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| Utah officials suspect bald eagle deaths linked to die-off of shore birds Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:43 PM PST The tally of unexplained bald eagle deaths in Utah this month rose to 20 on Thursday as state wildlife officials looked for possible links to diseases suspected in a coinciding die-off of thousands of shore birds around the Great Salt Lake. Since December 1, state wildlife specialists have documented a growing number of bald eagles of varying ages succumbing to an unexplained ailment that crippled them with leg paralysis and tremors before they died. Necropsies, the animal equivalent of autopsy examinations, have yet to pinpoint what is killing the eagles, but scientists now believe a disease rather than a toxin is the culprit, said Leslie McFarlane, Utah wildlife disease coordinator. McFarlane said a recent die-off in Utah of eared grebes that began in November and has now killed thousands of birds may be tied to the deaths of eagles, which are known to prey on the small shore birds. Full Story | Top |
| Retailers lead Dow, S&P 500 to record closing highs Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:17 PM PST  By Sam Forgione NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending at record highs as retail shares rallied following strong data about the holiday shopping season. The stock of Urban Outfitters rose 2.2 percent to $37.55 and was one of the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc , a Dow component, added 0.5 percent to $78.39. "There's no reason to sell stocks, but also not much reason to buy except for that fact that we continue to be poised to go higher." The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 122.33 points, or 0.75 percent, to end at 16,479.88, a record closing high. Full Story | Top |
| Food prices; a bricks and mortar problem for Indian economy Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:05 PM PST  By Rajesh Kumar Singh and Aditi Shah GURGAON, India (Reuters) - Three months since journeying more than 700 milesfrom his village in central India to take a job in this bustling city near the capital, New Delhi, Charan is already looking forward to a 10 percent pay rise. India's biggest cities face a worsening shortage of migrant manual laborers like 26-year-old Charan, who goes by only one name. While India has long suffered from a dearth of workers with vocational skills like plumbers and electricians, efforts to alleviate poverty in poor, rural areas have helped stifle what was once a flood of cheap, unskilled labor from India's poorest states. Struggling to cope with soaring food prices, this dwindling supply of migrant workers are demanding - and increasingly getting - rapid increases in pay and benefits. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan rebels seize oil wells, mediators urge talks Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 12:52 PM PST  By Carl Odera and Aaron Maasho JUBA (Reuters) - Rebels in South Sudan have seized some oil wells and captured half of the capital of the main oil-producing region, the government and army said on Thursday as African leaders held talks to avert civil war. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn met South Sudan's President Salva Kiir in the capital Juba in an attempt to end nearly two weeks of fighting in the world's newest state. "South Sudan is a young nation that should be spared unnecessary distractions in its development agenda. It was not clear whether the delegation also met the rebel leader, former vice president Riek Machar, who was sacked by Kiir in July. Full Story | Top |
| Tribesmen seize oil ministry building in east Yemen Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 11:23 AM PST Tribesmen seized an oil ministry building in Yemen's eastern Hadramout province on Thursday and exchanged gunfire with a pro-government tribe seeking to regain control of the premises, tribal sources and ministry employees said. Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries, is struggling to restore state authority after long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step down in 2011. The authorities face regular challenges from tribesmen who attack oil pipelines and power lines for reasons including demands for more employment and the release of jailed relatives. Sources said the building was under the control of al-Kathiry tribe who had told the oil ministry workers to leave. Full Story | Top |
| Icebreakers rush to help ship trapped in Antarctic ice Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 11:05 AM PST (Reuters) - Three icebreakers are en route to an area off the coast of Antarctica to help free a vessel carrying 74 people, including a scientific expedition team, which is stranded in thick sheets of ice, officials said on Thursday. "We're surrounded by sea ice, we just can't get through," Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at the University of New South Wales said in a video posted on YouTube. Three ships with icebreaking capability have been dispatched to help dislodge the vessel, which is located about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Tasmania, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan rebels capture some oil wells in Unity state: Minister Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:33 AM PST JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar have captured some oil wells in Unity state where production was shut down earlier this week due to fighting, the petroleum ministry told Reuters on Thursday. "Some oil wells are in the hands of rebel soldiers loyal to former vice president Riek Machar and we fear they may cause damage to the facilities and the environment," Petroleum Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said by telephone. ... Full Story | Top |
| Court rejects BP bid to require proof of Gulf oil spill losses Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 05:07 AM PST  BP Plc has failed to persuade a federal judge to require businesses seeking to recover money over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill to provide proof that their economic losses were caused by the disaster. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans said the British oil company would have to live with its earlier interpretation of a settlement agreement over the spill, in which certain businesses could be presumed to have suffered harm if their losses reflected certain patterns. Barbier said BP could not now take a new position on causation of damages, and reverse an interpretation that it had once termed "more than fair," even if this resulted in the substantially higher payouts that the oil company feared. Full Story | Top |
| Libyan militiamen briefly block entrance to central bank Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 04:13 AM PST Dozens of Libyan militiamen briefly blocked the entrance to the central bank on Thursday, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, witnesses and a central bank official said. Libya is in turmoil, with Zeidan's government struggling to assert control of a country awash with arms from the 2011 uprising which ousted Muammar Gaddafi. Armed men drove up to the central bank in trucks on the seafront in central Tripoli and stopped staff from entering the building, the witness said. "Central bank staff were told to go home," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Dutch entrepreneur to preserve tattoos of the dead Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 04:10 AM PST  By Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - When Floris Hirschfeld's mother died two years ago, he had her portrait tattooed on his back to honor her memory. It might sound like a macabre Roald Dahl story, but could soon be reality with the help of a Dutch entrepreneur who has set up a business to preserve the tattoos of the dead. "Everyone spends their lives in search of immortality and this is a simple way to get a piece of it," Peter van der Helm, the tattoo shop owner behind the concept, said in an interview. "Everybody with tattoos has that idea. Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Struggle for resources at root of Central Africa religious violence Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:47 AM PST  By Bate Felix and Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Mariam watched in horror as militiamen burst through the gate of her home in Central African Republic's capital Bangui and demanded her husband say whether he was Muslim. "Then they hacked and clubbed our neighbors, a husband and wife, to death." The two-day frenzy of violence in Bangui this month fed fears that Central African Republic was about to descend into religious warfare on a scale comparable to Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Full Story | Top |
| 'Cartographer of No Man's Land' on World War One's place in fiction Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:11 AM PST By Randall Mikkelsen BOSTON (Reuters) - Writer P.S. Duffy wove her affection for Nova Scotia's maritime culture, a career in science and a background in history into a debut novel depicting the trauma of World War One on the psyche and society. The book, "The Cartographer of No Man's Land," is about a young would-be artist and his scarred return home after the Battle of Vimy Ridge, where Canada's victory helped forged its national identity. She spoke with Reuters about her writing life, science and literature, and the cultural legacy of World War One nearly 100 years after the first shot was fired in 1914. Q: How is World War One still culturally relevant? Full Story | Top |
| Russia bets on sweeping reform to revive ailing space industry Wednesday, Dec 25, 2013 11:17 PM PST  By Alissa de Carbonnel BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - From rocket-shaped playground equipment to faded murals of cosmonauts, mementos of the heyday of Soviet space exploration are scattered around this sandswept town that launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961. When President Vladimir Putin described the space port on the remote Kazakh steppe as "physically aged" in April, he could have been speaking about Russia's space industry itself. In Baikonur as elsewhere, the once-pioneering sector is struggling to live up to its legacy, end an embarrassing series of botched launches, modernize decaying infrastructure and bring in new blood and new ideas. Putin hopes a sweeping reform he signed off on this month will not come too late to turn the industry around - part of a push to make Russia a high-technology superpower by salvaging leading Cold War-era industries and research centers. Full Story | Top |
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