Finance and Economic

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s energy business agreed to buy an 81-megawatt wind power project from Invenergy Wind LLC to expand production in Illinois.

The Bishop Hill II project, which is under construction, will use 50 General Electric Co. 1.62-megawatt turbines, according to a statement Friday from Berkshire’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. in Omaha, Neb.

Berkshire, led by Warren Buffett, has been expanding renewable production at the energy unit, which also produces power with coal and natural gas. Mid-American has invested about $6 billion in wind generation and built or acquired more than 3,300 megawatts of the renewable energy source in states including Iowa, Wyoming, Washington and Oregon since 2004. Last month, the unit agreed to buy the $2 billion Topaz solar project in California from First Solar Inc payday loans.

Wind “meets current and future energy needs in an environmentally efficient and cost-effective manner,” said MidAmerican Chairman and Chief Executive Greg Abel.

The Bishop Hill II wind project is near the town of Galva, Ill., about 40 miles northwest of Peoria. The project is expected to be in commercial operation in the fourth quarter. A unit of Ameren Corp. in Illinois has agreed to buy electricity from the project under a 20-year power-purchase agreement. Terms of the Invenergy deal weren’t disclosed.

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Iran’s navy said Sunday it test-fired an advanced surface-to-air missile during a drill in international waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-sixth of the world’s oil supply.

Iran’s state TV said the missile, named Mehrab, or Altar, is designed to evade radar and was developed by Iranian scientists. The report said the missile was tested Sunday but provided no further details.

A leading Iranian lawmaker said the sea maneuvers serve as practice for closing the Strait of Hormuz if the West blocks Iran’s oil sales. After top Iranian officials made the same threat a week ago, military commanders emphasized that Iran has no intention of blocking the waterway now.

The exercise covers a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of water beyond the Strait of Hormuz, including parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

The drill, which could bring Iranian ships into proximity with U.S. Navy vessels that operate in the same area, is Iran’s latest show of strength in the face of mounting international criticism over its nuclear program. The West fears Iran’s program aims to develop atomic weapons _ a charge Tehran denies, insisting it’s for peaceful purposes only.

The 10-day exercise drew significant attention after the Iranian warnings about closing the strait. Iranian military officials later appeared to back away from that threat.

A spokesman for the exercise, Rear Adm. Mahmoud Mousavi, made a similar conciliatory comment on Sunday.

“We won’t disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. We are not after this,” the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Prominent lawmaker Ismail Kowsari offered a different view. He said the war games are part of Iran’s preparations to close the vital waterway if sanctions are imposed.

“Iran’s armed forces have practiced operations to close the Strait of Hormuz several times,” the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Kowsari as saying Sunday.

“If we feel that the enemies want to prevent our oil exports, definitely we will close the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

Mousavi said the missile that was tested Sunday is one of the newest in the navy’s arsenal.

“It’s equipped with state-of-the-art technology and a built-in system that enables it to thwart jammers,” Mousavi told state TV. One way to deflect surface-to-air missiles is to confuse their guidance systems.

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Big Oil continued to make big money in the second quarter.

Industry giants Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday reported a surge in earnings, helped by higher prices for oil, gasoline and other fuels. Even BP, still paying for the Gulf oil spill, made more than $5 billion in the quarter.

The windfall drew jeers from environmental groups that oppose tax subsidies for the industry. They said it shows the industry doesn’t need extra help from the government, especially at a time when lawmakers need to chop billions of dollars from the budget.

“Why should those who are posting record profits be exempt from sharing the sacrifices we all will be making?” said Jacqueline Savitz, senior campaign director for Oceana, an environmental advocacy group.

President Obama said in April that he wanted to cut roughly $4 billion in government subsidies for oil companies. The industry argues that doing so will discourage oil companies from developing fields in the U.S.

Argus Research analyst Phil Weiss noted that oil profits appear huge in comparison to almost any other industry, but they’re relatively tame when considering how expensive it is to extract oil from the ground no credit check payday loans. Exxon, for example, earned $10.7 billion after taking in a whopping $125.5 billion from April to June. That’s a profit margin of less than 10 percent, much lower than margins for pharmaceutical, technology or service companies, Weiss said.

“Those businesses have much richer bottom lines,” he said.

As they announced their quarterly profits, oil executives said they’ll devote billions of dollars more to finding new deposits that will eventually bring more supply to the market. Much of that attention will be focused on the U.S.

In the April-June period, Exxon’s profits jumped 41 percent. Shell’s net income nearly doubled to $8.7 billion and BP earned $5.6 billion compared with a loss of $17.2 billion last year. All three missed Wall Street expectations, however, as they reported weaker oil production from fields outside the U.S. Foreign entitlement contracts force them to take less oil as prices rise, analysts said.

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Businesses requested more airplanes, autos, and oil drilling equipment in May. The jump in factory orders after a sluggish spring suggests supply disruptions stemming from the Japan crisis are fading.

Factory orders rose 0.8 percent in May, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That followed a downwardly revised drop of 0.9 percent in April.

The increase pushed factory orders to $445.3 billion. That’s almost 32 percent higher than the low point during the recession, reached in March 2009.

Much of the increase was driven by a 36.5 percent increase in orders for aircraft, a volatile category. But there were also signs of strength in areas that had slowed sharply in the previous month.

Auto and auto parts orders rose 2 percent. And a measure of business investment rose 1.6 percent, after falling 0.4 percent the previous month. Companies invested more in computers and equipment.

Orders for so-called nondurable goods, such as food, clothing, oil, and plastics, fell 0.2 percent in May. But that was partly because oil prices dropped.

Until this spring, manufacturing had been one of the strongest sectors of the economy since the recession ended two years ago.

Economists largely blamed the weak period on high gas prices and the impact of the earthquake in Japan, which led to a parts shortage that has hampered U.S. manufacturers. Those factors appear to be easing. Gas prices have come down since peaking in early May. And the manufacturing sector expanded at a faster pace in June after slowing sharply in May, according to the Institute of Supply Management.

“There are encouraging signs that the second half will likely get better, particularly for manufacturers,” said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s Analytics short term personal loan.

A recovery in the auto sector is one reason production is picking up. Japanese automakers with plants in the U.S., such as Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., sharply cut production in the spring. But they are restoring output. Toyota executives say their North American factories will be back to 100 percent by September.

Busier auto plants would help boost the economy in the second half of this year. The economy grew at a 1.9 percent annual pace in the January-March quarter. Most economists expect a similarly weak pace of growth in the April-June quarter.

The economy is expected to grow at a 3.2 percent in the second half of this year, according to an Associated Press survey of 38 top economists.

Growth must be stronger to significantly lower the unemployment rate, which was 9.1 percent last month. The economy would need to grow 5 percent for a whole year to significantly bring down the unemployment rate. Economic growth of just 3 percent a year would hold the unemployment steady and keep up with population growth.

Employers added only 54,000 net new jobs in May, much slower than the average gain of 220,000 per month in the previous three months.

The government reports Friday on hiring data in June. Economists expect the economy added only 90,000 jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged, according to survey by FactSet.

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NATO said Saturday it has begun ramping up its airstrikes on military targets in the western part of Libya, where rebel forces claim a string of advances through territory still largely under Moammar Gadhafi’s control.

In a boost for Gadhafi, meanwhile, the African Union called on member states to disregard an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against the Libyan leader. That could enable Gadhafi to travel freely on the continent. The warrant was issued for his alleged role in a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters earlier this year.

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim praised the AU’s decision, saying “we salute their courage.” He said Gadhafi had no immediate plans to leave the country, however.

“We are at war with the mightiest armies in the world, and the safety of the leader is a must for us. So we need to keep him safe to lead us through this difficult time,” he said.

Libya welcomed a road map for dialogue drafted by the AU that outlines plans for negotiations between the government and rebels, Moussa said.

He confirmed that Gadhafi would not be involved in the proposed talks, and expressed hope that a cease-fire could be reached “in the next few days, or weeks at most.”

Gadhafi’s regime is determined to stand firm against opposition fighters moving from southern and eastern fronts toward the capital, Tripoli. The rebels have largely solidified control over the eastern third of Libya but have struggled to push out of pockets they hold in the west.

NATO’s comments about its latest airstrikes suggest the alliance is hoping to tip the balance further in the rebels’ favor despite threats by Gadhafi to carry out attacks in Europe unless the airstrikes stop.

The coalition said it has destroyed more than 50 military targets in the west this week. It says it is targeting government forces in cities and along “major lines of communication.”

“We are engaging all military assets that are being used to indiscriminately target the civilian population throughout Libya,” Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of NATO’s Libya mission, said in the statement sent Saturday but dated the previous day.

NATO said more than 1.8 million civilians are at risk from a buildup of forces loyal to Gadhafi in western cities along the coast and in the Nafusa mountain range southwest of the capital.

Rebels control several Nafusa mountain towns and the vital port city of Misrata. The rest of western Libya, including the heavily protected capital Tripoli, remain under Gadhafi’s control payday loans.

Col. Ahmed Bani, a rebel spokesman, said Saturday that rebel fighters have pulled back in some parts of the west, in what he described as a “strategic retreat,” but said they would go on the offensive again in the coming days. Asked about the NATO attacks in the area, he said they have been helpful to the rebels, but did not elaborate.

Bani told a news conference in the rebel-controlled eastern city of Benghazi that the rebels are not sending reinforcements to the west and that the fighters there don’t need more weapons.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States began striking Gadhafi’s forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on March 19, giving the rebels air support. NATO assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31. It is joined by a number of Arab allies.

In recent days, NATO said it has repeatedly hit Tripoli and Gharyan, a city at the eastern gateway to the Nafusa mountains and on a major road to capital. Gharyan sits about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Tripoli.

It also claims to have struck a network of tunnels storing military equipment about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of the capital.

NATO said in a separate statement it struck two armed vehicles Friday near Bir al-Ghanam, a town rebels from the mountains have been trying to take along a road leading toward the capital.

Gadhafi threatened Friday to target European “homes, offices, families” unless NATO halts its bombing campaign. His defiant audio address was played to thousands of supporters packed into Tripoli’s main square during on of the biggest pro-government rallies since the airstrikes began.

It’s not clear whether Gadhafi can make good on the threats.

In the past, the Libyan leader supported various militant groups, including the IRA and several Palestinian factions, while Libyan agents were blamed for attacks in Europe, including a Berlin disco bombing in 1986 and the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, mostly Americans. Libya later acknowledged responsibility for Lockerbie.

In recent years, however, Gadhafi was believed to have severed his ties with extremist groups when he moved to reconcile with Europe and the United States.

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General Mills Inc.’s fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 51 percent on stronger sales but was hampered by higher ingredient costs.

The Minneapolis-based maker of Cheerios, Lucky Charms and other foods also gave a 2012 earnings outlook below analysts’ expectations.

General Mills earned $320.2 million, or 48 cents per share, for the period ended May 29. That’s up from $211.9 million, or 31 cents per share, a year ago.

Adjusted earnings increased to 52 cents per share from 41 cents per share, meeting analysts’ forecasts.

Revenue climbed 3 percent to $3.63 billion from $3.53 billion, but missed Wall Street’s estimate of $3.66 billion.

The company saw its biggest sales gain in its Small Planet Foods organic and natural foods division, with its snacks and Yoplait divisions also reporting increased sales.

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With rotating strikes at Canada Post now in its second week and delivery service slated to be cut back, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt met with the two sides Friday, urging them to break the impasse.

Stock futures are rising as investors await a raft of government reports about the state of the economy. The market’s major indicators have fallen for six straight sessions.

Ahead of the opening bell Thursday, Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 41, or 0.3 percent, at 12,071. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures are up 5, or 0.4 percent, at 1,282. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 8, or 0.3 percent, at 2,255.

The Labor Department will report on the number of new applications for unemployment benefits last week cheap business cards. The number is expected to dip slightly from last week to 419,000. A number below 375,000 signals jobs are growing.

The government will report on the size of the trade deficit in April. Economists expect the deficit to have widened slightly from its March level.

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Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency arrested one of the West African nation’s top politicians Sunday night on suspicion of defrauding the oil-rich country, an official said.

Officers arrested outgoing House of Representatives speaker Dimeji Bankole at his home in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja after the lawmaker resisted arrest for more than four hours, said Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Babafemi gave no additional details about the allegations facing Bankole, other than to say that he would be held “in custody to enable him to have sufficient time to answer questions on the numerous fraud allegations against him.” The lawmaker apparently refused several requests by officials to be interviewed.

“An intelligence report … showed that the former speaker was planning to leave Abuja for Lagos on Sunday evening and thereafter flee the country through an illegal route,” a statement from Babafemi read.

It was not immediately clear if Bankole had a lawyer. His spokesman could not be reached for comment early Monday morning.

Bankole conceded defeat to an opposition party candidate in Nigeria’s April elections, one of a number of prominent politicians who lost their seats in the country’s National Assembly.

Many pointed to Bankole’s defeat as a sign that Nigeria’s elections, typically marred by fraud and thuggery, had improved over the nation’s 12 years as a democracy. However, ballot-box stuffing and violence dominated later polls, with more than 800 people dying in religious rioting after the presidential election personal loans for bad credit.

Nigeria, one of the top crude oil suppliers to the U.S., has a long history of corruption, with one officials once estimating the country has lost more than $380 billion to graft since gaining its independence from Britain in 1960. Corruption trickles down from corrupt politicians in Abuja to the lowest police officer shaking down bribes from motorists at one of the country’s many traffic checkpoint.

Bankole’s detention is the highest profile case in many months for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, founded by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003. While critics say Obasanjo used the agency to go after his opponents, officers did make major arrests under then-chief Nuhu Ribadu.

After late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration forced Ribadu out of office in 2008, the agency largely fell quiet. A U.S. diplomatic cable released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks shows diplomats have questioned new leader Farida Waziri’s preparedness and willingness to take on the country’s powerful political elite. Waziri has been slow to prosecute many of the high-ranking politicians once under heavy scrutiny _ even after Yar’Adua’s May 2010 death.

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