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Calif. Law To Require Ships To Cut Pollution California is about to become the first state to require shore power at its ports. A new law mandates at least half of a shipping line's fleet to shut down their diesel engines and plug into shore-side electric power when they unload their cargo. It's part of a larger effort to cut pollution at the state's busiest ports, but costs have been a sticking point. |
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Cape Cod Community To Vote On Status Of Wind Turbines In the Cape Cod community of Falmouth, voters will decide if two, town-owned wind turbines will be taken down. Dozens have complained of headaches, insomnia and other issues since the first turbine started spinning in 2010. |
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First U.S. Company To Enter Export Market For Natural Gas With supplies high and prices at historic lows, there's debate whether U.S. companies should be allowed to export the gas overseas for a higher price. Many energy companies have applied for government approval to ship liquefied natural gas worldwide. So far, only one company has gotten a license to do that in the past 30 years.. |
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Huge Boost In U.S. Oil Output Set To Transform Global Market The International Energy Agency says U.S. shale output and petroleum from Canada's tar sands are transforming global energy markets. |
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India, China Could Soon Demand More Oil Than U.S. And Europe The United States has emerged as the star performer on the global oil scene, according to the latest oil outlook from the International Energy Agency. Oil production from the United States grew at a record pace last year for a non-OPEC nations. Meanwhile, emerging economies have become the big oil buyers. |
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Shell Digs Deep To Tap Into Lucrative Oil, Gas Reserves Royal Dutch Shell is pushing ahead with plans for the world's deepest offshore oil and gas production facility. It will be nearly two miles beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. It is testing the bounds of the oil and gas industry's capability to drill ever deeper. |
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Enron's Jeffrey Skilling May See Sentence Reduced Skilling was sentenced in 2006 for his role in the collapse of the energy trading giant and handed a 24-year prison sentence. Under the deal announced Thursday, he may see as much as a decade cut from that sentence. |
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Nearly Three Years After Dodd-Frank, Reforms Happen Slowly The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was a sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another financial collapse. Journalist Gary Rivlin says passing the bill was just a first step in a long road to real reform, and the financial system is as vulnerable to disaster it was in 2008. |
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Why Ben Franklin Is The World's Banker A report from the Federal Reserve says the number of U.S. dollars in circulation keeps rising. Most of it goes overseas, in the form of $100 bills. People in countries like Russia and Argentina use $100 bills as a safe haven because they don't trust their national currency or their own banks. |
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Former Gov. Mark Sanford Wins South Carolina House Seat Republican Sanford, who as governor was dogged by scandal, defeated Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of satirist Stephen Colbert. |
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Congressional Hearings Put Renewed Focus On Benghazi Attack Security was a central theme as the Senate held a confirmation hearing Tuesday for Deborah K. Jones, who has been nominated to succeed Christopher Stevens as ambassador to Libya. On Wednesday, House Republicans will hear testimony about the attack that killed Stevens and three other Americans. |
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Are Those North Korean Long-Range Missiles For Real? When North Korea put its missiles on parade last year, experts were surprised to see what looked to be new long-range missiles that might be powerful enough to reach the U.S. But a closer look at details in the photos suggests the missiles on display might have been a bluff. |
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Both Sides Hopeful In Last Hours Of Sanford, Colbert Busch Race Updated at 9:29 pm ET — Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford handily won the race for his old House seat, beating Elizabeth Colbert Bush. Earlier in the day, both sides expressed confidence that strong turnout was a good omen. And it was — for Sanford. |
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Pakistani Politician Imran Khan Falls From Lift During Campaign The former cricketer was being lifted above a crowd of supporters when he suddenly took a tumble. |
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Obama Says U.S. And South Korea Stand Firm Against Pyongyang The president says he has never spoken directly to the North Korean leader, but that he and South Korean President Park Geun-hye remain open to talks. |
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Kerry Appeals To Russia To Help End Syrian Civil War Secretary of State Kerry met with Russian leaders in Moscow on Tuesday in another attempt to forge a consensus on Syria. |
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Bishops Remain Missing After Capture In Syria As orthodox Christians across the world celebrated a late Easter this year, Christian communities in Syria and neighboring Lebanon postponed all celebrations. Instead they gathered in churches only to pray for the safe return of two bishops kidnapped outside of Aleppo last month. While their whereabouts are still unknown, the Syrian opposition and the Assad regime continue to trade blame for the abduction the Syriac Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Archbishops of Aleppo. We speak to the Syriac Orthodox bishop of Beirut and his congregation about how the kidnappings have marred the traditionally celebratory time of year. |
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Why Britain Has Gone Mad About Baking   Some 9 million Britons have taken up baking in the last year alone. A TV program showcasing home bakers is a runaway hit, and sales of baking goods have skyrocketed. Then there are the cake clubs, where the rules call for pacing yourself — and sampling as much as you can. |
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Gas Tanker Explosion Kills At Least 20 Near Mexico City  A tanker truck carrying gasoline exploded on a highway near Mexico City Tuesday morning, reportedly killing at least 20 people. The explosion, which early reports indicate was an accident, occurred after 5 a.m. local time. |
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The History And Politics Of Humanitarian Intervention Some are calling on President Barack Obama to intervene in Syria's civil war. Gary Bass, Princeton University professor and author of Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention, talks about the political risks of humanitarian intervention. |
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Portugal Struggles To Avoid 2nd Bailout Portugal's creditors are evaluating the country's latest austerity package, which includes 30,000 public sector layoffs, to determine whether Lisbon might need a second international bailout. The Portuguese government is raising the retirement age and lengthening work weeks to try to squeeze out more revenue, and repay its bailout loans. |
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Afghan-Pakistani Forces Exchange Fire Along Shared Border Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are on the rise again following two border clashes in the space of a week. The trouble was apparently sparked by Pakistan's decision to erect a new border gate despite Afghan objections. |
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White House Sorts Out Syrian Chemical Weapons Allegations Our understanding of who did what — if anything — with chemical weapons in Syria is no clearer today than it was a week ago. That's when President Obama said while there is evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria, there is none pointing to who is responsible. For more information, David Greene talks to Gary Samore, former coordinator for weapons of mass destruction at the White House. He is now the executive director of Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. |
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U.S. Turns Up Heat On Costly Commercial Cyber Theft In China U.S. official displeasure has grown over the problem of Chinese cyber-espionage. The Obama administration has signaled that it will step up the investigation and prosecution of trade-secret theft and has not ruled out punitive measures. |
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Germany's Paradox: Family-Friendly Benefits, But Few Kids Germany is considered quite generous when it comes to helping women raise families. But some analysts say the way many of the benefits are set up hurts those with a career and a family. |
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Why Sustained Action Against Syria Is More Than Air Strikes Advocates for intervening in Syria say if Israel can get past Syria's air defenses, surely the U.S. can. But experts say Israel's limited strikes can't be compared with the huge resources needed for a sustained operation to establish a no-fly zone, for example. |
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NASA: Warming Climate Likely Means More Floods, Droughts The wettest regions will see more heavy rainfall and the driest regions will see even less precipitation, according to the analysis of more than a dozen climate models. |
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17-Year Cicadas Primed To Emerge This spring the massive "Brood II" batch of 17-year cicadas is expected to emerge from the ground in backyards and parks all along the Eastern U.S. The insects will mate, lay eggs, and start the cycle all over again. Cicada expert John Cooley explains the unusual biology and evolution of periodical cicadas. |
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Imagine A Flying Pig: How Words Take Shape In The Brain Linguists used to think the human brain had a specific region devoted to understanding language. But brain scans now indicate that regions controlling vision, movement, taste, smell and touch are all called into action when we think of a word, too. |
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EPA: Tar Sands Pipelines Should Be Held To Different Standards Up until now, the U.S. has had the same rules for all oil pipelines. But the EPA says pipelines that carry tar sands oil, like the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, should have special standards. That's because tar sands oil spills can release harmful air pollution and are vastly more difficult to clean up than conventional oil spills. |
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Natural Gas Gives Maine Paper Plant A Competitive Edge Energy companies are using a drilling technique known as fracking to extract natural gas underground. Many people raise questions about the environmental impact, but there is no doubt fracking has produced lots of natural gas and driven down the price. That has led energy-hungry manufacturers to build plants in fracking hot spots like Texas and Pennsylvania. But even in old factories — far from the drilling or even the pipelines — cheap natural gas is providing a competitive edge. |
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TSA Delays Plans To Allow Knives On Planes The new regulations were criticized heavily by flight attendants' unions. The TSA said the delay would allow more time for feedback and training. |
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Anthony Weiner Makes Twitter Comeback The disgraced politician who resigned his congressional seat after sending sexual images to female followers on the social networking site — and then lying about it — rejoined Twitter on Monday. His first tweet was a link to a policy paper he authored. |
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The Warts That Bind Your Family And Friends Children who got warts were more likely to have school classmates and relatives with warts. But going swimming, using public showers and going barefoot had little effect on whether a kid had warts or not. |
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This Building Is Supergreen. Will It Be Copied? The Bullitt Foundation's new Seattle headquarters, billed as the world's "greenest" building, is designed to be entirely self-sustaining. The developers hope it can inspire others to build this way. |
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In 'Which Way,' A War Photographer In His Element Writer-director Sebastian Junger remembers his friend and colleague Tim Hetherington, killed in April 2011 by mortar fire in the Libyan city of Misrata. |
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On Independence Day, A Subdued Syrian Capital Damascus would normally host a parade on independence day. But the streets are largely empty, aside from jittery government security forces manning checkpoints. |
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China's Growing Debt Raises Alarms Robert Siegel speaks with Simon Rabinovitch, reporter for the Financial Times based in Beijing, about his piece on Chinese debt and why both outsiders and insiders are worried about China's economic situation. |
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Large Police Presence Surrounds Margaret Thatcher's Funeral Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest in a funeral attended by dignitaries from around the globe as well as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on Wednesday. It's the first funeral of a British politician attended by the Queen since Sir Winston Churchill's in 1965. |
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For Thatcher, 'A Great Calm' After A Life Of Controversy The former British prime minister was remembered Wednesday at a funeral in London. Queen Elizabeth II was among those in attendance. Thatcher died last week. She was 87. |
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IAEA Team Probes Fukushima's Radioactive Water A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency is in Japan visiting the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The visit comes a week after reports emerged that large amounts of radioactive water had leaked from reservoirs where it was being stored. |
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India Refuses Permission For Country's First Playboy Club The Goa state government says it cannot grant permission for the new club, which was to be the first of eight to be built over the next three years in India. |
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Italy's Financial Crisis Means More (Bread) Dough At Home A third of Italians are now making pizza at home, and 19 percent are baking their own bread, an association of Italian farmers reports. Bakeries are adapting by by offering prepared food, and more importantly, sandwiches. |
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China Gives Breakdown Of Its Military, Criticizes U.S. For the first time, China gives numbers for its ground, air and naval forces. It also slams the U.S. for its shift to Asia. |
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IMF Lowers 2013 Economic Growth Forecasts The International Monetary Fund has lowered its projections for global economic growth, including in the United States, citing sharp cuts in government spending and the struggling eurozone. |
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Strong Earthquake Shakes Iran, Deaths Reported The estimated 7.8 magnitude temblor was felt across the region. Buildings swayed in India's capital. |
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Venezuela's Presidential Election Remains Disputed The government declared Nicolas Maduro the winner Sunday night. He's the man picked by the late Hugo Chavez to become president. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles is challenging his narrow defeat. |
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Is The United States A 'Dispensable Nation'? In his new book, The Dispensable Nation, former State Department adviser Vali Nasr explores the state of U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and beyond. Nasr says the U.S. "is happy ... to play a less important role, to no longer be the stabilizer." |
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Letters Of Heartbreak Find Some Love In Verona, Italy Each year, the town of Verona, Italy — home of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet — receives thousands of letters of unrequited love addressed to the play's star-crossed heroine. And each letter — more than 6,000 a year — is answered by hand by a team of secretaries at the Juliet Club. |
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Germany Braces For Terrorism Trial For years, authorities failed to see links in the killings of nine immigrants and a German policewoman. Now, a trial that will focus on right-wing extremists is about to begin. |
