1 of 2. An attendant stands inside a high-speed train during an organized experience trip from Beijing to Zhengzhou, as part of a new rail line, December 22, 2012. China will open the world's longest high-speed rail line next week when a link between Beijing and the southern metropolis of Guangzhou is inaugurated, officials said on Saturday.

BEIJING/ZHENGZHOU, China | Sat Dec 22, 2012 6:32am EST

BEIJING/ZHENGZHOU, China (Reuters) - China will open the world's longest high-speed rail line next week when a link between Beijing and the southern metropolis of Guangzhou is inaugurated, officials said on Saturday, underscoring its commitment to a trouble-plagued transport scheme.

The 2,298-km (1,428-mile) line, parts of which are already in operation, will begin full service on Wednesday, halving travel time to less than 10 hours on trains which will run at 300 kph (186 mph).

The new route offers a chance for China's railways ministry, which has been dogged by scandals and missteps, to redeem itself.

A July 2011 crash of a high-speed train killed 40 people and raised concerns about the safety of the fast-growing network and threatened plans to export high-speed technology.

"We have developed a full range of effective measures to manage safety," Zhou Li, head of the ministry's science and technology department, told reporters on a trial run from Beijing to the central city of Zhengzhou.

"We can control safety management," he added.

Last year's accident near the booming eastern coastal city of Wenzhou occurred when a high-speed train rammed into another stranded on the track after being hit by lightning.

Rail investment slowed sharply in the wake of that accident and state media reported earlier this year that the government had cut planned railway investment by 500 billion yuan ($80.27 billion) to 2.3 trillion yuan under a five-year plan to 2015.

But that may reflect cuts that have already taken place as the Ministry of Railways has raised its planned investment budget three times this year as part of government efforts to bolster a slowing economy.

The ministry plans to spend a total of 630 billion yuan in 2012 and has been given clearance to sell more bonds to finance the investments - one of the few outright spending commitments made by the central government in a slew of project approvals worth $157 billion which have not specified how they will be funded.

The approvals include 25 rail investments, state media say.

Despite its expanding network, the Ministry of Railways struggles to make money. It suffered an after-tax loss of 8.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2012 in the face of rising operating costs and mounting debts.

However, the government says it remained committed to building high-speed railways between its major cities, with China eventually planning to run them into Russia and down to Southeast Asia.

"High-speed railways are needed for national development, for the people and for regional communication. Many countries have boosted their economies by developing high-speed rail," Zhou said.

China said in May it would open up the railway industry to private investment on an unprecedented scale, but private investors have been skeptical.

The need for funding is acute. China still needs billions more in rail investment to remove bottlenecks in cargo transport, ease overcrowding in passenger transport and develop commuter lines in its sprawling megacities.

($1 = 6.2286 yuan)

(Reporting by Sabrina Mao and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Nick Edwards; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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The Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Thomas Marshburn, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield blasts off from its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome December 19, 2012.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Fri Dec 21, 2012 3:42pm EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying a multinational crew of three arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, setting the stage for a Canadian for the first time to take command of the orbital research base.

The spacecraft carrying Chris Hadfield from the Canadian Space Agency, NASA's Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday and parked at the station's Rassvet docking module at 9:09 a.m. EST as the ships sailed 255 miles above northern Kazakhstan.

"The Soyuz sleigh has pulled into port at the International Space Station with a holiday gift of three new crewmembers," said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias.

The trio joined station commander Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeni Tarelkin, who are two months into a planned six-month mission.

Ford is due to turn over command of the $100 billion research complex, a project of 15 nations, in mid-March to Hadfield, who will become the first Canadian to lead a space expedition.

"This is a big event for me personally," Hadfield said in a preflight interview. "It takes a lot of work, a lot of focus. It's something that I can look back on as an accomplishment and a threshold of my life."

Command of the station, which has been continuously occupied since November 2000, typically rotates between an American and a Russian crewmember.

In 2009, Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne broke that cycle to become the first European Space Agency commander. Japan's Koichi Wakata is training to lead the Expedition 39 crew in March 2014.

All three of the station's new residents have made previous spaceflights. Hadfield, 53, is a veteran of two space shuttle missions. Marshburn, 52, has one previous shuttle mission and Roman Romanenko, 41, a second-generation cosmonaut, served as a flight engineer aboard the space station in 2009.

The station crew will have some time off to celebrate several winter holidays in orbit - Christmas, the New Year and then Orthodox Christmas - before tackling a list of about 150 science experiments and station maintenance, including two spacewalks.

Among the studies will be medical research into how the human cardiovascular system changes in microgravity.

"When you live in an environment like that, the heart actually shrinks. Your blood vessel response changes. It actually sets us up to cardiovascular problems," Hadfield said. "We have a sequence of experiments that's taking blood samples and monitoring our body while we're exercising and doing different things to try and understand what's going on with our cardiovascular system," he said.

The research is expected to help doctors unravel the aging process on Earth, which is similar in many respects to what happens to the human body in weightlessness.

In addition to medical research, the space station serves as a laboratory for fluid physics and other microgravity sciences, a platform for several astronomical observatories and a testbed for robotics and other technologies.

(Edited by David Adams and Leslie Gevirtz)

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Snow blows across US Highway 218 as near whiteout conditions begin in Waterloo, Iowa, December 20, 2012.

CHICAGO | Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:04am EST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The first major snow storm of winter did little to ease the worst drought in more than 50 years in the crop growing Central Plains and Midwest, while snarling traffic and hampering feeding and transportation of livestock.

MDA EarthSat Weather meteorologist Kyle Tapley said six to 12 inches or more snow fell from Nebraska into Wisconsin during the past two days, the equivalent of about 0.50 inch to 1.00 inch of rain, that will help ease but not eliminate drought worries.

Tapley said roughly 10 inches of moisture or rainfall would be needed in a large portion of the Plains and Midwest to break the drought of 2012 that trimmed crop production and sapped soil moisture reserves.

"The snow put a small dent in the drought and I don't see any moisture for next week," Tapley said.

Commodity Weather Group (CWG) said the snow favored Wisconsin, far eastern Iowa, far northwestern Illinois and west-central Michigan on Thursday with better than a foot of snow in Wisconsin.

"Another storm over the weekend into early next week will bring rain to the Delta and Southeast and a chance for snow near the Ohio River Valley," said CWG meteorologist Joel Widenor.

Widenor said prospects for more rain or snow in the southern Plains hard red winter wheat producing states were more limited on Friday.

But there could be some light rain or snow in the area on Tuesday but "this would provide only limited additional drought relief," Widenor said.

Winterkill threats for wheat and frost threats for Florida citrus are still limited, despite cooling the next two weeks, according to CWG's advisory on Friday.

(Reporting By Sam Nelson; Editing by Grant McCool)

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin gestures during a news conference after their meeting with Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul December 3, 2012.

BRUSSELS | Fri Dec 21, 2012 8:02am EST

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russian anger at an EU energy law blocked progress at talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union leaders on Friday.

Putin, on his first visit to Brussels since his re-election as president in May, was greeted by four topless women, protesting against civil rights curbs in Russia and shouting "Putin, go to hell". They were bundled away by police.

Relations between the 27-nation bloc and Russia, its main external supplier of energy and a key trading partner, have long been poisoned by rows over gas pipelines.

Europe relies on Russia to cover around a quarter of its natural gas needs, but over the past decade Moscow has had a series of disputes with its ex-Soviet neighbors - Ukraine and Belarus - that disrupted its gas exports to Europe.

Those disputes increased the EU's determination to diversify supply away from Russia.

Adding to the grievances are simmering trade disputes over everything from cars to pigs, and European leaders' condemnation of the jailing of members of the band Pussy Riot, seeing it as part of a trend of squashing personal freedoms.

For Russia, which sits on the world's largest natural gas reserves and supplies more than a quarter of the European Union's natural gas imports, energy is the major issue.

In opening comments, Putin referred to EU energy law as "uncivilized".

POTENTIAL

"Of course the EU has the right to take any decisions, but as I have mentioned ... we are stunned by the fact that this decision is given retroactive force," Putin told reporters on the sidelines of a Russia-EU summit in Brussels. "It is an absolutely uncivilized decision."

He was referring to EU legislation to create a single energy market and prevent those that control supply, such as Russia's Gazprom, also dominating distribution networks.

From the European Union side, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said there was "huge potential for cooperation" to the benefit of both sides.

"I think we should in fact be able to transform what is today an interdependence by necessity into an interdependence by choice, a political choice," he said. "That's what requires political leadership on both sides."

Expectations for Friday's talks have always been low, but Russian and EU sources both see the need for continued dialogue.

The EU's executive Commission added to tensions between Europe and Moscow in September when it opened an investigation into suspected anti-competitive market practices by Russia's state-dominated Gazprom.

Trade disputes are also high on the agenda. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said this month time was running out for Russia to settle trade disputes with the EU on everything from pigs to cars and he threatened to take Moscow to the WTO.

Putin also complained about lack of agreement on travel visas, saying Russia was being unfairly treated compared with other nations.

"I have a long list of states here with me which have a visa-free regime with the EU. There is Venezuela, Honduras, Mauritius, Mexico, seems everyone else is there," Putin said.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak)

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:43pm EST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Two species of far-north seals, victims of disappearing sea ice and dwindling snowpack in their Arctic habitat, will be granted protections under the Endangered Species Act, federal officials announced on Friday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ordered "threatened" listings for populations of ringed seals and bearded seals in the waters off northern Alaska, in parts of Russia and other regions of the Arctic.

Both types of seals depend on sea ice and snow, which is becoming scarce in the Arctic region during the non-winter months, NOAA officials said in a written statement.

"Our scientists undertook an extensive review of the best scientific and commercial data. They concluded that a significant decrease in sea ice is probable later this century and that these changes will likely cause these seal populations to decline," said Jon Kurland, protected resources director for the Alaska region of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.

The listings will become effective 60 days after NOAA's notice is published in the Federal Register.

Ringed seals use snow caves to nurse and protect their pups, NOAA said. The warming climate has brought autumn rains instead of the snowfalls that used to be dominant, and the warming trend has caused an earlier spring melting that leaves snowpack too shallow for cave formation, NOAA said.

Bearded seals use sea ice for breeding, nursing and raising their young, NOAA said, and both types of seals depend on floating sea ice during their early summer molting period, when they shed old fur to make way for new fur.

Arctic sea ice coverage this year shrank to the lowest level since satellite records began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Ringed seals are the primary prey for polar bears, which in 2008 were listed as threatened because of similar problems with disappearing sea ice. Polar bears were the first animals granted Endangered Species Act protections because of climate change.

Now several other ice-dependent animals have been or are expected to be listed.

The decision covers bearded and ringed seals outside of U.S. territory as well as those off Alaska including a listing for a rare subspecies of ringed seal that lives in Ladoga Lake in Russia.

The listing decisions and studies have been prompted largely by petitions and litigation from an environmental organization, the Center for Biological Diversity. The center has also advocated for Endangered Species Act listings of the spotted and ribbon seal and the Pacific walrus.

A Center official said Friday's listing decision was a good step, but called on the Obama administration to do more.

"The Obama administration has to take decisive action, right now, against greenhouse gas pollution to preserve a world filled with ice seals, walruses and polar bears," Shaye Wolf, the center's climate science director, said in a statement.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Leslie Gevirtz)

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WASHINGTON | Fri Dec 21, 2012 4:11pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has softened rules to curb pollution from industrial boilers and large incinerators, revising earlier versions to target only the largest polluters and give them more time to comply.

The agency on Friday formalized standards it initially released in March 2011 for reducing toxic air pollution, including mercury and particle pollution, known as soot, from boilers, solid waste incinerators and cement kilns.

Boilers, typically fired by coal, oil, natural gas and biomass, are used to power heavy machinery and provide heat for industrial processes.

The new rules target roughly 2,300 boilers, or less than 1 percent of the 1.5 million units operating in the United States, requiring them to meet numerical limits on their release of air toxins.

The agency said it had analyzed new data provided by industry groups and "additional information about real-world performance and conditions under which affected boilers and incinerators operate" in order to adjust the rule and propose more "targeted revised emission limits".

Large-source boilers, found mainly at refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities, will have three years to comply instead of one and can be granted a fourth year if needed to install controls, the EPA said.

The rule also targets 106 industrial solid waste incinerators, which have five years to comply with the EPA standards.

"The adjusted standards require only the largest and highest-emitting units to add pollution controls or take steps to reduce air pollution, making the standards affordable, protective and practical," according to an EPA factsheet.

Some environmental groups said the EPA's handling of the long-delayed boiler rules signaled that the agency's upcoming regulation would be more flexible to industry concerns.

"These watered-down rules suggest the Obama administration will collaborate more with industry in the second term," said Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch.

The EPA first introduced the rule in 2005, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated it in 2007.

The rule was re-proposed in June 2010 but industry groups slammed that version, calling its set limits unachievable, prompting the EPA to relax and reintroduce the rule.

"After years of delays, the finalized Boiler MACT standard ends uncertainty and allows businesses to move forward with one standard that applies across the nation, leveling the playing field," said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center.

MACT is an acronym for Maximum Achievable Control Technology.

Another environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, applauded the EPA's boiler rules for being stronger than previous versions but criticized the agency for going in the "wrong direction" in its standards for incinerators and cement kilns.

"The agency ... eased standards in their final rules for cement manufacturers, which is troubling and deserves further explanation."

Despite relaxing the rules, the EPA said the standards would prevent up to 8,100 premature deaths, 5,100 heart attacks and 52,000 asthma attacks.

The agency estimated that Americans would receive $13 to $29 in health benefits for every dollar spent to meet the final standards and that the rules would create a small net increase in jobs.

Some industry groups were still wary.

"Several billions of dollars in capital spending will be necessary to comply. This is a significant investment for an industry still recovering from the economic downturn, especially in light of the growing cumulative regulatory burden we face," the American Forest & Paper Association, the national lobby group of the forest products industry, said on Friday.

The National Association of Manufacturers, an opponent of EPA regulations, said in November that compliance costs for the agency's six air pollution rules, including the boiler rule, could total $111.2 billion by EPA estimates and up to $138.2 billion by industry estimates.

The lobby group said the boiler rule would cost covered sources $2.7 billion in annualized costs in 2013 and $14.3 billion in upfront capital spending - higher than EPA estimates of $1.9 billion in annualized costs in 2013 and $5.1 billion in capital spending.

Other groups that have opposed the rules include the Industrial Energy Consumers of America - representing the chemicals, cement, aluminum and other industries.

Bob Bessette, president of the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners, cautiously welcomed the revised rule but said it was still studying the economic impact.

"Hopefully, the changes EPA has made will decrease the economic and jobs impact on the still-struggling manufacturing, commercial, and institutional sectors and national economy," he said.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Nick Zieminski, David Gregorio and Dale Hudson)

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n">(Reuters) - California Energy Commission staff on Friday said BrightSource Energy's proposed 500-megawatt Hidden Hills solar thermal power project would have "significant" impact on the environment.

In a statement on the final staff assessment, the state's primary energy planning and policy agency cited impacts on "biological resources, cultural resources, land use, and visual resources" even if recommended mitigation measures are implemented.

BrightSource said the company is looking forward to the formal evidentiary hearings upon which the Commission will base its final decision.

"Unmitigated environmental impacts and non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations would require the Commission to adopt override findings if the project is approved," the CEC said in a statement.

The proposed project would consist of two 250-MW solar plants, each having about 85,000 heliostats - elevated mirrors used to focus the sun's rays on a solar receiver. It would be located on 3,277 acres of private land leased in Inyo County next to the Nevada border.

The construction of the $2.2 billion project, if approved, would take about 29 months with work scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2013 and end in the fourth quarter of 2015.

BrightSource's first major project, the $2.2 billion Ivanpah plant in California, is nearly complete. The 377-megawatt plant is backed by a $1.6 billion government loan guarantee and is expected to enter service in 2013.

California has a goal to produce 33 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and Koustav Samanta in Bangalore; editing by Jim Marshall)

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A protective layer of ice form on oranges in a grove near Dover, Florida December 14, 2010.

MIAMI | Fri Dec 21, 2012 12:37pm EST

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. government forecasters have issued a freeze warning for parts of Florida's key citrus-growing region as a cold front threatens to carry icy temperatures into the Sunshine State this weekend.

The National Weather Service office in Tampa Bay-Ruskin said in an advisory on Friday that the freeze warning for Levy, Citrus, Sumter, Hernando and Pasco counties was in effect from 2 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST (0700-1400 GMT).

Tyler Fleming, a senior forecaster in the Tampa Bay office, said it was the first freeze warning of the year for the area and that temperatures could dip below freezing for at least two hours.

A freeze watch was also in effect for the same five-county area for late Saturday night through early Sunday morning, Fleming said.

Typically, citrus can be damaged by four hours or more of temperatures below 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 Celsius).

Andrew Meadows, spokesman for the state's leading growers association, Florida Citrus Mutual, said the weekend chill was unlikely to be long-lasting or extreme enough to cause any damage to the state's $9 billion citrus industry.

"Actually, this kind of cold event is a good thing because it brings the brix content up in the fruit and helps prepare the tree for any cold weather ahead," Meadows said in an email.

Ray Royce, executive director of the Highlands County Citrus Growers Association in central Florida, agreed that there was no cause for alarm.

"The next two nights will be the coldest nights of the season so far," Royce told Reuters in a phone interview.

"There may be a chance for frost," he said, "but it doesn't appear that there's going to be enough cold to damage wood or to damage fruit."

Royce added a note of caution, however.

"You never know what could happen. You just don't want to get flat-footed and have it all of a sudden be 5 or 6 degrees colder than you're expecting."

Florida's groves yield more than 75 percent of the U.S. orange crop and account for about 40 percent of the world's orange juice supply.

(Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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Fri Dec 21, 2012 4:28pm EST

n">(Reuters) - A controversial genetically engineered salmon has moved a step closer to the consumer's dining table after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday the fish didn't appear likely to pose a threat to the environment or to humans who eat it.

AquAdvantage salmon eggs would produce fish with the potential to grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon. If it gets a final go-ahead, it would be the first food from a transgenic animal - one whose genome has been altered - to be approved by the FDA.

The AquAdvantage Atlantic salmon egg was developed by AquaBounty Technology to speed up production to meet global seafood demand.

In a draft environmental assessment, the FDA affirmed earlier findings that the biotech salmon was not likely to be harmful. It said it would take comments from the public on its report for 60 days before making a final decision on approval.

"With respect to food safety, FDA has concluded that food from AquAdvantage salmon is as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon, and that there is a reasonable certainty of no harm from consumption," the FDA assessment states.

AquaBounty officials said they were caught by surprise by the news that its product was a step closer to approval as years of controversy had followed the company's application for a go-ahead from the regulator. They said they did not know the timing or details of the process the FDA will follow following the 60-day comment period.

"We are encouraged that the environmental assessment is being released and hope the government continues the science-based regulatory process," said AquaBounty Chief Executive Ronald Stotish.

Critics say the new salmon is a "dangerous experiment" and have pressured the FDA to reject it. They say the FDA has relied on outdated science and substandard methods for assessing the new fish.

"We are deeply concerned that the potential of these fish to cause allergic reactions has not been adequately researched," said Michael Hansen, a scientist at the Consumers Union. "FDA has allowed this fish to move forward based on tests of allergenicity of only six engineered fish, tests that actually did show an increase in allergy-causing potential."

There were also concerns the FDA would not require the genetically modified salmon to be labeled as such, and some critics said they may file a lawsuit to prevent what they fear could be the imminent approval of the engineered fish.

"Congress can still keep FDA from unleashing this dangerous experiment," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group. "Although this latest FDA decision is a blow to consumer confidence, we encourage everyone to contact their members of Congress and demand this reckless decision be overturned."

The Center for Food Safety, another non-profit consumer protection group, was highly critical of the FDA report, and officials said they might sue the regulator over the issue.

"It is extremely disappointing that the Obama Administration continues to push approval of this dangerous and unnecessary product," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. "The GE salmon has no socially redeeming value. It's bad for the consumer, bad for the salmon industry and bad for the environment."

FDA spokeswoman Morgan Liscinsky said no final decisions have been made on labeling or on the application for approval.

"The release of these materials is not a decision on whether food from AquAdvantage Salmon requires additional labeling; nor is it a decision on the new animal drug application currently under review. It also does not provide a final food safety determination," Liscinsky said.

The AquAdvantage salmon would be an all-female population with eggs produced in a facility on Prince Edward Island in Canada and shipped to a "grow-out facility" in Panama, where they would be reared to market size and harvested for processing.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum; and Peter Galloway)

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The tanker Stena Primorsk hauling crude oil sits anchored in the Hudson River after loosing its steering and running aground south of Albany, New York December 20, 2012.

NEW YORK | Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:53am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil trapped in a tanker that ran aground on the Hudson River near Albany, New York will be transferred to a barge on Friday night, the Port of Albany said.

The Stena Primorsk, a 600-foot (182-metre) motor tanker, was carrying 11.7 million gallons (under 280,000 barrels) of light crude oil when it lost steering control on Thursday morning and hit land near Stuyvesant, New York, about 20 miles downriver from Albany, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The light crude oil on the tanker was from the Bakken shale in North Dakota destined for Irving Oil Ltd's 300,000 barrel-per-day Saint John, New Brunswick refinery in Canada, Richard Hendrick, general manager of the Port of Albany said. This was the first such shipment out of the Albany port.

A smaller barge and tug unit is en route to the site of the accident after it left Brooklyn, New York early on Friday, Hendrick said. The barge is expected to arrive around 5:00 PM EST (2200 GMT) Friday, he added.

The U.S. Coast Guard said no pollution was reported related to the incident.

(Reporting by Selam Gebrekidan;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)

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