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| Green group fights sand dump permit near Australia's Barrier Reef Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 07:40 PM PST Environmentalists launched an appeal on Thursday to overturn a permit granted for an Australian coal port to dump millions of cubic meters of sand near the Great Barrier Reef, arguing it fails to protect the World Heritage site. An independent agency charged with protecting the reef granted a permit in January for 3 million cubic meters of soil dredged up at the port of Abbot Point to be dumped about 25 km (15 miles) from the reef. The approval by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) sparked outrage among green groups opposed to coal expansions and fighting to protect the reef, as well as marine tourism operators, who help generate $5 billion a year. The North Queensland Conservation Council filed a challenge to the permit at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Brisbane on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Thirteen workers test positive for radiation at New Mexico waste site Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 07:01 PM PST Thirteen workers have tested positive for radiation exposure tied to an accidental release earlier this month of high levels of radiation in an underground nuclear waste repository in New Mexico, the U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday. No workers were underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in southeastern New Mexico when air sensors half a mile below surface in an ancient salt formation triggered an alarm on February 14 indicating excessive amounts of radioactive particles. Particles emitted from the decay of those radioactive elements can harm humans if inhaled or ingested. But analyses released on Wednesday of biological samples lifted from the workers showed that 13 of them were in fact exposed to radioactive particles, Joe Franco, manager of the U.S. Energy Department field office that oversees the plant, said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| BP loses bid to block seafood fund payments Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 05:33 PM PST  A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday denied BP Plc's request to halt payments from the $2.3 billion fund it has created to compensate commercial fishermen for financial losses claimed after the British company's 2010 offshore oil spill, according to court records. BP had sought to block the payments after alleging that some individuals supposedly injured by the spill, clients of attorney Mikal Watts, did not exist. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, who is overseeing litigation stemming from the spill, denied the motion on Wednesday, according to an entry on the court docket. The judge also granted Watts's motion to stay BP's civil action against him over the alleged fraud pending a related federal criminal investigation. Full Story | Top |
| State Department acted properly on Keystone: report Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 04:58 PM PST By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department acted properly in its choice of an outside contractor to review the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a U.S. report said on Wednesday, raising calls by the project's supporters for President Barack Obama to approve it. The State Department inspector general's report cleared the State Department of accusations by environmentalists there was undue influence by the pipeline's developer on a draft federal environmental review of the contentious project. TransCanada Corp had recommended four companies to the State Department to do an environmental review, including Environmental Resources Management, Inc, or ERM, but did not tell the department it had previously worked with the company. Under U.S. law, major industrial projects like Keystone, which would carry 800,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf, must undergo an environmental review. Full Story | Top |
| Spacesuits, Rover model at out-of-this-world auction in New York Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 04:34 PM PST Spacesuits, a Lunar Rover model and an emblem worn by Apollo 11 astronauts on the 1969 moon flight are among nearly 300 items of space memorabilia offered up at a special sale, Bonhams auction house said on Wednesday. The emblem, an eagle with an olive branch above the moon's surface, was on the spacesuits worn by Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin and is expected to fetch as much as $60,000 at the sale on April 8 in New York. An Apollo 11 checklist with data recorded by Armstrong and Aldrin during the lunar landing is another highlight, with a pre-sale estimate of up to $45,000, along with a spacesuit from Project Mercury, the first U.S. manned flight program. "The Mercury spacesuit epitomizes the earliest days of space exploration, a time when our world was a smaller place. Full Story | Top |
| NASA oversight led to spacewalker's near drowning, panel finds Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 04:24 PM PST  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A panel investigating an astronaut's near drowning during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station in July found that his spacesuit leaked during an earlier outing, officials said on Wednesday. NASA misdiagnosed the earlier leak, believing the water found in the helmet of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano on July 9 was due to a ruptured drink bag, said space station chief engineer Chris Hansen, who chaired an investigation panel appointed by the U.S. space agency. Instead, a week later on July 16, Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy put on their spacesuits to continue work outside the space station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 260 miles above Earth. Full Story | Top |
| UK troops mentally resilient despite Iraq, Afghan conflicts Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 03:32 PM PST  By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Intervention strategies have helped mitigate the psychological impact on British soldiers of more than 10 years of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new study suggests, leaving them mentally healthier than their U.S. peers. But the study, by the King's Centre for Military Health Research at King's College London, found some British soldiers - particularly reservists and soldiers deployed in combat - do seem more vulnerable to mental illness when they come home. "Overall, UK military personnel have remained relatively resilient in spite of the stresses endured in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Deirdre MacManus, who led the study. Full Story | Top |
| S&P 500 ends near flat; retailers fly for a second day Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 03:15 PM PST  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks finished flat on Wednesday with investors hesitant to make a big move on the day before comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, though retailers' shares rallied on results for a second day. Target Corp and Lowe's Cos Inc shares jumped following upbeat earnings and gave the biggest boosts to the S&P 500. Full Story | Top |
| Big utilities shunned green energy at their peril: Greenpeace Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 03:04 PM PST BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's 10 biggest utilities, produce more than half of Europe's power, but only a tiny percentage is from the new green energy sources that could revive their profits, a report from campaign group Greenpeace said on Thursday. Traditionally profitable utility companies have been hurt by an EU-wide shift towards renewable power that has created pro-sumers - or consumers with their own sources, such as solar panels, which enable them to sell back power to the grid. While the uptake in renewables has been spurred by EU policy and subsidies, the top 10 utilities largely stuck to old business models for which they are now paying the price, Greenpeace's report said. It calculates the big 10 generated 58 percent of power within Europe, but only 4 percent of this was from non-hydro renewable sources, such as solar and wind, in 2012. Full Story | Top |
| Exxon Mobil CEO welcomes fracking, but not water tower in his backyard Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 02:37 PM PST  By Marice Richter DALLAS (Reuters) - It's not every day that the chief executive of the largest U.S. energy company joins a lawsuit opposing a new water tower planned in his neighborhood that could support fracking. Officials at Exxon Mobil Corp said on Wednesday that CEO Rex Tillerson was opposed to the plan not because of fracking but because the tower would be much taller than what the town had originally proposed. Tillerson, former Republican heavyweight Dick Armey and other residents of a ranch-filled suburb of Bartonville north of Dallas filed suit in 2012 seeking to block construction of the 160-foot-tall (49-meter-tall) water tower, arguing it would be an eyesore. The suit, filed in Denton County District Court, also noted that the tower could encourage the town of Bartonville to sell "water to oil and gas explorers for fracking shale formations leading to traffic with heavy trucks... creating a noise nuisance and traffic hazards." "Mr. Tillerson does not object to the tower for its potential use for water and gas operations for fracking," said Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. space telescope spots 715 more planets Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 02:32 PM PST By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Scientists added a record 715 more planets to the list of known worlds beyond the solar system, boosting the overall tally to nearly 1,700, astronomers said on Wednesday. The additions include four planets about 2-1/2 times as big as Earth that are the right distance from their parent stars for liquid surface water, which is believed to be key for life. The discoveries were made with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope before it was sidelined by a pointing system problem last year. The tally of planets announced at a NASA press conference on Wednesday boosted Kepler's confirmed planet count from 246 to 961. Full Story | Top |
| TSX little changed as Cameco jumps, RBC slips Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 01:58 PM PST  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index ended little changed on Wednesday, with gains in Cameco Corp following a favorable shift in Japanese nuclear policy offset by weakness in Royal Bank of Canada after the lender reported quarterly results. The results from the country's biggest lender followed quarterly reports from Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada earlier this week. There's perhaps a little more cautious approach," said Fred Ketchen, director of equity trading at ScotiaMcLeod. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed down 0.40 of a point at 14,188.58. Full Story | Top |
| Scientists pinpoint exotic new particle called quantum droplet Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 01:45 PM PST  By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the field of quantum physics, you could call this a droplet in the bucket. Physicists in Germany and the United States said on Wednesday they have discovered an exotic new type of particle that they call a quantum droplet, or dropleton. Writing in the journal Nature, they said it behaves a bit like a liquid droplet and described it as a quasiparticle - an amalgamation of smaller types of particles. The discovery, they added, could be useful in the development of nanotechnology, including the design of optoelectronic devices. Full Story | Top |
| Argentina hopes Repsol deal will dispel investor doubts Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 01:19 PM PST  By Alejandro Lifschitz BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Two years after seizing the country's biggest energy company from Spain's Repsol, Argentina hopes a new compensation deal will lure more foreign investment to what many believe to be some of the world's most promising shale oil and gas prospects. But the deal ending a bitter dispute between Argentina and the Spanish oil company may prove only a first step in dispelling investor concerns about economic conditions and energy policy in the South American country. Repsol on Tuesday announced that its board of directors had approved a $5 billion settlement with Argentina after President Cristina Fernandez expropriated 51 percent of Repsol's stake in energy company YPF . Full Story | Top |
| Hackers target Brazil's World Cup for cyber attacks Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 12:59 PM PST  By Esteban Israel SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian hackers are threatening to disrupt the World Cup with attacks ranging from jamming websites to data theft, adding cyber warfare to the list of challenges for a competition already marred by protests, delays and overspending. In a country with rampant online crime, a challenging telecommunications infrastructure and little experience with cyber attacks, authorities are rushing to protect government websites and those of FIFA, soccer's governing body. Furious about the 33 billion reais ($14 billion) in federal funds being spent on World Cup preparations, more than a million Brazilians took to the streets last June in a wave of mass demonstrations, calling for better public services, greater transparency, and a crackdown on corruption. "We are already making plans," said an alleged hacker who goes by the nom de guerre of Eduarda Dioratto. Full Story | Top |
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