Waren, Germany  - Completion of the controversial Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea is likely to be delayed by one year from 2011 to 2012, a German executive working on the Russian-led project said Wednesday.

His comment clashed with a printed news release from Nord Stream, a consortium with Russian, German and Dutch involvement, which stated that 2011 was the target for the first flow.

"We don't expect the first natural gas to arrive till 2012," said Andreas Hieckmann, the project chief at the Gazprom Germania company.

Paris - French auto maker PSA Peugeot Citroen said Wednesday it had earned net profits of 733 million euros (1.16 billion dollars) in the first half of 2008, up by a hefty 49 per cent over the same

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby and Thailand's PTT Chemical on Wednesday signed an agreement to jointly own a major producer of oleochemicals in a deal costing the Thai company 104 million euros (164 million dollars).

PTT Chemical, the largest chemicals producer in Thailand, agreed to buy a 50-per-cent stake from the German chemicals maker Cognis in the Malaysian firm Cognis Oleochemicals, one of the world's leading producers of oleochemicals, or chemicals derived from biological oils or fats.

The other 50 per cent of the venture is held by Sime Darby, the world's largest listed palm-oil producer. The two companies would now share ownership and control of Cognis Oleochemicals.

Oslo - Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor Wednesday posted an increase in pre-tax profit and sales for the second quarter of 2008.

Pre-tax profit was 5.2 billion kroner (1 billion dollars), compared to 3.8 billion kroner for the corresponding business period of
2007.

Second-quarter sales were 23.8 billion kroner, up from 23.1

billion kroner from a year ago, the group said.

The sums included earnings from its company Kyivstar in Ukraine, where Telenor has been engaged in protracted measures to get audited financial information about the operator.

Oslo - Norwegian aluminium and power generation group Norsk Hydro on Tuesday posted lower second quarter earnings, citing that a weak US dollar and higher production costs failed to offset higher aluminum prices.

In line with a recent profit warning the group said earnings before interest and tax dropped 44 per cent to 1.6 billion kroner (315 million dollars), compared to 2.88 billion kroner for the corresponding business period 2007.

Hydro posted turnover of 23.98 billion kroner in the second quarter, down 4 per cent from the second quarter 2007.

Motorola Inc. (MOT) has alleged one of it ex-executive of disclosing trade secrets to Apple. Former executive of Motorola, Mr. Michael Fenger is serving as an employ of Apple. He joined Apple as the vice president of global iPhone sales.

Motorola has filed a case against him for information leakage in an Illinois circuit court in Cook County. He served as the senior vice president of mobile devices for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions for Motorola handsets. The company had an agreement of two years with him. He left Motorola in March and joined Apple by breaking the agreement.