Shell settles

Shell and local officials in the Argentine city of Magdalena have reached a $9.5m settlement a decade after an oil spill blackened River Plate beaches.

The out-of-court settlement, however, will require approval of voters in a 17 May vote, according to local media.

If approved, the settlement could help end a dispute over the 1999 spill of some 5,300 tonnes of crude from the Dutch oil major's 57,700-dwt products tanker Estrella Pampeana (built 1981).