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A slowdown in growth in the U.S. and mixed corporate earnings dampened stock market sentiment around the world Friday.

Oil prices fell to near $112 a barrel as the lackluster U.S. economic news blunted crude’s 33 percent gain over the past two months. The slowdown in the world’s No. 1 economy in the first three months of the year also proved worrisome to Asian companies that count on strong U.S. consumer demand. The dollar was down against the yen and the euro.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX was down 0.1 percent to 7,467.04 and France’s CAC-40 slipped 0.5 percent at 4,085.71. Britain’s FTSE 100 was closed as the country celebrated the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Wall Street was set for a lower opening, as Dow Jones industrial futures sagged by 14 points to 12,694 and S&P futures dropped marginally to 1,353.10.

“Equity markets are reacting nervously to weak U.S. data overnight. Demand from the U.S. for Asia exports may actually slow,” said Dariusz Kowalczuk of Credit Agricole in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 0.4 percent to 23,805.63, with yuan units of Hui Xian Real Estate Investment Trust falling 9.4 percent in their trading debut. They are the first equity securities denominated in China’s currency to trade outside of mainland China.

South Korea’s Kospi index slipped 0.7 percent to 2,192.36, with technology shares dragging the index down.

Samsung Electronics lost 0.8 percent after the company announced its first quarter profit fell 30 percent on declines in memory chip prices and reduced profitability in liquid crystal displays and flat screen televisions. Rival Hynix Semiconductor Inc. slid 1.6 percent. LG Electronics lost 3.7 percent.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 1 percent to 4,823.20, with mining shares among the big losers. The world’s biggest mining company, BHP Billiton Ltd., fell 1 percent. Shares in Rio Tinto Ltd. lost 1.4 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was closed for the start of Golden Week holiday. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, India and Thailand were also down.

Mainland Chinese shares snapped a five-session losing streak as the release of a survey showing lackluster growth in manufacturing suggested inflation may be under better control than earlier feared, easing the need for further credit tightening measures.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.9 percent to 2,911.51, while the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 1.4 percent to 1,200.62. Shares in power companies, non-ferrous metals and steels led the gains while banks fell back on profit-taking after recent advances spurred by better-than-expected earnings reports.

“Power companies rose due to rumors authorities may raise electricity fees,” said Peng Yunliang, an analyst based in Shanghai. But he said the market’s immediate outlook depends on whether Beijing might opt for a “surprise” interest rate hike during the three-day May Day weekend.

“If there is an interest rate hike over the upcoming long weekend holiday, as investors fear, the correction will resume next week,” Peng said.

Huaneng Power International, one of several big state-owned electricity generators, rose 6.3 percent, while Huadian Power International Corp. Ltd rose 9.8 percent.

On Wall Street, stocks closed at another 2011 high Thursday despite modest U.S. economic growth in the first quarter. The U.S. economy grew a 1.8 percent annual rate between January and March, the Commerce Department said. That’s the weakest growth since last spring and underscores concerns about the strength of the U.S. recovery. Higher oil prices cut into consumer spending and bad weather slowed down construction projects.

The S&P 500 rose 4.82 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,360.48. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 72.35, or 0.6 percent, to 12,763.31. The Nasdaq composite gained 2.65, or 0.1 percent, to 2,872.53.

Corporate earnings were mixed. Procter & Gamble Co. rose nearly 1 percent after the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers reported higher earnings but cut its forecast for the year due to rising costs for raw materials. Exxon Mobil Corp. _ the world’s largest publicly traded company _ fell 0.5 percent even after the oil giant reported its best quarterly earnings since 2008 _ perhaps due to high expectations.

More people applied for unemployment benefits for the first time last week. The increase, the second in three weeks, suggests that the job market remains sluggish.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 53 cents at $112.33 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The euro was higher at $1.4846 from $1.4821 late Thursday in New York. It had peaked at $1.4881 Thursday, its highest point in nearly 17 months before softening. The dollar was down to 81.48 yen from 81.57 yen.

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Reinsurance Group of America reported $160.8 million in profits for the March quarter, up from $122.4 million a year earlier.

Profits per share were $2.18 in the recent quarter, up from $1.64 a year ago.

Premiums jumped 7 percent, including a 3 percent contribution from foreign currency exchange.  The company said claims were in line with expectations, despite the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand no fax pay day loan. Those disasters cost the company $6.5 million in claims.

Reinsurance Group, based in Chesterfield, is among the largest global providers of life reinsurance.

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Treasuries rose for a second week as investors speculated that efforts to cut the Federal budget deficit may damp economic growth and awaited a policy statement next week from the Federal Reserve.

Ten-year note yields fell to the lowest level in a month even as Standard & Poor’s put the U.S. government on notice that it risks losing its AAA credit rating. Gains were tempered by advances in stocks. The U.S. will sell $99 billion in notes in the coming week, and the Federal Open Market Committee opens its two-day meeting on April 26.

“You are looking at an economy that’s just getting off low levels,” said David Coard, head of fixed-income trading in New York at Williams Capital Group, a brokerage for institutional investors. “The market is looking for guidance from the FOMC. We’re looking for clues as to when the Fed may possibly begin to change course with respect to monetary policy.”

Two-year note yields dropped three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 0.66 percent in New York, from 0.69 percent on April 15, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The 0.75 percent security due in March 2013 rose 7/32, or $2.19 per $1,000 face amount, to 100 6/32.

Ten-year note yields fell one basis point to 3.40 percent, from 3.41 percent on April 15.

Treasuries were headed for their first monthly gain since January, a 0.54 percent return, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Treasury Master index.

Shortened Week

Volume declined in a shortened week. Treasuries trading closed at 2 p.m. in New York on April 21 and were shut April 22 for the Good Friday holiday under a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association recommendation. About $980 billion in U.S. debt changed hands this past week, compared with $1.5 trillion in the five days ended April 15, according to Icap Plc, the world’s largest interdealer broker.

Fed policy makers will leave the target rate for overnight lending between banks unchanged in the coming week at zero to 0.25 percent, where it’s been since December 2008, according to all 80 economists in a Bloomberg survey. Officials, who last met on March 15, may discuss what path the central bank will take when its program to purchase $600 billion in Treasuries ends in June.

“The last time the Fed met it was right after the catastrophe in Japan, so there could have been a sense the Fed held back to see how the markets and economies reacted to those troubling circumstances,” said Jim Vogel, head of agency-debt research at FTN in Memphis, Tennessee, referring to Japan’s record earthquake on March 11. “The Fed may be freer to discuss their general economic outlook. That will have people tuned to the FOMC.”

Economic Data

Treasuries gained on Thursday, April 21, as the Philadelphia Fed’s general economic index tumbled to 18.5 in April, the lowest level since November, while initial claims for unemployment benefits decreased to 403,000 in the week ended April 16, Labor Department data showed. Bloomberg surveys forecast an index reading of 36.9 and a jobless-claim decline to 390,000.

U.S. gross domestic product slowed to a 1.8 percent annual growth pace in the first quarter, according to the median forecast of 32 economists in a Bloomberg News survey, down from 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter and 2.6 percent in the third. The Commerce Department reports the data on April 28.

Treasury gains were limited this past week as stocks rose on better-than-estimated corporate earnings reports. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) gained 1.3 percent, while the MSCI World Index climbed 1.6 percent, the biggest weekly gain in a month.

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The Associated Press has reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract that the news cooperative says would provide financial stability during a time of media upheaval.

The deal announced Friday follows six months of negotiations and would cover about 1,200 newsroom and technology employees represented by the News Media Guild.

The main dispute involved management’s insistence on freezing a longstanding pension plan, in which monthly payments in retirement are defined. Future retirement contributions would instead go into an employee-controlled account similar to a 401(k). The union ultimately agreed to the pension freeze, and the company said it would increase contributions to the alternative plan for affected employees for eight years.

In return for the freeze, the AP also agreed not to seek an increase in employees’ health insurance payments. Employees would get three raises of 1.5 percent each and improved job security. The contract would cover 33 months and expire at the end of August 2013.

The tentative agreement comes after several years of financial hardship for many of the newspapers and broadcasters that receive AP’s services. Newspapers have been the hardest hit as billions of dollars in advertising revenue has shifted to less expensive alternatives on the Internet. The turmoil has triggered layoffs and pay cuts at many newspapers.

Those troubles have led the AP to lower its fees for U.S. newspapers and broadcasters by $80 million during the past two years. The fee reductions are the main reason the AP’s annual revenue fell from $748 million in 2008 to $631 million last year. To save money, the AP has reduced its payroll from nearly 4,300 employees in 2008 to about 3,560.

AP sought the pension freeze to help lower its costs in the future and make up for a more than $100 million shortfall in the plan.

“These were very difficult talks, covering difficult topics in uncertain economic times,” said Jessica Bruce, the AP’s vice president of human resources. “With this agreement now in place, AP and its staff can now focus their attention and energy on the initiatives critical to driving revenue so that AP can stay competitive and maintain its leadership in the media marketplace.”

The agreement came after the union threatened to file allegations of unfair labor practice and management threatened to withdraw several of its key proposals payday loans.

Tony Winton, the president of the News Media Guild, said the union felt the deal was the best possible without going on strike. A formal strike vote was never taken during the talks.

“This was the most challenging bargaining we have ever had with the AP,” Winton said. “Our membership showed tremendous courage and unity.”

The union hopes to schedule a vote in time for the new contract to be ratified by June 1.

If the contract is approved, the pension plan would freeze guaranteed monthly retirement benefits at the amounts earned through June 30.

Future retirement contributions would go to a plan that shifts the responsibility for retirement planning and investing to workers. Contributions are defined but benefits are not. Such a plan is similar to a 401(k).

The AP already had stopped offering the traditional pension plan to management employees hired since 2005 and union-covered employees since March 2006. Those newer employees receive 3 percent of salary in the defined-contribution plan. All employees are also eligible to participate in a 401(k) plan. For union employees, the AP contributes up to 3 percent of salary to a 401(k).

The new agreement would eliminate the 401(k) match for union-covered employees. The AP would contribute 6 percent of salary to the defined-contribution plan. That would allow employees to receive the maximum contribution even if they don’t contribute to the 401(k).

Besides the 6 percent, employees affected by the pension freeze would get an additional contribution of 1 percent or 2 percent of salary to the defined-contribution plan over the next eight years, depending on how long they have been with the company.

The union said the pension freeze would affect about 950 of the 1,200 covered by the new agreement.

Some newspaper companies have frozen traditional pension plans as they try to overcome a sharp drop in revenue. Gannett Co., owner of USA Today and more than 80 other daily newspapers, froze its pension plan in 2008. McClatchy Co., publisher of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, The Miami Herald and 28 other daily newspapers, did so in 2009.

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President Nicolas Sarkozy says France will intensify its airstrikes in Libya at the request of opposition forces.

France’s Foreign Ministry also said Wednesday it already has military liaison officers on the ground in the rebel-held city of Benghazi. The officers are trying to help the rebels organize and bolster the NATO air campaign that has failed to rout Moammar Gadhafi’s military.

A presidential aide said Sarkozy, after meeting a Libyan opposition leader Wednesday, said: “We will intensify the strikes.” The aide was not authorized to be publicly named according to presidential policy.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ROME (AP) _ Italy has announced it is sending military instructors to train the rebels fighting in Libya guaranteed cash advance.

Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said 10 instructors will be going. Details are being worked out. He spoke Wednesday after meeting with his British counterpart, Liam Fox.

France and Britain already have announced they will be sending military officers to Libya to help rebel forces organize and bolster the NATO air campaign that has failed to rout Moammar Gadhafi’s military.

La Russa again ruled out that Italy would send ground troops.

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The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear plant began pumping highly radioactive water from the basement of one of its buildings to a makeshift storage area Tuesday in a crucial step toward easing the nuclear crisis.

Removing the 25,000 metric tons (about 6.6 million gallons) of contaminated water that has collected in the basement of a turbine building at Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant will help allow access for workers trying to restore vital cooling systems that were knocked out in the March 11 tsunami.

It is but one of many steps in a lengthy process to resolve the crisis. Tokyo Electric Power Co. projected in a road map released over the weekend that it would take up to nine months to reach a cold shutdown of the plant. But government officials acknowledge that setbacks could slow the timeline.

The water will be removed in stages, with the first third of it to be handled over the coming 20 days, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. In all, there are 70,000 tons (about 18.5 million gallons) of contaminated water to be removed from the plant’s reactor and turbine buildings and nearby trenches, and the entire process could take months.

TEPCO is bringing the water to a storage building that was flooded during the tsunami with lightly contaminated water that was later pumped into the ocean to make room for the highly contaminated water.

The operator plans to use technology developed by French nuclear engineering giant Areva to reduce radioactivity and remove salt from the contaminated water so that it can be reused to cool the plant’s reactors, Nishiyama said, adding that this process would take “several months.”

Once the contaminated water in the plant buildings is safely removed and radioactivity levels decline, workers can begin repairing the cooling systems for the reactors of Units 1, 2 and 3, which were in operation at the time of the tsunami. Workers must also restore cooling functions at the plant’s six spent fuel pools and a joint pool for all six units.

When the tsunami struck, units 5 and 6 were going through a regular inspection. On March 20, they were put in cold shutdown, which is when a reactor’s core is stable at temperatures below 212 Fahrenheit (100 Celsius).

With the nuclear crisis dragging on, public frustration with the government is growing. Opinion polls show more than two-thirds of Japanese are unhappy with the leadership of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who was grilled for hours Monday by opposition politicians, many demanding he resign.

TEPCO has offered residents forced to evacuate from homes around the plant about $12,000 per household as interim compensation. People elsewhere in the disaster zone who lost houses to the tsunami _ which also left more than 27,000 dead or missing _ say help has been slow to materialize.

“I don’t understand what the politicians are doing, there are new committees and meetings everyday,” said Hiroshi Sato, who lost his house in Kesennuma and now lives in a fabric warehouse from his old business.

“We need support, financial assistance, and nothing has come yet,” he said.

In TEPCO’s blueprint for stabilizing the reactors, the utility aims to cool the reactors and spent fuel pools and reduce radiation leaks over the next three months. Within 6-9 months, the goal is achieve a cold shutdown of the reactors and cover the buildings, possibly with a form of industrial cloth, to further tamp deter any possible radiation leaks.

Two remote-controlled robots sent into the reactor buildings of Unit 1 and Unit 3 on Sunday showed that radiation levels inside _ up to 57 millisieverts per hour _ were still too high for humans to realistically enter.

The U.S.-made Packbots, which resemble drafting lamps on tank-like treads, also were briefly sent into Unit 2 on Monday, officials said, and the radiation level was found to be a much lower 4.1 millisieverts per hour.

But the high level of humidity inside the reactor building fogged up the robot’s camera lens, making it difficult to see conditions inside. They were pulled out after less than an hour, officials said.

“We didn’t want to lose sight of where the robot was and then not be able to retrieve it,” TEPCO manager Hikaru Kuroda said.

The reason for the higher humidity wasn’t clear, but it suggests that workers _ if they were to go inside _ also would have difficulty seeing through their masks, Kuroda said.

____

Associated Press Writer Jay Alabaster in Kesennuma contributed to this report.

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Add New York to the growing list of states where gas prices are topping $4 per gallon.

On Sunday, the Empire State became the sixth state to top $4 for the average price of a gallon of gas, joining Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii and Illinois, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge. The average price of gas also rose to more than $4 per gallon in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

The next states to join the list could be Michigan, which has gas for $3.95 per gallon on average, and Indiana, where the average price is $3.94. Nevada, Washington and Wisconsin are close behind.

Hawaii has the highest price in the U.S. at $4.48 per gallon. Wyoming has the lowest, at $3.54.

The national average for gas has increased for 26 straight days, and is now at $3.83 per gallon. That’s up 29 cents from a month ago. Retail surveys suggest motorists are reacting to higher prices now by buying less fuel. Still, the government expects pump prices to keep climbing this summer as vacationers take to the highways.

For American drivers, the $4 mark harkens back to the summer of 2008, when oil rose to $147 per barrel and gas prices topped out at $4.11 per gallon before the economy went into a tailspin.

The rapid increase at the pump follows a parallel rise in oil. Since Labor Day, oil has risen 48 percent and U.S. gas prices have gone up 42 percent. The increases gained momentum in mid-February when a popular rebellion in Libya turned violent and shut down the country’s exports. Crude has jumped 30 percent since then, with gas prices gaining 22 percent.

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Launching a week devoted to selling his deficit-reduction plan, President Barack Obama on Saturday drew sharp contrasts with a House Republican budget that he says offers a vision that “is wrong for America.”

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama charged Republicans with seeking to dismantle venerable safety net programs and choosing tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of students paying for college or older adults on Medicare.

“To restore fiscal responsibility, we all need to share in the sacrifice - but we don’t have to sacrifice the America we believe in,” Obama said.

The criticism echoed his speech Wednesday in which he unveiled a $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan over 12 years, a goal he says he can achieve with a blend of spending cuts, changes in major government health care programs and tax increases.

Obama’s message represents his clearest attempt to place ideological distance with Republicans after months spent negotiating a compromise six-month spending bill that trimmed more than $38 billion from the government. Obama signed that legislation Friday.

Obama plans to continue his plan’s pitch throughout the week, holding town halls in Northern Virginia Tuesday and in Palo Alto, Calif,, and Reno, Nev., later in the week during a Western tour that includes at least two Democratic Party fundraisers.

While trying to cast the debate in his own terms, the president’s attention to fiscal discipline signals a watershed in national politics. After two years devoted to priming an anemic economy with new spending and passing an overhaul of health care, Congress and the White House are beginning a debate about how to tame long-term deficits and a crushing debt of more than $14 trillion.

In the Republicans’ weekly address, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma called that turning point “a monumental shift for Washington.”

Still, Obama predicted in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that fundamental questions about how to change giant benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid or how to change the tax system might have to wait until after the 2012 presidential elections.

He conceded, however, that he would have to offer spending cuts to win votes in the Republican-controlled House for an increase in the debt limit. The debt will hit its ceiling of $14.3 trillion by mid-May, and administration officials say the cap must be raised by no later than early July.

And while Obama, in the interview, predicted a “smart compromise,” his address Saturday left little room for common ground with the House Republican budget. That plan, approved by the House Friday, would reduce deficits by $4 trillion over the next 10 years. It would extend Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels, repeal Obama’s health care law and overhaul of Medicare by providing future retirees a voucher-style federal payment to purchase coverage from private plans.

“It’s a vision that says that in order to reduce the deficit, we have to end Medicare as we know it and make cuts to Medicaid that would leave millions of seniors, poor children and Americans with disabilities without the care they need,” Obama said.

Obama has adopted a sharper, partisan tone since announced his re-election bid more than a week ago.

Coburn said Obama’s sharp critique of the House Republican budget amounted to “campaign-style political attacks.”

“Instead of describing the threat and bringing both sides together, the president attacked those who have a different vision of the government,” he said.

Coburn is one of a bipartisan group of six senators working to find a compromise on long-term deficit reduction. The group has not tipped its hand as its members continue to seek common ground. They have not set a timeline for achieving a compromise.

Coburn, however, praised the House Republican Medicare proposal, suggesting that the so-called Gang of Six may still have a long way to go before reaching a compromise.

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Scuffles between protesters and security guards marred BP’s first annual shareholder meeting since the Gulf oil spill, with shrimpers blocked from entering Thursday’s meeting to demand more compensation.

The protesters included five Gulf Coast residents who had planned to tell investors about the loss of their livelihoods and health problems after the spill. Outside the building, separate groups demonstrated over BP’s polluting tar sands project in Canada and labor disputes in Britain.

Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman from Seadrift, Texas, was arrested after evading security to enter the foyer of the building, where she covered herself in a dark syrup to represent oil.

“I’ve come all the way here from the Gulf Coast,” Wilson said. “My community is gone, and they won’t let me in.”

Inside the venue, hundreds of BP PLC investors who have watched the company lose a quarter of its market value _ some $55 billion _ over the past year and lost their dividend payments questioned board members about excessive executive pay packets and a lack of transparency on safety improvements.

But there was also support for BP’s board from some quarters, with new Chief Executive Bob Dudley frequently winning smatterings of applause for his comments, including his opening statement that “BP remains a great company with a great history and I believe a great future.”

“Not every company gets such an opportunity and we don’t intend to squander it,” he added, stressing the company’s three priorities post-spill as strengthening safety, winning back the company’s reputation and restoring long-term value for shareholders.

Dudley and his fellow board members are battling to convince some institutional shareholders that they have a firm grip on the company’s future after a year that began with the Gulf of Mexico disaster and is ending with a botched major oil exploration deal in Russia.

The company gained some critical breathing room on the Russian problem just hours before the meeting when Russia’s OAO Rosneft agreed to move the deadline to complete a $16 billion share swap with BP from Thursday to May 16.

The deal was to cement BP’s move forward from the Gulf spill and show it no longer needed to rely so heavily on the United States, where it is still barred from drilling in the Gulf. The initiative ran aground after a quartet of Russian billionaires, BP’s partners in the older TNK-BP venture, won an injunction in the London courts, claiming the new deal violates their own agreement with the London-based company.

Rosneft spokesman Rustam Kazharov declined to comment when asked whether the company planned to look for another partner to replace BP in the deal to explore the Russian sector of the Arctic.

In London, Dudley and Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg dodged questions from shareholders about why the company hadn’t consulted more fully with TNK-BP before announcing the Rosneft deal.

“I think we have to be realistic,” Svanberg said when asked if BP was confident of coming to an agreement with TNK-BP to lift the injunction. “We are in the middle of a process involving three parties and exactly how that will unfold I don’t think we should speculate here, but I assure you we will do what we can to land it in a good way.”

Dudley said BP had made a joint offer with Rosneft for TNK-BP, but said BP would not offer large amounts of shares to resolve the dispute, particularly as BP believed it had not violated its agreement with TNK-BP.

As a mark of respect for the upcoming anniversary of the Macondo well explosion, Dudley read out the names of the 11 men killed in the April 20 incident that has so far cost BP some $40 billion _ and former CEO Tony Hayward his job.

Outside the building, a rowdy group of local union members demonstrated over a dispute at a BP-owned factory in Hull in northern England, banging drums and blowing horns as they were watched by police.

More protesters did gain entry to the meeting and tried to access the stage during a discussion of the company’s controversial tar sands project in Canada. They were dragged away by security.

Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association and one of those denied entry, had said he wanted to object to the compensation process, claiming many oystermen have been denied payments or given insufficient payouts.

“We’ve not been made whole: our fishing grounds have been depleted, our oysters are dead and we’re not receiving the funds we need to support and sustain ourselves,” Encalade said. “BP says they are paying out all this money. Where is it?”

Dudley said management intended to recommend to the board the appointment of an external expert to implement the recommendations of an internal report into the spill _ as it did after the deadly Texas City refinery explosion in 2005 in which 15 people died.

“We’re finding it isn’t so easy to find someone. We want to make sure that person is independent and experienced,” Dudley said.

Dudley also acknowledged unhappiness with a lack of detail about safety improvements in the company’s annual report, agreeing information was “light” but would be stronger this year.

Before the meeting, Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, and the Florida State Board of Administration said they would join other smaller U.S. and European religious and ethical funds in voting against the reappointment of Bill Castell, the head of the safety, ethics and environment assurance committee. The two state pension boards together own some 0.4 percent of BP’s stock.

Pirc, the investor advice service, and the Association of British Insurers have issued warnings about excessive pay packages for two BP executives. Iain Conn, BP’s head of refining and Chief Financial Officer Byron Grote are receiving $505,000 and $621,000 for work not related to the oil spill.

Hayward also grabbed headlines with a $17.9 million pension, $1.6 million payoff and about $13 million in share options despite a series of public gaffes that led to his ceding the CEO post to Dudley.

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At 31, Brad Nimijohn is one of the youngest people in his field.

Make that wheat field.

Nimijohn runs Braelane Farms in Millgrove, Ont., with his father, William. He says he is one of the youngest farmers in Ontario.