The purchase may be announced as early as today, said the people yesterday, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc was forced to sell its stake in Sempra by the European Union after receiving a 45.5 billion-pound ($71 billion) taxpayer-funded bailout.
JPMorgan is continuing discussions with RBS and Sempra about acquiring the North American operations of the commodities and energy trader, one of the people said. Representatives for Edinburgh-based RBS, JPMorgan and Sempra declined to comment. - - - - >

The massive blast Saturday in Hegang city in frigid Heilongjiang province erupted at night when some 500 miners were working below ground. Most escaped, but 104 were confirmed dead and an additional four were missing and feared dead, the official Xinhua news agency reported Monday.
The explosion at the Xinxing coal mine, which belongs to the state-owned Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, was the deadliest in Chinas mining industry in two years, and has highlighted how heavy demand for power-generating coal comes at a high human cost.
At the gates of the mining companys offices, family members and friends confronted mining officials - - - - >

BASF is developing chemicals from bacteria and fungi instead of processing oil derivatives, cutting back on smokestacks that belch carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Royal DSM NV will start a project by year-end with enzymes to produce succinic acid for car coolants. Mass production may start 2012.
“Its not voodoo anymore,” said Claus Bollschweiler, a trained biologist who heads up BASFs research into hydrophobin proteins derived from fungi. “This is a good investment.”
Engineering - - - - >

Acting EPA Regional Administrator William Early said in a letter sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Huntington district that the agency is “taking this unusual step in response to our very serious concerns” that the project could violate the Clean Water Act.
According to the EPA, the agency has never used its authority to review a previously permitted project since Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972.
The permit was issued in 2007 for Mingo Logan Coals Spruce No. 1 mine, which is owned by St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc.
It would allow the company to fill valleys at the - - - - >

China produces nearly all the rare earths used in batteries for hybrid cars, mobile phones, superconductors, lightweight magnets and other high-tech products. Reports of a plan to reduce exports sparked concern about the impact on industry abroad.
Beijing will encourage sales of finished rare earths products but will limit exports of semi-finished goods, said Wang Caifeng, deputy director-general of the materials department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Exports of raw ores already is banned, and said that will continue, Wang said at an industry conference.
Wang refused to confirm Chinese news reports that this - - - - >

With about half the ballots counted in the all-mail vote, the bag fee was failing 58 percent to 42 percent in Tuesdays primary.
City leaders had passed an ordinance to charge the bag fee, which was to start in January. But the plastics industry bankrolled a referendum to put the question to voters in Tuesdays election.
Plastic bag makers have lobbied hard to defeat the fee, outspending opponents about 15 to 1.
Adam Parmer, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag Tax, said the results show the bag fee was “a costly, unnecessary tax” and the wrong approach to changing - - - - >

The land is being “segregated” for two years so that the department can study whether it should be permanently withdrawn from mining activity, said the official, who requested anonymity because he wasnt authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The announcement comes ahead of Tuesdays congressional hearing on a bill to set aside more than 1 million acres of federal lands north and south of the canyon. The bills sponsor, Democratic U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and environmental groups had been looking to Salazar for temporary protections at the Grand Canyon while the legislation is pending.
The Interior Department under President - - - - >

In a letter sent late Friday by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to J&Js chief executive, William Weldon, the seven-year-old group asks the company by the end of August to reformulate its personal care products so that they are free of 1,4-dioxane and any preservatives that release formaldehyde.
The letter was signed by nearly 50 groups representing about 1.7 million members, from the Environmental Working Group and Friends of the Earth to the American Nurses Association and Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Johnson & Johnson spokesman Bill Price said, “The trace levels of certain compounds that were noted by the Campaign for Safe - - - - >

Because Dows chemicals are used in such a wide variety of products, from toys to automobiles, the global economic downturn has hit the company especially hard.
The company earned $24 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with $941 million, or 99 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding charges and other one-time items, Dow earned 12 cents per share during the period.
Sales fell 39 percent to $9.09 billion from $14.82 billion a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of 21 cents per share on revenue of $11.69 billion. Analysts typically exclude one-time items.
“Our positive earnings in this recessionary - - - - >

High levels of these chemical byproducts of tobacco smoke in the urine were linked to lung-cancer rates as much as 8.5 times higher than those of other smokers, said Jian-Min Yuan, the study leader and an associate professor of public health at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He spoke in Denver today at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting.
Lung tumors are the most lethal form of cancer in the U.S., spurring 161,840 deaths and 215,020 new cases in 2008, according to the American Cancer - - - - >