Evening Edition

The BBC said Hayward was negotiating his exit and an announcement was likely by Monday when the BP board meets ahead of second quarter results expected to reveal a 30-billion-dollar provision for paying for the disaster.

In the Gulf, US oil spill chief Thad Allen said BP’s long-awaited operation to permanently plug the leaking Gulf of Mexico well had been delayed and will now probably begin the week after next.

With blue skies reappearing over the Louisiana coast, officials raced to resume work to permanently “kill” the ruptured well which has spilled millions of gallons of oil into the sea since April in the most severe US environmental disaster ever.

The drill rig, Development Driller 3 (DD3), was among some 10 ships that evacuated the area ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie. It was to begin reattaching to the well site immediately, according to the US official overseeing the spill response.

Citing a senior BP source, the BBC said that an announcement is due shortly on Hayward, whose future has been in doubt for several weeks over his handling of the worst environmental disaster in US history.

There is a “strong likelihood” that he will be replaced by Bob Dudley, who took over management of BP’s response to the spill from Hayward last month, the public broadcaster added.

It was only three years ago that Hayward took over from his scandal-mired predecessor with the promise of a fresh start and a vow to forge a greener, safer future for the energy giant after a number of ecological disasters.

But while a PhD in geology and three decades of experience ensured Hayward knew BP’s core business inside out, he appeared ill-equipped as the public face of the catastrophe that emerged off the Louisiana coast in April.

A major vessel charged with drilling a relief well to finally stop the BP oil spill arrived back at the Gulf of Mexico well site on Saturday after briefly evacuating due to a tropical storm.

US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said the first chance to seal the well for good could come in the next few days, as response crews quickly scaled operations back up after the storm fizzled.

Two days after the US Navy sailors went missing in Logar province, just south of Kabul, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it had no fresh information on their whereabouts.

After denying for 24 hours that they were involved, a Taliban spokesman Sunday claimed the insurgents had ambushed the pair, killing one and taking the other captive.

Geithner was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he thought the economy would dip back into recession before things got better.

“No, I don’t,” he answered.

Cavendish powered to the finish line alone for the second consecutive year to claim his fifth stage success of this year’s race and 15th of his career.

Italian Alessandro Petacchi, the winner of two stages, finished second on the stage to secure the green jersey for the race’s points competition while France’s Anthony Charteau won the best climber’s polka dot jersey.

The Italian giants were fined 100,000 dollars for breaching sporting regulations after double world champion Alonso was allowed by teammate Felipe Massa to pass 18 laps from the end despite the Brazilian having led since the start.

Although the FIA, the sport’s governing body, said the Ferrari 1-2 result will stand, the team must still appear before the World Motor Sport Council.

Alonso’s win not only revitalised his bid for a third world title, it also crushed his Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa’s hopes of victory.

He was told to move over as ‘Fernando is faster’ in a message that signalled he had to let him pass – reviving the old arguments about team orders in Formula One.

Market reaction will be crucial to determine whether tests on the health of 91 EU banks, published on Friday, have dispelled suspicions that hidden problems and incorrectly priced risks lurk in their balance sheets.

The unprecdented decision to publish detailed results of the tests follows the global financial meltdown and the crisis in Europe in the last six months, compounded by doubt about the solvency of some banks.

China had long held a tight rein on the yuan, and effectively pegged its currency at about 6.8 to the dollar since mid-2008 to support exporters during the global economic crisis.

The People’s Bank of China pledged on June 19 to let the currency trade more freely against the greenback, though it ruled out any large fluctuations. The yuan has appreciated 0.7 percent since the highly anticipated announcement.

Firmly in the paid camp in the “paid vs. free” debate was News Corp.’s head of digital operations Jon Miller who said charging online readers is a notion that has been “accepted at a variety of levels.”

“It’s more about how it gets done,” Miller told participants in the Fortune Brainstorm Tech event which ended on Saturday in this Colorado ski resort.

Joshua Fleming, a 20-year-old Austrian student, said he decided to make the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain after reading best-selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho’s book describing his own pilgrimage in 1986.

“The challenge has opened my spirit,” he said at the town of Pedrouzo at the start of the last leg of his pilgrimage, after having already walked some 300 kilometres (185 miles) across northern Spain.

BP’s board is due to meet in London tomorrow to discuss a plan for Hayward to step down and be replaced by Bob Dudley, a senior U.S. executive who is currently managing the oil spill response operation, the sources said.

“The details are being worked out,” one source said.

Adjusters passing out emergency funds in Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states are on high alert for fraud even as they pay out legitimate claims following the April 20 oil rig explosion and spill that killed 11 workers and devastated the livelihoods of many fishermen, tourism workers and others.

The promise of a handout has attracted the unscrupulous, who have flocked to the Gulf in a bid to cash in.

The remarks by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, on a visit to the country, came as the Taliban said they were holding captive one of two U.S. servicemen who strayed into insurgent territory, and that the other had been killed.

It also comes less than a week since a major international conference in Kabul agreed that the Afghan government should aim to take responsibility for security in all parts of the country by 2014.

European Union policymakers and regulators voiced relief at Friday’s results but some market analysts and many media commentators derided an exercise in which all listed banks passed as lacking in credibility.

“I see nothing stressful about this test. It’s like sending the banks away for a weekend of R&R,” said Stephen Pope, chief global equity strategist at brokers Cantor Fitzgerald.

A few paces up the street, her undocumented Mexican neighbor Wendi Villasenor touts a kitchen table, some chairs and a few dishes as her family scrambles to get out of Arizona ahead of a looming crackdown on illegal immigrants.

“Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving,” said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. “We have no alternative. They have us cornered.”

The bomb had been hidden near a trash bin at a bus stop on Ratchadumri Road in the heart of Bangkok’s commercial district, an area occupied by thousands of “red shirt” anti-government protesters for several weeks until an army crackdown on May 19.

There was no indication of who had planted the device or whether it was linked to a Bangkok by-election in which a ruling party candidate narrowly beat an anti-government protest leader who has been jailed since May on terrorism charges.

Specialist Evans had arrived at Combat Outpost Nolen to help clear a ring of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) taking a vicious toll on U.S. and Afghan soldiers inside, penning them in easy firing range of a village used by Taliban fighters.

The mine that maimed one foot and both legs was hidden in front of a gateway to a field. Evans, 22, from Indian Mound, Tennessee, detonated it on Friday while backtracking from an alley with his patrol, sent to provide him with cover.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not been made, was briefed on the decision by a senior BP official late last week.

The government official did not know who will replace Hayward or when it will happen. One of the most likely successors is BP Managing Director Bob Dudley, who is currently overseeing the British company’s spill response.

Off to one side, Lance Armstrong applauded and then, without much fanfare, headed toward the exit.

“I need a cold beer,” he said when asked his thoughts at the finish line.

The four-term Reid holds a slight lead over Angle in the latest polling, thanks in part to her unsteady performance since winning the June primary and to Democratic ads portraying her as an extremist. Video of Angle scurrying away from reporters has mixed with television commercials of older voters upset about her call to phase out Social Security and Medicare.

But an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says Reid has a “a serious problem” with voters frustrated with the economy and “receives a great deal of blame.” The July 15 memo is based on polling research conducted for Patriot Majority, a union-funded group that is running TV ads against Angle.

A prickly, paunchy activist who moved to Colorado in the 1980s after giving up a legal career in California, Bruce brought a hatred of government and a mission to hobble it to Colorado Springs. Bruce took over a fledgling effort to force voter approval for tax hikes, and less than a decade later, engineered a pioneering state constitutional amendment called the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a tax-limiting measure still widely praised and panned for curbing government.

Appointed to the state House in 2007, Bruce showed a rebellious streak that left even his fellow Republicans slack-jawed. He voted against honoring veterans, called Mexican farm workers “illiterate peasants” and kicked a news photographer who took his picture, a kick that earned Bruce the first formal censure in the history of the Colorado House.

Williams is among the growing number of homeless on Oahu taking advantage of inviting beaches and support services in the islands, where they never have to worry about freezing.

But homeless encampments on the beach could damage tourism, officials fear, and they are currently weighing several proposals that they say would help the homeless, while also moving them from public view.

The study also says offenders who commit minor drug and property crimes are often supervised for years, while inmates who pose a high risk to public safety are released from prison without supervision.

The study by the Council of State Government Justice Center also confirms something Ohio officials have known for years: A large number of offenders cycle through prisons with sentences of just a few months, placing a costly burden on an already-strapped agency.