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Royal Dutch Shell is ending investments in a gas development project in Saudi Arabia. The emergence of the shale gas industry has opened up more lucrative opportunities for energy companies elsewhere. Shell has decided to end further investment in the Kidan area of the Empty Quarter, the sea of sand dunes that cover south-east Saudi Arabia. Italy's ENI, Spain's Repsol and France's Total - have already abandoned the search for commercially viable gas deposits in that part of Saudi Arabia. Kidan, rich in sour gas...

Robust household spending and rising exports kept the U.S. economy on solid ground in the fourth quarter, but stagnant wages could chip away some of the momentum in early 2014. Gross domestic product grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, in line with expectations. While that was a slowdown from the third-quarter's brisk 4.1 percent pace, it was a far stronger performance than earlier anticipated and was welcome news in light of a 0.3 percentage point drag from October's partial government shutdown and a much smaller contribution to growth from a restocking by businesses....

A surge of breaking news -- the Boston Marathon bombing, Oklahoma tornadoes, the Jodi Arias trial -- brings a new (distant) runner-up to Fox News Channel, but the cable networks end the first half of 2013 with a lackluster June.

An EU ruling that limits the amount of time junior doctors spend on wards during the day has led to almost a quarter dropping out of NHS training after two years. And of those trainee doctors who do continue their training, more than a fifth are now turned down because they lack sufficient skills or experience. The findings come from first survey into doctors’ training since the chaotic introduction of a European directive which has put a cap on the working hours of junior doctors. Under the Working Time Directive, which was fully implemented in the NHS last August, junior...

The big three nightly news broadcasts, NBC Nightly, CBS Evening and ABC World, lost a combined one million viewers in the second quarter of 2010, according to TVNewser. These numbers are comparable to the first quarter, which saw Evening News and World News get their lowest average viewers ever, while NBC's Winter Olympics coverage helped it get their highest average viewers since 2005. (Snip) Polls going back to 1997 displayed a continued public distrust with the news media.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans regained more of their shrunken wealth last quarter, mainly because the healing economy boosted stock portfolios. But the gain was less than in the previous two quarters. The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that household net worth rose 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter to $54.2 trillion. It marked the third straight quarter of gains. Net worth had risen by a stronger 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2009 and by an even faster 5.5 percent in the third quarter.

One-quarter of American households -- about 60 million people -- have limited or no access to banks or other traditional financial services, with low-income and black families among the hardest hit, according to a government report released Wednesday

Was there anything good about the quarter? Since we're grasping at straws, lets note that February's sales were better than January and March's was better than February's. But, that's happened every year since 1991. Aside from that, the quarter was awful. Sales declined 38.4%, and that followed a 8% dip in the first quarter of 2008. The Detroit 3's domestic sales fell an astounding 46.2%. Import brand sales were down 30.6%--not as bad as Detroit's but not good. GM was the sickest of the sick in the first quarter, down 48.8%. Toyota led the Japanese in futility with a loss...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Further evidence that times are tough: It now costs more than a penny to make a penny. And the cost of a nickel is more than 7 1/2 cents. Surging prices for copper, zinc and nickel have some in Congress trying to bring back the steel-made pennies of World War II, and maybe using steel for nickels, as well. Copper and nickel prices have tripled since 2003 and the price of zinc has quadrupled, said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., whose subcommittee oversees the U.S. Mint. Keeping the coin content means "contributing to our national debt by almost...

Well, it's official, ladies and gentlemen. Believe it or not, Rep. Ron Paul, the 72-year-old Texan who hardly ever gets mentioned in Republican political news and the one-time libertarian who always gets the least time on TV debates if he isn't barred completely, was, in fact, the most successful Republican fundraiser in the last three months of 2007. By a Texas mile. By the thousands Paul's fervent followers donated $19.95 million to the "Ron Paul Revolution." He spent $17.75 million and at year's end had $7.8 million cash on hand, making him the only Republican candidate to increase his fundraising...

THE RACE: Bloomberg in the presidential race in California --- THE NUMBERS - Would consider supporting Bloomberg for president in 2008 All voters, 25 percent Democrats, 23 percent Republicans, 20 percent Independents/others, 38 percent --- THE NUMBERS - See a Bloomberg independent candidacy as good for the country All voters, 29 percent Democrats, 25 percent Republicans, 25 percent Independents/others, 47 percent --- OF INTEREST: Presidential speculation has swirled around New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg since he switched from Republican to independent last year. But Californians do not have an automatic positive response to Bloomberg, who made billions with his self-named...

Republican Ron Paul said Sunday his upstart presidential campaign is on track to raise more than $12 million this quarter, boldly predicting the Iowa polls "are going to continue to shift" once he's finished spending it all. Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition," Paul said he had raised roughly $10.4 million so far in the quarter beginning Oct. 1, an amount that is already double the $5.2 million he pulled in during the third quarter. A big online fundraising effort planned for Dec. 16 could push the fourth quarter's total higher by several million, he said. "We are going to be...

As the deadline nears to decide what image will grace the back of Oklahoma's state quarter, several Oklahomans have taken exception with what won't be on the proposed coins. Four of the five final designs for the Oklahoma quarter include visual references to Ponca City's Pioneer Woman, a 30-foot-tall bronze statue depicting a stoic young mother, her son's hand firmly grasped in her left hand, a Bible in her right hand. However, on all four quarter designs, the Pioneer Woman's Bible is not included. Guidelines posted on the U.S. Mint's Web site say "inappropriate" designs for the quarters include logos...

Here's look no. 1 at the city's new pay toilets. The first of 20 new public potties, which will soon offer New Yorkers relief for the price of a quarter, was unveiled in Brooklyn yesterday. The Space Age loos, which look more like elevators from the outside, are self-cleaning and dispense liquid soap and hot water. They are part of the city's joint campaign with a Spanish company to spruce up the streetscape. But while new bus shelters and newsstands may look good, strategically placed comfort stations will be a boon for bladders. "When you gotta go, you gotta go,"...

2006 State Quarter Designs Here are the 2006 State Quarters in order of release: Nevada The first commemorative quarter-dollar coin released in 2006 honors Nevada, and is the 36th coin in the United States Mint's 50 State Quarters® Program. Nevada, nicknamed "The Silver State," was admitted into the Union on October 31, 1864, becoming our Nation's 36th state. Nevada's quarter depicts a trio of wild mustangs, the sun rising behind snow-capped mountains, bordered by sagebrush and a banner that reads "The Silver State." The coin also bears the inscriptions "Nevada" and "1864." Nevada became a territory in 1861, several years...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Jerusalem planners have approved the construction of a new Jewish neighborhood in the city's Muslim Quarter, officials said Tuesday, threatening to further inflame tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the city claimed by both as a capital. The plan to build 21 apartments for Jews in the walled Old City's Muslim Quarter was approved 5-2 by a local planning board late Monday, said Yosef Alalu, a dovish city council member who is on the committee. The plan has to go through several more bureaucratic stages before final approval. The plan was presented to the planning board by...

Link post: to see the images (and discuss them), go to the thread in the General/Chat section: Geology Picture of the Week, July 17-23, 2005: Crater Lake After I posted the original thread, I realized that one reason I thought of this (other than my trip) was the News/Current Events item, the release of the Oregon State Quarter:

Study: Illegal Immigrants Attended College June 15, 2005 Maribel Gonzalez A groundbreaking study has enhanced the profile of the undocumented Hispanic immigrant to the United States, showing that a quarter of those without a visa or Green Card have at least some college education. "Not all of the unauthorized population fits the stereotype of a poorly educated manual laborer," said demographer Jeffrey S. Passel, who prepared the study "Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics," released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The document establishes that, overall, undocumented immigrants have less formal education than the rest of the U.S. population. Some 49...

Vote for which quarter wins: Colorado or Minnesota. Read the latest here and vote!

Colorado is under attack. The Great Quarter War has begun. Admittedly, Gov. Bill Owens sparked the interstate kerfuffle. But he was merely asserting the obvious. While Colorado's new quarter design is hardly exhilarating, we should be grateful that it's less atrocious than the design from an inferior state, like, say ... Minnesota. "Gov. (Tim) Pawlenty in Minnesota, tell him his quarter is an example of what not to do to a quarter," Owens explained last week on Hugh Hewitt's syndicated radio program (KNUS-710 AM). "You know, his quarter has all this weird stuff. It has canoes, it has lakes, it...