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| Restaurants reopen with bottled water after West Virginia spill Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:07 PM PST  By Ann Moore CHARLESTON, West Virginia (Reuters) - Restaurants and shops began reopening on Sunday in parts of West Virginia where the water supply was poisoned by a chemical spill, although up to 300,000 people spent a fourth day unable to use tap water for anything besides flushing toilets. State government officials, the utility company West Virginia American Water and the National Guard continued to test the water supply after as much as 7,500 gallons (28,000 liters) of an industrial chemical leaked into the Elk River on Thursday. It could still be several days before people in nine counties and Charleston, the state capital and largest city, can once again use the water from their faucets for drinking, cooking and bathing. Full Story | Top |
| UK offers local councils incentive to accept shale gas drilling Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 04:14 PM PST British local councils that allow shale gas developments will keep 100 percent of a levy they collect from the sites under a government move to persuade communities to accept the fracking process used to extract the gas. The local tax, known as business rates, is levied by councils on commercial properties in England and Wales. Councils use business rates to pay for local services. Britain's shale gas industry is still at the stage of exploration, not commercial production, but energy companies see it as one of Europe's strongest prospects. Full Story | Top |
| France's Total joins shale gas hunt in Britain Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 02:33 PM PST  Total has agreed to invest up to $48 million for a stake in shale licenses in Britain, the first major oil company to back the industry in a country seen as one of Europe's strongest prospects for unconventional oil and gas development. The investment is tiny in oil industry terms, and especially small in the context of the tens of billions of dollars spent every year by Total, one of the world's top five investor-controlled oil and gas groups. However, having such a large player as a partner will be a feather in the cap of industry minnows Dart Energy , Egdon Resources , IGas and eCORP Oil & Gas UK Ltd, with which Total will partner on two exploration licenses. Total is already involved in shale gas projects in the United States, Argentina, China, Australia, Poland and Denmark, bringing expertise to advance Dart's shale prospects, Dart CEO John McGoldrick said. Full Story | Top |
| Friends of Syria group urges opposition to attend Geneva talks Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 12:13 PM PST  By John Irish and Warren Strobel PARIS (Reuters) - The "Friends of Syria", an alliance of mainly Western and Gulf Arab countries who oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, urged opposition groups on Sunday to attend this month's peace talks, saying there was no other route to a political solution. With 10 days to go until the first direct talks between the opposition and President Bashar al-Assad's government - set for January 22 in Switzerland and dubbed "Geneva 2" - Western backers have struggled to unify rebel groups. The main political opposition body in exile, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), has been plagued by internal bickering. In a final statement, the 11 core Friends of Syria nations urged the SNC to attend the talks on the shores of Lake Geneva. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. details Iran sanctions relief under nuclear deal Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:53 AM PST Iran will get some sanctions relief at the start of the implementation of the November 24 nuclear deal but will not get all of it until the six-month implementation period ends, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday. The official was one of several who briefed reporters about an agreement to implement the November nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers under which Tehran will receive limited sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear activities. Assuming the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, confirms Iran is carrying out the deal, the major powers would immediately suspend sanctions on Iran's petrochemical exports, on imports for its auto manufacturing sector and on its trade in gold and other precious metals. According to U.S. estimates, the overall sanctions relief provided to Iran under the deal is worth about $7 billion. Full Story | Top |
| EU says nuclear deal with Iran to come into force on January 20 Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 09:14 AM PST  Six world powers and Iran have agreed to start implementing an interim nuclear deal on January 20, the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement on Sunday. Ashton represents the six nations - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - in diplomatic contacts with Iran related to the nuclear standoff. She said the sides would now ask the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to verify the deal's implementation. Under the November 24 agreement, Iran has promised to curb its most sensitive nuclear activities in return for some relief from Western economic sanctions. Full Story | Top |
| Iraq's Maliki threatens to cut funds if Kurds pipe oil to Turkey Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 08:30 AM PST  By Suadad al-Salhy and Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki threatened on Sunday to cut Kurdistan's share of the federal budget if the autonomous region exports oil to Turkey via a new pipeline without central government consent. The Kurdistan Regional Government said last week that crude had begun to flow to Turkey and exports were expected to start at the end of this month and then rise in February and March. "This is a constitutional violation which we will never allow, not for the (Kurdistan) region nor for the Turkish government," Maliki told Reuters in an interview. He reiterated Baghdad's insistence that only the central government has the authority to manage Iraq's energy resources. Full Story | Top |
| Yemen tribes kill six soldiers, tell Norway DNO to end oil work Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 07:51 AM PST Yemeni gunmen killed at least six soldiers in stepped up attacks on army installations in the southeastern Hadramout province, a local official and residents said on Sunday, after tribesmen warned Norway's DNO to stop operations in the area. Growing lawlessness in the poor Arabian Peninsula state is an international concern because of Yemen's strategic position next to oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes. A local government official in al-Shihr said tribesmen tried to overrun an army camp on the outskirts of the Arabian Sea city on Sunday, killing four soldiers. The attack came hours after armed tribesmen attacked troops assigned to guard oil wells near a facility operated by DNO. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan rebel leader wants detainees freed before ceasefire deal: envoys Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 07:38 AM PST  By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar's demand for the release of detainees remains a stumbling block to a ceasefire deal aimed at halting violence in the world's youngest state, a U.S. envoy said on Sunday. More than three weeks of fighting, often along ethnic faultlines, has pitted President Salva Kiir's SPLA government forces against rebels loyal to former vice president Machar and has brought the oil-exporting nation close to civil war. Although both sides have held talks in recent days in Addis Ababa in a bid to agree a ceasefire, there has been little progress after Kiir refused a rebel demand to release 11 detainees arrested in December over an alleged coup plot. On Saturday, three African envoys of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional grouping of east African nations that initiated the talks, met Machar in an effort to agree the terms of truce, but he turned them down. Full Story | Top |
| Orbital Sciences cargo ship arrives at space station Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:56 AM PST  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Orbital Sciences Corp, one of two companies hired by U.S. space agency NASA to make supply runs to the International Space Station, delivered its first cargo ship on Sunday, a NASA TV broadcast showed. Space station flight engineer Mike Hopkins used the outpost's 60-foot-long (18 meter) robotic arm to pluck a Cygnus freighter capsule from orbit at 6:08 a.m. EST as the two ships sailed 264 miles over the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar. "A big sigh of relief for Orbital," said astronaut and NASA TV commentator Catherine "Cady" Coleman from Mission Control in Houston. About two hours later, Hopkins latched the capsule, which is about the size of a small bus, to a docking port on the space station's Harmony module. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen assassinate Libyan deputy industry minister Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:19 AM PST By Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Gunmen killed Libya's deputy industry minister as he drove home from shopping in the coastal city of Sirte late on Saturday in an attack security officials blamed on hardline Islamist militants. Libya is still plagued by widespread violence and targetted killings more than two years after the civil war ousted Muammar Gaddafi, with militants, militia gunmen and former rebels often resorting to force to impose demands on the fragile government. The minister, Hassan al-Drowi, was shot several times, a senior security official said, asking not to be identified. The theory is, the bomb failed, so they shot him instead." The official blamed Islamist militants who have been trying to extend their influence in Sirte, which has been more stable recently than the coastal capital of Tripoli, about 460 km (290 miles) to the west, or the eastern city of Benghazi. Full Story | Top |
| Libya's El Sharara field currently producing 300,000 bpd-min Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 01:15 AM PST  Libya's El Sharara field is currently producing 300,000 barrels per day of oil compared to its peak output of about 340,000 bpd, Oil Minister Abdelbari Arusi said on Sunday, due to a standoff with rebel groups. The minister said the African nation's oil production has declined to 600,000-650,000 bpd compared with a peak output of 1.6 million bpd. Full Story | Top |
| Trafigura passes baton to next generation of billionaire traders Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 01:14 AM PST  By Dmitry Zhdannikov LONDON (Reuters) - Commodity trading giant Trafigura is going through a once-in-a-generation ownership reshuffle, spending billions of dollars to buy out its earliest shareholders and allocating stock to a new generation of would-be billionaire traders. A Reuters analysis of accounts for Swiss-based Trafigura shows it has spent around $2 billion on share buybacks over the past three years, and the unlisted company says it could spend another $1.5 billion until 2017 if profits allow. The scale of the exercise, in a company where shareholders' equity only just tipped $5 billion at the end of September, indicates a major rebalancing of ownership and confirms executives have no wish to follow rival Glencore into a public listing of its stock, which would be an alternative route for founder shareholders to cash out. "We undertake share buybacks for two reasons. Full Story | Top |
| C.African Republic's capital tense as ex-leader heads into exile Saturday, Jan 11, 2014 11:25 PM PST  By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic's president flew into exile in Benin on Saturday and a new interim team started the process of identifying leaders who might restore order to a nation gripped by months of inter-religious violence. The United Nations called for calm and stepped up flights out for foreigners. Governments of other African countries have evacuated nearly 30,000 of their citizens caught up in the violence. President Michel Djotodia and Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye quit on Friday under intense international pressure after they failed to halt cycles of violence that have killed thousands and driven a million people, a quarter of the country's population, from their homes. Full Story | Top |
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