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President Barack Obama said the "long battle" to combat the Gulf of Mexico disaster had reached a turning point as a new government report showed that the majority of the spilt oil had disappeared. In his most positive statement on the crisis since the accident on April 20 that killed 11 workers, Mr Obama said the battle "is finally close to coming to an end", writes the FT.The Chinese Government is the mystery backer behind a bid for Liverpool Football Club. China's overseas investment arm China Investment Corporation (CIC), which already owns a stake in Canary Wharf, is funding the bid fronted by the sports tycoon Kenny Huang for one of Britain's biggest sporting names, says the Times.Debenhams, the department store, has held discussions about unlocking the value in its property portfolio, as it seeks to generate significant funds to further pay down debt and invest in the business. The retail group has spoken to potential investors about deals on nine of its department stores and is understood to have held talks with the property specialist King Sturge about running the process, reports the Independent.Goldman Sachs is preparing to shut down the unit that trades with the bank's funds and move its traders to either an independent hedge fund or its asset management arm to comply with new US law and prevent an exodus of star employees, according to the FT.US banks with Wall Street operations are bracing for a slump in trading profits this year after the third quarter got off to a poor start, with global economic uncertainty and Europe's sovereign debt woes leading to a slowdown in market activity in July, says the FT.Major consumer brands such as Coca-Cola are warming to the power of Facebook, the social networking website which recently topped 500m worldwide users. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's sites chief operating officer, claims that some of its most prolific advertisers have increased their spending ten-fold in the past 12 months. In an interview with Bloomberg News, she said that major brands are increasingly seeing Facebook as a viable route to consumers, writes the Telegraph.Intel has agreed to stop using threats and bundled prices in a deal to settle charges that it abused its dominant market position to stifle competition. The agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission also bars Intel from retaliating against computer manufacturers if they conduct business with non-Intel suppliers, reports the Times.Sandy Weill, the man who created Citigroup, Larry Ellison, founder of the software giant Oracle, and Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, are among the billionaires making a public pledge to give away more than half their fortunes. Forty of the world's richest families have signed up to an initiative that was launched in June by Microsoft's founder Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the investment guru, aimed at promoting philanthropy among the super-rich. Mr Gates and Mr Buffett are the two richest men in the US, with a combined wealth of $100bn (£63bn), and are firm friends, says the Independent.Ecuador is seeking $3.6bn (£2.2bn) from rich countries - in return for doing nothing for a decade. The unusual deal is part of a new United Nations initiative to persuade energy-rich countries not to drill for oil and gas in environmentally sensitive areas. Ecuador has therefore agreed not to touch three oil fields in the Yasuni region of the Amazon for the next ten years, if rich countries buy enough 'Amazon bonds'. Under the terms, donating nations pay an amount per year for a decade - receiving no dividend except an environmental one, according to the Telegraph.