UNITED KINGDOM

British oil company BP has approached sovereign wealth funds with a view to securing a strategic investor to fend off takeover bids while it deals with its massive U.S. oil spill, a senior UAE source said on Tuesday.

BP ruled out a share issue and talk persisted of sovereign wealth fund interest in the British oil major, boosting its shares on Tuesday even as its Gulf of Mexico oil slick spread to the Texas coast.

(Corrects in fourth paragraph to say a 122 million share holding, not a value of $122 million)

China has boosted its purchases of Japanese government bonds this year, snapping up a net 541 billion yen ($6 billion) of mostly short-term JGBs in January-April, double the record amount logged for all of 2005, the Nikkei business daily reported.

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Shareholders in BP balked on Monday at reports the energy giant would seek a strategic investor to ward off takeover bids while the company's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico spread.

The Australian Dollar opens lower on Tuesday at 0.8390 ahead of today's monthly board meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

Shareholders in BP balked Monday at reports it would seek a strategic investor to ward off takeover bids, as the clean-up costs of its massive U.S. oil spill topped $3 billion.

Internecine civil wars are underway almost everywhere within the West, and most virulently in the United States of America. They are not yet kinetic wars, but wars of grinding prepositioning, the kind which lead to foregone conclusions without a shot being fired. They are wars of survival, nonetheless, because the basic architecture for national strength is being altered incrementally or dramatically. And, in many cases, consciously.

Germany's strong run in the World Cup may be the catalyst for a growth spurt by Europe's largest economy, as consumers riding the feelgood factor of national success dip in to their savings and start spending again.

Bailed-out lender Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to sell its private equity business to buyout firm Coller Capital, accelerating its plan to offload peripheral units and refocus on its core lending activities.

Oil major BP Plc is seeking a strategic investor to secure its independence in the face of any takeover attempts as it struggles with a devastating oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, newspapers said on Sunday.

Global services growth geared down a notch in June, data showed on Monday, supporting the view in financial markets that emerging and developed economies are set to cool off through the second half of the year.

Central banks may be the only remaining line of defense against a scary-but-remote double-dip recession threat.

Gulf coast beaches, normally packed on Independence Day, were quiet on Sunday as workers cleaned up tar balls from BP's leaking oil well while the company was reported to be taking steps to ward off potential takeover bids.

A supertanker adapted to scoop up oil from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico began tests on Saturday amid a report that some major investors expect the energy giant to replace its top executives.

BP's oil spill clean-up efforts in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico were returning to normal on Saturday, amid a report that some major investors expected the British energy giant to replace its top executives.

Fund managers have failed to rebuild relationships with investors that soured when the global financial crisis left them nursing billions in losses, leaving their clients even more disgruntled.

A slightly lower than forecast 0.2% May Retail Sales result coupled with a 6.6% fall in Building Approvals for the same month saw the Aussie dollar momentarily dip below 0.8320 during yesterday's local session.

American International Group Inc Chief Executive Robert Benmosche and Chairman Harvey Golub, at odds over a botched sale of the company's Asian life unit, have agreed to work out their differences, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

Airbus and Boeing clashed over aid for the next generation of European passenger jets on Thursday, while details emerged on the battleground for possibly lengthy appeals following a major trade ruling on aircraft subsidies.