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| Fighting erupts in South Sudan flashpoint town, sanctions loom Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:15 PM PST  By Carl Odera and Aaron Maasho JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudanese forces fought rebels on the outskirts of the flashpoint town of Bor on Tuesday, its mayor said, as a deadline imposed by East African nations for an end to hostilities neared. The African Union threatened targeted sanctions late on Monday against those inciting the violence and hampering international efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting that risks drawing in the wider region. "We are fighting the rebels now," Mayor Nhial Majak Nhial told Reuters by phone from the edge of Bor, which lies 190 km (120 miles) to the north of the capital, Juba, by road. The violence quickly spread to half of the country's ten states, cleaving the nation along the ethnic faultline of rebel leader Riek Machar's Nuer group and President Salva Kiir's Dinka. Full Story | Top |
| Fresh fighting erupts in South Sudan's flashpoint town of Bor Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:06 PM PST JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudanese troops fought rebels believed to be loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar on Tuesday in the flashpoint town of Bor, its mayor said, as a deadline imposed by East African nations for an end to hostilities neared. "We are fighting the rebels now," Mayor Nhial Majak Nhial told Reuters by phone from the outskirts of Bor, which lies 190 km (120 miles) to the north of the capital, Juba, by road. Bor is inaccessible to journalists. Sustained bursts of gunfire could be heard in the background. Full Story | Top |
| Iron ore miners wait to assess Australian cyclone damage Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:03 PM PST By James Regan SYDNEY (Reuters) - Iron ore miners were waiting for conditions to ease before assessing damage caused by a cyclone that ripped across northwest Australia on Tuesday, closing ports and threatening mining operations in the sparsely populated Pilbara region. The key shipping ports of Dampier, Cape Lambert and Port Hedland, the world's largest iron ore export terminal, bore the brunt of the storm after clearing dozens of iron ore freighters and evacuating staff over the weekend. Cyclone Christine, the second to batter Western Australia state in the November 1-April 30 cyclone season, forced mining companies Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals to suspend shipping until emergency authorities sound the all-clear, expected over the next day or two as the storm continues to weaken. Full Story | Top |
| Brent to end 2013 flat as supply fears offset weak demand Monday, Dec 30, 2013 10:58 PM PST  By Manash Goswami SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent futures held above $111 a barrel on Tuesday on worries about a prolonged outage from OPEC member Libya, positioning the benchmark to end 2013 virtually unchanged. Brent crude rose 9 cents to $111.30 a barrel by 0629 GMT, after settling 97 cents lower in the previous session. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: China may raise Iran oil imports with new contract: sources Monday, Dec 30, 2013 10:02 PM PST  By Chen Aizhu BEIJING (Reuters) - China may buy more Iranian oil next year as a state trader is negotiating a new light crude contract that could raise imports from Tehran to levels not seen since tough Western sanctions were imposed in 2012, running the risk of upsetting Washington. An increase would go against the spirit of November's breakthrough agreement relaxing some of the stringent measures slapped on Iran two years ago over its nuclear program. The November deal between Tehran and the group known as P5+1 -- made up of the United States and five other global powers -- paused efforts to reduce Iran's crude sales but required buyers to hold to "current average amounts" of Iranian oil imports. That agreement was seen as a reward for a softer diplomatic tone from Tehran that was forced, some U.S. officials and lawmakers say, by U.S. and EU sanctions that slashed Iran's oil exports by more than half to about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) and cost it as much as $80 billion in lost revenue. Full Story | Top |
| Fiery oil train collision forces evacuation of North Dakota town Monday, Dec 30, 2013 09:27 PM PST  By Alicia Underlee Nelson FARGO, North Dakota (Reuters) - Residents of a small town in North Dakota were urged to evacuate after a BNSF train carrying crude oil collided with another train on Monday, setting off a series of explosions and fires, the latest in a string of incidents that have raised alarms over growing oil-by-rail traffic. Local residents heard five powerful explosions just a mile outside of the small town of Casselton after a westbound 112-car train carrying soybeans derailed. An eastbound 106-car train hauling crude oil ran into it just after 2 p.m. CST, local officials said. Residents within 5 miles of Casselton were urged to evacuate to avoid contact with the smoke. Full Story | Top |
| Brain-dead California girl ordered kept on ventilator for week longer Monday, Dec 30, 2013 09:00 PM PST  By Laila Kearney OAKLAND, California (Reuters) - The family of a California girl who was declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy won an 11th-hour court order on Monday requiring doctors to keep her connected to a breathing machine for at least another week. Under the latest court order in the case, doctors at Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland are barred from taking 13-year-old Jahi McMath off a ventilator without her family's consent before 5 p.m. local time on January 7, relatives and hospital officials said. But Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evilio Grillo's decision to extend the previous deadline set in his own restraining order of last week was intended to allow time for appellate review of the case, hospital officials said. "This is a tragedy that has been postponed for another week," hospital spokesman Sam Singer told reporters outside the hospital after family members announced Monday's ruling about an hour before Grillo's original deadline was due to lapse. Full Story | Top |
| Trapped ship passengers set to ring in New Year in Antarctic ice Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:04 PM PST  Fog and heavy snow mean passengers on a Russian ship stranded in Antarctica for over a week are likely to ring in the New Year trapped in the ice, as a rescue helicopter on a nearby Chinese ship waits for the weather to clear. The helicopter on board the Snow Dragon will be used after an Australian icebreaker on Monday failed to reach the trapped Akademik Shokalskiy, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on Tuesday. The Russian ship left New Zealand on November 28 on a private expedition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of an Antarctic journey led by famed Australian explorer Douglas Mawson. The Akademik Shokalskiy's 74 passengers include scientists and tourists, many of them Australian, and 22 Russian crew. Full Story | Top |
| Berkshire Hathaway to buy Phillips 66 unit for around $1.4 billion Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:45 PM PST  Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc struck a deal to buy a Phillips 66 business that makes chemicals to improve the flow potential of pipelines for around $1.4 billion of stock. Phillips 66 said on Monday that Berkshire will pay for the unit, Phillips Specialty Products Inc, using about 19 million shares of Phillips 66 stock that it currently owns. "I have long been impressed by the strength of the Phillips 66 business portfolio," Buffett said in a statement. "The flow improver business is a high-quality business with consistently strong financial performance." The exact number of shares Berkshire will pay for the unit will be determined by their price on the closing date, the companies said. Full Story | Top |
| Three dead in south Yemen blasts Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:28 PM PST Three people including a suicide bomber were killed in three explosions targeting security offices in Aden, the main city in southern Yemen, al-Arabiya news reported early on Tuesday. Hundreds of security officials have been killed in explosions and shootings over the past two years in southern Yemen, where the government and allied tribal militias are fighting against Islamist militants allied to al Qaeda. Security in Yemen is a priority for the United States and Gulf Arab countries because of its location next to the biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia and big crude shipping routes through the Red Sea. This month al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen's branch of the movement, said it was behind an assault on a Defence Ministry complex in the capital Sanaa in which more than 50 people were killed. Full Story | Top |
| British MPs to quiz power company chiefs on Christmas power outages -Telegraph Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:08 PM PST  (Reuters) - Members of Britain's parliament are set to summon the chiefs of energy network companies over the slow pace of restoring power services after a Christmas storm, The Daily Telegraph reported, quoting the chairman of the parliamentary energy committee. Floods caused by strong storm winds on Christmas eve had knocked out power services in many parts of Britain, with many customers remaining without electricity for almost five days. The Committee will call them in when the House gets back," chairman of the parliamentary energy committee, Tim Yeoh was quoted by the newspaper as saying. The Chief executive of UK Power Networks, one of Britain's biggest electricity distributors said that its response had been too slow and said it would pay almost triple compensation to households left without power over Christmas. Full Story | Top |
| Some current, former smokers should get annual lung scans: US panel Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:59 PM PST  Heavy smokers and former heavy smokers should get annual lung cancer screening tests, according to final guidelines issued on Monday by an influential U.S. panel. The final recommendations, issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, apply to people aged 55 to 80 whose smoking has put them at high risk of cancer. That includes former heavy smokers who have quit within the past 15 years. Heavy smokers are considered to be those who smoked a pack a day for 30 years, or two packs a day for 15 years. Full Story | Top |
| Train collision in North Dakota sets oil rail cars ablaze Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:38 PM PST  By Alicia Nelson FARGO, North Dakota (Reuters) - A BNSF train carrying crude oil in North Dakota collided with another train on Monday setting off a series of explosions that left at least 10 cars ablaze, the latest in a string of incidents that have raised alarms over growing oil-by-rail traffic. Local residents heard five powerful explosions just a mile outside of the small town of Casselton after a westbound train carrying soybeans derailed, and an eastbound 104-car train hauling crude oil ran into it just after 2 p.m. CST (2000 GMT), local officials said. Half of the oil cars have been separated from the train, but another 56 cars remain in danger, said Cecily Fong, the public information officer with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services. Both trains were operated by BNSF Railway Co, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Bershire Hathaway Inc. The incident threatens to stoke concerns about the safety of carrying increasing volumes of crude oil by rail, a trend that emerged from the unexpected burst of shale oil production out of North Dakota's Bakken fields. Full Story | Top |
| Australia cyclone heads inland after battering iron ore ports Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:26 PM PST  Australia's Pilbara iron ore shipping and mining region, the world's largest, faced cyclonic winds and torrential rains on Tuesday after a cyclone made landfall after intensifying over the last few days in the Indian Ocean. The key shipping ports of Dampier, Cape Lambert and Port Hedland bore the brunt of the storm after clearing dozens of iron ore freighters and evacuating staff over the weekend. Cyclone Christine, the second to batter Western Australia in the November 1-April 30 cyclone season, forced mining companies Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals to suspend loading until emergency authorities sound the all-clear, expected over the next day or two. Full Story | Top |
| California brain-dead girl nears deadline for ventilator Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:15 PM PST Relatives of a 13-year-old California girl declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy pressed an 11th-hour effort on Monday to get her moved to an extended-care facility as a deadline neared for taking her off a breathing machine. Doctors at Children's Hospital in Oakland have said they intend to disconnect Jahi McMath on Monday evening from a ventilator that has been keeping her heart and lungs going since she lost all brain function more than two weeks ago. An Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a restraining order last week barring the hospital from removing Jahi - without the consent of her family - from the ventilator before 5 p.m. local time on Monday, December 30. The judge then denied a petition from relatives to extend that deadline, after two pediatric neurologists who had examined Jahi affirmed the hospital's medical opinion that the girl was brain dead and beyond recovery. Full Story | Top |
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