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| U.S., EU set sanctions as Putin recognizes Crimea 'sovereignty' Monday, Mar 17, 2014 06:43 PM PDT  By Aleksandar Vasovic and Adrian Croft SIMFEROPOL/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States and European Union imposed personal sanctions on Monday on Russian and Crimean officials involved in the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing the region as a sovereign state. The moves heightened the most serious East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War, following a disputed referendum in the Black Sea peninsula on Sunday in which Crimea's leaders declared a Soviet-style, 97-percent vote to secede from Ukraine. Within hours, the Crimean parliament formally asked that Russia "admit the Republic of Crimea as a new subject with the status of a republic". Putin will on Tuesday address a special joint session of Russia's State Duma, or parliament, which could take a decision on annexation of the majority ethnic-Russian region. Full Story | Top |
| Warmest winter on record worsens California drought Monday, Mar 17, 2014 06:28 PM PDT By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California is coming off of its warmest winter on record, aggravating an enduring drought in the most populous U.S. state, federal weather scientists said Monday. The state had a average temperature of 48 Fahrenheit (9 Celsius) for December, January and February, an increase from 47.2 F in 1980-81, the last hottest winter, and more than 4 degrees hotter than the 20th-century average in California, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a statement. Warmer winters could make the already parched state even drier by making it less likely for snow to accumulate in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, NOAA spokesman Brady Phillips said. "Winter is when states like California amass their main water budget, when snowpack is building," said Phillips, a marine biologist. Full Story | Top |
| High-tech goods to lead trade growth over next 15 years: HSBC Monday, Mar 17, 2014 04:07 PM PDT  Exports of high-tech products will grow more quickly than exports of other goods over the next 15 years as emerging Asia moves away from being a low-cost production hub for foreign brands and toward developing value-added local products, according to research from HSBC. High-tech goods would make up more than 25 percent of goods traded by 2030 compared to 22 percent in 2013, HSBC said in its latest global trade report, which forecast trade would pick up only slowly in the near term. The value of global goods trade would rise at an average rate of 8 percent a year from 2014 to 2030, with high-tech goods rising about 9 percent a year, HSBC said. HSBC said much of the future increase in high-tech trade would be driven by internationalization of supply chains, with parts for high-tech products crisscrossing national borders, but Asian firms would also snare market share from Western competitors. Full Story | Top |
| Analysis points to China's work on new anti-satellite weapon Monday, Mar 17, 2014 03:07 PM PDT By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A detailed analysis of satellite imagery published Monday provides additional evidence that a Chinese rocket launch in May 2013 billed as a research mission was actually a test of a new anti-satellite weapon based on a road-mobile ballistic missile. Brian Weeden, a former U.S. Air Force space analyst, published a 47-page analysis on the website of The Space Review, which he said showed that China appears to be testing a kinetic interceptor launched by a new rocket that could reach geostationary orbit about 36,000 km (22,500 miles) above the earth. "If true, this would represent a significant development in China's anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities," wrote Weeden, now a technical adviser for Secure World Foundation, a Colorado-based nonprofit focused on secure and peaceful uses of outer space. "No other country has tested a direct ascent ASAT weapon system that has the potential to reach deep space satellites in medium earth orbit, highly elliptical orbit or geostationary orbit," he wrote, referring to orbital paths that are above 2,000 km (1,250 miles) over the earth. Full Story | Top |
| Astronomers discover echoes from expansion after Big Bang Monday, Mar 17, 2014 02:40 PM PDT Predicted by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago, the discovery of the ripples, called gravitational waves, would be a crowning achievement in one of the greatest triumphs of the human intellect: an understanding of how the universe began and evolved into the cornucopia of galaxies and stars, nebulae and vast stretches of nearly empty space that constitute the known universe. "This detection is cosmology's missing link," Marc Kamionkowski, a physicist of Johns Hopkins University and one of the researchers on the collaboration that made the finding, told reporters on Monday at a press conference at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gravitational waves are feeble, primordial undulations that propagate across the cosmos at the speed of light. Instead, they propagate like water in a lake or seismic waves in Earth's crust and so are "gravitational waves" that "alternately squeeze space in one direction and stretch it in the other direction," Jamie Bock, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and one of the lead scientists on the collaboration, told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| GM recalls 1.5 million more vehicles; CEO says 'terrible things happened' Monday, Mar 17, 2014 02:28 PM PDT  By Ben Klayman DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co announced new recalls of 1.5 million vehicles on Monday and in a virtually unprecedented public admission by a GM chief executive, Mary Barra acknowledged the company fell short in catching faulty ignition switches linked to 12 deaths. Barra said the company is changing how it handles defect investigations and recalls. In the last two months, GM has recalled more than 3.1 million vehicles in the United States and other markets. The actions started with last month's recall of more than 1.6 million vehicles for faulty ignition switches. Full Story | Top |
| TSX steady as Ukraine tensions ease, gold miners drop Monday, Mar 17, 2014 02:22 PM PDT  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was little changed on Monday as a peaceful conclusion of the referendum in Crimea drove gains in some sectors, but the perceived easing of tension in the region weighed on the bullion price and sent gold-mining shares lower. The United States and European Union imposed sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on officials from Russia and Ukraine after Crimea applied to join Russia following the referendum on seceding from Ukraine. ID:nL6N0ME1OZ] But a selloff in the gold-mining group robbed the Toronto stock market's benchmark index of any substantial gain. "Everybody would like to see the market higher, of course, but overall investors have a sense of comfort with where the market is," said Fred Ketchen, director of equity trading at ScotiaMcLeod. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. forces seize tanker carrying oil from Libya rebel port Monday, Mar 17, 2014 01:53 PM PDT  By Ulf Laessing and Feras Bosalum TRIPOLI (Reuters) - U.S. special forces have seized a tanker that fled with a cargo of oil from a Libyan port controlled by anti-government rebels, halting their attempt to sell crude on the global market. Gunmen demanding regional autonomy and a share of oil wealth had managed to load the ship, which escaped Libya's navy and triggered a crisis that prompted parliament to sack the prime minister. A U.S. SEAL commando team boarded the tanker Morning Glory from a Naval special warfare rigid inflatable boat as it sat in international waters off Cyprus on Sunday night. The seizure was approved by U.S. President Barack Obama and requested by the Libyan and Cypriot governments, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said. Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street climbs as Ukraine worries ease, data improves Monday, Mar 17, 2014 01:21 PM PDT  By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, with the S&P 500 bouncing from its worst weekly drop in the past seven, as concerns eased over the situation in Crimea, while economic data indicated the economy was improving after a winter slowdown. The 97-percent vote in Crimea in favor of quitting Ukraine was condemned as illegal by Kiev and the West, but the referendum passed without violence. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing the region as a sovereign state. Google Inc gained 1.6 percent to $1,192.10 while General Electric Co rose 1.3 percent to $25.43. Full Story | Top |
| Car bombs kill at least eight at Libya army academy in Benghazi Monday, Mar 17, 2014 11:53 AM PDT  By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A powerful car bomb attack targeted a military academy in Libya's eastern of city of Benghazi on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding more than a dozen, hospital and security officials said. Instability in the eastern city is part of the struggle a weak central government faces in controlling armed groups, militias and brigades of former rebels who once battled Muammar Gaddafi and now refuse to disarm. A first bomb exploded at the front gate of the academy as soldiers were leaving a graduation ceremony, security officials said. In a separate explosion hours later in Benghazi, one person was killed when another car bomb went off near the state oil firm Brega Petroleum Marketing Co, which sells fuel products inside Libya, a security source said. Full Story | Top |
| Archaeologists discover earliest example of human with cancer Monday, Mar 17, 2014 10:26 AM PDT By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - British archaeologists have found what they say is the world's oldest complete example of a human being with metastatic cancer and hope it will offer new clues about the now common and often fatal disease. Researchers from Durham University and the British Museum discovered the evidence of tumors that had developed and spread throughout the body in a 3,000-year-old skeleton found in a tomb in modern Sudan in 2013. Analyzing the skeleton using radiography and a scanning electron microscope, they managed to get clear imaging of lesions on the bones which showed the cancer had spread to cause tumors on the collar bones, shoulder blades, upper arms, vertebrae, ribs, pelvis and thigh bones. "Insights gained from archaeological human remains like these can really help us to understand the evolution and history of modern diseases," said Michaela Binder, a Durham PhD student who led the research and excavated and examined the skeleton. Full Story | Top |
| Russian tycoon to buy RWE's oil and gas production unit Monday, Mar 17, 2014 10:08 AM PDT  By Christoph Steitz and Arno Schuetze FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German utility company RWE is to sell its oil and gas unit DEA to investors led by Russia's second-richest man Mikhail Fridman, giving up a profitable part of its business in a bid to emerge from a deep energy industry crisis. RWE posted its first net loss since 1949 earlier this month, hit by weak European energy demand, 30.7 billion euros in debt and a surge in renewable energy capacity that has pushed coal and gas-fired plants out of the market. Fridman's investment vehicle LetterOne has hired investment bank Rothschild as a political advisor for the deal, sources told Reuters, an unusual move in M&A deals that becomes necessary if government approval is in doubt. The deal comes as relations deteriorate between Russia and the West over Moscow's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region, and a source said Rothschild had undertaken some lobbying ahead of the transaction in Berlin. Full Story | Top |
| Russian upper house speaker calls U.S. sanctions 'political blackmail' Monday, Mar 17, 2014 10:07 AM PDT The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament on Monday denounced as "political blackmail" U.S. sanctions imposed by the White House on her and 10 other Russian and Ukrainian officials over Moscow's takeover of Crimea. "This is an unprecedented decision. Such a thing was unheard of even during the Cold War," Valentina Matviyenko, 64, Russia's leading female politician and its third highest-ranking figure, told the Interfax news agency. "This is political blackmail," Matviyenko said, adding that the sanctions would not hurt her as she said she held "no accounts and no property abroad." (Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Full Story | Top |
| Winter storm blasts U.S. mid-Atlantic days before spring Monday, Mar 17, 2014 09:31 AM PDT A late winter storm landed a final punch on the U.S. mid-Atlantic states on Monday, dumping more than a foot of snow in some places, shutting schools and federal offices and cancelling flights. No change in the cold weather in the eastern United States is likely for the next week, said meteorologist Brian Korty of the National Weather Service. He said a few snow flurries would linger until the afternoon, but the storm that hit Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey had largely moved out to sea. The storm dumped 7 inches of snow on Washington, the second-heaviest snowfall the capital has recorded this late in the season, Korty said. Full Story | Top |
| Amgen drug meets goal for those with high genetic cholesterol Monday, Mar 17, 2014 09:28 AM PDT Amgen Inc said its experimental new type of cholesterol-fighting drug met the primary goal of a late-stage trial by slashing "bad" LDL cholesterol levels in patients with a genetic tendency towards high levels of the artery-clogging fat. Amgen said on Monday patients given its injectable drug evolocumab once a month, on top of standard daily statin treatments, showed "clinically meaningful" improvement compared with taking statins alone after 12 weeks of treatment. The Phase 3 study, called TESLA, involved 49 adult and adolescent patients with a rare condition called homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. The condition, seen in about one in a million individuals, can cause a four-fold increase in levels of LDL cholesterol, greatly raising the risk of heart disease. Full Story | Top |
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