A woman walks past a poster of Reliance Industries installed outside the venue of the company's annual general meeting in Mumbai June 7, 2012.

NEW DELHI | Mon Feb 18, 2013 4:55am EST

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will allow wireless broadband airwave holders to provide voice services if they pay an additional $306 million, a senior government official said on Monday, a move likely to boost billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd.

Reliance Industries, controlled by India's richest man, is the only company with nationwide fourth-generation (4G) broadband airwaves. The company re-entered the fiercely competitive sector by buying airwaves in a 2010 auction and has so far invested at least $3.5 billion.

Firms which own the broadband wireless access (BWA) airwaves can provide voice services along with high-speed Internet if they pay a fee of 16.58 billion rupees ($306 million), R. Chandrashekhar, the top bureaucrat at the telecommunications ministry, told reporters.

"There is no restriction on the technology that is being used (to provide voice services)," he said.

A move by Reliance Industries, which is still preparing to launch high-speed 4G Internet services, into the voice market would intensify competition and hurt rivals such as Bharti Airtel Ltd and the Indian unit of Vodafone Group Plc.

Reliance Industries shares extended gains to as much as 1 percent after the news, while shares in Bharti Airtel, the country's top telecommunications carrier, were down nearly 1 percent at 4.20 a.m. ET.

The Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body within the ministry, approved the move on Monday, but it must to be formally signed off by the Telecommunications Minister, Chandrashekhar said.

Voice accounts for almost 85 percent of Indian carriers' revenues, while data is still at a nascent stage. Data services contribute just about 5-6 percent of the total mobile services revenues as fewer people browse the Internet on phones.

Reliance Industries was not immediately available for a comment.

Separately, the Telecom Commission deferred a plan to bring tower companies under the Unified Licensing regime, which is positive for companies such as Bharti Infratel Ltd.

If brought under the regime, the tower companies would have to pay an annual license fee of 8 percent of their revenue and would be required to cut foreign shareholding to 74 percent.

Currently the companies pay no license fee and a foreign shareholder can own as much as 100 percent of their equity.

($1 = 54.2 Indian rupees)

(Writing by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination to be Defense Secretary, on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 31, 2013. Hagel, 66, is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a former two-term Republican senator.

WASHINGTON | Sun Feb 17, 2013 6:21pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Republican senator said on Sunday that party colleagues will drop tactics to delay a vote on former Senator Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary, saying that President Barack Obama's nominee likely has sufficient support to be confirmed into this key post.

"We will have a vote when we get back, and I am confident that Senator Hagel will probably have the votes necessary to be confirmed as the secretary of defense," Arizona Senator John McCain, who has led the opposition against his former Republican colleague, told NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

Democrats, who control the Senate, have scheduled a vote for February 26, after members return from a week-long recess. Republicans held up the nomination last week in a delay characterized as the first time the Senate had used a procedural tactic called a filibuster to block a defense nominee.

With Democrats holding 55 votes in the 100-seat Senate, Hagel's nomination is expected to win the simple majority of 51 votes needed for his confirmation to become the civilian leader at the Pentagon, once such a vote is allowed.

If confirmed, Hagel, a 66-year old decorated Vietnam War veteran, would replace 74-year-old Leon Panetta.

Hagel, who broke from his party as a senator by opposing former President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq War, has faced withering criticism from Republicans since Obama nominated him on January 7 to be the defense secretary.

Some Republicans have questioned if Hagel is sufficiently supportive of Israel, tough enough on Iran or capable of leading the Pentagon. McCain continued on Sunday to voice concern.

"I don't believe he is qualified. But I don't believe we should hold up his nomination any further because I think it is a reasonable amount of time to have questions answered."

(Reporting By Alister Bull; Editing by Philip Barbara)

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1 of 2. Sotheby's employees straighten ''Femme assise pres d'une fenetre'' from 1932 by Pablo Picasso at Sotheby's in London January 31, 2013.

LONDON | Tue Feb 5, 2013 7:44pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - A Pablo Picasso portrait of his mistress and "golden muse" Marie-Therese Walter sold for 28.6 million pounds ($45 million) on Tuesday, leading an important Sotheby's auction of impressionist, modern and surrealist art.

The sale was the first of a series held in London this month by Sotheby's, Christie's and smaller auction houses in the latest barometer of the strength of the high-end art market.

Prices for the most sought-after works have soared in recent years despite broader economic concerns, with collectors in China, Russia and the Middle East joining more established patrons in Europe and the United States.

Subtracting the buyer's premium of more than 10 percent, the amount realized for the 1932 Picasso was at the lower end of pre-sale estimates of 25 million-35 million pounds.

Nonetheless, it was comfortably the top lot of an evening when a series of works on paper by Austrian artist Egon Schiele arguably stole the limelight.

Schiele's 1914 "Lovers (Self Portrait With Wally)" fetched 7.9 million pounds, an auction record for the artist for a work on paper.

Also sold by the Leopold Museum in Vienna was his "Self Portrait in Green Shirt with Eyes Closed" which sold for 5.1 million pounds, well above expectations of between 1.8 million and 2.5 million pounds.

The combined tally for Schiele works, sold by the museum to help settle a long-running restitution case involving art deemed to have been stolen by the Nazis in the 1930s, was 14 million pounds.

Other lots fared less well, notably Max Beckmann's "Before the Ball - Two Women With a Cat" which went unsold despite pre-sale estimates of 5 million-8 million pounds.

Overall the evening brought in 121.1 million pounds in sales, within expectations of 103 million-149 million. Sotheby's said it was their second highest total from an equivalent sale in London.

"Bidders, both new to the market as well as seasoned buyers, reacted with great enthusiasm, in particular to the selection of impressionist works that were considered to be the strongest offering in many years," said Helena Newman, chair of Sotheby's impressionist and modern art in Europe.

Christie's, the world's largest auction house, holds its sale in London on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Christopher Wilson)

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BRUSSELS | Mon Feb 18, 2013 6:25am EST

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany's tactics to safeguard its output of big, luxury cars threaten a planned target for European Union limits on vehicle carbon emissions by 2020 and could also jeopardize any future ambitions, a document from the bloc's executive said.

Proposals from the German government and German Christian Democrat politician Thomas Ulmer undermine attempts to enforce a 95 grams of CO2 per km (g/km) emission ceiling on cars by 2020, according to the Commission document seen by Reuters on Monday.

EU politicians are divided between those keen for rigorous green standards and those seeking flexibility.

The German car industry and Ulmer, who is leading debate on the car law continuing in the European Parliament this week, have been at the forefront of demands for increased allocation of so-called supercredits.

These allow manufacturers to produce cars that exceed the EU target if they also make very low emission electric or hybrid vehicles.

The Commission says a certain number of supercredits (a maximum of 20,000 per manufacturer) could support innovation, but too many would be counterproductive because that could prevent conventional cars from becoming any less polluting.

The internal Commission document, seen by Reuters, looked at four scenarios based on the German proposals - which would set no limit on supercredits - and found they would mean emissions in a range of 99 g/km to 123 g/km - compared with the EU goal of 95 g/km on average across all new EU vehicles by 2020.

As a result, it said, they would lead to "substantial increases in CO2 emissions and oil use" as well as "significant increases in consumer fuel costs and resulting decreases in GDP".

KNOCK-ON EFFECTS

There would also be knock-on effects. Because the supercredits would delay achievement of the 95 gram target, the German proposals would "have implications for the ability to set further CO2 targets".

Germany dominates the premium car segment, with manufacturers including BMW, Mercedes and Audi.

By contrast, proposals by British Liberal Member of the European Parliament Fiona Hall and Spanish Socialist MEP Eider Gardiazabal give an incentive for very low emissions vehicles, but have only "a limited impact on the effective CO2 target".

As a result, "their impact on consumer fuel costs and GDP is also rather limited," the Commission paper said.

The scenarios give a range of deviation from the Commission target, depending on how many supercredits are earned through the production of ultra-low emission vehicles.

Greg Archer, a program manager at campaign group Transport & Environment, predicted 10-15 g/km in excess of the 95 gram goal was likely, given ambitious German targets for electric vehicles.

"The effect will be fewer jobs created, higher fuel bills for drivers and more CO2 released," he said. "Yes, we want to encourage electric vehicles, but we don't want to encourage electric vehicles if that means conventional cars don't get any cleaner."

The Commission declines to comment on unpublished documents.

None of the Members of the European Parliament involved was immediately available for comment.

(Editing by Anthony Barker)

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1 of 2. A 25-year-old female loggerhead turtle named Yu swims after receiving her 27th pair of prosthetic flippers at the Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, western Japan February 11, 2013.

KOBE, Japan | Fri Feb 15, 2013 7:12am EST

KOBE, Japan (Reuters) - Life looked grim for Yu, a loggerhead turtle, when she washed up in a Japanese fishing net five years ago, her front flippers shredded after a brutal encounter with a shark.

Now keepers at an aquarium in the western Japanese city of Kobe are looking for a high-tech solution that will allow the 25-year-old turtle to swim normally again after years of labor and 27 models of prosthetic fins behind them without achieving their goal.

Yu, weighing 103 kg (227 pounds) and 82 cm (32 inches) long, first came to the attention of keepers at the Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe after she was rushed there from a port on the southern island of Shikoku in 2008.

"She was in a really bad way. More than half her fins were gone and she was bleeding, her body covered with shark bites," said Naoki Kamezaki, the park's director general.

After nursing the loggerhead - an endangered species - back to health, keepers enlisted the help of researchers and a local prosthetics-maker to get her swimming again.

Early versions of prosthetic flippers caused her pain or fell off quickly, and with money short, Kamezaki said he sometimes felt like packing it in.

"There have been times I wanted to give up and just fix her up the best we can and throw her back in," he told Reuters. "Then if luck's on her side she'll be fine, if not, she'll get eaten and that's just life. The way of nature, I suppose."

The latest version - made of rubber and fixed together with a material used in diving wetsuits - was unveiled on February 11 and proclaimed a success, with Yu swimming smoothly around her tank.

But on Friday, one flipper slipped out as soon as she hit the water, forcing keepers back to the laboratory again.

Though Kamezaki admits that it's unlikely Yu will ever live a normal turtle life, he still has hopes.

"My dream for her is that one day she can use her prosthetic fins to swim to the surface, walk about, and dig a proper hole to lay her eggs in," Kamezaki said.

"When her children hatch, well, I just feel that would make all the trauma in her life worthwhile."

(Reporting by Ruairidh Villar, writing by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)

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