Summers cancels Citi events, while Fed chief decision pending

By P.J. Huffstutter
CHICAGO, Sept 14 | Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:07pm EDT
CHICAGO, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has pulled out of speaking engagements and other events involving Citigroup Inc while President Barack Obama considers whether to nominate the Harvard economist as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, the bank said in a statement.
"Mr. Summers has withdrawn from participation in all Citi events while he is under consideration to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve," Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a spokeswoman for the third-biggest U.S. lender, said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters on Saturday.
Summers, a former economic adviser to Obama, has bowed out of a keynote address on global economic challenges at a Citigroup research seminar next month, according to a Bloomberg report.
While Summers is widely thought to be Obama's preferred choice to replace Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke when his term is up in January, an unusually vitriolic public debate has erupted over that possibility in recent months.
The White House said on Friday that the president had not yet made up his mind on who should lead the U.S. central bank - a decision that traditionally has generated little interest beyond Wall Street and academia.
But since Summers emerged as a lead contender for the job this summer, his history as a consultant to large financial institutions including Citigroup has fueled debate among critics and lawmakers about his suitability for the top Fed job.
Summers has been praised as a brilliant economist and a shrewd policymaker. But his work with financial firms has critics maintaining that his relationship with Wall Street is too cozy to maintain the Fed's vaunted independence.
The central bank plays a key role in guiding the world's largest economy and has taken on new oversight responsibilities following the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Summers, who has also been paid to write a column for Reuters, was a key economic adviser to Obama in his 2008 campaign as well as during his first term. After heading the White House National Economic Council, he left the administration in 2010 to pursue a career in the private sector.
Some Democrats are not happy with Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, because he backed banking deregulation in the 1990s, which they believe sowed the seeds for the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
The financial crisis led to a massive taxpayer bailout of Wall Street that continues to anger many ordinary Americans and could become another issue for Summers.
Four Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee are now expected to vote "No" if Obama nominates Summers as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, further complicating one of the most vital decisions of his second term.
Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen is also a candidate for the job.
A letter urging her nomination has been signed by 20 Senate Democrats. If nominated and confirmed, Yellen would be the first-ever woman to lead the U.S. central bank.

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UPDATE 1-Drummond says Colombia mines, port to reopen after government ends strike

BOGOTA, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The Colombian operations of U.S.-based coal miner Drummond will reopen on Saturday evening, the company said, after the government intervened to end more than seven weeks of strike action that shut down its two mines and port.

The stoppage halted about one-third of production by the world's No. 4 coal exporter and was the second major strike in Colombia's coal sector this year, cutting royalty revenues for the government and crimping economic growth.

"We should be returning to normality of work from the night shift of today, September 14th," the company said in a statement, listing the different groups of workers that would cover various shifts in the coming days.

On Friday, Colombia's Labor Ministry said it was sending the case to an arbitration tribunal after the majority of the company's 5,000 direct, non-contract employees voted to resolve the dispute that way.

No one at the Sintramienergetica union, which organized the strike, answered calls to confirm members were returning to their jobs. On Friday night, a union negotiator, Cesar Flores, said no official notification had been received from the government that it was ending the strike.

The strike added to disruption in an already turbulent year for Colombia's coal sector, with a month-long strike at its biggest miner, Cerrejon, in February and logistics problems that had affected rail transport and the loading of ships.

The Drummond stoppage has had little impact on coal prices however, with the global market well-supplied, a factor that has weighed on prices for most of this year. Coal for delivery to Europe (ARA) traded at $78 a tonne on Friday.

Drummond exported 26 million tonnes of coal in 2012, about one-third of the national total. It had been expected to produce 32 million tonnes out of some 94 million tonnes of forecast national output in 2013, which would earn the nation about 900 billion pesos ($480 million) in royalties, the government has said, up from 700 billion pesos last year.

Those targets are likely to be jeopardized after two prolonged stoppages in a sector that accounts for about 2.4 percent of the Andean nation's gross domestic product.

The strike immediately shut down Drummond's exports since it included workers at its privately operated port as well as laborers at its two mines, Pribbenow and El Descanso, in the north of the country.

Workers represented by the Sintramienergetica union are demanding a pay increase above the 5 percent Drummond has offered, a fixed monthly salary instead of hourly pay and new jobs for 400 port workers who are to be made redundant next January with the introduction of direct conveyor-belt loading of ships.

In a proposed three-year pay deal posted on its website, Drummond said it was also offering workers a one-time 8.5 million peso ($4,400) bonus on signing the agreement.

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Suzuki recalls 193,936 SUVs, SX4s over air bags

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 | Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:14pm EDT

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Japan's Suzuki Motor Co is recalling 193,936 Grand Vitara SUVs and SX4s cars because of a defective air bag sensor mat in the front passenger seat, U.S. officials said.

The recall covers Grand Vitaras from the 2006 through 2011 model years and the 2007 through 2011 SX4 small cars, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration letter acknowledging the recall.

Sensor mats measure passengers' weight and determine if the air bag should deploy. Children can be hurt if the sensor cannot determine who is sitting in the seat.

The letter said the sensor mat installed in the front passenger seat may fail because of repeated flexing. During a crash, the air bag will deploy regardless of whether the person is an adult or a child.

There have been no reports of accidents or injuries. Suzuki will notify owners starting in October and dealers will replace mats for free, the letter said.

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UPDATE 2-Sailing-Oracle narrows gap in America's Cup after Kiwis almost capsize

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SNAPSHOT-Syria crisis at 11:10 p.m. ET/0310 GMT

Sept 14 | Sat Sep 14, 2013 11:09pm EDT

Sept 14 (Reuters) - Here is a snapshot of Reuters news about the crisis in Syria:

HEADLINES:

* The United States and Russia agreed on a proposal to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, averting the possibility of immediate U.S. military action against President Bashar al-Assad's government. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the agreement after nearly three days of talks in Geneva.

* President Barack Obama welcomed a U.S.-Russian accord on aimed at getting control of Syrian chemical weapons and warned that if diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act.

* The deal over Syria's chemical weapons will afford Assad months to "delay and deceive" while more die in that country's war, senior Republican senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham said.

* A report by U.N. chemical weapons experts will likely confirm that poison gas was used in an Aug. 21 attack on Damascus suburbs that killed hundreds of people, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday. The report was expected to be presented to Ban over the weekend, diplomats said.

* Syrian warplanes struck rebel-held suburbs of the capital on Saturday and government forces clashed with insurgents on the frontlines, residents and opposition activists said.

* Assad's forces have started moving some of their chemical weapons to Lebanon and Iraq in the last few days to evade a possible U.N. inspection, said Syrian rebel military leader General Selim Idris.

QUOTES:

"There's no diminution of options." - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

"There (is) nothing said about the use of force and not about any automatic sanctions." - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"Let the Kerry-Lavrov plan go to hell. We reject it and we will not protect the inspectors or let them enter Syria." - Qassim Saadeddine, an official of the opposition Syrian Supreme Military Council.

EVENTS:

U.N. experts studying chemical weapons use in Syria were expected to present their findings this weekend to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

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