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PetroChina has agreed to buy a 60% stake in two planned Canadian oil sands projects for $1.7bn (£1bn).

The firm, which is Asia’s largest oil company, is buying the holdings in the MacKay River and Dover fields from Canadian firm Athabasca Oil Sands.

The two fields hold about five billion barrels of oil, and Canada’s government is expected to back the deal.

Canada’s Alberta oil sands hold the world’s second-largest crude reserves, but the cost of extraction is high.

This is because the process of separating the oil from the sand is both energy and labour intensive, and as such it has only been cost effective when global oil prices have been high.

Analysts say world oil prices need to be above $80 a barrel for the Canadian oil sands to be viable.

Oil is currently trading at about $70 a barrel after hitting highs of $147 last summer, and a low of near $30 at the start of this year.

"The Canadian government is looking for investment and injections of capital," said William Lacey, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital.

"I don’t see why this wouldn’t be viewed as a positive."

Canada’s oil sands are estimated to hold a total 173 billion barrels of oil, the world’s second-largest reserves behind Saudi Arabia.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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TRANSFER UPDATES – window closes at 1700 BST

To get involved text us your views & comments on 81111. (Not all contributions can be used)

By Jonathan Stevenson

0748: The deadline slammed shut in Spain’s La Liga last night, by the way, with Ukraine defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy sealing his £22m move to Barcelona and the Catalan club selling Eidur Gudjohnsen to Monaco for about £1.8m. Real Madrid did not buy Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich, if any Chelsea/Manchester United fans are interested.0744: There may, of course, be an hilarious leftfield option for Club of the Day today, and I’m not talking about Spurs, Man City, or even Newcastle. No, there is an outfit that has been linked with no lesser names than Benjani, Kanu, Freddie Ljungberg and Christian Vieri, once the world’s most expensive footballer. Step forward Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Notts County.

From Jim, via text on 81111: "If Paul Hart’s reading here’s my advice for today: sign Benjani before breakfast, then unhook the phones and lock Kranjcar and James in a cupboard until 1701. Job done!"0735: Oh no, it’s started already. "Which centre-back are Forest gonna buy today, Stevo" asks John from London. If deadline days of yore are anything to go by Johnny, I’m betting they won’t.0732: Reckon there’ll be any crazy deadline day deals today How aboutArsenal making a cheeky £12m bid for Manchester United’s, er, combative midfielder Darren FletcherMore unlikely than Robinho to Man City this time last year!0728: …who, despite lying a lofty second in the league, have been linked with all sorts of players once again. They really are a deadline day dream. Coming in, allegedly, are David James, Niko Kranjcar and Martin Petrov, and going out is David Bentley. If the rumours are right and Man City are offering them £10m+Petrov for Bentley, that is a magnificent piece of business down at The Lane.0723: Slightly disappointed with how much business was going on yesterday, if I’m honest. Michael Turner to Sunderland, Diego Arismendi to Stoke, Tal Ben Haim to Portsmouth, Manuel da Costa to West Ham, Stefan Maierhofer and Segundo Castillo to Wolves… Don’t they know it’s deadline day today Thank heavens for Tottenham…

From Anon, via text on 81111: "My nan just texted me to say she is serving James Collins a full English at the B&B she runs in Aston."0715: So, an early plea. The 606 boards don’t open until 0900, so you’ll have to whack texts over until then. The magic number is 81111, and I’d be disappointed if it wasn’t anything other than red-hot all day long. I don’t care whether you’re at Heathrow or not, get yourself in the deadline day mixer. 0710: If you’ve just rolled out of bed, you’re feeling a little tender and you need your appetite to be whet,look no further than Tuesday’s gossip column, bringing you all the could-bes, would-bes and should-bes.It’s expanding as I type these very words, too.0706: For the next 12 hours or so, we’re going to bring you every spit and cough of transfer activity on deadline day. It is absolutely imperative that, in order to keep us sane, you get yourselves involved in this, the most glorious of all days to be a football fan.0700: Happy transfer deadline day. I don’t really need to say any more than that, do I

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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China’s manufacturing sector continued to recover in August, two separate monthly surveys have indicated.

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing’s purchasing managers’ index rose to a 16-month high of 54 points in August, up from 53.3 in July.

With any figure above 50 indicating growth, this was the sixth month of expansion. A separate manufacturing index compiled by HSBC also rose.

The government’s stimulus spending is continuing to lift factory output.

First launched in November of last year, Beijing is spending $586bn (£370bn) between now and the end of 2010 on housing and infrastructure projects across the nation, and post-earthquake reconstruction in the south west of the country.

China’s factories are also continuing to benefit from an upturn in export orders as the global economy continues to recover.

Recovery ‘on track’

HSBC’s index of manufacturing output rose to 55.1 in August from 52.8 in July, its fifth month of growth.

The latest signs that China’s vast manufacturing sector is continuing to recover comes despite some sharp declines in Chinese shares in recent weeks, due to fears that stocks are overvalued.

"China’s equity market has taken a battering in the last few weeks, but the economic data suggests that the recovery remains on track," said Brian Jackson, a strategist with Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong.

The most recent official figures showed that the Chinese economy grew at an annual rate of 7.9% between April and June, up from 6.1% in the first quarter, but less than the double-digit growth seen between 2003 and 2007.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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A Sri Lankan Tamil journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday has now been given an award for courageous and ethical journalism.

JS Tissainayagam has been named the first recipient of the Peter Mackler Award by the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders.

He was found guilty of "causing communal disharmony".

Mr Tissainayagam was arrested in 2008 and charged with inciting violence in articles in his magazine.

He was also accused of receiving funds from Tamil Tiger rebels. He has denied supporting violence.

The world’s largest organisation of journalists, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has condemned the judgement – which also sentences Mr Tissainayagam to hard labour while in prison – and described it as "disproportionate, brutal and inhumane".

The Tamil journalist has already been in detention for a year-and-a-half and was one of a handful of journalists mentioned in May by US President Barack Obama, who called them "emblematic examples" of reporters jailed for their work.

The Sri Lankan government said Mr Obama had been misinformed.

The case of JS Tissainayagam has received widespread attention in Sri Lanka, and international rights group have been campaigning for his release – they say Sri Lanka is using anti-terror laws to silence peaceful critics.

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Bulb bows out to mixed applause

A European Union ban on the manufacture and import of 100-watt and frosted incandescent light bulbs, in use since the 19th century, has come into force.

They are being phased out to encourage the switch to more energy-efficient fluorescent or halogen lamps, which use up to 80% less electricity.

Critics say the new bulbs are gloomy, and can trigger headaches and rashes in people with light sensitive disorders.

The ban is one of a series of measures in the EU to tackle climate change.

The less powerful clear bulbs will be progressively banned until all traditional bulbs disappear from shops across Europe in 2012.

The new rules follow an agreement reached by the 27 EU governments last year.

Some consumers have been stockpiling the old-style versions over concerns about the higher cost of the long-life bulbs, or for medical and sentimental reasons.

Several nations including Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and the Philippines have also announced plans to phase out traditional bulbs.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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By Sanjaya Jena in Bhubaneshwar

An outbreak of diarrhoea in the eastern Indian state of Orissa has claimed 26 lives, a state minister has said.

The deaths have been reported in several villages in Kalahandi district, Health Minister Prasanna Acharya said.

Local newspapers put the death toll at 38. Health officials say 237 people suffering from the disease have been admitted to hospitals.

Diarrhoea is a major killer in the world and is thought to be responsible for around 4% of all deaths.

Remote villages

A team of doctors from the federal National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) has travelled to the affected villages and begun an investigation into the causes of the outbreak.

DIARRHOEA

• Diarrhoea is the passage of three or more loose or liquid stools per day, or more frequently than is normal for the individual
• Usually a symptom of gastrointestinal infection, caused by a variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms
• Infection spread through contaminated food or drinking-water, or from person to person due to poor hygiene
• Severe diarrhoea leads to fluid loss, and may be life-threatening

Consumption of contaminated water and rotting food by local people may have led to the deaths, health officials say.

Doctors and paramedics are struggling to reach the remote villages, often having to walk five to seven kilometres in the absence of any roads.

Health Minister Prasanna Acharya said 100 doctors travelling in mobile medical vans had been deployed to fight the outbreak.

There is an acute shortage of doctors in Kalahandi district – against the government-sanctioned 173 doctors in local hospitals, only 101 have been employed.

Many doctors are unwilling to serve in remote areas in India.

Kalahandi is one of the poorest parts of India and hunger and starvation deaths have been reported from this district in the past.

Drinking water here often comes from waterfalls and drains, which are usually contaminated.

More than 100 people died in a major outbreak of cholera two years ago in the Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput districts of Orissa.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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