BP AMOCO is close to finalising a controversial deal that would make it the world's second-largest oil company.

BP AMOCO is still confident that its deal to acquire Arco will go ahead, despite reported objections from the Alaskan government and the United States competition authorities, the company said yesterday.

`An Englishman is uneasy unless he knows which ocean will finally receive his urination'

A TEACHER at school once asked us in a geography lesson which was further east, Edinburgh or Liverpool, and those of us who could tell east from west, and knew which side of Britain which city was on, had no hesitation in shooting our hands up and saying that Edinburgh was further east.

So there you are, in the Yukon, grizzly capital of the world, armed only with a bottle of Chardonnay

ONE HUNDRED and thirty-two years after selling the vast and mineral- rich land of Alaska to the United States for $7.2m - a mere two cents an acre - in one of history's least lucrative land deals, Russia wants some of it back.

SPORTING DIGEST: DOG-SLED RACING

TWO BRITISH climbers have been plucked by helicopter from near the peak of North America's highest mountain in after being trapped at temperatures below -30C.

The British oil giant has grown into a behemoth, writes David Brierley

THERE ARE times when the gods of punting seem to be trying to tell you something, and the aftermath of the Spring Mile Handicap at Doncaster yesterday was one of them. After heavy rain at Town Moor on Thursday turned the ground soft, this was probably the best clue anyone might get to the effect of the draw in today's Lincoln Handicap, but the evidence, to say the least, was mixed.

Who would have thought that grizzly bears could be shy? Linda Green decided that if they wouldn't come to her, she would track them down at home

The Sketch

Maximum Bob BBC2

Russian police hunt armed gang