SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices rose toward $100 a barrel Friday in Asia after European leaders reached an aid deal aimed at stanching Greece's financial crisis.
Benchmark oil for September delivery was up 34 cents to $99.47 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose 73 cents to settle at $99.13 on Thursday.
In London, Brent crude rose 37 cents to $117.88 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
European officials said after an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday that they agreed to give Greece a second rescue package worth euro109 billion ($155 billion).
Investor concern that Greece's debt crisis will spread to other European countries such as Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain has weighed on markets this year.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.2 percent Thursday and most Asian stock indexes gained Friday.
Crude prices were also given a boost by the International Energy Agency's decision not to release more oil.
The IEA said June 23 that it would release 60 million barrels of oil in a bid to lower prices, and traders speculated this week that the group was planning to send more barrels to the market.
"Greater optimism on containing sovereign debt issues, combined with an apparent backing away on the part of the IEA from an immediate further stock release, offers the opportunity for prices to break out of their recent range to the upside," Barclays Capital said in a report.
In other Nymex trading in September contracts, heating oil rose 0.7 cent to $3.12 a gallon while gasoline gained 1.5 cents at $3.07 a gallon. Natural gas futures for August delivery slid 0.9 cent at $4.39 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Snakes threaten Hawaii's fragile island ecosystem
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii has been largely successful in preventing snakes from entering the island paradise over the years and avoiding the grave danger they present to tropical birds, colorful plants and the vibrant environment that draws millions of tourists to the state each year.
But the recent capture of escaped pet snakes — illegal in Hawaii — and the infestation of Guam by brown tree snakes, which could easily make it here via cargo ship, have alarmed wildlife and agriculture officials.
Without any natural predators, authorities say it wouldn't take much for snakes to take root and multiply, potentially killing off endangered birds and flowers that make the islands special. Hawaii, home to more endangered species per square mile than anywhere else in the world, could potentially face the same fate as Guam, where brown tree snakes overran the island following World War II and wiped most birds from the skies.
"It has a high potential to be devastating to Hawaii," said Earl Campbell, assistant field supervisor for the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I would look at Guam as the template for what could happen in a range of tropical Pacific Islands that have no snakes."
Hawaii is so serious about keeping snakes out that the fine for possessing an illegal animal can reach $200,000 and up to three years in prison. But snake owners are granted amnesty if they willingly turn their pets over.
Residents who unlawfully keep snakes as pets create a giant risk when the reptiles escape or are released into the wild. A 9-foot boa constrictor and 7-foot albino Burmese python were captured this month.
"No pet snake is welcome because all it's going to take is the next earthquake, tsunami or hurricane to blow open all those enclosures and introduce to the islands all those pets that were being kept in a house," said Fern Duvall, a wildlife biologist for the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife on Maui. "It's really a grievous problem."
Besides the snake pet threat, environmentalists also fear that snakes could find their way to Hawaii by hitchhiking on cargo ships, undetected by short-staffed agriculture inspectors.
If snakes nested and reproduced, it would quickly be too late to stop them and the Hawaiian islands would be changed forever, said Christy Martin, spokeswoman for the state's Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species.
"It's our moral responsibility to try to keep them out for as long as possible. I don't look forward to future generations saying, 'They really dropped the ball on that one. There used to be birds in Hawaii,'" Martin said.
The number of snake sightings fluctuates from year to year, but they've been steadily rising, said Carol Okada, manager for the Hawaii Department of Agriculture's Plant Quarantine Branch.
There was a yearly average of nearly 24 snake sightings reported statewide between 1990 and 2000, according to a 2001 study titled "Risk to Hawaii from Snakes" published in Pacific Science. Okada said there were 36 snake reports in 2008, with data from other recent years not immediately available.
"We don't want the trend to continue," Okada said. "In Hawaii, with all its lush vegetation, you don't want to be worried about snakes while you're hiking."
A snake invasion would have far-reaching effects on the islands, permanently changing its landscape, Duvall said.
First they'd eat bird eggs and small birds, including 34 species of endangered forest birds found in Hawaii such as the Maui parrotbill, crested honeycreeper and Hawaiian crow, he said. Spider webs would drape trees and darken forests without birds to kill them. Insect populations would boom. Power outages would increase as snakes hung from electricity lines.
These consequences have already occurred on Guam, according to Campbell, saying the snakes there established themselves across the landscape in about three decades.
In this month's captures on Oahu, the snakes appeared to be pets, agriculture officials said. The docile boa constrictor was found by pig hunters on a dirt road, and the python was retrieved from a home after police received a tip.
The black market pet trade is largely responsible for snakes finding their way into the islands, Martin said.
Snake enthusiasts find dealers through the Internet and ship baby snakes by mail to Hawaii in small boxes, she said. Legitimate pet stores won't send snakes to Hawaii, she said.
With only 50 agriculture inspectors statewide, down from 95 in 2009 because of budget cuts and layoffs, the state has a hard time catching snakes when they're mailed in, she said. Efforts to prevent snakes from escaping Guam have been more successful, and only one brown tree snake has been found in Hawaii since an inspection program started on Guam in 1994, Campbell said.
Organizations including the Hawaiian Humane Society help rid the islands of pet snakes by picking them up from homes with no questions asked, said spokeswoman Jacque LeBlanc.
"In the case of the boa that was found, that boa was big enough to eat a cat or harm a child," LeBlanc said. "They're dangerous to people and other animals."
Israel torn on apologizing to Turks over Gaza ship
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is debating whether to say sorry for storming a Gaza-bound Turkish activist ship last year, after its jurists recommended satisfying Ankara's demand for an apology to help fend off war-crimes lawsuits.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far voiced only "regret" for the navy's killing of nine pro-Palestinian Turks aboard the Mavi Marmara, but Israeli officials say support for a stronger show of contrition is spreading in his government.
Spurring the debate has been the imminent publication of a U.N. report on the seizure, which Israel predicts will mostly vindicate its Gaza blockade strategy while infuriating the Turks, who have said they would reject any such finding.
Hoping to avoid deepening the crisis, the former allies have been discussing a reconciliation deal, with Turkey insisting it include an Israeli apology. Netanyahu has not publicly responded but some top cabinet colleagues have voiced opposition.
"We are not ready to apologize, as apology, actually, is taking responsibility. You know, our soldiers on the Mavi Marmara were fighting to defend their lives," Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon told foreign journalists Thursday.
But other officials said Netanyahu had received legal advice that apologizing would forestall Turkish bids to prosecute, in international courts, the marines who clashed with activists while boarding the cruise ship on the Mediterranean high seas.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the lone center-left figure in Netanyahu's conservative coalition government, has called for compromise with Turkey "to put things behind us," citing the spiraling instability of a region where Israel lacks friends.
Asked whether Israel might change tack, Yaalon allowed that apologizing to Turkey "might be a debate" in the government and said his demurral was his personal opinion.
SIX-DAY DEADLINE
"We still have six days" to decide, he said, referring to Israel's announcement that the inquiry set up by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and chaired by
former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer would publish its findings on July 27.
The exact phrasing of an Israeli apology, should one be forthcoming, would have to be in "language that both sides can live with," a senior Turkish official told Reuters in Ankara.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has demanded Israel also compensate Mavi Marmara survivors and end Gaza's blockade.
Yaalon said Israel was willing to pay into a "humanitarian fund" for those bereaved or hurt aboard the ship. But Israel, having eased land crossings into Gaza, has signaled no change to a sea closure it says stems gun-running by Hamas militants.
Officials from both sides have been involved in the preparation of the Palmer report and are familiar with its contents.
Yaalon, Israel's senior envoy in the talks, said the Palmer report "actually supports the Israeli position regarding the legitimacy, the legality of the naval blockade and, as a result of it, the legality, the legitimacy of the interception."
The report would also "criticize the use of force by us," he said, but added this would not be tantamount to questioning the case-by-case conduct of marines who inflicted casualties.
Turkish officials have declined to comment on the specific content of the report.
Yaalon, a former chief of Israel's armed forces who in 2006 narrowly avoided an attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to have him arrested while on a visit to New Zealand, played down the importance of any Turkish help in averting legal actions.
Indemnification by Ankara, he said, would not be relevant in other countries where such "annoying" lawsuits can be pursued.
He added: "If we are ready to sacrifice our lives to defend the country, we should be ready to deal with this challenge."
An Israeli apology would incense Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist senior coalition partner, who has said the onus was on Turkey to make amends.
But Yaalon saw no threat of Lieberman leaving the government.
"The coalition is very strong," he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far voiced only "regret" for the navy's killing of nine pro-Palestinian Turks aboard the Mavi Marmara, but Israeli officials say support for a stronger show of contrition is spreading in his government.
Spurring the debate has been the imminent publication of a U.N. report on the seizure, which Israel predicts will mostly vindicate its Gaza blockade strategy while infuriating the Turks, who have said they would reject any such finding.
Hoping to avoid deepening the crisis, the former allies have been discussing a reconciliation deal, with Turkey insisting it include an Israeli apology. Netanyahu has not publicly responded but some top cabinet colleagues have voiced opposition.
"We are not ready to apologize, as apology, actually, is taking responsibility. You know, our soldiers on the Mavi Marmara were fighting to defend their lives," Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon told foreign journalists Thursday.
But other officials said Netanyahu had received legal advice that apologizing would forestall Turkish bids to prosecute, in international courts, the marines who clashed with activists while boarding the cruise ship on the Mediterranean high seas.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the lone center-left figure in Netanyahu's conservative coalition government, has called for compromise with Turkey "to put things behind us," citing the spiraling instability of a region where Israel lacks friends.
Asked whether Israel might change tack, Yaalon allowed that apologizing to Turkey "might be a debate" in the government and said his demurral was his personal opinion.
SIX-DAY DEADLINE
"We still have six days" to decide, he said, referring to Israel's announcement that the inquiry set up by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and chaired by
former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer would publish its findings on July 27.
The exact phrasing of an Israeli apology, should one be forthcoming, would have to be in "language that both sides can live with," a senior Turkish official told Reuters in Ankara.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has demanded Israel also compensate Mavi Marmara survivors and end Gaza's blockade.
Yaalon said Israel was willing to pay into a "humanitarian fund" for those bereaved or hurt aboard the ship. But Israel, having eased land crossings into Gaza, has signaled no change to a sea closure it says stems gun-running by Hamas militants.
Officials from both sides have been involved in the preparation of the Palmer report and are familiar with its contents.
Yaalon, Israel's senior envoy in the talks, said the Palmer report "actually supports the Israeli position regarding the legitimacy, the legality of the naval blockade and, as a result of it, the legality, the legitimacy of the interception."
The report would also "criticize the use of force by us," he said, but added this would not be tantamount to questioning the case-by-case conduct of marines who inflicted casualties.
Turkish officials have declined to comment on the specific content of the report.
Yaalon, a former chief of Israel's armed forces who in 2006 narrowly avoided an attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to have him arrested while on a visit to New Zealand, played down the importance of any Turkish help in averting legal actions.
Indemnification by Ankara, he said, would not be relevant in other countries where such "annoying" lawsuits can be pursued.
He added: "If we are ready to sacrifice our lives to defend the country, we should be ready to deal with this challenge."
An Israeli apology would incense Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist senior coalition partner, who has said the onus was on Turkey to make amends.
But Yaalon saw no threat of Lieberman leaving the government.
"The coalition is very strong," he said.
Gaddafi rules out talks
SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ruled out on Thursday talks with the rebels seeking to end his 41-year-rule, casting doubt on a flurry of Western efforts to negotiate an end to a deepening civil conflict.
"There will be no talks between me and them until Judgment Day," Gaddafi told a crowd of thousands of his supporters in his home city of Sirte in a remotely delivered audio message. "They need to talk with the Libyan people ... and they will respond to them."
The rally in the quiet seaside city drew men wearing green hats, women waving flags and children whose faces were painted with pro-Gaddafi slogans.
Their vociferous support for Gaddafi -- and rebel declarations earlier that the war could not be ended through talks -- showed how far Libya may be from a negotiated end to its five-month-old conflict.
Rebels who have struggled to arm and organize themselves have suffered losses in the past week near the insurgent stronghold of Misrata and the eastern oil hub Brega, but are pushing ahead with their campaign to unseat the longtime leader.
On Thursday the rebels said their advance toward the capital had been slowed by the laying of hundreds of thousands of mines at Brega, but the frontline at Zlitan advanced to the closest it has ever been to the western city's outskirts.
Foreign diplomatic efforts to find a solution have intensified as the fighting drags on. China said it would work with the African Union, which has proposed a plan seen as less hostile to the Libyan leader than a Western plan that insists on his stepping down.
Chinese President Hu Jintao told his visiting South African counterpart Jacob Zuma that the Africans had played an important role in pushing a political solution.
"China greatly appreciates this and is willing to continue remaining in close touch and to coordinate closely with South Africa and the African Union on the Libya issue," Hu said.
France said on Wednesday Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he gave up power, an apparent softening of the West's stance in a new effort to find a diplomatic end to the war.
The United States said Gaddafi must quit, but whether he remained in Libya after that would be up to the Libyan people.
But Libyan officials have said before now that Gaddafi's departure was not up for negotiation and the rebels said on Thursday that no one seriously expected talks to end the crisis.
"No one talks about a political solution. Impossible. He closed all the doors," said Colonel Ahmed Bani, a rebel military spokesman. "What do we tell the widower? What do we tell the mother who lost her children ... We can't negotiate, people will devour us."
MINES AND TRENCHES
Bani said he expected a breakthrough in Brega in a few days, and in the western town of Zlitan within two days.
"We are advancing slowly and clearing the mines ... but we know that at the end, we will enter it (Brega)," he told Reuters in an interview in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
"The fall of Brega is the end of the regime."
Libya's front line near the oil town of Brega, one of the last strongholds of Gaddafi's forces, has been deadlocked for weeks.
Bani estimated that 400,000 mines had been planted around Brega and said the rebels, mostly volunteers with no military experience, were working to clear them with almost no help from experts. Gaddafi's forces have pushed back the rebels by filling trenches with petrol and setting them ablaze.
The rebel forces are now about 20 kms from the edge of Brega, but Gaddafi's forces still control the city and its oil installations, he said. The rebel forces are dug in east and south of Brega.
In Zlitan, on the coast road 160 km (100 miles) east of the capital, the rebel front line has advanced 4 kms in the past 24 hours, a major gain that leaves the rebels around 5 kms from the city's outskirts.
This is the nearest the rebels have ever come to Zlitan, a source familiar with the battles said. Three rebel fighters were killed and 25 wounded on Thursday in fighting outside Zlitan, according to hospital figures. Five rebels were killed on Wednesday by mines, the rebels said.
State TV showed what it said were fresh pictures from Zlitan and Brega in an apparent bid to show the towns were still firmly in Tripoli's hands. In Zlitan, dozens of Gaddafi supporters were shown chanting slogans of support.
Some analysts have said Gaddafi is running short of fuel and food, which could stoke popular unrest ahead of the Muslim month of Ramadan which begins next week. During Ramadan, people prepare nightly feasts after fasting by day.
The state news agency JANA said officials met on Thursday to ensure food supplies "reach consumers as soon as possible before the start of Ramadan."
Gerald Howarth, British Minister for International Security Strategy, said there would be no pause in the war for Ramadan.
"There will be no let-up in the coalition activities to protect the people of Libya," he said. "It would be highly irresponsible to give Gaddafi any excuse to inflict the kind of brutality that he has displayed in the past."
(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal in Benghazi, Souhail Karam in Rabat, Lutfi Abu Aun in Tripoli, Sui-Lee Wee and Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Brian Love and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Patrick Worsnip in New York; writing by Richard Meares and Lin Noueihed, editing by
"There will be no talks between me and them until Judgment Day," Gaddafi told a crowd of thousands of his supporters in his home city of Sirte in a remotely delivered audio message. "They need to talk with the Libyan people ... and they will respond to them."
The rally in the quiet seaside city drew men wearing green hats, women waving flags and children whose faces were painted with pro-Gaddafi slogans.
Their vociferous support for Gaddafi -- and rebel declarations earlier that the war could not be ended through talks -- showed how far Libya may be from a negotiated end to its five-month-old conflict.
Rebels who have struggled to arm and organize themselves have suffered losses in the past week near the insurgent stronghold of Misrata and the eastern oil hub Brega, but are pushing ahead with their campaign to unseat the longtime leader.
On Thursday the rebels said their advance toward the capital had been slowed by the laying of hundreds of thousands of mines at Brega, but the frontline at Zlitan advanced to the closest it has ever been to the western city's outskirts.
Foreign diplomatic efforts to find a solution have intensified as the fighting drags on. China said it would work with the African Union, which has proposed a plan seen as less hostile to the Libyan leader than a Western plan that insists on his stepping down.
Chinese President Hu Jintao told his visiting South African counterpart Jacob Zuma that the Africans had played an important role in pushing a political solution.
"China greatly appreciates this and is willing to continue remaining in close touch and to coordinate closely with South Africa and the African Union on the Libya issue," Hu said.
France said on Wednesday Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he gave up power, an apparent softening of the West's stance in a new effort to find a diplomatic end to the war.
The United States said Gaddafi must quit, but whether he remained in Libya after that would be up to the Libyan people.
But Libyan officials have said before now that Gaddafi's departure was not up for negotiation and the rebels said on Thursday that no one seriously expected talks to end the crisis.
"No one talks about a political solution. Impossible. He closed all the doors," said Colonel Ahmed Bani, a rebel military spokesman. "What do we tell the widower? What do we tell the mother who lost her children ... We can't negotiate, people will devour us."
MINES AND TRENCHES
Bani said he expected a breakthrough in Brega in a few days, and in the western town of Zlitan within two days.
"We are advancing slowly and clearing the mines ... but we know that at the end, we will enter it (Brega)," he told Reuters in an interview in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
"The fall of Brega is the end of the regime."
Libya's front line near the oil town of Brega, one of the last strongholds of Gaddafi's forces, has been deadlocked for weeks.
Bani estimated that 400,000 mines had been planted around Brega and said the rebels, mostly volunteers with no military experience, were working to clear them with almost no help from experts. Gaddafi's forces have pushed back the rebels by filling trenches with petrol and setting them ablaze.
The rebel forces are now about 20 kms from the edge of Brega, but Gaddafi's forces still control the city and its oil installations, he said. The rebel forces are dug in east and south of Brega.
In Zlitan, on the coast road 160 km (100 miles) east of the capital, the rebel front line has advanced 4 kms in the past 24 hours, a major gain that leaves the rebels around 5 kms from the city's outskirts.
This is the nearest the rebels have ever come to Zlitan, a source familiar with the battles said. Three rebel fighters were killed and 25 wounded on Thursday in fighting outside Zlitan, according to hospital figures. Five rebels were killed on Wednesday by mines, the rebels said.
State TV showed what it said were fresh pictures from Zlitan and Brega in an apparent bid to show the towns were still firmly in Tripoli's hands. In Zlitan, dozens of Gaddafi supporters were shown chanting slogans of support.
Some analysts have said Gaddafi is running short of fuel and food, which could stoke popular unrest ahead of the Muslim month of Ramadan which begins next week. During Ramadan, people prepare nightly feasts after fasting by day.
The state news agency JANA said officials met on Thursday to ensure food supplies "reach consumers as soon as possible before the start of Ramadan."
Gerald Howarth, British Minister for International Security Strategy, said there would be no pause in the war for Ramadan.
"There will be no let-up in the coalition activities to protect the people of Libya," he said. "It would be highly irresponsible to give Gaddafi any excuse to inflict the kind of brutality that he has displayed in the past."
(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal in Benghazi, Souhail Karam in Rabat, Lutfi Abu Aun in Tripoli, Sui-Lee Wee and Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Brian Love and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Patrick Worsnip in New York; writing by Richard Meares and Lin Noueihed, editing by
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