Important news from Gennie

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UPDATE 1-US House Democrats vow continued push on China bill

By Doug PalmerWASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic lawmakers vowed on Friday to keep pressing for a vote on China currency legislation, now blocked by Republican leaders, which they said is vital for U.S. competitiveness in global markets."It is estimated that currency manipulation costs our economy over a million jobs," said Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 in the House of Representatives Democratic leadership. "I urge the Republican leadership to put the currency bill on the floor."Earlier this week, the Senate voted 63-35 to pass a bill aimed at China by allowing companies to seek U.S. government "countervailing duties" against goods from countries with undervalued currencies.The House is controlled by Republicans and the Senate by Democrats.Many U.S. lawmakers contend that China undervalues its currency by as much as 15 to 40 percent to give its companies an unfair price advantage in international trade.House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, says he fears the bill could start a trade war and has refused to bring it to the floor for a vote, even though a similar measure passed the House last year 348-79."They don't want this bill on the floor for one reason: it would pass," said Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. "The speaker should let the House work its will."Representatives Tim Ryan and Betty Sutton, two Democrats from Boehner's home state of Ohio, also said they had no intention of letting the issue drop.Democrats hope Republican lawmakers will hear from constituents on the issue when they return to their districts next week.The Obama administration says it shares the goal of the legislation, which is getting China to revalue its currency. But it has raised concern that some provisions in the Senate bill could violate World Trade Organization rules.Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department faces a Saturday deadline to issue an semi-annual report on whether any country is manipulating its currency for an unfair trade advantage.The Obama administration, in five previous reports, has pushed China to move more quickly to revalue its currency. However, it has declined to take the step of formally labeling China a currency manipulator.

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Congress OKs Korea, Panama, Colombia trade deals

Republicans and Democrats joined together in the House of Representatives and the Senate to pass the pacts, which now go to President Barack Obama to sign into law.Obama -- who sent the three agreements to Capitol Hill nine days ago, four to five years after they were negotiated -- welcomed the congressional passage of the deals."These free trade agreements will give our economy a much-needed shot in the arm and create tens of thousands of American jobs," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said.Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the bipartisan votes showed there were some areas where his party and Obama could find common ground despite a current battle over jobs legislation and other clashes in the past."For our part, Senate Republicans are ready to work with him on an even more robust trade agenda," McConnell said.U.S. farm and manufactured goods exports are expected to rise under the three agreements as tariffs are phased out. The pacts also open new markets for U.S. companies in service sectors such as banking, insurance and express delivery.The biggest gains are expected from the pact with South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally and a $1 trillion economy in a region increasingly dominated by China. The agreement will help anchor the United States in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region so it can share in its growth, analysts say.The U.S.-South Korea deal would be the biggest U.S. trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement that took effect in January 1994.The approval of the pact in Congress comes a day before South Korean President Lee Myung-bak speaks to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.The Senate voted 83-15 to approve the South Korea deal and the House 278-151. The Panama agreement cleared the Senate by a vote of 77-22 and the House 300-129.The Colombia agreement, reflecting Democratic concerns about labor conditions, garnered the least support but still was approved by sizable margins of 66-33 in the Senate and 262-167 in the House.

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UPDATE 1-eBay and Facebook unveil e-commerce partnership

* Analysts may have been looking for moreSAN FRANCISCO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Facebook executive and eBay Inc board member Katie Mitic unveiled a partnership between the two companies designed to create a new crop of e-commerce applications with social networking features.Mitic said on Wednesday that Facebook's so-called Open Graph -- the map of connections that Facebook users create with friends and online content -- will be integrated "seamlessly" into applications developed with certain eBay services and technologies.EBay is trying to encourage outside developers to create applications for its e-commerce platforms and is making a particularly strong push in mobile commerce.The company launched X.commerce, its new division aimed at software developers, at a conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.Weaving Facebook features into e-commerce products has the potential to make online shopping a more personalized experience, by displaying people's thoughts about products on the virtual store shelves.Speaking at the conference, Mitic said Facebook's Open Graph would be integrated into applications developed with eBay services such as Magento, a service for building online storefronts, and GSI, which handles order fulfillment.Some analysts and e-commerce experts had expected a deeper partnership, possibly focusing on PayPal, eBay's electronic payment system.Mitic's announcement was met with little applause from the 3,000 strong crowd in the conference hall."This is a positive step for merchants and developers, but the Street was likely looking for a higher-profile partnership with Facebook across eBay and PayPal," Doug Anmuth, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, wrote in a note to investors. "That could still happen down the line, but we do not expect it in the near term."Shares of eBay slipped 0.2 percent to $32.75 on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq Composite index climbed 0.84 percent.EBay and Facebook have an existing partnership the allows the purchase of Facebook self-serve ads and Facebook Credits using PayPal, eBay's electronic payments system.At the end of September, Mitic, head of Platform and Mobile Marketing at Facebook, joined eBay's board of directors, sparking speculation that the two companies were working on new partnerships.

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UPDATE 1-PE firm Bain to buy Japanese restaurant chain-Nikkei

Nomura, which acquired the restaurant chain operator in 2006 along with a U.K. investment fund and Skylark management, will likely turn a profit on its investment with the Bain deal, the Nikkei reported.Bain began talks with Nomura to buy Skylark last fall and reached a basic agreement in late August, but an outbreak of dysentery at a Skylark group restaurant right after the agreement delayed negotiations, the paper said.Some of Skylark's Gusto brand outlets had been closed until late September as a result of the outbreak, but Bain does not appear to be concerned as sales have recovered to year-earlier levels since the locations reopened, the daily said.