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Moon explosion: NASA Reveals Bright explosion on the moon visible from Earth. A meteoroid struck the surface of the moon recently, causing an explosion that was visible on Earth without the aid of a telescope, NASA reported Friday. But don't be alarmed if you didn't see it; it only lasted about a second. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before," said Bill Cooke, of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. NASA astronomers have been monitoring the moon for the past eight years, looking for explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. It's part of a program to find new fields of space debris that could hit Earth. NASA says it sees hundreds of detectable lunar meteoroid impacts a year. None however can match the size of the explosion they say they saw March 17. NASA says the meteoroid was about 40 kilograms and less than a meter wide, and it hit the moon's surface at 56,000 mph. It glowed lik

German drugmaker Bayer said on Wednesday it initiated a Phase III trial of its potential blockbuster drug regorafenib in patients with advanced liver cancer. _0"> The drug, also known as Stivarga, will be tested in the third and last phase of trials required for marketing approval on patients with inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that has worsened despite prior treatment with Bayer's Nexavar drug. (Reporting by Ludwig Burger)

MTA crash: 60 injured from Damaged train later on the incident train, cars and debris were being removed from the Metro-North tracks in Bridgeport, Conn. Sunday morning as investigators continued to probe a train collision that sent 72 people to the hospital, officials said. Aaron Donovan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash on the New Haven line, gave Metro-North the OK to remove the trains. Hundreds of feet of track need to be repaired, he said. Newsday reports "We have a lot of work ahead of us, to restore signals and overhead wires," Donovan said. Later Sunday, the Connecticut Department of Transportation will announce jointly with Metro-North a plan for the rush-hour commute beginning Monday, but Connecticut and federal officials urged riders to look for another way to get to their destinations It remains unclear when service will be restored to the area and commuters n

Danish biopharmaceutical company Zealand Pharma reported a loss in the first quarter of 2013 due to growing expenses and a lack of milestone payments from its partners. _0"> The group reported a net loss of 57.3 million Danish crowns ($9.98 million), down from a profit of 65.7 million in the same quarter last year. The company received large milestone payments last year under the license agreements with French drugmaker Sanofi and Switzerland-based Helsinn Healthcare.   None were received in the first quarter of this year so the company had no revenue, it said. Net operating expenses rose to 57.9 million crowns from 39.4 million. The company's most advanced drug, Lyxumia, also known by its generic name lixisenatide, is being developed with Sanofi for Type-2 diabetes. The company reiterated its 2013 guidance for net operating expenses in 2013 in a range of 210 million to 240 million crowns. ($1 = 5.7432 Danish crowns) (Reporting by Mette Fraende; Editing by Tom P

German chemicals trade group VCI said it still expected the nation's chemicals businesses to eke out sales growth of 2 percent in 2013, banking on an upswing in the remainder of the year. _0"> "There is confidence in the board rooms of the chemical companies that there will be further recovery in the coming months," the association said. "The business environment, however, remains difficult, particularly in Europe."   In the first quarter, industry sales rose just 0.5 percent, on 0.7 percent lower output volumes and average producer price increases of 1.1 percent, the lobby group said. VCI, which represents Germany's third-largest industrial sector, reiterated it expects member businesses to charge 0.5 percent higher prices in 2013 and chemical output volumes to rise 1.5 percent. The group's stance reflects the caution voiced by its member businesses. Lanxess, the world's largest synthetic-rubber maker, reined in its investment budge

Cipla Medpro South Africa said on Wednesday its shareholders had approved a $500 million buyout offer from India's Cipla Ltd. _0"> The deal will result in Cipla Medpro being delisted from the Johannesburg exchange in September, it said. (Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Ed Cropley)

Shareholders of South Africa's Cipla Medpro overwhelmingly approved a $488 million takeover offer from India's Cipla Ltd on Wednesday, giving the Indian drugmaker a big presence in Africa's biggest economy. There had been some concern the 4.5 billion rand deal ($488 million) - the biggest by an Indian firm in South Africa - could fall through after Cipla Medpro's top shareholder said the price undervalued the Cape Town-based company. A total of 99.7 percent of shareholders voted in favour of the deal, Cipla Medpro said in a statement. Cipla supplies the bulk of Cipla Medpro's drugs through a long-standing agreement but has never owned a stake in it. Shares in Cipla Medpro rose 1.9 percent to 9.65 rand by 0948 GMT, below the 10 rand per share offer. Black empowerment group Sweet Sensations, the top shareholder in Cipla Medpro with an 18 percent stake, said in March it would ask the Indian company to raise its offer, causing some concern the deal could be scupp

Sharks fined $100,000 for the comments made by GM Doug Wilson. The NHL announced Saturday that the San Jose Sharks organization has been fined $100,000 for comments made by general manager Doug Wilson on Friday. Wilson was highly crtical of the NHL's decision to suspend forward Raffi Torres for his Game 1 hit on Jarret Stoll. Part of Wilson's comments: "Comparing the facts of this incident against the actual wording of Rule 48.1, it appears that the NHL has not only made an inappropriate application of this rule but is trying to make an example out of a player who is being judged on past events, one who has changed his game dramatically this season and taken only six minor penalties in 39 games." The NHL says the statement was a violation of league rules that prohibit teams from making formal statements during the 48-hour period following a disciplinary ruling. The violation carries an automatic $25,000 fine. The Sharks were fined an additional $75,000 due to

Oriola-KD Oyj : * Says signed EUR 280 million revolving credit and term loan facility _0"> agreement with four banks (Reporting by Helsinki Newsroom)

The Obama administration on Wednesday announced a $1 billion initiative to fund healthcare innovations, aimed at reducing the cost of care delivery while improving the quality of health outcomes. _0">

The Obama administration on Wednesday announced a $1 billion initiative to fund innovations in federal healthcare programs aimed at cutting costs while improving the health results. The Department of Health and Human Services said the money will be used to award and evaluate projects that test new payment and delivery models for federal programs including Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. The announcement marks the second round of innovation initiatives for the administration under President Barack Obama's 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.   The government is looking for models that can quickly cut costs in outpatient or post-acute settings, improve care for people with special needs, transform healthcare providers' financial and clinical models or improve health conditions by clinical category, geographic area or socioeconomic class. The application period runs from June 14 to August 15.

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Wednesday: ** Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG is exploring a sale of its blood glucose meters business, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday, as the industry grapples with increased competition and reimbursement pressure. ** Itau Unibanco Holding SA will take over Citigroup Inc's Brazilian consumer finance units for 2.77 billion reais ($1.37 billion) as the nation's biggest bank by market value expands more rapidly in the local credit card market.   ** Warner Music won EU regulatory approval on Wednesday to buy the Parlophone Label Group from Vivendi's Universal Music Group for 487 million pounds ($743.01 million). ** Shareholders of South Africa's Cipla Medpro overwhelmingly approved a $488 million takeover offer from India's Cipla Ltd on Wednesday, giving the Indian drugmaker a big presence in Africa's biggest economy. ** British congl

German drugmaker Bayer and its development partner Algeta won approval from U.S. regulators for a prostate cancer drug that could eventually generate more than 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion) in annual sales. _0"> The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has reviewed Xofigo under its priority programme, said on Wednesday the injection is cleared for treatment of bone metastases in men whose cancer has spread after receiving medical or surgical therapy to lower testosterone.   Bayer licensed Xofigo, also called radium-223 dichloride, from Norway's Algeta in 2009 and the two companies will co-promote the injection in the U.S. Bayer has also requested approval for the drug in Europe, where it would market the drug alone. The drug, which according to Bayer could become a "blockbuster" product with annual sales of least 1 billion euros, has some properties of calcium. That makes it cling to cancerous bone cells and then destroy them via alpha rays, which is

After more than 15 years of failures by scientists around the world and one outright fraud, biologists have finally created human stem cells by the same technique that produced Dolly the cloned sheep in 1996: They transplanted genetic material from an adult cell into an egg whose own DNA had been removed. The result is a harvest of human embryonic stem cells, the seemingly magic cells capable of morphing into any of the 200-plus kinds that make up a person. The feat, reported on Wednesday in the journal Cell, could re-ignite the field of stem-cell medicine, which has been hobbled by technical challenges as well as ethical issues. Until now, the most natural sources of human stem cells have been human embryos, whose use in research poses ethical quandaries. The technique announced on Wednesday, by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center, uses unfertilized human eggs.   Eliminating the need for human embryos could boost

Shoppers Drug Mart Corp on Wednesday sold C$500 million ($490 million) of senior unsecured medium-term notes in two parts, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. _0"> The sale included C$225 million ($221 million) of notes due May 24, 2016. The 2.01 percent notes were priced at 99.980 to yield 2.017 percent, or 79.7 basis points over the Canadian government benchmark, according to the term sheet.   It also included C$275 million ($270 million) of notes due May 24, 2018. The 2.36 percent notes were priced at 99.962 to yield 2.368 percent, or 94.8 basis points over the Canadian government benchmark. The joint book-running managers on the sale were the investment dealer arms of Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Toronto-Dominion Bank.

U.S. stocks climbed on Wednesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 hitting new all-time highs as the market's recent upward momentum persisted and offset some weak economic data.   The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have risen for four straight sessions, extending their gains for the year. Equities have rallied in recent weeks as investors bet that central bank stimulus measures will keep supporting market gains. Such policies have helped spur advances of about 15 percent in major indexes this year despite data showing some signs of lackluster growth. In the latest reads on the economy, activity in New York state's manufacturing sector unexpectedly contracted in May, falling to minus 1.43 from 3.05, below expectations for an increase to 4. Another report showed that U.S. industrial production fell 0.5 percent in April, more than expected. "It's disconcerting that the data was so much lower than what we were looking for, but there's no reason for investors to sell,&q

Lawyers for Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone reiterated on Wednesday he had not bribed a German banker during the 2005-6 sale of a stake in the motor racing business, after a newspaper reported he had been charged by prosecutors. _0"> Prosecutors in Munich have completed an investigation into Ecclestone and German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Wednesday they had charged the 82-year-old Briton, who has turned the sport into a global money spinner over the past three decades, with bribery and inciting others to a fiduciary breach of trust. "The documents with the charges from the Munich prosecutor's office have not yet been received by the defense," German law firm Thomas Deckers Wehnert Elsner said, acting for Ecclestone. "Therefore we cannot provide a statement. The defense sticks to its view that Mr. Ecclestone has neither committed bribery nor played any part in committing a fiduciary breach of trust," added the firm, b

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner raised the possibility of jail time on Wednesday for law violations in the growing scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny. "My question isn't about who is going to have to resign, my question is who is going to jail over this scandal," Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, told reporters. The Justice Department on Tuesday began a criminal investigation, while a number of congressional Republicans called for the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner, Steven Miller.   Boehner said "there are laws in place to prevent this type of abuse," referring to the IRS giving extra scrutiny to requests for tax-exempt status by Tea Party movement groups and other conservative groups. "Someone made a conscious decision to harass and hold up these requests," Boehner said. "We need to know who they are, whether they violated the l

Following are terms and conditions _0"> of a bond priced on Wednesday. Borrower UBS AG Issue Amount $1.5 billion Maturity Date May 22, 2023 Coupon 4.75 pct Issue price Par   Payment Date May 22, 2013 Lead Manager(s) Barclays, BBVA, CACIB, DANSKE, HSBC, ING, BANCA IMI, LLOYDS,MIZUHO, RBS, SANTANDER GBM, UBS & UNICREDIT Ratings BBB+ (Fitch), BBB- (S&P) Listing SIX Full fees Undisclosed Denoms (K) 200-1 Notes One time call at year five _0"> _1"> Security details and RIC, when available, will be _2"> on _3"> Customers can right-click on the code for _4"> performance analysis of this new issue _5"> For ratings information, double click on _6"> For all bonds data, double click on _7"> For Top international bonds news _8"&g

A European investigation into alleged price rigging by major oil companies has drawn attention to leading price agency Platts and the way it sets oil price benchmarks.   Authorities on Tuesday carried out a surprise inspection at Platts' London bureau as well as the offices of Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Statoil. Officials were searching for evidence that the firms had distorted prices reported to Platts in an attempt to influence the cost of oil. The move follows more scrutiny of financial benchmarks by authorities since the Libor rigging scandal. Statoil said the suspected violations were related to the Platts price assessment process and may have been going on since 2002, when oil traded at just $20 a barrel, a fifth of its price today. For more than a century Platts, a unit of McGraw-Hill , has provided clients with price benchmarks set by reporters for opaque energy markets. As the undisputed lead price reporter, its assessments are used to close physical and derivative dea

BNP Paribas staff levels in France will drop this year on the back of "significant" voluntary departures, the French bank's chairman said on Wednesday. _0"> "Our employee levels will go down in France this year," Baudouin Prot told the bank's shareholder assembly. "There will be significant voluntary departures," he said. (Reporting by Lionel Laurent; Editing by Elena Berton)

Farmland values in the U.S. Plains states rose 20 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, with acreage commanding record prices because of red-hot demand for cropland in the world's biggest food-exporting nation, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said on Wednesday. The rise marked the third straight year of double-digit annual increases, setting a survey record, the bank said, but the rate of gains moderated from the fourth quarter, with slower growth in farm income.   "There was a modest slowdown in farmland value growth in the first quarter," Nathan Kauffman, the bank's economist in charge of the survey, said in an interview. "At this point we haven't seen anything to suggest there is going to be a rapid decline. How this plays out going into 2014 is going to be the bigger question if farm incomes fall significantly from 2013 levels." The Kansas City Fed's quarterly survey of 223 regional bankers is a closely watched gauge of t

European shares scaled fresh five-year highs on Wednesday, led by gains for several major Swiss stocks after a currency shift that should continue to buoy the country's exporters. _0"> The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index provisionally closed up 0.7 percent at 1,245.41 points, its highest level since mid-2008. The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index rose 0.4 percent to 2,807.58 points.   The Swiss SMI index rose 1.5 percent to outperform other European markets, with gains at pharmaceutical groups Novartis and Roche, and food company Nestle adding most points to the FTSEurofirst 300. Clarinvest fund manager Ion-Marc Valahu said Swiss companies were benefiting from a fresh fall in the Swiss franc against the euro and U.S. dollar, which would continue to help the country's companies export products. "The Swiss franc is moving lower and it's benefiting the exporters," he said. He added it was difficult to justify bets on a broad-market

RUSAL, the world's largest producer of aluminium, could consider deeper capacity cuts if prices for the metal continue to languish around levels last seen in the aftermath of the financial crisis, a senior executive said.   The aluminium industry is struggling with excess capacity, rising costs and weak prices. RUSAL estimates a fifth of global production outside China is loss-making, even with demand expected to grow 6 to 7 percent in 2013. Last year, the Russian aluminium giant promised to slash 300,000 tonnes of capacity - a 7 percent drop - and production dropped 4 percent in the first quarter of this year. But rival Alcoa said this month it could shut down as much as another 11 percent of smelting capacity - 460,000 tonnes - to remain competitive. "We can (cut more)," deputy chief executive Oleg Mukhamedshin said in an interview. "There is a decision already, supported by our board of directors, and it is 7 percent from last year's production. If more

The consortium of investors seeking to take over Severn Trent offered just under 20 pounds per share for the British water company, valuing it at around 4.7 billion pounds ($7.17 billion), a source told Reuters on Wednesday. This would represent a premium of 10 percent to Severn Trent's closing share price on Monday of 18.25 pounds, the day before news of a bid emerged, and a 21 percent premium to the six month average share price.   Shares in Severn Trent closed up 0.63 percent at 20.90 pounds. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the offer would represent a premium of around 30 percent to the water company's regulated asset base (RAB), in line with historic transactions in the region of 25 to 30 percent above RAB. Severn Trent and representatives for the consortium declined official comment. Severn Trent said on Tuesday it had been approached by a consortium including Borealis infrastructure, the Kuwait Investment Office and Britain's Universities

The London Metal Exchange expects to announce a 2014 launch date for its self-clearing platform, LMEClear, within the next few weeks, LMEClear's chief operating officer said. _0"> Trades on the LME, the world's largest metals marketplace, are currently cleared by clearing house LCH.Clearnet. A clearing house acts as an an intermediary between parties to a trade, in order to reduce the risk of one (or more) parties defaulting.   "To go final on a date we need to agree an exit date with LCH.Clearnet. We're close to agreeing that, we expect we'll announce it in the next couple of weeks," Adrian Farnham said at the IRN Metals Trading Operations and Technology summit in London on Wednesday. The LME said in December 2011 it had decided to create a self-clearing platform. The move was seen at the time as a bid to make the world's largest base metals marketplace more attractive for a sale. The LME was sold to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd la

Private equity funds have struggled to offload investments made before the financial crisis and are taking longer to pay out to investors, research showed on Wednesday. _0"> Data from research firm Prequin showed that companies sold by funds in 2012 were held for an average of 5 years, compared to an average holding period of 3.9 years for companies sold in 2008. "Fund managers are still struggling to sell investments for a sufficient profit that were purchased at peak prices during the buyout boom, and consequently are holding portfolio companies for longer," said Ignatius Fogarty, Head of Private Equity Products at Prequin. Just 33 percent of the capital investors chipped into deals made in 2007 has been returned in the last six years, compared to a 95 percent pay back rate in the six years after 2001.  

Canadian home sales rose in April, the second straight monthly gain, as spring homebuying breathed life back into the slowing real estate sector and bolstered hopes Canada will manage a soft landing rather than a U.S.-style housing crash.   Sales of existing homes climbed 0.6 percent in April from March, but year-over-year sales were down 3.1 percent, the Canadian Real Estate Association said on Wednesday in a report that showed a spring bounce in a housing sector that had been slowing since the middle of 2012. "Realizing that it may be a tad premature for victory laps, but evidence continues to mount that the Canadian housing market seems to have pulled off the fabled soft landing," Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a research note. CREA's home price index rose 2.2 percent in April from a year earlier, its smallest gain in more than two years. That echoed the 2.0 percent April gain in the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index

The Portuguese government and JP Morgan Chase & Co are attempting to resolve a tussle over potentially costly derivative contracts sold by the U.S. investment bank to state-owned companies. _0"> One source familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said talks had begun after both sides threatened legal action over a series of complex hedging products described as "toxic" by Lisbon.   No further information was immediately available. The row between JP Morgan and Lisbon, which is trying to stem potential losses of up to 3.0 billion euros ($4.0 billion)from complex hedging products sold to companies such as the Lisbon and Porto Metro, echoes similar battles in countries such as Italy as bank clients say they were missold products. JPMorgan launched a London lawsuit as a "protective measure" after Portugal's cash-strapped government vowed on April 26 to challenge in court swap contracts with JP Morgan and the local unit of

The United States blacklisted two Dubai-based trading companies on Wednesday, accusing them of helping Iran evade financial sanctions and effectively cutting them off from the U.S. financial system.   The move against Al Hilal Exchange and Al Fida International General Trading is the latest in a series of sanctions Washington has imposed to pressure Tehran to curb its atomic program, which the United States suspects aims to develop weapons. Iran says the program is for civilian purposes. Testifying before Congress, two senior Obama administration officials said they would continue to pursue Washington's dual-track policy of negotiating with Iran to rein in its nuclear program, while also imposing sanctions to pressure it. In a statement, the U.S. Treasury said the two firms had provided financial services to Iran's Bank Mellat, a bank that has itself been blacklisted - or "designated" in U.S. government jargon - for involvement in the Iranian nuclear program. &

British insurer RSA 's 28 percent cut in directors' pay was enough to secure backing from shareholders angered by a sharp reduction in the company's dividend. _0"> RSA's pay plans won 91 percent approval in a vote at the annual shareholder meeting in London on Wednesday. In response to a series of hostile questions from investors, RSA Chairman Martin Scicluna said total director remuneration was lower in 2012 compared with the previous year.   The company was reinvesting money saved by the dividend cut in its business, not in executive salaries, he said. Total director remuneration fell 28 percent to 4.3 million pounds from 6 million pounds a year earlier he said. Many shareholders were angered by RSA's announcement in February that it would cut its final dividend by one third. Guy Jubb, head of corporate governance at Standard Life Investments, which owns more than 4 percent of RSA according to Thomson Reuters data, told the board on Wednesday tha

European shares scaled new five-year highs on Wednesday, led by gains for several major Swiss stocks after a fresh fall on the Swiss franc that should continue to buoy the country's exporters.   UBS technical analysts said European equity markets may retreat by June, but the majority of traders and investors felt any such pull-back would be short-lived and that European stock markets should continue to rise over the course of 2013. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 0.7 percent at 1,245.66 points, its highest level since mid-2008, while the euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index also rose 0.5 percent to 2,809.58 points. The Swiss SMI index rose 1.5 percent to outperform other European markets, with gains at pharmaceutical groups Novartis and Roche, and food company Nestle adding the most points to the FTSEurofirst 300. Clarinvest fund manager Ion-Marc Valahu said Swiss companies were benefiting from a fresh fall in the Swiss franc against the euro and