“When Centrica took their stake in us in March, we were atthe low point of the economic cycle but oil prices have risensubstantially since then and the share prices of our peers haverisen substantially since then too,” Wagstaff said. In March, Centrica bought a 22 percent stake in Venture for725 pence a share and said it was considering making a cashoffer for the company. On Friday, Britain’s largest gas retailer, Centrica Plc,which owns 29 percent of Venture, offered to buy the rest ofVenture for 845 pence a share, valuing the oil and gas explorerat around 1.3 billion pounds ($2.11 billion). Venture rejected the bid, saying the offer substantiallyundervalued the company. “The feedback we have got from shareholders, both theinstitutional ones and the significant ones on our board,suggests that many of them are looking for significantly above900 pence,” Mike Wagstaff told Reuters in an interview onSunday. * Venture looking for significantly more than 845p/shr * Venture says Centrica bid offers no premium at all(Adds company comment, detail) By Rhys Jones LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) – The chief executive of North Seagas producer Venture Production VPC.L said its shareholderswere looking for “significantly in excess” of the 845 pence ashare takeover offer made by Centrica (CNA.L) on Friday. “I hope it does keep moving toward greater inclusion.”(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Todd Eastham) Arts Lifestyle Congo.

“The African American story is the American story.”But times of hope and greater diversity can reverse, noted Nottage.”Sometimes there are moments of great optimism and changes and then within a year it reverts back to the same old,” she said. last eight years that we have lived here — politically, socially and economically,” she said.Carlyle Brown, who has been called one of the more significant American playwrights to not regularly stage his plays in New York, said one reason there were more such works was “maybe a greater acceptance on the part of the audience.”"Certainly the quality of writing by African American writers nowadays is great and diverse and interesting,” said the 63-year-old playwright.Others, like theater director Bartlett Sher, who directed Wilson’s play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” said stories by black writers were now viewed as more mainstream.”The opportunities for African American artists and their stories and the place it has in our consciousness is all slowly and fundamentally changing,” he said. “This is a seismic event.”Some plays shown off-Broadway include “Ruined” by New York playwright Lynn Nottage, about rape in a Congolese brothel; “Inked Baby” by Christina Anderson about environmental racism; and Carlyle Brown’s “Pure Confidence,” a drama set in the world of Civil War-era horse racing.On Broadway, Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” sold well; a musical revival of “Dreamgirls” about a group of black musicians opens in November; and a new musical, “Memphis,” that opens in October looks at the roots of rock ‘n’ roll set against the segregation polices of the 1950s U.S. president is having an enormous influence on culture and theater, Wilson said “Obama is everywhere,” she said.

Arts  |  Lifestyle  |  CongoAs the presidential visit cast a spotlight on Wilson’s revival, playwrights and theater observers say both Obama’s election and more open theaters and audiences have helped bring more stories of black culture to the New York stage this year.Both on Broadway and off-Broadway, plays and musicals about black culture or issues of race are being praised and more productions are in the works.”Now is the time to strike,” said playwright Tracey Scott Wilson, whose play “The Good Negro” about the civil rights movement had a successful off-Broadway run this year.The election of the first black U.S. [ID:nL4321105] They had been sent by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov after a suicide bomb attack against Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who is now in a Moscow hospital in serious condition.(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Richard Balmforth) Russia Russia. NEW YORK (Reuters) – When U.S. President Barack Obama took his wife, Michelle, to a Broadway play by African American playwright August Wilson about a black father’s search for freedom, ticket sales for the production spiked.

Earlier this month nine Chechen policemen were gunned down in Ingushetia in one of the deadliest attacks in the volatile North Caucasus region in recent years. But underscoring how fragile Chechnya’s stability is, clashes between armed men and police erupted on Sunday in two rural districts and the Chechen capital of Grozny. Eight militants carrying automatic weapons were killed in the shooting, Chechnya’s interior ministry said on its site It did not say if there were losses among police. “Prompt actions are now being taken to track down and detain members of illegal armed units and their collaborators,” Chechen police said in the statement. From Chechnya, violence regularly spills over into the mainly Muslim regions of Ingushetia and Dagestan where tough officialdom, deep-rooted corruption and poverty push many young people to join the rebels. “The police returned fire, killing all five in the car,” it said.

“Three rebels have already been identified.” Relative calm has been restored in neighbouring Chechnya where federal troops have fought two wars against pro-independence rebels since the mid-1990s. On Saturday, security forces in the nearby region of Ingushetia killed four militants, including a rebel leader. The shooting in Dagestan broke out near the town of Khasavyurt after policemen tried to stop a car without number plates. The five passengers in the car fired on the police, Vesti-24 channel said.