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| Insight: Nigeria seeks farming revival to break oil curse Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 11:38 PM PDT  By Joe Brock SAULAWA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Down a winding dirt track in this sleepy village in northern Nigeria lies a corn farm which looks much like the dozens that surround it. The difference is, this one is turning a profit. "I can barely lift my 8-year-old. He's the fattest in the village," said Ibrahim Mustapha, 50, drawing laughter from his fellow farmers as he pretends to lift up his chubby son. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria to sign off on $3 billion in Chinese loans Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 11:13 PM PDT  By Joe Brock and Felix Onuah ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan will travel to China next week to sign off on $3 billion in Chinese loans to build infrastructure in Africa's most populous country, the finance minister said on Wednesday. The agreed loans will come from the Chinese government and will be based on interest rates of less than 3 percent over a 15-20 year period, Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Abe urges voters to help end parliamentary deadlock Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 09:42 PM PDT  By Kiyoshi Takenaka FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, riding high in opinion polls on hopes he can revive a stagnant economy, urged voters on Thursday to back his ruling bloc in this month's upper house election and end a six-year policy deadlock. Abe, back in power after his Liberal Democratic Party's big win in a December election for the powerful lower house, is expected to lead his coalition to a hefty victory in the July 21 poll, resolving a "twisted parliament" where opposition parties control the upper house and are able to block bills. ... Full Story | Top |
| Scientists create human liver from stem cells Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 08:35 PM PDT By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have for the first time created a functional human liver from stem cells derived from skin and blood and say their success points to a future where much-needed livers and other transplant organs could be made in a laboratory. While it may take another 10 years before lab-grown livers could be used to treat patients, the Japanese scientists say they now have important proof of concept that paves the way for more ambitious organ-growing experiments. ... Full Story | Top |
| Douglas Engelbart, inventor of computer mouse, dies at 88 Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 07:28 PM PDT By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Douglas Engelbart, a technologist who conceived of the computer mouse and laid out a vision of an Internet decades before others brought those ideas to the mass market, died on Tuesday night. He was 88. His eldest daughter, Gerda, said by telephone that her father died of kidney failure. Engelbart arrived at his crowning moment relatively early in his career, on a winter afternoon in 1968, when he delivered an hour-long presentation containing so many far-reaching ideas that it would be referred to decades later as the "mother of all demos. ... Full Story | Top |
| Risk of birth defect doubles for cousin couples -study Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 04:01 PM PDT By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Children whose parents are cousins run more than double the risk of being born with a congenital abnormality, although the overall rate of such birth defects remains low, according to new research findings. A large study in a British city with a large Pakistani community, where marriage between blood relatives is fairly common, found that so-called consanguineous parents accounted for more than 30 percent of birth defects in babies of Pakistani origin. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gulf Arabs welcome ouster of Egypt's president Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 03:48 PM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf Arab states welcomed the Egyptian army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday following days of unrest in a country once seen by Gulf Arabs as an instrumental ally against rival power Iran. The rise of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 has unsettled most Gulf Arab states, including the UAE, which feared it would embolden Islamists at home. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil truckers union says strike winding down, Rousseff promises order Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 03:11 PM PDT  SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A national protest by Brazilian truck drivers appeared to be winding down on Wednesday and the union leading it said it was scheduled to end at 6 a.m. (10 a.m. GMT) on Thursday, after several state governments secured injunctions to stop drivers from blocking public highways. Local media showed trucks that had been abandoned in Mato Grosso, Brazil's leading soy producing state, while drivers demonstrated on the Anchieta highway that links Sao Paulo to Brazil's main Santos port. Private highway operator Ecovias said protesters had caused a 4 kilometer (2. ... Full Story | Top |
| Instant View: Egypt army topples President Mursi Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 02:13 PM PDT (Reuters) - Egypt's armed forces overthrew elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday and announced a political transition with the support of a wide range of political, religious and youth leaders. After a day of drama in which tanks and troops deployed near the presidential palace as a military deadline for Mursi to yield to mass protests passed, the top army commander announced on television that the president had "failed to meet the demands of the Egyptian people". Below comments by U.S. analysts and economists on the risk to emerging economies. ... Full Story | Top |
| TransCanada says Keystone pipeline shut for short time on Wednesday Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 12:59 PM PDT CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp said its 590,000 barrel per day Keystone pipeline was shut down for a short time late on Wednesday morning after communication was interrupted in one of the facilities. TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard said in an email that normal operations have since resumed after an investigation to confirm there were no problems. The Keystone crude pipeline flows from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska, before branching off to either Patoka, Illinois, or Cushing, Oklahoma - the delivery point of the U.S. crude oil contract. ... Full Story | Top |
| TransCanada says now testing 700,000-bpd Gulf Coast pipeline Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 12:52 PM PDT CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp said on Wednesday it has completed most construction on its Gulf Coast pipeline project, which will carry 700,000 barrels of oil per day from the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub to Texas refiners, and still expects the line to be in service by the end of the year. Shawn Howard, a spokesman for the company, said in an email that testing on the line is under way on the line, though some construction of facilities and tie-ins still needs to be completed. (Reporting by Scott Haggett; Editing by James Dalgleish) Full Story | Top |
| Wall St. posts modest gains in short volatile session Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 10:32 AM PDT  By Angela Moon and Alison Griswold NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended slightly higher in a volatile half-day session on Wednesday as traders squared positions before the holiday and Friday's job market data. The three major U.S. stock indexes seesawed on thin trading volume, with some market participants already away before Thursday's Independence Day holiday. The U.S. stock market closed at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Wednesday. It will reopen on Friday for a full session. Mixed U.S. data on Wednesday failed to give the market solid direction. ... Full Story | Top |
| British lawmakers launch inquiry into mining, oil industries Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 09:37 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers launched an inquiry into the mining and oil and gas industries on Wednesday, seeking to better understand their contribution to the economy and the impact of having scandal-prone companies listed in London. The wide-ranging investigation comes as Britain seeks to maximise its hydrocarbon reserves in the North Sea and start exploiting shale resources, and it follows a series of scandals at mining companies with shares trading in London. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria's Access Bank to focus on retail on business Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 08:50 AM PDT LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's Access Bank aims to grow its customer base to 15-20 million across its African markets by 2018, from around 6 million now, as it shifts its focus to retail banking. Its incoming chief executive, Herbert Wigwe, who takes over at the end of the year, said retail banking will account for around 50 percent of its total business in five years time, up from 30 percent now. He added that Access Bank would also be involved in divestments of assets by oil companies. Full Story | Top |
| Tanzania revises up coal reserves to as much as 5 bln T Wednesday, Jul 03, 2013 07:58 AM PDT DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania has coal reserves of up to 5 billion tonnes, more than thrice its previously stated figure of about 1.5 billion tonnes, Energy and Minerals Minister Sospeter Muhongo said on Wednesday. Tanzania produces coal from two mines mainly for domestic use, such as power generation. It has plans to increase its coal-fired power generation capacity and could also export more. Developing coal production is part of broader energy strategy, which includes exploiting recent big gas finds. "Tanzania's total coal reserves were previously estimated at 1. ... Full Story | Top |
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