‘Hobbit’ extends No. 1 journey with $36.7 million

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tiny hobbit Bilbo Baggins is running circles around some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” took in $ 36.7 million to remain No. 1 at the box office for the second-straight weekend, easily beating a rush of top-name holiday newcomers.

Part one of Jackson’s prelude to his “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the Warner Bros. release raised its domestic total to $ 149.9 million after 10 days. The film added $ 91 million overseas to bring its international total to $ 284 million and its worldwide haul to $ 434 million.

“The Hobbit” took a steep 57 percent drop from its domestic $ 84.6 million opening weekend, but business was soft in general as many people skipped movies in favor of last-minute Christmas preparations.

“The real winner this weekend might be holiday shopping,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

Tom Cruise‘s action thriller “Jack Reacher” debuted in second-place with a modest $ 15.6 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. Based on the Lee Child best-seller “One Shot,” the Paramount Pictures release stars Cruise as a lone-wolf ex-military investigator tracking a sniper conspiracy.

Opening at No. 3 with $ 12 million was Judd Apatow’s marital comedy “This Is 40,” a Universal Pictures film featuring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprising their roles from the director’s 2007 hit “Knocked Up.”

Paramount’s road-trip romp “The Guilt Trip,” featuring “Knocked Up” star Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand, debuted weakly at No. 6 with $ 5.4 million over the weekend and $ 7.4 million since it opened Wednesday. Playing in narrower release, Paramount’s acrobatic fantasy “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away” debuted at No. 11 with $ 2.1 million.

A 3-D version of Disney’s 2001 animated blockbuster “Monsters, Inc.” also had a modest start at No. 7 with $ 5 million over the weekend and $ 6.5 million since opening Wednesday.

Domestic business was off for the first time in nearly two months. Overall revenues totaled $ 112 million, down 12.6 percent from the same weekend last year, when Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” debuted with $ 29.6 million, according to Hollywood.com.

Cruise’s “Jack Reacher” opened at barely half the level as “Ghost Protocol,” but with a $ 60 million budget, the new flick cost about $ 100 million less to make.

Starting on Christmas, Hollywood expects a big week of movie-going with schools out through New Year’s Day and many adults taking time off. So Paramount and other studios are counting on strong business for films that started slowly this weekend.

“‘Jack Reacher’ will end up in a very good place. The movie will be profitable for Paramount,” said Don Harris, the studio’s head of distribution. “The first time I saw the movie I saw dollar signs. It certainly wasn’t intended to be compared to a ‘Mission: Impossible,’ though.”

Likewise, Warner Bros. is looking for steady crowds for “The Hobbit” over the next week, despite the debut of two huge newcomers — the musical “Les Miserables” and the action movie “Django Unchained” — on Christmas Day.

“We haven’t reached the key holiday play time yet,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner. “It explodes on Tuesday and goes right through the end of the year.”

In limited release, Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden manhunt saga “Zero Dark Thirty” played to packed houses with $ 410,000 in just five theaters, averaging a huge $ 82,000 a cinema.

That compares to a $ 4,654 average in 3,352 theaters for “Jack Reacher” and a $ 4,130 average in 2,913 cinemas for “This Is 40.” ”The Guilt Trip” averaged $ 2,217 in 2,431 locations, and “Monsters, Inc.” averaged $ 1,925 in 2,618 cinemas. Playing just one matinee and one evening show a day at 840 theaters, “Cirque du Soleil” averaged $ 2,542.

Since opening Wednesday, “Zero Dark Thirty” has taken in $ 639,000. Distributor Sony plans to expand the acclaimed film to nationwide release Jan. 11, amid film honors and nominations leading up to the Feb. 24 Academy Awards.

Opening in 15 theaters from Lionsgate banner Summit Entertainment, Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor’s tsunami-survival drama “The Impossible” took in $ 138,750 for an average of $ 9,250.

A fourth new release from Paramount, “The Sopranos” creator David Chase’s 1960s rock ‘n’ roll tale “Not Fade Away,” debuted with $ 19,000 in three theaters, averaging $ 6,333.

Universal’s “Les Miserables” got a head-start on its domestic release with a $ 4.2 million debut in Japan.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” $ 36.7 million ($ 91 million international).

2. “Jack Reacher,” $ 15.6 million ($ 2.5 million international).

3. “This Is 40,” $ 12 million.

4. “Rise of the Guardians,” $ 5.9 million ($ 13.7 million international).

5. “Lincoln,” $ 5.6 million.

6. “The Guilt Trip,” $ 5.4 million.

7. “Monsters, Inc.” in 3-D, $ 5 million.

8. “Skyfall,” $ 4.7 million ($ 9 million international),

9. “Life of Pi,” $ 3.8 million ($ 23.2 million international).

10. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” $ 2.6 million ($ 6.6 million international).

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” $ 91 million.

2. “Life of Pi,” $ 23.2 million.

3. “Rise of the Guardians,” $ 13.7 million.

4. “Skyfall,” $ 9 million.

5. “Wreck-It Ralph,” $ 7.3 million.

6. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” $ 6.6 million.

7. “Pitch Perfect,” $ 6 million.

8. “Les Miserables,” $ 4.2 million.

9. “Love 911,” $ 3.2 million.

10. “De L’autre Cote du Periph,” $ 3.1 million.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Few tests done at toxic sites after superstorm

OLD BRIDGE, N.J. (AP) — For more than a month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that the recent superstorm didn’t cause significant problems at any of the 247 Superfund toxic waste sites it’s monitoring in New York and New Jersey.

But in many cases, no actual tests of soil or water are being conducted, just visual inspections.

The EPA conducted a handful of tests right after the storm, but couldn’t provide details or locations of any recent testing when asked last week. New Jersey officials point out that federally designated Superfund sites are EPA’s responsibility.

The 1980 Superfund law gave EPA the power to order cleanups of abandoned, spilled and illegally dumped hazardous wastes that threaten human health or the environment. The sites can involve long-term or short-term cleanups.

Jeff Tittel, executive director of the Sierra Club in New Jersey, says officials haven’t done enough to ensure there is no contamination from Superfund sites. He’s worried toxins could leach into groundwater and the ocean.

“It’s really serious and I think the EPA and the state of New Jersey have not done due diligence to make sure these sites have not created problems,” Tittel said.

The EPA said last month that none of the Superfund sites it monitors in New York or New Jersey sustained significant damage, but that it has done follow-up sampling at the Gowanus Canal site in Brooklyn, the Newtown Creek site on the border of Queens and Brooklyn, and the Raritan Bay Slag site, all of which flooded during the storm.

But last week, EPA spokeswoman Stacy Kika didn’t respond to questions about whether any soil or water tests have been done at the other 243 Superfund sites. The agency hasn’t said exactly how many of the sites flooded.

“Currently, we do not believe that any sites were impacted in ways that would pose a threat to nearby communities,” EPA said in a statement.

Politicians have been asking similar questions, too. On Nov. 29, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., wrote to the EPA to ask for “an additional assessment” of Sandy’s impact on Superfund sites in the state.

Elevated levels of lead, antimony, arsenic and copper have been found at the Raritan Bay Slag site, a Superfund site since 2009. Blast furnaces dumped lead at the site in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and lead slag was also used there to construct a seawall and jetty.

The EPA found lead levels as high as 142,000 parts per million were found at Raritan Bay in 2007. Natural soil levels for lead range from 50 to 400 parts per million.

The EPA took four samples from the site after Superstorm Sandy: two from a fenced-off beach area and two from a nearby public playground. One of the beach samples tested above the recreational limit for lead. In early November, the EPA said it was taking additional samples “to get a more detailed picture of how the material might have shifted” and will “take appropriate steps to prevent public exposure” at the site, according to a bulletin posted on its website. But six weeks later, the agency couldn’t provide more details of what has been found.

The Newtown Creek site, with pesticides, metals, PCBs and volatile organic compounds, and the Gowanus Canal site, heavily contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, volatile organics and coal tar wastes, were added to the Superfund list in 2010.

Some say the lead at the Raritan Bay site can disperse easily.

Gabriel Fillippeli, director of the Center for Urban Health at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said lead tends to stay in the soil once it is deposited but can be moved around by stormwaters or winds. Arsenic, which has been found in the surface water at the site, can leach into the water table, Fillippeli said.

“My concern is twofold. One is, a storm like that surely moved some of that material physically to other places, I would think,” Fillippeli said. “If they don’t cap that or seal it or clean it up, arsenic will continue to make its way slowly into groundwater and lead will be distributed around the neighborhood.”

The lack of testing has left some residents with lingering worries.

The Raritan Bay Slag site sits on the beach overlooking a placid harbor with a view of Staten Island. On a recent foggy morning, workers were hauling out debris, and some nearby residents wondered whether the superstorm increased or spread the amount of pollution at the site.

“I think it brought a lot of crud in from what’s out there,” said Elise Pelletier, whose small bungalow sits on a hill overlooking the Raritan Bay Slag site. “You don’t know what came in from the water.” Her street did not flood because it is up high, but she worries about a park below where people go fishing and walk their dogs. She would like to see more testing done.

Thomas Burke, an associate dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says both federal and state officials generally have a good handle on the major Superfund sites, which often use caps and walls to contain pollution.

“They are designed to hold up,” Burke said of such structures, but added that “you always have to be concerned that an unusual event can spread things around in the environment.” Burke noted that the storm brought in a “tremendous amount” of water, raising the possibility that groundwater plumes could have changed.

“There really have to be evaluations” of communities near the Superfund sites, he said. “It’s important to take a look.”

Officials in both New York and New Jersey note they’ve also been monitoring less toxic sites known as brownfields and haven’t found major problems. The New York DEC said in a statement that brownfields in that state “were not significantly impacted” and that they don’t plan further tests for storm impacts.

Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency has done visual inspections of major brownfield sites and also alerted towns and cities to be on the lookout for problems. Ragonese said they just aren’t getting calls voicing such concerns.

Back at the Raritan Bay slag site, some residents want more information. And they want the toxic soil, which has sat here for years, out.

Pat Churchill, who was walking her dog in the park along the water, said she’s still worried.

“There are unanswered questions. You can’t tell me this is all contained. It has to move around,” Churchill said.

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Italy’s Monti opens door to seeking new term

ROME (Reuters) – Two days after stepping down, Mario Monti announced on Sunday he would consider seeking a second term as Italian prime minister if approached by allies committed to backing his austere brand of reforms.

The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government of experts to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, resigned on Friday but has faced growing calls to seek a second term at a parliamentary election on February 24-25.

At stake is the leadership of the world’s eighth largest economy, where recession and public debt of more than 2 trillion ($ 2.63 billion) have aggravated investor concerns about growth and stability in the euro zone.

“If a credible political force asked me to be candidate as prime minister for them, I would consider it,” said Monti, who has imposed repeated tax hikes and spending cuts to shore up Italy’s strained public finances.

He had kept his position a closely guarded secret for weeks, and in recent days had appeared to be have strong doubts about whether to continue in front-line politics. He made clear that if he ran, it would probably be at the head of a centrist grouping.

Monti held back from committing himself fully to the race, and said he was aware any decision to stay in politics carried “many risks and a high probability of failure”.

“I am not in any party. I am ready to give my appreciation and encouragement, to be leader and to take on any responsibility I may be given by parliament,” he said.

As a senator for life, Monti has no need to run for election to parliament but he said he would publish a detailed agenda of recommendations for a future government and would potentially be willing to lead a party that adopted it as its own.

Still serving as caretaker leader, Monti is widely respected for restoring Italy’s reputation after the scandal-plagued era of his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi.

The former economics professor is backed strongly by Italy’s business establishment and by EU allies including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He has been urged to stay by centrist groups ranging from disaffected former Berlusconi allies to the small UDC party, which is close to the Catholic church.

But there is little sign of enthusiasm for a second term among voters weary of his austerity policies. A survey last week showed 61 percent did not think he should stand. It said a potential centrist alliance under his leadership was likely to gain around 15 percent support.

BITTER ELECTION

Both Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party and the center-left Democratic Party (PD), which is leading in the opinion polls, have urged Monti not to stand in the election.

Berlusconi, who left office last year with fraud charges and a juvenile prostitution scandal hanging over him, has accused Monti’s “Germano-centric” government of worsening recession with austerity measures, including a deeply unpopular housing tax he has promised to scrap.

In an exchange which may give a taste of bitter campaigning to come, Berlusconi said his nightmare would be a government with Monti at its head and Gianfranco Fini, a former ally turned bitter foe who supports the premier, “coming out of the sewers”.

Fini’s lieutenant Fabio Granata responded by saying Berlusconi’s remark was “fitting for his court of thieves, mafiosi, corrupt politicians, slaves and prostitutes.”

Monti was also scathing about Berlusconi, whom he replaced as Italy teetered on the brink of disaster in November 2011.

He said he had been “bewildered” by the 76-year-old media tycoon’s frequent changes of position. And, in an interview with La Repubblica daily, he expressed incredulity that Italians might re-elect Berlusconi “after seeing the damage he did to the Italian economy and the credibility of the country”.

PD leader Pier Luigi Bersani, whose party has backed Monti in parliament and pledges to maintain the broad course he has set, was more cautious, saying he would look at Monti’s reform proposals closely but that it would be up to voters to decide.

Monti said he hoped the next government would have a strong majority to pursue a programme that would extend the reforms his government had begun, in areas ranging from the labor market to justice and cutting the bloated cost of the political system.

He said the next government must not make easy election promises or backtrack on reforms: “We have to avoid illusory and extremely dangerous steps backwards.”

During his 13 months in office, Monti hiked taxes severely and chopped backed spending while pushing through reforms of the pension system, labor market and parts of the service sector.

However, many analysts said his efforts were too timid to significantly improve the outlook of a chronically sluggish economy, and Monti himself said that Italy was “only at the beginning of the structural reforms” required.

Italy, the euro zone’s third-largest economy, has been in recession since the middle of last year. Consumer spending is falling at its fastest rate since World War Two and unemployment has risen to a record high above 11 percent.

(Editing by Barry Moody and Mark Trevelyan)

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Canada spending growth sluggish in November, Mastercard says

(Reuters) – Canada‘s holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in November with retail sales rising only 1.3 percent from the previous year, compared with 4.2 percent growth a year earlier, according to data released by MasterCard on Thursday.

Still, the shopping season was still young in November. MasterCard Advisors, the payment company’s research and consulting division, found that in recent years, holiday shopping peaks from December 20 to December 22.

“Many Canadians may have gotten an early start with Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, but it’s still a very young phenomenon in Canada,” Senior Vice-President Richard McLaughlin, said in a release.

The Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving is the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season south of the border, and in recent years retailers have imported Black Friday sales to Canada.

Some also promote online sales the following Monday.

Canada’s online retail sales continued to grow in November, increasing 26.4 percent.

(Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Peter Galloway)

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Facebook releases ‘Poke’ for the iPhone to compete with Snapchat

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Americans answer D.C.’s siren song of employment, strong economy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thirteen years ago the band The Magnetic Fields crooned that the U.S. capital city is “the greatest place to be,” in the indie love song “Washington, D.C.”

Recently, a growing number of Americans are singing along as they move to the District in search of jobs, economic opportunity and cultural attractions.

In a study on migration provided exclusively to Reuters that is set to be released next month, United Van Lines found the District of Columbia tops all 50 states for the number of people moving in during 2012.

The city has held that spot for five years running, with 64 percent of the household moves in Washington coming from outside the city in 2012.

United Van Lines is the largest moving company in the country for households.

Oregon ranked second, followed by Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina. Washington is a city that does not belong to a state, but is subject to loose control from the federal government.

“Washington, D.C., is unique because over the last five years its unemployment rate was not hit as hard by the Great Recession,” said Michael Stoll, chair and professor of public policy at the University of California at Los Angeles about the study. “But I think the other thing is that the city has remade itself from the one we knew 10 to 15 years ago.”

Washington has shed its reputation as the crime capital of the country, and it has developed a high technology corridor and other businesses that are both stable and hiring, said Stoll.

Also, many members of the Baby Boom generation are moving in as they retire, taking advantage of the free museums, monuments and cultural events the city has to offer, he said.

The rising popularity could yield a result also unthinkable less than two decades ago.

“D.C. will not just be a place of tourism. It will be a major economic engine, which many of us haven’t thought of it as being before,” Stoll said.

A U.S. Census report released on Thursday also showed the city is gaining new residents. Washington’s population increased 2.15 percent between July 2011 and July 2012, a rise second only to North Dakota.

The District’s population increase of 5.1 percent from 2010 to 2012 was the biggest in the country, the Census found. It had had 632,323 residents as of July 1.

The city has a large international community, largely due to the presence of foreign embassies and organizations such as the World Bank. The Census found people from other countries made up 32 percent of the net migration from 2011 to 2012.

According to a Labor Department report released on Friday, the District’s unemployment rate fell in November to 8.1 percent from 10.1 percent the year before. Local political leaders point to a development boom and one of the highest median incomes in the country – $ 63,124 – as other draws to the city.

On a national level, Stoll said, the migration patterns show Americans are seeking economic opportunity in places where new manufacturing and technology enterprises are building up. The patterns reveal a swelling group of aging people who are retiring and looking for affordable and comfortable places to live, as well.

He added that many people who wanted to move to California, but were put off by the state’s economic woes, turned their moving vans north to Oregon.

New Jersey topped states for outward moves, in 2012, the United Van Lines study showed, largely due to a shrinking factory sector. It was followed by Illinois, West Virginia, Michigan and New York.

Washington’s popularity surge recently created a paradox in the city’s economic success story. Last month, the Brookings Institution concluded three U.S. metropolitan areas are in economic recovery, but did not include Washington because its population burst drove down its gross domestic product on a per capita basis.

(Reporting By Lisa Lambert; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Colorado Woman Billed Medicaid for Dead Father

A Colorado woman was convicted this week for felony forgery for submitting fraudulent documents to Medicaid regarding personal health care services provided to her father after he died. It was the second announcement of Medicaid fraud-related convictions made by the Colorado Attorney General’s office in less than a week. Here are the details.

* According to the office of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, 52-year-old Viola Kwong pleaded guilty to felony forgery in Denver District Court on Tuesday. She was sentenced to pay $ 16,000 in criminal restitution and perform 50 hours of public service. The restitution reflects all of the money illegally received by Kwong.

* Kwong will also be placed on supervised probation for four years, is responsible for all court costs and probation supervision fees associated with her case, and will pay a civil penalty of more than $ 37,000 to the Colorado Medicaid program, the Attorney General’s Office stated.

* The Attorney General’s Office stated that Kwong had requested services for her elderly father through a Medicaid program that allows the Medicaid client to direct his or her own home-based medical care.

* Because Kwong’s father was too ill to manage his care, Kwong was authorized by the program as his personal representative, in charge of obtaining those services for her father.

* Kwong’s father died on July 23, 2010, but Kwong continued to submit documents about personal health care services that were being provided to her father until Nov. 8, 2010.

* Suthers stated that the restitution ordered was “another significant recovery for Colorado’s Medicaid program.”

* Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing initially referred the case to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

* Last week, the Attorney General’s Office announced the conviction of occupational therapist Cheryl Moss, 47, for felony theft and felony forgery. Moss pleaded guilty to forging treatment records and fraudulently billing the Colorado Medicaid program for services she did not perform.

* Moss agreed to repay the program $ 54,332, serve 60 days home detention and perform 300 hours of community service. She was also ordered to pay an additional $ 46,000 to resolve any potential civil issues and to report her conviction to the agency charged with licensing occupational therapists in Colorado.

* According to the Attorney General, Medicaid is health insurance for qualifying low-income, disabled individuals, and children and families. Covered services include hospital care, skilled nursing home care, residential adult family care services, hospice, mental health, dental and eyeglass services. Each state administers its own Medicaid program.

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Major jobs boost in UK North Sea

21 December 2012 Last updated at 11:20 ET

Statoil is to invest £4.3bn in a North Sea oil field, bringing hundreds of jobs to the north east of Scotland.

The Norwegian company said the investment in the Mariner field was the largest new offshore development in the UK in more than a decade.

Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017, pending final approval by the UK authorities.

More than 700 jobs will be created, including 200 onshore posts in Aberdeen.

The field is expected to produce for 30 years, with average production of about 55,000 barrels of oil a day from 2017 to 2020.

The Mariner Field is located on the East Shetland Platform of the UK North Sea, about 150km (93 miles) east of the Shetland Isles.

Statoil is the operator of the field, with 65.11% equity. Other partners include JX Nippon Exploration and Production (UK) Limited (28.89%) and Cairn Energy (6%).

The development concept includes a production, drilling and quarters (PDQ) platform based on a steel jacket, with a floating storage unit (FSU).

More than 140 reservoir targets are planned for Mariner.

‘Good fit’

Executive vice president for development and production international in Statoil, Lars Christian Backer, said: “Statoil has extensive heavy oil experiences from offshore fields in Norway and Brazil.

“The Mariner field was discovered in 1981 and Statoil entered the licence as operator in 2007 with the aim of finally unlocking the resources.

Continue reading the main story

The North Sea is a core area for Statoil, and we look forward to taking a leading role in further developing also the UK part of this basin”

End Quote Lars Christian Backer Statoil

“We are satisfied that we now are able to make an investment decision for a profitable development of the Mariner field.”

He added: “The Mariner project is a good strategic fit for Statoil.

“We are the world’s largest offshore operator and have a portfolio of attractive projects in some of the most prolific basins in the world.

“The North Sea is a core area for Statoil, and we look forward to taking a leading role in further developing also the UK part of this basin.”

Industry body Oil and Gas UK welcomed Statoil’s announcement.

Economics director Mike Tholen said: “The largest offshore development in the UK for a decade, Mariner requires pioneering technology and will bring hundreds of high-skilled, long-lasting jobs across the country, hundreds of millions of pounds in additional tax revenues, as well as crucial security to our energy supplies.

“Expected to produce oil and gas for 30 years, this project – and others recently given the go-ahead on the UK continental shelf – will help to boost production and stem the decline we have seen in recent years, so helping the full economic benefit of our reserves to be realised in time.”

‘Tremendous news’

Energy Minister Fergus Ewing described the investment as “tremendous news for Scotland’s energy industry”.

He said: “There remains more value still to be extracted from the North Sea than there has been to date.

“With up to 24 billion barrels of oil still to be recovered, with a potential value of around £1.5 trillion, North Sea oil and gas is attracting record investment levels with capital investment of £8.5bn in 2011 and an expected £11.5bn in 2012.

“This announcement builds on positive announcements by Global Energy Group and Dana Petroleum this month, who are investing further in Scotland to capitalise on the potential of our energy resources, which will remain an enormous economic resource for decades to come.”

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Italy PM Monti resigns, elections likely in February

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti tendered his resignation to the president on Friday after 13 months in office, opening the way to a highly uncertain national election in February.

The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, has kept his own political plans a closely guarded secret but he has faced growing pressure to seek a second term.

President Giorgio Napolitano is expected to dissolve parliament in the next few days and has already indicated that the most likely date for the election is February 24.

In an unexpected move, Napolitano said he would hold consultations with political leaders from all the main parties on Saturday to discuss the next steps. In the meantime Monti will continue in a caretaker capacity.

European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have called for Monti’s economic reform agenda to continue but Italy’s two main parties have said he should stay out of the race.

Monti, who handed in his resignation during a brief meeting at the presidential palace shortly after parliament approved his government’s 2013 budget, will hold a news conference on Sunday at which he is expected clarify his intentions.

Ordinary Italians are weary of repeated tax hikes and spending cuts and opinion polls offer little evidence that they are ready to give Monti a second term. A survey this week showed 61 percent saying he should not stand.

Whether he runs or not, his legacy will loom over an election which will be fought out over the painful measures he has introduced to try to rein in Italy’s huge public debt and revive its stagnant economy.

His resignation came a couple of months before the end of his term, after his technocrat government lost the support of Silvio Berlusconi‘s centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party in parliament earlier this month.

Speculation is swirling over Monti’s next moves. These could include outlining policy recommendations, endorsing a centrist alliance committed to his reform agenda or even standing as a candidate in the election himself.

The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) has held a strong lead in the polls for months but a centrist alliance led by Monti could gain enough support in the Senate to force the PD to seek a coalition deal which could help shape the economic agenda.

BERLUSCONI IN WINGS

Senior figures from the alliance, including both the UDC party, which is close to the Roman Catholic Church, and a new group founded by Ferrari sports car chairman Luca di Montezemolo, have been hoping to gain Monti’s backing.

He has not said clearly whether he intends to run, but he has dropped heavy hints he will continue to push a reform agenda that has the backing of both Italy’s business community and its European partners.

The PD has promised to stick to the deficit reduction targets Monti has agreed with the European Union and says it will maintain the broad course he has set while putting more emphasis on reviving growth.

Berlusconi’s return to the political arena has added to the already considerable uncertainty about the centre-right’s intentions and increased the likelihood of a messy and potentially bitter election campaign.

The billionaire media tycoon has fluctuated between attacking the government’s “Germano-centric” austerity policies and promising to stand aside if Monti agrees to lead the centre right, but now appears to have settled on an anti-Monti line.

He has pledged to cut taxes and scrap a hated housing tax which Monti imposed. He has also sounded a stridently anti-German line which has at times echoed the tone of the populist 5-Star Movement headed by maverick comic Beppe Grillo.

The PD and the PDL, both of which supported Monti’s technocrat government in parliament, have made it clear they would not be happy if he ran against them and there have been foretastes of the kind of attacks he can expect.

Former centre-left prime minister Massimo D’Alema said in an interview last week that it would be “morally questionable” for Monti to run against the PD, which backed all of his reforms and which has pledged to maintain his pledges to European partners.

Berlusconi who has mounted an intensive media campaign in the past few days, echoed that criticism this week, saying Monti risked losing the credibility he has won over the past year and becoming a “little political figure”.

(Additional reporting by Gavin Jones, Massimiliano Di Giorgio and Paolo Biondi; Writing by Gavin Jones and James Mackenzie; Editing by Michael Roddy)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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TSX ends flat as RIM buckles, gold miners bounce

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index ended little changed on Friday as gold miners gained on safe-haven buying amid U.S. budget uncertainty, while BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plunged more than 20 percent.

The index’s materials sector, which includes miners, rose 0.4 percent. Even though the price of gold was near its lowest level in four months, the gold-mining sub-sector added 0.9 percent as investors fretted over stalled U.S. budget talks that could throw Canada’s largest trading partner back into recession.

“As our tiptoes are over the (U.S.) fiscal cliff and we’re looking over the abyss, the markets are upset obviously, and this is sort of putting a damper on the stocks,” said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada.

“But we’ve had a mixed reaction in Canada, mainly because the resources have been much better, like gold for example, which is hedging into the uncertainty (around the budget talks),” he said, noting gold miners had been under pressure for the last two weeks.

Miner Barrick Gold Corp edged up 0.2 percent to C$ 33.29. Centerra Gold Inc jumped more than 3 percent to C$ 9.10.

Gold miners are playing catch-up after underperforming throughout the year and could rise further in 2013, said Gavin Graham, president at Graham Investment Strategy.

Shares of RIM dropped 22.2 percent to C$ 10.86 on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on the business that has set the company apart from its competitors.

The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> fell 3.01 points, or 0.02 percent, to end at 12,385.70. It gained 0.7 percent for the week.</.gsptse>

Efforts to avoid the looming U.S. “fiscal cliff” were thrown into disarray on Friday with finger-pointing lawmakers fleeing Washington for Christmas vacations even as the year-end deadline for action edged ever closer.

Graham said that until a deal is reached in the U.S. budget talks, investors will avoid economically sensitive Canadian stocks and those most closely tied to the U.S. economy: auto parts manufacturers, forestry companies and resource stocks generally.

“The resource sectors in Canada, which is half of the index, is going to be adversely affected, correctly or not,” he said.

“Chinese demand is likely to pick up somewhat now with the new leadership there but people will be focused on the U.S. given that it is still by far the most important export market for Canada.”

($ 1=$ 0.99 Canadian)

(Additional reporting by Claire Sibonney, Julie Gordon and Jeffrey Hodgson; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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