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| Mexican Senate passes electoral bill, clearing way for energy debate Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 08:19 PM PST  Mexico's Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved an electoral reform demanded by the opposition, helping pave the way for Congress to focus on an energy bill at the center of President Enrique Pena Nieto's economic agenda. Opposition conservatives demanded passage of the electoral legislation before they would provide their support for an energy bill that would open the state-controlled oil sector to private investment. Mexico's peso rallied on Tuesday after the leader of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the Senate said that lawmakers could turn to the energy bill as soon as the political reform was approved. Further boosting the peso, prominent Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was hospitalized with heart trouble, reducing the likelihood that he will be able to lead street protests against the energy plans. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuelan president says he has proof blackout was sabotage Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 07:40 PM PST  By Daniel Wallis and Deisy Buitrago CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday he had proof that a massive power outage was caused by saboteurs aiming to throw the country into chaos before municipal elections this weekend. The blackout on Monday night was the second major power outage the year, plunging much of the country into darkness and prompting accusations of government incompetence from the opposition. Speaking on state TV alongside Electricity Minister Jesse Chacon and other officials, Maduro briefly showed a photo of what appeared to be a cut conductor cable lying on the floor. "Whoever made this criminal attack wanted to leave our Venezuela without electricity for 24 to 48 hours ... thinking that would convince people not to continue with the revolution." Maduro's combative rhetoric echoed his allegations in September, when he also accused the opposition of sabotaging the national grid to discredit him after a blackout that was one of the worst in the OPEC nation's history. Full Story | Top |
| SpaceX rocket lifts off on first commercial satellite launch Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 05:13 PM PST  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket developed by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, blasted off on Tuesday to put its first commercial satellite into orbit, staking a potentially game-changing claim in a global industry worth nearly $190 billion a year. The 22-story rocket lifted off from its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 5:41 p.m. EST/2241 GMT. Perched on top of the rocket was a 7,000-pound (3,175 kg) communications satellite owned by Luxembourg-based SES S.A., which operates a 54-satellite fleet, the world's second-largest. "I'd like to thank SES for taking a chance on SpaceX," company founder and chief executive Elon Musk posted on Twitter an hour before the launch. Full Story | Top |
| White House tells Senate it opposes new Iran sanctions effort Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:55 PM PST  By Patricia Zengerle and Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday it opposes a fresh effort by some members of the U.S. Senate to impose new sanctions against Iran, even if the new restrictions would not take effect for months. Some senators have been discussing the idea of imposing new sanctions on Iran that would kick in after six months or if Iran violated terms of an interim deal reached 10 days ago that attempts to contain its nuclear program. "If we pass sanctions now, even with a deferred trigger which has been discussed, the Iranians, and likely our international partners, will see us as having negotiated in bad faith," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. Administration officials have been pushing lawmakers not to move ahead with a sanctions package, saying doing so risked alienating Tehran and other countries engaged in the talks by making Washington seem to be acting in bad faith. Full Story | Top |
| Arafat did not die of poisoning, French tests conclude Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:37 PM PST  By Paul Taylor PARIS (Reuters) - Yasser Arafat was not the victim of poisoning, French forensic scientists concluded on Tuesday, countering a Swiss report on the 2004 death of the Palestinian leader that found he was probably killed with radioactive polonium. The French conclusions were immediately challenged by his widow, Suha Arafat, who has argued the death was a political assassination by someone close to her husband. A senior Palestinian official dismissed the report as "politicized". "You can imagine how much I am shaken by the contradictions between the findings of the best experts in Europe in this domain," Suha Arafat, dressed in black and reading from a written statement, told a news conference in Paris. Full Story | Top |
| Mexican left-wing leader Lopez Obrador has heart attack, surgery Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:36 PM PST  Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was rushed to hospital for surgery on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack, which could undermine his ability to lead protests against President Enrique Pena Nieto's push to open up the oil sector. Lopez Obrador, who was runner-up to Pena Nieto in last year's presidential election, is perceived as one of the biggest threats to the planned reform to open the state-controlled oil sector to private investment. Patricio Ortiz, the cardiologist who attended Lopez Obrador, told a news conference that he was making "satisfactory progress" and was conscious. He could not say how long Lopez Obrador would remain in hospital. Full Story | Top |
| North Korea's Kim seen behind sacking of powerful uncle Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:28 PM PST  By Jack Kim and Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is believed to have dismissed a powerful uncle, a man key to his rise to power, from his posts, South Korean lawmakers said on Tuesday, a move that could help consolidate his power base with a younger guard of aides. Jang Song Thaek was likely sacked as vice chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission and as a department head of the ruling Workers' Party, lawmaker Jung Cheong-rae said, citing a senior South Korean official with the National Intelligence Service (NIS). Analysts who watch the North's power structure say Jang's removal would not have been possible without the approval of the third Kim to rule in the family dynasty. Choe Ryong Hae, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, has been the most prominent figure to accompany Kim at public events and is a reminder of the state's political roots in military power. Full Story | Top |
| EPA fracking study could hurt energy boom: U.S. business leader Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:23 PM PST America's largest business lobby group warned the Obama administration on Tuesday against snuffing out the country's energy boom with regulations on new oil and natural gas drilling technologies. U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study due next year could be used to justify clamping down on drilling techniques that have sparked a surge in U.S. oil and natural gas output. A major force in U.S. politics, the Chamber of Commerce is the biggest business lobbying group in the country and has been a steady critic of President Barack Obama. Full Story | Top |
| Canada panel urges better response plan for oil spills Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 03:54 PM PST By Julie Gordon VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canada must be better prepared to respond to major oil spills if more crude starts to flow in pipelines to the country's Pacific Coast, a government panel said on Tuesday, as fears of a major marine disaster grow. The report, by the federal transport department, makes 45 recommendations, including ensuring companies are prepared for a worst-case scenario and new guarantees that taxpayers will not be liable for costs related to spills in Canadian waters. Regulators are currently weighing separate proposals from Enbridge and Kinder Morgan to build new pipelines to carry oil from Alberta to the British Columbia coast, which could bring an additional 600 tankers to the region each year. The review of Canada's ship-source oil spill regime is a key part of the federal government's push to reassure Canadians that it has prepared for that additional traffic and has a policy in place to respond if there is a major spill. Full Story | Top |
| BMO dives, pulls TSX to five-week low Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 02:27 PM PST By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell on Tuesday to its lowest in more than five weeks after Bank of Montreal's quarterly results disappointed investors, spurring a selloff that spread to the shares of other major banks. Also weighing on sentiment, recent positive economic data out of the United States, including upbeat manufacturing numbers on Monday, revived fears the U.S. Federal Reserve might begin a scale-back, or tapering, of its monetary stimulus program sooner than later. In each of the past five months, the benchmark TSX index has advanced. "We still have the cloud of tapering hovering over the economy and the markets," said Paul Taylor, chief investment officer at BMO Asset Management. Full Story | Top |
| Temperature limit too high to avoid climate change: study Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 02:06 PM PST By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - An internationally agreed target to limit rises in global average temperatures to within 2 degrees Celsius is around double the threshold that would avoid catastrophic climate change, a study by 18 eminent scientists said. Governments decided in 2009 that such temperature increases needed to be no more than 2 degrees C (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avoid effects such as more extreme weather, higher sea levels and ocean acidification. They aim to agree by 2015 on a global deal to cut the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, but the reductions will not come into force until after 2020. Last month, a United Nations conference in Warsaw kept alive hopes for the 2015 deal but nations made little progress on committing to ambitious emission cuts to keep the world on track towards the 2 degree target. Full Story | Top |
| OGX, creditors near accord to swap debt for stock: sources Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 02:01 PM PST  By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Sabrina Lorenzi SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA and its creditors are close to a deal to transform some of OGX's $5.1 billion debt into stock, stripping Brazilian businessman Eike Batista of a controlling stake in the oil company, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday. Under the terms still under discussion, bondholders would get a 55 percent stake in OGX, while founder and controlling shareholder Eike Batista's holding would fall to 5 percent from about 51 percent, both sources added. An agreement between the company and creditors might help successfully kick off OGX's bankruptcy protection process, the largest-ever filed in a Latin American nation. Full Story | Top |
| New York lawsuit seeks 'legal personhood' for chimpanzees Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 01:38 PM PST  By Bernard Vaughan and Daniel Wiessner NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. animal rights group on Monday filed what it said is the first lawsuit seeking to establish the "legal personhood" of chimpanzees. The non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project asked a New York state court to declare a 26-year-old chimp named Tommy "a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran's Indian bank looks to life after sanctions windfall Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 01:04 PM PST  By Swati Pandey MUMBAI (Reuters) - An obscure Indian bank has been an unlikely beneficiary of Western sanctions against Iran, handling billions of dollars from frozen oil payments that boosted its interest margins, but is now having to prepare itself for life after the windfall. UCO Bank , a Kolkata-based state lender that had been among India's poorer performers, saw revenue and profits surge after it was picked in 2012 to hold rupees for oil payments to Iran, a pile that has grown to more than $3 billion. Late last month, Iran and six world powers reached an interim deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief. "The Iran business was a shot in the arm for us," UCO Chairman Arun Kaul told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico leftist Lopez Obrador has heart attack but is improving Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 12:57 PM PST  Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was runner-up to President Enrique Pena Nieto in last year's presidential election, is fine after being admitted to hospital with a heart condition, his spokesman said on Tuesday. Lopez Obrador has been spearheading protests against Pena Nieto's push to open up the state-controlled oil sector, a central plank of the president's wider economic reform drive. Cesar Yanez, a spokesman for Lopez Obrador, said the 60-year-old former mayor of Mexico City had experienced pressure on his heart and was being attended by doctors. A fiery orator and leader of the Mexican left, Lopez Obrador's closest brush with the presidency came in 2006, when he was narrowly defeated by conservative Felipe Calderon, and spent much of the next six years saying he had been robbed of victory. Full Story | Top |
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