C. African Republic president seeks foreign help

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The president of Central African Republic on Thursday urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching the capital, but French officials declined to offer any military assistance.

The developments suggest Central African Republic could be on the brink of another violent change in government, something not new in the history of this resource-rich, yet deeply impoverished country. The current president, Francois Bozize, himself came to power nearly a decade ago in the wake of a rebellion.

Speaking to crowds in Bangui, a city of some 600,000, Bozize pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic’s former colonial ruler.

About 200 French soldiers are already in the country, providing technical support and helping to train the local army, according to the French defense ministry.

“France has the means to stop (the rebels) but unfortunately they have done nothing for us until now,” Bozize said.

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that France wants to protect its interests in Central African Republic and not Bozize’s government. The comments came a day after dozens of protesters, angry about a lack of help against rebel forces, threw rocks at the French Embassy in Bangui and stole a French flag.

Paris is encouraging peace talks between the government and the rebels, with the French Foreign Ministry noting in a statement that negotiations are due to “begin shortly in Libreville (Gabon).” But it was not immediately clear what, if any, dates have been set for those talks.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, meanwhile, spoke via phone with Bozize, asking the president to take responsibility for the safety of French nationals and diplomatic missions in Central African Republic.

U.S. officials said Thursday the State Department would close its embassy in the country and ordered its diplomatic team to leave. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss the evacuation publicly.

The United Nations Security Council issued a press statement late Thursday reiterating its concern about the situation in the country and condemned the attacks.

“The members of the Security Council reiterate their demand that the armed groups immediately cease hostilities, withdraw from captured cities and cease any further advance towards the city of Bangui,” the statement reads.

Bozize’s government earlier reached out to longtime ally Chad, which pledged to send 2,000 troops to bolster Central African Republic’s own forces. But it was unclear if the Chadian troops had all arrived, and even then, it is far from certain if the combined government forces could withstand rebel attacks.

At least four different rebel groups are involved, though their overall numbers could not immediately be confirmed.

Central African Republic, a landlocked nation of some 4.4 million people, is roughly the size of France. It has suffered decades of army revolts, coups and rebellions since gaining independence in 1960 and remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

The rebels behind the most recent instability signed a 2007 peace accord allowing them to join the regular army, but insurgent leaders say the deal wasn’t fully implemented.

Already, the rebel forces have seized at least 10 towns across the sparsely populated north of the country, and residents in the capital now fear the insurgents could attack at any time, despite assurances by rebel leaders that they are willing to engage in dialogue instead of attacking Bangui.

The rebels have claimed that their actions are justified in light of the “thirst for justice, for peace, for security and for economic development of the people of Central African Republic.”

Despite Central African Republic’s wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, the government remains perpetually cash-strapped. Filip Hilgert, a researcher with Belgium-based International Peace Information Service, said rebel groups are unhappy because they feel the government doesn’t invest in their areas.

“The main thing they say is that the north of the country, and especially in their case the northeast, has always been neglected by the central government in all ways,” he said.

But the rebels also are demanding that the government make payments to ex-combatants, suggesting that their motives may also be for personal financial gain.

Bozize, a former military commander, came to power in a 2003 rebel war that ousted his predecessor, Ange-Felix Patasse. In his address Thursday, Bozize said he remained open to dialogue with the rebels, but he also accused them and their allies of financial greed.

Those allies, he implied, are outside Central African Republic.

“For me, there are individuals who are being manipulated by an outside hand, dreaming of exploiting the rich Central African Republic soil,” he said. “They want only to stop us from benefiting from our oil, our diamonds, our uranium and our gold.”

___

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.

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Leaked BlackBerry 10 slides show video calling and screen sharing for BBM

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Stallone did not copy screenplay for “The Expendables”: judge

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge has reaffirmed his decision to dismiss a lawsuit accusing actor Sylvester Stallone of copying someone else’s screenplay to make his popular 2010 movie “The Expendables.”

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan on Thursday rejected claims of copyright infringement damages by Marcus Webb, who contended that the movie’s screenplay contained 20 “striking similarities” to his own “The Cordoba Caper.”

Webb claimed that both works had similar plots, and involved hired mercenaries in a Latin American country that was home to a villain dictator named General Garza.

But Rakoff said no reasonable juror could find that the works were so similar as to eliminate the possibility that Stallone crafted his screenplay on his own.

Not even the general’s name was an automatic red flag, Rakoff said, writing that “Garza” was the 34th most common Hispanic nickname in the United States.

“The court has carefully examined the entire litany of plaintiff’s proffered ‘striking similarities’ and finds none of them remotely striking or legally sufficient,” Rakoff wrote. “These are two very different screenplays built on a familiar theme: mercenaries taking on a Latin American dictator.”

Other defendants in the case included Nu Image Films, which produced the movie, and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, which distributed the movie in the United States.

Lawyers for Webb did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“The Expendables” was released in August 2010, and featured other older action stars like Jet Li and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A sequel, “The Expendables 2,” was released in August 2012.

In June, Rakoff decided to dismiss Webb’s case [ID:nL2E8HQA93] but did not provide his reasons until Thursday.

Stallone also starred in the “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies.

The case is Webb v. Stallone et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-07517.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Study links milk-producing protein to aggressive breast cancer

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The discovery that a protein which triggers milk production in women may also be responsible for making breast cancers aggressive could open up new opportunities for treatment of the most common and deadliest form of cancer among women.

Found in all breast cells, the protein ELF5 tries to activate milk production even in breast cancer cells, which does not work and then makes the cancer more aggressive, according to scientists in Australia and Britain.

“The discovery opens up new avenues for therapy and for designing new markers that can predict response to therapy,” said lead author Professor Chris Ormandy from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney.

In 2008, Ormandy‘s work linked ELF5 to milk production.

The latest research by Ormandy and his team, published in the journal PLOS Biology on Friday, went a step further to find the link between ELF5 and breast cancer.

“Cancer cells can’t respond properly (to ELF5), so they … acquire some characteristics … that make the disease more aggressive and more refractory (resistant) to treatment with existing therapies,” Ormandy said by telephone.

Ormandy and his team grew human breast cancer tissues, genetically manipulated to contain high amounts of ELF5, in petri dishes and saw how the protein proliferated aggressively.

FINDINGS MAY HELP TARGETED THERAPY

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the top cause of cancer death among women, accounting for 23 percent of total cancer cases and 14 percent of cancer deaths in women.

To decide on treatment, doctors normally need to find out if the cancer has receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which, in the case of breast cancer patients, promote growth in their tumors.

Two-thirds of breast cancers are usually positive for estrogen receptors, which then require anti-hormonal therapies that lower estrogen levels in the patient or block estrogen from supporting the growth of the cancer.

For the remaining one-third of patients, their cancers do not have receptors, which means they won’t benefit from hormonal therapies. Such patients are usually given other treatments, such as chemotherapy.

Ormandy’s team found that cancers with these receptors had low levels of ELF5, while those without receptors had significantly higher levels of the protein.

“What we have shown in this paper is high ELF5 tumors are dependent on ELF5 for their proliferation and if we block ELF5 in high ELF5 tumors, we will block proliferation and that will treat the tumor,” Ormandy said.

“If we can develop a drug that targets ELF5, it will be very useful for that group of women,” he said.

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Paul Tait)

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In Bangladesh, the Garment Factories Keep Burning

On Nov. 24, a fire broke out in the Tazreen Fashions plant outside Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was the worst industrial accident in Bangladesh’s history, resulting in 111 deaths and provoking widespread calls for improved safety measures in the country’s garment industry.

In the four weeks since the Tazreen fire, 17 additional conflagrations have broken out in Bangladeshi textile and garment factories, based on reports in the local press that were compiled by the Dhaka office of Solidarity Center, an organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO. In one case, a worker died as panic-stricken employees jammed a stairwell to escape their workplace. A separate case involved no fire, but workers rushed out of a factory after an electric short circuit made a loud noise.

Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of the Exporters Association of Bangladesh and a member of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association, says the fires were triggered by short circuits, faulty wiring, or sudden power surges. “Some workers got injured when they started running out of their factories in a panic. We are trying to boost confidence among the workers so they don’t panic in case of a fire.”

Murshedy is coordinating an effort to improve safety standards in garment factories in the industrial belt of Ashulia, on the outskirts of Dhaka. “We won’t be able to do our business any more without improving compliance standards,” he says.  The government of Bangladesh did not respond to requests for comment.

If the Tazreen fire effectively pushes the government and the factory owners to make Bangladesh’s garment factories safe—much as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire did in the U.S. a century ago—“It would be a sea change that we’ve been looking for for a long time,” says Celeste Drake, trade policy specialist for the AFL-CIO. The use of child labor in Bangladesh has diminished considerably, thanks in part to outside pressure, she says, noting it may take action by the U.S. government to convince Bangladeshis to change further. In particular, she says, “the president has the power to remove tariff benefits from a country,” which would make U.S.-bound exports from Bangladesh more expensive.

For Cathy Feingold, director of the AFL-CIO’s international department, and Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, big U.S. and European retailers and apparel companies must be persuaded to press Bangladesh to do more. “The brands need to take responsibility for their supply chains,” says Feingold. Nova says he figures it would cost the big brand companies less than 10¢ per garment to ensure safe factories in Bangladesh. Instead, “as long as the companies press for low prices from their suppliers, the government of Bangladesh cannot be active in improving safety,” he says. With subcontractors in Bangladesh operating on razor-thin margins, they face an incentive to cut corners.

The best motivation for Bangladeshis to improve worker safety may come not from corporations or the West, however, but from neighboring Burma. As that country emerges as a potential center for textile and apparel manufacturing, Burmese trade unions are viewing Bangladesh as a case study in how an emerging-market economy should not handle issues of safety and workers’ rights, says Tim Ryan, Asia department director for Solidarity Center. “They look at Bangladesh and say, ‘we don’t want to go down that route,” he says, suggesting that a prospering, worker-friendly state on its border might add to pressure for Bangladesh to improve workplace safety and overall conditions for its own garment workers.

Devnath a special correspondent for Bloomberg News in Dhaka.

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Cuba has much to lose as ally Chavez fights cancer

HAVANA (AP) — Cubans who were tuned in to the nightly soap opera on a recent Saturday received a sudden burst of bad news, from the other side of the Caribbean.

State TV cut to the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez revealed that his cancer had returned. Facing his fourth related surgery in 18 months, he grimly named Vice President Nicolas Maduro as his possible successor.

The news shocked not only Venezuelans but millions of Cubans who have come to depend on Chavez’s largesse for everything from subsidized oil to cheap loans. Venezuela supplies about half of Cuba‘s energy needs, meaning the island’s economy would be in for a huge shock and likely recession if a post-Chavez president forced the island to pay full price for oil.

Despite the drama, the news likely wasn’t a surprise to Cuba’s Communist government, and not only because Chavez has been receiving medical care on the island.

Havana learned important lessons about overdependence when the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union threw the country into a deep crisis. Trying to avoid the consequences of a similar cut, the Cuban government has been diversifying its portfolio of economic partners in recent years, looking to Asia, Europe and other Latin American nations, and is only about half as dependent on Caracas as it was on the former Soviet Union.

Cuba is also working to stimulate its economy back home by allowing more private-sector activity, giving a leg up to independent and cooperative farming, and decentralizing its sugar industry. A stronger Cuban economy would in theory have more hard currency to pay for energy and other imports.

Also getting off the ground is an experiment with independent nonfarm collectives that should be more efficient than state-run companies. And next year, another pilot program is planned for decentralized state enterprises that will enjoy near-autonomy and be allowed to control most of their income.

“This could have good results,” said a Cuban economist who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the foreign media. Cuba “is also thinking of boosting foreign investment in areas of the national economy, including in restricted areas like the sugar industry.”

One of the country’s top goals has been to make the island’s struggling economy less dependent on a single benefactor.

Under the leadership of Chavez, who regularly calls former Cuban President Fidel Castro his ideological father and has followed parts of the Communist leader’s governance playbook, Venezuela has sent billions of dollars a year to Cuba through trade and petro-aid.

Bilateral trade stood at a little over $ 8 billion last year, much of it in Cuban imports of oil and derivatives. In return, Havana primarily provides Venezuela with technical support from Cuban teachers, scientists and other professionals, plus brigades of health care workers. Analysts say those services are overvalued by outside standards, apparently costing as much as $ 200,000 per year per doctor. Experts peg the total Venezuelan subsidy to Cuba at around $ 2 billion to $ 4 billion a year.

While business with Venezuela makes up 40 percent of all Cuban trade, it’s still a far cry from the days when the Communist Eastern Bloc accounted for an estimated 80 percent.

“A (loss of) $ 2 billion to $ 4 billion would definitely pinch. But it is not the same relative weight as the sudden complete withdrawal of the Soviet subsidies in the early ’90s,” said Richard E. Feinberg, a professor of international political economy at the University of California, San Diego. “Cuba’s not going to go back to the days of bicycles. Could it throw the Cuban economy into recession? Yes.”

That kind of resilience would result largely from Cuba’s successes in courting foreign investors for joint ventures.

Last month, authorities announced a deal with a subsidiary of Brazil’s Odebrecht to manage a sugar refinery, a rare step in an industry that has long been largely off limits to foreign involvement.

China has invested in land-based oil projects, and along with Canada is a key player in Cuba’s important nickel industry. Spain has ventures in tourist hotels and tobacco, while French company Pernod Ricard helps export Cuban liquors. And since 2009, Brazil has been a partner in a massive project to modernize and expand the port at Mariel, west of the capital.

Trade with China alone was $ 1.9 billion and rising in 2010, and Raul Castro paid a visit to Chinese and Vietnamese leaders earlier this year to help cement Asian relationships.

But while Havana says it wants to boost foreign investment, obstacles remain. The approval process for investment projects can be long and cumbersome, and pilferage, disincentives to productivity and government intervention can cut into efficiencies. Foreign companies also pay a sky-high payroll tax.

Feinberg, who wrote a report on foreign investment in Cuba published this month by the U.S. think tank the Brookings Institution, said that while a number of foreign companies are successfully doing business with the island, others have run into problems, sending a chilly message to would-be investors. In particular he noted the recent cases of a government takeover of a food company run by a Chilean businessman accused of corruption, and contentious renegotiations of a contract with Dutch-British personal and home care products giant Unilever amid shifting government demands.

“The Cuban government has to decide that it wants foreign investment unambiguously. I think now there seem to be divisions among the leadership,” Feinberg said. “Some are afraid that foreign investment compromises sovereignty, creates centers of power independent of the leadership or is exploitative.”

He estimated Cuba has left on the table about $ 20 billion in missed investment over the past decade by not following practices typical of other developing nations. Instead, Cuba received $ 3.5 billion in foreign investment in that period.

Experts say a worst-case scenario for Chavez wouldn’t automatically translate into the oil spigot shutting off overnight.

If Chavez’s hand-picked successor, Vice President Maduro, were to take office, he would likely seek to continue the special relationship.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles has said he wants to end the oil-for-services barter arrangements, but could find that easier said than done should he win. The two countries are intertwined in dozens of joint accords, and poor Venezuelans who benefit from free care by Cuban doctors would be loath to see that disappear.

“You can’t flip the switch on a relationship like this,” said Melissa Lockhart Fortner, a Cuba analyst at the Pacific Council on International Policy, a Los Angeles-based institute that focuses on global affairs. “It would be terrible politics for him. … Switching that off would really endanger his support far too much for that to be really a feasible option.”

For Cuba, Chavez’s latest health scare capped off a year of disappointments in the island’s attempt to wean itself from Venezuelan energy.

Three deep-water exploratory oil wells drilled off the west coast failed to yield a strike, and last month the only oil rig in the world capable of drilling there without violating U.S. sanctions sailed away with no return in sight.

Yet time and again Havana has shown that it’s nothing if not resilient, weathering everything from U.S.-backed invasion and assassination plots in the 1960s to the austere “Special Period” in the early 1990s, when the Soviet collapse sent Cuba’s GDP plummeting 33 percent over four years. When hurricanes damaged the country’s agriculture sector and the global financial crisis squeezed tourism four years ago, Cuba tightened its belt, slashed imports and survived.

“Some people are saying the demise of Chavez is also going to be the demise of Communism in Cuba because the regime’s going to collapse and the people are going to rise up,” Feinberg said. “That’s probably yet another delusion of the anti-Castro exile community.”

Still, many Cubans are nervously tuning into the near-daily updates about Chavez’s health, carried prominently in state media.

“I don’t know what would happen here,” said 52-year-old Havana resident Magaly Ruiz. “We might end up eating grass.”

___

Associated Press writers Andrea Rodriguez and Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana contributed to this report.

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

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10 Things to Do on Dec. 26

Christmas has ended and New Year’s Eve is still a few days away. What’s a person to do during this holiday lull?

1. Complain About Your Christmas Gifts

[More from Mashable: ‘We Are Young’ Performed on Vintage Computer Parts]

All I got for Christmas was some CDs and movies and my little brother got an iPad. Thanks a lot Obama!

— Nick Pagliara (@NickPagliara) December 26, 2012

[More from Mashable: What Christmas Is Like in a Simulated Mars Colony]

All i got for christmas was socks and toothpaste. Thats fucked up

— Inferior (@KowaiiShiAkuma) December 26, 2012

2. Use Your New Label Maker

Image courtesy of Imgur

3. Find Weird Crap Around Your Parents’ House

Hey @shaq at my parents house for Christmas and found this collectible! #longtime fan! twitter.com/GuyCPalmer/sta…

— Guy Palmer (@GuyCPalmer) December 26, 2012

Found this at my parents house- my first mobile phone from 13 years ago. I’m pretty old. twitter.com/ScottOfTheRive…

— Scott (@ScottOfTheRiver) December 23, 2012

A little walk down memory lane on Christmas morning when I found this at my parents’ house.#snaggingitforsure twitter.com/Mandery/status…

— Laura Kroll (@Mandery) December 25, 2012

4. Attempt to Learn How a Kindle Works

My mum just asked me ‘what time doesthe Internet close because I want to buy a book for my kindle?’ #wtf

— Natasha Wedlock (@NatashaWedlock) December 21, 2012

Does anybody know how to work a kindle fire? Mine is stressing me out!

— Emily Fitzhugh (@EmiFitzU) December 26, 2012

but like how does this kindle work?

— a (@its_audrey) December 25, 2012

5. Recreate Old Family Photos

Image courtesy of Reddit, 31Max

Image courtesy of Imgur, ConnorUllmann

6. Try to Figure Out What Boxing Day Is

What is this “Boxing Day” you guys speak of, and do I get to wear silk shorts?

— The Robfather (@thatUPSdude) December 26, 2012

Every year I wonder what Boxing Day is before deciding I’m too lazy to look it up and taking a nap instead.

— joseph birdsong (@josephbirdsong) December 26, 2012

No matter what people tell you, Boxing Day is not the day that Canadians celebrate the birth of Muhammad Ali.

— Mark Campbell (@MrWordsWorth) December 26, 2012

What is Boxing Day and why don’t Americans celebrate it?

— Andrea Cooney (@ACCooney) December 20, 2012

Educate yourself.

7. Put Away the Christmas Throw-Up

Image courtesy of Reddit, xbaahx

8. Return the Stuff You Don’t Want

Image courtesy of Imgur

9. Reuse the Christmas Tree Tinsel and Other Holiday Decorations

Image via Borntobenervous.com

Image courtesy of Flickr, stuartpilbrow

10. Take a Nap

1. Sluggish Pug

Image courtesy of Flickr, chriswaits

Click here to view this gallery.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, formatc1

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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SPOILER ALERT: Twist awaits US fans of ‘Downton’

NEW YORK (AP) — British fans of “Downton Abbey” are feeling blue after Tuesday’s conclusion of Season 3, even as the U.S. audience eagerly anticipates this third cycle on PBS’ “Masterpiece” beginning Jan. 6.

(ANY “ABBEY” DEVOTEES WHO PREFER NOT TO LEARN WHAT AWAITS THEM ARE URGED TO STOP READING RIGHT NOW.)

___

One of the stars of this wildly popular British costume drama is leaving the series after its third season. Dan Stevens had opted not to continue beyond his initial commitment, the British network ITV confirmed Wednesday.

His character, Matthew Crawley, has been written out with what ITV called an “untimely and tragic death” in the season finale. That episode will air in the U.S. in February.

Michelle Dockery will be returning in Season 4 as Matthew’s soon-to-be widow, Lady Mary.

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Former President George H.W. Bush in intensive care: spokesman

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital and is in “guarded condition,” family spokesman Jim McGrath said Wednesday.

“The President is alert and conversing with medical staff, and is surrounded by family,” McGrath said in a statement.

Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit on Sunday, McGrath said.

(Reporting By Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Paul Thomasch)

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Brent holds near $111 on US fiscal uncertainty; Japan supports

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude held near $ 111 per barrel on Thursday as jittery investors stayed on the sidelines with a deadline to avert a U.S. fiscal crisis approaching, while hopes the new Japanese government’s policies will spur demand supported prices.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers resumed talks on Wednesday over the so-called fiscal cliff – tax hikes and spending cuts slated to take effect next week that could push the economy back into recession.

“There is no easy way to resolve the U.S. fiscal cliff, but there should be a compromise at some point and that’s what the market is looking for,” said Tetsu Emori, a commodity fund manager at Astmax in Tokyo.

Front-month Brent futures slipped 16 cents to $ 110.91 per barrel at 0501 GMT, giving up some of the previous session’s 2 percent gain.

Brent may face some resistance between $ 112 and $ 113 before falling towards $ 102.7 over the next three months, according to Wang Tao, Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.

U.S. crude dropped from a nine-week high reached on Wednesday, shedding 6 cents to $ 90.92.

Oil futures rose in early Asian trade, taking a cue from Japanese stocks, which were at an 18-month high after the country’s new prime minister said beating deflation in the world’s No. 3 oil consumer and taming a strong yen were his top priorities.

“There are hopes that the aggressive fiscal policies will help Japan get out of deflation and, as it is an importer of commodities, that’s a positive for oil markets,” Emori said.

The government will pursue bold monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy and a growth strategy to encourage private investment, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday .

CLIFFHANGER

The White House and Republicans are still far apart, as hopes for legislation to prevent the U.S. economy from tumbling off the fiscal cliff switch to the Senate.

Democrats control a majority in that chamber but still need some support from Republicans across the aisle for a likely attempt to raise taxes on the wealthy.

Obama will try to revive budget crisis talks – which stalled last week – when he returns to Washington on Thursday after cutting short his Christmas holiday in Hawaii.

“While markets have vacillated between optimism and pessimism over the prospects for a compromise, we expect a deal only at the last minute, with lots of decisions delayed into the New Year and austerity of roughly 2 percent of GDP,” Bank of America-Merril Lynch analysts said in their weekly report.

Worries about supplies from the Middle East rose once more after security forces in the United Arab Emirates arrested a cell of UAE and Saudi Arabian citizens which they said was planning to carry out militant attacks in both countries and other states.

The region holds some of the world’s largest oil fields and as a result any unrest in the area triggers supply concerns.

Oil futures may rise in the first quarter of 2013 with the global economy showing early signs of a pick-up, and on expectations that the fiscal crisis will be resolved.

Encouraging economic data from China, aggressive action by the European Central Bank to help its economies, and quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve together brighten the outlook for oil in the near-term.

U.S. crude could rise to $ 100 per barrel and Brent may test $ 120 by the end of March, said Emori.

Also supporting prices are expectations that U.S. crude stockpiles may have decreased last week as refiners kept inventory low for year-end tax purposes.

Crude stocks may have dropped by 1.9 million barrels in the week ended Dec 21, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.

Inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute will be released on Thursday, while numbers from the Energy Information Administration will be out on Friday, a day later than usual, because of the Christmas holiday.

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