News Portal, latest news from around the world.

(CNN) -- Russian law enforcement officers raided the Russian offices of oil giant BP, the company said Wednesday, blasting what it called "illegal" interference in its work.

The company issued a statement about the raid, saying there were "no legitimate grounds for such a raid," and that the court decision it was based on should not be allowed to stand.

The raid is related to a long-running battle between BP and Russian partner, TNK-BP, over oil exploration in the Russian Arctic.

It comes a day after ExxonMobil signed a deal with Russian oil company Rosneft that includes Arctic exploration, a blow to BP.

BP said the raid targeted a part of the company that was not involved in the dispute with TNK.

It was ordered by a Russian court in the city of Tyumen, BP said.

Editor's note: The 240-page final report of the Commission on Wartime Contracting is online at http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/.

Washington (CNN) -- A nonpartisan panel reporting to Congress says the United States is wasting $12 million a day among contracts issued in support of American efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Commission on Wartime Contracting spent the past three years documenting whether American funding went where it was supposed to. The findings show misdirected money has totaled between $31 billion and $60 billion, and that both the government and the contractors are to blame for fraud and waste.

Commissioner Katherine Schinasi told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that the numbers don't seem to have an impact on people concerned about spending.

To make it easier to grasp the magnitude of the problem, Schinasi said, "we've broken it down to $12 million a day."

"We are wasting $12 million a day," she said, "maybe that will make a difference."

The study looked at contracts from 2001 through the projected end of fiscal year 2011.

Solar panel maker Solyndra today said that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after failing to successfully compete against lower-cost Chinese manufacturers. It is one of largest failures ever suffered by venture capitalists, and a major black eye for a U.S. Department of Energy that loaned the company more than $500 million.

The company has not yet filed its bankruptcy papers, but did say in a press release that it plans to evaluate options that could include a sale of its business and licensing of its technology. It also said that 1,100 full-time and part-time employees will be laid off, effective immediately.

Since being founded in 2005 to build solar panels for commercial rooftops, Solyndra had raised nearly $1 billion in private equity financing. The biggest backer was the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which was listed as holding more than a 35% equity stake when Solyndra filed for a $300 million IPO in late 2009 (it would later cancel the offering, due to "adverse market conditions). Other significant shareholders included Madrone Partners, a VC firm affiliated with Wal-Mart's Walton family, with an 11% stake, U.S. Venture Partners (10.19%), RockPort Capital Partners (7.5%), CMEA Ventures (6.81%), Redpoint Ventures (5.94%) and Virgin Green Fund.

(FT) -- Chinese environmental groups have accused Apple suppliers in the country of systemic pollution, underscoring the pressures on one of the world's biggest companies as opposition grows in China to environmental degradation as the cost of economic growth.

In a report released on Wednesday, five Chinese non-governmental organisations said the US technology company was using suppliers with public records of environmental violations and taking "advantage of the loopholes in developing countries' environmental management systems".

The accusations escalate a standoff between Apple and Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a co-author of the report, which is threatening to damage Apple's image. The groups have sought to persuade 29 big electronics brands over the past year to work with them on containing pollution in their supply chain, but singled out Apple as unresponsive.

In a highly unusual move for Apple, the company relented just hours before the report's publication, inviting Mr Ma to start a dialogue on his allegations. Mr Ma said Apple told him some of the factories on his list were not the US company's suppliers but gave him no details.

Although Apple does not directly manufacture anything itself and does not disclose, with very few exceptions, the names of its suppliers, the Chinese environmental groups say they used public information and court documents to form a list of more than 20 Apple suppliers with environmental violations to their name. These suppliers also work for other companies.

(CNN) -- The British government has started delivering money that it unfroze to a bank in Libya, said William Hague, Foreign Secretary, in a statement Wednesday.

The Royal Air Force delivered 280 million dinars (about 140 million pounds) to the Central Bank of Libya in Benghazi, the statement said.

The money is among billions of dollars ordered frozen by the United Nations when the crisis began.

The money "will be used to pay the wages of Libyan public sector employees, including nurses, doctors, teachers and police officers," the statement said.

It also said the money will be used to pay the disabled and refugees, as well as medicines and food.

Meanwhile, France is releasing up to 1.5 billion Euros frozen at the start of the war in Libya, the French foreign minister told Radio RTL on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said France has obtained permission to release the money to the National Transitional Council, the rebel leadership.

"It is money that belongs to Libya -- to the NTC so that it can begin rebuilding," Juppe said.

(FT) -- Solid first-half profits at China's state-owned oil companies have paved the way for further expansion overseas as the country's oil needs continue to rise.

Sinopec, the world's second-largest oil refiner, said on Sunday it intended to raise up to Rmb50bn ($7.8bn) through the sale of bonds and convertible bonds to fund projects, boost working capital and pay debts. The instruments will be issued or placed with existing shareholders, Sinopec said.

The fundraising plan accompanied the company's announcement of a 12 per cent rise in net profit, to Rmb41bn, in the first half of the year, beating analysts' expectations.

Results were rosier still for offshore producer Cnooc, which reported first-half net profit of Rmb39bn, up 51.4 per cent, despite production disruptions from a recent oil spill.

PetroChina, the listed subsidiary of China's largest oil and gas producer CNPC, reported net profit of Rmb66bn for the first half, up 1 per cent from a year earlier, the weakest profit growth among its peers. Profits at both PetroChina and Sinopec were dented by Beijing's price controls on fuel, which capped gasoline and diesel prices this spring even while Brent soared above $120 a barrel.

Analysts agreed Chinese oil companies were likely to sustain their interest in overseas acquisitions as they seek to grow their production base.