's chief executive told Reuters on Friday.