NEW YORK: US crude oil prices closed sharply lower Wednesday, dragged down by news that a key pipeline had cut capacity due to a bottleneck.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate, for delivery in March, tumbled US$1.45 from Tuesday's close to settle at US$95.23 a barrel.
In London trade, meanwhile, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March settled at US$112.80 a barrel, an increase of 38 cents.
The New York market, which had been trading slightly lower for most of the session, dived after the operator of the Seaway pipeline told shippers that capacity had been reduced because of an unexpected problem at a delivery point.
"When that headline came out, the WTI immediately came under a significant amount of pressure," said Andy Lipow, an independent oil analyst.
The Seaway carries crude stocked in Cushing, Oklahoma, the main oil terminal in the world's biggest crude consumer, to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
Lacking sufficient pipeline capacity to bring oil to refineries, Cushing stockpiles have swollen recently to new record highs, weighing on futures prices.
Traders were keenly awaiting the US Department of Energy's latest weekly report on petroleum stockpiles. The data will be published Thursday, one day later than normal, due to a public holiday on Monday.
"Traders now expect upcoming US government oil inventory data to show crude-oil stocks dropped 2.3 million barrels last week," ETX Capital markets analyst Ishaq Siddiqi said.
Siddiqi said there had been a "bit of profit taking in crude following four sessions of gains, with many (traders) expecting refiners to start seasonal maintenance that will reduce crude oil demand."
PORTLAND, Maine A teeth-chattering cold wave with sub-zero temperatures was expected to keep its icy grip on much of the eastern U.S. into the weekend before seasonable temperatures bring relief.
A polar air mass that's been blamed for multiple deaths in the Midwest moved into the Northeast on Wednesday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue wind chill warnings across upstate New York and northern New England.
In northern Maine, the temperature dipped to as low as 36 below zero Wednesday morning. The weather service was calling for wind chills as low as minus-45.
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Frigid weather could precede Northeast snowstorm
Keith Pelletier, the owner of Dolly's Restaurant in Frenchville, said his customers are dressed in multiple layers of clothing, and they keep their cars running in the parking lot while eating lunch. It's so cold that even the snowmobilers are staying home, he said.
"You take the wind chill at 39 below and take a snowmobile going 50 mph, and you're about double that," he said. "That's pretty cold."
The Canadian air mass also has forced schools to close, delayed commuter trains and subways and kept plumbers busy with frozen pipes. A ski resort in New Hampshire shut down on Wednesday and Thursday because of unsafe ski conditions — a predicted wind chill of 48 degrees below zero.
The coldest temperatures were expected Wednesday and Thursday, after which conditions should slowly moderate before returning to normal levels, said John Koch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service regional headquarters in Bohemia, N.Y. For the most part, temperatures have been around 10 to 15 degrees below normal, with windy conditions making it feel colder, he said.
For Anthony Cavallo, the cold was just another in a litany of big and small aggravations that began when Superstorm Sandy swept through his Union Beach, N.J., neighborhood and flooded his one-story house with 4 1/2 feet of water.
Still waiting for the go-ahead to rebuild, Cavallo and his family have been living in a trailer they purchased once it became clear they couldn't afford to rent.
Wednesday's frigid temperatures temporarily froze the trailer's pipes, which Cavallo's 14-year-old daughter discovered when she tried to take a shower at 4:30 a.m. Cavallo spent the morning thawing out the pipes and stuffing hay under the trailer to help insulate them.
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Deadly freeze grips Midwest
"Every day it's something, whether it's frozen pipes or getting jerked around for two months by insurance companies," the 48-year-old security system installer said. "I just kind of want to wake up one day and have no surprises."
In New York City, food vendor Bashir Babury contended with bone-numbing cold when he set up his cart selling coffee, bagels and pastries at 3 a.m. Wednesday. On the coldest of days, he wears layers of clothing and cranks up a small propane heater inside his cart.
"I put on two, three socks, I have good boots and two, three jackets," he said. "A hat, gloves, but when I'm working I can't wear gloves."
In New Jersey, some residents at a Jersey City apartment have complained about the lack of heat and hot water. One person told 1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg: "My apartment is terrible for this very cold. I have three heaters. It's terrible."
Another tenant commented: "If it's not one thing, it's the other. They cut out the gas then there's no hot water, if there's hot water, but then there's no heater. It's horrible."
In Pottsville, Pa., letter carrier Cheryl Vandermeer was stoic as she walked her route Wednesday with temperatures in the teens and wind chill in the single digits. She thankful she had a job that kept her moving, even if it was outside.
"I'm not just standing around," she said. "So for me it's cold, but it's not intolerable."
A little cold air couldn't keep Jo Goodwin, 64, of Bridgewater, N.H., off the slopes at Sugarloaf ski resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, where she was skiing Wednesday with her husband and her sister. The snow conditions were great and there were no lift lines.
To keep warm, she uses a toe warmer, a hand warmer, a face mask, extra underwear and an extra wool sweater. She was told the wind chill was minus 30 midway up the mountain and 50 below zero near the top.
Manti Te'o says that even though he was hoaxed by the supposed existence of a fake girlfriend, his inspirational story of playing through emotional pain "was all real and that's something that I can't fake."
Te'o made his comments to Katie Couric which will air the exclusive interview on Thursday.
Te'o, 21, has been alternately questioned and lampooned over his role in the hoax that led him and the public to believe that his girlfriend Lennay Kekua died of leukemia as Te'o led the Notre Dame football team to an undefeated season that culminated in the national championship game.
Te'o was also a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, which goes to the best college football player in the country. Couric asked the star linebacker whether the emotional "story line" of a girlfriend who died on the same day as his grandmother "helped propel you to second place in Heisman voting?"
"I don't know. I really don't know," Te'o replied.
See more exclusive previews tonight on "World News With Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."
He was more certain, however, when Couric pressed him by pointing out that it had become "sort of a legend that you had endured this hardship and gone on to play your team and your school to victory... Did you feel like, wow, I'm getting a lot of attention for this?"
Te'o denied reveling in the attention.
Watch Katie Couric's interview with Manti Te'o and his parents Thursday. Check your local listings or click here for online station finder.
Lorenzo Bevilaqua/Disney-ABC
Manti Te'o Girlfriend Hoax: Could Alleged Scammer Be Charged? Watch Video
"I think for me the only thing I basked in was that I had an impact on people, that people turned to me and for inspiration and I think that was the only thing I focused on. You know my story I felt was a guy who in times of hardship and in times of trial really held strong to his faith, held strong to his family and I felt that that was my story," said Te'o, who is a Mormon.
Te'o said there was no acting in his emotions at the time when he thought the girl he called "Lala" had died of leukemia.
"What I went through was real. You know the feelings, the pain, the sorrow, that was all real and that's something that I can't fake," he said.
During the interview, Te'o said that he received a phone call on Dec. 6, apparently from the same woman he believed was dead, who told him she was alive. She said that her name was not Lennay Kekua, it was Leah. Teo has also said that woman sent him a different picture of herself.
Nevertheless, he again publicly mentioned his girlfriend, and her death, two days later on the day the Heisman trophy was to be awarded.
"You stuck to the script. And you knew that something was amiss, Manti," Couric said.
"Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12," Te'o said.
"Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she's alive and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?" Te'o said.
Te'o was joined by his parents, Brian and Ottilia, in the interview.
"Now many people writing about this are calling your son a liar. They are saying he manipulated the truth, really for personal gain," Couric said to Te'o's father.
"People can speculate about what they think he is. I've known him 21 years of his life. And he's not a liar. He's a kid," Brian Te'o said with tears in his eyes.
Click here for a who's who in the Manti Te'o case.
Diane O'Meara told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday that she was used as the "face" of the Twitter account of Manti Te'o's online girlfriend without her knowledge or consent.
O'Meara said that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo used pictures of her without her knowledge in creating Kekua.
"I've never met Manti Te'o in my entire life. I've never spoke with him. I've never exchanged words with him," O'Meara said Tuesday.
Since the late 20th Century, the ski resort of Davos has been synonymous with the World Economic Forum
Defterios: I first came to Davos as a relatively junior correspondent, two months after the Berlin Wall fell
Fall of Communism, China's opening, removal of apartheid in South Africa unfolded in the 90s
It's the inter-play between geo-politics and business is what keeps the forum relevant
Davos (CNN) -- Veterans of Davos often refer to nature's awe-inspiring work as the Magic Mountain.
The name comes from an early 20th century novel by Thomas Mann -- reflecting on life in an alpine health retreat, and the mystery of time in this breath-taking setting.
Read more from John Defterios: Why Egypt's transition is so painful
Since the late 20th century, this ski resort has been synonymous with the World Economic Forum, which represents networking on its grandest scale.
This year nearly 40 world leaders -- a record for this annual meeting -- 2000 plus executives and it seems an equal number of people in the media, like yours truly, are in pursuit of them all. The setting is certainly more chaotic then a decade ago. The agendas of the Fortune 500 chief executives are to filled with bi-lateral meetings and back door briefings to allow for the spontaneity that made this venue unique.
Davos gets ready for leaders' gathering
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I first came to Davos as a relatively junior correspondent in 1990, two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was arguably then, after nearly two decades in the conference business, when the forum became a fixture on the global calendar.
Quest: U.S. economy to dominate Davos 2013
I can remember, quite vividly, working out of a bunker (like we do today) in the Davos Congress Centre. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl sat side-by-side with his East German counterpart Hans Modrow. That meeting before the global community helped set the stage for monetary union, a huge unification fund for what became Eastern Germany and shortly thereafter German elections.
The early 90s at Davos were dominated by European reconstruction after the fall of communism. Former party bosses came to the forum to convince business leaders that a transition to market economics could be delivered. Boris Yeltsin made his Davos appearance during that chaotic transition from the USSR to today's Russia.
Davos 2013: New year, same old problems?
In 1992, Chinese Premier Li Peng used the setting here in the Alps to articulate plans for the country's economic opening up to the world. Not by chance, the architect of Washington's engagement with Beijing, the former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger also took a high profile that year.
Again only two years later in 1994, Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres walked hand in hand on stage, holding a public dialogue leading up to the creation and recognition of the Palestinian Authority.
The World Economic Forum, as the saying goes, was positioned to be in the right place at the right time. While the author of the Magic Mountain talked about the complexity of time around World War I, in the 1990s time was compressed here.
The fall of communism, the lowering of global trade barriers, the opening up of China, the removal of apartheid in South Africa and the proliferation of the internet all unfolded in that decade.
Interactive: How's your economic mood?
As those events came together, so too did the major players as they made the journey to Davos. Michael Bloomberg, evolving as a global name in financial data and now the Mayor of New York City, sat alongside Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. U.S. President Bill Clinton outlined his party's historic move to the political center before a packed audience of global business executives.
To spice things up, rock stars and actors, as they became activists, chose the Davos platform: Bono, Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, Brad and Angelina would have the wealthiest and most powerful corporate titans freeze in their tracks.
Earlier this week, I walked into the main plenary hall as workers put the final touches on the stage and lighting. It is a venue which has welcomed countless political leaders and business executives, during internet booms and banking busts, in the midst of a Middle East crisis and even during the lead up to two Gulf Wars.
But that inter-play between geo-politics and business -- during the best and worst of times -- is what keeps the forum relevant. It allows this setting at the base of the Magic Mountain to endure and recreate something unique during what Mann rightly described as the ongoing complexity of our times.
WASHINGTON: The White House said Tuesday that President Barack Obama would not block a Republican plan to extend government borrowing authority by three months but would prefer a longer term debt ceiling hike.
Defusing a showdown with Obama, Republican House leaders are ready to permit the government to borrow more money to meet its obligations until May 18, despite earlier demands that debt ceiling hikes be matched by spending cuts.
The move would effectively remove the debt ceiling question from a looming conflagration with Republicans on Capitol Hill over spending cuts due to come into force at the end of next month and a soon-to-expire government budget.
White House spokesman Jay Carney noted that the debt ceiling workaround still had to make it past opposition from some conservative Republican members of Congress.
"If it does and it reaches the president's desk he would not stand in the way of the bill becoming law," he said, but added that Obama did not believe it was good for the economy in general to raise the debt ceiling in "increments."
"He believes we ought to do this for longer periods of time," Carney said, adding that Congress should give Obama authority to raise the debt limit on his own if it was not up for the job.
"Having said that, what we saw happen last week was significant, in our view. The House Republicans made a decision to back away from the kind of brinkmanship that was very concerning to the markets, very concerning to business, very concerning to the American people."
The government hit its statutory US$16 trillion debt limit last year but the administration used extraordinary measures to postpone the devastating economic shock waves that would result from defaulting on its obligations until late February or early March.
The House bill would withhold salaries of members of Congress if the chamber or the Senate does not pass a fiscal 2014 budget by April 15.
The Democratic-held Senate has not voted on a budget since 2009, and the government is being funded through temporary resolutions every six months.
Democratic leaders have said they would introduce a budget plan in the coming months, and pledged to consider the debt limit bill pass the House.
Obama has repeatedly warned that he will not negotiate with Republicans over the debt limit, pointing out that it concerns money available not for fresh spending, but for debt obligations already entered into by Congress.
Some conservative Republicans expressed concern Tuesday about their leadership's plan, though the bill would still be expected to pass the House of Representatives.
Republican Representative Tim Huelskamp said he would vote no, arguing that "raising the debt ceiling for a budget to be named later" is probably something he will not be able to vote for.
Representative Thomas Massie also expressed disquiet.
"I'm still having a lot of reservations about raising the debt limit for three months clean. It's a hard thing to do," he said.
Representative David Schweikert of Arizona was also opposed, saying the vote should be a chance for Republicans to demand a budget bill that balances the budget in 10 years.
(CBS News) Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of former President Lyndon B. Johnson's death. The day also made television history when Walter Cronkite announced the news while talking to the former president's press secretary on the phone live on air.
On January 22, 1973, Cronkite held the phone receiver to his ear on the CBS "Evening News" and said he is talking to Tom Johnston, LBJ's top spokesman.
"Can you hold the line just a second?" Cronkite says into the receiver, before explaining that the former president died in an ambulance plane on his way to San Antonio, Texas.
CBS News anchor Scott Pelley will remember Johnson and replay the historical clip on the "Evening News" Tuesday night.
Obama Remembers Walter Cronkite Walter Cronkite: The "maestro" of news Remembering Walter Cronkite Watch: Inside LBJ's private calls Writer: LBJ changed "in a moment" after JFK death
A fight at a Houston college campus today resulted in a shooting that left three people injured and two others in custody, officials said.
Shots were fired on campus of the Lone Star College shortly shortly after 12:30 p.m. CT, causing the campus to go into lock down and some students to be evacuated, according to police.
Three people were injured in the gunfire, which police say stemmed from a fight that broke out between two men on campus.
Two suspects are now in police custody, according to officials. They have not yet released any details on the suspects' identities.
Oakland, Calif., Shooting at Christian School Watch Video
Two individuals with multiple gunshot wounds are in serious condition at Ben Taub Hospital, according to ABC News affiliate KTRK. The condition and whereabouts of the third injured person was not immediately known.
The campus reopened about an hour and a half after the gunshots.
When the shots were fired, the school told all students to seek "shelter in place" in messages and on their website. Officials evacuated some of the students from campus buildings.
The shooting comes only a month after the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 students and six staff members were shot, sparking a wave of attempted copycat crimes in states like California and Indiana.
The Connecticut shooting inspired calls from government officials including President Obama for stricter gun control laws.
LZ Granderson: Specifics of Obama's first term may not be remembered
He says his ability to win presidency twice is unforgettable
Granderson: Obama, the first black president, makes opportunity real for many
He says it makes presidency a possibility for people of all backgrounds
Editor's note: LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and is a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs.
(CNN) -- In his first term, President Barack Obama signed 654 bills into law, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by about 70% and the national debt by $5.8 trillion.
And in 10 years -- maybe less -- few outside of the Beltway will remember any of that. That's not to suggest those details are not important. But even if all of his actions are forgotten, Obama's legacy as the first black president will endure.
And even though this is his second term and fewer people are expected to travel to Washington this time to witness the inauguration, know that this moment is not any less important.
LZ Granderson
Obama's address: Full text
For had Obama not been re-elected, his barrier-breaking election in 2008 could have easily been characterized as a charismatic politician capturing lightning in a bottle. But by becoming the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to win at least 51% of the vote twice, Obama proved his administration was successful.
And not by chance, but by change.
A change, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., that was not inevitable but a result of our collective and continuous struggle to be that shining city on a hill of which President Ronald Reagan spoke so often.
For much of this country's history, being a white male was a legal prerequisite to being president. Then it was accepted as a cultural norm. Because of that, we could not be the country we set out to be.
But today, somewhere in the Midwest, there is a little Asian-American girl with the crazy idea she could be president one day, and because of Obama, she knows that idea is not very crazy at all.
That's power -- the kind of power that can fade urgent numbers and debates of the day into the background of history.
Gergen: Obama 2.0 version is smarter, tougher
Few remember the number of steps Neil Armstrong took when he landed on the moon, but they remember he was the first human being who stepped on the moon. Few can tell you how many hits Jackie Robinson had in his first Major League Baseball game, but they know he broke baseball's color barrier. Paying homage to a person being first at something significant does not diminish his or her other accomplishments. It adds texture to the arc of their story.
I understand the desire not to talk about race as a way of looking progressive.
But progress isn't pretending to be color blind, it's not being blinded by the person's color.
Or gender.
Or religion.
Or sexual orientation.
Somewhere in the South, there is an openly gay high schooler who loves student government and wants to be president someday. And because of Obama, he knows if he does run, he won't have to hide.
That does not represent a shift in demographics, but a shift in thought inspired by a new reality. A reality in which the president who follows Obama could be a white woman from Arkansas by way of Illinois; a Cuban-American from Florida; or a tough white guy from Jersey. Or someone from an entirely different background. We don't know. Four years is a long time away, and no one knows how any of this will play out -- which I think is a good thing.
'Obama: We are made for this moment'
For a long time, we've conceived of America as the land of opportunity. Eight years ago, when it came to the presidency, that notion was rhetoric. Four years ago, it became a once in a lifetime moment. Today, it is simply a fact of life.
Ten years from now, we may not remember what the unemployment rate was when Obama was sworn in a second time, but we'll never forget how he forever changed the limits of possibility for generations to come.
Somewhere out West, there is an 80-year-old black woman who never thought she'd see the day when a black man would be elected president. Somehow I doubt Obama's second inauguration is less important to her.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson.
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