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Iran Deal Seen Imminent After Atomic Agency Breakthrough

A nuclear deal with Iran looks imminent after a logjam over monitoring was broken and with foreign ministers set to rejoin U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a record ninth-straight day of talks later on Sunday. Kerry began morning meetings at Vienna’s Palais Coburg with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a U.S. administration official said. The impending agreement could be announced as early as Monday, according to two Western officials who asked not to be named in line with rules. “The extension of negotiations is not a desired alternative for any of the parties,” Zarif’s deputy, Abbas Araghchi, said Saturday on state television. “All parties involved are determined to come to a conclusive end.” This is the 20th round of high-level talks since U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani opened negotiations nearly two years ago. After Kerry negotiated for eight straight days at the […]

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Iran Wants to Double Oil Exports After Sanctions Lifted

TEHRAN—Iran wants to double its crude exports soon after sanctions are lifted and is pushing other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to renew the cartel’s quota system, a top Iranian official said. Both developments could set up a clash with Saudi Arabia, which is scrambling to raise its own export numbers and has opposed the return of production limits on individual OPEC members. Iran’s efforts underscore how the country’s full return to the export market would upend the status quo among leading producers if Tehran clinches a deal with six world powers that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities. The latest deadline for a deal is Tuesday and officials said the elements of an agreement were falling into place over the weekend, though there were still important sticking points that could scuttle it . Should sanctions be lifted, Iran’s deputy […]

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Nuclear Inspectors Await Chance to Use Modern Tools in Iran

Photo Metallic seals like this one have long been used to prevent unauthorized access to nuclear equipment. New electronic and fiber-optic seals beam back confirmation that they remain intact. Credit International Atomic Energy Agency VIENNA — On the outskirts of this graceful city, the Iran Task Force of the International Atomic Energy Agency is preparing to move quickly if American and Iranian negotiators here manage to cut a deal on Iran’s nuclear program in the coming days. The 50 or so members of the agency’s most elite inspection unit are readying an array of new surveillance gear that is far more sophisticated than anything used before in Iran. It includes laser sensors, smart cameras and encrypted networks that would let the inspectors closely monitor Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, in real time, from their command post overlooking the Danube. In many corners of the world, the agency’s nuclear sleuths went digital […]

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Bomb attacks on Shiite districts kill 15 people in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Authorities in Iraq say bombings targeting Shiite districts have killed 15 people in and around Baghdad. Police officials say a bomb exploded Sunday night near a cafe in the Shiite district of al-Obeidi on the eastern edge of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 14 others. Another evening bomb blast near a small restaurant killed four people and wounded 11 others in the southeastern suburb of Jisr Diyala. Earlier, a bomb went off at a bus stop in the northeastern suburbs of the capital, killing four people and wounding nine. Another bombing near a bus stop killed three people in Baghdad’s northwestern district of Shulla. Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to reporters.

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Islamic State suicide bombers strike in Iraqi refinery town

BAGHDAD Islamic State suicide bombers and fighters attacked the center of Iraq’s northern oil refinery town of Baiji overnight, forcing the army and Shi’ite fighters to pull back, military sources and the local mayor said on Sunday. The town of Baiji and its refinery – Iraq’s largest – have been a battlefront for more than a year. The hardline Islamists seized the town in June 2014 as they swept through much of northern Iraq towards the capital Baghdad. Control of Baiji neighborhoods has changed hands many times during the conflict. The latest Islamic State offensive comes after authorities said they controlled nearly the whole town and expected to drive insurgents from the refinery within days. The militants attacked around 8 pm (1300 EDT) on Saturday with two suicide car bombings. The blasts were followed by fierce clashes that lasted until midnight and drove the army and mainly Shi’ite Hashd […]

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China stocks rise as Beijing’s emergency moves brings some relief

SHANGHAI Chinese stocks rose on Monday, as an unprecedented series of support measures unleashed by Beijing brought some relief to a market whose headlong slide over the past three weeks had raised fears about the stability of the world’s second-biggest economy. In an extraordinary weekend of policy moves, brokerages and fund managers vowed to buy massive amounts of stocks, helped by China’s state-backed margin finance company, which in turn would be aided by a direct line of liquidity from the central bank. The CSI300 index .CSI300 of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen closed up 2.9 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC gained 2.4 percent. [.SS] That represented a significant pullback, however, from an initial burst of euphoria that pushed both indexes up around 8 percent when trading began, raising questions about whether the rebound can be sustained. Oliver Barron, China policy research analyst at NSBO, […]

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China’s Market Rout Is a Double Threat

Photo Investors at a brokerage house in Beijing on Friday. The Chinese stock market has lost about $2.7 trillion in value since its peak on June 12. Government measures to bolster share prices have faltered, threatening the air of invincibility surrounding the administration of China’s president, Xi Jinping. Credit European Pressphoto Agency HONG KONG — For nearly three years, President Xi Jinping of China has crushed opposition by silencing and often locking up anyone who dares defy the government. But that aura of invincibility has been shaken by stock market speculators who have made a mockery of efforts to halt a steep slide in share prices. The losses — Chinese shares have shed more than a quarter of their value in three weeks — pose an added risk, and possibly greater danger, to a global economy grappling with Greece’s difficulties in repaying foreign loans and its possible exit from […]

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China’s ZTE pushing ahead with high-power wireless charging vehicle test deployment

ZTE Corporation, China’s largest listed telecommunications equipment company, is developing high-power wireless charging systems and services for electric vehicles, with a focus on public charging infrastructure. At a China-US workshop on electric vehicle standardization held in June ( earlier post ), Academus Tian, VP of ZTE New Energy Vehicle Co., presented an overview of ZTE’s efforts in wireless power transfer (WPT). Tian said that ZTE’s inductive charging WPT module has a potential capacity of up to 30 kW, with a gap of 20 cm and efficiency of up to 90%. The footprint of the device is less than 1 m 2 ; frequency is 85 kHz. ZTE, which has aggressively partnered with a number of passenger and commercial vehicles makers over the past few years, has recently launched a series of commercial vehicle (bus) WPT trials. In September, in a joint R&D project between ZTE and Dongfeng Automobile, the […]

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Shell Arctic oil drilling to commence within weeks

Arctic oil rig Oil and gas giant Shell is expected to begin drilling for oil in the Arctic within the next two weeks. Thirty ships left Dutch Harbor in Alaska on Thursday for the Arctic to support two initial exploratory wells. The company has already committed about $7bn (£4.5bn) to the controversial project, and is confident it will find huge quantities of oil in the region. But if the initial wells do not find oil, Shell will contemplate walking away from the region entirely. The US Department of the Interior gave the green light to Shell to commence Arctic oil exploration in May this year, and the Anglo-Dutch group clearly believes it will get the remaining necessary permits in the next week or two. The initial two wells will be in relatively shallow water of about 40 to 50m deep, off the coast of Alaska, and they will use […]

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Russia Seen as Biggest Oil-Market Loser When Iran Comes Back

Iranian Oil Minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh. Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images In Iran’s push for a nuclear deal, it’s had few better allies than Moscow. But if an agreement is reached this week, President Vladimir Putin’s regime will have at least one reason to reflect on its support. Russia, which vies with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to be the world’s largest oil producer, has the most to lose when Iran returns to the global energy market, according to a dozen analysts and executives at oil companies, banks and trading houses interviewed by Bloomberg. “Iran is going to be competing in Europe head-on with Russia,” said Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citigroup Inc. Iran has been barred from selling oil in Europe since 2012 when the European Union imposed a ban on crude imports. Coupled with tougher U.S. sanctions making it more difficult to buy Iranian oil with […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple