Venezuela VP to travel to Cuba see Chavez, family

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's vice president said he will travel to Cuba on Friday to visit ailing President Hugo Chavez and his family.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced his trip on television, saying he would also meet with Chavez's medical team. The government says the Venezuelan leader is fighting a severe respiratory infection a month after he underwent cancer surgery in Havana.
"I'm leaving for Havana to continue that work of visiting the family, meeting with his medical team, visiting our commander president," Maduro said.
Chavez hasn't spoken publicly or been seen since before his Dec. 11 operation, his fourth cancer-related surgery since June 2011 for an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer.
The government revealed this week that Chavez is receiving treatment for "respiratory deficiency." Medical experts say that might mean he is breathing with the help of a ventilator.
Maduro was making his second trip to Cuba since Chavez's surgery. He said he would meet with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, who also was visiting Havana, and hoped to meet with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, who arrived Friday in the Cuban capital.
Fernandez arrived at the upscale Hotel Nacional along Havana's waterfront on Friday morning. Authorities have characterized the Argentine leader's trip as a private visit and her foreign minister said Thursday that she intended to meet with Chavez.
She told The Associated Press in Friday afternoon that she would lunch with Cuban President Raul Castro and his retired brother Fidel. "And then surely I will meet with the family of my 'companero' and dear friend Hugo Chavez," Fernandez said.
Arriving at the Havana airport, Humala did not say if had confirmed plans to meet with Chavez.
"Obviously I will ask, I will see, how is President Chavez's situation," Humala told reporters, saying he wishes Chavez a "quick recovery."
Presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Evo Morales of Bolivia have also visited Havana during Chavez's current stay there.
Peruvian analyst Nelson Manrique said Humala's trip was a reflection of the president's personal friendship with Chavez, as well as political.
"There is a sector that would like Peru to be unconditionally aligned with the United States, but this is more prudent politically to develop a multilateral policy," Manrique said. "It doesn't seem probable that Hugo Chavez will continue governing, but in any of the scenarios 'Chavismo' will be a very strong force in Venezuela.
"It's convenient for the Peruvian government to maintain a relationship, leave the door open, and balance the geopolitical relationship with Venezuela as well," the analyst added.
Maduro was designated by Chavez last month as his chosen successor. Maduro said that while he is in Cuba, Electricity Minister Hector Navarro will remain in charge of affairs as acting vice president. The vice president didn't say when he would return.
The vice president's announcement came a day after the government gathered foreign allies and tens of thousands of exuberant supporters to celebrate the start of a new term for Chavez on Thursday, even as he was too ill to return home for a real inauguration.
Despite opposition claims that the constitution demands a Jan. 10 inauguration, the pro-Chavez congress approved delaying the inauguration and the Supreme Court on Wednesday endorsed the postponement, saying the president could be sworn in before the court at a later date.
Jailed former defense minister Raul Baduel urged his countrymen, especially the military, to resist what he called a "new constitutional coup" by Chavez's allies. The former military chief, who is in prison after being convicted of embezzlement and abuse of power, made the remarks in a vaguely worded letter that was released on Friday.
Baduel has insisted he is innocent and dismissed the case against him as a politically motivated reprisal for his opposition to Chavez.
Though he didn't give details about what action he hoped the military would take, Baduel appeared to echo the argument by opposition politicians that Maduro and other Chavez allies are violating the constitution by remaining in office beyond the formal swearing-in date.
The Supreme Court has dismissed that argument, saying the date in the constitution isn't binding if an inauguration is performed before the court rather than the congress, where presidents usually take the oath of office.

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Cubans eager to try new law easing travel rules

HAVANA (AP) — Like many Cubans, 16-year-old Ana Liliam Garcia is excited at the thought of seeing the world beyond this Communist-run island smaller than the state of Pennsylvania.
Once an impossibility, today she dreams of meeting several relatives in Florida — and maybe even Mickey Mouse.
"My cousins and my uncles, they're all in Miami," Garcia said, her eyes lighting up as she talked about a new law taking effect Monday that will let most islanders travel abroad without seeking government permission or paying for costly exit visas. "I would like to see Disneyland in the United States. I'll be able to travel!"
The overhaul of Cuba's decades-old migratory law, announced three months ago, eliminates the much-detested exit visa known as the "white card" and is perhaps the most highly anticipated of a series of reforms initiated under President Raul Castro.
Observers predict it will result in only a modest initial increase in trips by Cubans, who must still get entry visas to travel to most countries, including the United States. And critics note that the law includes a "national security" clause that could be used to bar exits by government opponents, skilled workers and those privy to sensitive information.
But if applied evenhandedly, the opening would eliminate one of the biggest human rights criticisms leveled against a country that has long controlled who can leave, leading opponents to call Cuba an island prison.
"What's important about it is people see this as a symbolic step of some importance more than a substantive one," said Geoff Thale, a Cuba analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank. "It symbolizes the end of the state intruding in the same way it used to in people's regular lives."
The new law has a number of concrete provisions that will benefit many Cubans.
For Garcia, it means a first chance to travel since under the previous rules most minors could only leave Cuba if they planned to do so permanently.
As a dual Spanish citizen, something she and tens of thousands of other Cubans have attained through Spanish ancestry, the teen qualifies to visit Florida without having to worry about a U.S. visa.
Relatives there will help out with airfare and other costs her parents can't afford.
"My aunts and uncles are overjoyed," Garcia said. "In my dreams, I want to see the whole world ... but I always would want to return to where my family and friends are."
The measure greatly simplifies travel by scrapping the exit visa, and doing away with the requirement that Cubans provide a letter of invitation from someone in their country of destination.
In the past nearly all exit visa applications were granted, and relatively quickly, but the costs were prohibitive to many in this country where wages average $20 a month. Between various application and notarization fees, it ran to $300 or more a trip, and some Cubans paid an additional $200 to $300 to people overseas for invitation letters.
Now, islanders need only make a one-time $100 application for a passport, renewable for $20 every two years.
The new rules also raise from 11 to 24 months the amount of time Cubans can be gone without losing residency rights. That will make it easier for people to work or study abroad longer while maintaining ties to the island, potentially sending money to relatives or even returning with hard-currency earnings to invest in newly legalized small businesses or cooperatives.
"It will create more of a revolving door instead of an escape hatch," said Ted Henken, a professor of Latin American studies at Baruch College in New York. "They're removing another thorn in the crown of thorns that a lot of Cubans have to wear."
The migratory law is a PR coup for the Cuban government, which bristles at outside criticism of its human rights record. It also gives Havana ammunition in its crusade against the 50-year U.S. embargo, which bars most Americans from traveling to the island.
"Cuba permits its citizens to come travel here. We don't permit our citizens to travel there without a regulatory framework that is probably stricter than what the Cubans are going to adopt," Thale said. "So it does look hypocritical.
The law also has implications for U.S. policy, which allows Cubans who reach American soil to stay and grants them residency rights after just a year. The Cuban law's 24-month window means there will be a one-year overlap during which immigrants can establish U.S. residency without losing their right of return, potentially spawning a new class of binationals able to move back and forth seamlessly between the two countries.
The stated aim of the United States' Cuban Adjustment Act is to provide refuge for those fleeing oppression, not easy citizenship for those who wish to straddle both worlds, and some Cuban-American lawmakers have already talked of revisiting the policy.
On Friday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement calling the exit visa a "major impediment" to Cubans' travel and welcoming its demise.
"We cannot predict if the change in exit visa requirements will lead to a change in migration patterns from Cuba," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "We continue to encourage people not to risk their lives by undertaking dangerous sea journeys and we note that most countries still require that Cuban citizens have entry visas."
As with many things in Cuba, the effect of the reform will come down to how it is implemented.
A key article gives authorities the right to deny passports in some cases, including people facing criminal investigation, those with outstanding debts or for "reasons of Defense and National Security."
The latter provision has widely been interpreted to mean that people in strategic professions, such as military officers, athletes or government figures with access to sensitive information, could be turned down just as they were in the past.
One litmus test will be how Cuba handles dissidents, who are officially considered traitors and are routinely denied travel permission.
Anti-government blogger Yoani Sanchez, who has been barred from leaving at least 19 times, has said state security agents told her in the past she could only leave if it was for good.
"My suitcase is still packed for a trip WITH RETURN!" she tweeted recently. "Will I be allowed to go?"
Berta Soler, a leader of the opposition group the Ladies in White, also said she plans to test the law. If successful, she hopes to finally travel to Strasbourg, France, to receive the European Union's 2005 Sakharov human rights prize.
But dissidents are skeptical their situation will change.
"I think the migratory law is a way of creating the illusion of an opening in the eyes of the international community so Cuba is not criticized so much," said Guillermo Farinas, another Sakharov winner who was turned down for an exit visa in 2006, 2007 and 2010.
There are at least some indications that authorities may be more open to travel in sensitive cases.
This week word emerged of a Health Ministry directive saying doctors are to be treated like all other citizens in their travel requests. The news came as a surprise because health care workers are among those closely guarded to prevent "brain drain" of skilled workers trained at great cost under Cuba's socialist system. It was widely presumed that doctors would fall under the "national security" clause.
That should make life easier for people like Pedro Salazar, a 45-year-old industrial designer. He and his wife, Noelis Rodriguez, have been granted U.S. family-reunification immigrant visas, but have been waiting for Rodriguez, an epidemiologist, to be cleared to leave.
"I'm a professional. What does it matter if I live here or elsewhere?" Salazar said on a recent day outside a migration office. "They educate professionals for free, yes, it's true. But then I spent two years doing social service."
Analysts say islanders will likely not be flocking en masse to the Grand Canyon or the French Riviera anytime soon.
Securing entry visas to Europe or the United States can be difficult for citizens of any developing nation. And low salaries mean millions of Cubans will be priced out.
But experts say more and more islanders will be able to see the outside world, something likely to fuel a demand for more change.
"The new migratory policy is an incentive for (further) reform in politics and the economy," said Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban-born economist at the University of Denver. "The right to travel is a multiplier of rights.

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Manning puts winning streaks on line against Ravens

(Reuters) - Peyton Manning, who has mounted a remarkable comeback with the Broncos, will be aiming to extend two big winning streaks when Denver hosts the Baltimore Ravens in the National Football League playoffs on Saturday.
Manning and the Broncos are gunning for their 12th win in a row this season in the divisional round against the Ravens, a team he has beaten nine consecutive times, with eight of those coming with the Indianapolis Colts dating back to 2002.
The 36-year-old quarterback added to his winning streak against the Ravens with a 34-17 victory last month with a Denver team he joined after missing the entire 2011 season with the Colts after a series of neck surgeries.
Manning picked up where he left off as one of the NFL's preeminent quarterbacks after joining the Broncos, producing a vintage season with his second most touchdown passes (37), second most yards (4,659), second best completion percentage (68.6) and just 11 interceptions.
"Peyton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history," Baltimore defensive lineman Haloti Ngata told reporters.
"He has bounced back from injury. He has done a lot of great things for Denver. Hopefully, we can have a good week of practice and stop him."
Denver (13-3), as the top-seeded team in the AFC, is coming off a bye, while the Ravens (11-6) defeated the Colts 24-9 last week in their wild-card playoff game.
Quarterback Joe Flacco threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns against the Colts and is the only quarterback in NFL history to win a playoff game in his first five seasons but he is still striving to get all the way to the Super Bowl.
Flacco made many of his biggest throws to veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who had 145 receiving yards in the second half against Indianapolis.
"We're looking forward to this," said Boldin. "I was hoping we'd get Denver again. This time we'll make it different."
The Broncos have speedy pass rushers on one of the fastest defenses in the league, featuring linebacker Von Miller (18.5 sacks) and Elvis Dumervil (11 sacks), on a team that tied for the NFL lead in sacks.
Baltimore has developed a strong one-two punch of runners in all-round back Ray Rice and rookie Bernard Pierce, who emerged late in the season and powered his way to 103 yards last week against the Colts, though in their last game against Denver, they combined for less than 60 yards.
While the Ravens are rallying around soon-to-be retiring linebacker Ray Lewis, Denver can see Manning, who does not take his comeback for granted, hit new heights.
"I remember opening day against Pittsburgh — I remember one year ago I was in a hospital bed watching opening day so ... there's a little reminder of how far I've come," Manning told reporters.
"And then certainly in the month of December, that's when I first got cleared to start throwing. So certainly I have had those checkpoints along the way and...reminders of where I was a year ago.

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Jaguars no longer want hometown hero Tim Tebow

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tim Tebow won't be playing for his hometown team.
The Jacksonville Jaguars made it clear Thursday that they have no plans to pursue the popular and polarizing New York Jets backup quarterback.
The Jets are likely to release the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner and Jacksonville native during the offseason, and many believed Tebow would land with the Jaguars.
But new general manager David Caldwell nixed that idea at his introductory news conference.
"I can't imagine a scenario in which he'll be a Jacksonville Jaguar — even if he's released," Caldwell said.
And Caldwell won't get any pushback from his new owner.
Shad Khan, who made a run at Tebow last year, said it was Caldwell's call.
"It's not my decision," Khan said. "I want to do whatever to help this team win. Who the players are is really the general manager's and coaches' — it's a football-side operation decision. It's really not my decision."
What has changed for Khan in the 10 months since he wanted Tebow?
"I'm telling them to take a look at Tebow and they're saying, 'We're going to go in a different direction,'" Khan said. "That's the difference."
Tebow starred at nearby Florida, helping the team win two national championship, and created buzz that he would be a huge hit with the Jaguars. He would sell tickets and merchandise, many said, and bring the small-market franchise national recognition and Super Bowl rings.
Despite all the hype, the Jaguars passed on drafting Tebow in 2010 because former general manager Gene Smith didn't view him as a franchise quarterback.
But after Khan took over last year and the Denver Broncos started quietly shopping Tebow, Khan told Smith to look into acquiring the left-hander.
The Jaguars increased their offer several times. By the end of negotiations, Jacksonville had offered a fourth-round pick and agreed to pay $3 million of the $5 million in advance salary the Broncos had already paid Tebow. The money the Jaguars offered was better than the little more than $2.5 million the Jets agreed to pay, and the draft pick was nine spots higher than New York's fourth-round selection.
But it never really got down to the details.
The Broncos told the Jaguars they were allowing Tebow to choose between the teams, and the Jaguars believe Tebow picked the Jets because he felt he would have a better chance to compete for the quarterback job with Mark Sanchez than Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne.
Still, the Jets failed to find a way to effectively use Tebow this season.
Apparently, the Jaguars don't want to try now, either.
"We plan to address the quarterback situation, obviously," Caldwell said. "Blaine is the second-youngest quarterback in the NFL, but we're going to have open competition. Whether it's through draft or through free agency, we'll bring in some more people to compete at the quarterback position. We're going to let the best player win that position."

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Steelers cut Rainey after domestic violence arrest

(Reuters) - The Pittsburgh Steelers have cut rookie running back Chris Rainey following his arrest for a domestic battery, the National Football League team said on Thursday.
"Chris Rainey's actions this morning were extremely disappointing," said Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert in a statement on the team's website. "Under the circumstances and due to this conduct, Chris will no longer be a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers."
Rainey was charged by Gainesville, Florida police with a single count of misdemeanor simple battery following an incident with his girlfriend, according to media reports.
A fifth round selection of the Steelers in last season's draft, Rainey was used primarily on specialty teams during his rookie campaign, returning 39 kickoffs for 1,035 yards while filling in at running back.

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Sony uses movie studio to press ultra-HD advantage

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Sony Corp. is finally pressing its advantage as a conglomerate that owns both high-tech gadgets and the content that plays on them by being the only electronics maker to offer ultra-HD TVs — and a way to get movies to the new super clear screens.
Ultra-high definition TVs, which quadruple the number of pixels of current high definition technology, have been the talk of the International CES gadget show so far. But only Sony has offered a content solution to go with them.
With 84-inch ultra-HD set it launched in November, Sony threw in a tablet and computer server that has 10 movies preloaded on the device — for $25,000. The movies came from the library of Sony Pictures or its subsidiary Columbia Pictures, like "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Karate Kid."
On Monday, Sony unveiled 55-inch and 65-inch ultra-HD sets that will sell this spring for an undisclosed price believed to be below $10,000. The Japanese electronics maker said it would launch a download service this summer in the U.S. so buyers of the smaller sets would have access to movies in the clearer format.
For now, it will offer the same 10 movies from its library for download.
After unveiling the service, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai told reporters that the ultra-HD movies could be made available to other makers like Samsung or LG later. The company is eyeing coordination with other movie studios, but not immediately.
"That's a key differentiator from a Sony perspective that really speaks to the advantage of what we have in terms of both the electronics business and the content business," he said. "For the time being, that's something we bring exclusively to our customers."
Sony is betting big on ultra-HD, and is a leading supplier of a high-end cameras that shoot in the format, which renders moving images at a resolution of 3,840 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels tall. That is twice the length and width of high definition, resulting in four times as many pixels, or more than 8 million.
The company also makes projectors that show movies in so-called 4K, and Hirai said that anyone who has been to the movies lately has probably experienced it firsthand without realizing it.
Getting these higher resolution files to home televisions is no small matter. A Blu-ray disc format has not been created yet and broadcasters are years away from offering TV signals at the higher resolution.
Sony representatives said that buyers of its 55-inch and 65-inch TVs may be asked to buy an ultra-HD server separately, although a final decision hadn't been made. It is also unclear how much downloadable movies will cost.
The company said it would offer Blu-ray discs that are mastered in 4K but compressed to fit on a current Blu-ray disc. The TV's embedded technology presents the compressed movie at close to 4K resolution, but not quite as good as when they are played from the 4K media player.
But with all new technologies, there were glitches.
Hirai had an embarrassing moment Monday when he introduced the world's first ultra-HD TV using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), only to see the screen go blank as the computer running it had an error.
"This revolutionary TV combines the world's largest OLED display with dazzling 4K resolution, including this beautiful ... interface screen," he said, then turned to see a blank screen as chuckles rippled through the crowd.
Later, Hirai looked back at the 56-inch display only to see the error continue.
"Excellent," he said.
A Sony staffer rolled the TV further away and Hirai carried on his presentation. He later appeared to be good-natured with journalists.
Hirai said the ultra-HD OLED set is a prototype and didn't announce price or availability.
In the Sony booth after the presentation, other ultra-HD OLED screens played without a problem.

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Spending on consumer electronics will climb to $1.1 trillion in 2013

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, worldwide spending on consumer gadgets will reach $1.1 trillion in 2013. The CEA, which organizes the Consumer Electronics Show set to kick off on Tuesday, said global consumer spending on electronics will grow 4% over 2012 after having dipped roughly 1% last year. The estimate comes from Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis for the CEA, and he believes mobile computers, smartphones and tablets will be responsible for more than half of global spending on consumer electronics this year. Koenig warned that the uncertain European economy could have a negative impact on his forecast, however, and tax changes in the U.S. could hurt consumer spending as well.

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With BlackBerry 10, there’s no place like home

Research In Motion (RIMM) has a steep hill to climb as it prepares to unveil its next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system later this month. Launching sleek new BlackBerry 10 handsets that prompt a healthy portion of its current user base to upgrade is of the utmost importance, of course. Just as important, however, is creating a user experience that showcases compelling differentiation and might draw users away from leading smartphone platforms.
[More from BGR: Apple’s next iPhone to reportedly feature larger screen and ‘brand new exterior design’]
Early glimpses at BlackBerry 10 revealed software that attempts to take a fresh look at the smartphone experience in some ways, but after our first look, we wondered if RIM was going far enough with its new OS. Now that we’re just weeks away from the BlackBerry 10 launch event, RIM appears to have started slowly showing users that BlackBerry 10 will, in fact, provide a unique user experience.
[More from BGR: Smooth sailing is over for Apple]
To highlight one example, RIM’s Donny Halliwell recently took to the company’s BlackBerry blog to discuss BlackBerry 10′s take on smartphone navigation. Unlike iOS and Android, RIM’s new platform does not support a home button, which on other platforms would bring the user back to the home screen from anywhere in the OS.
Why exclude the home button? Halliwell says that BlackBerry 10 is all about “moving forward,” not backward.
“In much the same way you multitask with frames on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet – keeping one frame in front of you while other frames are minimized – you can keep your most-used apps readily available,” Halliwel wrote while explaining RIM’s new “Flow” interface. He says that like all BlackBerry device owners, he was a “long-time user of the U-turn arrow” and upon first picking up a BlackBerry 10 developer device, he had concerns about navigating the device with no home button.
The Flow interface negates the need for a home button in many respects. Like webOS did before it, Flow presents users with a series of minimized windows representing each open application. The result is a UI that lets users easily jump between apps without the need to return to a home screen between steps. Combined with gesture support, RIM may have indeed simplified the smartphone user experience in several key ways.
“If you think about it, the real world pretty much works the same way,” Halliwell wrote. ”Picture yourself preparing to take a walk: You put on your shoes and coat, grab your keys, and go out the door. The point is that you’re always moving forward in a general ritualistic ‘flow’ toward the goal of taking a walk. You don’t put on your shoes then take them off to put your socks on.”
RIM’s first two next-generation smartphones, the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry X10, are expected to be unveiled alongside the BlackBerry 10 OS on January 30th.

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AIG decides not to join Greenberg suit against government: WSJ

(Reuters) - American International Group Inc will not join a lawsuit against the U.S. government challenging the terms of the insurer's 2008 bailout, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
AIG had said its board was meeting Wednesday to consider the possibility of joining the suit filed by former CEO Hank Greenberg.

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Morgan Stanley cuts 1,600 jobs as business languishes

 Morgan Stanley plans to cut 1,600 employees starting this week, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in the latest sign of a pullback on Wall Street as revenue from trading and deal-making remains in the doldrums.
The staff reduction pertains to Morgan Stanley's institutional securities unit - which includes sales, trading and investment banking, and whose staff will be reduced 6 percent - as well as related support staff who work in areas like technology, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman has pledged to reduce costs, and said in July that he planned to reduce overall staff 7 percent in 2012. The new job cuts are in addition to that plan, the sources said.
The cuts represent roughly 6 percent of the securities unit's staff, the sources said. They represent less than 3 percent of Morgan Stanley's entire estimated workforce at year-end, following other staff reductions in 2012.
"This continues the steady drumbeat of negative news from banks," said Greg Cresci, a Wall Street recruiter with New York-based Odyssey Search Partners. "It's hard to tell where the bottom is, given how many banks have made similar announcements."
The staff cuts are notable because, unlike its chief rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc , which culls the bottom 5 percent of its workforce each year to improve performance, Morgan Stanley does not have such a staff reduction program. But the staff cuts are a symptom of the current ailing business environment in which Wall Street banks are operating, with few areas of revenue growth to improve profits.
For the last two years, trading and investment banking volumes have been on a broad decline, particularly in once-lucrative trading areas. New regulations that ban certain kinds of activity, like proprietary trading, or force banks to hold burdensome amounts of capital, are also prodding banks to exit businesses and reduce staff.
JPMorgan analyst Kian Abouhossein said on Wednesday that he expects Wall Street banks to report a 10 percent decline in revenue for the fourth quarter, compared with the previous period, with double-digit declines in fixed-income and equity trading revenue and a 1 percent uptick in investment banking revenue.
Morgan Stanley's latest job cuts come just a week after Colm Kelleher took full control of the unit on January 1, and add to layoffs across the entire industry that have recently affected tens of thousands of employees.
Morgan Stanley's main rival, Goldman Sachs Group Inc , cut 700 jobs during the first nine months of 2012 as part of a plan to reduce annual expenses by $1.9 billion. Analysts expect the firm's compensation pool to be much lower in the fourth quarter.
Citigroup Inc announced plans last month to cut 11,000 jobs, including some in investment banking and trading, to save $1.1 billion in annual expenses. Credit Suisse Group AG is also cutting securities jobs to reach an annual cost-savings target of 1 billion Swiss francs, while UBS AG said it would cut 10,000 jobs and exit the fixed-income trading business amid losses and new regulations.
Bank of America Corp is also in the process of cutting 30,000 jobs across the firm in a plan unveiled in 2011 aimed at saving $5 billion in annual expenses.
Banks have largely been cutting staff since the subprime housing crisis began to seize markets in late-2007. There was a brief uptick in hiring in 2009 and 2010, when conditions improved temporarily, but since then there has been an almost steady stream of layoff announcements.
On a net basis, U.S. financial companies including lenders, investment banks, insurers and real-estate firms, have cut 5 percent of their staff, or 50,900 employees since the end of 2007, according to U.S. Department of Labor data. The most recent data available run though November.
"We are seeing a redrawing and restructuring of the industry," said John Challenger, chief executive officer of the employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "The map continues to be redrawn in terms of regulation, who the competitors are, and the resources banks are willing to commit to the investment banking business."
Although Morgan Stanley's layoffs will affect all staff levels, the likely targets will be more senior employees who take in the biggest paychecks, said one of the sources.
About half of the job cuts will occur in the United States, with the rest affecting international units, said the source.
Morgan Stanley does not regularly disclose the number of employees in its institutional securities business, but it had 57,726 employees worldwide as of September 30. The company is expected to report year-end figures in the coming weeks when it discloses fourth-quarter earnings.

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