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| Panama says rejects Venezuelan President Maduro's 'offenses' Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 06:01 PM PST PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - The government of Panama said on Wednesday that it rejected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's "unacceptable offenses" against it after the South American oil giant broke off diplomatic and commercial ties with the Central American nation. Earlier, Maduro had used the anniversary of former President Hugo Chavez's death to sever ties with Panama, whose conservative government he accused of joining the United States in "open conspiracy" against him. (Reporting by Lomi Kriel) Full Story | Top |
| Chesapeake, Encana face criminal antitrust charges in Michigan Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 05:46 PM PST  By Joshua Schneyer, Brian Grow and Anna Driver (Reuters) - Oil and gas giants Chesapeake Energy and Encana Corp were charged on Wednesday with colluding to keep oil and gas lease prices artificially low in Michigan, state Attorney General Bill Schuette said. The criminal charges follow a lengthy investigation by Schuette's office into whether the firms -- the biggest land leasers during a speculative oil and gas leasing boom in Michigan's Collingwood Shale region during 2010 -- colluded to keep prices from rising as they acquired land leases from landowners. Michigan began looking into the companies' activities in 2012 after a Reuters investigation found that executives from the two firms discussed proposals to divide bidding responsibilities in the state for nine private landowners and counties in Michigan. Under Michigan law, an antitrust violation is considered a misdemeanor, which carries penalties that can include fines and prison terms of up to two years for individuals, and up to a $1 million fine for a corporation. Full Story | Top |
| College-entrance SAT exam set for major overhaul in 2016 Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 04:28 PM PST By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - An obligatory essay, arcane vocabulary words and penalties for wrong answers will be gone from the widely used SAT exam as of 2016 as administrators try to make the standardized test more reflective of a student's readiness for college. The College Board, which oversees the exam required by most colleges and universities for admission, wants the test to focus more on what students learn in high school and their ability to think analytically, its chief executive said on Wednesday. "It is time to admit that the SAT and ACT have become disconnected from the work of our high schools," David Coleman told reporters in Austin in prepared remarks. More than 2 million students take the SAT every year, according to the College Board, which is based in New York. Full Story | Top |
| Nine-month-old baby may have been cured of HIV, U.S. scientists say Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 03:46 PM PST A 9-month-old baby who was born in California with the HIV virus that leads to AIDS may have been cured as a result of treatments that doctors began just four hours after her birth, medical researchers said on Wednesday. That child is the second case, following an earlier instance in Mississippi, in which doctors may have brought HIV in a newborn into remission by administering antiretroviral drugs in the first hours of life, said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a pediatrics specialist with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, at a medical conference in Boston. "The child ... has become HIV-negative," Persaud said, referring to the 9-month-old baby born outside Los Angeles, who is being treated at Miller Children's Hospital. That child is still receiving a three-drug cocktail of anti-AIDS treatments, while the child born in Mississippi, now 3-1/2 years old, ceased receiving antiretroviral treatments two years ago. Full Story | Top |
| Biden, Holder push to end backlog of unanalyzed rape kits Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 03:41 PM PST  By Julia Edwards WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that they would push the U.S. Congress to fund a budget proposal intended to clear the country's backlog of unanalyzed rape kits. Rape kits holding DNA evidence that could help catch perpetrators are often left on storage shelves in police stations and labs due to funding shortages, Holder told reporters in a conference call. President Barack Obama proposed in his 2015 budget, released on Tuesday, that $35 million in grants be given to communities to address their most critical needs for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault, including the testing of unanalyzed rape kits. A similar grant was previously given to Detroit, Michigan, which reported 10,995 untested kits collected between 1993 and 2006, according to U.S. Department of Justice documents. Full Story | Top |
| S&P 500 closes flat, near record; Ukraine in focus Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 03:07 PM PST  By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 finished almost flat on Wednesday, a day after closing at an all-time high, as investors shrugged off soft data on jobs and the services sector while keeping an eye on developments in Ukraine. The market showed little reaction to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, which said severe weather across much of the United States took a toll on shopping and consumer spending in recent weeks. A report from the Institute for Supply Management showed the services sector continued to grow last month, albeit at a slower pace. Market participants kept a close eye on developments out of Ukraine, following the most serious confrontation between Russia and the West over influence in Kiev and control of Crimea. Full Story | Top |
| Spin of distant black hole measured at half of speed of light Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 02:53 PM PST  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A supermassive black hole inside a distant quasar spins at about 336 million mph (540 million kph) or roughly half the speed of light, according to research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. Scientists have measured the spin rates of black holes before but never one so far away. The newly measured black hole is inside a quasar some 6 billion light years from Earth. A black hole is a region of space so packed with matter that not even photons of light can escape its gravitational grip. Full Story | Top |
| Scientists find dinosaur that was scourge of Jurassic Europe Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 02:46 PM PST  By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In Europe 150 million years ago, this dude was the biggest, baddest bully in town. Two scientists in Portugal announced on Wednesday that they have identified the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever found in Europe, a 33-foot-long (10-meter-long) brute called Torvosaurus gurneyi that was the scourge of its domain in the Jurassic Period. "It was indeed better not to cross the way of this large, carnivorous dinosaur," said paleontologist Christophe Hendrickx of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu da Lourinhã in Portugal. Full Story | Top |
| North Korean-flagged tanker tries docking at seized Libyan oil port Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 02:37 PM PST By Ulf Laessing and Julia Payne TRIPOLI/LONDON (Reuters) - A North Korean-flagged oil tanker tried to dock at Libya's Es-Sider oil port seized by armed protesters who have threatened to sell oil independently unless they get political autonomy from Tripoli, Libyan officials said on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether the Morning Glory tanker wanted to load oil when it approached the port on Tuesday, but any attempt to get crude to world markets independently would be an escalation of a blockade that has slashed Libya's vital oil exports. State-owned National Oil Corp (NOC) has declared force majeure at the port and warned tankers against approaching because the Es-Sider terminal and two others in Libya's volatile east are under the control of heavily armed protesters. Libya's government has tried to end a wave of protests at oil ports and fields across the North African country, which have slashed oil output, the country's lifeline, to a trickle. Full Story | Top |
| Gene therapy may offer 'functional' cure for HIV Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 02:02 PM PST A strategy to genetically modify cells from people infected with HIV could become a way to control the virus that causes AIDS without using antiviral drugs, according to results from an early-stage trial that were published on Wednesday. Data from the small study of the Sangamo BioSciences therapy, known by the code name SB-728-T, were issued in the New England Journal of Medicine, the first publication of data from a human trial of a technology called "gene editing." The technique is designed to disrupt a gene, CCR5, used by HIV to infect T-cells, the white blood cells that fight viral infections. A patient's cells are removed and processed to alter the DNA that codes for the CCR5 receptor. The Phase 1 trial, led by the University of Pennsylvania, enrolled 12 HIV patients. Full Story | Top |
| Banks help push TSX higher despite Ukraine worry Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 01:58 PM PST  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose slightly on Wednesday despite continued worry over the crisis in Ukraine and sluggish economic data from the United States, with advances in banks overcoming weakness in energy shares. Russia rebuffed Western demands to withdraw its forces in Ukraine's Crimea region to their bases on a day of high-stakes diplomacy in Paris aimed at averting the risk of war over Ukraine. Investors also digested news that the Bank of Canada had left its benchmark interest rate unchanged but continued to express concern about weak inflation. Money is flowing into Canadian equities," said Diana Avigdor, portfolio manager and head of trading at Barometer Capital Management. Full Story | Top |
| Putin: military force would be 'last resort' in Ukraine Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 01:56 PM PST  By John Irish and Timothy Heritage PARIS/KIEV (Reuters) - High-level diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine made little apparent headway at talks in Paris on Wednesday with Moscow and Washington at odds and Russia's foreign minister refusing to recognize his Ukrainian counterpart. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said discussions would continue in the coming days in an attempt to stabilize the crisis and he expected to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again in Rome on Thursday. "Don't assume that we did not have serious conversations which produced creative and appropriate ideas on how to resolve this, we have a number of ideas on the table," he said after talks with ministers from Ukraine, Russia, Britain and France. Russia had earlier rebuffed Western demands that its forces that have seized control of Ukraine's Crimea region should return to their bases. Full Story | Top |
| Florida legislature joins southern push for marijuana reform Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 01:11 PM PST  By Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Acknowledging a major shift in societal attitudes toward marijuana, a key committee of the Florida legislature voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to approve medical use of a "non-euphoric" marijuana extract that has shown promising results in treating seizures. "We have evidence of benefits," Republican state Representative Cary Pigman, an emergency room physician, said of the substance known as cannabidiol, or CBD. "We have no evidence of harm. ... Full Story | Top |
| Alzheimer's deaths much more common than realized: study Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 01:10 PM PST  By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nearly half a million elderly Americans likely died from Alzheimer's disease in 2010, a figure almost six times higher than previous estimates of annual deaths, according to a new study released on Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that approximately 5 million people are living with Alzheimer's disease in the United States, and that 83,000 die from the condition each year. "Many people do not realize that Alzheimer's is a fatal disease," said lead author Bryan D. James of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago. "Alzheimer's disease starts in the part of your brain that controls your memory and thinking, but over years it spreads to the parts of your brain that control more basic functions such as breathing and swallowing," he told Reuters Health in an email. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. top court rules against Argentina in arbitration fight Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 12:55 PM PST  By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated a $185.3 million arbitration award British company BG Group Plc won against Argentina before an appeals court threw it out. On a 7-2 vote, the high court said the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., should not have thrown out the award. Argentina had argued the case should have been litigated in its courts first before it could go to arbitration. The dispute concerned whether BG should recover the money on the grounds that a decision by the Argentine government during its 2001 economic crisis to freeze gas prices breached a 1993 treaty between Britain and Argentina. Full Story | Top |
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