Oil slides after quake, tsunami slam Japan, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* U.S. crude below $100
* Earthquake Japan's largest in 140 years
* Some refineries, nuclear power plants, manufacturers shut

(Updates prices)
By Ikuko Kurahone

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Oil slid by on Friday, with U.S. crude falling below $100, after an earthquake rocked Japan, created a 10-metre tsunami and shut down dozens of plants in the world's third-largest oil consumer. The oil market was also keeping an eye on a planned day of demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, and violence in Libya, which has disrupted its oil exports.

U.S. crude fell to as low as $99.01 a barrel and was trading at $100.44 a by 1544 GMT. ICE Brent crude fell $1.40 to $114.07 a barrel. It has fallen from a 2-1/2-year high of $119.79 on Feb. 24. Metals and soft commodities also fell.

Japan was hit by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake, the largest since observations began in the late 19th century. About 200-300 bodies were found, said police in Miyagi, northern Japan, where the quakes and the tsunami hit the hardest. The death toll was expected to rise.

"We need to think what the potential impact on Japanese economy from the quake will be and what the impact on global economy will be," Olivier Jakob with Petromatrix said. "That may weigh on oil demand from Japan and the oil price." Japan is the third-largest energy consumer after China and the United States and imports almost all its energy needs.

Some refineries and nuclear power plants were shut, and analysts pointed out the shutdowns might increase demand for imports of refined products and fuels for electricity generators.

"Short-term the disruption in activity will be clearly negative for Japanese oil demand, but you may find that post the initial impact of the tsunami, there will be a need to deliver oil products to meet demand if you suffer losses in refinery output," said Harry Tchilinguirian, BNP Paribas' head of commodity markets strategy.

The earthquake triggered a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars, ships and farm buildings, and then spread across the Pacific.
The Japanese government declared an emergency at nuclear power plants and evacuated thousands of residents. No radiation leak had been reported so far.
Jakob and Tchilinguirian also pointed out the potential for increased demand for natural gas and fuel oil from power producers to compensate for shutdowns of nuclear capacity.


MIDDLE EAST PROTESTS
In the Middle East, police flooded the streets of Saudi Arabia's capital to deter a planned day of demonstrations, while a small Shi'ite demonstrated was reported in Hofuf, in the oil-producing east.

In Libya, forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi entered the oil port of Ras Lanuf in the east of the country and were fighting for control of the town, rebels said on Friday. "Looking further forward it would be optimistic to expect Libyan oil production to return to normal levels this year," Lawrence Eagles with J.P. Morgan said in a research note.

Elsewhere in the region, Bahraini police blocked several thousand protestors from reaching the royal palace. In Yemen, tens of thousands of protestors marched in the capital, and protests turned violent in the southern port city of Aden. Kuwaiti riot police fired tear gas to break up a small, peaceful demonstration by stateless Arabs demanding greater rights.

European shares fell to a three-month low after the quake in Japan and on growing unrest in the Arab world. U.S. retail sales rose 1 percent, the largest gain since October. But it did not reverse the fall in oil prices.

(Reporting by Ikuko Kurahone, additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore; editing by James Jukwey and Jane Baird)

Oman protesters want information minister sacked, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Cabinet reshuffled twice after protests
* Protestors say information minister should have gone too


By Saleh Al-Shaibany

MUSCAT, March 10 (Reuters) - Omani protestors demanded the sacking of the information minister on Thursday, three days after the sultan removed ten cabinet members to try and address widening discontent in the Gulf Arab state. Responding to calls from protesters to stop widespread corruption, Sultan Qaboos bin Said reshuffled his cabinet for the second time in a week on Monday, and removed the finance and interior ministers, among others.

But protesters said the reshuffle by Qaboos, an absolute monarch in power since 1970, did not go far enough. "The information minister has for years suppressed freedom of the media and he should have been among those ministers who were sacked. We want him to go now," Mohammed Al Hakmani, one of the protesters at the headquarters of the Shura Council, told Reuters.

Popular revolts against oppressive governments and economic hardship have swept through the Arab world over the past two months, unseating entrenched leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and leading to bloody fighting in Libya. Anti-government protests have also hit other Gulf countries, including Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday, about 200 people gathered at Oman's ministry of information demanding freedom of press and a shake-up of its officials in the state-run radio and television.
"The local press must be able to report any minister who is corrupt and we don't see it happening under the current minister of information," said Faiz Al Badri, another protester in the northeast industrial town of Sohar.

Hamed Al-Rashdi has held the information portfolio for nearly a decade and kept local media under tight control.

The protests in Oman, which briefly turned violent on February 27, have been going on for two weeks. About 50 demonstrators continue to sleep in tents at Sohar's globe roundabout, opposite a large supermarket protesters had looted and burned down. (Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Saudi Arabia detained 22 Shi'ites, activists say, Postd by Meosha Eaton

* Authorities detained at least 22 after Shi'ite protest
* Protests held in oil-producing eastern region

(Adds quote, details in paragraph 9-10)

DUBAI, March 6 (Reuters) - Security forces in Saudi Arabia have detained at least 22 minority Shi'ite Muslims who protested last week over what they say is discrimination, activists said on Sunday.

Saudi Shi'ites have staged small protests for about two weeks in the kingdom's east, which holds much of the oil wealth of the world's top crude exporter. It is also near Bahrain, scene of protests by majority Shi'ites against their Sunni rulers.

"Twenty-two were arrested on Thursday plus four on Friday, so the total is 26. This was all in Qatif," said rights activist Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, who heads the Saudi-based independent Human Rights First Society. A Shi'ite activist in the Shi'ite town of Qatif in the Eastern Province said he knew of 22 arrests. Interior ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

Shi'ite protests in Saudi Arabia started in the area of the main city town of Qatif and neighbouring Awwamiya and spread to the town of Hofuf on Friday. The demands were mainly for the release of prisoners they say are held without trial.

Saudi Shi'ites often complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and benefits given to other citizens. The government of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy without an elected parliament that usually does not tolerate public dissent, denies these charges.

The interior ministry said on Saturday demonstrations violated Islamic law and the kingdom's traditions, according to a statement on state news agency SPA.

"We are really worried by the detentions and harassment that people who take part in protests are facing," a statement by 15 rights activists said on Sunday. "These practices conflict with the right of peaceful association that the kingdom committed to ... at the U.N. Human Rights Council."

The activists said wives and other relatives of around nine men detained since a deadly 1996 attack on U.S. military in Khobar were ejected from the office of the local governor, Prince Mohammed bin Fahd, on Saturday when they tried to petition for their release.

"They met first on Wednesday with an official and he promised they would have a meeting with the governor. But when they went, he declined to meet and security guards intervened," the Shi'ite activist said. The Shi'ite website Rasid said they were verbally abused, as an official told them they were lucky the detainees had not been executed. The women started chanting "freedom, freedom".

The U.S. ally has escaped protests like those in Egypt and Tunisia which toppling regimes but some dissent has built up as unrest spread in other Arab countries and Saudi neighbours Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and Oman. More than 17,000 people have backed a call on Facebook to hold two demonstrations this month, the first one on Friday.

A loose alliance of liberals, moderate Islamists and Shi'ites have petitioned King Abdullah to allow elections in the kingdom. Last month, Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month medical absence and unveiled $37 billion in benefits for citizens in an apparent bid to curb dissent.

(Reporting by Andrew Hammond; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Reuters Health News Summary, Posted by Meosha Eaton

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Aid groups say struggling to get to Libya's needy

LONDON (Reuters) - Wounded people in Libya cannot access vital medicines and care because armed men are blocking roads and civilians are too scared to seek help, international health aid groups said on Thursday. The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has an eight-person team in Libya's second city of Benghazi, said it was desperate to answer a plea for help from a doctor in Misrata, around 200 kilometers (km) east of Tripoli, where it said clashes have reportedly left many people wounded.

Measles cases on rise in Boston

BOSTON (Reuters) - Health officials tracking a measles outbreak said on Wednesday there are now a total of five confirmed and suspected cases in Boston. The tally includes a second confirmed case of measles in a woman living in the same building as a woman diagnosed last month, city health officials said. Three more suspected cases are being monitored, with final lab results expected sometime next week.
Expanding Medicaid will cost states billions: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The costs to U.S. states of the Medicaid insurance program for the poor will grow by hundreds of billions of dollars under the healthcare law passed last year, according to a report released by Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday. "This law, because of Medicaid expansions, has put a strain on state budgets," Senator Orrin Hatch, one of the report's sponsors, told a meeting of hospital administrators on Tuesday. "Medicaid expansions threaten to bankrupt the states."

Latest J&J recall involves sterility-risk sutures

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson, <JNJ.N> which has been plagued by repeated recalls of its consumer medicines and medical devices over the past year, on Wednesday said it recalled 107 batches of surgical sutures in December due to potential sterility problems. The recall came to light on Wednesday after the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) described the action on the agency's website.

Designer drug abuse out of control: U.N. drugs board

LONDON (Reuters) - The problem of so-called "designer drugs" is running out of control in many regions of the world, the U.N. global drugs watchdog said Wednesday. The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said detailed instructions for how to make designer drugs, which are slightly altered to bypass existing control systems, are often shared via the Internet.

Rising status of women linked to more smoking

LONDON (Reuters) - Millions of women in developing countries risk disease and early death in the coming decades as their rising economic and political status leads them to smoke more, researchers said on Tuesday. An analysis in 74 countries found that men are five times more likely to smoke than women in countries with lower rates of female empowerment, such as China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uganda.

EPA says big budget cut would hurt public health

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ability to protect citizens from premature death and other health problems would be gutted if Congress slashes funding as threatened by Republican lawmakers, its chief said on Wednesday. Republicans in the House of Representatives have been trying to cut the EPA's budget for this year, saying its regulations on clean air and water hurt businesses.
Diabetics have higher risk of death from cancer

LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors know that diabetics have a higher than normal risk of dying of heart attacks or strokes, but new research on Wednesday showed that having diabetes also ups the risk of dying from many cancers and other diseases. The findings shed light on the potential burden of disease that will build in the future as the number of cases of diabetes is predicted to rise dramatically in coming decades.
Report stresses options for colon cancer screening

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women should be aware that they have several options for colon cancer screening, and not only the often-dreaded colonoscopy, according to a new report from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The statement does not veer from guidelines from major medical groups like the American Cancer Society and the American College of Gastroenterology -- which consider colonoscopy the "preferred" screening test.
Extreme flexibility comes with triple migraine risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with severe forms of double jointedness have a greater risk of suffering from migraine headaches, a new study finds. They also tend to have more severe and more frequent migraines. Researchers say that the two conditions -- "joint hypermobility syndrome" and migraines -- may have causes rooted in the same problem.