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| Top Indonesian energy official barred from travel in latest government scandal: media Saturday, Aug 31, 2013 12:32 AM PDT  By Jonathan Thatcher JAKARTA (Reuters) - A top Indonesian energy official has been banned from overseas travel, media reported on Saturday, in the latest graft case this month which threatens to further tarnish President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's final year in office. The reported travel ban on Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Secretary General, Waryono Karno, follows the arrest earlier this month of the head of the energy regulator SKKMigas, Rudi Rubiandini, on bribery charges after large amounts of cash were found in his Jakarta home. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon insists it is open to foreign investment in the U.S. Friday, Aug 30, 2013 10:20 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is taking a harder look at proposed foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies given the increasing financial complexity of such deals, but continues to encourage foreign investment, a top U.S. defense official said this week. "If you have a deal that is in the interest of the U.S. economy and does not impinge on national security, we will approve it," said Brett Lambert, the Pentagon's representative on an interagency committee that reviews foreign takeovers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fired Paraguayan bus drivers have themselves nailed to crosses Friday, Aug 30, 2013 04:02 PM PDT  ASUNCION (Reuters) - Eight Paraguayan bus drivers have had themselves nailed to crosses to protest being fired by a transportation company after it rejected their plea for higher pay, a lawmaker said on Friday. The drivers, from the northern town of Luque, are on their backs, nailed to wooden crosses laid out on the ground. Large nails pierce their hands at the base of the fingers. They said they took the action in a desperate bid to be heard. They have been nailed down for 15 days, according to Olga Ferreira de Lopez, a member of Paraguay's House of Congress who is monitoring the situation. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. nuclear agency seeks input to resume Yucca Mountain review Friday, Aug 30, 2013 03:35 PM PDT HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Friday said it will seek comments on how to restart the licensing process for the long-stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. The request is the agency's first response to a federal appeals court order issued August 13 that said the NRC can no longer delay a decision on whether to issue a permit for the project that would bury nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A three-judge panel of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Large earthquake hits remote Alaska waters, no tsunami seen Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:58 PM PDT By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - A large 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck early on Friday in waters 57 miles off the remote Alaska island of Adak, a former U.S. Navy station that is now a commercial fishing and maritime-service center, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no initial reports of damage, and the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami watch, warning or advisory in effect. "At this point, we've seen no ocean-surface disturbance," said Bill Knight, a scientist at the tsunami warning center in Palmer, Alaska. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico leftist vows to block reforms, warns oil firms Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:44 PM PDT  By Simon Gardner CATEMACO, Mexico (Reuters) - Fiery Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to stop the government's energy and tax reforms and hopes to lead even bigger protests than when he brought central Mexico City to a standstill after narrowly losing the 2006 presidential election. A colorful renegade and a former Mexico City mayor, Lopez Obrador accuses President Enrique Pena Nieto of trying to sell off Mexico's assets by seeking to lure foreign capital into the state-controlled energy sector. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela sentences man who shot U.S. attaches at strip club Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:26 PM PDT By Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan man has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for shooting and wounding two U.S. military attaches at a strip club in the capital, the attorney general's office said on Friday. Carlos Mejias, 32, admitted he shot the U.S. Embassy employees in the early hours of May 28, the office said. It said Mejias got into an argument with them at the Antonella 2012 club, better known as "Angelus," in the city's upscale Chacao district. ... Full Story | Top |
| EOG Resources says Texas well fire nearly out Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:04 PM PDT By Kristen Hays HOUSTON (Reuters) - EOG Resources Inc said on Friday that an Eagle Ford shale oil well fire that has burned since a blowout on Wednesday was nearly out as crews worked to cap it. "EOG reports that the fire has substantially subsided at its Lavaca County well site and is close to being extinguished," the company said. EOG said the company would issue a final update when the well is capped. The fire followed a well rupture and explosion Wednesday evening at the EOG drilling operation about 134 miles west of Houston. No one was hurt. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuelan man who shot U.S. attaches sentenced to prison Friday, Aug 30, 2013 12:40 PM PDT By Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan man has been sentenced to 5-1/2 years in prison for shooting and wounding two U.S. military attaches at a strip club in the capital, the attorney general's office said on Friday. Carlos Mejias, 32, admitted he shot the U.S. Embassy employees in the early hours of May 28. The office said Mejias got into an argument with them at the Antonella 2012 club, better known as "Angelus," in the city's upscale Chacao district. "Later he pulled out a gun and repeatedly fired at the Americans, leaving them wounded at the location," it said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: To cut natural gas costs, Chesapeake pumps up royalty deductions Friday, Aug 30, 2013 12:26 PM PDT  By Ernest Scheyder SAYRE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - As the natural gas industry struggles to cope with depressed prices, Chesapeake Energy Corp has begun shifting a much larger share of transportation and marketing costs to the owners of Pennsylvania land it leases. The largest natural gas operator in Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale formation, Chesapeake started this year to take much heavier deductions from royalty checks it sends landowners to help pay to gather, compress, market and transport natural gas, in most cases cutting compensation by more than half. ... Full Story | Top |
| Shell-shock: Maine lobsterman finds two-tone crustacean Friday, Aug 30, 2013 12:15 PM PDT  BOWDOINHAM, Maine (Reuters) - It's not quite winning the lottery, but the odds are about as remote: A lobsterman off the coast of Maine recently hauled in an almost perfectly two-toned lobster - half orange, half brown. The chances, according to scientists, are approximately 1-in-50 million. "It looked as if someone had taken painter's tape and run it from proboscis to tail, then spray-painted one side. It's a perfectly straight line," said Alan Lishness, of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. "You don't usually see such hard edges in nature. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran's oil revenues drop 58 percent since 2011 as sanctions bite: U.S. Friday, Aug 30, 2013 11:14 AM PDT By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran's monthly revenues from oil sales have dropped 58 percent since just before the United States imposed harsher sanctions on the country in 2011 because of Tehran's disputed nuclear program, a senior U.S. official said. The OPEC member's monthly crude oil revenues averaged an estimated $3.4 billion in the first half of this year, down from $6.3 billion in the year ago period, and $8 billion from the first half of 2011, said the source, who did not want to be named due to the sensitive nature of policy on sanctions. ... Full Story | Top |
| Special Report: Experimental climate fixes stir hopes, fears, lawyers Friday, Aug 30, 2013 10:52 AM PDT  By Alister Doyle (Reuters) - Last year the Haida, an indigenous group in Canada, set out to increase their salmon stocks and save the planet. Helped by American businessman Russ George, a group of villagers dumped 100 metric tons (110.23 tons) of iron dust from a boat into the Pacific Ocean. They wanted to see if the iron would cause a bloom of algae that could promote fish numbers and absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Instead, in March, they were raided by Canadian officials for illegal dumping at sea. "I think they (the officials) kind of expected to see Dr. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi left off list awarded Italian life senator honor Friday, Aug 30, 2013 10:11 AM PDT  By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi's allies reacted angrily on Friday after Italian President Giorgio Napolitano left the center-right leader, who risks being ejected from parliament after a tax fraud conviction, off a list of new lifetime senators. Napolitano had been pressed by members of Berlusconi's People of Liberty party (PDL) to grant their leader the honor bestowed on former heads of state and distinguished personalities in the arts and sciences. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine leader says he has no power to pardon Tymoshenko Friday, Aug 30, 2013 07:02 AM PDT  By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said on Friday he had no legal powers to allow jailed rival Yulia Tymoshenko to go abroad for medical treatment as some European governments have urged, but hinted compromise might be found if the law was changed. The European Union says agreements on association and free trade with Ukraine could be in jeopardy if Yanukovich does not free former prime minister Tymoshenko, his fiercest opponent, who was jailed in 2011. The EU says her trial for abuse of office was political. ... Full Story | Top |
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