Boeing upbeat over possible Kuwait jet sale, oil price hits some deals

DUBAI (Reuters) – Boeing on Saturday gave its strongest indication yet about a near-term sale of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to Kuwait, although the world’s second-largest weapons maker said lower oil prices were delaying some arms purchases by Gulf states.

“There are things that we’re waiting on… those things are going to be cleared and we think they’re going to be cleared soon,” Boeing’s Paul Oliver said in response to a question on whether discussions about a reported $ 3 billion F/A-18 deal with Kuwait talks were making progress.

Oliver, vice-president of international business development in the Middle East and Africa for Boeing’s defense business, did not name Kuwait specifically.

The United States has not publicly acknowledged talks to sell Boeing fighters to Kuwait, but sources familiar with the matter have said it is in negotiations about selling 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to the Gulf nation in a deal valued at over $ 3 billion.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters they hoped it would clear final regulatory hurdles before the end of the year.

In September, Kuwait also signed a memorandum of understanding to buy 28 Eurofighter jets built by Italy’s Finmeccanica, Britain’s BAE Systems and European aerospace firm Airbus Group.

At a news conference on Saturday, Boeing officials said they were working on some fighter export prospects but declined to identify any potential buyers.

Kuwait and other Gulf and Middle Eastern countries are looking to acquire new high-tech military equipment to protect themselves from neighboring Iran and internal threats unleashed by the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
Gulf governments are also looking to expand and speed up their replenishment of arms due to involvement in the Yemen war but longer-term programs are being postponed as low oil prices shrink state coffers.

“They’ve put some things on the shelf… they want to be very prudent, but they’re focused on needs right now,” Oliver said in Dubai ahead of the Dubai Airshow.

Some development programs could be delayed for about three years due to low oil prices for oil-exporting Gulf states, he said.

“I don’t think anybody is looking at any of these things to be over quick,” Oliver said.
Procurements for “proven, off-the-self solutions” have accelerated, Oliver added, including Chinook and Apache helicopters.

(Reporting by Nadia Saleem and Tim Hepher; editing by Helen Popper and Jason Neely)
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Faldo predicts new-look European Ryder Cup team

By Tony Jimenez

LONDON (Reuters) – Six-times major winner Nick Faldo believes there could be as many as six rookies in the side when Europe attempt to retain the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, Minnesota next year.

The visitors will be trying to win the biennial team event for the fourth straight edition, a run stretching back to the 2008 defeat when Faldo was outgunned by rival captain Paul Azinger at Valhalla.

“I think America could be the favorites this time because the backbone of their team will be similar to the last one,” Faldo told Reuters in an interview.

“Europe’s backbone could be very different. We could easily have six rookies, easily.

“There are a lot of names America won’t know a lot about if we get the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Andy Sullivan and Danny Willett making the team.

“That could be a bad thing but it could also be a good thing because sometimes it can be quite nice to be a little bit of an unknown. I think that’s going to happen and we’ll probably have a fresh half of our team.”

The 28-year-old Willett finished second behind Rory McIlroy on the European money list after winning twice in the 2014-15 season to climb to 20th in the world rankings.

Compatriot Sullivan, 29, won three times and has climbed to 36th in the world rankings, while fellow Englishman Fleetwood had another consistent season despite failing to add to his solitary tour victory at the 2013 Johnnie Walker Championship in Scotland.

Among the other potential 2016 Ryder Cup debutants are Irishman Shane Lowry, England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, Austrian Bernd Wiesberger and Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark.

“There is going to be a changing of the guard, a few of our guys are getting a little older,” said Faldo, the winner of the 1987, 1990 and 1992 British Open and the 1989, 1990 and 1996 U.S. Masters.
Europe’s 2014 team featured 40-plus duo Thomas Bjorn and Lee Westwood, while Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher was one month shy of his 40th birthday.

RECORD SCORER
Faldo is the all-time record points scorer in the Ryder Cup having collected 25 points in 11 playing appearances between 1977-97.

The 58-year-old Englishman said matchplay golf was not all about firing low scores.

“You can shoot nine under par and lose and you have to accept that,” said Faldo. “It doesn’t matter how or how many, you’ve just got to find a way to win.”

Faldo believes one of the reasons why Europe have been victorious in eight of the last 10 Ryder Cups is the strong pairings they have been able to select.

“America need to get a couple of good partnerships,” he said. “That has always been the strength of Europe, we have had Ballesteros and Olazabal, me with Ian Woosnam or Colin Montgomerie or Bernhard Langer.
“The Americans have struggled with that recently. Their strongest pair has been Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley.

“Even that one gets broken up at the wrong time. They have got to find a couple of good pairings but the bottom line is they must find a way to win,” added Faldo as he launched a range of wines from six of Europe’s classic regions to celebrate each of his major victories (http://www.miltonsandfordwines.com).
Davis Love III will captain the Americans and Darren Clarke is to lead the Europeans when the Ryder Cup is held from Sept. 30-Oct. 2 2016.

(Editing by Rob Hodgetts)
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Musk’s Tesla faces German battle over battery-powered homes

By Vera Eckert and Christoph Steitz

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – If Elon Musk’s vision of millions of households producing all their own power becomes a reality, it will probably happen first in Germany. But he will face a battle for market share against local firms with years of experience in renewable energy.

The South African-born entrepreneur’s company Tesla, best known for its electric cars, sparked global interest in the idea of self-powered homes in April, when it said it would start selling lithium-ion batteries for households next year.

The batteries, called Powerwalls, connect to solar panels on the roof of a house and aim to store enough power during the day to drive kettles and washing machines at night, raising the prospect that households one day will be able to rely fully on clean energy and become independent of the power grid.
There are big challenges.

The technology does not yet allow most users to disconnect from the grid – the German solar industry association BSW estimates batteries currently raise solar power self-sufficiency to at least 60 percent.
Then there is the price. Buying and installing solar panels and batteries costs around 10,000 euros ($ 10,600) or more.

But the technology is improving, and costs falling, and some analysts think Germany – with more solar panels than anywhere in the world and sky-high power prices – could become the industry’s first mass-market.
“The business model of power batteries is becoming increasingly attractive,” said Norbert Schwieters, global utilities leader at consultants PwC, noting market estimates that sales in Germany could reach half a million within a decade, up from around 25,000 now.

“LIFESTYLE GADGET”

If the market does take off, Musk will have a fight on his hands against German companies with established retail networks and years of experience managing solar equipment.

While acknowledging Musk’s slick marketing – Powerwalls are made at his “Gigafactory” in the Nevada Desert – some of these rivals think he has created a buzz around home power storage batteries that will ultimately work in their favor.

“Tesla has made sure that they’re seen as a lifestyle gadget,” said Volker Wachenfeld, in charge of hybrid energy and storage solutions at SMA Solar.

SMA Solar is one of a number of German companies with ambitions in the market, including Sonnenbatterie, SENEC.IES and Varta. Daimler Accumotive is also due to launch a product, while Solarwatt, owned by major BMW shareholder Stefan Quandt, says it is ready to join the fray.

Sonnenbatterie, whose backers include Germany’s E-Capital and Czech firm Inven Capital, has already sold around 8,500 batteries in Europe, mostly in Germany, but its ambitions go further.

“The biggest challenge of our generation is the move to renewable and inexpensive energy supply,” said its 32-year-old managing director, Philipp Schroeder. “I started this vision and now want to take it to global success.”

Schroeder knows Tesla well – he worked there until earlier this year, leading its German and Austrian operations with a brief to roll out a network of charging points for Tesla cars in Germany. He jumped ship for his old employer Sonnenbatterie just as Tesla was gearing up for its European home-battery push.
Tesla, which has made Germany one of its three launch markets for Powerwalls, is ready for a fight, however. It has struck partnerships with German companies Beegy and LichtBlick in order to benefit from local expertise.

“Tesla is working with leading German and international solar PV (photovoltaic) distributors and installers to offer complete solar PV solutions including PV panels, a solar PV inverter, and installation,” it said.

IS THE PRICE RIGHT?
With the second-highest retail power costs in Europe, partly the result of the government’s break-neck push into renewables, Germany’s economy stands to gain massively if it can take a chunk of its back-up grid capacity offline.

Germany boasts about 39 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar capacity, bringing its total capacity to nearly 200 GW, more than twice the level it theoretically needs.

Vast amounts of costly back-up power are required to kick in when the sun doesn’t shine. If homes, offices and factories can store their solar power, many of the country’s power stations can be scrapped and transmission systems do not have to be extended at billions of euros of cost.

Incentives for solar power producers to feed surplus supplies into the national grid are set to end in 2021, providing a reason for them to store more power themselves.

“First it was technology aficionados, today it is a broad number of home owners,” Herbert Schein, CEO of Varta Microbattery, said of the growing interest in power batteries.

Schein estimates sales at Varta’s energy storage unit have doubled this year. “In the future we will add small companies and farmers,” he said.

Battery systems of various suppliers may differ, but costs overall have fallen and lithium-ion battery packs are the norm, having pushed aside lead batteries.

With a slim, curved appearance and made to be wall-mounted, Tesla’s Powerwall is designed to appeal to style-conscious consumers who agree with co-founder and CEO Musk’s statement that traditional batteries “suck”.

The batteries offered by most German providers can be placed in basements, common in German homes, and take up no more space than a small refrigerator. Smaller batteries can be wall-mounted too.

The batteries start selling at about 1,000 euros per kilowatt peak (kWp) – the level at which experts say the technology makes economic sense for buyers – with an average four-person household usually needing a 5 kWp system.

Tesla says the 7 kWp Powerwall will cost 3,615 euros wholesale, including value added tax.

Sonnenbatterie this week announced a 3,599 euro small battery – a discounted price available if the buyer joins the company’s SonnenCommunity scheme. It offers a full home solar power and storage system at 9,000-13,000 euros.
($ 1 = 0.9448 euros)

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Mark Potter)
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SRN News » Science

By Karolos Grohmann

BERLIN (Reuters) – Hamburg’s bid to host the 2024 summer Olympics hinges on the result of a referendum on Sunday, with city officials hoping for a strong show of support to boost the chances of Germany’s Olympic newcomer staging the Games.

The northern port city beat Berlin in March to win the German nod and is proposing a compact inner-city concept that bid officials say meets the International Olympic Committee’s recent reforms aimed making the Games cheaper and more sustainable.

Hamburg is the only one of the five candidates to put its plans to a city vote. Rome, Paris, Los Angeles — all past Olympic hosts — and Budapest are in the running as well, with the IOC to pick the winner in 2017.
“An event the size of the Olympics can only be staged in agreement with the citizens and the government,” said Hamburg mayor Olaf Scholz, who cast his mail vote earlier this week and hopes for a “strong majority result”.

Hamburg’s concept involves the Games being held in the Kleiner Grasbrook area, technically an island but only a 10-minute walk from the city center, that would become the Olympic park and offer short distances to the competition venues for athletes and spectators.

The bid needs a simple majority, as well as at least 20 percent of the registered electorate casting a ‘Yes’ vote if Hamburg is to continue with its two-year campaign.

Critics say the 7.4 billion euro ($ 7.86 billion) project would be an environmental and financial burden at a time when major sports organizations like world soccer’s governing body FIFA are faced with global corruption, bribery and doping scandals.

The continuing influx of refugees and increased security fears following the Paris attacks have raised further questions over whether an Olympic bid currently makes sense.

The bid is opposed by some environmental and citizens’ groups including Friends of the Earth Germany as well as Hamburg’s second division soccer club St Pauli, whose members voted against it this month.
Germany’s soccer association (DFB) is also mired in a bribery scandal that Hamburg bid chief Nikolas Hill admitted was doing the Hamburg candidacy no favors.

A poll conducted this month before the Paris attacks showed support for the Games at 56 percent, seven percent lower than two months earlier.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) commissioned a nationwide poll after the Paris attacks, noting support had risen for the Games.

“I see a clear positive tendency along the lines of ‘especially now’,” DOSB President Alfons Hoermann told reporters. “The majority seems to share our opinion that fear is not a prospect.”

($ 1 = 0.9420 euros)

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ian Chadband)
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Leslie Smith gets her left ear torn half off by punch in UFC 180 bout

 

MEXICO CITY -- Jessica Eye and Leslie Smith engaged in a spirited slugfest for the better part of the first round, until a right hand by Eye landed squarely on Smith's left ear in the waning seconds of the round on the preliminary card at UFC 180 Saturday in Mexico City Arena.It split Smith's ear open, sending blood pouring out and covering the side of her face. In between rounds, doctors took a long time to look at the ear and opted to allow Smith to continue.But not long after the second began, the fighters clinched and Eye then connected with a couple of short rights from close range that opened it again. After another Eye right, referee Herb Dean called time to have the doctors examine it again when the ear was flapping down.When it was shown on the gigantic video board in the arena, the crowd let out a loud "Ewww!"After an examination, Dean stopped it on the advice of the ringside physicians. Smith angrily protested, but Dean had no choice but to stop it at 1:30 of the second, giving Eye the TKO victory in the women's bantamweight bout.
via Leslie Smith gets her left ear torn half off by punch in UFC 180 bout | Cagewriter - Yahoo Sports.

A Timeline of the Abuse Charges Against Cosby -- Vulture

Thirty years ago this weekend, The Cosby Show debuted on NBC, and its star was catapulted into the comedic stratosphere. The timing is prime, then, for the release of a sprawling biography. Written by former Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker, Cosby: His Life and Times documents the man’s rise from the Philadelphia projects, while also detailing the creation of his family sitcom and the murder of his son Ennis in 1997.

The book is notable, however, for its complete avoidance of sexual abuse allegations that have dogged Cosby for more than a decade. In a statement to Buzzfeed's Kate Aurthur, Whitaker says, "I didn’t want to print allegations that I couldn’t confirm independently." Regardless, their absence is glaring. To read the full timeline an appendix to the book click the link below at
via A Timeline of the Abuse Charges Against Cosby -- Vulture.

U.S. sues to block United Airlines from acquiring Newark slots

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it has sued to stop United Airlines from acquiring 24 takeoff and landing slots at Newark Liberty International Airport from Delta Airlines.

“A slot is essentially a license to compete at Newark,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer in a statement. “United already holds most of them, and as a result, competition at Newark is in critically short supply.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark, alleges that the acquisition would lead to higher fares and fewer choices for travelers.

The Justice Department said that United already controls 73 percent of the slots, which are authorizations from the Federal Aviation Administration to take off from or land at the airport. It also said United allegedly “grounds” as many as 82 slots each day at Newark, limiting flight opportunities.

The federal government has been concerned about a possible monopoly since 2010, when United, the third largest airline in the world by revenue, divested 36 of its slots to Southwest Airlines to help win approval of its merger with Continental Airlines.

The current transaction is United’s third attempt to “reverse the benefits” of that divestiture, the department said.

Both United and Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
United’s stock, which had traded as high as $ 60.85 earlier in the session, dropped to as low as $ 59.03 before clawing part way back.


(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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