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| Plunging eel stocks spell hard times for a global delicacy Friday, Nov 01, 2013 06:32 PM PDT By Sam Cage CRUMLIN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - From the food stalls and pie shops of Dickensian London to haute cuisine restaurants in Tokyo, the eel has a long and rich culinary history that transcends classes and national borders. But it is becoming an increasingly rare delicacy as stocks plummet and Europe's fishing industry shrinks to make itself sustainable. With an annual catch of about 600 metric tons (661.387 tons), Europe's largest commercial eel fishery - and the United Kingdom's largest lake - is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. Whenever I finish that will be the end," said Shane O'Neill, a sprightly 70 year old from the nearby town of Crumlin who has worked the lake since 1960. Full Story | Top |
| Illinois EPA asks for court-ordered probe of Citgo refinery fire Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:09 PM PDT The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency asked that state's Attorney General to seek a court order compelling Citgo Petroleum Corp to investigate an October 23 fire at the company's refinery at Lemont, Illinois, the agency said in a statement on Friday. Citgo responded in a statement later on Friday that it looks forward to working the state agency as it repairs and restarts the unit most heavily damaged in the fire. "Citgo has worked closely with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) and all other state and federal agencies since the incident and has voluntarily provided all information that IEPA has requested." IEPA said it wants Citgo to perform a root-cause analysis of the fire and submit that analysis for review by the state. IEPA spokesman Andrew Mason declined to say if Citgo would be able to restart the 174,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery's crude distillation unit, which does the initial refining of oil coming into the plant and provides feedstock liquids to all other units. Full Story | Top |
| Lockheed shows plans for hypersonic spy plane; focus on low cost Friday, Nov 01, 2013 02:16 PM PDT  unveiled plans on Friday for a hypersonic spy plane that could fly at Mach 6, twice as fast as its famed SR-71 Blackbird, and said a missile demonstrating the new technology could fly as early as 2018. Brad Leland, the Lockheed engineer who has headed the seven-year research effort, said the new aircraft, dubbed the SR-72, was designed using off-the-shelf materials to keep it affordable in the current tough budget environment. Aviation Week first reported Lockheed's work on the project earlier on Friday in a cover article entitled "Son of Blackbird." Lockheed developed the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird, a long-range manned spy plane, 50 years ago. Details of the new hypersonic spy plane project emerged days after Lockheed, the Pentagon's biggest supplier, teamed up with No. 2 supplier Boeing Co Full Story | Top |
| Wall St. ends higher after factory data; Dow, S&P up for week Friday, Nov 01, 2013 01:53 PM PDT  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday after surprisingly strong manufacturing data overshadowed expectations that the Federal Reserve might reduce stimulus earlier than expected. The Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 rose for the week as well, their fourth straight week of gains. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Friday its index of U.S. factory activity rose to 56.4 in October, its best reading since April 2011. While the news underscored views that the Federal Reserve may be considering scaling back its stimulus sooner than some market participants have been expecting, it also gave investors surprising evidence of the manufacturing sector's strength. Full Story | Top |
| New Obama order aims to prepare communities for severe weather Friday, Nov 01, 2013 12:10 PM PDT  By Environment Correspondent Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In another move to address the impact of climate change, President Barack Obama ordered a bipartisan task force on Friday to help U.S. communities brace for longer heat waves, heavier downpours, more severe wildfires and worse droughts. Friday's executive order set up a panel of governors, mayors, county officials and tribal leaders to advise the White House on how the federal government can respond to communities hit by the effects of a changing climate. Federal agencies were also directed to modernize their programs in ways that will support investments that will help cities and towns gird against extreme weather. Friday's White House order builds on a Climate Action Plan unveiled in June, the centerpiece of which was new regulations to be applied to power plants, and comes three days after the anniversary of the landfall of Superstorm Sandy, which caused more than $60 billion in damage along the U.S. Atlantic coast. Full Story | Top |
| British water suppliers face scrutiny after government promises action on prices Friday, Nov 01, 2013 11:19 AM PDT  By William James and Sarah Young LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron will take action to help households struggling to meet rising water bills, his spokesman said on Friday in a signal that Britain's biggest water companies will face greater political scrutiny over pricing. "There'll be some progress next week on water bills," the spokesman told a press briefing. Thames Water, privately-owned by Australia's Macquarie and other investors including China Investment Corporation, and regulator Ofwat declined to comment on the spokesman's comments. Pennon, one of Britain's main water players, also declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| Shared concern over Syria brings thaw between Turkey and Iran Friday, Nov 01, 2013 10:40 AM PDT  By Humeyra Pamuk and Tulay Karadeniz ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey and Iran said on Friday they had common concerns about the increasingly sectarian nature of Syria's civil war, signaling a thaw in a key Middle Eastern relationship strained by stark differences over the conflict. Iran has been a firm ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the start of the 32-month-old uprising against him, while Turkey has been one of his fiercest critics, supporting the opposition and giving refuge to rebel fighters. But the election in June of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who says he wants to thaw Iran's ties with the West, and shared concern over the rise of al Qaeda in Syria, have spurred hopes of a rapprochement. "Sitting here together with the Iranian foreign minister you can be sure we will be working together to fight these types of scenarios which aim to see a sectarian conflict," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a conference in Istanbul. Full Story | Top |
| Greenpeace says Russia to move 30 detained activists Friday, Nov 01, 2013 10:38 AM PDT  Russia is preparing to move 30 Greenpeace activists who were arrested over a protest against Arctic drilling from the far-north city of Murmansk to St. Petersburg, the environmental group said on Friday. The detainees, including two journalists, have been charged with hooliganism for the September 18 protest in which the activists tried to scale Russia's first offshore Arctic oil rig, the Prirazlomnaya, owned by state energy company Gazprom. Russia's Investigative Committee, which is leading the case, could not be reached for comment and the reasons behind any such move were not immediately clear. Greenpeace International head Kumi Naidoo said it would be easier for relatives and consular officials to reach them in St. Petersburg, about 700 km (440 miles) from Moscow, rather than in remote Murmansk. Full Story | Top |
| Removal of Fukushima's spent fuel on target: U.S. Energy Secretary Friday, Nov 01, 2013 10:35 AM PDT  A "significant milestone" is at hand for cleanup of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, with spent nuclear fuel removal likely to start on schedule, the U.S. Energy Secretary said on Friday after a visit to the site. "It appears that spent nuclear fuel will begin to be removed from Unit 4 as scheduled in mid-November," Ernest Moniz said in a statement. "This will be significant milestone for Tepco and the Japanese government and in the process of decommissioning the site." Moniz, a nuclear physicist, is the highest ranking U.S. official to visit the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station since a nuclear disaster in March 2011 that followed an earthquake and tsunami. The cleanup and decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi, which had been operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, is expected to take decades. Full Story | Top |
| Chevron earnings hurt by refining; output below target Friday, Nov 01, 2013 09:40 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Refining weakness led to a surprise decline in Chevron Corp's quarterly profit, and oil and gas well output increased but remained below target, sending the company's shares down 2 percent. But a bounceback in fourth-quarter oil and gas output would lead to Chevron producing between 98 percent and 99 percent of its 2013 forecast of 2.65 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (bpd), a company spokesman told analysts on a conference call. Downstream difficulties were shared widely, with Chevron's larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Chinese investors sour on Brazil, and projects melt away Friday, Nov 01, 2013 08:39 AM PDT  By Brian Winter and Caroline Stauffer SAO PAULO (Reuters) - For Chinese investors, Brazil is no longer the promised land. As a result, Chinese investment is falling, and as much as two-thirds of the roughly $70 billion in projects announced since 2007 is either on hold or has been canceled, according to recent studies and interviews with Chinese and Brazilian officials. The unexpected decline, which investors and analysts say has little hope of reversing itself anytime soon, will deprive Brazil's struggling economy of what once seemed like a sure-fire source of growth for years to come. "The ardor for investment in Brazil is fading. Full Story | Top |
| Cost overruns pull SNC-Lavalin to quarterly loss Friday, Nov 01, 2013 08:22 AM PDT  , one of the world's largest construction and engineering companies, reported a quarterly loss on Friday as cost overruns continued to hit results. The Montreal-based company, which is trying to recover from a far-reaching corruption scandal last year that toppled senior executives, had warned of the loss in mid-October, when it slashed its 2013 outlook for a second time. SNC, which announced a turnaround strategy in early May, stuck with its October financial forecasts on Friday. It expects net income of C$10 million to C$50 million for 2013, which was a hefty revision from its previous estimate of C$220 million to C$235 million. Full Story | Top |
| Siemens investors seek strategy hints from new boss Friday, Nov 01, 2013 08:19 AM PDT  new chief executive Joe Kaeser faces pressure from shareholders to give a flavor of how he plans to reinvent the industrial giant to catch up with more profitable rivals when he presents annual results next week. After profit warnings and a boardroom bust-up led to his predecessor Peter Loescher's ouster in July, Kaeser said he would put the builder of products ranging from gas turbines to high-speed trains and ultrasound machines back on an "even keel" [ID:nL6N0G133X] But Kaeser is likely to keep investors waiting until second-quarter results in May before he sets out a detailed strategy, a person familiar with Siemens' plans told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Colder weather, lower renewable drive spot prices higher Friday, Nov 01, 2013 07:26 AM PDT PRAGUE (Reuters) - Central European spot power prices rose on Friday as cooler weather is expected to drive up demand and on forecasts for lower wind power output, traders said. On regional exchanges, Czech and Slovak electricity for Saturday rose more than 15 percent to 30.17 euros ($41.02) per megawatt-hour (MWh), while Hungarian day ahead jumped 23 percent to 32.30 euros. In the over-the-counter market, spot prices rose to 30 euros in the Czech Republic and to 47 euros in Hungary. Data from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon showed forecasts for colder weather and higher consumption. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's Gezhouba to build dams in Argentina worth $4.7 billion Friday, Nov 01, 2013 07:07 AM PDT China Gezhouba Group Co Ltd , known for building the country's Three Gorges Dam, said it would build two hydroelectric dams in Argentina worth $4.7 billion. The project, in which Gezhouba holds a 60 percent interest and Argentina's Electroingenieria SA the rest, will involve designing and building the dams in Patagonia and maintaining them for 15 years, Gezhouba said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday. The dams - named after former President Nestor Kirchner and a former regional Governor, Jorge Cepernic - are located along the Santa Cruz River and will have a combined generating capacity of 1,740 megawatts. They will take 66 months to complete, said Gezhouba, which has handled overseas projects in Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Asia. Full Story | Top |
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