Exxon Mobil has signed an Arctic oil exploration deal with Russian state owned oil company, Rosneft, in a strategic move ahead of industry rivals, BP. As part of the deal, Rosneft will be allowed access to oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.
The venture seemingly extinguishes any remaining chance of BP reviving its own deal, which lapsed in May, reported the BBC.
Melbourne is now the world’s most liveable city, according to the 2011 Economist Intelligence Unit Global Liveability Report.
The Australian city usurped Canada’s Vancouver for the top spot in the rankings this year, after Vancouver had previously occupied or shared the top spot for nearly a decade. To add insult to injury, Vancouver’s score was also not good enough for the runner-up slot, which went to the Austrian city of Vienna.
The number of libel cases brought up by people who claim they have been defamed online have more than doubled in a year, according to a new research by legal information provider Sweet and Maxwell’s Lawtel and Westlaw UK services.
But the total number of defamation cases brought rose by only 4%, from 83 cases in the year ending May 31 last year to 86 in the 12 months to the end of this May, reported the BBC.
Australia’s gold production climbed by 9.8 percent in the last fiscal year, as soaring gold prices drove the introduction of new gold mines and the revival of previously discontinued operations.
According to a report by Melbourne-based research house Surbiton Associates, gold production in Australia rose by 24 metric tons to 270 tons in the year ending June 30 2011, despite interruptions from severe weather during the first half of the year.
Britain will increase international pressure on British tax evaders, after reaching an agreement with Switzerland, said chancellor George Osborne, warning that tax cheats have no hiding place under this coalition.
Fresh from negotiating a new deal with secretive Swiss banks, George Osborne has warned top earners who attempt to avoid tax that the government “will find you and your money”, reported the Guardian.
A series of economic data will be released this week which would determine if the world’s largest economy, the United States of America, is about to enter another round of recession.
Monday, 29th August
Astronomers have discovered a large planet made almost entirely of diamond in space – lying around 4,000 light years away from Earth and circling a small fast spinning star called a pulsar.
The diamond planet is said to consist largely of carbon and is around five times the size of Earth with twenty times the density of that of Jupiter. Scientists believe that with its density, the carbon must be crystalline, effectively turning it into a “diamond planet”.
The world’s leading social network, Facebook, registered one trillion page views for the month of June, and 870 million unique visitors. That works out to an average of 1,150 page views per user.
This is according to data released by Google’s ad management and ad serving technology platform, DoubleClick, for its network of partners.
DoubleClick also reported that Facebook users boast a high level of online engagement.
According to a 2010 survey of American college freshmen, today’s average college student has the worst emotional health of any student group previously studied before. Some of the main reasons cited for stress in college students have been their academic results, the difficulty in adjusting to college life, and also the question of finance and how they would pay for their college education.
The Japanese government has lifted the last remaining bans on beef shipments from the Iwate Fukushima and Tochigi prefectures, assuring consumers that a system had been set up to prevent tainted meat from reaching the market.
Barely a month ago, Japanese government officials restricted beef shipments after elevated caesium levels were found in Tokyo from meat shipped from a farm in Minamisoma, a town just outside the no-go zone.
