| | |
| Debt-wracked nations could learn from Norway, prime minister says Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 08:43 PM PDT  By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) - Debt-laden European nations, the United States, and resource-rich developing countries could all learn from Norway's tight-fisted spending habits and oil wealth management, the Scandinavian nation's outgoing prime minister said on Wednesday. Jens Stoltenberg said Norway had become one of the wealthiest countries in the world mainly by refusing to spend its huge state oil revenues, instead placing them in a sovereign wealth fund and using only the annual returns. ... Full Story | Top |
| Joint U.S.-Russian crew reaches space station Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 08:21 PM PDT  By Irene Klotz (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station. The Soyuz rocket and capsule lifted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT on an express route to the station, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth. Less than six hours after liftoff, veteran Russian commander Oleg Kotov and rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Michael Hopkins of the United States reached the outpost, a $100 billion project of 15 nations. Only two other crews have made the journey as quickly. ... Full Story | Top |
| Termites' powerful weapon against extermination? Their own poop Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 05:32 PM PDT By Barbara Liston ORLANDO (Reuters) - Scientists trying to understand why destructive wood-eating termites are so resistant to efforts to exterminate them have come up with an unusually repugnant explanation. Termites' practice of building nests out of their own feces creates a scatological force field that Florida scientists now believe is the reason biological controls have failed to stop their pestilential march all over the world. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon aims to finalize Lockheed F-35 contract within days Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 03:46 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon expects to finalize a contract with Lockheed Martin Corp for the sixth and seventh batches of F-35 fighter jets within days, the deputy director of the $392 billion program said on Wednesday. Navy Rear Admiral Randy Mahr, the No. 2 official in charge of the F-35 program, said all but two issues had been resolved, and he hoped to get those addressed soon. "We have a few minute things that we have to finish off there," Mahr told a small group of reporters. "We just want to get it done." He did not identify the two remaining issues. ... Full Story | Top |
| Prominent Mexicans urge government to decriminalize marijuana Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 03:14 PM PDT  By Dave Graham MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A broad spectrum of prominent Mexicans, including former ministers, businessmen, artists and a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, on Wednesday urged the government to decriminalize marijuana in a bid to curb gang violence and corruption. Since 2007, about 80,000 people have been killed in turf wars between drug cartels and their clashes with security forces, leading to calls for a change in policy in Mexico and elsewhere in the U.S.-led war on drugs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Joint Russian-U.S. crew blasts off for space station Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 02:50 PM PDT By Irene Klotz (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station. The Soyuz rocket and capsule lifted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT on an express route to the station, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth. Veteran Russian commander Oleg Kotov and rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Michael Hopkins of the United States were expected to reach the outpost less than six hours after liftoff. Only two other crews have made the journey as quickly. ... Full Story | Top |
| BlackBerry, telecoms drag TSX lower Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 02:34 PM PDT  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell on Wednesday as telecoms and BlackBerry led the declines amid investor skepticism about whether a takeover offer for the smartphone maker earlier this week would succeed. But gold-mining shares bucked the wider trend offsetting some of the index's declines. Investor concerns about budget talks in Washington and a potential government shutdown also hurt share prices. The U.S. is Canada's biggest trading partner. The Canadian and U.S. markets would like to see a longer-term resolution to the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Six killed in Sudan clashes after fuel subsidies cut Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 02:07 PM PDT  By Khalid Abdelaziz and Ulf Laessing KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Six Sudanese protesters were killed on Wednesday in clashes with security forces on a third day of unrest over a cut in fuel subsidies, medics and relatives said. Protesters torched cars and petrol stations and threw rocks at police, who fired tear gas to try to disperse the biggest display of public anger against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government in more than a year. Internet access was cut off across Sudan after activists began sharing images of the protests on social media. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran wants 'jump-start' in nuclear talks with big powers Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 02:00 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau and Yeganeh Torbati UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister expressed hope on Wednesday that a meeting with top diplomats from the United States and five other powers this week will jump-start negotiations to resolve the decade-long dispute over the Iranian nuclear program. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is set to meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as well as diplomats from Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany on Thursday in New York in a rare encounter between American and Iranian officials. ... Full Story | Top |
| Price cap plan wipes more than 1 billion pounds off UK energy firms Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 10:30 AM PDT  By William James and Karolin Schaps BRIGHTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in UK utilities fell on Wednesday after the market digested a plan by the opposition Labour party to freeze power and gas prices if elected in 2015, throwing Britain's liberalised energy industry into doubt. More than 1 billion pounds ($1.61 billion) was wiped off the value of Britain's two biggest listed companies SSE and Centrica, each closing about 5.5 percent lower. ... Full Story | Top |
| FDA strengthens hepatitis B warning on 2 cancer drugs Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 09:33 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators have strengthened the warnings on two blood cancer drugs to reflect the risk that they may reactivate the hepatitis B virus in patients previously infected with the disease. The warnings affect GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Arzerra, which was approved in the United States in 2009 to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL); and Rituxan, a drug made by Roche Holding AG and Biogen Idec Inc that is approved to treat a variety of conditions including CLL, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ohio uses last lethal drug dose to execute convicted murderer Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 09:24 AM PDT By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio used the state's last available dose of the drug pentobarbital on Wednesday to execute a man described by prosecutors as a racist, who was convicted of killing a neighbor and then a police officer responding to the shooting. Harry Mitts Jr., 61, was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) at the Southern Ohio Correctional facility, a state corrections department official said. Mitts, who was white, was convicted in 1994 of killing a neighbor, John Bryant, and then shooting to death Ohio police officer Dennis Glivar as he responded to the shooting. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: German coalition watch Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 09:21 AM PDT Chancellor Angela Merkel led her conservatives to their best result in decades in a German election on September 22, but must still find a coalition partner to secure a third term. She is expected to turn first to the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), with whom she ruled between 2005 and 2009, but could also talk with the environmentalist Greens. Below are key coalition-related quotes from senior officials since the election, as well as areas of potential compromise on policy and personnel. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sanofi cholesterol drug touted as potential $3 billion blockbuster Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 08:53 AM PDT By Natalie Huet PARIS (Reuters) - A new cholesterol-lowering drug from Sanofi and Regeneron has the potential to become a $3-billion-dollar-plus blockbuster, according to analysts awaiting imminent late-stage trial results. The drug, dubbed alirocumab, is part of a group of biotech medicines known as PCSK9 inhibitors that offer a new way of fighting the build-up of artery-clogging fatty deposits that put millions of patients worldwide at risk of heart attacks. ... Full Story | Top |
| CFO resigns as Seanergy struggles to repay debt Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 07:49 AM PDT (Reuters) - Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp said chief financial officer resigned and the dry bulk shipper repeated concerns about its ability to stay in business after posting another quarter of losses. Shares of Seanergy, which sold three ships in July, were down 12 percent at $1.87 in morning trade on the Nasdaq. The troubles at Athens-based Seanergy underscore the sector-wide slump in rates, which has forced several shippers to restructure or seek bankruptcy protection in the past two years. CFO Christina Anagnostara will step down on November 1 but will remain on the board. ... Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment