Copper fell to a three-month low on Tuesday, after a mounting emergency at a quake-stricken nuclear plant in Japan sparked a slide across financial markets in which investors abandoned investments perceived as risky. Fear of a nuclear catastrophe in Japan slammed world stock markets, shredding $1 trillion in equity valuations as investors poured money into
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. * Planning for another disaster to prolong reconstruction * Markets likely to accept government borrowing to rebuild By Greg Roumeliotis, Reuters Infrastructure Correspondent Japan will take at least five years to reconstruct its earthquake and tsunami afflicted regions as it balances the need to rebuild houses, roads and power grids with planning for disaster-proof
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. Libya's oil output will take some time to return to normal, the head of the National Oil Corporation said on Tuesday, because some installations were damaged in fighting between rebel and government forces. Shokri Ghanem also told Reuters that Libyan oil installations at Ras Lanuf, Brega, Es Sider and Mellitah were "completely" under central
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. * Gulf pledges $20 bln for Bahrain, Oman; Saudi sends troops * Small concessions but scant movement on bigger demands Gulf Arab states led by Saudi Arabia are relying on money, and now military might, to quell protests in their oil-exporting region but are unlikely to halt the unrest without making significant political concessions.
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Germany will shut down all seven of its nuclear power plants that began operating before 1980 at least till June, the government said on Tuesday, leaving open whether they will ever start up again after Japan's crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the closures, which will leave only ten nuclear stations still generating, under a nuclear
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Titan, Greece's biggest cement producer, is expected to post flat fourth-quarter profits on Thursday, with higher sales in Egypt and Turkey offset by falling business at home and in the United States. Net profit is forecast at 19.2 mln euros, compared with 19.7 mln in the fourth quarter of 2009, a Reuters poll found. Sales
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Motor Oil, Greece's second-biggest refiner, is expected to swing to a profit in the fourth quarter, helped by a new distillation unit, a Reuters poll of analysts showed. Motor Oil is seen reporting net income of 32.7 mln euros on Wednesday versus a loss of 17.5 mln euros in the same period last year, according
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Bahrain's king declared martial law on Tuesday as his government struggled to quell an uprising by the island's Shi'ite Muslim majority that has drawn in troops from fellow Sunni-ruled neighbour Saudi Arabia. The three-month state of emergency will hand wholesale power to Bahrain's security forces, which are dominated by the country's Sunni Muslim elite, stoking
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Muammar Gaddafi's forces seized a strategic town in eastern Libya on Tuesday, opening the way to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi while world powers failed to agree to push for a no-fly zone. The small town of Ajdabiyah was all that stood between the relentless eastward advance of Libyan government troops and the second city
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Europe's main security and democracy organisation pressed Azerbaijan on Tuesday to respect free assembly after police broke up peaceful protests last week and arrested dozens of people. Chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis said he had reminded the former Soviet republic's leaders of their commitment to
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