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NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Halliburton's agreement to pay more than $1 billion to settle numerous claims involving the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill could be a way for the company and victims of the spill to avoid years of costly litigation — if all the pieces fall into place.

A federal judge still has to approve the settlement. That same judge has rulings pending on the extent to which parties, including Halliburton, were negligent in the deadly explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. Those rulings could affect plaintiffs' decisions on whether to participate in the settlement, which was announced Tuesday.

Pending action by the Supreme Court over interpretations of an earlier BP settlement with businesses also comes into play.

Joe Rice, of the law firm Motley Rice, which has been working for the plaintiffs, doesn't see those as major barriers to the settlement.

"They're not extremely complicated pieces," said Rice. "Whereas the litigation would be extremely complicated."

The settlement involves commercial or subsistence fishermen or hunters whose catches were affected by the spill, and businesses and property owners, including local government entities, who had property touched by the oil. They would be able to collect punitive damages from Halliburton through a fund to be administered by a court-appointed representative. The agreement also would settle claims for a separate class of businesses and individuals who were deemed to have causes of action against Halliburton under BP's 2012 settlement with businesses affected by the spill.

Rice said the settlement, if approved by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, would settle most major claims against Halliburton, except those filed by state governments affected by the spill.

Halliburton declined comment on the settlement, other than what was in its brief official statement, which noted that the company had a $1.3 billion loss-contingency provision related to the spill litigation.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Kurt Hallead said Tuesday that, given Halliburton's loss contingency, the settlement shouldn't have a major effect on profits or losses.

The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and spewing millions of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico for months. BP leased the rig from Transocean Ltd. Halliburton was in charge of sealing the completed well with cement.

BP issued a statement saying Tuesday's settlement shows that the explosion and spill was the responsibility of multiple parties.

"This settlement marks the very first time — despite three years of official investigations and litigation implicating the company — that Halliburton has acknowledged that it played a role in the accident," said the emailed statement from BP spokesman Geoff Morrell.

The deal is contingent upon a minimum number of plaintiffs signing on. If Barbier decides that gross negligence on the part of Halliburton was a major factor in the accident, plaintiffs could decide instead to hold out for a larger award.

Rice, however, downplayed that possibility.

"I don't think that a finding of gross negligence is necessarily fatal to the settlement," Rice said, noting that anyone who rejected the settlement would still face years of costly litigation with no guarantee of victory.

BP's continued fight over the interpretation of its own 2012 settlement with businesses claiming damages from the spill also is a factor in the future of the settlement.

At issue in that case is whether, under the terms of that settlement, businesses have to prove they were directly harmed by the spill in order to collect payments. BP has lost at the district and appellate court level. Attorneys expect to know by late October or November whether the Supreme Court will hear the matter.

Halliburton shares fell 12 cents Tuesday to close at $67.49.

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Associated Press energy writer Jonathan Fahey reported from New York.

$1B settlement struck for Gulf oil spill

Halliburton agrees to pay more than $1 billion to settle claims involving the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Federal judge must approve

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A day ahead of a NATO summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued his own peace plan for eastern Ukraine, calling on the Russian-backed insurgents there to "stop advancing" and urging Ukraine to withdraw its troops from the region.

Hours earlier, Ukraine had issued a vague statement about agreeing with Putin on cease-fire steps. The separatists rejected the move, saying no cease-fire was possible without a pullback by Ukraine, while Putin's spokesman claimed that Moscow could not agree to a cease-fire because it was not a party to the conflict.

The back-and-forth came as President Barack Obama arrived in Estonia in a show of solidarity with NATO allies who fear they could be the next target of Russia's aggression. NATO is holding a summit in Wales on Thursday, with plans to approve a rapid-response team to counter the Russian threat.

Putin, for his part, is eager to avoid further international sanctions that could hurt his resource-based economy.

Amid the diplomatic chess match, a Ukrainian official said the bodies of 87 soldiers had been retrieved from southeastern Ukraine. Mykhailo Logvinov, a military official in Zaporizhye, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the soldiers were killed near the eastern city of Ilovaysk, the scene of a horrific government defeat over the weekend. He said the remains were being identified by local forensic experts.

Putin, speaking in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, said he came up with a 7-point peace plan on the plane trip there — one in which Kiev must withdraw its troops and stop its artillery strikes.

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A column of destroyed Ukrainian military vehicles are seen near the village of Novokaterynivka, east …

"The warring parties should immediately coordinate and do the following things together," Putin said in televised comments. "The first thing is for the armed forces and insurgents of the south-east of Ukraine to stop active advancing in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"Second is for the Ukrainian military to withdraw their troops at a safe distance that will make artillery and other strikes on populated areas impossible," he added.

Putin also urged an unconditional exchange of prisoners and said he expected a final agreement between Kiev and the rebels to be reached Friday at peace talks in Minsk, Belarus.

The Interfax news agency later carried positive remarks from top rebel commander Miroslav Rudenko, who said "there'll be no sense in a military solution to the conflict" if Kiev was to withdraw its troops.

Stock markets jumped on first reports of a possible cease-fire deal, but later eased back slightly. By early afternoon in Europe, Russia's MICEX benchmark was up 2.7 percent, while the ruble rose 1.4 percent against the U.S. dollar.

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FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the m …

Germany's DAX index, which has been particularly sensitive to news regarding the Ukrainian crisis because of the country's economic ties with Russia, was up 1.2 percent.

Rebel leader said earlier this week that they would respect Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for autonomy — a shift from earlier calls for full independence or possible absorption into Russia. Putin has ignored their calls for annexation — unlike in March, when Russia annexed Crimea.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has spoken in favor of devolving some of the central government's powers to the regions, but that is far short of autonomy for the rebellious east.

Obama said it was too early to tell what the announcements Wednesday from Ukraine and Russia meant. He noted previous unsuccessful cease-fire attempts and questioned whether the separatists would abide by a new cease-fire.

"We haven't seen a lot of follow-up on so-called announced cease-fires," Obama said. "Having said that, if in fact Russia is prepared to stop financing, arming, training, in many cases joining with Russian troops activities in Ukraine and is serious about a political settlement, that is something we all hope for."

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A Pro-Russian rebel prepares arms for the the assault on the positions of Ukrainian army in Donetsk …

Ukraine, NATO and the West have accused Russia of sending its troops and weapons to support the insurgents. Moscow has denied the charge. AP reporters on the ground have run into numerous Russian fighters among the rebels and have seen large convoys of heavy military equipment driving in eastern Ukraine from the direction of Russia.

Over the weekend, the European Union leaders agreed to prepare a new round of sanctions that could be enacted in a week, after NATO accused Russia of sending tanks and troops into southeastern Ukraine.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed nearly 2,600 people and forced over 340,000 to flee their homes, according to the U.N.

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Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Peter Leonard in Mariupol, Ukraine, contributed reporting.

GLOBAL JIHAD

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States will not be intimidated by Islamic State militants after the beheading of a second American journalist and will build a coalition to "degrade and destroy" the group.

Obama still did not give a timeline for deciding on a strategy to go after the extremist group's operations in Syria. "It's going to take time for us to be able to roll them back," the president said at a news conference during a visit to Europe.

The president's comments came after he said the United States had verified the authenticity of a video released Tuesday showing the beheading of freelance reporter Steven Sotloff, two weeks after journalist James Foley was similarly killed.

Obama vowed the U.S. would not forget the "terrible crime against these two fine young men."

"We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists," Obama said. "And those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget, and that our reach is long and that justice will be served."

During an appearance in Maine, Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. would follow the militants to "the gates of hell."

"As a nation, we're united. And when people harm Americans, we don't retreat, we don't' forget," Biden said. "We take care of those who're grieving and when that's finished they should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they'll reside."

Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that "barbarity, sadly, isn't new to our world. Neither is evil."

Obama also sought to clean up the damage from his statement last week that "we don't have a strategy yet" for dealing with the Islamic State group in Syria. Republicans quickly seized on the remark to argue the president lacks a coherent approach to fighting the extremist group.

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FILE - In this file still image from an undated video released by Islamic State militants on Tuesday …

"It is very important from my perspective that when we send our pilots in to do a job, that we know that this is a mission that's going to work, that we're very clear on what our objectives are, what our targets are," Obama said. "We've made the case to Congress and we've made the case to the American people, and we've got allies behind us so that it's not just a one-off, but it's something that over time is going to be effective."

In the Sotloff video, a masked militant warns Obama that as long as U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State group continue, "our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."

Obama responded that the airstrikes have been effective in blunting the militant threat and he will continue to battle the "barbaric and ultimately empty vision" that the Islamic State represents. He said he will consult with NATO allies at a summit in Wales Thursday and Friday on a strategy to combat the Islamic State and other militant networks that arise.

"Our objective is clear, and that is to degrade and destroy ISIL so that it's no longer a threat — not just to Iraq, but also the region and to the United States," he said, using an acronym for the militant group.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, appearing alongside Obama, expressed solidarity in the fight. "We see ISIS as a serious threat to all of us, and stand together with the United States and our allies on this issue," Ilves said, using an alternative name for the group.

Sotloff, a 31-year-old Miami-area native who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished a year ago in Syria and was not seen again until he appeared in the video that showed Foley's beheading. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the Islamic State.

In the video distributed Tuesday and titled "A Second Message to America," Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is apparently beheaded by a fighter with the Islamic State, the extremist group that has conquered wide swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq and declared itself a caliphate.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC Wednesday that the masked, British-accented jihadist appears to be the same person shown in the Foley footage. In the video, the organization threatens to kill another hostage, this one identified as a British citizen.

Last week, Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff, pleaded with his captors for mercy, saying in a video that her son was "an innocent journalist" and "an honorable man" who "has always tried to help the weak."

Obama said the prayers of the American people are with the family of the "devoted and courageous journalist" who deeply loved the Islamic world and whose "life stood in stark contrast to those who have murdered him so brutally."

"His killers try to claim that they defend the oppressed, but it was Steven who traveled across the Middle East, risking his life to tell the story of Muslim men and women demanding justice and dignity," Obama said. "Whatever these murderers think they'll achieve by killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed. They have failed because, like people around the world, Americans are repulsed by their barbarism."

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday that it is believed that "a few" Americans are still being held by the Islamic State. Psaki would not give any specifics, but one is a 26-year-old woman who was kidnapped while doing humanitarian aid work in Syria, according to a family representative who asked that the hostage not be identified out of fear for her safety.

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Associated Press writer David Sharp in Kittery, Maine, contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Obama vows to 'degrade and destroy' ISIL

President Obama says the U.S. will not be intimidated by ISIL's beheading of journalist Steve Sotloff.
Video authenticated