Shell lays out welcome mat to USW
Pittsburgh (UPI) Mar 13, 2015 -
Shell said it's time to welcome striking workers back into the fray after finding "common ground" with negotiators from the United Steelworkers union.
USW initiated labor strikes at U.S. refineries Feb. 1, a walkout that eventually spread to impact about 20 percent of the nation's refining capacity. Several refineries continued normal operations under emergency stop-gap measures, though ...
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Lyft secures $530 mn to take on Uber
Washington (AFP) March 12, 2015 -
Lyft has upped the stakes in its ambitious drive to take on Uber, saying Thursday it raised $530 million in a funding round led by Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten to fuel expansion in the US and abroad.
The latest investments peg the value of Lyft at $2.5 billion, media reports said, making it a significant but smaller ride-sharing rival to the globally oriented Uber, valued at $41 billion. ...
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Beijing welcomes Britain's move to join China-backed bank: govt
Beijing (AFP) March 13, 2015 -
Beijing on Friday hailed Britain's announcement that it will seek to join a Chinese-led development bank, after Washington voiced caution about the move.
The $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been feted by Beijing as a way of financing regional development, and is seen as a potential rival to US-based institutions such as the World Bank.
Washington, Tokyo, Seoul ...
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Researchers develop 'visual Turing test'
Providence RI (SPX) Mar 13, 2015 -
Researchers from Brown and Johns Hopkins universities have come up with a new way to evaluate how well computers can divine information from images. The team describes its new system as a "visual Turing test," after the legendary computer scientist Alan Turing's test of the extent to which computers display human-like intelligence.
"There have been some impressive advances in computer visi ...
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Commodities mostly drop on soaring dollar, China woes
London (AFP) March 13, 2015 -
Many commodities fell this week as the dollar struck a 12-year peak against the euro, with sentiment hit also by weak data in key consumer China.
"Most commodity prices fell further this week, undermined by the continued strength of the US currency and soft economic data from China," said Capital Economics analyst Julian Jessop.
The European single currency sank on Friday to $1.0466 - t ...
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China has 'ample' room for stimulus: premier
Beijing (AFP) March 15, 2015 -
The Chinese government has more weapons in its arsenal to boost the world's second-largest economy, Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday as he sought to ease concerns about flagging growth.
Li earlier this month decreased China's annual growth target to "approximately seven percent", the lowest since a similar goal in 2004, after the economy expanded 7.4 percent last year, the slowest pace in near ...
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Global CO2 emissions stall despite economic growth: IEA
Paris (AFP) March 13, 2015 -
Global carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector stalled in 2014, the first time in 40 years during a period of economic growth, the International Energy Agency said Friday.
By far the main culprit in global warming, carbon dioxide emissions stood at 32.3 billion tonnes in 2014, unchanged from the previous year, the IEA said.
"This is both a very welcome surprise and a significant ...
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