Secretary of State Negroponte to visit China

Secretary of State Negroponte to visit China."Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also talked with Rice about the situation in the Middle East, expressing China's deep concern, the official Xinhua news agency added."We hope that parties concerned could halt military operations and armed conflicts immediately, ease the situation and create conditions for continuing to settle disputes through political means," Xinhua quoted Yang as saying.Rice's visit would have been her last to China as secretary of state under the outgoing Bush administration, and comes after she canceled her attendance at closing ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics in August due to the crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.Israeli troops and tanks invaded Gaza by land on Sunday after eight days of air attacks in retaliation for Hamas firing rockets deep into the Jewish territory.Rice said on Friday she had no plans "at this point" to travel to the Middle East to help reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza.(Reporting by Ian Ransom and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jerry Norton) World China. DUBLIN, Ireland(Business Wire)Research and Markets( http://) hasannounced the addition of the "Haircare in South Korea" report to theiroffering. The Haircare in South Korea industry profile is an essential resource fortop-level data and analysis covering the haircare industry. It includes detaileddata on market size and segmentation, plus textual and graphical analysis of thekey trends and competitive landscape, leading companies and demographicinformation.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Russian natural gas supplies to Romania remained at reduced levels on Monday as a result of the Russia-Ukraine gas row, the head of the Black Sea state's state-controlled pipeline operator Transgaz said. World Russia"Gas inflows are still around 30 percent lower than contracted levels," Transgaz director Ioan Rusu told Reuters on Monday. "This situation may continue until January 11, Gazprom's Balkans office told us."Last Friday, gas imports fell suddenly by 30 to 40 percent, with daily volumes reduced by around 3 million cubic meters.Bucharest has said Romania can compensate for the fall as it has some 3 billion cubic meters of gas in store, with the country able to draw on around 25 million cubic meters per day."We are drawing a maximum of 26 million," Rusu said.At the weekend, Economy Minister Adriean Videanu said Romanian consumers had not been affected.Romania produces around 65 percent of its annual domestic consumption from local natural gas fields and imports around one third from Russia.(Reporting by Radu Marinas; Editing by William Hardy) World Russia. By Nick Tattersall Stocks LAGOS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Nigerian energy firm Oando PlcUNIP.LG said on Monday it had acquired a stake in the Akepooffshore oilfield as it diversifies from fuel distribution andretail into oil refining and production.

Oando, one of Nigeria's top gasoline retailers which islisted on the Lagos and Johannesburg (OAOJ.J) stock exchanges,said it had bought 75 percent of Toronto-based Exile Resources'(ERI.V) 40 percent working interest in the field It did not give a value for the acquisition. It said the agreement, which included Oando reimbursingExile's past expenses on the field, meant it would end up with a30 percent equity stake in the entire project. "We are excited about this acquisition as it is in line withour plans to boost our portfolio with near-term oil and gasassets," said Tunde Ogunnaike, chief executive of Oando'supstream arm Oando Production and Exploration Limited (OEPL). "As the technical and management partners, we will beconducting immediately additional technical studies tofacilitate the drilling of more wells to fast-track thedevelopment of this block," he said. The Akepo field is in Oil Mining License (OML) 90, inshallow water off Nigeria's south-eastern shore.

giant Chevron (CVX.N) but was awarded to thecurrent operator, Nigeria's Sogenal, in 2003. "In the current uncertain financial climate, Oando'sfinancial strength and capability and experience in the Nigeriansector will enable the project to move forward to first oilproduction in the earliest timeframe," Exile Resources ChiefExecutive Tony Henshaw said. Oando, which sells or distributes one in every five litresof petroleum products in Nigeria, has been expandingaggressively with upstream investments. It acquired Royal Dutch Shell's (RDSa.L) 49.8 percent stakein two offshore blocks OML 125 and 134 in February lastyear, making it the first Nigerian firm to secure oil productionassets from a multinational operating in the West African state.