Senators Propose Tying Strategic Oil Reserve, Keys

23 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

By Katarzyna Klimasinska

(Updates with House vote schedule in seventh paragraph.)

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Senate Republicans introduced legislation that would bar the Obama administration from using the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve unless TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline is approved.

The bill, preventing President Barack Obama from releasing oil from the reserve when oil supplies are disrupted, is aimed at advancing Calgary-based TransCanada’s plan to build the $7 billion project to carry oil from filed in Alberta, Canada, to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

The State Department, which must approve the project because it crosses an international border, said in November it would delay a decision until 2013 to evaluate a route avoiding a sensitive aquifer in Nebraska. Republicans offered bills to advance the pipeline Replica Rolex Watches, saying construction will add jobs and diversify fuel sources. Obama last month denied a permit for the project after Congress set a Feb. 21 deadline.

“The Keystone XL pipeline is yet another example of the president putting a political agenda in front of common-sense energy policy,” Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, a sponsor of the legislation, said today in a statement. “It’s as if this administration had never heard of the economics of supply and demand, unless it becomes politically expedient to release from our strategic reserves to influence gas prices when there is a looming election.”

Asked whether the U.S. might release oil from the reserve to limit a recent jump in oil prices, White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday the administration never takes “options off the table,” although he had nothing to announce.

The bill is S. 2100, sponsored by Vitter and Senators Richard Lugar of Indiana and John Hoeven of North Dakota.

The House of Representatives separately debated a bill today that would strip Obama’s power to approve Keystone XL and require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve the project within 30 days Replica Tag heuer Watches, provided it’s deemed safe. Vote on that bill is scheduled for tomorrow.

The House bill is H.R. 3408.

–Editors: Steve Geimann, Jon Morgan

To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Washington at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net

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Court relief to HM will not change govts corrupt i

23 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

New Delhi: Opposition on Saturday said the trial court verdict granting relief to Home Minister P Chidambaram would not change the “corrupt” image of the government, and the recent court orders on the 2G scam shall have “far reaching” implications on its collective functioning.

“This verdict will not change the corrupt image of the government or the intensity of our campaign…The issue of political accountability of Chidambaram remains alive…We will continue to raise the matter of his accountability before the nation,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said here.

Maintaining that “there is overwhelming evidence of corruption” in the grant of 2G licences, he said there was “enough evidence against Chidambaram in public domain…The BJP shall continue to pursue the matter before the people of the nation.”

Another BJP leader Jaswant Singh said, “I don’t think it is a disappointment Watches Replica, because it is not the end of the story”.

“We cannot lose sight of the fact that the Supreme Court has cancelled 122 licences because it was a scam and there was corruption. The licences were allotted arbitrarily and after manipulation of policy Watches Replica,” Prasad also said.

Maintaining that a “protracted legal battle” would now follow on Chidambaram’s alleged involvement, CPI(M) leader Nilotpal Basu said the apex court order cancelling 122 2G licenses had quoted “government’s own policy paper to say the then Finance Minister was jointly responsible for the pricing of spectrum”.

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STMicro Adds Polish to Indoor Navigation for $4.3

22 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

By Chiara Remondini Replica Watches

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — STMicroelectronics NV will show improved indoor navigation tools and technology that can stop handsets taking blurred photos as it tries to keep a leadership in a market that may reach $4.3 billion in 2015.

Europe’s biggest chipmaker plans to demonstrate the world’s “most accurate” indoor measurement system for mobile-phone location at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, said Benedetto Vigna, the Geneva-based company’s general manager of MEMS and sensor products. It will also use the trade fair to unveil image-stabilization components.

MEMS, or microelectromechanical systems, are becoming ubiquitous in smartphones and tablets such as Apple Inc.’s iPhones and iPads, providing motion-sensing for turning, tilting and tapping devices. STMicroelectronics’s indoor navigation system uses data from Wi-Fi access points, motion sensors and satellite-based positioning, and tackles the issue of “urban canyons” and indoor environments where signals from GPS satellites can’t be received, Vigna said.

“It will allow a new wave of location-based services,” Vigna said in a phone interview. “Your cell phone will be able to guide you to a Gucci store within a mall, or to your parking lot. You can get information and advertising targeted on your location” in places such as underground trains, airports and museums.

Apple Benefit

STMicroelectronics has reinforced its position as the world’s biggest supplier of consumer MEMS, and is benefiting from the success of iPhones and iPads, for which it is the sole source for accelerometers and gyroscopes, according to researcher IHS iSuppli. Apple accounted for half of the MEMS business of the company in 2011, IHS iSuppli said.

Global MEMS revenue for consumer and mobile applications will rise to $4.3 billion in 2015 from about $2.16 billion last year, IHS iSuppli predicted this month.

MEMS are becoming “the new mice for touch devices,” Vigna said. “Now there are two trends driving demand: optical image stabilization and location-based services. Indoor navigation will be a killer app.”

STMicroelectronics Chief Executive Officer Carlo Bozotti has said that 2011 was “a year of record revenue” for MEMS, which includes gyroscopes and accelerometers for motion-sensing in smartphones and tablets.

Camera Features

As handsets’ built-in cameras become capable of taking higher-definition pictures with more pixels, the greater exposure time required for bright and sharp images may increase the effect of users’ movements, resulting in blurred pictures. Optical image stabilization, to detect handshake and stabilize the optical components of cameras, will become a standard feature in such devices, Vigna said.

“The market for OIS is big as it will be a must-have for next-generation cameras,” he said. “More pixels mean greater stabilization is required.”

At Barcelona, the company will demonstrate OIS for mobile devices based on so-called shape memory alloy smart material.

This year, STMicroelectronics introduced the first dual- core gyroscope, which can handle both user-motion recognition and camera-image stabilization. This allows device makers to use a single gyroscope for the two different functions, reducing the size, complexity and cost in mobile phones and tablets.

“We see a lot of interest for using motion sensors for indoor navigation,” said Jeremie Bouchaud, a Munich-based senior MEMS and sensors analyst at IHS iSuppli. “The future of navigation is with the mobile handset. Content for indoor navigation is rapidly growing.”

Lighter Devices

MEMS is used in motion-activated user interfaces in mobile and consumer devices including Nintendo Co.’s Wii gaming console. The latest sensors and modules are smaller and use less power, enabling new features to be added to thinner and lighter smartphones and tablets without impairing battery life.

“Miniaturization is a powerful driver in mobile electronics and indeed in the semiconductor industry as a whole,” said Adib Ghubril, a Toronto-based analyst at researcher Gartner Inc. “Devices have to meet form factors that are getting tighter and tighter; they have to consume less and less power, run cooler and cooler and do more.”

–Editors: Robert Valpuesta, Kenneth Wong

To contact the reporter on this story: Chiara Remondini in Milan at cremondini@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net

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Jennifer Hudson Hudson Family Murder Suspect Loses

22 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

Jennifer Hudson

Picture: Jennifer Hudson Premiere Of Screen Gems’ Think Like A Man held at the ArcLight Cinemas Cinerama Dome – Arrivals Los Angeles Replica Watches, California ….

Hudson Family Murder Suspect Loses Bid For Freedom

The man accused of murdering Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and nephew has failed to convince an Illinois judge that his 2008 arrest was unjust after alleging police lacked “probable cause” for his arrest.

William Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister Julia, is due to stand trial in April (12) on first degree murder charges in connection to the October, 2008 slayings of the singer/actress’ mother Darnell, brother Jason and seven-year-old nephew Julian King in their native Chicago.

Lawyers for Balfour appeared in court on Tuesday (14Feb12) and argued that arresting officers had no right to take their client into custody because they had no “probable cause”. They also claimed that evidence gathered in the case against Balfour was allegedly obtained without a search warrant.

However, Cook County Judge Charles Burns dismissed the motion to free the 30 year old and ruled the arrest was “proper, particularly given that Balfour had previously threatened his estranged wife”.

He added, “There’s no reason to deny the veracity of prior threats.”

Detectives reportedly made the link between Balfour and the murders after finding gunshot residue on his car’s steering wheel. The bodies of Darnell, 57, and Jason, 29, were discovered in the family’s Chicago home and the little boy was found three days later in an abandoned Suv (Sports Utility Vehicle).

Balfour will next appear in court on 23 February (12).

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Pentagon Budget Said to Fund First NATO Global Haw

22 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

By Tony Capaccio

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — The Pentagon proposes in its new budget to spend $1.2 billion for the first three NATO-version Northrop Grumman Corp. Global Hawk drones and three additional U.S. Navy-version drones, according to an official.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced this month it planned to buy five of the unmanned aircraft, known as the Alliance Ground System, through 2017. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters Feb. 4 without elaboration that “we have protected funding for AGS in our new budget.”

The budget also calls for purchasing the next three Navy drones of the version known as the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance System, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the budget’s submission to Congress on Feb. 13. The Navy has two demonstration models Herve leger, one of which is flying Persian Gulf surveillance missions. It plans to purchase as many as 68.

The budget request will help Falls Church, Virginia-based Northrop Grumman after the Air Force announced it’s truncating purchases of its third-generation Block 30 drones. The aircraft have proven too expensive to operate and maintain, Air Force officials told reporters last month.

The Air Force has spent $3.4 billion developing and buying 18 Block 30 drones. It hasn’t disclosed whether it will put on contract an additional three drones for which Congress approved money, according to Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy.

The Air Force program had called for buying 31 Block 30 Global Hawks. The Air Force hasn’t formally announced that it will forgo purchase of the remaining 10.

Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz told reporters Jan. 27 that the service was reviewing whether to retire the initial 18 new aircraft rather than continue flying them.

Boeing Aircraft

Separately, the fiscal 2013 budget continues purchases of two primary Boeing Co. aircraft — the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and P-8 Poseidon maritime control aircraft, according to the official.

The fiscal 2013 budget includes about $3.2 billion to continue purchases of 26 additional fighter versions, down from 28 this year.

The budget also includes 12 “G”-model Boeing Growler aircraft for jamming enemy electronics and air defense radar, the same number as last year, the official said.

The Navy’s budget request for 13 Boeing P-8 maritime patrol aircraft is two more than this year. The proposed budget requests $3.3 billion.

For vessels, the Navy will continue to purchase two additional Virginia-class submarines for $4.3 billion, before reducing the number by one in fiscal 2014, the official said. The deferred submarine will be purchased in 2018, the official said.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. and General Dynamics Corp.’s Electric Boat unit build the Virginia class.

–Editors: Terry Atlas, Larry Liebert

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

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Chennithala takes potshots at CPI-M

21 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 10 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) faction led by former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan is being decimated, state Congress chief Ramesh Chennithala said Tuesday in a broadside against the opposition party.

Taking potshots at the CPI-M, which is conducting district level meetings, Chennithala said factionalism would not end but the Achuthanandan group would be blown away.

‘From what we see and hear about their district committee meetings, what is taking place in their party is that one section of the faction is being murdered… and please don’t mistake it to be a democratic process,’ Chennithala said at a party function.

The CPI-M in Kerala has been split between Achuthanandan and party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan — and over the years Replica Watches, the number of Achuthanandan supporters has been declining.

With 12 of the district committee meetings over and only two more to go, the Achuthanandan faction has already lost grip in Kollam and Pathanamthitta districts and barely managed to cling on at the Ernakulam committee.

In the past, the Achuthanandan faction was dominant in the three districts, while the Vijayan faction was in absolute control in the remaining 11 districts.

‘You wait and see, by the end of their state party conference (to be held here Feb 7-10), Achuthanandan would have lost his position and would be part of history,’ remarked Chennithala.

Vijayan hit back at Chennithala for his remarks. ‘What he said is nonsensical. Our party will be strong and united like never before,’ he said.

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Russia Demands Details Before Weighing Shtokman Ga

20 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

By Anna Shiryaevskaya and Ilya Arkhipov

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) — Russia’s Finance Ministry hasn’t started discussing tax breaks for the OAO Gazprom-led Shtokman venture two months before an investment deadline because the operator hasn’t submitted profitability estimates.

“The tax breaks can only be considered within the project’s economics,” Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said in a phone interview, reiterating comments he made in July. “The economics of the project haven’t been demonstrated by anyone.”

Gazprom and partners Total SA of France and Norway’s Statoil ASA delayed making the final investment decision on the technically challenging and expensive Arctic project from December until the end of March. The venture wants exemptions from extraction and export taxes, and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon in November urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to consider the proposal.

Pierre Nerguararian, head of Total E&P Russie, said in September that the tax breaks are critical for the partners to make a positive investment decision. The project in the Barents Sea Humorous oil paintings, which plans to supply gas by pipeline and tanker, has been repeatedly delayed. Gazprom didn’t disclose the project’s costs.

While there are “no doubts” that the project will be granted exemptions from the mineral extraction tax because the conditions for field development are “complex,” other benefits aren’t certain, Shatalov said in the interview yesterday. “It isn’t clear where this gas will go, whether they will build a pipeline, which markets they will supply. ‘‘What, how, no one knows that.’’

Shale Gas Glut

Gazprom, Total and Statoil aim to start first gas production at Shtokman in 2016 and produce liquefied natural gas a year later. Shtokman initially targeted U.S. consumers, where surging shale gas output has since removed the need for imports, forcing the partners to review the project.

Sergei Kupriyanov, a Gazprom spokesman, didn’t reply to a phone call and a text message seeking comments. Sergei Vykhukholev, a spokesman for Zug Victorian-Romanticism oil paintings, Switzerland-based Shtokman Development AG, said he wasn’t immediately able to comment.

The finance ministry may discuss the tax breaks and make a decision ‘‘if they bring all their calculations tomorrow,” Shatalov said. “If they don’t submit anything by summer then we won’t discuss by summer.”

–With assistance from Denis Maternovsky and Yekaterina Shatalova in Moscow. Editors: Alex Devine, Torrey Clark

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in Moscow at ashiryaevska@bloomberg.net Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

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Vitol Sells Forties Crude; BP Halts Scotland Foina

20 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

By Nidaa Bakhsh

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — Forties crude traded at a higher price for a third day as Vitol Group sold a cargo of the grade.

BP Plc said its Foinaven field to the west of Scotland’s Shetland Islands remains closed after a “small” leak was detected in an underwater pipe.

North Sea

Glencore International Plc bought Forties from Vitol for loading Feb. 17 to Feb. 19 at 10 cents a barrel less than Dated Brent, compared with a discount of 30 cents on Jan. 27 Special Occasion, according to a Bloomberg survey of traders monitoring the Platts trading window.

A floating production unit at BP’s Foinaven field, about 190 kilometers (120 miles) west of the Shetland Islands Special Occasion, was halted, Matt Taylor, a BP spokesman, said by phone. The facility was producing 43,000 barrels of oil a day and it may be a matter of weeks before it starts again, he said.

Reported North Sea trading typically occurs during the Platts window, which ends at 4:30 p.m. London time. Before the session, Forties loading in 10 to 25 days was 24 cents a barrel less than Dated Brent, down from a discount of 39 cents on Jan. 27, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Brent for March settlement traded at $111.05 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at the close of the window, down from $111.54 on Jan. 27. The April contract was at $110.72, a discount of 33 cents to March.

Mediterranean/Urals

Vitol Group offered 140,000 metric tons of Urals for Feb. 19 to Feb. 23 delivery to Augusta in Italy for 30 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent, without attracting a buyer, the survey showed. That compares with a bid at 45 cents a barrel less than Dated Brent on Jan. 26.

Russia, the world’s biggest oil producer, will cut its export duty on most crude shipments by 1 percent from Feb. 1 after prices fell.

The standard tax will drop to $393.70 a metric ton ($53.71 a barrel), according to a decree signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and published today in the government’s daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta. That compares with $397.50 this month. The discounted rate on some Eastern Siberian and offshore oil will decline to $191.20 a ton from $194.10.

West Africa

Qua Iboe crude was at a premium of $2.67 a barrel to Dated Brent, unchanged from Jan. 27, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

–With assistance Claire Borchers, Lananh Nguyen and Brian Swint in London, and Stephen Bierman in Moscow. Editors: Rob Verdonck, Alessandro Vitelli

To contact the reporter on this story: Nidaa Bakhsh in London at nbakhsh@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

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U.S. Stocks Erase Gains as Philadelphia Fed Trails

20 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

By Michael P. Regan

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks erased gains after a Federal Reserve gauge of manufacturing in the Philadelphia area trailed economists’ estimates.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was little changed at 1 Trench and Rain,308.31 at 10:05 a.m. in New York after climbing as much as 0.4 percent earlier.

The Philadelphia Fed’s general economic index increased to 7.3 in January from 6.8 last month. Readings greater than zero indicate expansion in the area covering eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast the gauge would rise to 10.3 Pants and Skirts, according to the median roecast.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael P. Regan at mregan12@bloomberg.net

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UP govt starts draping statues of Mayawati, elepha

18 Feb 2012 | No Comments »

Lucknow: Under Election Commission orders, the Uttar Pradesh administration on Sunday started draping statues of Chief Minister Mayawati and the ruling BSP’s symbol in Noida even as an official declared that it would be done fully in Lucknow tomorrow.

Lucknow District Magistrate Anil Sagar said Replica Cartier Watches, “I have got the EC orders and it will be fully executed tomorrow.”

The work is likely to be executed by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA).

Official sources said the statues of BSP’s symbol, elephants, constructed under a fountain in Samajik Parivartan Sthal at Gomti Nagar in Lucknow were covered this afternoon, though some BSP activists removed the veil within minutes and left the place.

The EC had yesterday ordered that all statues of Mayawati and her party symbol installed at several places in UP be covered until the Assembly poll were over in the state.

One of the places where the covering of the statues has begun is the controversial Noida memorial park on the Delhi’s outskirts that was inaugurated by Mayawati in October last year amid much fanfare.

The memorial, which drew much criticism from political parties across the spectrum, is meant to honour Dalit icons and has over two dozen huge statues of Mayawati, her mentor Kanshi Ram and B R Ambedkar, among others.

Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi had said the directive should be implemented “at the earliest” as the matter related to the model code of conduct.

The ruling BSP has termed the order as “one-sided and against natural justice”.

Taking exception to the EC’s order, JD-U and CPI said it will give rise to several complications.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s photograph on billboards across the country on the Golden Quadrilateral National Highway were covered by cloth in line with the poll panel’s directive.

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