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)

View the original article here

1 of 2. The China Central Television (CCTV) building is seen next to a construction site in heavy haze in Beijing's central business district in this January 14, 2013 file photo.

BEIJING | Sun Jan 20, 2013 12:11am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing is to unveil unprecedented new rules governing how China's capital reacts to hazardous air pollution, the official Xinhua news agency said, as deteriorating air quality threatens to become a rallying point for wider political dissatisfaction.

The rules will formalize previous ad-hoc measures, including shutting down factories, cutting back on burning coal and taking certain vehicle classes off the roads on days when pollution hits unacceptable levels.

Air quality in Beijing, on many days degrees of magnitude below minimum international health standards for breathability, is of increasing concern to China's leadership because it plays into popular resentment over political privilege and rising inequality in the world's second-largest economy.

Domestic media have run stories describing the expensive air purifiers government officials enjoy in their homes and offices, alongside reports of special organic farms so cadres need not risk suffering from recurring food safety scandals.

Smog blanketed most of the city from late Friday, prompting the government to warn people to reduce outdoor activities.

On Saturday, an index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), rose as high as 400 in some parts in the city. A level above 300 is considered hazardous, while the World Health Organization recommends a daily level of no more than 20.

The reading was still lower than last weekend, when it hit a staggering 755.

Lung cancer rates in the city have shot upward by 60 percent in the last decade, according to a report by the state-run China Daily in 2011, even as smoking rates have flattened out.

The pollution has also deterred foreigners from living and working in "Greyjing". Now it appears that the government has adopted a more transparent approach to addressing the problem than in the past.

Officials once tried to spin the city's poor air quality by not including PM2.5 readings in reports and referring to smog as "fog" in weather reports. One official accused the U.S. embassy in Beijing of meddling in China's internal affairs for publishing its own PM2.5 readings online.

But this time around, state media appears to have been cleared to cover pollution as a major problem.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang, who is expected to take over as premier in March, said earlier this week that tackling pollution would be a long-term process.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Writing by Pete Sweeney; Editing by Nick Macfie)

View the original article here

Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:07pm EST

n">(Reuters) - What's Jeff Immelt going to do with the money?

General Electric Co shareholders are wondering what the company's chief executive plans to do with a cash windfall that could total tens of billions of dollars over several years as the company sells its remaining stake in NBC Universal and recoups more of the profits earned by finance unit GE Capital.

Last year GE Capital sent $6.4 billion back to the company's headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. Analysts estimate that the unit could generate a similar amount of cash this year.

But GE could get an even bigger infusion in mid-2014, when it is set to cash in on its option of selling the rest of its stake in NBC Universal to Comcast Corp. The stake is currently valued at roughly $17 billion, but the final price and timing of the deal could vary.

Immelt spoke with investors on Friday in a conference call after GE posted earnings that rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier, beating expectations.

During the call, the CEO of the largest U.S. conglomerate was cagey about his spending plans. He did not venture far beyond his often-repeated mantra that GE's priorities were balanced between raising its dividend, buying back shares and doing some small takeovers.

"This company is going to have a ton of cash over the next three years, right?" Immelt said. "I don't really want to make any other pronouncements other than disciplined and balanced capital allocation. We'll go over the other bridges as we get there but let's start with that."

GE shares were up 3 percent on a day that major U.S. stock indexes barely budged.

In January 2011, GE sold a majority stake in NBC to Comcast back. About that time, GE embarked on a $12 billion wave of acquisitions of smaller makers of energy equipment. That is a pattern that could repeat itself, suggested Jeff Sprague, analyst with Vertical Research Partners.

"They do need to redeploy that cash in a way that, at a minimum, preserves and ideally enhances the earnings profile," Sprague said. The company might consider deals to build up its newly created $7.4 billion Energy Management division, which makes equipment used to transmit electricity.

The company would do well to stick with Immelt's stated goal of aiming for targets worth about $1 billion to $3 billion, Sprague added.

"If they can keep it in that smaller range, smaller for them at least, you just lower risk," he said. "It's more digestible."

DECEMBER DIVIDEND

Immelt's plans for the money also include continuing to raise its dividend and buy back shares.

Investors suggested that Friday's better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report could prompt the company to again boost its dividend, which it raised by 12 percent in December.

"Are they going to be in a position in the second quarter, perhaps if they perform so strongly again, to raise their dividend?" asked Oliver Pursche, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, New York.

Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said the company did not plan to boost its payout quite so often.

"Our historical pattern was to do dividend increases at the end of the year by reviewing capital allocation plans with the board of directors and I would think that would continue to be our practice," he said in an interview.

The company's four increases from July 2010 through December 2011 were a special case, intended to make up for a sharp cut to the payout during the financial crisis.

Peter Sorrentino, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, suggested that GE should not try to reinvest all the money it gets when it sells the remainder of NBC to Comcast. Instead, he said the company should consider paying more out in dividends and buybacks.

"Let's benefit shareholders who've stayed the course over a long period of time," Sorrentino said. "Better to be lean and focused. Target new growth markets, but let's not continue to carry the size of the enterprise just because that's what we've always done."

The long languor of GE's shares stands as one of shareholders' main complaints about Immelt's tenure. While GE's 12 percent rise over the past year outpaced the 9 percent rise of the Dow Jones industrial average, it trades well below the $42 mark reached in 2007 before the financial crisis. The broader U.S. stock market also remains below its pre-crisis highs.

RECORD BACKLOG

GE, the world's biggest maker of jet engines and electric turbines, reported that its order backlog -- a closely watched indicator of future sales -- hit a record high $210 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $203 billion in the third quarter.

"The backlog was a really good number. I didn't expect to see a $7 billion, 3.5 percent rise in the backlog," said Jack De Gan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory Corp, which holds GE shares. "Orders in the fourth quarter must have been really good for the industrial side."

Orders were up 2 percent, and would have been up 7 percent factoring out a sharp drop in demand for wind turbines related to the expected expiration of a tax credit, as well as exchange-rate fluctuations.

GE shares were up 3 percent to $21.94 in early Friday afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 were up slightly.

Fourth-quarter earnings rose to $4.01 billion, or 38 cents per share, from $3.73 billion, or 35 cents per share, a year earlier.

Factoring out one-time items, profit came to 44 cents per share, a penny ahead of analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 3.6 percent to $39.33 billion from $37.97 billion a year earlier.

Solid demand in China and oil-producing countries helped GE to offset unsteady economies at home and in Europe, Immelt said.

"We saw real strength in the emerging markets and the developed regions stabilized," Immelt told investors.

GE kicks off a wave of earnings reports from the nation's largest manufacturers, with United Technologies Corp, 3M Co and Honeywell International Inc all due next week.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Tim Dobbyn and David Gregorio)

View the original article here

The Luna-Glob in an undated illustration.

MOSCOW | Tue Jan 15, 2013 2:56pm EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will resume a long-dormant quest to explore the moon by sending an unmanned probe there in 2015, the head of the space agency was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

The craft, called Luna-Glob, or Moon-Globe, will be carried by the first rocket to blast off from a new facility that Russia is building in its far eastern Amur region, Roskosmos director Vladimir Popovkin said, according to the Interfax news agency.

"We will begin our exploration of the moon from there," he said of the new space centre that will decrease Russia's reliance of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the ex-Soviet nation Kazakhstan, which it leases.

Russian space officials have said Luna-Glob would consist of an orbital module and a probe that would land on the moon and beam back information about samples it takes from the surface.

The Soviet Union got a jump on the United States in the Cold War space race, sending a probe to the moon in 1959 and putting the first person into space in 1961. But the United States first put a man on the moon in 1969 and Russia has not done so.

The last successful Soviet launch of a unmanned probe to the moon was in the 1970s, and Russia has suffered setbacks in its space program in recent years, including bungled satellite launches and the failure of a Mars probe in 2011.

A successful rocket launch on Tuesday put three military satellites in orbit, the Defense Ministry said.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved a plan last month to spend 2.1 trillion roubles ($70 billion) on space industry development in 2013-2020, to pursue projects to explore the moon and Mars, among other things.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

View the original article here

Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt poses prior to a meeting at the Culture Ministry in Paris October 29, 2012.

SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Jan 2, 2013 11:28pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, will travel this year to reclusive North Korea, where Internet use is subject to some of the world's tightest controls, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Schmidt, one of the highest-profile leaders of the U.S. technology industry, could visit as early as this month, the AP said. The announcement was made days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the third member of his family to rule the country since its inception in the Cold War, signaled a willingness to improve relations with South Korea.

It was unclear whom Schmidt will meet or what his agenda might be, the AP reported. Internet access is largely restricted to all but the most influential officials of the reclusive state. Media content is also rigidly controlled, although basic 3G cellphone use is said to be rapidly expanding.

Google did not directly respond to a question about whether Schmidt was going to North Korea, although a spokeswoman's response suggested a visit would not be for company business.

"We do not comment on personal travel," spokeswoman Samantha Smith said when asked about the AP report.

Schmidt, Google's main political and government relations representative, has also been a prominent supporter of President Barack Obama.

Google famously espouses a "do no evil" philosophy and campaigns for Internet freedom. It pulled its search service from mainland China in 2010, relocating it to Hong Kong because it said it could not conform with censorship requirements.

Last year, the company flew in North Korean defectors from Seoul for a panel discussion at a summit it hosted focusing on global illicit networks. It has also hosted North Korean officials in Silicon Valley, according to the Asia Foundation, which co-hosted part of a trip by the North Korean delegation.

"I think this is part of Google's broader vision to bring the Internet to the world, and North Korea is the last frontier," said Peter Beck, the South Korean representative of the Asia Foundation, a non-profit organization. "I suspect that Google's visit is more philanthropic than financial."

Beck said the North Korea delegation had been shown a Google Earth view of their capital Pyongyang.

Schmidt is writing, with former U.S. state department official Jared Cohen, a book due in April called "The New Digital Age." It will address how the Internet and technology can empower people and drive fundamental social, political and economic change.

"Perhaps the most intriguing part of this trip is simply the idea of it. The restricted control of information lies at the heart of the DPRK state and yet it is about to host one of the West's greatest facilitators of borderless information flows," said Victor Cha, a senior adviser and Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

"If Google is the first small step in piercing the information bubble in Pyongyang, it could be a very interesting development," Cha wrote on the center's website on Wednesday.

FIRST-TIMER

Schmidt's visit will make him one of the most prominent American businessmen to visit the country.

The AP cited two people familiar with his plans as saying the ex-Google CEO will join a private group led by former United Nations Ambassador and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, a frequent visitor to North Korea.

Their visit follows a long-range rocket launch that has triggered a drive for further United Nations sanctions. North Korea is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.

A second aspect of Schmidt's visit as part of Richardon's delegation could be to try to obtain the release of Korean-American tourist Kenneth Bae, accused of crimes against the state. Richardson has helped negotiate the release of detained Americans in the past.

"Richardson has had a history of trying to jump-start dialogue at low points in the U.S.-DPRK nuclear talks. He is a well-known quantity to North Koreans and does have credibility with them," Cha wrote.

(Reporting By Edwin Chan; Additional reporting by David Chance in SEOUL; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Andre Grenon and Ron Popeski; eddie.chan@thomsonreuters.com; +1 415 677 2533; Reuters Messaging: eddie.chan.reuters.com@reuters.net)

View the original article here

NEW YORK | Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:12pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Public Library released designs on Wednesday for an overhaul of its flagship Beaux-Arts building in Manhattan that will open to the public spaces that only library staff have seen for the past few decades.

Under the plan, patrons will be able to borrow books from a new 100,000-square-foot lending library, creating what Mayor Michael Bloomberg said would be the largest combined research and circulating library in the world.

"With the Central Library Plan, we will open up more of our landmark building to the public, offering both circulating and research collections in one place, as well as the programs, classes, materials and services needed by our patrons," New York Public Library President Tony Marx said in a statement.

The building, with two stone lions famously guarding the entrance on Fifth Avenue, opened in 1911 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. It became a research-only library in 1981 when the lending library was rehoused in a relatively drab building across the street.

That building will be closed when the renovation project is completed in 2018.

Project architect Norman Foster, who has previously designed modern additions to other historic buildings such as the British Museum in London and the Reichstag in Berlin, said the flagship building's chandelier-bedecked Rose Main Reading Room would not be touched.

The library is making space for the lending library and increased research space by removing much of its stacks - seven stories of steel shelving containing millions of research volumes - at the rear of the building that are currently closed to the public.

Many scholars had previously criticized early plans to send most of the displaced volumes across the Hudson River to a storage building in New Jersey, saying the library's mission as a research center would be harmed if it were to take up to 24 hours for a requested book to arrive.

In response, the library said in September it had been given an $8 million donation allowing it to expand its underground storage space and keep onsite 3.3 million of the 4.5 million volumes currently stored there, with the remainder available nearly instantly in digital formats.

The library had earlier estimated the plan would cost $300 million but said on Wednesday the final budget would be higher, although it was not yet finalized. Bloomberg, who has endorsed the project, has said the city will contribute $150 million.

The library said the remainder of the funds will come from sales of buildings it owns nearby, and that consolidating several midtown libraries into one building will save about $15 million a year, which it will spend on librarians and books.

The plans still require approval from various city agencies, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission will have to give its approval for what the library calls "relatively minor" changes to the building's exterior before construction can begin next year.

(This story corrects reference in lead to who has access to areas being opened up)

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)

View the original article here

NEW DELHI | Fri Aug 3, 2012 9:29am EDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India plans to send a satellite via an unmanned spacecraft to orbit Mars next year, joining a small group of nations already exploring the red planet, a government scientist said on Friday.

A rocket will blast off from the southeastern coast of India, dropping the satellite into deep space, which will then travel onto Mars to achieve orbit, the senior scientist said, asking not to be named because the project is awaiting final approval.

A spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) based in the southern city of Bangalore would not confirm the mission, but commented generally on the ambitions of India's space program.

"After the Moon, worldwide attention is now focused on finding out if there (are) habitable spots on Mars," ISRO's Deviprasad Karnik said.

ISRO scientists expect the satellite to orbit at less than 100 km (62 miles) above Mars.

India's federal cabinet is expected soon to clear the mission, according to media reports this week that said the program will cost about $80 million.

The plan has drawn criticism in a country suffering from high levels of malnutrition and power shortages. But India has long argued that technology developed in its space program has practical applications to everyday life.

India's space exploration program began in 1962. Four years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon. India is now looking at landing a wheeled rover on the Moon in 2014.

Separately, the United States expects to land NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory vehicle at 1:31 a.m. EDT on Monday (0031 EDT) next to a mountain that may harbor life-friendly environments.

Last year, a Chinese Russian probe failed in a bid to send a satellite to Mars.

(Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Ed Lane)

View the original article here

* Says no discussions taking place on nationalisation

* Move would have put UK's AAA rating at risk - analysts

* RBS braced for mis-selling IT provisions - Sky News

By Matt Scuffham

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Britain has no plans to fully nationalise Royal Bank of Scotland, government sources told Reuters on Thursday, contradicting a report in the Financial Times.

The FT said senior government ministers were discussing the possibility of buying out private investors in the bank but sources told Reuters such a move was not on the agenda.

"There is no discussion on the table, there is no proposal, it is just not an active thing we are discussing at the moment at all," one of the sources said.

Mediobanca analysts said a full nationalisation would increase Britain's debt burden in relation to GDP and almost certainly cost the country its AAA credit rating.

"Having seen the taxpayer already suffer through the rescue of RBS, to saddle them with a book of questionable loans in the interests of political expediency is quite frankly ludicrous," they said in a research note.

Britain already owns 82 percent of the bank after bailing it out during the 2008 financial crisis. The remaining 18 percent of the bank is owned by private investors and would need to be bought out at a premium to the current market price. The shares are worth 4.2 billion pounds at Wednesday's closing price.

The FT report said ministers had become exasperated by the barriers they believe banks are placing on lending and some think taking full control of RBS and forcing it to lend could push other banks into action.

The government is under increasing pressure to stimulate the economy which official data has shown to be in a much deeper recession than previously thought.

The latest programme to get banks lending was launched on Wednesday offering banks 80 billion pounds worth of cheap funding on condition they lend it to small firms and households.

RBS reports first-half results on Friday.

Sky News reported that the bank will set aside a further 130 million pounds to compensate customers mis-sold loan insurance, take a hit of 125 million pounds for problems related to a computer systems failure and make a provision of 50 million pounds to settle claims by small firms wrongly sold interest rate hedging products.

View the original article here