Rosneft buys out mysterious buyer of Yukos unit
Moscow: The Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft has bought out BaikalFinansGroup, the mysterious buyer of Yukos' most important production unit.

The ITAR-Tass and Interfax have reported that Rosneft had bought 100 per cent of shares in the little-known company, BaikalFinansGroup.

The move gives Rosneft more than three-quarters of the shares in Yukos' 'Yuganskneftegaz' production unit, which BaikalFinansGroup bought at a government auction on Sunday.

"Rosneft bought 100 per cent of shares previously owned by BaikalFinansGroup," an unnamed Rosneft official was quoted as saying by the Interfax agency.

In the past several months, the Russian government has announced it would fold Rosneft into the oil assets of the natural gas giant, Gazprom, and form a new company.

That company, called 'Gazpromneft', had been widely expected to purchase the 'Yuganskneftegaz' production unit at Sunday's auction, but was stopped just days earlier by a US bankruptcy court order.

'Yuganskneftegaz' pumps about 11 per cent of Russia's oil. (AP)
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EU court bounces Microsoft
Brussels: A European Union (EU) court has ordered Microsoft Corp to change its business practices and immediately market a stripped-down version of Windows. The ruling comes in the wake of Microsoft losing an appeal in the court against sanctions imposed by EU regulators.

Microsoft, which will also share specifications with rival makers of server software, had tried to delay penalties that were imposed by the executive European Commission in March. The commission had found the US software giant abused the virtual monopoly of Windows and also levied a record $665 million fine.

Microsoft said it would comply immediately by introducing a stripped-down version of its computer operating system without its Windows Media Player music and video software next month.
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