Assad says will live and die in Syria

DOHA (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad said he would “live and die” in Syria and warned that any Western invasion to topple him would have catastrophic consequences for the Middle East and beyond.

Assad’s defiant remarks coincided with a landmark meeting in Qatar on Thursday of Syria’s fractious opposition to hammer out an agreement on a new umbrella body uniting rebel groups inside and outside Syria, amid growing international pressure to put their house in order and prepare for a post-Assad transition.

The Syrian leader, battling a 19-month old uprising against his rule, appeared to reject an idea floated by British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday that a safe exit and foreign exile for the London-educated Assad could end the civil war.

“I am not a puppet. I was not made by the West to go to the West or to any other country,” he told Russia Today television in an interview to be broadcast on Friday. “I am Syrian; I was made in Syria. I have to live in Syria and die in Syria.”

Russia Today’s web site, which published a transcript of the interview conducted in English, showed footage of Assad speaking to journalists and walking down stairs outside a white villa. It was not clear when he had made his comments.

The United States and its allies want the Syrian leader out, but have held back from arming his opponents or enforcing a no-fly zone, let alone invading. Russia has stood by Assad.

The president said he doubted the West would risk the global cost of intervening in Syria, whose conflict has already added to instability in the Middle East and killed some 38,000 people.

“I think that the price of this invasion, if it happened, is going to be bigger than the whole world can afford … It will have a domino effect that will affect the world from the Atlantic to the Pacific,” the 47-year-old president said.

“I do not think the West is going in this direction, but if they do so, nobody can tell what is next.”

QATAR, TURKEY CHIDE OPPOSITION

Backed by Washington, the Doha talks underline Qatar’s central role in the effort to end Assad‘s rule as the Gulf state, which funded the Libyan revolt to oust Muammar Gaddafi, tries to position itself as a player in a post-Assad Syria.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani urged the Syrian opposition to set its personal disputes aside and unite, according to a source inside the closed-door session.

“Come on, get a move on in order to win recognition from the international community,” the source quoted him as saying.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu delivered a similar message, saying, according to the source: “We want one spokesman not many. We need efficient counterparts, it is time to unite.”

An official text of a speech by Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Mohamed al-Attiyah showed he told the gathering: “The Syrian people awaits unity from you, not divisions … Your agreement today will prove to the international community that there is a unity … and this will reflect positively in the international community’s stance towards your fair cause.”

Across Syria, more than 90 people were killed in fighting on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In Turkey’s Hatay border province, two civilians, a woman and a young man, were wounded by stray bullets fired from Syria, according to a Turkish official. Turkish forces increased their presence along the frontier, where officials have said they might seek NATO deployment of ground to air missiles.

Syria poses one of the toughest foreign policy challenges for U.S. President Barack Obama as he starts his second term.

International rivalries have complicated mediation efforts. Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolutions that would have put Assad under pressure.

Syria’s conflict, pitting mostly Sunni Muslim rebels against forces dominated by Assad’s Alawite minority, whose origins lie in Shi’ite Islam, has fuelled sectarian tensions across the Middle East. Sunni Arab countries and Turkey favor the rebels, while Shi’ite Iran backs Assad, its main Arab ally.

“VICIOUS CIRCLE”

The main opposition body, the Syrian National Council (SNC), has been heavily criticized by Western and Arab backers of the revolt as ineffective, run by exiles out of touch with events in Syria, and under the sway of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

British Foreign Minister William Hague said London would now talk to rebel groups inside Syria, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week criticized the SNC and called for a new opposition body to include those “fighting and dying”.

But the plan for a body that could eventually be considered a government-in-waiting capable of winning foreign recognition and therefore more military backing ran into trouble almost as soon as it was proposed by SNC member Riyad Seif.

The meeting has so far been bogged down by arguments over the SNC representation and the number of seats the rival groups – which include Islamists, leftists and secularists – will have in a proposed assembly. Seif said he hoped for agreement on that on Thursday night, although the talks may continue into Friday.

Senior SNC member Burhan Ghalioun said the participants were moving towards consensus: “The atmosphere was positive. We all agree that we don’t want to walk away from this meeting in failure,” he told reporters.

Seif’s proposal is the first concerted attempt to merge opposition forces to help end the devastating conflict.

The initiative would also create a Supreme Military Council, a Judicial Committee and a transitional government-in-waiting of technocrats – along the lines of Libya’s Transitional National Council, which managed to galvanize international support for its successful battle to topple Gaddafi.

Michael Doran of the Brookings Institute in Washington told a forum in Doha it would not work for Syria. “It’s not a ridiculous idea, but it’s not going to succeed,” he said.

A diplomat on the sidelines of the talks said international divisions in the U.N. Security council did not help.

“It’s a vicious circle. They are asking the opposition to unite when they admit they are not themselves united,” he said.

(Writing by Tom Perry and Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Alistair Lyon, Alastair Macdonald and Philippa Fletcher)

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Call me JackSUN, says singer Jermaine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Jackson 5 singer Jermaine Jackson has petitioned to change his name, according to court documents filed earlier this week in Los Angeles.

The older brother of pop stars Michael and Janet Jackson, Jermaine wants to change his famous last name to Jacksun for “artistic reasons.”

Asked why Jermaine wanted to change his name, his attorney Bret D. Lewis, who filed the petition on Jackson’s behalf, told Reuters “If Prince and P Diddy can do it, why can’t and shouldn’t Jermaine?”

If all goes to plan, Jackson’s name will officially change following a court hearing set for February 22.

Jermaine, 57, and brothers Jackie, Marlon and Tito are currently in Europe on a Unity Tour, under the name The Jacksons, performing hits made famous by the Jackson 5 along with a tribute to their late sibling Michael.

Jermaine Jackson unofficially adopted the name Mohammad Abdul Aziz after converting to Islam in 1989.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Bernard Orr)

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Achilles Had Only 2 Heels

Recently, I came across the headline “Scientists Find Achilles’ Heel of Cancer Cells”, describing the discovery of a histone deactylase (HDAC11) as a novel target for cancer therapies. I was irritated by the metaphor of Achilles’ heel, because it implied that this was the lone vulnerability of cancer. I was also embarrassed by the fact that I used the same metaphor for the press release describing our work earlier this year showing that mitochondrial network structure can be targeted in cancer. I decided to google the expressions “Achilles’ heel” and “cancer”. It turns out that every year, numerous press releases and news articles claim that researchers have finally identified the “Achilles’ heel” of cancer. In Greek mythology, Achilles only had two feet and thus two heels; only one of the two heels was vulnerable. So how can it be that hundreds of researchers have found the Achilles’ heel of cancer? Apparently, I am not the only one who has used this metaphor inappropriately and it begs the question, whether we should even be using it at all. When I was a child, Gustav Schwab‘s “Sagen des klassischen Altertums” was one of my favorite books. His gripping narrative of the ancient Greek myths has also been translated from German into English and is available as “Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece”. It was in this book that I first encountered the legend of Achilles and the story of the Trojan War, originally relayed by the Greek poet Homer in his great epic “The Illiad“. Achilles was the son of the sea-goddess (nymph) Thetis and King Peleus and was known for his great strength and skills in battle, but I could find nothing heroic in this demigod Achilles. Even though I loved Schwab’s narration, I despised Achilles. He vacillated between fits of rage and episodes of prolonged sulking. He was rude, arrogant and violent – Anakin Skywalker on steroids. I was especially horrified by how Achilles tied the body of his enemy Hector to his chariot and dragged it around, in order to humiliate the deceased and inflicting great psychological pain on Hector’s family. Basically, Achilles was a jerk; but according to the diagnostic classification of the American Psychiatric Association, Achilles may just have had IED (intermittent explosive disorder). When Achilles was a baby, his mother Thetis stuck him in a special flame to make him invulnerable. She was interrupted by Achilles’ father, who was shocked by what he perceived as poor parenting skills shown by Thetis. The interruption prevented Thetis from making her son completely invulnerable, which is why one of Achilles’ heels remained vulnerable. Later on in the legend, this vulnerable heel is where the Greek god Apollo directs his arrow and this injury ultimately results in Achilles’ demise. I remember the relief I experienced when I first read about Achilles’ death. It was karma – he deserved to die, considering all the pain and suffering that he had caused. I also remember that I was confused by the whole invulnerability aspect of the story. In a different part of the legend, his mother Thetis helps him obtain a special armor to protect his body. If nearly all of his body was already invulnerable, why would he need such a special armor? Wouldn’t he just need a special kind of Band-Aid to cover his one vulnerable heel? But then again, these were Greek gods and goddesses and they may have had different ways of approaching problems. Perhaps the special armor was extra insurance, just like people whose personal auto insurance covers rental cars but they still get suckered into buying additional rental car insurance at the airport. Later on, I found out the Schwab had combined multiple Achilles legends. The story of Achilles being invulnerable everywhere except for his heel and Achilles’ death are not part of Homer’s Illiad. It was long after Homer that the heel story became an integral part of the Achilles legend. In one version, Thetis did not place Achilles in a flame but instead dipped him in the magical River Styx. She held him by the heel of his foot, which is why he remained vulnerable in that one area. I am not sure that I would have held my son by the heel of all places, while dipping him into a magical river. Then again, I am not a Greek god. It also begs the question why Thetis did not dip him in a second time to make sure that the previously dry heal now also became invulnerable. In one narration, it was not Apollo who shot the arrow, but the Trojan prince Paris and Apollo merely directed the arrow into Achilles’ heel, possibly because Paris was not a very good shot. Even though the heel story and Achilles’ death or not part of the Illiad, it is difficult to envision the Achilles legend without it. The idea that even strong, arrogant entities remain vulnerable is very comforting. This may explain why this aspect of the legend is so popular and why it has given rise to the commonly used metaphor of the “Achilles’ heel” to describe lone vulnerable spots. Especially when describing cancer, the metaphor seems very apt. One can easily envision a growing tumor as an Achilles – aggressive and apparently invincible. When one identifies a gene or protein that can prevent tumor growth and or even kills the tumor, it is easy to succumb to using the “Achilles’ heel” metaphor. The problem with using this metaphor is that Achilles only had one single vulnerable heel. If a researcher claims to have found an Achilles’ heel, it not only implies that it is “one” area of vulnerability of the cancer, but that it is the “only” area of vulnerability. Most researchers who work with cancer cells know that there are many different mechanisms by which cancer growth can be slowed down. There is no single vulnerable pathway that can stop all cancer progression. Therefore, when researchers use this expression, they probably just like to convey the image of the powerful Achilles being brought to his knees by a single arrow. They do not want to claim that they have found the ultimate weapon to fight cancer. However, this metaphor inadvertently does imply that the described method is the only way to arrest the tumor. This is not only a gross over-simplification, but plain wrong. Someone who is not familiar with the complexities of cancer biology and reads a press release containing this metaphor may take this to mean that the sole vulnerability of cancer has been identified. Mythology and literature can be very inspiring for scientists and it is tempting to use powerful literary or mythological metaphors when communicating science, but one also needs to think about what these metaphors truly represent. Especially metaphors that oversimplify scientific findings or convey a false sense of certainty should be used avoided. When I think about research, two other Greek legends come to mind: The legend of Sisyphus and the Odyssey. Every day, Sisyphus rolled a rock up a mountain and then had to watch how it would roll back down again. This was his punishment decreed by the Greek gods. It reminds me of a lot of experiments that we scientists perform. When we feel that we are getting close solving a scientific problem we sometimes realize that we have to start all over again. Similarly, Odysseus’ long and exhausting journey is also a metaphor that appropriately characterizes a lot of real-life scientific research. Odysseus did not know if and when he would ever reach his destination, and this is how many of us conduct our research. I googled “Odyssey” and “cancer” to see if I could find news articles that allude to the scientific Odyssey of cancer research. To my surprise, I did find a number of articles, but these were not descriptions of scientific “Odysseys”. They were reports of cancer patients who described how they had undergone numerous different cancer treatments, often with little improvement. I realize that it is easier to market scientific ideas with a simplistic Achilles metaphor than to point out that science is long-winded and at times disorienting journey, similar to the Odyssey. But if we do want to use metaphors, we should probably use ones that appropriately convey the complexity and beauty of science.  

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

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HSBC investigates alleged loss of client data in Jersey

LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, said on Friday it was investigating the alleged loss of data for clients in Jersey but had not been notified of any investigation by tax authorities.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that British tax authorities were examining details of more than 4,000 UK clients of HSBC in Jersey after a whistle-blower handed them a list of names, addresses and account balances.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said in a statement: “We can confirm we have received the data and we are studying it. We receive information from a very wide range of sources which we use to ensure the tax rules are being respected.”

HSBC said it was investigating the alleged loss of client data “as a matter of urgency.”

“We have not been notified of any investigation in relation to this matter by HMRC or any other authority but, should we receive notification, we will cooperate fully with the authorities,” the bank said in a statement.

This could mark another potential blow for HSBC which has been slammed by U.S. regulators for lax anti-money laundering controls in Mexico and elsewhere, and last year saw thousands of its Swiss clients probed by the UK taxman.

The bank’s London-listed shares dipped 0.2 percent by 4 a.m EDT, in line with a weak European banking index.

The Daily Telegraph report said Britain’s revenue service was combing through the list it had been given of HSBC’s Jersey clients to establish whether some used the offshore bank accounts to avoid paying UK taxes.

The list identifies 4,388 British-based people holding 699 million pounds ($ 1.1 billion) in current accounts and includes celebrities, bankers, doctors, mining and oil executives and oil workers, it the Telegraph wrote. The list also includes about 4,000 account holders with addresses outside Britain.

HSBC said earlier this week that a U.S. probe into anti-money laundering failures could result in a fine well over $ 1.5 billion and lead to criminal charges as well.

Tax authorities around the world are stepping up their efforts to uncover the identities of those who avoid taxes by hiding money in offshore accounts.

HSBC said on Friday it was “fully committed to adoption of the highest global standards including the procedures for the acceptance of clients.”

(Reporting by Natalie Huet and Steve Slater; Editing by Will Waterman and Jane Merriman)

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Ghana building collapse traps dozens, kills 1

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A five-story shopping center built earlier this year in a bustling suburb of Ghana‘s capital collapsed Wednesday, killing at least one person and leaving several dozen people trapped in the rubble, authorities and eyewitnesses said.

Rescue crews used cranes to try and remove debris from the top of the building amid fears that machinery sifting through the wreckage could injure trapped survivors. Crowds of bystanders gathered as rescuers sifted through cement and glass.

The fatality at the Melcom Shopping Center at Achimota, a suburb of Accra, was confirmed by Public Affairs Officer of the Ghana Fire Service Billy Anaglate. “We are still working to find out the fate of others who may be trapped under,” he said.

Other officials told The Associated Press that the death toll was likely to rise.

An AP reporter at the scene saw at least one man pulled from the debris, covered in dust and who was then whisked into an ambulance.

A Greater Accra Regional Public Affairs officer, deputy superintendent Freeman Tettey, confirmed that one person died and told the AP that 51 have been rescued and sent to hospitals around the capital.

“I was on my way to the shop when l saw it crumpling down,” Kojo Boadi, an eyewitness, said.

President John Mahama declared the scene a disaster zone and cut short his election campaign in the north of the country to be able to visit the site. The presidential election is scheduled for December.

The five-story store opened in February is part of the Melcom chain owned by Indian immigrant magnate, Bhagwan Khubchandani. His late father arrived in Ghana in 1929 as a 14-year-old to work as a store boy in the-then Gold Coast.

The store sells a variety of cheap, imported household goods and appliances that are popular with working-class Ghanaians.

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DoubleLine’s Gundlach says Apple may drop to $425/share: CNBC

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple shares could come under further selling pressure and drop to $ 425 a share over the next year on lack of innovation, said Jeffrey Gundlach, chief investment officer and chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital LP.

Gundlach, who recommended betting against Apple in mid-May at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference in New York, told CNBC the company’s stock is “overbelieved” and that its recent debut of the iPad mini is not an innovation.

“The product innovator, as I’ve said over and over again, isn’t there anymore,” Gundlach said in reference to Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs.

Shares of Apple, whose latest quarterly results failed to meet Wall Street’s lofty expectations, has fallen more than 20 percent from a record high of $ 705.07 in September. Shares slid as much as 4.6 percent on Wednesday to a low of $ 555.75 before ending the day down 3.8 percent at $ 558.0019.

Wednesday, Apple shares were under pressure as investors grew more uncertain about its ability to fend off unprecedented competition and untangle a snarled iPhone 5 supply chain.

Gundlach, whose firm oversees more than $ 45 billion in assets, said that the stock could fall to around $ 425 a share.

With regard to the benchmark S&P 500′s 2 percent decline on Wednesday, Gundlach said that investors may be anticipating the impact of higher taxes on capital gains that U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to implement.

“If you’re going to think about higher tax rates, maybe you want to sell the stocks before the tax rates go up, and I think that may be pressuring stocks in general,” Gundlach said.

Gundlach said that the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and spending cuts set to begin at the start of next year could be “punted down the road,” but that it could also prove a “monumental” shock to markets if investors doubt its potential impact.

Gundlach also said that his DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund has roughly 15 percent of its assets in cash and that he expects markets to become more volatile.

“I really am looking for higher volatility in the market as a general theme,” he said.

(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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Ex-oil man to be next Anglican leader: UK media

LONDON (Reuters) – A former oil executive who went to the same exclusive school as Prime Minister David Cameron will shortly be named Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans, British newspapers said on Thursday.

Justin Welby, 56, the Bishop of Durham, who has had a meteoric rise up the Church of England hierarchy since quitting the world of commerce in 1992, will be announced as the next archbishop as early as Friday, the reports said.

The nomination follows weeks of speculation that the Church body assigned to elect the future archbishop was split over choosing a reformer or a safe pair of hands to maintain the status quo.

Cameron’s spokesman said an announcement would come “soon”.

Welby, who went to the same exclusive school, Eton College, as Cameron, London mayor Boris Johnson and Princes William and Harry, has already accepted the position, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Bookmaker William Hill stopped taking bets on the future archbishop after a run of bets on Welby on Tuesday.

“In the space of less than an hour we had to cut the odds three times, so took the decision to close the book as we know a decision is already overdue and it seems word may have leaked out,” the bookmaker said in a statement

Welby will replace left-leaning incumbent Rowan Williams, who has said his successor as head of the global Anglican Communion will need “the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros”.

Welby is widely reported to be against gay marriage but broadly in favor of the ordination of women bishops, two of the most divisive issues in the communion.

The new archbishop will earn about 74,000 pounds ($ 120,000) a year. He will have lodgings in the Old Palace in Canterbury, southeast England, and the historic riverside Lambeth Palace in London. His tenure will last until retirement at 70 or until he decides to move on.

(Reporting By Alessandra Prentice; editing by Steve Addison/Maria Golovnina)

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Novartis says may have 14 new blockbuster drugs by 2017

ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis could produce 14 or more new big-selling ‘blockbuster’ drugs within five years as it bets on cancer, heart and respiratory treatments to fill the gaps left by expiries on current patents, the Swiss firm said on Thursday.

Like many of its rivals, Novartis is facing headwinds as some of its top earners lose patent protection, particularly blood pressure drug Diovan. It is counting on its newest products, such as breast cancer drug Afinitor, to pump up sales.

But some analysts caution that recently launched drugs like multiple sclerosis pill Gilenya and eye medicine Lucentis will face growing competition next year as Biogen Idec and Regeneron bring rival products to market.

Novartis currently has 139 projects in clinical development including more than 73 new molecular entities spread across a wide area of diseases, it said in a statement published ahead of an investor event in Boston on Thursday.

Among its most promising products are serelaxin and LCZ686 to treat patients with heart failure as well as drugs for psoriasis and multiple sclerosis. It plans to file serelaxin for regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe in early 2013.

However, the results of a late-stage study for serelaxin published on Tuesday were mixed and some analysts think Novartis may need further trials to guarantee its commercial success.

Chief Executive Joseph Jimenez did not rule out further trials but said in a conference call with reporters it would press ahead with filings using the current data.

Novartis’s shares were 1.3 percent higher at 57.30 francs by 1315 GMT, when the Stoxx 600 Europe healthcare sector index was up 0.2 percent.

“Novartis does have a very productive research engine. However we will include significant value once we see convincing data,” said Andrew Weiss, an analyst at Vontobel.

ONCOLOGY KEY

Novartis said its pharmaceuticals division aimed to file nine products for approval over the next 12 months. It expects the unit – which is responsible for more than half of sales – to return to growth from the second half of next year.

Novartis was also confident about its oncology pipeline, which it expects to contribute more than $ 1 billion in sales by 2017, while it said recently launched Afinitor could have sales of $ 2 billion in advanced breast cancer by 2017.

It is also hoping to convince doctors that they should switch patients onto Tasigna when one of its best-selling drugs Glivec loses patent exclusivity in 2015.

Novartis plans to initiate further trials in 2013 to prove that patients with chronic myeloid leukemia who have taken Tasigna may be able to stop treatment once their cancer is under control.

The company also said it planned to manage more projects but keep a lid on costs by cutting recruitment time and spending on trials. Measures include giving handheld devices to doctors to record trial data and to get pharmacy chains to undertake some of the simpler trial work.

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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Stock futures rise after selloff, data on tap

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock index futures rose on Thursday ahead of job market data a day after major equity indexes posted their largest drops in months.

Equities slumped more than 2 percent Wednesday as investor focus returned to Europe’s economic troubles and as the electoral victory by President Barack Obama turned markets’ focus to the looming “fiscal cliff.”

Investors worry that if no deal is agreed in Congress over some $ 600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases due to kick in early next year, it could derail the U.S. economic recovery.

“To the extent we start to see some clarification of what (Congress) is thinking about, whatever it may be, it will provide some confidence,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

He said the open-ended nature of what the fix may be for taxes has flooded markets with uncertainty.

Futures added to early gains as the euro slightly cut losses versus the U.S. dollar after the European Central Bank held its main interest rate at 0.75 percent, despite dovish comments Wednesday from ECB president Mario Draghi that stirred market rumors of a rate cut.

A rise in the U.S. dollar also weighed on equities Wednesday.

S&P 500 futures rose 4.8 points and were up in terms of fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 22 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 9 point.

Wednesday’s retreat marked the biggest daily drop for the S&P 500 since June 1; the index closed below the key 1,400 level for the first time since August 30. Despite Wednesday’s selloff, the benchmark S&P 500 is still up more than 10 percent so far this year.

The latest reading on the labor market will come with the release of weekly jobless claims, due at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT).

Qualcomm Inc late Wednesday reported quarterly revenue that beat expectations, sending shares up more than 7 percent in premarket trading.

Whole Foods Market Inc reported earnings that met expectations but its shares fell 3 percent before the market opened.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Canada firms to capitalize on nuclear trade with India

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Canadian firms will be able to export uranium and nuclear reactors to India for the first time in almost four decades under an agreement between the two nations, their prime ministers said, but more work is needed to implement the deal.

Once implemented, the agreement will end a ban on nuclear cooperation Canada imposed in 1976 after India secretly exploded its first nuclear bomb in 1974, commonly called the “Smiling Buddha”, using material from a Canadian-built reactor in India.

“Being able to resolve these issues and move forward is, we believe, a really important economic opportunity for an important Canadian industry, part of the energy industry, that should pay dividends in terms of jobs and growth for Canadians down the road,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday on a visit to New Delhi.

A negotiator with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the talks, said that what remained was a careful legal review of the language; translation into French and Hindi; and then a signing.

This is not expected to take very long, he said. The two sides have set up a joint committee to liaise on nuclear issues, but he said it would not be negotiating.

India aims to lift its nuclear capacity to 63,000 MW in the next 20 years by adding nearly 30 reactors. The country currently operates 20 mostly small reactors at six sites with a capacity of 4,780 MW, or 2 percent of its total power capacity, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited.

Canada’s ambassador to India, Stewart Beck, said on Monday his country wanted to be able to track all nuclear material, but that India felt it only needed to report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

It was not clear who made concessions in the talks and how effective the safeguards would be to ensure that Canadian material did not get used again for making nuclear weapons.

However, the CNSC official said India would now be required to notify Canada of any transfers to a third country and trade could only go to facilities that are safeguarded by the IAEA.

PROBABLY BEATING AUSTRALIA

Harper said the CNSC had worked to “achieve all of our objectives in terms of non-proliferation”.

Canada is in a race against Australia, its strategic ally but a commercial rival in the uranium business. Australia is also trying to nail down safeguards under which it too could sell uranium to India.

“We are effectively ahead of the Australians,” the CNSC official said, noting however that Russia and Kazakhstan were already supplying into India.

Opening up the Indian market would be a big help to Canada’s Cameco Corp, which is the world’s largest publicly traded uranium producer but which recently cut its long-term output targets due to the Fukushima disaster.

“Anytime we can reduce the roadblocks to selling our product around the world is always helpful,” Cameco chief executive Tim Gitzel told Reuters in Canada. “It opens a new market for us with the appropriate safeguards in place. So this is good news.”

Another potential beneficiary is Canadian engineering firm SNC Lavalin Group Inc, which bought the government’s commercial nuclear division, which designed the Candu reactor that is in use in numerous countries.

“As far as the sales of reactors goes, we would normally now request that Canada be accorded the same treatment as the Russians, the French and the Americans and that a site be designated in India for the implementation of at least a twin- unit Candu nuclear power station,” SNC Lavalin International President Ronald Denom, part of Harper’s delegation in India, told Reuters.

He also said it should open up the market to service the existing reactors in India.

Harper also said Canada welcomed foreign investment, after the country temporarily blocked Malaysian state oil firm Petronas’ C$ 5.17 billion ($ 5.19 billion) bid for gas producer Progress Energy Resources on October 20.

Late on Friday, Canada extended to December 10 its review of a $ 15.1 billion bid made in July by China’s CNOOC Ltd for Canadian energy producer Nexen Inc.

“Those decisions have to be taken looking at the global evolving economy in which we operate,” Harper said.

($ 1 = C$ 0.9965)

(Additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Toronto; Additional writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Michael Roddy)

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