Al-Jazeera journalist release 'imminent'

CANADA'S foreign minister says the release of Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy from a prison in Egypt is "imminent".

FAHMY, a dual Egyptian-Canadian citizen, has relinquished his Egyptian citizenship as prerequisite to his deportation, his brother said on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister John Baird spoke Monday to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a day after Australian Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste was released after more than a year in prison. Baird gave no specific time frame for Fahmy's release, and his spokesman declined further comment.Greste, Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed were arrested in December 2013 and later convicted over their coverage of the violent crackdown on Islamist protests that year. They were sentenced to between seven and 10 years.Baird spoke with his Egyptian counterpart on Sunday and said he welcomed Greste's release. He said he remained hopeful that Fahmy's case will be resolved in "short order".Fahmy's brother, Adel Fahmy, said authorities gave him a choice: "dropping the nationality or his freedom"."It was a very difficult decision. Mohamed is very proud and comes from a patriotic family of high ranking military and policemen that have defended this country and fought its wars," Adel Fahmy said.He said many of those family members are offended and upset at Mohamed for dropping his nationality and don't want to even say goodbye to him.Adel Fahmy said his brother was devastated but his fiance and his mother told him do it. He said authorities told his brother he would be allowed to return as a tourist.Egyptian authorities had accused the three Al Jazeera journalists of providing a platform for ousted president Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, now declared a terrorist organisation. But authorities provided no concrete evidence.

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US home price gains weakened in December

US home values rose at a modest pace in December, a sign there are too few potential buyers to bid up prices.

REAL estate data provider CoreLogic says home prices rose 5 per cent in December from 12 months earlier. That is down from the 5.5 per cent price gain recorded in November. It's much lower than the double-digit gains that occurred last year.

Yet those much larger increases in early 2014 priced many potential buyers out of the market. Sales actually slipped last year, after several years of gains. Smaller price increases, along with lower mortgage rates, may spur a rebound in sales.The biggest yearly gains were in Colorado, Texas, New York, Nevada and Michigan. Just three states saw prices fall compared with 12 months earlier: Maryland, Vermont and Connecticut.

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S&P pay $1.38b in US settlement

STANDARD & Poor's is paying about $US1.38 billion ($A1.77 billion) to settle US government allegations that it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis.

THE McGraw Hill Financial subsidiary Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC reached a settlement with the Justice Department over ratings issued from 2004 through 2007.

The settlement also resolves lawsuits filed by the attorneys general of 19 US states and the District of Columbia.The Justice Department filed civil fraud charges against S&P two years ago this week. It accused the company of failing to warn investors that the housing market was collapsing in 2006 because doing so would hurt its ratings business.S&P will also pay $US125 million in a separate settlement with the California Public Employees' Retirement System.

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British man to swim Antarctic in Speedos

BRITISH endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh is embarking on the "most dangerous swims ever undertaken in the world" to call for a vast protected area in Antarctic waters.

THE swimmer is taking to the waters of Antarctica's Southern Ocean, braving freezing temperatures, leopard seals and killer whales in nothing more than his Speedo swimwear to raise awareness of the need to protect the region's pristine Ross Sea.

Over the next five weeks he will undertake five swims, four of which will be further south than the current world record - held by Mr Pugh - for the most southerly swim, in waters expected to be as cold as around minus 1.7C.The swims include a long distance swim around Cape Adare, home to the largest colony of Adele penguins in the world and patrolled by the penguins' predators, leopard seals.He will also be swimming at Cape Evans, where British explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott built a hut before his journey to the South Pole.Another swim will take place in the Bay of Whales, so-named by explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton due to the large number of killer whales seen in the area.Mr Pugh said he was worried about the leopard seals, which could try to grab him in their powerful jaws and drag him under, the killer whales and the bitterly cold water, which he has already experienced swimming in the Arctic."When you have been there before and felt that pain, it's all the more daunting to go back there," he said."These will collectively be the most dangerous swims ever undertaken in the world".Pugh hopes his swims will encourage the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), 24 countries and the EU responsible for creating marine protected areas in the region, to designate the sea as a protected area.

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BP reports quarterly loss of $US4.4bn

BP has sounded a sombre note on the oil industry, saying producers may have to adjust to an extended period of lower prices, as the company reports a fourth-quarter loss of $US4.4 billion ($A5.64 billion).

THE London-based oil company followed Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron in curbing spending after the price of crude oil dropped about 50 per cent last year.

The industry is going through a period that is much weaker than anyone anticipated, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said during a press conference on Tuesday."We're in a raging gale," Dudley said. "It's a bit of a new world."The net loss reported by BP, which posted a profit of $US1.04 billion in the fourth quarter a year earlier, includes a $US5 billion write-down on the value of inventories.After stripping out the effect of the drop in oil prices, BP reported a quarterly loss of $US969 million, compared with a profit of $US1.5 billion in the same period a year earlier.BP plans to cut costs by as much as $US6 billion this year, reducing exploration expenditures and postponing some projects, including development of the Mad Dog field in the Gulf of Mexico.Dudley said the company was beginning 2015 in a stronger position because of divestments made in wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP was already in the process of shrinking and simplifying its operations, with an additional $US5 billion of divestments projected for this year."Our focus must now be on resetting BP: managing and rebalancing our capital program and cost base for the new reality of lower prices while always maintaining safe, reliable and efficient operations," Dudley said.

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