BOSTON — Massachusetts gas prices are holding steady.
AAA Southern New England reports Monday that a gallon of self-serve, regular is selling for $3.64, the same as last week.
The current price is 2 cents below the national average for the same grade, and a penny lower than a month ago. It is, however, 14 cents higher than at the same time last year.
AAA found self-serve, regular selling for as low as $3.49 per gallon to as high as $3.89.
CAIRO — The trial in Egypt of three Al-Jazeera English journalists and 17 others was adjourned Monday until next week, when the judge will deliver the verdict five months after the trial opened, Egypt's state news agency said.
The case is the first prosecution of journalists on terrorism-related charges in Egypt. Authorities have accused them of providing a platform for the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has declared a terrorist organization. The trial has sparked an outcry among journalists and rights groups, who say the reporters were only doing their job.
Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohammed have been in detention since Dec. 29. Six journalists, including three foreigners, were tried in absentia. Prosecutors have shown footage of pro-Brotherhood protests and videos of life in Egypt as evidence.
MOSCOW — Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine on Monday after negotiators failed to reach a deal on Ukraine's unpaid gas bills and future gas prices amid deep tensions between the two neighbors over eastern Ukraine.
The decision provoked strong words from both sides but does not immediately affect the crucial flow of Russian gas to Europe. Ukraine itself has enough reserves to last until December, according to the chief of Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz.
Still, the Russian move could disrupt Europe's long-term energy supplies if the issue is not resolved, analysts said. Previous gas disputes left Ukraine and some Balkan nations shivering for nearly two weeks in the dead of winter.
The gas conflict is part of a wider dispute over whether Ukraine aligns itself with Russia or with the 28-nation European Union. It comes in the midst of a crisis in relations following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March. Ukraine accuses Russia of supporting an armed separatist insurgency in its eastern regions, which Russia denies.
Ukraine, one of the most energy inefficient countries in Europe, has been chronically behind on payments for the Russian natural gas needed to heat its homes and fuel its industries. In addition, Russia had been giving its neighbor cut-rate sweetheart deals on gas for various political reasons, a practice that came to a halt April 1.
Russia had demanded a payment of $1.95 billion by Monday for past-due bills. At talks over the weekend in Kiev, Ukraine was ready to accept a compromise of paying $1 billion now and more later, but Russia didn't accept the offer, the European Commission said.
Sergei Kupriyanov, spokesman for the Russian gas giant Gazprom, said since Ukraine missed the deadline, from now on it had to pay in advance. Yet that's a nearly impossible demand for the cash-strapped nation, which is fighting an insurgency and investigating possibly billions lost to corruption under its former pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Europe gets about 30 percent of its gas from Russia, and about half of that goes through the pipelines across Ukraine. In 2013, Ukraine imported nearly 26 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia, just over half of its annual consumption.
Kupriyanov said Russian gas supplies for Europe will continue as planned and warned Ukraine to make sure they reach European customers.
Analyst Tim Ash at Standard Bank PLC said Ukraine could in theory simply take what it wants, since gas in the pipeline is intermingled. That would result in a shortage in gas to Europe that could hinder the buildup of stored gas ahead of the critical winter heating season.
"This is unlikely to bring a short-term hit to gas supply in Europe, but it will build up problems for the winter unless a deal is reached quickly," he said in an email.
Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary get 80 percent or more of their gas from Russia, while Poland, Austria and Slovenia get around 60 percent.
At a news conference in Moscow, Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, berated the Ukrainian government, saying it scoffed at compromise and was deliberately turning commercial negotiations into a political discourse.
"Ukraine will get as much gas as it pays for," Miller said Monday. "The risks to the (gas) transit are there and they're significant."
He said in order to prevent serious disruptions to supplies in winter, Ukraine needs to pump in gas to its underground storages before mid-October. The current amount of gas in storage is not enough for Europe to last through the winter, he said.
In Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk angrily rejected the Russian position, putting Gazprom's move on par with the annexation of Crimea and the pro-Russia insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
"We won't subsidize Gazprom," he said. "Ukrainians will not take $5 billion per year (out of their pockets) to let Russia spend this money on weapons, tanks and planes to bomb Ukrainian territory."
Gazprom had tolerated the late payments but now says Ukraine owes a total of $4.458 billion for gas from last year and this year.
In December, Russia offered Yanukovych a discounted price of $268.50 per thousand cubic meters after he backed out of an economic and political agreement with the EU. But Russia annulled all price discounts after Yanukovych was chased from power in February following months of protests, raising the gas price to $485 per thousand cubic meters starting April 1.
Russia has offered a future price of $385, the price that Ukraine was paying until December, but Kiev has insisted on a lower price. Miller scoffed at that demand, saying it was significantly below European market prices.
In Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, at a meeting with the Gazprom chief and other officials, called the Ukrainian position "absurd" and said it amounted to blackmail over the pipelines.
Ukraine's energy minister, Yuriy Prodan, said Ukraine was prepared for the Russian cutoff.
"We are providing reliable transit of gas and supplies to domestic consumers," he said, adding that Ukraine could do that because of lower seasonal demand and previously stored gas.
In a related case, Gazprom announced Monday that it is suing Ukraine's Naftogaz in an international court for the $4.5 billion. Naftogaz said it has also filed a suit against Gazprom, seeking a "fair and market-based price" for gas, as well as a $6 billion repayment for what it said were overpayments for gas from 2010.
EU spokeswoman Sabine Berger said EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger remained committed to helping broker a deal between Kiev and Moscow.
One reason for EU involvement is the current state of Ukrainian gas reserves. Berger said they now stand at around 13.5 billion cubic meters but need to be at 18-20 billion cubic meters at the end of the summer for Europe to have enough gas this winter.
Berger said the EU was working toward a deal that could allow shipments of gas to Ukraine via Slovakia.
Ukrainian consumers, however, will be facing higher prices no matter what Russia does. Previous governments had sold gas to consumers at about a fifth of what Naftogaz pays for it — leaving little incentive to conserve and saddling the government with huge deficits.
Ukraine's new government is in the process of raising domestic gas prices, a condition of its $17 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund.
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McHugh reported from Kiev, Ukraine. Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.
HONG KONG — World stock markets were subdued on Monday as the turmoil in Iraq dampened sentiment and investors held back ahead of the Federal Reserve's monthly policy meeting later in the week.
Oil prices hovered at a nine-month high as fears grew that the violence in Iraq could escalate into a broader regional conflict, unsettling global financial markets.
Iraq's prime minister vowed on Sunday to "liberate every inch" of territory captured by the Islamic militants who posted photos that appeared to show their gunmen massacring scores of captured Iraqi soldiers.
"Reports that Iraq has entered a full blown sectarian conflict is ensuring a thread of anxiety is running through markets," analysts at Rabobank wrote in a research note.
Adding to uncertainty was Russia's decision to halt gas supplies to Ukraine after the sides were unable to agree on a new price for deliveries. Though the move does not affect supplies to the rest of Europe and Ukraine has reserves to last months, it raises the stakes in the countries' standoff.
In Europe, France's CAC 40 was down 0.3 percent to 4,531.20 while Germany's DAX edged up 0.1 percent to 9,923.47. The FTSE 100 index of leading British companies slipped almost 0.1 percent to 6,777.44.
Wall Street fared better, with the Dow up 0.1 percent to 16,787.59 and the S&P 500 up 0.2 percent to 1,939.45.
Investors were also preparing for the regular meeting of the Federal Reserve Board's policy setting Open Market Committee, scheduled for midweek. While policymakers are widely expected to announce that the Fed will cut its bond-purchase program by another $10 billion, investors will be examining their comments on the outlook for raising interest rates, economic growth and inflation.
"The FOMC statement in the early hours of Thursday morning is undoubtedly the primary focus for all global markets this week," said Niall King, a sales trader at CMC Markets in Sydney.
In Asia, most benchmarks were lackluster but stocks in the region's two biggest economies moved strongly — in opposite directions.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 1.1 percent to close at 14,933.29 as the yen strengthened 0.1 percent to 101.93 against the dollar. A stronger yen means the cars and electronics produced by Japan's export giants are more costly when sold overseas.
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent to end at 2,085.98 after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, writing in The Times newspaper ahead of a visit to Britain, said that he expects the world's No. 2 economy to grow "around 7.5 percent this year," in line with the government's target.
Hinting that the government is prepared to roll out more mini-stimulus measures, Li said, "Despite considerable downward pressure, China's economy is moving on a steady course. We will continue to make anticipatory and moderate adjustments when necessary."
South Korea's Kospi edged 0.1 percent higher while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped less than 0.1 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1 percent.
In energy trading, benchmark crude oil for July delivery rose 12 cents to $107.03 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 38 cents on Friday.
The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.3568.
WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund foresees the U.S. economy growing a modest 2 percent this year, below its previous estimate of 2.7 percent.
That would be nearly identical to the economy's 1.9 percent growth in 2013.
A brutal winter and a slowing housing recovery caused the economy to shrink during the first three months of 2014, the IMF noted in a report released Monday.
"Extreme weather occurrences have a serious effect on the economy," Christine Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, said at a news conference.
Lagarde added:
"Extreme weather occurrences have repeated much more frequently in the past 20 years than the previous century. That's a reason to wonder about climate change and how to deal with it."
Recent figures suggest that a "meaningful rebound" will propel U.S. economic growth for the rest of 2014, the IMF said. Still, that will only partly offset what many analysts think was a contraction of up to 2 percent last quarter.
The unemployment rate has tumbled to 6.3 percent from 7.5 percent in 12 months. But the IMF warns that U.S. wages remain stagnant and the rate of long-term unemployment high. As a result, it urged lawmakers to lift the minimum wage and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for those with low wages.
The IMF also highlighted the challenge for the Federal Reserve to properly time the unwinding of its policies to spur borrowing, investment and spending. Investors appear to be acting with a sense of certainty about Fed policies, even though central banks must respond to uncertainties about the economy, Lagarde said.
Lagarde also suggested that Fed Chair Janet Yellen should increase the number of news conferences she holds to up to six a year from the current four. Yellen is scheduled to hold one of her quarterly news conferences on Wednesday.
The Fed has kept short-term interest rates near zero to bolster the economy. It has also bought U.S. Treasury and mortgage bonds to keep longer-term rates low, a program the Fed has been unwinding since the start of the year.
The IMF projects that the United States won't reach a level of employment that would meaningfully lift wages until 2017 and that inflation pressures will stay muted until then. It thinks the Fed might consider keeping rates near historic lows longer than some market analysts expect.
Raising rates too fast could "constrict the recovery momentum that we have observed," Lagarde said. She added that that would have spillover effects around the world and hurt growth in emerging economies.
Lagarde declined to take a stance on the dispute over payments for natural gas that Ukraine owes Russia. The two countries, embroiled in a broader territorial struggle, missed a Monday deadline to reach an agreement on payments. As a result, the Russian company Gazprom has cut off gas supplies to Ukraine.
"We don't intervene in commercial transactions," Lagarde said. "We certainly hope for the stability of that part of the world and for the stability of the supply of gas that the situation can be addressed promptly and satisfactorily."
I have a 2011 Mustang GT 5.0-liter with 36,000 miles. It has the Brembo brake package and Goodyear F1 tires on it. I'm ready to replace the worn rear tires again with the new OE Goodyears. Last time I replaced the rear tires, I placed the new tires on the front and moved the older front tires to the rear. Now people are telling me that I should place the new tires on the rear drive-axle to reduce the chance of oversteer that might be induced by having too much fun in a curve. With an everyday car I believe that understeer would be the greatest concern, but with 412 horsepower and almost 400 pound-feet of torque, maybe the new tires should be on the back. Which end of the car should the two new tires be placed on my Mustang and is a nitrogen fill worthwhile?
On the back. Like you, my first thought was that new tires should be mounted on the front and the older, worn front tires moved to the rear. Because the front tires do a far higher percentage of braking and, of course, steer the vehicle, my instincts said put the best tires on the front.
However, since loss of traction from the front tires — the "understeer" you mention — is easier to correct than "oversteer" — loss of traction from the rear tires — the recommendation for replacing just two tires is to mount the new ones on the rear.
In short, correcting understeer involves "breathing" back the throttle or modulating brake pressure to help the front tires regain traction. Oversteer, on the other hand, requires an instantaneous steering correction in the direction the back end is trying to go in order to keep the front tires pointed where the vehicle is headed, while at the same time neutralizing the throttle — not accelerating and not decelerating — to stop any wheelspin. If and when the rear end regains traction and wants to snap back — so-called "overcorrecting," a complete misnomer — the steering must be straightened in time with the rear end snapping back to keep the front wheels pointed where the vehicle is traveling.
In the racing schools I teach, we label the correction for oversteer as a three-step process: correct/pause/recover, CPR for short, an easy acronym to remember.
Nitrogen contains no moisture and is less prone to pressure changes with temperature changes, so filling tires with nitrogen makes some sense, but only if you continue to use nitrogen to top up tire pressures.
I own a 2001 Dodge Dakota and would like to clean the engine. Is it OK to take it to a self-service car wash and power-wash it?
It must be. Ever seen a used car on a dealer lot with a dirty engine? It's OK to clean the engine and engine compartment as long as you cover any sensitive wiring and electronics and don't aim the high-pressure spray directly at these components. Remember, engines and drivetrains get wet when vehicles are driven in the rain. The wiring harnesses and connectors used on modern automobiles are designed to be relatively weatherproof.
Motoring Note: Regarding white smoke from the 2003 Honda, reader Paul Harvey offered a good suggestion. "I had a similar problem involving my 2002 Toyota Sienna. One mechanic told me it was caused by a sludge problem and would require an engine replacement. I had thought it was a head gasket problem and took the van to another mechanic, who diagnosed a bad PCV valve. After he replaced it, the problem was solved."
A stuck or clogged PCV valve typically forces oil into the combustion chamber, where it is burned, creating a bluish smoke. So checking the PCV system for proper function is a simple step to possibly explain the sudden appearance of smoke from the tailpipe. Thanks for the suggestion, Paul.
Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race -car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number.
New Hub flagship for Liberty Travel
Liberty Travel's new Boston flagship location will open this week.
Called the Boston Travel Center, the three-floor, 10,000-plus square-foot space on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing is anchored by Liberty Travel and includes its sister brands specializing in business/corporate travel, Corporate Traveler and FCM.
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Florence Savings Bank, a mutually owned savings bank serving the Pioneer Valley through 9 branch locations, announced that Susan M. Seaver has joined the bank as vice president/mortgage originator.
WASHINGTON — If you're like most homeowners, it's your biggest asset. You can't track it online or check monthly statements sent to you by a bank, but it's crucially important for your personal financial well-being and your retirement planning.
It's your home equity — the difference between the market value of your house and whatever debt you've got on it. Equity for most of us is a big deal and, based on data released last week by the Federal Reserve, Americans' home-equity holdings are booming.
That's great news for most owners — though not all — and for the economy as a whole. The more equity we have, the more likely we are to spend money on goods and services that create more jobs — the so-called "wealth effect."
Now consider these brain-bending big numbers: Thanks to rising prices and substantial continuing pay-downs of mortgage debt, owners' combined equity holdings increased by $795 billion during the three months between the end of last December and March 31 of this year. Homeowners' equity holdings at the end of the first quarter totaled $10.8 trillion, the highest amount since late 2007 — but still well below the bubble-era record of $13.4 trillion reached in early 2006.
The ongoing boom is also pulling thousands of owners across the country out of real estate purgatory — they've been stuck in negative equity positions, but are now transitioning to positive. According to new estimates from mortgage and housing analytics firm CoreLogic, the owners of 312,000 houses moved out of negative territory during the first three months of 2014.
Now for the sobering side of the home-equity story: Despite the boom in housing wealth underway, many owners are still not able to join the party. About 6.3 million of them remain underwater on their loans. The average amount of negative equity they're carrying is often significant — they owe an average 33 percent more than their house could command in a sale today. That gives you an idea of the widespread pain still being felt in the wake of the bust and recession.
The impact is especially severe for owners who bought with little or nothing down and then loaded on additional debt with second mortgages. The average negative equity balance for owners with two mortgages is about $75,000, according to CoreLogic. For households with one mortgage, the average negative equity is around $52,000.
Also on the sobering side, millions of owners continue to have less equity than they'll need if they want to sell or even refinance. At the end of March, 10 million owners had less than 20 percent equity in their properties and 1.6 million of them had less than 5 percent. Given real estate transaction costs, most people with less than 5 percent equity would have to bring money to the table to pay off the debt on their house when they sell.
Equity holdings are closely linked to market segments — higher-cost houses are less likely to be in negative equity positions than lower-cost homes — and geography. According to CoreLogic, only about 3 percent of homes costing more than $500,000 have negative equity. By contrast, 17 percent of homes costing less than $200,000 are in negative positions.
Not surprisingly, areas of the country that performed worst during the bust — where easy-money financing was most common during the boom — continue to have high rates of negative equity, even well into the housing rebound. But there's one dazzling exception: California. In some inland counties during the recession, toxic financing contributed to home value losses of 50 percent and higher. Yet today, thanks to the most vigorous marketplace rebound of any state, just above 11 percent of California homes are in negative equity. Compare that with 29 percent in Nevada, 27 percent in Florida, 20 percent in Arizona.
Where are average equity levels highest? Texas, where home prices remained modest and affordable during the boom, is at the top. Just 3.3 percent of Texas homes have debt exceeding their resale values. Rounding out the top five, Montana, Alaska, North Dakota and Hawaii all have less than 5 percent negative equity on average. The District of Columbia, a high-cost market that has seen significant home-price appreciation in the past several years, ranks sixth best in the country with a 5.1 percent negative equity rate.
New direct air service between Boston and China starts Friday, the latest in a string of nonstop international flights landed by Logan International Airport and perhaps the biggest coup to date.
"Of all the international flights, this is probably the biggest milestone," Massport CEO Thomas Glynn said. "In the global economy, China is the biggest player. Many nonprofit and for-profit businesses in Boston have activity in China."
Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines will start Boston-Beijing service four times per week — on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It will switch to daily flights from July 21 through August — peak China travel season amid strong demand, according to Joel Chusid, Hainan's U.S. executive director.
Hainan already has sold well more than half of the seats for its July and August flights on the 213-passenger Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
"Our bookings are coming in steady," Chusid said, noting Hainan started reservations "pretty early" and has an interline agreement for connections with JetBlue Airways. "It's met our expectations.."
Hainan has set up a Boston office with a general manager and sales, finance and customer support staff.
At Hainan's request, Massport is planning a June 23 meeting for airline officials with local business leaders on Massport's Asia task force that worked toward landing the China service and the nonstop Toyko flights that started in 2012. It will be followed by a luncheon with Gov. Deval Patrick.
"Lasting growth in the 21st-century global economy will come from our competitiveness in global markets," Patrick said in a statement. "Hainan's new flight will better serve our international passengers and build upon our growth strategy to open up Massachusetts to new markets to ensure that we remain competitive for many years to come."
Massport has rebated $540,000 in landing fees and will provide $350,000 in marketing support over two years to Hainan as incentives for starting the Boston service.
"This gives them a little cushion if it takes a while for them to build up their load factor," Glynn said.
Hainan's 36 business-class seats have 74-inch pitches — the space between a point on one seat and the same point on the seat in front of it. The lie-flat seats turn into beds with turn-down service, mattress pad, duvet, sheets, pillows, pajamas and slippers provided.
Menus rotate monthly and include Western and Chinese choices. Recent Chinese dinner selections for the a la carte business-class service from Beijing to Seattle included fried pork stuffed with water chestnut in sweet and sour lychee sauce, pan-fried shrimp mousse with tofu, and sauteed bitter gourd with pickle.
"It's not Panda Express," Chusid said.
WASHINGTON — It's crunch time at the Supreme Court, where the justices are racing to issue opinions in 17 cases over the next two weeks.
The religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues that are so far unresolved.
Summer travel, European teaching gigs and relaxation beckon, but only after the court hands down decisions in all the cases it has heard since October.
In rare instances, the justices will put off decisions and order a case to be argued again in the next term.
This is also the time of the year when a justice could announce a retirement. But the oldest of the justices, 81-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has signaled she will serve at least one more year, and maybe longer.
The justices will meet Monday and again on Thursday to issue opinions, and could wind up their work by the end of the month.
A look at some of the cases that remain:
— Contraceptive coverage: Corporations are claiming the right to exercise religious objections to covering women's contraceptives under their employee health insurance plans, despite the new health law's requirement that birth control be among a range of no-cost preventive services included in health plans.
— Abortion clinic buffer zones: Abortion opponents are challenging as a violation of their speech rights a Massachusetts law mandating a 35-foot protest-free zone on public sidewalks outside abortion clinics.
— Cellphone searches: Two cases weigh the power of police to search the cellphones of people they place under arrest without first obtaining a warrant from a judge.
— Recess presidential appointments: A federal appeals court said President Barack Obama misused the Constitution's recess power when he temporarily filled positions on the National Labor Relations Board in 2012.
— TV on the Internet: Broadcasters are fighting Internet startup Aereo's practice of taking television their programming for free and providing it to subscribers who can then watch on smartphones and other portable devices.
— Greenhouse gases: Industry groups assert that environmental regulators overstepped their bounds by trying to apply a provision of the Clean Air Act to control emissions of greenhouse gases from power plants and factories. This case is unlikely to affect the recent proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency to slash carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by nearly one-third by 2030; that plan involves a different part of the same law.
— Union fees: Home health care workers in Illinois want the court to rule that public sector unions cannot collect fees from workers who object to being affiliated with a union.
—Securities fraud: Investors could find it harder to bring class-action lawsuits over securities fraud at publicly traded companies in a case involving Halliburton Co., a provider of energy services.
— "False" campaign claims: An anti-abortion group says state laws that try to police false statements during political campaigns runs afoul of the First Amendment.
