Water taxi to begin to ply along St Pete Central Route Wed.

ST PETERSBURG, July 21 (Itar-Tass) - Neva River water taxi begins to
ply Wednesday along the so-called Central Route in the historical part of
the city -- from the Bronze Horseman Wharf to the Sinop Embankment (Moskva
Hotel).
Four boats of Seacamper type carry 12 passengers each. The boats are
to have stops near the Peter and Paul Fortress (Kronverk Bridge), the
Summer Garden, the Arsenal, Robespierre, Smolny, and Sverdlovsky
Embankments (Okhta Hotel).
The water taxi service will function from eight a.m. to eight p.m. at
30-minute intervals and travel time will be 45 minutes. Ticket price for
adults will be 50 roubles and that for children will be 25 roubles.
Nikolai Asaul, chairman of the city government's committee for
transport and transit policy, has told Itar-Tass that three water taxi
lines successfully operate in the city now -- the Primorsky (seaside),
Prigorodny (suburban) and Kronstadt Routes.
Petersburgers and guests of the city readily engage the services of
water taxis. The passengers like the cityscape as seen from the water. The
main thing is that they evade the boredom of hours-long traffic jams on
overland roads.

.BP sells energy assets in Canada to reimburse oilspill costs.

OTTAWA, July 21 (Itar-Tass) - The British Petroleum (BP) Company has
sold its energy assets in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British
Columbia to reimburse the costs connected with the elimination of the
aftermath of the oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico. The CBC television
network reported Tuesday that the American Apache Corporation is the
purchaser of the assets.
Oil reserves in Canada's oil bearing areas, which BP sells, are
estimated at 224 million barrels. Within the scope of the deal BP also
sells its energy assets in Texas and New Mexico, as well as those in
Egypt. American assets are sold for $3,100 million, those in Egypt for
$650 million. The aggregate value of the deal, according to CBC, will be
$7,000 million. As a result, the energy assets which the Apache
Corporation is to control in the western areas of Canada will grow by 42
percent to amount to 531 million barrels. The deal is yet to get
endorsement from the regulatory agencies of Canada, the United States, and
Egypt, as well as the European Union.
CBC recalled that in June BP had agreed to set up a fund amounting to
$20,000 million to pay compensations for damage done by the huge-scale
spill of oil from the stricken oil-production well in the Gulf of Mexico.

.Queen Elizabeth invites Barack Obama to UK for state visit.

LONDON, July 21 (Itar-Tass) - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
has invited US President Barack Obama to pay a State visit to the UK, the
British Prime Minister's spokesman announced.
British Premier David Cameron, who is currently in Washington on his
first visit as Premier, delivered Her Majesty's official invitation to Mr.
Obama in the White House. A date for the US president's visit is to be
fixed with the Buckingham Palace, Cameron's spokesman said.
Earlier Elizabeth II had already received Barack Obama and his wife
Michelle in her palace during the London summit of the Group of Twenty in
April 2009.
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