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| Fewer communities risk running out of water in California drought Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 06:16 PM PDT  A moderate dose of winter rainfall hasn't ended California's historic drought, but it has dropped just enough moisture on the beleaguered state to help 14 communities that had risked running out of water. In January, public health officials in the most populous U.S. state said that 17 communities were at risk of running out of water in 60 to 90 days. But now just three small communities were at risk, one in the central part of the state and two in the north, Department of Public Health spokeswoman Anita Gore said on Thursday. In the town of Willits, for example, a grant from the state helped to pay for a backup water treatment plant constructed within weeks of the drought's declaration by Governor Jerry Brown in January. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine forces kill up to five rebels; Russia starts drill near border Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 05:46 PM PDT  By Aleksandar Vasovic and Alexei Anishchuk SLAVIANSK, Ukraine/ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow rebels on Thursday as they closed in on the separatists' military stronghold in the east, and Russia launched army drills near the border in response, raising fears its troops would invade. The Ukrainian offensive amounts to the first time Kiev's troops have used lethal force to recapture territory from the fighters, who have seized swaths of eastern Ukraine since April 6 and proclaimed an independent "People's Republic of Donetsk." Ukraine's acting president accused Moscow of supporting "terrorism at the state level" against his country for backing the rebels, whom the government blames for kidnapping and torturing a politician found dead on Saturday. "The window to change course is closing," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned in a hastily arranged appearance in the State Department, where he cited President Barack Obama's comments earlier on Thursday that Washington was ready to impose new sanctions if Moscow did not alter its policy. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Allergan approached Shire about takeover but rebuffed -sources Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 05:18 PM PDT By Olivia Oran, Soyoung Kim and Nadia Damouni NEW YORK (Reuters) - Allergan Inc approached Shire Plc in recent months about a possible takeover but was rebuffed, according to people familiar with the matter, in the latest example of a U.S. drugmaker seeking to buy an overseas rival to lower its tax rate. The preliminary approach for Shire, which is based in Ireland and has a market value of $33 billion, did not progress to serious discussions between the two companies, the sources said. Since then Allergan has received an unsolicited $47 billion takeover offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc teamed up with activist investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management. Analysts have suggested one way for the Botox maker to defend against the unsolicited bid would be to acquire foreign drugmakers such as Shire, Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc or Alkermes Plc. One of the sources said it was unclear if Allergan would try to revive talks with Shire, or pursue another target as a means to remain independent. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry: window closing for Russia to change course in Ukraine Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 04:26 PM PDT U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Thursday that the United States is drawing closer to imposing more sanctions on Russia by saying time was running out for Moscow to change its course in Ukraine. In unusually blunt comments, Kerry accused Russia of using propaganda to hide what he said it was actually trying to do in eastern Ukraine: destabilize that region and undermine next month's planned Ukrainian elections. "If Russia chooses the path of de-escalation .. all of us will welcome it. But if Russia does not, the world will make sure that the costs for Russia will only grow," he said. Full Story | Top |
| EU should halve meat, dairy consumption to cut nitrogen-report Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 04:10 PM PDT By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - People in the European Union, who according to a United Nations body eat way more protein than necessary, could prompt big cuts in nitrogen pollution if they halved their meat and dairy consumption, a U.N.-backed report said on Friday. Nitrogen is used in fertilizer to replace nutrients which are removed by soils during plant growth but excess nitrogen can harm the environment by polluting water, air and soil. That represents around 80 percent of nitrogen emissions from all sources, said the study by the United Nations' Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen. "If all people within the EU would halve their meat and dairy consumption, this would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 25 to 40 percent, and nitrogen emissions by 40 percent," lead author Henk Westhoek, program manager for Agriculture and Food at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Netflix makes deals to appear on first U.S. cable boxes Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 04:03 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Netflix Inc's streaming video service will be integrated into TiVo Inc set-top boxes provided by Atlantic Broadband, Grande Communications and RCN, the cable providers said on Thursday. The deals are the first in the United States to bring Netflix as an app to cable set-top boxes. Netflix has similar arrangements with operators in Europe. (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) Full Story | Top |
| Utah sperm swap 'unacceptable' but still unexplained -university docs Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 03:23 PM PDT A University of Utah committee investigating reports that a Salt Lake City fertility clinic worker artificially inseminated a patient with his own sperm called the action "unacceptable" on Thursday, but said it could not determine whether the switch was intentional. Practices at two now-closed Salt Lake-area clinics came into question last year when Pamela Branum, who was artificially inseminated at Reproductive Medical Technologies Inc, claimed genetic testing revealed that, instead of her husband, a lab technician had fathered their daughter in the early 1990s. The technician, Tom Lippert, has since died. He was also a registered sperm donor at the clinics and frequently supplied samples. Full Story | Top |
| Wyoming natgas facility still ablaze after blast, supplies cut Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 03:03 PM PDT A fire was still raging at Williams Companies Inc's natural gas processing plant in southwestern Wyoming on Thursday, a day after an explosion rocked the site, disrupting supplies in a hub in the Rockies. That grouping of five pipelines, including two owned by Kinder Morgan, and several processing plants move about 4-5 bcf/day of natural gas at this time of year, mostly to Western states. With the length of the outage unknown, traders said the cash natural gas basis in the Western United States was stronger on Thursday. The Opal natural gas for May delivery was up 2.5 cents early Thursday, although no trades were reported on the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE). Full Story | Top |
| Ancient flying reptile from China fills evolutionary gap Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 02:15 PM PDT  The newly identified Jurassic period creature, a species named Kryptodrakon progenitor that was unearthed in the Gobi desert in northwestern China, was modest in size, with a wingspan of perhaps 4-1/2 feet. But later members of its branch of the flying reptiles known as pterosaurs were truly colossal, including Quetzalcoatlus, whose wingspan of about 35 feet was roughly the same as that of an F-16 fighter. Roughly 220 million years ago, pterosaurs became the first flying vertebrates to appear on Earth, with birds - first appearing about 150 million years ago - and bats - appearing about 50 million years ago - coming much later. Pterosaurs arose during the Triassic period not long after their cousins, the dinosaurs, also made their debut. Full Story | Top |
| FDA approves test to detect DNA of cancer-causing HPV strains Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 02:07 PM PDT (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the use of a test for cancer-causing strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), clearing the way for replacement of the Pap smears used to screen most women for cervical cancer. The FDA said the cobas HPV Test, made by Switzerland's Roche Holding AG, can be used for women age 25 and older to help assess the need for additional diagnostic testing. The test had previously been approved in conjunction with, or as a follow up to, a Pap test, which examines cervical cells for changes that might become cervical cancer. Experts have said it will be tough to convince doctors to move from the current testing guidelines, which call for the use of both Pap tests and HPV tests, since there have been no studies directly comparing the regimens. Full Story | Top |
| Alstom shares jump on report of $13 billion GE bid Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 02:04 PM PDT  By Natalie Huet and Benjamin Mallet PARIS (Reuters) - Shares of Alstom jumped 10.9 percent on Thursday after a report that U.S. conglomerate General Electric was in talks to buy the struggling French turbine and train maker for about $13 billion. The companies may announce the deal as early as next week, Bloomberg cited people with knowledge of the matter as saying late on Wednesday. If confirmed, a takeover offer from a foreign company would raise concern among politicians and unions in France, where Alstom employs around 18,000 people, or 20 percent of its global workforce. While Alstom is well known for both its transport and power turbine business, the latter is likely to be of most interest to GE, one person familiar with the industry said. Full Story | Top |
| TSX gains on Potash, banks; gold miners slip Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 01:41 PM PDT  By Alastair Sharp TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose slightly on Thursday, helped by a gain in shares of Potash Corp after the company's results beat low expectations and by small increases in heavyweight banking stocks. The upward thrust was offset by declines in major gold miners and an 11.5 percent plunge in Colombia-focused oil company Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp . With the domestic stock market hitting highs last reached in mid-2008, stock pickers are taking a more nuanced view in building positions, resulting in long-maligned sectors such as energy producing winners and losers in almost equal measure. You're not seeing buying across the board," said Elvis Picardo, a strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver. Full Story | Top |
| Oregon energy plant halts Canada medical waste over fetal tissue concerns Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 12:55 PM PDT By Shelby Sebens PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Commissioners in an Oregon county have temporarily stopped accepting boxed medical waste from British Columbia over fears they may have been burning fetal tissue at a plant that converts waste to energy, officials said on Thursday. Marion County said it had stopped taking the boxes in response to an article it became aware of late on Wednesday in a Vancouver-based newspaper about the possibility the plant had accepted human tissue from outside sources. "We are outraged and disgusted that this material could be included in medical waste received at the facility," Commissioner Janet Carlson said in a statement at the time. On Thursday, the two-member Marion County Board of Commissioners directed staff to draft an ordinance excluding fetal tissue from medical waste allowed at the waste-to-energy facility, and stopped accepting all such waste until the ordinance can be passed. Full Story | Top |
| Italian pleads guilty to marine-hose price-fixing in U.S. Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 12:25 PM PDT A former executive of Parker ITR Srl pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiring to rig bids for marine hose and was sentenced to two years in prison, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. Romano Pisciotti, who is Italian, had been flown into the United States from Germany in early April in the first extradition on charges of breaking antitrust law, the department said. Marine hose is used to move oil between storage facilities and tankers. Five companies - Parker ITR, Bridgestone Corp, Trelleborg, Dunlop Marine and Oil Ltd, and Manuli Rubber Industries SpA, a Florida subsidiary of Manuli SpA - have pleaded guilty to price-fixing in the marine hose industry, the department said. Full Story | Top |
| IMF board to meet next week to review aid package for Ukraine Thursday, Apr 24, 2014 12:06 PM PDT By Elvina Nawaguna WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said its board planned to meet on April 30 to consider an aid package for Ukraine, saying that Kiev had supplied the necessary documents to determine whether conditions for a bailout had been met. The IMF tentatively agreed in late March to provide a $14 billion-$18 billion two-year aid package to help Ukraine recover from months of political and economic turmoil. "We're in the process of completing the steps necessary for board consideration," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters during a weekly briefing. "Staff are checking these documents to verify the details, if they're in line with the program understanding." As part of the conditions for the aid, the IMF expects Ukraine to implement major reforms in its energy and financial sectors, which included raising the price of its domestic gas. Full Story | Top |
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