Libya to help ease Egypt crisis with $1.2 bln oil deal

By Jessica Donati and Ghaith Shennib

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya will soon start shipping oil to neighbouring Egypt on soft credit terms, two senior Libyan officials said, as Cairo struggles to pay for energy imports and avoid fuel shortages.

The officials told Reuters that Tripoli would supply Cairo with $1.2 billion worth of crude at world prices but on interest free credit for a year, with the first cargo expected to arrive next month.

Egypt has slid into economic crisis since president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown two years ago. Most international companies have reduced oil product supplies to the country fearing non-payments, as the government tries to curb soaring energy subsidy costs which swallow up a fifth of its budget.

Libya plans to ship one to two cargoes a month for refining in Egypt under a deal that involves 12 million barrels of crude over 12 months, the oil industry officials said.

With foreign currency reserves running low, Egypt has not bought any crude on the open market since January. In rough terms the Libyan deal would be worth slightly more than half its 2012 imports, which the central bank put at $2 billion.

"Their situation is very bad, and if necessary they can take up to a year to pay (for each delivery)," said one of the Libyan officials.

Libyan authorities themselves face a daily struggle to keep services running and take control of a country awash with weapons looted from the arsenal of Muammar Gaddafi, who was toppled in 2011.

But the official said Libya could not shy away from helping an important trading partner. "If you are a good neighbour and something is wrong with your neighbour, you will not feel comfortable with yourself. It's human nature," he said.

Cairo has so far failed to agree a $4.8 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund and has sought help from energy producing countries in the region and beyond.

Tripoli has already deposited $2 billion at the Egyptian central bank and Qatar has announced $8 billion in loans, grants and other deposits since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was elected last June.

WORLD PRICES

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) declined immediate comments on the details of the deal, although one of the oil industry officials said it would supply Sirteca, the cheapest of all the country's grades. "Shipments will be sold at world prices," said the second Libyan official.

An official at the Egyptian oil ministry confirmed some of the deal's terms. "(It will be) one million barrels a month and deferred payment for 12 months without interest starting from the first half of May, God willing," the official told Reuters.

However, the official maintained that the two sides were still discussing the kind of crude oil to be supplied and how long the shipments would last. The Libyan officials said that if the first cargo was sent next month as planned, they would last until April 2014.

The Libyan deal should ease the problems of Egypt, which owes at least $5 billion to oil companies, half of it overdue.

Cairo aims to raise prices of subsidised energy gradually, bringing them close to world levels in four years, to reduce the burden on its huge budget deficit. In the short term, it wants to avoid arousing more social unrest by ensuring energy supplies during the approaching summer when energy consumption peaks.

Libya has already shown willingness to step back into its old role as North Africa's version of a Gulf petro-state by using cash to open doors.

Libya's new rulers authorised a payment of almost $200 million to Mauritania after it extradited Gaddafi's former spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi last year, although they later denied there was a quid pro quo.

Diplomats and analysts have also suggested Libya's growing support may help persuade Egypt to hand over Gaddafi's cousin Ahmed Gaddaf Alddam, who was arrested in Cairo in March.

Egypt sent two other ex-Gaddafi officials to Libya last month but barred the extradition of Gaddaf Alddam, who is claiming Egyptian citizenship. Libya is appealing the Egyptian court ruling.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/libya-help-ease-egypt-crisis-1-2-bln-124645011.html

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Rumford wins playoff to take Ballantine's title

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Australia's Brett Rumford eagled the first hole of a three-way playoff to win the Ballantine's Championship in South Korea on Sunday.

Rumford was leading by two shots when he double-bogeyed No. 17. He holed a 10-foot par putt at the last to finish at 11-under 277 and force a playoff with Marcus Fraser of Australia and Peter Whiteford of Scotland.

Rumford then holed a 4-foot eagle to earn the victory.

"I battled today with my driver constantly as I was leaking a few drives right, including the whole back nine when I was feeling stuck, so I had a quick word to Pete (coach Peter Cowen) and then hit about five or six balls off the first tee, and that did the trick ... it's a funny game because it was an absolute roller-coaster ride of emotions out there this afternoon," said Rumford.

"Of course, what happened at 17 made my work a whole lot more difficult but I'm really pleased with my result."

Rumford is the first Australian to win on the European Tour in two years and he drew on the inspiration of Adam Scott who became the first Australian to win the Masters earlier this month.

"Scotty's win was a huge inspiration to all of us," he said. "It's just good on the European Tour side of things as we needed to make a shift and get a few runs on the board because the Aussie guys in the U.S. have been doing a great job."

Rumford started his final round in sizzling manner with six birdies in his opening nine holes including four in succession from the sixth hole.

Whiteford let slip a maiden European Tour win in his 142nd event when he missed a five-foot birdie putt on No. 18.

South African Louis Oosthuizen, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 7, shot a final-round 69 to finish three strokes behind the leaders in a share of fifth place.

However, for a second day running the former Open champion came unstuck at the par-three No. 13, recording a double bogey and a day after walking off the same hole with a triple bogey.

Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee produced the lowest final-round score of 65 to finish among five players tied in sixth at 7 under.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-28-European%20Tour/id-364cacd61bd84dbf83cfdbd68903854c

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F. Scott Fitzgerald's handwritten ledger online

In this Tuesday, March 26, 2013 photo, Elizabeth Sudduth, director of the Ernest F. Hollings Library and Rare Books Collection at the University of South Carolina, points at items in a ledger owned by author F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Columbia, S.C. The university has digitized the ledger and put it online for scholars. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

In this Tuesday, March 26, 2013 photo, Elizabeth Sudduth, director of the Ernest F. Hollings Library and Rare Books Collection at the University of South Carolina, points at items in a ledger owned by author F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Columbia, S.C. The university has digitized the ledger and put it online for scholars. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

In this Tuesday, March 26, 2013 photo, Elizabeth Sudduth, director of the Ernest F. Hollings Library and Rare Books Collection at the University of South Carolina, talks about a ledger owned by author F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Columbia, S.C. The university has digitized the ledger and put it online for scholars. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? An intriguing peek into the daily scribbles and life of author F. Scott Fitzgerald is now available online, just weeks before the opening of the movie "The Great Gatsby."

Researchers from the University of South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library put a digital version of the famed author's handwritten financial ledger on their website last week, making it available for the first time for all readers, students and scholars.

"This is a record of everything Fitzgerald wrote, and what he did with it, in his own hand," said Elizabeth Sudduth, director of the Ernest F. Hollings Library and Rare Books Collection.

During a recent visit to the library's below-ground rare-book vault, Sudduth took the original 200-page book out of its clamshell protective cover. The ledger's yellowed pages ? with Fitzgerald's elegant, measured cursive strokes ? are a throwback to life before computer spreadsheets. The ledger shows Fitzgerald's tally of earnings from his works, the most famous of which is the novel "The Great Gatsby." The ledger lists his many short stories, books, and adaptations for stage and screen.

With the May 10 release of a new "Gatsby" movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sudduth says library officials expect an upswing in interest in its Fitzgerald collection. The ledger will be on display at the library for about a month starting May 6, Sudduth said.

The library's Fitzgerald collection is considered the world's most comprehensive, with more than 3,000 publications, manuscripts, letters, book editions, screenplays and memorabilia. It also includes Fitzgerald's walking stick, briefcase and an engraved silver flask his wife gave him in 1918.

Some parts of the collection already are online. With the ledger's move to the website and the timing of the movie, Sudduth said, officials hope to call more attention to the collection.

In the ledger, Fitzgerald lists in carefully laid out columns his various pieces of writing, the location they were printed, and the income they produced. Fitzgerald's comments are sprinkled throughout. One describes the year 1919 ? when his first novel was accepted for publication and Zelda Sayre agreed to marry him, as ? "The most important year of life. Every emotion and my life work decided. Miserable and ecstatic but a great success."

By the time Fitzgerald started the ledger, Sudduth said, "he probably knew what he was doing. He left a space for his remarks, and then the final disposition."

With a laugh, she noted: "We know he didn't spell very well. And his arithmetic wasn't much better,"

But the overall document, she said, "shows that he was far more on top of his affairs than people thought," given a reputation in later life as a heavy drinker.

"He was keeping a record of his work for the future," Suddeth said. "He kept it, he updated it."

For the past 30 years, researchers have had to rely on a limited print facsimile of the ledger, which didn't catch the varied inks and scripts in Fitzgerald's hand.

Park Bucker, a USC associate English professor, said he's excited to discuss the new ledger with his students.

"It may be a unique artifact among American authors," Bucker said. "This is going to be an amazing thing for students to pore over and dip into. He created his own database. We do it on computers now, but he did it for himself,"

Bucker also said students are fascinated by seeing something a well-known author penned in his own hand.

"Students always remark how much they love his handwriting," he said. "They think his handwriting is just beautiful, and handwriting isn't valued today."

Bucker pointed out that the ledger shows Fitzgerald made most of his income from short stories and that he was able to earn a living from his literary work. "It was the rarest of things, an author who made a living," Bucker said.

In 1925, the ledger shows Fitzgerald earned less than $2,000 for the "Gatsby" book ? the same amount he received for a single short story published in The Saturday Evening Post.

In later years, Fitzgerald added more earnings from "The Great Gatsby." He sold the foreign motion picture rights for $16,666, as noted in the ledger. In another section, he lists about $5,000 in earnings from "Gatsby" when it ran as a play in New York, Chicago and elsewhere.

USC Professor Matthew Bruccoli began to acquire items for the Fitzgerald collection in the 1950s. He received some, including the ledger, from the author's only child, daughter Frances Scott Fitzgerald, also known as Scottie. Bruccoli wanted the collection to be used as a teaching and research tool, and he gave it to the university in 1994.

Bruccoli has since died, but the collection has continued to grow. It is now is valued at more than $4 million, Sudduth said.

____

The ledger online:

http://library.sc.edu/digital/collections/fitzledger.html

___

Susanne M. Schafer can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/susannemarieap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-28-Fitzgerald%20Ledger/id-e818d33efeb24923bd4fbfe5da7cbb5c

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Bill to end airport delays headed for House vote

A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? (AP) ? Legislation to end furloughs of air traffic controllers and delays for millions of travelers is headed to a House vote after a dark-of-night vote in the Senate that took place after most lawmakers had left the Capitol for a weeklong vacation.

The bill passed late Thursday without even a roll call vote, and House officials indicated it likely would be brought up for quick approval there.

Under the legislation, the Federal Aviation Administration would gain authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts that are flush into other programs, to "prevent reduced operations and staffing" through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

In addition to restoring full staffing by controllers, Senate officials said the available funds should be ample enough to prevent the closure of small airport towers around the country. The FAA has said it will shut the facilities as it makes its share of $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts ? known as the sequester ? that took effect last month at numerous government agencies.

The Senate acted as the FAA said there had been at least 863 flights delayed on Wednesday "attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furlough."

Administration officials participated in the negotiations that led to the deal and evidently registered no objections.

After the vote, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, "It will be good news for America's traveling public if Congress spares them these unnecessary delays. But ultimately, this is no more than a temporary Band-Aid that fails to address the overarching threat to our economy posed by the sequester's mindless, across-the-board cuts."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key participant in the talks, said the legislation would "prevent what otherwise would have been intolerable delays in the air travel system, inconveniencing travelers and hurting the economy."

Senate approval followed several hours of pressure-filled, closed-door negotiations, and came after most senators had departed the Capitol on the assumption that the talks had fallen short.

Officials said a small group of senators insisted on a last-ditch effort at an agreement before Congress adjourned for a vacation that could have become politically problematic if the flight delays continued.

"I want to do it right now. There are other senators you'd have to ask what the hang-up is," Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said at a point when it appeared no compromise would emerge.

For the White House and Senate Democrats, the discussions on legislation relating to one relatively small slice of the $85 billion in spending cuts marked a shift in position in a long-running struggle with Republicans over budget issues. Similarly, the turn of events marked at least modest vindication of a decision by the House GOP last winter to finesse some budget struggles in order to focus public attention on the across-the-board cuts in hopes they would gain leverage over President Barack Obama.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that represents FAA employees, reported a number of incidents it said were due to the furloughs.

In one case, it said several flights headed for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York were diverted on Wednesday when a piece of equipment failed. "While the policy for this equipment is immediate restoral, due to sequestration and furloughs it was changed to next-day restoral," the union said.

It added it was "learning of additional impacts nationwide, including open watches, increased restoration times, delays resulting from insufficient funding for parts and equipment, modernization delays, missed or deferred preventative maintenance, and reduced redundancy."

The airlines, too, were pressing Congress to restore the FAA to full staffing.

In an interview Wednesday, Robert Isom, chief operations officer of US Airways, likened the furloughs to a "wildcat regulatory action."

He added, "In the airline business, you try to eliminate uncertainty. Some factors you can't control, like weather. It (the FAA issue) is worse than the weather."

In a shift, first the White House and then senior Democratic lawmakers have signaled a willingness in the past two days to support legislation that alleviates the budget crunch at the FAA, while leaving the balance of the $85 billion to remain in effect.

Obama favors a comprehensive agreement that replaces the entire $85 billion in across-the-board cuts as part of a broader deficit-reduction deal that includes higher taxes and spending cuts.

One Senate Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, noted that without the type of comprehensive deficit deal that Obama favors, a bill that eases the spending crunch at the FAA would inevitably be followed by other single-issue measures. She listed funding at the National Institutes of Health as one example, and cuts that cause furloughs of civilians who work at military hospitals as a second.

At the same time, Democratic aides said resolve had crumbled under the weight of widespread delays for the traveling public and pressure from the airlines.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., involved in the discussions, said the issue was big enough so "most people want to find a solution as long as it doesn't spend any more money."

Officials estimate it would cost slightly more than $200 million to restore air traffic controllers to full staffing, and an additional $50 million to keep open smaller air traffic towers around the country that the FAA has proposed closing.

Across the Capitol, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said, "We're willing to look at what the Senate's going to propose."

He said he believes the FAA has the authority it needs under existing law to shift funds and end the furloughs of air traffic controllers, and any legislation should be "very, very limited" and direct the agency to use the flexibility it already has.

In a reflection of the political undercurrents, another House Republican, Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, said FAA employees "are being used as pawns by this (Obama) administration to be able to implement the maximum amount of pain on the American people when it does not have to be this way."

The White House and congressional Democrats vociferously dispute such claims.

___

Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Henry C. Jackson and Alan Fram in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-26-US-FAA-Furloughs/id-11fbe61cedde4f41bec95d7824daf60a

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Poor response to tip blamed on Cold War distrust

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A former official of the Russian government is telling Congress that lingering, Cold War-era distrust may have made American officials less inclined to act on tips from Russian security services about one of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers

Andranik Migranyan is a former member of the President Council of the Russian Federation and now director of the New York-based Institute for Democracy and Cooperation. The institute is a private group that promotes U.S.-Russia cooperation.

Migranyan told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Friday that Russia and the United States have long viewed each other warily. Because of that, he said, American officials, in his words, "just didn't pay enough attention" when Russian agencies asked the FBI and CIA to look into bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/poor-response-tip-blamed-cold-war-distrust-183004731.html

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Annandale VA: Real estate assessments up nearly 4 percent in ...

The mean real estate tax assessment for residential properties in Annandale (zip code 20023) is $380,715, in 2013, a 3.99 percent increase from 2012, the? Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration reports.

That compares to a 3.5 percent increase county wide from 2012 real estate assessments. The mean assessed value countywide is up 3.13 percent for single-family homes, 4.5 percent for townhouses, and 5.42 percent for condominiums.

The area experiencing the biggest increase in residential real estate assessments is Herndon (5.23 percent), and the area with the smallest increase is Clifton (1.62 percent). In addition to Herndon, areas with larger increases than Annandale include Great Falls, Lorton, and Reston.

Commercial properties show an overall equalization increase of .14 percent, which is primarily because of a 4.9 percent increase in the value of multifamily apartments. Values for office buildings with elevators decreased 2.41 percent, and other offices decreased 1.72 percent, due to lower rents and higher vacancy rates.

The county mailed 2013 tax assessments earlier this week. If you think yours is wrong, you can file an appeal to the Department of Tax Aministration. Appeals must be filed by April 5. You can also file an appeal with the Fairfax County Board of Equalization by June 3.

Source: http://annandaleva.blogspot.com/2013/03/real-estate-assessments-up-nearly-4.html

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Is Verizon testing 4.2.2 firmware for the Galaxy Nexus?

News today points towards a testing build of JDQ39 (Android 4.2.2) for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. There's even a screenshot floating around XDA (that's it above) that shows the about screen of the phone that's running it. You've got new radios there, which is great news, but the kernel version, and the reported bootloader (PRIMELC03) are old, which is not such great news.

I'm not sure what to think here. Normally I'd shy away from something like this, as a new radio, a new system version, an old kernel, and an unchanged bootloader just doesn't feel right. We all know how easy it is to fake this sort of thing, and even if real, running on one tester's phone doesn't mean a whole lot to everyone else. 

I think Verizon is trying to put out a recent version of the firmware for the Galaxy Nexus, I really do. They are close enough partners with Google, that a testing build using an old kernel and bootloader is entirely possible. And new baseband information on the about screen can't be faked with just a build.prop edit. We're going to accept this news at face value, and advise anyone with a Verizon Nexus who is worrying about an update to follow along and see how it unfolds. 

I want to believe.

Source: XDA; via: Droid-Life

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/cAZ75fOSMn4/story01.htm

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