No details of Iran's offer were available. But under a similar deal in May with Brazil and Turkey, Iran agreed to ship about 2,600 pounds (1,Smet,200 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium to Turkey, where it would be stored. In exchange, I]]> China often says dialogue and diplomatic means are the best way to resolve the Iran nuclear issue, and a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Jiang Yu, repeated that position in comments posted on the ministry’s website.

No details of Iran’s offer were available. But under a similar deal in May with Brazil and Turkey, Iran agreed to ship about 2,600 pounds (1,Smet,200 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium to Turkey, where it would be stored. In exchange, Iran would get fuel rods made from 20 percent enriched uranium.

Senior U.S. officials said Thursday that they would travel soon to China, Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates to demand compliance with a new, fourth round of U.N. Security Council measures against Iran.

The countries worry Iran’s nuclear program could be used for weapons. Iran denies it, saying its program is intended solely for peaceful purposes such as energy generation.

The U.S. and others continue to pressure China for a stronger stance against Iran. China has vast energy needs and has large investments in Iran, and its position as a permanent member of the Security Council can challenge further U.N. pressure on the issue.

Tehran has tried to deflect further sanctions by offering to talk about the nuclear issue.

That level of enrichment is high enough for use in research reactors but too low for nuclear weapons.

“China does not agree with the EU’s unilateral sanctions against Iran,” Jiang said. China made a similar objection when the United States recently imposed its own sanctions.

The European Union and Canada adopted new sanctions Monday against Iran that target its foreign trade,Boss, banking and energy sectors.

BEIJING – China said Friday that it opposes the sanctions the European Union is imposing on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, saying it supports Iran’s renewed efforts to hold talks on a possible swap of nuclear fuel.

In her statement Friday, Jiang said China welcomes Iran’s latest offer to talk about a possible fuel swap.

“This is conducive to promoting the process of resolving the Iran nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations,” she said.

This week, Tehran’s senior envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, told reporters that “Iran is ready to go back to the negotiating table” quickly to discuss exchanging some of its enriched uranium for fuel rods for Tehran’s nuclear reactor.

"The Chinese policies are in line with relevant WTO rules."

"China will further strengthen IPR protection, including that of foreign companies, exactly because we encourage homegrown innovation," he said.

Foreign ]]> Beijing also pledged to leave the terms and conditions of technology transfer and other proprietary information to individual enterprises,Ed hardy, Kirk's deputy Demetrios Marantis said earlier this month.

"The Chinese policies are in line with relevant WTO rules."

"China will further strengthen IPR protection, including that of foreign companies, exactly because we encourage homegrown innovation," he said.

Foreign complaints about China's market policies, particularly the indigenous innovation campaign, have intensified in recent months.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said during a visit to China last week that European companies were increasingly worried about doing business in China, singling out the technology policy and IPR protections.

Recent surveys by both the European and American chambers of commerce in China expressed similar concerns, with members saying they were increasingly pessimistic about the future of doing business in the country.

China committed at high-level Sino-US talks in May that its innovation policies would be non-discriminatory, protect foreign intellectual property rights (IPR), and ensure open markets and trade, according to Washington.

Concerns over indigenous innovation extended to security encryption rules, domestic patent laws and preferential policies for domestic companies, the US Chamber of Commerce report said.

On Wednesday, a Chinese railway official rejected suggestions foreign companies participating in development of high-speed rail in the country had been forced to transfer their technology.

"Countries around the world have taken a lot of measures to encourage technology innovation," a commerce ministry official, who declined to be named, told AFP.

"That is going to be one of the top items that we continue to engage China on," Kirk told reporters in Washington.

A US Chamber of Commerce report this week accused China of abusing the allure of its vast market to push foreign companies to transfer their latest technologies to Chinese competitors.

This was a "blueprint for technology theft on a scale the world has never seen before",Primp, the report said.

China launched its "indigenous innovation" campaign in 2006, officially to encourage the development of domestic technology and reduce its reliance on foreign know-how.

The chamber's report is the latest in a chorus of complaints by foreign businesses and governments over perceived unfair policies and market restrictions in the world's third-largest economy.

China's high-speed trains were based on foreign technology but it had improved the technology to make the trains even faster, He Huawu, chief engineer of the railways ministry, told a news conference.

The commerce ministry official said the push did not discriminate against foreign companies and pledged China would protest IPR.

Tensions flared after Beijing issued rules late last year under the innovation campaign that were widely seen by foreign businesses as squeezing them out of the government's multi-billion-dollar procurement market.

BEIJING (AFP) – Beijing on Thursday denied charges by a US business group that its technology transfer rules for foreign firms constitute "theft" on a massive scale, and defended its policies as meeting global rules.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk joined the fray on Wednesday, responding to the chamber's complaints by saying Washington planned to push Beijing on the issue.

But the latest report comes at a particularly critical time for Iraq. Four months after inconclusive elections, a new government has yet to be formed, raising fears that insurgents will tap into the political vacuum to stir sectarian unrest.

Iraq had given the U.S. authori]]> Iraqi lawmakers met Tuesday, but for the second time this month failed to convene a parliament session, leaving wide open the question of when the new government will take shape.

But the latest report comes at a particularly critical time for Iraq. Four months after inconclusive elections, a new government has yet to be formed, raising fears that insurgents will tap into the political vacuum to stir sectarian unrest.

Iraq had given the U.S. authorization to tap into the fund, which is held in New York, for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, withdrawing that approval in December 2007.

The report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction accused the Defense Department of lax oversight and weak controls, though not fraud.

The report found that the Defense Department could not “readily account for its obligations, expenditures and remaining balances associated” with the DFI. At issue was $8.7 billion, or 95 percent of the withdrawn funds.

Of this amount, the Pentagon could not account at all for $2.6 billion, according to the audit.

Tracing the rest of the money is difficult because of a combination of lax financial controls and management, the failure to designate an organization to oversee the spending and the failure to set up and deposit the funds in special accounts, as required by the Treasury Department.

The Defense Department, in responses attached to the audit, said it agreed with the report’s recommendations to establish better guidelines for monitoring such funds, including appointing an oversight organization mostly likely by November.

The failure to properly manage billions in reconstruction funds has also hobbled the troubled U.S.-led effort to rebuild Afghanistan. About $60 billion have poured into Afghanistan since 2001 in hopes of bringing electricity, clean water, jobs, roads and education to the crippled country.

The U.S. alone has committed $51 billion to the project since 2001, and plans to raise the stakes to $71 billion over the next year — more than it has spent on reconstruction in Iraq since 2003.

An Associated Press investigation showed that the results so far — or lack of them — threaten to do more harm than good. The number of Afghans with access to electricity has increased from 6 percent in 2001 to only about 10 percent now, far short of the goal of providing power to 65 percent of urban and 25 percent of rural households by the end of this year.

As an example of the problems, a $100 million diesel-fueled power plant was built with the goal of delivering electricity to more than 500,000 residents of the capital, Kabul. The plant’s costs tripled to $305 million as construction lagged a year behind schedule. The plant now often sits idle because the Afghans were able to import cheaper power from neighboring Uzbekistan before the plant came online.

___

Associated Press writers Mazin Yahya in Baghdad and Robert H. Reid in Kabul contributed to this report.

With the establishment of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq shortly after the start of the U.S. invasion in 2003 until mid-2004, about $20 billion was placed into the account. The $9.1 billion audited by the Iraq reconstruction inspector general were funds withdrawn from that account between 2004 and 2007.

Underscoring its financial challenges, the International Monetary Fund in March approved a $3.6 billion loan to help Iraq meet its obligations. Iraq is projected to run a deficit through 2011, according to analysts, with a possibility of a surplus following that hinging on oil prices.

Thousands of Shiite pilgrims are converging on the city, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, for an important religious holiday marking the birth of a Shiite saint known as the “Hidden Imam” who disappeared in the ninth century. Such mass displays of devotion by Shiites have often been targeted by Sunni extremists.

Iraq took a financial hit in 2008 as oil prices plummeted on the back of the global financial meltdown. While those prices have since rebounded, Iraq remains at the mercy of international oil markets, with revenues from petroleum sales accounting for over 90 percent of its government budget.

Seven years after the U.S.-led invasion, electricity service is spotty, with generation capacity falling far short of demand. Fuel shortages are common and unemployment remains high, a testament to the country’s inability to create new jobs or attract foreign investors.

The $8.7 billion in question was Iraqi money managed by the Pentagon, not part of the $53 billion that Congress has allocated for rebuilding. It’s cash that Iraq, which relies on volatile oil revenues to fuel its spending,Ed hardy underwear, can ill afford to lose.

In a sign that insurgents are still intent on igniting sectarian violence, at least six people were killed and dozens more wounded when a female suicide bomber blew herself up near a checkpoint in the holy city of Karbala, local police said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Complaints surfaced from the start of the war in 2003, when soldiers failed to secure banks, armories and other facilities against looters. Since then the allegations have only multiplied, including investigations of fraud, awarding of contracts without the required government bidding process and allowing contractors to charge exorbitant fees with little oversight, or oversight that came too late.

“The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss,” the audit said.

“Iraq should take legal action to get back this huge amount of money,” said Sabah al-Saedi, chairman of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee. The money “should be spent for rebuilding the country and providing services for this poor nation.”

The Pentagon has repeatedly come under fire for apparent mismanagement of the reconstruction effort — as have Iraqi officials themselves.

BAGHDAD – A U.S. audit has found that the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money,Iceberg, spotlighting Iraqi complaints that there is little to show for the massive funds pumped into their cash-strapped, war-ravaged nation.

The $9.1 billion in question came from the Development Fund for Iraq, which was set up by the U.N. Security Council in 2003. The DFI includes revenues from Iraq’s oil and gas exports, as well as frozen Iraqi assets and surplus funds from the defunct, Saddam Hussein-era U.N. oil-for-food program.

In his first public comments on the leak, Obama said it underscored the need to stick with his war strategy.

"While I'm concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the bat]]> The leaked documents, made public by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, detailed allegations that U.S. forces sought to cover up civilian deaths and described American concerns that Pakistan secretly aided Taliban militants even as it took billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

In his first public comments on the leak, Obama said it underscored the need to stick with his war strategy.

"While I'm concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations, the fact is these documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan," Obama told reporters.

WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) – The Congress on Tuesday gave President Barack Obama long-delayed funding for his troop increase in Afghanistan despite opposition from many fellow Democrats, while Obama played down the gravity of leaked war documents.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, will testify on Wednesday before a House panel and could face sharp questions from its chair Nita Lowey, who said in June said she would cut billions of dollars in aid for Afghanistan because of reports of corruption.

The House of Representatives gave final approval to $37 billion in funding for the war effort by a vote of 308 to 114 but more Republicans than Democrats voted for it. In all, 102 House Democrats voted "no." The Senate previously passed the bill, which now goes to Obama to sign into law.

CONTRADICTORY POLICY

Supporters of the measure argued it was wrong to delay funding for troops already sent to war.

The general who Obama nominated to head the command that oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq agreed.

The measure provides $33 billion mostly for the U.S. military in Afghanistan but with some covering expenses in Iraq. There is also nearly $4 billion for a related civilian surge of economic aid to Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

The Afghan government,Juicy Couture shoes, which is seeking more control over foreign aid, said Washington has pursued a contradictory policy in the war by ignoring Pakistan's links to the insurgency. But experts said Pakistan's relationship with the United States is unlikely to be changed by the disclosure.

In its first reaction to the leak, Afghanistan's National Security Council said the United States had failed to attack the patrons and supporters of the Taliban hiding in Pakistan throughout the war.

"With regret … our allies did not show necessary attention about the external support for the international terrorists … for the regional stability and global security," the council said in a statement.

Afghanistan has long blamed Pakistan for meddling in its affairs, accusing its neighbor of plotting attacks to destabilize it. Pakistan, whose military and spy agency have had long-standing ties to the Taliban, denies involvement in the insurgency and says it is a victim of militancy itself.

In Afghanistan, the remains of one of two U.S. sailors who disappeared last week were found in the east of the country and the search continued for the second man, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.

On Sunday, the Taliban said they were holding one of the two sailors who had strayed into territory controlled by the insurgents south of Kabul and that the other had been killed.

The Afghan government and NATO officials disputed each others' accounts of reports that more than 50 civilians were killed in a NATO rocket attack on Friday when they were caught up in fighting in Helmand province.

Government spokesman Siamak Herawi said 52 people died,John Galliano, many of them women and children. The NATO-led force said a preliminary investigation had not yet revealed any civilian casualties.

Civilian deaths caused by foreign forces are a major source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers, whose 150,000 troops are engaged in an increasingly bloody war with the insurgents.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell and Phil Stewart in Washington, David Fox, Jonathon Burch and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul and Chris Allbritton in Islamabad; Writing by Will Dunham in Washington)

Congress, controlled by Obama's Democratic Party, took six months to give him the funding he sought to pay for the 30,000 extra troops he is sending to Afghanistan to try to break a resurgent Taliban in the nine-year-old war.

In Kabul, the Afghan government accused the United States of ignoring Pakistan's role in the Taliban insurgency as the fallout continued from Sunday's unauthorized release of 91,000 classified U.S. military reports on the war.

"NO BIG REVELATIONS"

Some analysts said the revelations could be damaging as the White House seeks to shore up sagging public support for the war while setting the stage to start withdrawing U.S. troops by Obama's target date of July 2011.

"I've seen no big revelations," General James Mattis, nominated to lead U.S. Central Command, told a Senate hearing. "One of the newspaper headlines was that 'The war is a tense and dangerous thing.' So if that is news, I don't know who it's news to on this planet."

The $37 billion is in addition to about $130 billion Congress already approved for Afghanistan and Iraq for this year. Congress has appropriated more than $1 trillion for the two wars since 2001.

Democrats are deeply divided over the war. The Pentagon had pushed hard for the money, saying it would have had to cut back civilian salaries if the money was not approved by August.

Obama pushed the Senate on Tuesday to pass legislation intended to benefit small businesses and generate jobs.

The Reute]]> Only 34 percent approved of Obama's handling of the economy and jobs compared to 46 percent who deemed it unsatisfactory. This is a sharp decline from early 2009, shortly after he took office, when more than half of those surveyed approved of Obama's handling of the worst financial crisis in decades.

Obama pushed the Senate on Tuesday to pass legislation intended to benefit small businesses and generate jobs.

The Reuters-Ipsos poll was dismal news for Democrats as they seek to hold off Republicans in November elections in which Americans will elect 435 members of the House of Representatives and 37 of the 100-seat U.S. Senate.

Republicans hold a 46-44 percent lead over Democrats when participants were asked which party they planned to support in November. And 72 percent of Republicans said they are certain to vote on November 2, compared to 49 percent of Democrats.

"Republicans are charged up because they think they have a chance," Young said.

The economy is still recovering too slowly to improve Obama's political fortunes. U.S. consumer confidence sank in July to its lowest since February.

Figures to be released on Friday are likely to show that growth in the U.S. economy slowed in the second quarter amid a cooling in consumer spending and a wider trade deficit — but they will mark four straight quarters of expansion.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

Not all was dire for Obama as 52 percent of independent voters approved of his job performance. Independents are closely watched because they often make the difference in close elections.

Obama, when accused by Republicans of driving up government spending and debt with an $862 billion stimulus plan, has made the point that he inherited a $1.3 trillion U.S. budget deficit from his unpopular predecessor, Republican George W. Bush.

But the poll suggested there are limits to this argument. It said 70 percent of Americans think the deficit has increased under Obama,Smet, and 75 percent said it grew under Bush.

Although U.S. troops are on their way out of Iraq, only 34 percent approved of Obama's handling of the Iraq war, down from 51 percent early in his term.

With casualties rising in Afghanistan, 33 percent approved of Obama's handling of the Afghan war, down from 47 percent shortly after he took office.

More Americans approved than disapproved of Obama's efforts toward energy independence, 39 percent to 32 percent. But, again, the approval rating is down from the 56 percent approval he received on this subject in February 2009.

This comes as Obama grapples with BP Plc's Gulf of Mexico oil spill and pushes the need for more clean-energy jobs.

The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and the data weighted to ensure that the sample's composition reflected that of the actual U.S. population according to U.S. Census figures.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Will Dunham)

In a sign of trouble ahead for the Democrats, the poll found evidence of a sizable enthusiasm gap with Republicans more energized about voting in the elections.

The Republicans are hoping to win control of the House of Representatives in November and pick up seats in the Senate. That could prevent Obama from winning any more major successes in Congress in the second half of this term.

People were more negative about Obama's performance on the economy than on any other question surveyed. Satisfaction was dropping more sharply on the issue than on any other question.

The poll provided evidence that Americans are unhappy that Obama and the Democrats chose to devote their energies to overhauling the U.S. healthcare system and financial regulations instead of dwelling exclusively on job creation.

"People still feel insecure about their future," said Ipsos pollster Cliff Young. "They are spending less and saving more. They're not buying a larger house or car or other luxuries because they're worried — and that worry also manifests itself on the political side."

"They think he should've focused much more on the economy rather than healthcare and financial regulation," said pollster Young. "From a voter perspective, they don't see the economy improving. They don't think the administration has given due attention to that problem."

Overall, the July 22-25 national poll of 1,075 adults gave Obama an approval rating of 48 percent,Giorgio Armani, a small decline from a June survey that had him at 50 percent approval.

"I hope that in the coming days, we'll once again find common ground and get this legislation passed. We shouldn't let America's small businesses be held hostage to partisan politics and certainly not at this critical time," Obama said.

Americans expressed deep unhappiness with the direction of the economy, which in the poll they identified overwhelmingly as the country's top problem.

It found that 67 percent of poll respondents said Obama has not focused enough on job creation compared to healthcare and regulation of banks. Obama has argued that those reforms are vital building blocks to a strong economic recovery.

U.S. presidents often lose support in midterm elections.

'COMMON GROUND'

The U.S. unemployment rate is at a stubbornly high 9.5 percent and Obama has spent much of the year on issues like Wall Street reform and healthcare in addition to jobs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans by a large majority believe President Barack Obama has not focused enough on job creation, as economic fears threaten Democrats ahead of November 2 congressional elections, a Reuters-Ipsos poll found on Tuesday.

This is in line with other polls showing his approval rating under 50 percent and evidence that for all the country's problems, Obama remains generally well-liked.

Company shares dropped 65 cents, or about 1.7 percent, to close at $38 in Tuesday trading in New York.

Svanberg said the company's priority was to stop the Gulf leak permanently, clean up the spill and compensate people wh]]> BP said it would become a leaner, higher-quality business through its planned sale of $30 billion in assets. The company has already made a start with the $7 billion sale of gas assets in the United States, Canada and Egypt to Apache Corp.

Company shares dropped 65 cents, or about 1.7 percent, to close at $38 in Tuesday trading in New York.

Svanberg said the company’s priority was to stop the Gulf leak permanently, clean up the spill and compensate people whose livelihoods have been lost. But he added that the company was determined to restore value to shareholders, whose dividends were axed by BP under U.S. political pressure.

Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit said BP should be a 10 percent smaller company after its planned sales but that BP should remain the top oil and gas producer in the U.S., unless it sells off a large portion of its Alaska assets. The company was reportedly considering the sale of its stake in the Prudhoe Bay oil field to Apache Corp., but instead sold Apache properties in Texas and New Mexico, as well as Egypt and western Canada. The U.S. is home to 40 percent of BP’s assets and one-third of its worldwide oil and gas reserves.

“We are taking a hard look at ourselves, what we do and how we do it,” BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said during a webcast presentation on the company’s earnings.

Svanberg said the planned asset sales did not necessarily reflect a fear that spill costs could soar above the $32.2 billion set aside by the company.

“What’s not fair is what’s happened on the Gulf,” press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “What’s not fair is the actions of some have caused the greatest environmental disaster that our country has ever seen.”

Analysts also said BP’s estimate of spill costs was on the conservative side. Gheit predicts BP will eventually pay between $30 billion and $60 billion.

Based on the upper estimate of oil spilled so far, BP could be fined up to $4.8 billion under the Clean Water Act, or up to $18.8 billion if it is found to have committed gross negligence or willful misconduct. BP’s estimate assumes it would not get the harsher penalties.

Any fines would be on top of the compensation BP has agreed to pay to thousands of people harmed by the spill. Under U.S. government pressure, it set up a $20 billion escrow fund to pay all claims,Calvin Klein, including environmental damages and state and local response costs.

Dudley pledged that his company will remain committed to the Gulf region even after the busted well is sealed for good — something that may happen soon. A temporary cap has held back the oil for nearly two weeks, a “static kill” effort to plug the well from above is to begin Monday and the permanent fix — a relief well — could begin sealing the well from the bottom for good with mud and cement days after that.

Dudley was brought in to oversee the spill response after Hayward was vilified for a series of gaffes, including minimizing the spill’s impact, saying that he would like his life back and attending a yacht race off the coast of England as Gulf residents struggled to cope with the spill.

In a mark of faith in its outgoing leader, the company said it planned to recommend Hayward for a non-executive board position at its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP.

The British CEO remains well-regarded in Europe and his appointment would be a benefit for Dudley, who, as the former head of TNK-BP, was forced to flee Russia and run the company in absentia after a flap with shareholders in 2008.

Hayward has some sympathy in his native Britain, where many pensions rely on BP stock and some consider U.S. outrage at the company to be over the top. A recurring theme in newspaper editorials and discussions among many Britons is that there simply wasn’t much one man could do in the face of relentless American wrath.

“BP sends Tony Hayward to Siberia to appease US,” read a headline in the Guardian.

Hayward, who will stay on BP’s board until Nov. 30, will receive a year’s salary of 1.045 million pounds (US$1.6 million) as part of his severance package. His pension benefits are valued at about 11 million pounds (US$16.8 million), and he retains his rights to shares under a long-term performance program that could eventually be worth several million pounds if BP’s share price recovers.

Hayward said it was right that BP embark on its next phase under new leadership, and expressed his condolences for the families of the workers killed in the explosion.

“The Gulf of Mexico explosion was a terrible tragedy for which — as the man in charge of BP when it happened — I will always feel a deep responsibility, regardless of where blame is ultimately found to lie,” he said.

Some Gulf Coast residents didn’t expect the change in leadership to affect BP’s response. Bob Boudet, 68, of Myrtle Grove, said he expects the same “deceptive attitudes that BP has had from the beginning.”

Asked about Hayward’s new job in Russia, Boudet quipped: “Oh, I think that’s a wonderful job for him.”

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said he has faith in Dudley, noting “he seemed to have passion” for the region. As for Hayward heading to Russia, Nungesser said, “Anywhere far away from here.”

President Barack Obama, who once said he would fire Hayward if he could, discussed the change in BP’s leadership with Svanberg on Monday,Abercrombie jeans, Gibbs said Tuesday. No details about the conversation were released.

“Our concern is not who heads BP,” Gibbs said. “Mr. Hayward is leaving. The key is that BP can’t leave and should not leave the Gulf. … They have obligations and responsibilities as the responsible party in this instance that have to be met regardless of who the CEO is.”

Dudley, who will be based in London, will hand over spill response coordination to Lamar McKay, the chairman and president of BP America.

Dudley spent some of his childhood in Mississippi and worked for 20 years at Amoco Corp., which merged with BP in 1998. He lost out to Hayward on the CEO slot three years ago.

“I think you will find I listen hard and carefully to people and have worked with restructuring organizations to achieve change,” he said. “I did not seek out this job. I was asked to step into these shoes, and I firmly and deeply believe that BP is a company made up of great people and great businesses.”

Plugging the oil well for good will be a major milestone in the oil-spill fight. BP and the federal government differ slightly on when the relief well needed to accomplish that will be completed.

The government’s oil spill chief, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Monday that the well could be completed as early as Aug. 7, but Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said Tuesday he expected it would take until Aug. 10. Both agree that it would take several days to several weeks to permanently seal the well after that.

Meanwhile, a barge slammed into an abandoned well near a Louisiana bay already fouled by the Gulf spill, sending natural gas and oil spewing into the air. Officials said the breach created a mile-long slick but that it was minimal compared with the gusher in the Gulf.

___

AP Business Writers Jane Wardell in London and Chris Kahn in New York and Associated Press Writers Brian Skoloff in Myrtle Grove, La., and Bernard McGhee in Atlanta contributed to this report.

“Life isn’t fair,” he said, but he conceded that wasn’t the point. “BP cannot move on in the U.S. with me as its leader.”

NEW ORLEANS – Battered BP began reinventing itself in the shadow of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill Tuesday, naming its first American CEO as it reported a record $17 billion quarterly loss. Its outgoing chief miffed the White House anew with his parting comments.

Dudley, BP’s managing director and current point man on oil spill recovery, defended his company’s record and that of the embattled chief executive he will replace.

One certain change is that BP will become smaller. It announced it will sell $30 billion in assets and has set aside $32.2 billion to cover costs from the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Robert Dudley, who will replace Tony Hayward on Oct. 1, promised changes in light of the environmental disaster. “There’s no question we are going to learn things from this investigation of the incident,” he told reporters by phone from London after the announcement was made.

BP PLC announced the move Tuesday with an air of making a fresh start, nearly 100 days into a catastrophic mile-deep blowout that killed 11 workers, spewed 94 million to 184 million gallons of oil and sapped 35 percent, or $60 billion, of BP’s market value.

Hayward, whose verbal miscues intensified the anger Gulf Coast residents already felt, will leave BP with benefits valued at more than $18 million. He told reporters he had been “demonized and vilified” but had no major regrets about his leadership.

Analysts were disappointed that BP intended to sell so many assets.

The White House was not impressed with Hayward’s comments.

Prior to the Gulf incident, BP said its exploration activities were focused around Angola, Egypt, the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Libya, the North Sea, Oman and onshore U.S.

Wireless message boards have been lighting up over the past few days with complaints and videos of the defective displays, with users grousing about lines of dead pixels, flashing and flickering images,D&G, and even wid]]> Is the jumbo screen on your new Motorola Droid X suffering from flickering or “banding” woes? If so, you’re not alone, Verizon has confirmed, although the carrier added that only a “very small number” of handsets are affected.

Wireless message boards have been lighting up over the past few days with complaints and videos of the defective displays, with users grousing about lines of dead pixels, flashing and flickering images,D&G, and even wide vertical bands that obscure the entire Droid X home screen.

Verizon didn’t go into detail about what exactly is wrong with the misbehaving displays, but it noted in a statement to Engadget that Droid X manufacturer Motorola has “resolved the issue” and is still shipping phones to stores.

So, how many Droid X handsets are suffering from display problems? According to Verizon, at least, we’re talking a “very small number” here: just a 10th of a percent.

I’ve had a Droid X test unit for a little over a week now, and I haven’t noticed any problems at all; indeed, the X’s massive 4.3-inch display has been performing flawlessly so far.

The Android-powered Droid X went on sale last Thursday and promptly sold out, with Verizon’s online store noting that customers ordering the phone will have to wait until early August for it to ship.

If you are one of the few who’s having Droid X display trouble, go ahead and call customer service at either Moto or Verizon for a replacement. The only problem with that strategy, of course, is that the red-hot Droid X is pretty hard to come by these days,Diesel, but hopefully Verizon will put those with display problems at the front of the line.

Having any trouble with your Droid X screen — or not? Let us know.

Engadget: Verizon confirms Droid X screen issues, but says they’re not widespread

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

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The actress, 38, and her fiance, musician Martyn Lenoble, are expecting their first child, her rep tells UsMagazine.com.

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PHOTOS: Stars and their soulmates

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- Side inset pockets, pleated back detail
- Thin twill construction
- 30″ approximate length from high point shoulder to hem, 38″ chest, 18″ sleeve
- 62% cotton, 38% nylon, lining 100% polyester
-Dry clean only
- Imported

Buy it here.

I will always love a quirky twist on a trench coat, so when Forever 21 rolled out some new clothing — including a trench — for Spring 2010, I was intrigued. See, I own about 15 trench coats, and all of them have something unique and different about them. I shall be adding the Bell Sleeve Trench to the wardrobe.

Lately, celebs such as Jennifer Lopez and Victoria Beckham have been wearing these coats almost like coat dresses, belted and snug at the waist to show definition so you don’t look like a haute flasher. Add a snappy platform or pointed toe pump, a nice not-too-oversized satchel or lady-like bag, oversized sunglasses — and voila! Plus, you can add color to your look with this trench, as the neutral khaki or navy works with everything.

I love the shape,Iceberg, cut, style — the buckled detail and the shorter sleeve really work — and the cost: $32.80.

PHOTOS: Her adorable kids with Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie's teenage years and young adulthood were marred by erratic behavior: drug-use, self-cutting and a volatile love life.

PHOTOS: Pre-fame Angelina as a model

PHOTOS: See all of Angelina's Us Weekly cover stories

And Andr]]> Morel claims that, for two years, Bertrand sequestered Jolie in a separate apartment in her building, where the young girl was cared for by a revolving staff.

PHOTOS: Her adorable kids with Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie’s teenage years and young adulthood were marred by erratic behavior: drug-use, self-cutting and a volatile love life.

PHOTOS: Pre-fame Angelina as a model

PHOTOS: See all of Angelina’s Us Weekly cover stories

And Andrew Morton’s juicy new tell-all Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography — excerpted exclusively in the new Us Weekly — argues that it all began with a traumatic event in the star’s infancy. According to former babysitter Krisann Morel,Red Monkey, Jolie’s late mother Marcheline Bertrand virtually abandoned her baby daughter after a painful 1976 split from husband Jon Voight.

Now 35 and a mother to six kids she shares with love Brad Pitt, Jolie has publicly declared her devotion to Bertrand, who passed away in January 2007 of cancer. But Morton writes that Jolie was permanently scarred by this early abandonment — leading her to self-destructive acts and a “come here, now go away” personality.

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For more exclusive revelations from Morton’s new biography — how Angelina seduced Leonardo DiCaprio,Dsquared, Ethan Hawke and others, whether she and Brad will ever wed, how Brad’s mid-life crisis contributed to his split with Jen Aniston and more — pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, out now.