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| Japan team wraps up meeting with USDA on GM wheat situation Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:42 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Japanese delegation is completing talks with the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at restarting purchases of U.S. western white wheat, which were halted after the discovery of an unapproved genetically modified strain growing in Oregon. "USDA is hosting a team from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for technical discussions in support of the resumption of trade of U.S. western wheat," a USDA spokesman told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Vivus says FMC rejects offer to settle proxy fight Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:37 AM PDT By Bill Berkrot (Reuters) - Obesity drug maker Vivus Inc, embroiled in a bitter proxy war with its top shareholder First Manhattan Co, said on Wednesday that FMC had rejected an offer to give the sides equal representation on the board. FMC responded by saying that it remains open to a fair settlement with the Vivus board, despite filing a lawsuit this week against the biotechnology company for postponing its annual shareholder meeting by three days. FMC said at the time of Monday's originally scheduled meeting it had the votes needed to seize control of the Vivus board. ... Full Story | Top |
| For some, mild slips of memory may be very early Alzheimer's Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:28 AM PDT By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - For years, doctors have dismissed patients' worries about mild slips of memory as a normal part of aging. Now, as the focus in Alzheimer's research moves toward early diagnosis, researchers are looking for ways to tell whether some of these "senior moments" are an early sign of the disease. The idea is so new that scientists can't even agree on what to call these memory complaints among people who are still cognitively normal. ... Full Story | Top |
| 'Intelligent' surgical knife can sniff out cancer tissue Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:23 AM PDT  By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have created an "intelligent" surgical knife that can detect in seconds whether tissue being cut is cancerous, promising more effective and accurate surgery in future. The device, built by researchers at London's Imperial College, could allow doctors to cut back on additional operations to remove further pieces of cancerous tumors. The technology, effectively merging an electrosurgical knife that cuts through tissue using heat with a mass spectrometer for chemical analysis, has also been shown to be able to distinguish beef from horsemeat. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chinese position forced suspension of tech trade talks: U.S. Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:12 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. trade official on Wednesday said talks aimed at cutting tariffs on a new generation of technology products have been suspended because of China's demand to exclude more than 100 products from the tariff cuts. China is one of 20 World Trade Organization members, along with the United States and the 28-nation European Union, that have been negotiating for months to expand the 1996 Information Technology Agreement to include products ranging from flat-screen televisions to the latest semiconductors. ... Full Story | Top |
| Railway lays off staff after Quebec train disaster Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:41 AM PDT  LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - The railway at the center of North America's deadliest train accident in more than 20 years has laid off a number of people in Maine and Quebec, the company confirmed on Wednesday. The staffing cutbacks at the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) come 11 days after a runaway train hauling 72 tanker cars of crude oil derailed and exploded in the center of Lac-Megantic, killing some 50 people and leveling the heart of the small town. ... Full Story | Top |
| Security fears delay Algeria desert comeback for BP, Statoil Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 08:48 AM PDT  By Julia Payne, Lamine Chikhi and Peg Mackey LONDON/ALGIERS (Reuters) - Six months on from a deadly attack at a gas plant in Algeria, oil majors BP and Statoil have yet to send their workers back amid disagreements over security with the government of the North African OPEC producer. At stake for Algiers is a further decline in oil and gas production, accounting for 60 percent of budget revenues, while the foreign majors want to ensure that the worst ever attack on their facilities will not be repeated. ... Full Story | Top |
| Abbott profit beats forecast, nutritional products strong Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 06:34 AM PDT (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Wednesday as strong demand for nutritional products offset lower sales of medical devices and generic prescription drugs. Despite the earnings beat, Abbott left its full-year profit forecast unchanged at $1.98 to $2.04 per share. Results beat expectations because of improved profit margins and cost controls, Wells Fargo analyst Larry Biegelsen said in a research note. Sales of nutritional products, including Similac infant formula and Ensure beverages for adults, rose 7.9 percent to $1. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Pussy Riot video lambastes Putin, Russian energy industry Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 06:05 AM PDT  By Gabriela Baczynska MOSCOW (Reuters) - Four members of Pussy Riot danced on an oil pipeline in garish masks, tights and short dresses in a new video released on Tuesday, comparing President Vladimir Putin to an "ayatollah in Iran" and attacking his allies in Russia's rich energy sector. In their first performance in almost a year, posted on Youtube at http://youtu.be/qOM_3QH3bBw, the feminist punk protest collective also accused Putin of being homophobic after passage of what is widely seen as anti-gay legislation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Canadian crash train engineer is witness, not suspect: lawyer Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 05:52 AM PDT  By Peter N Henderson (Reuters) - The engineer of the runaway train that exploded in a small Quebec town, killing 50 people, is a witness rather than a suspect in the investigation of the disaster, and is devastated by what happened, his lawyer told Reuters on Tuesday. Lawyer Thomas Walsh said the engineer, Tom Harding, has spent 10 hours talking to police, and three or four talking to investigators at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, who are probing the causes of the July 6 calamity in the town of Lac-Megantic, North America's deadliest rail accident in more than 20 years. ... Full Story | Top |
| Uganda to upgrade airfield in oil belt ahead of production Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 05:38 AM PDT KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda will invest at least $57 million to upgrade an airfield near its Albertine region, where crude oil reserves have been found, to an international airport, an aviation official said. Commercial hydrocarbon deposits were discovered in the Albertine rift basin along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2006 and reserves are estimated at 3.5 billion barrels. Kasese airfield, also sits near Kilembe copper mines which were recently handed over to a Chinese consortium to revive production there after it was abandoned in 1980s due to political turmoil. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia can find niche in Asian gas market: Putin Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 02:22 AM PDT  By Denis Dyomkin CHITA, Russia (Reuters) - Russia has every chance of securing a place in the Asian gas market even while competition there is on the rise, President Vladimir Putin said, underlining Moscow's shift in energy policy towards Asia. "We are thinking about entering the promising market in the Asia-Pacific region. We should find our niche here; we have every chance of doing that," Putin told journalists on Wednesday in the far eastern town of Chita. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: China in $5 billion drive to develop disputed East China Sea gas Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 01:12 AM PDT By Chen Aizhu BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese state-run oil companies hope to develop seven new gas fields in the East China Sea, possibly siphoning gas from the seabed beneath waters claimed by Japan, a move that could further inflame tensions with Tokyo over the disputed area. Beijing had slowed exploration in the energy-rich East China Sea, one of Asia's biggest security risks due to competing territorial claims, but is now rapidly expanding its hunt for gas, a cheaper and cleaner energy to coal and oil imports. ... Full Story | Top |
| Western oil exploration in Somalia may spark conflict: UN report Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:39 AM PDT By Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Western commercial oil exploration in disputed areas of Somalia and discrepancies over which authorities can issue licenses to companies could spark further conflict in the African nation, U.N. monitors warned in a confidential report. In the U.N. Monitoring Group's latest annual report to the Security Council's sanctions committee on Somalia and Eritrea, the experts said the Somali constitution gives considerable autonomy to regional governments to enter commercial oil deals. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Western oil exploration in Somalia may spark conflict - U.N. report Tuesday, Jul 16, 2013 10:19 PM PDT By Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Western commercial oil exploration in disputed areas of Somalia and discrepancies over which authorities can issue licenses to companies could spark further conflict in the African nation, U.N. monitors warned in a confidential report. In the U.N. Monitoring Group's latest annual report to the Security Council's sanctions committee on Somalia and Eritrea, the experts said the Somali constitution gives considerable autonomy to regional governments to enter commercial oil deals. ... Full Story | Top |
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