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ConocoPhillips, the US's third-largest oil firm, is to sell its entire 20% stake in Russian oil giant Lukoil.
The move, which Conoco said was to boost shareholder returns, came as it announced a better-than-expected net profit between April and June.
It made 4.2bn (2.7bn) in the period compared with 859m a year earlier.
Conoco shares rose by about 2.5% on the two announcements. Previously it had said it would sell half its holding in Lukoil and keep the remainder.
But chief executive Jim Mulva said it had made the decision to sell the entire stake “given the expected business environment and our stated strategy to enhance returns and increase distributions”.
The Houston-based firm will sell 40% of its Lukoil holding back to the Russian company for 3.44bn, then sell the remainder by the end of 2011.
The decision to offload the entire investment was good news, said oil analyst Brian Youngberg of Edward Jones, who added there had been questions over why Conoco had planned to keep half its stake.
“While it has been a good investment for the company, it hasn't been a great investment and this move reduces the company's risk profile,” he said.

Source:BBC

The government of Puerto Rico recently embarked on a massive austerity programme, with public sector job losses amid the worst recession this island has seen in decades. Unemployment is hovering at 20%.
Jacqueline tells us that funding cuts mean more kids are falling into drug dealing.
“It's very hard,” she says, “because we want to see kids able to become someone and have a career and opportunities. But our society thinks kids do not have a future”.
That is Hector's story.
Suddenly, the boss of the punto pushes us back against a wall. A car has just driven by and slowed down. It is time for us to clear out.
As we leave, Hector tells me that there is a saying about life in a punto: “Terminas o en la carcel or muerto. You end up in jail or you end up dead.” He shrugs his shoulders and smiles.
This edition of Crossing Continents was made in co-operation with who produce the radio show for NPR, hosted by Maria Hinojosa. You can hear her Crossing Continents on the and see her TV report on on Thursday 29 July.

Source:BBC

Canadian archaeologists have located a British ship abandoned in the Arctic while on a 19th Century rescue mission.
Parks Canada researchers found the HMS Investigator in Mercy Bay this week.
Canada's government says the discovery bolsters its claim to sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, feared threatened by increased shipping.
The Investigator was abandoned while searching for the Franklin expedition, itself lost with all its crew during a mission to discover the passage.
The Investigator, captained by Robert McClure, left Britain in 1848, ultimately making two attempts to find the Franklin expedition.
Its crew abandoned the ship on the western side of the Arctic when it became trapped in pack ice.
Running low on supplies and food, Capt Robert McClure and his men were eventually rescued by another party from the Royal Navy.
Archaeologists discovered the ship this week using sonar and metal detectors, Canadian media reported.
“It's sitting upright in silt – the three masts have been removed, probably by ice,” Ifan Thomas, Parks Canada's superintendent of the western Arctic Field Unit, told the National Post newspaper.
“It's a largely intact ship in very cold water, so deterioration didn't happen very quickly.”
Canadian officials say the discovery of the British ship supports Canada's claim to sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, increasingly important to the country as melting arctic ice makes has increased interest in marine shipping through the Northwest Passage.

Source:BBC

Share this page Judge blocks Arizona's controversial immigration law A judge in Arizona has blocked key parts of the state's strict immigration law a day before it was to take effect.
The judge blocked a requirement that police check the immigration status of criminal suspects whom they had stopped while enforcing other laws.
The federal government argued the law usurped its authority over immigration policy.
A part of the law making it a crime not to carry immigration papers was also blocked.

Source:BBC

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble has signed up as a global Olympics sponsor.
The deal with the International Olympics Committee (IOC) makes Procter & Gamble the 11th global sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics.
It joins other 2012 sponsor companies, such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds.

Aircraft giant Boeing has reported a sharp drop in profits between April and June amid falling plane deliveries.
Net profit for the quarter was 787m (504m), higher than analysts had expected but down 21% on the 998m the firm made in the same period last year.
Group revenue also fell, to 15.6bn from 17.2bn a year earlier.

Protestors are expected to stream into Arizona as the state's controversial new anti-illegal immigration law takes effect on Thursday.
The law requires police to query the immigration status of people stopped for a legitimate reason whom they suspect are in the US illegally.
Opponents say it will lead to racial profiling and targeting of Hispanics.
The federal government has challenged the law, and a judge is set to rule on that challenge on Wednesday.
The Obama administration argues the measure usurps the federal government's authority to set immigration policy.
In addition, a Phoenix police officer who fears he will be sued if he enforces the law has challenged it, and the governments of Argentina, Ecuador and Mexico have also asked a court to overturn it.
'Racist laws'
The Arizona legislation also creates a new state law making it a crime to be in the country illegally and permits police to detain people determined to be illegal aliens.
Controversy over the legislation has turned the eyes of the nation onto a state where about a third of people are foreign born and an estimated 460,000 are illegal immigrants.
Protestors around the country plan vigils and demonstrations, and others will convene in Arizona to bolster local protest efforts.
More than 550 union members and activists are taking buses from southern California, the Los Angeles Times reported. Other protests are reportedly planned for New York City and elsewhere.
“We are waiting for the court to decide, but even if it issues a temporary injunction… we're still going ahead with our protests, because 21 other states want to follow Arizona's footsteps with racist laws” of their own, Paulina Gonzalez, spokeswoman for “We Are All Arizona” group told AFP news agency.
But the sheriff of the state's most populous county has vowed to jail protestors who he deems cross the line into civil disobedience.
“I'm ready for it,” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his “sweeps” of illegal immigrants, said on ABC television. “If they want to block the jail, they can have a trip in the jail. We're not going to put up with any civil disobedience.”
Meanwhile, a Nebraska town where voters recently passed a referendum barring illegal immigrants from renting housing decided on Tuesday to suspend the law's implementation.
The city council in Fremont, Nebraska, said the delaying the law would save the city money in its effort to defend it against court challenges from liberal legal groups who maintain it would discriminate against people who appear foreign.

Source:BBC

Oil from BP's damaged Gulf of Mexico well is clearing from the sea surface faster than expected, scientists say, 100 days after the disaster began.
Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said much oil had been “biodegraded by naturally occurring bacteria”.
But concerns remain about the spill's unseen effects.
The comments came after BP replaced its embattled CEO Tony Hayward with an American, Robert Dudley.

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined veteran singer Aretha Franklin on stage to perform at a charitable gig on Tuesday.
Rice, who is a classically trained pianist, accompanied the soul legend during two of her hit songs at Philadelphia's Mann Music Center.
She also played a selection of Mozart musical pieces.
The concert was held to raise money for urban children and awareness for music and the arts.
Rice, the Republican former aide to President George W Bush and Franklin – a committed Democrat who sang at President Barack Obama's inauguration – met at a White House function.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Rice said: “We were just talking and chatting and she said 'You play, don't you?'
“And I said, 'Yes.' And she said we should do something together.”
Franklin said she had been surprised at how talented Rice was.
“All I had seen of Dr Rice was in a political atmosphere. It just seemed foreign that she would be a classical pianist.
“She really does play, she's formidable.”
Rice played piano while Franklin sang I Say A Little Prayer and My Country 'Tis of Thee.

Source:BBC

A woman has been arrested in the US for allegedly trying to smuggle night-vision rifle scopes and arms to Russia.
Beautician Anna Fermanova, 24, a US citizen born in Latvia, is said to have had the high-tech equipment confiscated at JFK airport as she boarded a plane bound for Moscow in March.
She was detained on her return to the country over the attempted export of US munitions without a licence.
The case is being compared to that of Russian spy Anna Chapman.
Ms Chapman, 28, was one of 10 agents arrested after being found to be part of a long-running Russian spy ring in the US, and deported earlier this month.
Ms Fermanova was arrested at her parent's home near Dallas, Texas on 15 July.
She is alleged to have been carrying three rifles equipped with scopes, including one that had night vision capabilities, according to court documents cited by AFP news agency.
Some of the identification numbers on the rifles had allegedly been covered with black marker pen.
Her lawyer, Scott Palmer, dismissed comparisons to the spy ring case.
“There's no terrorism, no spying, nothing that remotely touches these recent concerns,” he said.
He said she had bought the equipment for her husband, who lives in Moscow, to use in hunting.
“She's one woman who bought something on the internet, put it in her luggage and this apparently violates federal law,” he said.
He added that she had “no idea” she would be arrested on her return to the US.
“She came back to celebrate her birthday with her family in Texas,” he said.

Source:BBC

Spanish telecom firm Telefonica has agreed to buy Portugal Telecom's (PT) stake in Brazilian mobile company Vivo, ending weeks of strained negotiations.
No figure for the deal was announced, but reports say the Spanish company will pay 7.5bn euros (9.8bn; 6.3bn).
Earlier this month, Telefonica said it had pulled out of a 7.15bn-euro bid to buy PT out of Vivo.
The bid had been accepted by PT shareholders, but was blocked by the Portuguese government.
However, the European Court of Justice overruled the government's objections to the deal on the basis that they broke rules on the free movement of capital.
Telefonica is keen to expand in the fast-growing Latin American market, and sees taking control of Vivo, Brazil's largest mobile phone company, as a key element in this strategy.

Source:BBC

Glass negatives bought for just 45 (34) have been proven to be the work of iconic photographer Ansel Adams and are now worth 200m, it is claimed.
Painter and collector Rick Norsigian says he bought 65 negatives in 2000.
After years of trying to prove their origin, his lawyer now says experts have concluded “beyond reasonable doubt” that they were Adams' work.
The family of the landscape photographer, who died in 1984, have called the matter “unfortunate fraud”.
Mr Norsigian said he spent years trying to verify the photos, which were believed to have been destroyed in a 1937 fire at Adams' studio in Yosemite National Park.
In the years after 1937 Ansel Adams became one of the world's best-known photographers, with original prints of his images of the American West, including Yosemite, selling for huge sums.
His images were produced with darkroom techniques that emphasised shadows and contrasts in his black-and-white images.
Defending his client's intentions, Mr Norsigian's lawyer, Arnold Peter, said the authentication involved experts in photography, handwriting and even meteorology – deployed in an effort to verify the weather conditions in Adams' famous landscape pictures.