Egypt balloon crash kills 19 Asian, European tourists

CAIRO (Reuters) - A hot air balloon crashed near the Egyptian town of Luxor at dawn on Tuesday after a mid-air gas explosion, killing 19 Asian and European tourists, a local industry official and the state news agency said.

Ahmed Aboud, a spokesman for balloon operators in the area, told Reuters that one tourist and the pilot had survived the crash, which followed the blast at 1,000 feet.

The dead were from Britain, France, Japan and Hong Kong, the state news agency MENA reported, citing a security source.

"There were 20 passengers aboard. An explosion happened and 19 passengers died. One tourist and the pilot survived," he said by telephone. Aboud is the representative of eight companies that operate balloon flights in Luxor, near ancient Egyptian sites in the famed Valley of the Kings.

Konny Matthews, assistant manager of Luxor's Al Moudira hotel, said she heard a boom around 7 am (0500 GMT). "It was a huge bang. It was a frightening bang, even though it was several kilometers away from the hotel," she said by phone. "Some of my employees said that their homes were shaking."

The accident happened over the west bank of the Nile river. Hot air ballooning at dawn is popular with tourists who go to Luxor to visit its pharaonic temples and the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, including in Tutankhamen's.

Egypt's tourism industry has suffered a sharp downturn in visitor numbers since the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, with two years of political instability scaring off foreign tourists.

(Reporting by Tom Perry and Alexander Dziadosz; editing by David Stamp)

2nd winter storm in days blasts central US

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Another blizzard bore down on the nation's midsection early Tuesday after lashing the Texas Panhandle with hurricane-force winds, closing highways and cutting power to thousands in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. At least two people were killed in the storm, and Midwesterners still digging out from last week's deep snowpack braced for more.

Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Sly James declared a state of emergency, an unwanted encore just five days after a major snowstorm dumped nearly a foot of snow on his city. Flights in and out of Kansas City International Airport were canceled, schools, government offices and businesses across the region were closed and James urged residents to stay home if they could.

Up to 15 inches or more were forecast for parts of western Missouri, with a foot or more in Kansas City alone: "This one has the potential to be quite serious," James said.

A strong low pressure system fueled the storm, which also included heavy rain and thunderstorms in eastern Oklahoma and Texas. Six counties in Arkansas and all parishes in Louisiana were under a tornado watch through Monday night.

The storm knocked power out to thousands of homes in Texas and Oklahoma and was blamed for the death of a 21-year-old man whose SUV hit an icy patch on Interstate 70 in northwestern Kansas and overturned Monday. In Oklahoma, a person was killed after 15 inches of snow brought down part of a roof in the northwest town of Woodward.

In the Texas Panhandle, wind gusts up to 75 mph and heavy snow had made all roads impassable and created whiteout conditions, said Paul Braun, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation. A hurricane-force gust of 75 mph was recorded at the Amarillo, Texas, airport. The city saw the biggest snowfall total in Texas with 17 inches.

Motorists were stranded throughout the Texas Panhandle, with the NWS in Lubbock reporting as many as 100 vehicles at a standstill on Interstate 27.

Texas Tech's men's basketball team stayed overnight at a hotel in Manhattan, Kan., after playing Kansas State on Monday night, rather try to drive back to Lubbock. Also late Monday, officials with Oklahoma State University announced it would be closed Tuesday due to the weather.

The American Red Cross opened a shelter Monday night in Woodward, Okla., for any travelers who get stranded. It also told its volunteers and workers in Kansas City to be prepared to help in the case of power outages or large numbers of stranded travelers.

Area hospitals closed outpatient and urgent care centers, and the University of Missouri canceled classes for Tuesday. The Missouri Department of Transportation issued a "no travel" advisory asking people to stay off affected highways except in case of a dire emergency.

Winds in excess of 30 mph were expected to cause whiteout conditions by early morning. There also was some concern that early rainfall could form a layer of ice beneath the snow, worsening driving conditions for those who dared the morning commute.

Greg Bolon, assistant Kansas City public works director, said the city's plow drivers had been working around the clock in 12-hour shifts since Wednesday and were bracing for several more days of extended schedules. City plows focused on arterial streets late Monday and early Tuesday.

Bolon asked local residents to be patient with plow drivers, even if they throw heavy snow back into already-shoveled driveways as they clear the streets. He said the long, often-thankless hours can take a toll on workers who are just doing what they're told.

"We're out there doing what we can to get streets open, and when people come out and shake their fists at you, it probably bothers you more mentally because you're doing what you're supposed to do," Bolon said.

He said supervisors were keeping an eye on drivers for signs of fatigue, but he thought most were doing fine because of 12-hour intervals between shifts.

National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Bowman in Pleasant Hill, Mo., said the most intense snow in the Kansas City area was expected from midnight to 6 a.m. Tuesday. Southern parts of the city and counties to the south were expected to see 10 to 12 inches of snow, he said, while the northern part of the city was looking at 6 to 10 inches.

Other weather outlets predicted well more than a foot of snow over a narrow swath of counties in Missouri, which Bowman said was possible but probably on the high side.

"The potential is there," he said. "We're probably being a little more conservative because you're getting into stuff that's never occurred before with that kind of snowfall. There is still some debate about whether we have enough instability to lead to that kind of accumulation."

Meteorologist Mike Umscheid of the National Weather Service office in Dodge City, Kan., said this latest storm combined with the storm last week will help alleviate the drought conditions that have plagued farmers and ranchers across the Midwest, and could be especially helpful to the winter wheat crop planted last fall.

But getting two back-to-back storms of this magnitude doesn't mean the drought is finished.

"If we get one more storm like this with widespread 2 inches of moisture, we will continue to chip away at the drought, but to claim the drought is over or ending is way too premature," Umscheid said.

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World powers and Iran begin nuclear talks

Reuters/Reuters - Members of the Iranian delegation, led by Supreme National Security Council Secretary and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili (3rd L), sit at a table during talks in Almaty February 26, 2013. World powers began talks with Iran on its nuclear programme in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Tuesday, in a fresh attempt to resolve a decade-old standoff that threatens the Middle East with a new war. REUTERS/Ilyas Omarov/Pool

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (L) and Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili meet before the talks in Almaty February 26, 2013. World powers began talks with Iran on its nuclear programme in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Tuesday, in a fresh attempt to resolve a decade-old standoff that threatens the Middle East with a new war. REUTERS/Stanislav Filippov/Pool

ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers are expected to offer Iranlimited sanctions relief on Tuesday if it agrees to halt its most sensitive nuclear work, in a new attempt to resolve a dispute that threatens to trigger another war in the Middle East.

In their first meeting in eight months - time that Iran has used to expand atomic activity that the West suspects is aimed at developing a bomb capability - the powers hope Iran will engage in serious talks on finding a diplomatic solution.

The negotiations formally got under way in the Kazakh city ofAlmaty - which follows three inconclusive meetings last year in Istanbul, Baghdad and Moscow - at around 1:30 p.m (0730 GMT).

But with the Islamic Republic's political elite pre-occupied with worsening internal infighting ahead of a June presidential election, few believe the meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in the Kazakh city of Almaty will yield an immediate breakthrough.

At best, diplomats and analysts say, Iran will take the joint offer from the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Britain and China seriously and agree to hold further talks soon on how to implement practical steps to ease the tension.

The powers would like to see "a recognition by our Iranian colleagues that our offer is a serious one ... but it is not the final act in the play," said one diplomat participating in the talks. "I wouldn't predict a decisive breakthrough."

Iran is showing no sign, however, of backing down over a nuclear program it says is for entirely peaceful energy purposes. The program has drawn tough Western sanctions that have greatly reduced its oil exports, an economic lifeline.

A U.N. nuclear watchdog report last week said Iran was for the first time installing advanced centrifuges that would allow it to significantly speed up its enrichment of uranium, which can have both civilian and military purposes.

HIGH STAKES

Tightening Western sanctions on Iran over the last 14 months are hurting Iran's economy, slashing oil revenue and driving the currency down, which in turn has pushed up inflation.

But they are not close to having the crippling effect envisaged by Washington, analysts say, and - so far at least - have not prompted a change in nuclear course by Tehran.

Western officials say the powers' offer - an updated version of one rejected by Iran in the last meeting in June - would include an easing of sanctions of trade in gold and other precious metals if Tehran closes its underground Fordow enrichment plant.

The stakes are high. Israel, assumed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East, has hinted strongly at possible military action to prevent its foe from obtaining such arms. Iran has threatened to retaliate hard if attacked.

The fact that the meeting takes place in Kazakhstan - which gave up its nuclear arsenal after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s - has symbolic resonance.

A U.S. official said the Central Asian state could serve as a "good role model" for the benefits of making "certain choices", in clear reference to Iran's atomic ambitions.

Western officials acknowledge an easing of U.S. and European sanctions on trade in gold represents a relatively modest step. But it could be used as part of barter transactions that might allow Iran to circumvent tight financial sanctions.

Iran so far appears to be showing little interest. Its Foreign Ministry spokesman last week dismissed the reported incentive as insufficient and a senior Iranian lawmaker has ruled out closing Fordow, located close to the holy city of Qom.

Iran says it enriches uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent to make fuel for a medical research reactor in the capital Tehran. But it also represents most of the work required to reach weapons-grade material of 90 percent.

A U.S. official said the powers hoped that the Almaty meeting would lead to follow-up talks, either at a political or technical level, before Iran's New Year celebrations in March.

(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak, Fredrik Dahl, Yeganeh Torbati, Editing by Jon Boyle)

Article: Iran to offer package of proposals in nuclear talks: state TV

Article: EU says no breakthrough deal expected at Iran talks in Almaty

Article: South Korea firm had U.S. contract while investing in Iran gas: GAO

EU says no breakthrough deal expected at Iran talks in Almaty

ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers do not expect a breakthrough agreement at nuclear talks with Iran in the Kazakh city of Almaty, a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday.

"It is clear that nobody expects to come from Almaty with a fully-done deal," Michael Mann told a news conference shortly after negotiations started. Talks are expected to run through Wednesday.

The EU's Catherine Ashton oversees contacts with Iran on behalf of six powers: United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak)