Pyrenees find out struggling champ Contador July 14, 2011 DEFENDING champion Alberto Contador lost further ground on the first mountain stage of this year’s Tour de France. The three-time winner began yesterday’s 12th stage across the Pyrenees over four minutes behind race leader Thomas Voeckler. And although he remains a similar distance adrift of the Europcar rider, crucially he is now 2mins 11secs, 1:54 [...]
Baldini to quit England role July 14, 2011 FOOTBALL: Franco Baldini will leave his job as England’s general manager at the end of the Euro 2012 qualifiers to take up a similar role with Italian side Roma. But he would be willing to work with the team on a short-term basis should they qualify for next summer’s tournament.
Barron critical of RFU behaviour July 14, 2011 RUGBY UNION: Former Rugby Football Union chief Francis Baron says he is angry at the way the organisation is being run. Earlier this week, the RFU chose not to publish a report by Judge Jeff Blackett into the ousting of former chief executive John Steele. “The board is in a state of total denial. Nobody is [...]
Alonso will risk all to catch Vettel July 14, 2011 FORMULA ONE: Former world champion Fernando Alonso is throwing caution to the wind as he bids to overhaul runaway leader Sebastian Vettel in the race for the Formula One title. The Ferrari driver, winner of last Sunday’s British Grand Prix, is 92 points behind Vettel with nine of the 19 races gone. The Spaniard said: “We [...]
FBI probes New Corp July 14, 2011 THE FBI has launched an investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp over allegations it hacked the phones of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The move is yet another blow to the media empire, with Murdoch’s position at the top seriously weakened if the probe finds evidence of wrongdoing. Two US senators have already called for [...]
JP Morgan cheers with profit hike July 14, 2011 INVESTMENT banking giant JP Morgan Chase cheered markets with a $5.4bn (£3.4bn) quarterly profit yesterday, 13 per cent higher than a year ago, as its investment banking arm powered up. Its result, the latest in a run of forecast-beating updates, boosted hopes that other major banks will also show gains as they report quarterly figures [...]
Gold rises yet QE3 talk cools July 14, 2011 GOLD prices hit a fresh record high yesterday, in the wake of Moody’s warning that the US government may lose its top credit rating. “This is more about fear, about the dollar, the debt troubles in Europe, as well as the possible downgrade of the US credit rating by Moody’s,” said Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg. [...]
Europe’s debt crisis is getting worse July 14, 2011 EMPIRES seem to be going out of fashion. It is not just News Corp, Rupert Murdoch’s media colossus, which is in trouble; the Eurozone, a very different political conglomerate, is unravelling in front of our eyes. The next step in its demise will come when the results of the stress tests for Europe’s 91 largest [...]
$1.4trn in US cuts agreed July 14, 2011 STOCKS spiked briefly in New York last night after the White House briefed that Republicans and Democrats have agreed on $1.5 trillion (£930bn) in deficit cuts, with further progress to come. Talks have spilled into this week from last weekend, with heated exchanges allegedly causing US President Barack Obama to storm out of one meeting. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 14, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LAFARGE IN TALKS TO SELL PLASTERBOARD ARM Lafarge is closing in on the sale of its plasterboard business as the French cement maker pushes ahead with its debt reduction programme and attempts to recover its investment grade credit rating. The world’s second-largest cement company by revenue said on Thursday it had entered exclusive [...]
