Police officers stand guard outside the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City, U.S. December 11, 2017 after reports of an explosion. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

 

New York

 

A Bangladeshi man set off a homemade pipe bomb strapped to his body in a crowded New York City commuter hub during the morning rush hour on Monday, officials said, immediately calling it an attempted terrorist attack. 

 

The suspect is an angry former limousine driver who learned to build a bomb on the internet at his Brooklyn apartment, officials said. 

 

Minutes after the blast, trains were rerouted and throngs of police swarmed the streets. The massive response exposed the limits of the antiterrorism force the city has built since the deadly attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It has learned to respond quickly and effectively to attacks but faces an almost impossible task in trying to thwart every threat, particularly the acts of “lone wolves” targeting public places and New York’s vast transit system.

 

President Donald Trump said attack highlights the “urgent need” for Congress to enact immigration reform legislation. 

 

Factbox: Attacks against New York City in recent years 

 

Business

 

Oil prices jumped after the shutdown of a North Sea pipeline knocked out significant supply from an already tightening market, while world stocks took a break from a three-day rally. 

 

Newly launched bitcoin futures suggested that traders expect the cryptocurrency’s blistering price gains to slow in the coming months, even as it blasted above $17,000 to a fresh record high in the spot market. 

 

Breakingviews: Anti-leveraged buyout activist could benefit Toshiba investors 

 

Communities across the United States are looking to replace their dirty diesel buses, ushering in what some analysts predict will be a boom in electric fleets. But transit agencies doing the buying are moving cautiously, an analysis by Reuters shows. Out of more than 65,000 public buses plying U.S. roads today, just 300 are electric. Among the challenges: EVs are expensive, have limited range and are unproven on a mass scale. 

 

More than 200 institutional investors with $26 trillion in assets under management said they would step up pressure on the world’s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to combat climate change.

 

Deals

 

Comcast said it had abandoned its bid for most of the assets of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox, leaving Disney as the sole suitor in pursuit of the $40 billion-plus deal. 

 

Germany’s Audi has abandoned plans to sell its Italian motorcycle brand Ducati, its chief executive Rupert Stadler said, in a sign of confidence that the carmaker expects to be able to carry the costs of its transformation. 

 

 

A camel is seen as he is being brought for the foot surgery at the Dubai Camel Hospital in Dubai, UAE, December 11, 2017.REUTERS/Satish Kumar

 

U.S. politics

 

Voters in Alabama were headed to the polls in a hard-fought U.S. Senate race in which Trump has endorsed fellow Republican Roy Moore, whose campaign has been clouded by allegations of sexual misconduct toward teenagers. Dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct toward teenagers, Moore cast himself as a staunch ally of Trump at a rally on the eve of the election. 

 

Three women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct called for a congressional investigation into his behavior amid a wave of similar accusations against prominent men in Hollywood, the media and politics. 

 

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson holds a town hall with staff amid skepticism about his planned agency reorganization that has been aggravated by his recent inaccurate comments about the State Department, a dozen current and former officials said. 

 

As Republicans in Congress rush to finish their tax plan, the legislation is not getting more popular with the public, with nearly half of Americans still opposed to it, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll. 

 

A federal judge issued a stern warning to Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort to refrain from making statements to the media that could harm his right to a fair trial. 

 

World

 

Reuters TV: Putin says mission accomplished in Syria 

 

Set to host the Winter Olympics in February, South Korea conducted a series of security drills to prepare against terror attacks ranging from a hostage situation, a vehicle ramming a stadium and a bomb-attached to a drone. 

 

A young Chinese climbing enthusiast’s fatal fall from a skyscraper while making a selfie video on a $15,000 “rooftopping” dare has spurred warnings by state media against the perils of livestreaming. 

 

Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe has left the country for medical checks in Singapore, his first foreign travel since the army forced him from office last month, a state security official said. 

 

Commentary

 

The British government has avoided an impasse over the Irish land border and the cost of its divorce from the European Union, but its negotiating position remains weak, writes Paul Wallace. "Blame economic gravity for that." This "well-attested phenomenon" explains why the larger and closer that economies are the more they trade with each other – and why it's unrealistic for the UK to expect new trade deals with more distant and often poorer countries to compensate for the losses in trade with Europe. "Far from prospering through leaving the EU, Britain will be a lonelier and weaker economy," says Wallace.