LG ties up with Philips, Sharp for smart TV apps

South Korea's LG Electronics said Thursday it has tied up with Dutch giant Philips and Japan's Sharp to ramp up production of applications for Internet-powered televisions.

The three TV vendors will jointly create software development kits, which will be distributed to third-party developers to write TV applications, LG said in a statement.

It is the first such collaboration in the smart TV sector, LG said, adding the three would complete software development kits by the end of this year.

They will use different operating systems for their smart TVs, but the applications will become interchangeable once they adopt a common technology standard for building applications, LG said.

It said the tie-up would have a substantial impact on TV makers, app developers and users.

LG has seen flagging sales of mobile phones and televisions this year because it failed quickly to roll out smartphones to rival Apple's market-leading iPhone and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S.

Kim's Russia trip focusing on energy issue

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's armored train rolled through the resource-rich far east of Russia Monday, taking in major Russian power projects en route to a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev expected to focus on energy cooperation and nuclear disarmament.

Kim arrived in Russia Saturday at the invitation of Medvedev. The two leaders are to meet later this week to discuss the possible relay of Russian natural gas and other energy to North and South Korea and long-stalled negotiations on ending the North's nuclear ambitions in return for aid.

Flags of the two countries fluttered at railway stations where Kim stopped, North Korean state media said, with military bands playing welcoming music and Russian women in national dress offering Kim traditional gifts of bread and salt.

On Sunday, Kim's toured a hydroelectric power plant in Amur province and its 139-meter (456-foot) dam on the Bureya River.

He was briefed on the plant's history and electricity production capacity and praised the enormous building, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported from Pyongyang.

"Inexhaustible is the strength of the Russian people," Kim wrote in the visitor's book, KCNA said.

Russia has proposed transmitting surplus electricity produced by the Amur plant to both North and South Korea, South Korean media have reported.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, while on a visit to Mongolia, said Monday that "if (Kim) frequently visits and looks at an open society, that will eventually positively affect North Korea's economic development," spokesman Park Jeong-ha said, according to Yonhap news agency.

A Russian regional news agency, PortAmur, posted some of the only photographs of Kim's visit, showing the 69-year-old leader wearing his trademark Mao-style khaki jumpsuit. In all but one of the photographs he is seen wearing dark sunglasses. He traded them for regular eyeglasses when presented with a framed picture as a gift.

Kim left Amur for his next destination Sunday, but North Korea didn't say exactly where his train was heading. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, however, citing an unidentified Russian intelligence source, reported Monday that Kim's train could be heading toward the city of Skovorodino. It may stop there, before reaching Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal, for a summit with Medvedev.

Yonhap said Skovorodino is the starting point for a newly built 620-mile (1,000-kilometer) oil pipeline linking eastern Siberia and China. It said Kim's expected stop at Skovorodino could be related to Russia's proposal to provide energy to the Korean peninsula.

South Korean media are speculating the Kim-Medvedev summit could take place Tuesday or Wednesday. A key topic could be the construction of a pipeline that would stream Russian natural gas to both Koreas.

Russian and South Korean officials want North Korea to allow them to construct such a pipeline through the North's territory so that Russia could sell more natural gas to the South at a cheaper price. South Korea media said the North could earn up to $100 million every year, but negotiations haven't reported much progress because of the nuclear dispute.

Officials from Russia's state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom visited North Korea in early July for talks on the gas pipeline. North Korean officials at the time reacted positively to the project, a change from a previous reluctant position, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry.

The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, however, raised worries Monday that the North could abruptly shut down gas supply depending on relations with the South.

"As long as there is the possibility that the gas supply would be interrupted by the North for political or military reasons, it is difficult for Seoul to put a final stamp on the deal," the paper said in an editorial.

Kim's visit to Russia comes amid signs that North Korea is increasing efforts to secure aid and restart six-nation nuclear talks, after more than a year of tension during which it shelled a South Korean border island and allegedly torpedoed a South Korean warship. A total of 50 South Koreans died in the attacks.

North Korean diplomats separately met U.S. and South Korean officials last month to discuss the resumption of the nuclear talks that have been stalled more than two years.

Russia announced Friday that it was providing food assistance, including some 50,000 tons of wheat, to the North, which might face another food crisis this year due to heavy rains.

Kim traveled to China in May in a trip seen by many as an attempt to secure aid, investment and support for a transfer of power to his youngest son Kim Jong Un. It was Kim's third visit to his country's closest ally in just over a year.

Kim last visited Russia in 2002, a four-day trip limited to the Far East. A year earlier, however, he made a 24-day train trek across the country to Moscow and back.

Biggest jump in Midwest farmland prices in 34 years

Prices for farmland in the heart of the U.S. grain belt were up 17 percent in the second quarter compared to a year ago, the biggest jump since 1977, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said on Wednesday.

The rising values were driven by strong crop, livestock and milk prices which spurred farmers and investors to buy land, the bank said. Low interest rates have also boosted demand.

"The combination of higher revenues for crop and livestock production has been an impetus for the significant increases in agricultural land values seen this year in the district," the Fed said in its quarterly newsletter, adding "demand for farmland remained strong from both farmers and investors."

Farmland values are closely monitored by economists at the Fed and commercial banks, both for U.S. banking asset values and as a benchmark for agricultural balance sheets.

Farmland strength in the last year has caused concerns about another farmland "bubble" like the one seen in the 1980s U.S. farm crisis, when overextended farmers lost their land. But bankers say most farmers are much less debt-laden than they were at that time thanks to boom crop prices in recent years.

The Kansas City Fed released its own banker survey Monday, showing similar results with farmland values up more than 20 percent from a year ago. But the KC Fed farm income was also down in the southern Plains as a devastating drought had hurt crop yields and thus farmers' incomes.

The Chicago Fed surveyed 226 bankers in its district which stretches across the heart of the U.S. Corn Belt -- Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Indiana and Iowa led the Midwest district with farmland up 20 percent or more. Illinois was close behind, up 19 percent.

Compared to the first quarter of 2011, values for prime farm land rose 4 percent in the second quarter. Most bankers surveyed forecast farmland values to stabilize in the third quarter, "yet about one-third still expected farmland values to move higher," the Chicago Fed said.

HIGHER CROP, LIVESTOCK PRICES SUPPORT

Corn, soybean, livestock and milk prices are well above year ago levels. In July, corn prices were 85 percent higher and soybeans up 37 percent, the Fed said. Additionally, USDA is projecting corn harvest in the district to be 7 percent larger than 2010 while soybean output is seen down 8 percent.

"Prices for hogs, cattle, and milk were 23 percent, 20 percent, and 39 percent higher this July than last July, respectively," it said. "The livestock sector has experienced higher revenues, but higher feed costs have limited the rise in income for the sector."

Higher farm incomes aided agricultural credit conditions.

Quarterly repayment rates for non-real-estate farm loans improved and the index of non-real-estate agricultural loan demand fell to its lowest level since 1987.

Farm interest rates dropped below the previous record lows reported in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The average interest rate on July 1 for new operating loans was 5.75 percent, over 300 basis points below the most recent peak of five years ago, the Fed said.

Agricultural mortgage rates averaged 5.62 percent, about 220 basis points lower than five years earlier.

"These record low mortgage rates contributed to the surge this year in district farmland values," the survey said.

Bankers expect non-real-estate agricultural loan demand to fall in the coming quarter while machinery and grain storage construction loans were seen rising, compared to the third quarter of 2010.

Action on genetic salmon urged

A Purdue University scientist says U.S. officials must come to a decision on whether genetically engineered salmon should be allowed for U.S. consumption.

William Muir, a professor of animal sciences, argues that not settling the question, which has been tied up in U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory proceedings since 1995, may set back scientific efforts to increase food production.

Salmon genetically engineered by the Canadian company AquaBounty Technologies pose little real risk to the environment or human health, Muir said Friday in a Purdue release.

"We realize that any new technology can have risks and those risks need to be assessed in a thorough and convincing manner," Muir said. "However, once the assessment has been completed and the agency concludes from the weight of evidence that risks of harm, either to the environment or to consumers, (are) negligible, the next step, which is to allow production and sale of the product, needs to be taken."

Muir said inaction on the question of genetically modified foods creates a disincentive for those working to increase food supplies for a growing world population.

"This tells us that no entrepreneur is going to invest in these new projects because they can't get them approved," Muir said.

EU wind energy use to triple by 2020

The use of wind energy among EU members is expected to triple by the end of the decade, the European Wind Energy Association predicts.

The association said that Ireland, Denmark and Portugal will lead the European community in wind energy by 2020 with wind energy making up 52, 38 and 28 percent their energy production, respectively.

The EWEA said electricity production from wind will increase from about 5.5 percent of total European demand in 2010 to more than 15 percent of total demand by 2020.

EWEA Policy Director Justin Wilkes said in a statement that wind energy output should triple by 2020, largely driven by European efforts to reduce emissions and use more clean energy by the end of the decade.

"Wind power will not only make a very substantial contribution to meeting Europe's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," he said in a statement. "It strongly accelerates a shift away from expensive fossil fuels, creates jobs, makes Europe more competitive and provides secure and renewable power production in Europe."

The wind association adds that wind energy production by 2020 could be equivalent to all of the energy used by households in France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom combined.

Libya's oil loss Iraq's gain?

The lack of significant oil production from war-torn Libya might lead to good fortune for post-war Iraq, an analyst said.

The International Energy Agency in June called on its member states to release strategic petroleum reserves to add more liquidity to a market hampered by declines in Libyan oil production.

Erin Miller Rankin, a construction lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Dubai, told Emirati newspaper The National that Libya's loss might be Iraq's gain.

"There will be people who were tied up on projects in Libya who will be looking for another place to invest," she was quoted as saying. "Iraq is going to boom."

The Iraqi finance minister in May confirmed the first oil export payment to contractors in the Kurdish region. Kurdish Prime Minister Barham Salih said the federal government in Baghdad confirmed payment to the Kurdistan Regional Government for revenues derived from the export of 5 million barrels of oil early this year.

Baghdad awarded dozens of oil and gas contracts since 2003. The country is trying to ramp up oil exports to help stimulate an economy ravaged by pre-war economic sanctions.

Miller Rankin said that despite its vast oil wealth, Iraq lacks basic infrastructure.

"Forget new projects, they don't have roads to get the oil out," she said. "They need everything."

Ben Foster to play John Gotti Jr.

Actor Ben Foster has signed on to play John Gotti Jr. in Barry Levinson's mob saga "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father," The Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday.

Foster has appeared in the films "The Messenger," "Alpha Dog," "The Mechanic," "3:10 to Yuma" and "X-Men: The Last Stand."

John Travolta has been cast as Gambino crime family boss John Gotti Sr. in the "Gotti" project, while Travolta's wife, Kelly Preston, will play Gotti's on-screen spouse, Victoria. Al Pacino will play Gambino underboss, Neil Dellacroce, and Lindsay Lohan will play John Gotti Jr.'s wife, Kim.

The film is to go into production in New York in January, The Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday.

De Niro, Keaton to star in 'Wedding' film

Production has begun in Connecticut on "The Big Wedding," an ensemble comedy starring Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton, Lionsgate said.

The movie is a Nu Image/Millennium Films production that Lionsgate will distribute in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Details of the project were announced Wednesday by Joe Drake, president of Lionsgate's motion picture group; Jason Constantine, Lionsgate's president of acquisitions anad co-productions; and Avi Lerner, founder and co-chairman of Nu Image, which is handling international sales of the film.

Written and directed by Justin Zackham, the film will co-star Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried, Robin Williams, Ben Barnes and Topher Grace.

The movie is about a long divorced couple, played by De Niro and Keaton, forced to pretend at their son's wedding that they are still happily married, Lionsgate said in a synopsis.

"'The Big Wedding' is a charming, rollicking movie that promises to be an instant inter-generational family comedy classic," Drake said in a statement.

"We are thrilled to be in business once again with Avi and Nu Image," added Constantine. "After our success together with action genre films like 'The Expendables' and the upcoming 'Conan the Barbarian,' this film presented a wonderful opportunity to expand our collaborative horizons into the realm of broad comedy."