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| U.N. Security Council demands elimination of Syria chemical arms Friday, Sep 27, 2013 11:56 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday that demands the eradication of Syria's chemical weapons but does not threaten automatic punitive action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government if it does not comply. The unanimous vote by the 15-member Security Council capped weeks of intense diplomacy between Russia and the United States. It was based on a deal between the two countries reached in Geneva earlier this month following an August 21 sarin nerve gas attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Jersey judge allows same-sex marriage; state plans appeal Friday, Sep 27, 2013 08:56 PM PDT  By Joseph Ax and Edith Honan NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey judge ordered state officials on Friday to allow same-sex couples to marry starting on October 21, saying the current civil union system unfairly deprived them of federal benefits available to married couples. A spokesman for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie indicated the state would appeal, but did not say whether it would seek a stay to stop the ruling from taking effect. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil oil company OGX gets six-month delay in debt payment Friday, Sep 27, 2013 06:23 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian oil company OGX Petróleo e Gás SA won a six-month delay in a debt payment that will reduce the risk of default by the firm controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, according to securities filings on Friday. OGX Austria GmbH, which owns 100 percent of OGX Brazil bonds in circulation, agreed to delay a debt payment to March 25 from September 25, OGX said in a securities filing. The amount of the debt payment was not specified in the filing. OGX officials in Brazil were not immediately available for comment after business hours. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tennessee moves to single-drug executions despite pentobarbital shortage Friday, Sep 27, 2013 06:09 PM PDT By Tim Ghianni (Reuters) - Tennessee said on Friday that it will begin to use only pentobarbital to execute death row inmates despite a shortage of the drug. The state will use the single-drug lethal injection method instead of the three-drug method it has used in the past, according to Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter. "The Department of Correction had been unable to obtain the chemicals necessary to carry out an execution since 2011 due to a widespread shortage" of sodium thiopental, a drug used in the three-drug method, Carter said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Scientists more convinced mankind is main cause of warming Friday, Sep 27, 2013 05:51 PM PDT  By Alister Doyle and Simon Johnson STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Leading climate scientists said on Friday they were more convinced than ever that humans are the main culprits for global warming, and predicted the impact from greenhouse gas emissions could linger for centuries. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report that a hiatus in warming this century, when temperatures have risen more slowly despite growing emissions, was a natural variation that would not last. ... Full Story | Top |
| Achillion stock plunges as FDA maintains clinical hold on hep C drug Friday, Sep 27, 2013 05:48 PM PDT (Reuters) - Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided not to lift a clinical hold it had placed on the firm's hepatitis C drug, sovaprevir, leaving an uncertain fate for the company's most promising drug. The news caused Achillion's shares to plunge 45 percent in after-market trade on Friday. The FDA asked the company to halt development of sovaprevir in June, after detecting elevated liver enzymes, an indication of liver damage, in multiple patients who were given the drug in a clinical study. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama, Iran's Rouhani hold historic phone call Friday, Sep 27, 2013 05:05 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason and Louis Charbonneau WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone on Friday, the highest-level contact between the two countries in three decades and a sign that they are serious about reaching a pact on Tehran's nuclear program. The call is the culmination of a dramatic shift in tone between Iran and the United States, which cut diplomatic relations with Iran a year after the 1979 revolution that toppled U.S. ally Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and led to the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. Security Council set to vote on Syria chemical arms resolution Friday, Sep 27, 2013 04:07 PM PDT  By John Irish and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council is set to adopt a resolution on Friday on eradicating Syria's chemical arsenal after Russia and the United States overcame a bitter deadlock to avert U.S. military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. Amid newfound unity of the veto-wielding council members - Russia, China, France, the United States and Britain - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he hoped a date would also be agreed on Friday for so-called Geneva 2 peace talks on Syria. ... Full Story | Top |
| Oil producer Pacific Rubiales could buy Petrominerales: sources Friday, Sep 27, 2013 03:54 PM PDT  BOGOTA (Reuters) - Toronto-listed oil company Pacific Rubiales , Colombia's second-biggest producer of crude, could buy rival Petrominerales next Monday, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday, after shares in the companies had been halted. The Toronto Stock Exchange halted trading in the shares of both companies on Friday afternoon, pending news. Just before the trading halt, Petrominerales stock was up 55 Canadian cents at C$7.74, while Pacific Rubiales shares were down 10 Canadian cents at C$21.54. ... Full Story | Top |
| In big shift, Exxon to provide same-sex marriage benefits Friday, Sep 27, 2013 03:51 PM PDT  By Anna Driver HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday it will extend benefits to spouses of its U.S. workers in same-sex marriages, a sweeping reversal by one of the world's top companies following a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June. Though many U.S. corporations, especially progressive ones like Apple Inc, have long offered domestic partner benefits to gay couples, the step at Exxon - the biggest publicly traded oil company - was heralded as especially significant for a company that has resisted repeated calls for change. ... Full Story | Top |
| SpaceX ready to test-fly new Falcon rocket Friday, Sep 27, 2013 03:39 PM PDT By Irene Klotz LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies plans to test an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday from a site in California as part of its push into the satellite launch market. Previous versions of the Falcon 9 have flown five times from the company's launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. If the new rocket's debut goes well, SpaceX plans to return to Florida for the Falcon 9's first commercial mission, an SES World Skies communications satellite, later this year. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Jersey judge allows same-sex marriage Friday, Sep 27, 2013 03:24 PM PDT  By Joseph Ax and Edith Honan NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey judge on Friday ordered state officials to allow same-sex couples to marry starting October 21, saying the current civil union system unfairly deprives them of federal benefits available to married couples. Judge Mary Jacobson in Mercer County Superior Court in Trenton issued the order, making New Jersey the first state to lift a ban on gay marriage as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June to strike down the federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. ... Full Story | Top |
| TSX steady as banks offset U.S. budget fears Friday, Sep 27, 2013 01:56 PM PDT  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was little changed on Friday as gains in the financial sector helped offset concerns about the U.S. budget crisis, but it posted a modest weekly gain. Investors also followed shares of BlackBerry Ltd , which climbed after the smartphone maker reported quarterly results. Also offering some support to the market, data showed higher U.S. household spending in August as incomes benefited from wage gains. But investors continued to fret over tenuous debt and budget negotiations in the U.S. Congress, as they have all week. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exxon to provide company benefits for same-sex marriages Friday, Sep 27, 2013 12:51 PM PDT HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday spouses in "all legal marriages," including same-sex unions, will be eligible for company benefits following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the matter. Spousal eligibility for benefits at Exxon has been "governed by the federal definition of marriage and spouse," the Irving, Texas company said in a statement. In a big victory for gay-rights activists, the Supreme Court ruled in June that married same-sex couples are eligible for federal benefits after striking down a key part the Defense of Marriage Act. ... Full Story | Top |
| Immune drugs hold hope of "clinical cure" for deadly skin cancer Friday, Sep 27, 2013 12:27 PM PDT By Kate Kelland AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A new generation of drugs designed to trigger the immune system to fight cancer is offering the prospect of a "clinical cure" for some melanoma skin cancer patients who until a few years ago were more likely to be facing a swift death. Cancer specialists gathering for a European conference at the weekend said the so-called immunotherapy drugs, a class led by Bristol-Myers Squibb's Yervoy, or ipilimumab, have transformed an area of oncology in which until recently doctors barely had time to get to know their patients. ... Full Story | Top |
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