TNK-BP unit offers buyout to minority holders

Russia's TNK-BP Holding, a listed subsidiary of BP's TNK-BP joint venture with Russian billionaires, offered yesterday a buyout to minority shareholders as it prepares for a bigger share float. BP and its Russian partners signed on Thursday a memorandum ending months of disputes over the firm's management and strategy. The two sides agreed to reshuffle TNK-BP's management and proceed with an initial public offering of up to 20 per cent of a new firm, which will combine TNK-BP Holding with some other assets, including oil venture Slavneft. Yesterday, TNK-BP Holding said in a statement it would buy out shares of any holders who voted against merging TNK-BP Holding with the other companies. TNKBPP rose 0.14 Russian rubles to 1.49 rubles (6 cents)

Russia's OAO Mobile to sell Apple's iPhone

OAO Mobile TeleSystems, Russia's largest wireless company, will sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G in Russia, Europe's biggest wireless market by subscribers. Mobile TeleSystems signed an agreement with Apple to sell the phones in Russia and other former Soviet Republics starting this year, the company said yesterday. The other two companies who have deals with Apple to sell the iPhone are OAO VimpelCom and OAO MegaFon. Russia is already one of the biggest markets for the device because of illegal imports.

With Palin, GOP sets sights on suburban women

SIRI AGRELL 

On the day her name was announced as the Republican choice for vice-president, Sarah Palin and her family were in Dayton, Ohio, posing for pictures with People magazine, an American flag pin on the politician's lapel and baby Trig on her hip.

Unemployment at the polls

KEVIN CARMICHAEL 

The U.S. jobless rate jumped to the highest in five years in August, pushing the world's largest economy closer to the brink of recession just two months before the country chooses its next president.

Altria dismisses report it's buying UST

Hurricane Ike expected to remain fierce storm

Fierce hurricane Ike weakened as it charged across the Atlantic yesterday and took aim at southern Florida and the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico while tropical storm Hanna was set to crash ashore in the Carolinas after killing at least 136 people in Haiti. Hanna was expected to be just short of Category 1 hurricane strength when it reaches the U.S. East Coast near the border between North and South Carolina early today, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Ike was far more threatening. An extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale on Thursday, it weakened a notch to Category 3 yesterday while still days away from landfall. The hurricane centre said Ike was expected to remain a ''major'' storm of Category 3 or higher.

Cheney urges Ukraine to embrace the West

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney appealed to Ukraine's divided leaders yesterday to unite and forge closer links with the West, pledging Washington's support for Kiev to join the NATO military alliance. He was visiting amid a political crisis in Ukraine that has split the ruling coalition and sparked fresh debate about whether the former Soviet republic should draw closer to the West, to Russia, or pursue a neutral stance.

China opening its eyes to the disabled

GEOFFREY YORK 

Li Xinjing, a blind 31-year-old masseur, has heard rumours of a new campaign to help disabled people. But he doesn't dare venture outside to find out if it's true. He considers it still too dangerous for a blind man to walk in Beijing's streets.

Talks on Tata factory end without a deal

Talks between a group opposed to the $350-million (U.S.) Tata Motors Ltd. Nano factory in Singur, West Bengal, and local government officials were inconclusive yesterday, officials said. After the three-hour meeting, Partha Chattopadhyaya, a leader of the opposition Trinamool Congress party, which has led protests against the factory, said, ''We are heading toward a solution.'' More talks are set for tomorrow. Tata Motors wasn't at the meeting. Weeks of violent protests by farmers and local leaders, who want Tata to hand back some factory land to farmers they claim weren't adequately compensated, threaten to delay the $2,500 car's launch, expected by year-end. Tata this week suspended work at the site, and is preparing alternative production plans. TTMT (India) fell 7.25 to 420.05 rupees ($9.97).

Reinstatement of judges deepens political rift

Pakistan's Supreme Court yesterday reinstated three judges ousted by Pervez Musharraf, cementing political divisions in the country a day before it elects a new president. The move deepens the rift between the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party of Asif Zardari, the front-runner to become president in a vote by legislators today, and that of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Mr. Zardari has countered calls to restore the judges by arguing it would require constitutional amendments to untangle a legal mess bequeathed by Mr. Musharraf.

With a booming economy benefiting the elites, regular Angolans find little solace in democracy

STEPHANIE NOLEN 

At the first sound of nighttime rain on the scrap-metal roof of her shack, Ines Monteiro wakes her husband and four children. She hustles them from the two beds they share, out into their metre-wide yard. And they stand there, for as long as the rain falls - sometimes as many seven hours. In daytime rains, they stand out, too: their house is perched on the side