JK ROWLING BRINGS SPELLS TO LIFE WITH SONY June 5, 2012 JK ROWLING is penning the first release for Sony’s new Wonderbook, an augmented reality device that brings books to life. The Book of Spells, due for release in November, will immerse the player in the world of Harry Potter, using the PlayStation 3’s Move controller as a wand. “Book of Spells is the closest a [...]
Shoppers stay at home while prices creep up June 5, 2012 SHOP prices increased again in May while footfall kept dropping, industry data showed today. Overall shop price inflation hit 0.4 per cent in May, up from 0.2 per cent in April, according to British Retail Consortium figures, taking the annual price rise up to 1.5 per cent. Food price inflation jumped to 0.6 per cent [...]
Resurgent Eurozone crisis drags down UK business confidence June 5, 2012 BUSINESS confidence fell sharply in May as worries grew over the impact of the ongoing Greek and Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, survey data showed today. Firms’ confidence in the country’s economic prospects fell 47 points from a net balance of 26 per cent to minus 21 per cent, Lloyds’ business barometer showed. The share of [...]
London property surges as cash flows out of troubled nations June 5, 2012 INVESTORS fleeing the Eurozone crisis have helped push prime London property prices even higher, according to figures out today from Knight Frank, although the new higher rate of stamp duty on houses above £2m has slowed the pace. Prices rose 0.7 per cent in May, taking the annual rise to 10.7 per cent and leaving [...]
How an explosive setback put one legal firm on the path to international growth June 5, 2012 TWENTY years ago, you’d have been hard pressed to find anyone prepared to bet that Norton Rose – one of London’s oldest City law firm’s – would eventually rank in the top five largest international practices in the world. Unless perhaps you’d asked Peter Martyr, the firm’s group chief executive. Back in 1992, he was [...]
US jobs market falters June 1, 2012 Job growth braked sharply in May and the unemployment rate rose for the first time since June, putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy further to shore up the sputtering recovery. The Labor Department report on Friday, which showed employers added a paltry 69,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the fewest [...]
UK manufacturing activity slumps June 1, 2012 British manufacturing activity shrank at its fastest pace in three years in May as a broad-based global economic slowdown hit demand for British goods, The latest Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index suggests the sector continued to drag on the economy which is mired in its second recession in two years, and may add to expectations [...]
China slowdown gets worse June 1, 2012 China’s slowdown worsened in May as its factories saw a further deterioration in demand at home and abroad, dealing a new blow to a global economy struggling with a sharp downturn in Europe and a faltering recovery in the United States. The darkening outlook was underlined by data showing the fourth monthly decline this year [...]
BP eyes sale of TNK-BP stake June 1, 2012 BP said it was considering a sale of its half-share of Russia’s third-largest oil producer TNK-BP after receiving bid approaches, possibly heralding the end of one of the UK oil major’s most lucrative, audacious and troublesome ventures. The oil company said in a statement on Friday that it had received “unsolicited approaches” and had notified [...]
City cheers U-turn on charity tax May 31, 2012 CITY leaders yesterday welcomed the government’s decision to scrap the proposed charity tax, a policy that philanthropists say would have undermined giving at a time when charities are in desperate need of new funds. Announcing the Treasury’s third budget U-turn of the past week, chancellor George Osborne said the debate over capping tax relief from [...]