Toy Story wins film battle June 27, 2010 The cartoon heroes of “Toy Story 3” crushed new releases from Adam Sandler and Tom Cruise to lead the North American box office for a second weekend, according to studio estimates issued yesterday. Toy Story 3, from Walt Disney’s Pixar Animation unit, sold about $59m (£39m) in tickets across the United States and Canada during [...]
Cable is cool on NewsCorp BSkyB probe June 27, 2010 VINCE Cable has said there “would need to be a lot of evidence” for him to become involved in NewsCorp’s attempt to acquire BSkyB, in remarks that are sure to alienate anti-Murdoch Liberal Democrats. As business secretary, Cable could announce an investigation into the takeover on public interest grounds. He would then have the ultimate [...]
IDS asks jobless to relocate June 27, 2010 IAIN Duncan-Smith yesterday defended plans to relocate unemployed council house tenants to areas where they can find work, dismissing claims he was returning to the “on yer bike” approach of the 1980s. The work and pensions secretary said the policies would help the jobless escape “ghettos of poverty” and find work in more economically active [...]
Support for Nick Clegg crumbles June 27, 2010 SUPPORT for the Liberal Democrats has collapsed, leading to fears of a split in the coalition government. An ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph shows support for the party has fallen to 16 per cent – its lowest rating in 18 months and well below the 31 per cent it enjoyed during the campaign. Conversely, support for [...]
Firms win exemptions from immigration cap June 27, 2010 BUSINESSES have convinced the Home Office to water down plans that will limit the number of economic migrants allowed entry to the UK each year. Firms have been lobbying hard against the cap since it was first mooted, fearful it could stop them recruiting top talent from abroad. Business secretary Vince Cable has taken up their [...]
Wall Street’s great escape as bank rules are softened June 27, 2010 AFTER a year of lobbying, the big beasts of American banking could only sit and watch in the early hours of Friday morning as Congress finalised its finance reform bill. A marathon 20-hour session sealed the draft version of the Dodd-Frank act, named after representative Barney Frank and senator Chris Dodd. Even as Dodd hailed [...]
Q&A: US FINANCIAL REFORM UNTANGLED June 27, 2010 Q. WHAT ARE THE ROOTS OF THE DODD-FRANK OVERHAUL? A. At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, US investment banks converted into holding companies so they could take emergency loans from the Federal Reserve, as well as taxpayer aid. Most of the capital distributed then has been repaid, but the public and politicians [...]
WHAT IMPACT WILL THE FINANCE REFORM BILL HAVE? June 27, 2010 BARACK OBAMA | US PRESIDENT “Our economic growth and prosperity depend on a strong financial sector… but we’ve all seen what happens when there’s inadequate oversight and insufficient transparency on Wall Street.” BOB CORKER | REPUBLICAN SENATOR FOR TENNESSEE “Some of the core areas that are very important have gone completely untouched. We did not [...]
BP in £470m battle with Transocean June 27, 2010 BP AND Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, look set to enter into a legal bloodbath after the oil major has given notice that it will issue a £470m claim against the rig’s insurance policy. The two are set to go head to head over who will cover costs linked to the tragic Gulf [...]
Shell vows that deepwater drills will continue June 27, 2010 PETER VOSER, chief executive at Royal Dutch Shell, has pledged that the company will remain committed to deepwater drilling despite the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Speaking in Cape Town yesterday, Voser said that with a climb in population and the rising demand for oil, avoiding deepwater drilling is not an option. “Given the rise in [...]
