Third way for London 2012 ticket hopefuls May 8, 2012 LONDON 2012 ticket applicants who failed in the first two rounds of sales are to be given first refusal on the next batch of 90,000 seats, which will be released from Friday at 11am. The 20,000 Olympics fans who missed out in the initial ballot and second chance sale will have 31 hours of exclusive [...]
Spurs star eyes summer transfer May 8, 2012 FOOTBALL: Tottenham defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto admits Champions League action or a bigger club may tempt him to leave in the summer. The French full-back said he did not want to play in the “useless” Europa League and cited a “gentleman’s agreement” with chairman Daniel Levy that he would be allowed to leave.
City to host Sarries and Stade May 8, 2012 RUGBY UNION: Premiership champions Saracens will face Stade Francais at the City’s Honourable Artillery Ground in a high-profile pre-season friendly. Sarries are predicting a sell-out for the clash on the evening of 23 August. Tickets are available from the club’s website.
Exiles boss Booth heads for Bath May 8, 2012 RUGBY UNION: London Irish head coach Toby Booth will join Bath in the summer, along with Exiles academy coach Neal Hatley. Newcastle boss Gary Gold is to become head of coaching staff in a major shake-up, replacing director of rugby Sir Ian McGeechan.
Europe’s politicians might hunger for a spending splurge, but HSBC is happy sitting on its billions May 8, 2012 HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver could be forgiven for taking on the airs of some kind of elder statesman or central bank governor yesterday. He had been planning a call on the bank’s latest results, but was peppered with questions on all the latest European political developments. Austerity: necessary. A Greek euro exit: possible but hardly [...]
Mass lay-offs push HSBC cost savings to $2bn May 8, 2012 HSBC beat expectations after cracking down on its cost base in the first quarter of this year, laying off thousands to bring its overall job cuts to 14,000 while keeping its revenues steady. Excluding the effect of an accounting loss on its debt, the bank’s underlying pre-tax profits rose from $5.5bn in early 2011 to [...]
Greek left party says it will scrap bailout deal May 8, 2012 GREECE’S leading left-wing party declared the country’s bailout deal invalid yesterday, prompting accusations from its opponents that it will destroy the country and force it to leave the euro. Alexis Tsipras, leader of the radical left Syriza party that currently has a mandate to form a government, said it would throw out the bailout deal [...]
Euro crisis enters new phase May 8, 2012 UK – David Cameron 10-year borrowing costs fell below two per cent as risk-averse investors fled Eurozone chaos again Spain – Mariano Rajoy The government confirmed Bankia will be bailed out, sending shares in the bank tumbling France – Francois Hollande Allies of new President Francois Hollande suggested an audit of public finances could give [...]
CITY VIEWS ARE YOU WORRIED THE EU CRISIS HAS ENTERED A NEW PHASE? May 8, 2012 PAUL PHILLIPS CADDIS BUILDING CONSULTANCY I wouldn’t say I was worried that the Eurozone crisis has reached a new phase. It is inevitable that the changes in Greece and France this weekend have injected more uncertainty. But this has also stemmed from the UK falling into a second recession. Lending is still an issue across [...]
Japanese minister urges France to stick with financial reforms May 8, 2012 JAPAN’S finance minister warned France against abandoning fiscal discipline yesterday, telling new President Francois Hollande that it would be better if he did not act on his “heated” promises made before the election. Jun Azumi said he wants Hollande to stick to plans made by outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy, and not to disrupt the international [...]
