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| Tokyo Electric says 'difficult' to post profit this year Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 07:30 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co , the operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, said on Friday it will be difficult under current conditions to post a profit this fiscal year. Tokyo Electric, also known as Tepco, is struggling to contain radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. President Naomi Hirose said Tepco would not change its full-year target to log a profit. The utility has posted more than $27 billion in net losses since the Fukushima disaster. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S., Iran voice optimism and caution after rare encounter Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 06:51 PM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed and Matt Spetalnick UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran and the United States held their highest-level substantive talks in a generation on Thursday, saying the tone was positive but sounding cautious about resolving the long-running standoff over Iran's nuclear program. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met after Zarif held wider talks with the United States and other major powers to address Western suspicions that Iran may be trying to develop atomic weapons. ... Full Story | Top |
| California solar policy costing all utility customers: report Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 06:49 PM PDT  By Nichola Groom LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's non-solar homeowners are paying a growing share of maintaining the power grid under a controversial state policy, while ratepayers with solar rooftops are paying less, a report commissioned by the state's utility regulator said on Thursday. The report, which was issued by the California Public Utilities Commission but performed by an outside research firm, forecast that in 2020, the policy of "net metering" would cost $1.1 billion a year. It will shift about $359 million in costs a year from customers with solar panels to other ratepayers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Texas man put to death for murder over $100 debt Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 05:57 PM PDT By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A Texas man who stabbed another man to death for failing to pay back a $100 debt to an exotic dancer was executed on Thursday by lethal injection, a state corrections official said. Arturo Diaz was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. CT (2330 GMT) in Huntsville, according to Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. It was the 13th execution this year in Texas and the 27th in the United States. "Let's go warden. I'm ready," were his last words, Clark said. ... Full Story | Top |
| China state sector a honey pot for corrupt officials Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 03:05 PM PDT  By Charlie Zhu HONG KONG (Reuters) - In March last year, after getting government approval to go ahead with a $900 million refinery expansion in China's southeastern Fujian province, state-run oil giant Sinopec Corp warned the team handling the project against taking bribes. "Project engineering and construction has been a main area for corruption at Sinopec," the Fujian unit of Asia's largest refiner said in a blunt memo, according to a Sinopec source who read it to Reuters. "All members, especially those in key posts, must treasure their positions, stay guarded and resist temptation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Texas man set to be executed for murder over $100 debt Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 02:37 PM PDT By Karen Brooks AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas man who stabbed another man to death when he failed to pay back a $100 debt to an exotic dancer is scheduled to be executed on Thursday. The execution of Arturo Diaz by lethal injection is to take place after 6 p.m. CT (2300 GMT) in Huntsville, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. It would be the 13th execution this year in Texas and the 27th in the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nektar Therapeutics pain drug for knee arthritis fails study Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 02:14 PM PDT (Reuters) - Nektar Therapeutics said its experimental drug to treat chronic pain in patients with arthritis of the knee failed to meet its main goal in a mid-stage clinical trial. The drugmaker's shares fell nearly 30 percent in extended trading on Thursday. The study failed mainly because patients on placebo did not show the expected increase in pain scores observed in similar studies, Nektar said in a statement. This lack of a placebo rebound was "unusual," the company said. Half the 213 patients in the study were dosed with Nektar's NKTR-181 drug, while the other half was given a placebo. ... Full Story | Top |
| TSX edges up despite BlackBerry, U.S. budget worry Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 02:10 PM PDT  By Leah Schnurr TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was little changed on Thursday with gains limited by a drop in BlackBerry's shares and market wariness about the impasse in budget and debt negotiations in the United States. BlackBerry fell for a third day in a row as markets continued to mull over a $4.7 billion bid to take the smartphone maker private. Doubts about the viability of the bid have emerged in recent days, and the stock gave up 0.5 percent to C$8.22 on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House stands by FERC pick; Senate aide says others weighed Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 01:32 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday publicly stood by its pick for chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Ron Binz, even as a Senate aide said the administration is considering a replacement for the embattled nominee. Opponents of Binz have accused him of favoring renewable energy sources over fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, citing among other things a comment from him this year calling natural gas a "dead end" energy source. ... Full Story | Top |
| Harper: Obama assures him Keystone verdict to be based on facts Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 12:42 PM PDT  By John McCrank and Jonathan Spicer NEW YORK (Reuters) - The logic behind the Keystone XL pipeline is "simply overwhelming," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday, adding that U.S. President Barack Obama had assured him his decision on the project would be based on facts. Addressing a business audience in New York, Harper said he was optimistic that Obama would approve TransCanada Corp's pipeline from Canada to the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. scientists aim to pitch climate case to widest audience Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 12:03 PM PDT  By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A U.N. panel of global climate scientists were set to work through Thursday night to ensure that their strongest case yet for man-made global warming would make sense to the widest possible audience. Drafts show that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is set to pronounce that most of the warming of the Earth's surface since the 1950s is "extremely likely" -- at least 95 percent probable -- to be man-made. At its last meeting in 2007, it put the probability at 90 percent, and in 2001 it was 66 percent. ... Full Story | Top |
| GE invests $515 million in Turkish energy and other projects Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 11:48 AM PDT  ISTANBUL (Reuters) - General Electric has already invested more than half of the $900 million it has earmarked for Turkey on projects ranging from energy to healthcare to locomotive production, Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said on Thursday. The investments totaling $515 million include supplying turbines for a 35-megawatt wind farm and gas turbines for an 840-megawatt power plant, both to be operated by GE's Turkish partner, Gama Energy, when they start up in 2014 and 2016. ... Full Story | Top |
| BP faces pressure over Algeria gas plant attack Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 10:30 AM PDT By Lin Noueihed LONDON (Reuters) - Some foreign workers at an Algerian desert gas plant feared for their safety well before Islamist militants killed dozens at the site, and relatives and survivors want joint operator BP to investigate its own security record. Forty oil workers, all but one foreign, died at In Amenas in January after the militants took expatriates hostage during a four-day siege that ended when Algerian forces stormed the site. ... Full Story | Top |
| National Grid settles with NY, Mass. over unpaid wages post-Sandy Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 10:16 AM PDT (Reuters) - National Grid Plc will pay more than $6.3 million to compensate employees in New York and Massachusetts who were not properly paid in the weeks after Hurricane Sandy because of problems with a new computerized payroll system. The utility will pay $750 to each of the more than 8,500 hourly workers affected by glitches after National Grid launched the new system in November 2012, soon after Sandy had struck the U.S. Eastern Seaboard in late October. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain's Labour treads narrow path between populism and prudence Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 08:51 AM PDT  By Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - An attack by British opposition leader Ed Miliband on energy companies, big corporations and landowners may give him a short-term lift in the polls, but could damage his Labour party's bid to restore its economic credibility before the 2015 election. Miliband said a freezing of energy bills for 20 months if he replaces Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron would help curb rising prices after years of cuts, stagnation and weak wage growth. It would compensate the public for high prices resulting from a lack of effective market competition. ... Full Story | Top |
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