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| U.S. allows partial restart of Exxon pipeline a year after spill Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:17 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. regulator on Monday allowed Exxon Mobil Corp to restart operations on the Texas leg of its Pegasus pipeline, which spilled thousands of barrels of oil into a residential area in Arkansas last year. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) approved Exxon's restart plan for a 210-mile (338-km) stretch of the pipeline from Corsicana to Nederland at 80 percent of the operating pressure in place before the March 29, 2013 incident in the small town of Mayflower, Arkansas. ... Full Story | Top |
| Proxy adviser Glass Lewis backs Recchi as chairman of Telecom Italia Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:02 PM PDT  Proxy advisor Glass Lewis has recommended that Telecom Italia investors vote in favor of Giuseppe Recchi as chairman of the board when shareholders meet on April 16, it said in a document seen by Reuters. Telecom Italia's largest investor Telco said earlier this month it had proposed Recchi as chairman of Italy's largest phone group. Recchi is a former executive at General Electric and is currently chairman of Italian state-owned oil group Eni. Telco is owned by Spain's Telefonica, Italian insurer Generali and two banks, Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca, and owns 22.4 percent of Telecom Italia. Full Story | Top |
| Poland, France, Germany call for Ukraine conference Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:52 AM PDT Germany, France and Poland called on Monday for an international conference to be held on Ukraine and urged Russia to take part. The three countries' foreign ministers suggested it should be held after Ukraine holds presidential elections in May. Moscow and the West are at odds over Russia's annexation of the Crimea region in March, which followed the overthrow of Ukraine's pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovich amid a national dispute over whether the former Soviet republic should align with Europe or Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street rises on Yellen; S&P on track for modest first quarter gain Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:48 AM PDT  By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with the S&P 500 on track to end the first quarter of 2014 with slight gains, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen calmed concerns about a rate hike coming earlier than expected. Gains were broad, with nine of the S&P 500's 10 primary sectors rising on the day. Full Story | Top |
| GM CEO to testify company to expand replacement switch output Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:36 AM PDT  General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra will testify on Tuesday that the No. 1 U.S. automaker is sorry for the pain caused by the defective ignition switches linked to at least 13 deaths and has asked its supplier to boost production of replacement parts to speed the recall. In testimony posted Monday on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee website, Barra said she does not yet have answers to why GM took more than 10 years to catch the faulty switch. Full Story | Top |
| Explosion risk remains near Washington LNG facility: emergency responders Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:25 AM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials are responding to a liquefied natural gas leak from a tank at the Williams Cos Ins LNG facility in Plymouth, Washington, where an explosion occurred earlier on Monday and another is still a possibility, a local emergency responder said. Emergency responders are evacuating residents within a two-mile radius of the site to a shelter in Hermiston, Oregon, and established roadblocks on a nearby highway and an interstate artery, said Deanna Davis, a public information officer with the Benton County Emergency Management office. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian prime minister angers Ukraine by visiting Crimea Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:09 AM PDT  By Darya Korsunskaya SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (Reuters) - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev flaunted Russia's grip on Crimea by flying to the region and holding a government meeting there on Monday, angering Ukraine and defying Western demands to hand the peninsula back to Kiev. But in a gesture that could ease tension in the worst East-West stand-off since the Cold War, Russia pulled some troops back from near Ukraine's eastern border. President Vladimir Putin told Germany's Angela Merkel that he had ordered a partial drawdown in the region, the German chancellor's spokesman said. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House: Kerry to speak to Lavrov again about Ukraine Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:01 AM PDT The White House said on Monday that Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had agreed to speak again about ways to resolve the crisis in Ukraine but that no date for such a conversation had been set. Kerry and Lavrov spoke by phone about the issue earlier on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. White House spokesman Jay Carney also noted reports of possible drawdowns by Russian troops on the Ukraine border but said the administration had not seen that yet. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. soda sales decline worsened in 2013: Beverage Digest Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:54 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The decline in U.S. sales of carbonated soft drinks accelerated in 2013, according to a leading beverage industry newsletter. Total sales volume fell 3 percent in 2013 to 8.9 billion cases, the ninth straight year of decline, according to Beverage Digest. That compares with declines of 1.2 percent in 2012 and 1 percent in 2011. By company, Coca-Cola Co and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc each gained market share, according to Beverage Digest, while PepsiCo Inc's lost market share. (Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by David Gregorio) Full Story | Top |
| Weight loss surgery helps many reverse type 2 diabetes: study Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:31 AM PDT  By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bariatric weight loss surgery on obese patients with type 2 diabetes helped many get their blood sugar to healthy levels and to no longer require any diabetes medicines, including insulin, three years after the procedure, according to data presented at a major medical meeting on Monday. The study called Stampede, which involved 150 obese patients who had poorly controlled type 2 diabetes for at least eight years, was conducted by Cleveland Clinic researchers. It compared two types of weight loss surgery against weight loss attained by diet and exercise along with nutrition counseling and, for some, additional diabetes medicines that can help promote weight loss, such as Victoza from Novo Nordisk. Full Story | Top |
| Steroids shown to hurt, not help, patients in bypass surgery Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:09 AM PDT By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A longstanding practice of giving steroids to patients during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery to reduce inflammation failed to help patients and actually increased the risk of heart attacks, according to results of a large clinical trial. "This study shows that administering steroids during cardiac surgery requiring bypass can cause harm," said Dr. Richard Whitlock, a cardiologist with McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who led the international trial. "Based on these results, we suggest that steroids should not be used prophylactically during cardiac surgeries that require the use of cardiopulmonary bypass." Whitlock, who presented his findings on Monday at the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in Washington, estimated that 25 percent of patients undergoing open heart surgery in the North America are given steroids. Full Story | Top |
| World court orders halt to Japan's scientific whaling Monday, Mar 31, 2014 09:27 AM PDT  By Thomas Escritt THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Judges at the highest U.N. court ordered Japan on Monday to halt whaling in the Antarctic, rejecting its long-held argument that the catch was for scientific purposes and not primarily for human consumption. Tokyo said it was disappointed but would abide by the decision, while activists said they hoped it would bring closer a complete end to whaling around the world. The International Court of Justice sided with plaintiff Australia in finding that the scientific output of the whaling programme did not justify the number of whales killed. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's Xi wins EU pledge to consider free-trade deal Monday, Mar 31, 2014 09:02 AM PDT  By Robin Emmott and Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping won a promise from the European Union on Monday to consider a multi-billion-dollar free-trade deal with his country, a long-held goal for Beijing which divides Europe. Xi, the first Chinese leader to visit the EU institutions in Brussels since ties were established in 1975, pressed senior EU officials to consider such a pact, despite European concerns that Chinese state-owned firms flout international trade rules. The 28-nation EU committed for the first time to opening talks on a free-trade accord (FTA) if current negotiations on an "investment agreement" to improve business ties are successful. Full Story | Top |
| UK picks Babcock and Fluor for 7 billion pounds nuclear decommissioning Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:36 AM PDT By Li-mei Hoang and Brenda Goh LONDON (Reuters) - Britain awarded a 7-billion-pound contract to manage the decommissioning of nearly half its nuclear sites to engineering contractors Babcock and U.S. group Fluor in one of the largest UK government contracts ever put out to tender. The 14-year deal covers some of Britain's oldest nuclear power sites include Hinkley, Sizewell and Dungeness. Britain has moved to outsource large swathes of its public sector services over the last 30 years, a practice which has been heavily criticised in recent months after contractors such as G4S and Serco were found to have overcharged the government on contracts. Full Story | Top |
| Libya releases three rebels who boarded tanker at rebel port: official Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:22 AM PDT By Feras Bosalum TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya has released three rebel fighters who had boarded a tanker loading oil at a rebel-held port before it was returned to Tripoli by the U.S. navy, an official said on Monday. The attorney general ordered the release following comments by some lawmakers that this would help solve the blockage of oil ports by the rebels, Sadiq al-Sour, head of the attorney's investigations department, told Reuters. The eastern rebels, who have seized three major ports to press for a greater share of oil revenue and regional autonomy, had demanded the release of the fighters before starting any talks about lifting the blockage. U.S. special forces later stormed the ship and returned it to Libya. Full Story | Top |
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