CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela’s opposition is calling for the government to explain how a former Iranian official ended up with a check in Venezuelan currency worth about $70 million.
Alberta may offer more to smooth way for Keystone: envoy
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Alberta could offer up new environmental initiatives for oil sands development to show the Obama administration that approving a $5.3 billion pipeline to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries will not increase pollution, the Canadian province’s new envoy in Washington said on Monday. Alberta, anxious to tap new markets in the United States for its growing volumes of oil, has already boosted monitoring of the impacts of tar sands projects on northern waterways. …
UK economy faces long grind, no new recession - thinktank
LONDON (Reuters) – The British economy is set for slower growth in 2013 and next year than thought only three months ago but it will probably skirt a triple-dip recession, a leading economic think-tank said on Tuesday. The economy will grow by 0.7 percent in 2013 as it grinds through the slowest recovery from recession in the past 100 years, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) estimated in a quarterly report. That was lower than its previous forecast, made in November, for growth of 1.1 percent this year. …
World's first Nobu Hotel opens at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – A Japanese celebrity chef with restaurants in Beverly Hills, New York and London added “hotelier” to his title Monday with launch of the world’s first Nobu Hotel Restaurant and Lounge.
New Antarctica Research Station Sets Up Shop
A new British research station in Antarctica is officially up and running, the British Antarctic Survey announced today (Feb. 4). Britain's PM Cameron faces gay marriage revolt as plots swirl
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to see off a rebellion within his ruling Conserva tive party on Tuesday over his government's plans to legalize gay marriage, thanks to support from political rivals. But though parliament is likely to vote to give the draft law its initial approval, more than 100 of Cameron's 303 Conservative lawmakers are expected to vote against it on what they say are moral grounds. … British watchdog cool on plans to outsource defence procurement
LONDON (Reuters) – The British parliament’s defence watchdog on Tuesday poured cold water on plans that would allow firms to bid to manage multi-billion dollar government defence equipment contracts. Stung by years of accusations of mismanagement, cost inflation and delays, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is said to be close to outsourcing responsibility for the purchase and maintenance of defence equipment to a private company. …
People of Timbuktu save manuscripts from invaders
TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) -- For eight days after the Islamists set fire to one of the world's most precious collections of ancient manuscripts, the alarm inside the building blared. It was an eerie, repetitive beeping, a cry from the innards of the injured library that echoed around the world. Exclusive: Foreigners' accounts in U.S. banks eyed in tax crackdown
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration may soon ask Congress for the power to require more disclosure by U.S. banks of information about foreign clients’ accounts to those clients’ home governments, as part of a crackdown on tax evasion, sources said on Monday. In a move facing resistance from some in the U.S. banking industry, two tax industry sources said the administration was considering asking Congress in an upcoming White House budget proposal for the authority to require more disclosure from U.S. banks. …
U.S., allies ready more anti-mine drills as Iran tensions simmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military announced on Monday an anti-mine exercise in “the Middle East’s international waterways” in May with more than 20 nations participating, the latest show of global will to keep waterways open as tensions with Iran simmer. The drill was characterized as defensive and a follow-up to the IMCMEX 12 exercise held last September, focused on keeping oil shipping lanes open by clearing mines that potentially Iran, or even guerrilla groups, might deploy to disrupt tanker traffic. …
Merkel challenger suggests Greece should be given more time
LOND ON (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel's main challenger in this year's federal election said on Monday that recession-struck Greece should be given more time to implement its reforms even though this would cost more money. Peer Steinbrueck, a former finance minister, said it was necessary for crisis-stricken states to get their budgets in order and consolidate sovereign debt. But Merkel's center-right government was too focused on consolidation, he said. … 
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