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| U.S. to release Keystone pipeline review soon: State Department official Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 07:43 PM PST An environmental impact review of the Keystone XL oil pipeline with Canada is close to being completed and will be released soon, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry offered no timetable for the U.S. decision on TransCanada Corp's planned Keystone XL pipeline when he addressed the issue on January 17 during a joint news conference with his Canadian counterpart John Baird. Earlier Baird, Canada's foreign minister, had bluntly told the United States to end the "limbo' on the approval process for the pipeline, conceding that Washington might veto the project. Full Story | Top |
| Australian agency allows sand dump near Barrier Reef for coal port Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 07:24 PM PST Australia's Great Barrier Reef watchdog gave the green light on Friday for millions of cubic meters of dredged mud to be dumped near the fragile reef to create the world's biggest coal port and possibly unlock $28 billion in coal projects. The dumping permit approval clears the way for a major expansion of the port of Abbot Point for Indian firms Adani Enterprises and GVK Power and Infrastructure and Australian billionaire miner Gina Rinehart. Together they have $16 billion worth of coal projects in the untapped, inland Galilee Basin. Full Story | Top |
| Missouri professor sues Square, claims credit for business concepts Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 05:49 PM PST A professor in St. Louis who says he helped come up with the idea that became payments-company Square has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging fraud and patent infringement and seeking unspecified damages. Robert E. Morley, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, filed suit in federal court in St. Louis on Thursday against Square and its co-founders Jack Dorsey and James McKelvey. "The business now known as Square was not created solely by Jack Dorsey and James McKelvey," said the complaint. "It was Professor Robert Morley - and Dr. Morley alone - who invented the Square card reader, and Dr. Morley co-invented the corresponding magnetic stripe," the complaint continued. Full Story | Top |
| Princess Cruises ship returns early for fog, ill passengers aboard Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 05:43 PM PST A Princess Cruises ship, owned by Carnival Corp, will be met by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team that will investigate an outbreak of a virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea when it rolls into the port of Houston on Friday, a day early after the trip was cut short by fog, the company said. The Caribbean Princess, with about 3,100 passengers and 1,150 crew members will be sanitized before its next scheduled departure on February 1, the company said. "Approximately three passengers have current active symptoms of norovirus, and over the course of the cruise 165 passengers reported ill to the medical center," it said in a statement. The outbreak comes after a Royal Caribbean cruise ship this week cut short its Caribbean cruise after more than 600 people became sick with a gastrointestinal illness. Full Story | Top |
| Ability to transport U.S. oil, gas lags booming output: Energy Secretary Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 05:42 PM PST  By Ros Krasny WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The energy boom of the last decade that has boosted oil and gas production in the United States has outpaced the development of critical infrastructure to transport the raw and refined materials, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said on Thursday. Reflecting on a spate of accidents involving freight trains pulling tank cars full of volatile crude oil in Canada and the United States, Moniz said that infrastructure development was key, even beyond a reconsideration of rail regulations now under way by U.S. authorities. "The core approach, really, is that our infrastructure needs to build out," Moniz said in an interview with Reuters Insider. "Here we have a case, especially with the production in North Dakota, where the Bakken shale (output) zoomed from essentially nothing to past 1 million barrels a day," he said. Full Story | Top |
| White House releases plan to make Arctic shipping safer Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 05:06 PM PST By Timothy Gardner and Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Arctic ice melts away, opening the way for greater oil development and mining, the White House outlined a plan on Thursday to promote safety and security in the region by building ports, improving forecasts of sea ice, and developing shipping rules. With warmer temperatures leaving Arctic sea passages open for longer periods of the year, billions of barrels of oil could be tapped beyond what is already being produced in the region. The White House plan was released on the same day that Royal Dutch Shell canceled drilling this year off Alaska, after a series of costly mishaps in the harsh conditions, as part of efforts to cut spending. The U.S. Defense Department will lead an interagency effort to forecast icy conditions by launching a satellite and improving analytic methods to forecast icy conditions. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. government names Navy man to head beleaguered NSA Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 04:55 PM PST  By David Alexander and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama nominated on Thursday the U.S. Navy's top cyber warrior to head the National Security Agency, a move seen as a vote of confidence in a unit that is under fire for spying on Americans and their allies. Navy Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, a cryptologist and head of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, is not expected to immediately make major changes to the NSA, shaken by revelations by former contractor Edward Snowden. "This is a critical time for the NSA, and Vice Admiral Rogers would bring extraordinary and unique qualifications to this position as the agency continues its vital mission and implements President Obama's reforms," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Passion for vodka kills Russian men in their thousands Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 04:11 PM PST  By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - A quarter of all Russian men die before they reach their mid-fifties and their passion for alcohol - particularly vodka - is largely to blame, according to research published on Friday. A study of more than 150,000 people found extraordinarily high premature death rates among male Russians, some of whom reported drinking three or more bottles a week of the potent clear spirit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, deaths among heavy drinkers were mainly due to alcohol poisoning, accidents, violence and suicide, as well as diseases such as throat and liver cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, pancreatitis and liver disease. "Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the past 30 years as alcohol restrictions and social stability varied under presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin, and the main thing driving these wild fluctuations..was vodka," said Richard Peto of Britain's Oxford University, who worked on the study. Full Story | Top |
| Britain and France set to clash over EU reform at summit Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 04:08 PM PST  By William James LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron is set to clash with France's President Francois Hollande over how to reform the European Union on Friday, souring an Anglo-French summit aimed at deepening defence and energy cooperation. The first Anglo-French summit since Hollande won power in May 2012 will announce joint investment in the latest phase of a combat drone scheme, cooperation on civil nuclear power research and an agreement on space and satellite technology. Cameron wants to re-open European Union treaties to try to secure sweeping reforms to make the trade bloc more efficient - an agenda he hopes will both persuade euroskeptic voters to back him at a 2015 election and quell dissent within his party. He has promised a referendum on Britain's EU membership by 2017. Full Story | Top |
| Boeing aircraft workers get bonus boost for 2013 Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 03:03 PM PST  By Alwyn Scott NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co notched up bonuses for engineers, machinists and other employees on Thursday, a response to the company's strong 2013 performance. Some 109,000 workers are eligible for a payout that is "among the highest-ever levels", the company said. The group includes non-represented employees as well as engineers and technicians represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), Boeing said. About 51,600 of the workers are in Washington state. Full Story | Top |
| Amgen's cholesterol fighter succeeds in fifth late-stage study Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 02:45 PM PST (Reuters) - Amgen Inc said its experimental drug from a promising new class of injectable medicines succeeded in treating patients with genetically high cholesterol levels, marking the fifth successful clinical study of the drug. Evolocumab met the main goal of a late-stage trial titled RUTHERFORD-2 by lowering "bad" LDL cholesterol levels when tested against a placebo on 329 patients. Amgen, the world's biggest biotechnology company, is testing evolocumab widely on a variety of subpopulations. The RUTHERFORD-2 study included patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, an inherited condition that causes high levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol starting at birth. Full Story | Top |
| Obama administration nominates new NSA boss Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 02:36 PM PST The U.S. Navy's top cyber warrior was nominated by President Barack Obama on Thursday to head the National Security Agency at a time when the embattled unit is under fire for spying on Americans and allies. Navy Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, the head of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, is not expected immediately to change the NSA, shaken by revelations by former contractor Edward Snowden. If confirmed by the Senate, Rogers would take over as head of both the NSA and the military's Cyber Command from Army General Keith Alexander, who is likely to retire in March or April. "This is a critical time for the NSA, and Vice Admiral Rogers would bring extraordinary and unique qualifications to this position as the agency continues its vital mission and implements President Obama's reforms," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Libya sets February 20 for constitution assembly vote Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 02:35 PM PST  By Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya will elect an assembly on February 20 to draft a constitution intended to advance transition to democracy and break political stalemate more than two years after a NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi. The North African country is caught up in chaos with its Congress deadlocked between Islamists and a leading nationalist party, and its nascent army struggling to assert itself against unruly former rebels, tribal groups and Islamist militants. Just hours before the congress decision, gunmen kidnapped the son of Libya's special forces commander in Benghazi, later calling the colonel to demand he withdraw troops in return for his son's release, state news agency LANA said. "We want all Libyan people and groups to reconcile and support these elections," Nouri Abusahmain, president of the General National Congress, said after announcing the date of the vote On Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Supply test looms for Obama's darling natural gas Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 02:01 PM PST  By Julia Edwards NEW YORK (Reuters) - While the United States is sitting on a bounty of natural gas, the wild volatility of prices this winter could soon become a regular feature as growing demand begins to test supply, potentially curbing plans to increase exports and switch power plants to gas from coal. Ample reserves have depressed prices since 2008, but sudden surges in consumption could jolt the market as early as 2015 when new exports coincide with higher domestic demand and lagging production for the fuel championed by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday. The coldest winter in decades pushed prices for natural gas, which is used to heat homes and produce electricity, to four year highs and exposed inadequacies in the pipeline network. "But you need a price signal ahead of time to stimulate the production growth." Dwivedi predicts a first period of high prices to last for up to 6 months in 2016 and be followed by continual unpredicted surges as new projects demanding natural gas come online. Full Story | Top |
| Conoco beats expectations as bigger oil rivals struggle Thursday, Jan 30, 2014 12:59 PM PST  Oil producer ConocoPhillips outshone larger competitors on Thursday with a quarterly profit that beat expectations as it moved to overcome the problems of high costs and lack of fresh reserves that have nagged at Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell . ConocoPhillips, the largest U.S. oil company without refining operations, said its profits were helped by the sale of its Algerian business and by higher crude oil production in North America. Analysts said Conoco's plan is beginning to pay off at a time when the industry faces pressure from shareholders to lift returns despite flat oil prices and rising costs for risky exploration work designed to replace reserves. Conoco's profit in the fourth quarter was $2.5 billion, or $2.00 a share, compared with $1.4 billion, or $1.16 a share, a year earlier. Full Story | Top |
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