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| Hungary re-elects maverick PM, far-right opposition gains Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:37 PM PDT  By Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarians handed their maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban another four years in power, election results showed on Monday, while one in every five voters backed a far-right opposition party accused of anti-Semitism. Orban has clashed repeatedly with the European Union and foreign investors over his unorthodox policies, and after Sunday's win, big businesses were bracing for another term of unpredictable and, for some of them, hostile measures. After 96 percent of the ballots were counted from Sunday's parliamentary vote, an official projection gave Orban's Fidesz party 133 of the 199 seats, guaranteeing that it will form the next government. The same projection gave the Socialist-led leftist alliance 38 seats, while Jobbik was on 23 seats. Full Story | Top |
| Libyan rebels, government agree to gradually reopen occupied oil ports Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:25 PM PDT By Ulf Laessing and Ayman al-Warfalli TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan rebels occupying four eastern oil ports agreed with the government on Sunday to gradually end their eight-month petroleum blockade, which has cost the North African state billions in lost revenues. Zueitina and Hariga ports, held by federalist rebels demanding more autonomy from Tripoli, will open immediately while the larger ports, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, will be freed in two to four weeks after more talks, the government said. Ending the oil port standoff will be a major advance for Libya's fragile government, which has struggled to impose its authority over an unruly nation still in flux nearly three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Top rebel leader Ibrahim Jathran confirmed the blockage of Zueitina and Hariga ports had ended. Full Story | Top |
| Gazprom Neft CEO says Russian oil company could look eastward if sanctions hit Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:18 PM PDT By Katya Golubkova ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Gazprom Neft has not been affected by Western sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea but is ready to move away from dollars in its contracts and to redirect oil flows to Asia if needed, the CEO of Gazprom's oil arm said. Alexander Dyukov told reporters that Western banks are unlikely to stop cooperating with Gazprom Neft and that Western oil majors do not want geopolitical tension to affect their partnerships, but said the company is prepared to step up contacts with Asian lenders and also raise money in Russia. The United States and European Union have imposed visa bans and asset freezes on allies of President Vladimir Putin, and are threatening broader measures that could affect entire economic sectors if Moscow escalates tension over Ukraine. "As for sanctions, they have not affected the company's business in any way," Dyukov said in St. Petersburg, where Gazprom Neft is now based. Full Story | Top |
| Pro-Russia protesters seize Ukraine buildings, Kiev blames Putin Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:18 PM PDT  By Lina Kushch and Thomas Grove DONETSK/KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian protesters seized state buildings in three east Ukrainian cities on Sunday, triggering accusations from the pro-European government in Kiev that President Vladimir Putin was orchestrating "separatist disorder". The protesters stormed regional government buildings in the industrial hub of Donetsk and security service offices in nearby Luhansk, waving Russian flags and demanding a Crimea-style referendum on joining Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Ghana testing blood samples of suspected Ebola case: official Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 03:49 PM PDT By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) - Health authorities in Ghana are testing blood samples from a 12-year-old girl who died of a viral fever with bleeding in the country's first suspected case of Ebola, officials said on Sunday. More than 90 people have died of Ebola in Guinea and Liberia and there is a reported case in Mali. Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres has warned of an unprecedented epidemic in an impoverished region with weak health services. Samples from the girl were taken from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city, to a medical research center in the capital Accra, Dennis Laryea, head of public health at the teaching hospital, told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Group of Libyan lawmakers plan to sack parliamentary president Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 03:02 PM PDT By Ahmed Elumami and Feras Bosalum TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Some 30 Libyan lawmakers plan to remove parliamentary president Nouri Abu Sahmain, the country's top official, over a leaked video in which he was grilled by an unknown questioner over a visit by two women to his house, one of them said on Sunday. A week ago, Libya's Attorney General said it had launched an investigation into the video, which has been widely circulated on the country's news websites. The lawmakers' action has the potential to damage Abu Sahmain, who is the top army commander and has quasi-presidential powers, or force him even to resign at a time of growing turmoil in the oil-producing North African country. Lawmaker Abu Bakr Madur told a televised news conference while surrounded by colleagues that Abu Sahmain had lost the trust of the Libyan people and lied about the visit. Full Story | Top |
| India's drug inspectors hard-pressed to scrutinize factories Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 02:11 PM PDT By Zeba Siddiqui and Sumeet Chatterjee MUMBAI (Reuters) - An Indian drugs regulator is among the first to admit that oversight of the nation's huge pharmaceutical industry can be patchy. G.L. Singhal, chief regulator of northern Haryana state, a drugs manufacturing hub, says he needs double the number of inspectors if he is to properly scrutinize factories there. Inspectors are so overburdened, and their nature of duty is very serious," Singhal told Reuters. There are just 1,500 drug inspectors responsible for more than 10,000 factories in India, where one in every 22 locally made samples was of sub-standard quality according to a study carried out two years ago. Full Story | Top |
| Deadbeat Chinese shipyards stick banks with default bill Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 02:08 PM PDT  By Pete Sweeney SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese banks are stuck in a lose-lose legal battle between domestic shipyards and foreign buyers over billions of dollars in refund guarantees that are supposed to be paid out if shipbuilders fail to deliver on time. That means Chinese banks may be on the hook to pay large sums to buyers if the yards can't come through per contract, with little hope of recouping the cash from the yards. China is the world's biggest shipbuilder, with $37 billion in new orders received last year alone. Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria surpasses S.Africa as continent's biggest economy Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 07:56 AM PDT  By Chijioke Ohuocha ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa's largest economy after a rebasing calculation nearly doubled its gross domestic product, data from the statistics office showed on Sunday. GDP for 2013 in Africa's top oil producer totalled 80.3 trillion naira, or $509.9 billion, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics said, an increase from the 42.3 trillion estimated before the rebasing. The new figure shrank Nigeria's debt-to-GDP ratio to 11 percent for 2013, against 19 percent in 2012, statistics chief Yemi Kale told reporters in the capital of Abuja. Most governments overhaul GDP calculations every few years to reflect changes in output and consumption, but Nigeria had not done so since 1990, so sectors such as e-commerce, mobile phones and its prolific "Nollywood" film industry had to be newly factored in to give a more accurate picture. Full Story | Top |
| Agios leukemia drug shows promise in tiny, early study Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 07:31 AM PDT An experimental drug being developed by Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc showed promising anti-cancer activity in a tiny Phase I study of patients with relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to data presented on Sunday. Three of them achieved complete remission and two achieved complete remission with incomplete platelet recovery, meaning that the leukemia had exited their bone marrow but the blood platelet count had not yet returned to normal levels. "I'm very excited about what has happened with those patients so far who have responded," the study's lead investigator, Dr. Eytan Stein of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said in a telephone interview. AML, the most common type of acute leukemia in adults, is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that progresses quickly if left untreated. Full Story | Top |
| Pfizer drug doubles time to breast cancer tumor growth in trial Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 07:30 AM PDT Pfizer Inc's experimental breast cancer drug in a clinical trial nearly doubled the amount of time patients lived without their disease getting worse, but overall survival was not yet shown to be statistically significant, researchers said. The Phase 2 study, which involved women with the most common form of breast cancer, found that those treated with hormone drug letrozole plus Pfizer's palbociclib lived for an average of 20.2 months before their cancer progressed, compared with 10.2 months for patients given letrozole alone. Pfizer is still discussing a regulatory pathway for the drug and has not decided whether to seek accelerated approval based on Phase 2 trial results, said Mace Rothenberg, chief medical officer for Pfizer's oncology unit. The trial tested the pill, which targets proteins involved in cell division, in post-menopausal women with locally advanced or newly diagnosed breast cancer that had spread to other parts of the body. Full Story | Top |
| Mass strike paralyses Libya's Benghazi, airport closed Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 06:28 AM PDT Public and private sector staff including oil workers went on strike in the Libyan port city of Benghazi on Sunday, protesting against worsening security and demanding the resignation of parliament whose mandate has expired. Traffic at Benghazi's international airport was halted by the strike. As a result, a Turkish Airlines plane was turned away, according to state media. Most foreigners left Benghazi after the U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed in an Islamist assault on the U.S. consulate in September 2012. Full Story | Top |
| Blast at U.S. LNG site casts spotlight on natural gas safety Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:13 AM PDT  By Joshua Schneyer, Timothy Gardner and Richard Valdmanis (Reuters) - An unexplained blast this week at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in rural Washington state, which injured workers, forced an evacuation and raised alarm about a potentially large second explosion, could focus attention on the risk of storing massive gas supplies near population centers. The Monday incident at Williams Co Inc's massive gas storage site is a rare safety-record blemish among the dozens of U.S. LNG plants and storage sites, including towering tanks in packed neighborhoods of New York City, and near Boston. Energy industry experts and opponents of new LNG plants alike said it may spur debate about safe handling of gas for cities increasingly reliant on the clean-burning fuel. At least a dozen new U.S. LNG export facilities are seeking government approval, and some have faced opposition on safety grounds. Full Story | Top |
| Time running out to meet global warming target: U.N. report Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:01 AM PDT  By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - World powers are running out of time to slash their use of high-polluting fossil fuels and stay below agreed limits on global warming, a draft U.N. study to be approved this week shows. It says nations will have to impose drastic curbs on their still rising greenhouse gas emissions to keep a promise made by almost 200 countries in 2010 to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times. Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 C (1.4F) since 1900 and are set to breach the 2 C ceiling on current trends in coming decades, U.N. reports show. "The window is shutting very rapidly on the 2 degrees target," said Johan Rockstrom, head of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and an expert on risks to the planet from heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising seas. Full Story | Top |
| Absentee Bouteflika dominates Algerian presidential poll Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 01:44 AM PDT  By Patrick Markey and Lamine Chikhi CHLEF Algeria (Reuters) - At a packed sports hall in western Algeria, portraits of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika gaze down on supporters rallying for his re-election. Throughout campaigning for the April 17 polls, Bouteflika has remained mostly out of the public eye apart from brief television appearances, as he has done since falling ill. For now, Bouteflika is campaigning by proxy. With his former prime minister and allies crisscrossing Algeria in his name, the 77-year-old independence veteran is almost assured of a fourth term after 15 years leading the nation. Full Story | Top |
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