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| Suncor to go ahead with Fort Hills oil sand project, profit up Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 09:05 PM PDT , Canada's largest oil and gas company, said on Wednesday it was moving ahead with its Fort Hills oil sands project in Northern Alberta, with first production expected as soon as the fourth quarter of 2017. The C$13.5 billion ($12.9 billion) project, located some 500 km (310 miles) north of Edmonton, Alberta, is a joint venture with France's Total SA Suncor separately said its third-quarter profit rose 10 percent, boosted by record production from its Oil Sands segment and favorable pricing for western Canadian crude oil. That beat the average analyst estimate of 87 Canadian cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Suncor's cash flow, a glimpse of its ability to pay for new projects like Fort Hills, fell 7 percent to C$2.5 billion, or C$1.69 per share, from C$2.7 billion, or C$1.79. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico plan to beef up tax revenues nears final Senate approval Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 08:49 PM PDT By Michael O'Boyle, Miguel Gutierrez and Dave Graham MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Senate on Wednesday was close to passing a package of measures to bolster the country's weak tax revenues, including higher taxes for the rich, levies on sugary drinks and junk food, as well as a charge on stock market gains. After giving general approval to the fiscal bill late on Tuesday, the Senate must still vote on divisive sections that lawmakers want to repeal or amend, a process which has been held up by opposition from conservatives. The fiscal reform is one the main planks of President Enrique Pena Nieto's economic agenda, and although it will not raise as much new revenue as had originally been hoped, it has prompted vigorous attacks from opponents and lobbyists. Disputes over the bill, which aims to introduce a new top income tax rate of 35 percent, risk complicating negotiations over other reforms sought by the Revolutionary Institutional Party, which lacks a majority in Congress. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. food group faces legal trouble in fight over GMO labeling Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 07:44 PM PDT A lobbying group for major U.S. food manufacturers continues to run afoul of campaign finance laws in the way that it has contributed funds to block a measure that would require labeling of genetically modified foods in Washington state, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the state's attorney general. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said he will amend a lawsuit filed October 16 to raise the total amount he alleges the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) illegally concealed to $11 million, from the $7.2 million in the original complaint. GMA represents some of the world's largest food and beverage companies and is lobbying heavily against the measure known as I-522 that is set for a public vote in Washington state on November 5. GMA is the largest contributor to the "No on 522" campaign. Full Story | Top |
| Canada gives ConocoPhillips okay for exploratory drilling in Far North Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 06:04 PM PDT  Canada's National Energy Board on Wednesday approved ConocoPhillips's application to start exploratory drilling in the Northwest Territories, the first time the federal regulator has granted authorization for horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Canada's Far North. The independent NEB, whose responsibilities include safety, protection of the environment and conservation of resources, gave ConocoPhillips permission to drill two wells near Norman Wells, 728 miles from Yellowknife, the territorial capital, and 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle. ConocoPhillips won a land use permit and water license from the local authorities in June, the NEB said in a press release. Full Story | Top |
| Obama blames 'bad apple' insurers for canceled coverage Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:31 PM PDT  By Roberta Rampton and David Morgan BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that "bad apple" insurance companies, not his signature healthcare law, are to blame for hundreds of thousands of people losing their coverage in the past few weeks. As administration officials scrambled to fix technical problems on an online insurance marketplace that is central to the success of the Affordable Care Act, Obama blamed private insurers for a separate problem that has critics questioning his honesty. The president has repeatedly promised that people who are happy with their health plans would not have to change coverage because of the law, known as Obamacare. But the termination of individual policies has given his Republican opponents additional ammunition to criticize the program they have tried to stop since its inception in Obama's first term. Full Story | Top |
| Batista's OGX files for bankruptcy protection in Brazil Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:21 PM PDT  By Sabrina Lorenzi and Jeb Blount RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA, the Brazilian oil company controlled by former billionaire Eike Batista, sought court protection from creditors on Wednesday in Latin America's largest-ever corporate bankruptcy filing. The bankruptcy protection request, filed in a Rio de Janeiro court, came after OGX failed to reach an agreement with creditors to renegotiate part of its $5.1 billion debt load. The request marks another chapter in the unraveling of Batista's once high-flying industrial empire, which he has been dismantling in recent months after disappointing output from offshore OGX wells set off a crisis of investor confidence. If the court approves the request, OGX will have 60 days to come up with a restructuring plan. Full Story | Top |
| White House faces tough sell in Congress on delay of Iran sanctions Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:10 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Obama administration officials have been pushing U.S. lawmakers hard to hold off on new sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, but some key lawmakers said on Wednesday they had not yet been convinced to support a delay. Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which is considering the sanctions package, said lawmakers were skeptical because they felt they had to push the White House to back strict sanctions on Tehran. "I think ... because Congress had to push the administration into the sanctions regime in the first place, there is a degree of skepticism. Corker had a breakfast meeting on Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry. Full Story | Top |
| Mosquitoes known to carry dengue, yellow fever seen in California Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:02 PM PDT By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A tropical mosquito known to carry potentially fatal diseases such as dengue and yellow fever has been detected in California, raising concerns among public health officials and prompting intense efforts to eradicate the insect. No illnesses associated with the mosquito, known by the scientific name Aedes aegypti, have been reported since it first appeared in California's Central Valley in June, and none of the specimens trapped and tested has been found to be infected. "If it gets established, it's going to change the way we live in California," Tim Phillips, manager of the Fresno Mosquito and Vector Control District, which identified some of the first small invaders, said on Wednesday. How Aedes aegypti was introduced to the California remains a mystery. Full Story | Top |
| New dolphin species spotted swimming off Australian coast Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 03:35 PM PDT A newly discovered species of humpback dolphin has been seen swimming off the northern Australia coast, an international team of scientists reported this week. All humpback dolphins have a characteristic hump just below the dorsal fin, but there are several distinct species in this family of marine mammals, the scientists found. While the Atlantic humpback dolphin has been recognized as a species, the latest research offers the best evidence yet that the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin should be split into three species, including one that is new to science. Researchers examined the humpback dolphin family's evolutionary history using both physical features and genetic data, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement about the discovery. Full Story | Top |
| Planet hunters find Earth-like twin beyond the solar system Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 03:33 PM PDT By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - For the first time, scientists have found a planet beyond the solar system that not only is the same size as Earth, but has the same proportions of iron and rock, a key step in an ongoing quest to find potentially habitable sister worlds. Kepler-78b was discovered last year with NASA's now-idled Kepler space telescope, which detected potential planets as they circled in front of their parent stars, blocking a bit of light. That measurement not only revealed that Kepler-78b was relatively small, with a diameter just 20 percent larger than Earth's, but that it was practically orbiting on the surface of its host star. In two papers in this week's journal Nature, the teams report that not only were they successful, but that they came to the same conclusion: Kepler-78b has roughly the same density as Earth, suggesting that it also is made primarily of rock and iron. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. appeals court revives patent fight over AstraZeneca drug Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 03:27 PM PDT A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday reinstated part of a legal fight by AstraZeneca over a patent protecting its Pulmicort Respules asthma drug, months after the court temporarily halted competitors from distributing generic versions. The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reverses an earlier decision that generic drugmakers -including Apotex Inc, Sandoz Inc and Watson Laboratories Inc -had not infringed an AstraZeneca patent relating to the drug. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Illinois refinery hobbled as Citgo bypasses 'burned up' unit Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 02:55 PM PDT  By Erwin Seba HOUSTON (Reuters) - Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s refinery in Illinois may be operating at little more than half capacity for months as workers bypass a vital secondary unit that "burned up" in a three-hour fire last week, sources say. Citgo says it is now set to restart some units but will keep the vacuum distillation unit (VDU) shut for now. As a result, fuel output will be sharply lower and the plant may need to seek lighter, sweeter of crude in order to reduce residual fuel output from its typical diet of Canadian crude oil, sources said. The fire stemmed initially from a leak that workers found while replacing a pump October 23 in the 'bottoms' section of the 75,000 bpd VDU, which refines residual crude from the crude distillation unit (CDU) and boosts yields of motor fuels from a barrel of oil. Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi PM Maliki struggles to convince U.S. lawmakers to back more aid Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 02:38 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers had tough criticism for Iraq's government after meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday, saying they were open to meeting his request for military assistance only if Baghdad made significant changes. Maliki is on his first visit to Washington in two years, urgently seeking U.S. Apache attack helicopters and other military supplies to fight militant groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq as sectarian violence spills over the border from Syria. But U.S. officials, particularly members of Congress who take a harder line on many foreign policy issues than the Obama administration, have watched in dismay as Maliki has ignored Washington's calls to give Iraq's Sunni and Kurdish minorities a greater role in his Shi'ite-led government, and moved closer to Iran since U.S. troops left Iraq two years ago. Full Story | Top |
| TSX hits two-year high as miners gain after Fed Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 02:00 PM PDT  By Alastair Sharp TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose slightly on Wednesday with gold miners marking up strong gains as the U.S. Federal Reserve maintained its support for a stumbling U.S. economy. In addition to miners, banking stocks have been a solid contributor to the rise, helped by the Bank of Canada's move to drop its explicit rate-hike bias last week. The Fed maintained its massive bond-buying campaign on Wednesday as it sounded slightly more pessimistic about growth. With continued loose monetary policy in Canada and the United States likely, and signs of renewed growth in the Chinese economy, investors seem confident that the resource-rich Canadian index can add further gains. Full Story | Top |
| Studies in monkeys may be next step in search for HIV cure Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 01:22 PM PDT By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - A powerful infusion of HIV-fighting antibodies beat back a potent form of the virus in monkeys and kept it at bay for weeks, U.S. government scientists and a team led by Harvard University found, offering a potential next step in the battle against human HIV. The two studies, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, involve the use of rare antibodies made by 10 percent to 20 percent of people with HIV that can neutralize a wide array of strains. Such antibodies latch on to regions of the virus that are highly "conserved," meaning they are so critical to the virus that causes AIDS that they appear in nearly every HIV strain. In the past decade, scientists have tried to make vaccines that could coax the body into making these same types of HIV-specific antibodies. Full Story | Top |
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