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| Shell to cut spending and step up disposals in 2014 Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 11:42 PM PST  Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday said it would step-up disposals and cut spending as it seeks to win back investors with a new focus on returns, less than two weeks after a shock profit warning. Shell, the world's no. 3 investor owned oil company, earlier this month issued a "significant" profit warning for the quarter to the end of December, detailing across-the-board problems just weeks into the tenure of new boss Ben van Beurden. Capital spending will fall to $37 billion this year from $46 billion in 2013, Shell said, adding that for the time being it was also scrapping a controversial exploration program in Alaska. The company said it would increase the pace of asset sales, targeting disposals of $15 billion this year. Full Story | Top |
| Coral or coal decision looms for Australia's Great Barrier Reef Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 11:30 PM PST By Sonali Paul MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef watchdog is to decide by Friday whether to allow millions of cubic meters of dredged mud to be dumped near the fragile reef to create the world's biggest coal port and possibly unlock $28 billion in coal projects. A dumping permit would allow a major expansion of the port of Abbot Point for two Indian firms and Australian billionaire miner Gina Rinehart, who together have $16 billion worth of coal projects in the untapped, inland Galilee Basin. The Galilee Basin could double Australia's thermal coal exports and see it overtake Indonesia as the world's top coal exporter, further fuelling China's power plants and steel mills that have underpinned Australia's decade-long mining boom. The plan has sparked protests from environmentalists and scientists who fear the sensitive marine park will be damaged by the dumping and an expanded port, would nearly double shipping traffic through the reef, increasing the risk of accidents. Full Story | Top |
| Saudi Arabia to give Egypt up to $4 billion more aid: report Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 11:17 PM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is expected to give Egypt up to $4 billion in additional aid in the form of central bank deposits and petroleum products, state-run Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram reported on Thursday. Citing an unnamed ministerial source, the newspaper said the package would be worked out during a visit next week to the kingdom by Egypt's interim prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi. Gulf Arab states have showered Egypt with billions of dollars since the army toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July. ... Full Story | Top |
| Scientists hail breakthrough in embryonic-like stem cells Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 11:02 PM PST  By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a simple way to reprogram mature animal cells back into an embryonic-like state that allows them to generate many types of tissue. Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach in mice was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells. The researchers took skin and blood cells, let them multiply, then subjected them to stress "almost to the point of death", they explained, by exposing them to various events including trauma, low oxygen levels and acidic environments. Within days, the scientists found that the cells had not only survived but had also recovered by naturally reverting into a state similar to that of an embryonic stem cell. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. board faults refiners, regulators in deadly Tesoro blast Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 10:28 PM PST The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said a fireball of hydrogen and naphtha engulfed seven workers at Tesoro Corp.'s Anacortes, Washington refinery in 2010 because the company failed to identify the damage hydrogen was causing to steel components, according to a draft report released on Thursday. Further, the CSB said industry practices recommended by the American Petroleum Institute don't require refiners to take necessary steps to prevent high-temperature hydrogen attacks that form minute cracks in carbon steel like that on the heat exchanger which ruptured at the Tesoro Anacortes refinery on April 2, 2010. The CSB also said the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, which regulates workplace safety, needed tougher standards and should perform a safety audit of the state's five refineries. Full Story | Top |
| J&J chooses Yale to review requests for clinical drug data Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 09:10 PM PST (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson has selected the Yale School of Medicine to review requests from investigators and physicians looking for access to clinical trial data involving the diversified healthcare company's pharmaceuticals. Under the agreement, the "Yale Open Data Access Project," will independently review and make final decisions regarding all requests for information on the company's drug clinical trials, including anonymous patient data. The action comes amid growing pressure from outside scientists for access to raw data from clinical trials, reflecting general concerns that too many studies cannot be independently confirmed and may well be wrong. Britain's GlaxoSmithkline Plc has set up an online system to provide researchers with access to anonymous patient-level data about its medicines. Full Story | Top |
| Arrest of billionaire highlights political divisions in Iran Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 09:05 PM PST By Babak Dehghanpisheh BEIRUT (Reuters) - While international sanctions have made life a struggle for many Iranians, they were a big break for businessman Babak Zanjani, who made a fortune helping the government evade the restrictions on oil sales. A $40,000 watch on his wrist and a Tehran football club for a plaything, Zanjani shuttled to meetings on private jets, arranging billions of dollars of oil deals through a network of companies that stretched from Turkey to Malaysia, Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates, he said last autumn. Under the conservative presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the 39-year-old Zanjani was good enough at his work to amass a fortune of $10 billion - along with debts of a similar scale, he told Aseman - until he was arrested late last month. He is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, accused of owing the government, under moderate new President Hassan Rouhani since August, more than $2.7 billion for oil sold on behalf of the oil ministry. Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon, GSA map out acquisition cybersecurity; tester finds issues remain Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 07:31 PM PST By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department and General Services Administration on Wednesday mapped out six broad reforms to improve the cybersecurity of more than $500 billion in goods and services acquired by the U.S. federal government each year. The guidelines come as the Pentagon's chief weapons tester warned that military missions remained at "moderate to high risk" since local network operators were not always able to defend networks against determined cyberattacks. A report released by the tester on Wednesday said scans of the networks used by weapons still showed missing software "patches" and vulnerabilities that allowed teams of government "hackers" to penetrate and exploit networks. In their guidelines, the Pentagon and GSA underscored the importance of beefing up cybersecurity and cited escalating cyber threats from U.S. adversaries, hackers and criminals, as well as unintentional vulnerabilities and counterfeit parts. Full Story | Top |
| Arizona couple living near polygamous sect sues for discrimination Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 07:13 PM PST By Jennifer Dobner SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - An Arizona jury heard opening arguments on Wednesday that a married couple was denied municipal water services because they were not members of a polygamous church that dominates their community on the Utah-Arizona border. Ron and Jinjer Cooke filed a federal lawsuit against the twin towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, in 2010, claiming a violation of their civil rights in a lawsuit that also named the local water district and power company. Attorneys for the couple contend in court papers that the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints controls the adjoining towns and has ordered city leaders and departments to discriminate against outsiders. A 2012 federal lawsuit made similar allegations. Full Story | Top |
| California weighs giving tax break to space exploration firms Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 04:25 PM PST  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - For-profit space explorers who make California their headquarters would not have to pay property taxes on their rockets and space stations under a bill that advanced in the state legislature on Wednesday. The move is aimed at stopping an effort by Los Angeles County to collect levies on equipment owned by the privately held SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. It is part of a broader effort by lawmakers to revitalize California's flagging aerospace sector, once among the nation's largest and key to the state's economy. "This bill will create thousands of new, high-paying jobs right here in California," said state Democratic Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, the bill's author. Full Story | Top |
| Now for the weather on Luhman: Cloudy with a chance of molten iron rain Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 03:16 PM PST You think the weather is bad on Earth lately. The first weather maps from this dim, gaseous object known as a brown dwarf, show a complex structure of patchy clouds, comprised of liquid iron and other minerals stewing in scorching temperatures, a pair of studies show. Computer models indicate that as a brown dwarfs cools, liquid droplets containing iron and other minerals form in their atmospheres. Brown dwarfs are bigger than Jupiter-sized planets, but too small for nuclear fusion, the signature process that gives a star its shine. Full Story | Top |
| KaloBios Pharma pulls plug on asthma drug, shares plunge Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 03:04 PM PST (Reuters) - Shares of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc fell nearly 50 percent in extended trade after the company said it would stop developing an asthma drug that failed in a mid-stage study. The drug, KB003, failed to bring about a clinically meaningful improvement in the pulmonary function of patients with severe asthma when tested against a placebo in 160 patients. The San Francisco-based company said it would focus on developing other treatments in its pipeline, which include a drug for cancer and another to prevent a common gram negative bacterium. KaloBios shares fell to a low of $2.65 in extended trading. Full Story | Top |
| European bat population bounces back from the brink: study Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 03:01 PM PST Europe's bat population is vulnerable, but conservation policies have boosted it by more than 40 percent after years of decline, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said on Thursday. European bat populations shrank, particularly during the second half of the 20th century, because of intensive agriculture, disappearing habitats and toxic chemicals used in treating roof timbers where they roost. The new report found conservation policies had helped to reverse the decline, but concluded bats should "still be considered vulnerable". They are also extremely sensitive to environmental change, which means they serve as an early indicator of climate change. Full Story | Top |
| Lilly CEO: 'It's time to go back on offense' Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 01:21 PM PST  After three years of seeing major drugs like Zyprexa for schizophrenia lose patent protection and wipe away billions of dollars in revenue, Eli Lilly and Co Chief Executive Officer John Lechleiter wants to change the game plan. "It's time to go back on offense," Lechleiter said in a recent interview. New treatments for diabetes and cancer now awaiting approval and increased sales of animal-health products and drugs in China and Japan are some of the aggressive moves he has in mind. "We're on the cusp of launching products in cancer and diabetes, two therapeutic areas where we're well established and where we have built out the infrastructure we need," Lechleiter said. Full Story | Top |
| NY governor orders emergency response review for oil rail shipments Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 12:20 PM PST (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday ordered state agencies to review and update emergency response plans for rail shipments of crude oil that pass through the state in the wake of recent derailments out of North Dakota's energy patch. Two other shipments of crude oil have since derailed in the United States, causing explosions that have alarmed regulators, residents and government officials. Some 71 percent of oil produced in North Dakota was transported by rail in November, or around 800,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to that state's Pipeline Authority. The recent derailments have put shipments of crude under federal scrutiny. Full Story | Top |
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