MIDLAND, Texas (Reuters) – Only a few hours after blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng left his sanctuary in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the United States’ declared it had won concessions over his future from the Chinese government, a soft-spoken 44-year-old West Texas pastor was questioning the official version of events.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Chen, who had escaped house arrest in a village in Shandong province before making his way to the Chinese capital last week, had “a number of understandings with the Chinese government about his future, including the opportunity to pursue higher education in a safe environment” inside China. Chinese state media said he had left the embassy “of his own volition.”

BEIJING/MIDLAND, Texas, May 1 (Reuters) – Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton was set on Wednesday to begin a high-stakes trip
to Beijing, where a blind dissident is reportedly holed up in
the U.S. embassy as China and the United States try to work out
a solution before high-level talks.

Legal activist Chen Guangcheng, according to one of his
helpers, appeared to soften his initial insistence on staying in
China to press on with his campaign for reform – a stance that
would have complicated U.S.-Chinese negotiations on his fate.

WASHINGTON/MIDLAND, Texas (Reuters) – President Barack Obama nudged China on Monday to improve its human rights record and his top diplomat said she will raise the issue in Beijing this week, but both stayed mum about a Chinese dissident said to be under U.S. protection.

At a news conference, Obama appeared to be walking a fine line between not saying anything that would make it harder to resolve Chen Guangcheng’s case while conveying U.S. concern for human rights and appreciation for wider cooperation with China.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Amid shouts and chanting at a raucous shareholder meeting, El Paso Corp (EP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) investors approved the natural gas pipeline company’s $23 billion takeover by rival Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The vast majority of the company’s shareholders disregarded charges that El Paso’s chief executive, Douglas Foshee, and the company’s adviser, Goldman Sachs, had conflicts of interest that kept El Paso from getting the highest possible price.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The former chief executive of KBR Inc was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Thursday for his role in a massive, decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to win $6 billion in contracts for a liquefied natural gas facility.

Albert “Jack” Stanley, 69, pleaded guilty in September 2008 in a scheme to route $182 million in bribes to Nigerian government officials. Stanley, who served at one point under former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney at Halliburton, has been awaiting sentencing after this date was reset 16 times.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Big energy companies like Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and commodity merchants like Cargill CARG.UL have a simple argument in pushing back against looming new swap market rules: We’re not a bank, so don’t regulate us like one.

But their efforts to avoid being branded a “swap dealer,” a designation that brings with it greater scrutiny and onerous new rules, tend to sidestep the fact that, in one small but important way, most of them trade exactly like a bank.

LA MARQUE, Texas, Oct 25 (Reuters) – With only 10 weeks to
go before the first vote of the 2012 elections, Republican
presidential contender Herman Cain on Tuesday took the stump in
an unlikely place: a dog-racing track south of Houston.

The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO has rocketed to the head
of Republican polls with a non-traditional campaign centered on
his “9-9-9″ plan to overhaul the U.S. tax code.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Texas governor and top Republican U.S. presidential candidate Rick Perry tried to sideline a state commissioner who opposed expanding the scope of a nuclear-waste landfill owned by one of the governor’s biggest political donors, Reuters has learned.

Bobby Gregory, owner of a wildlife ranch and landfill company south of Austin, had opposed a plan to let 36 states send nuclear waste to a 1,338-acre site in Andrews County.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Texas governor Rick Perry tried to sideline a state commissioner who opposed expanding the scope of a nuclear-waste landfill owned by one of the governor’s biggest political donors, Reuters has learned.

Bobby Gregory, owner of a wildlife ranch and landfill company south of Austin, had opposed a plan to let 36 states send nuclear waste to a 1,338-acre site in Andrews County.