US condemns Syria violence April 25, 2011 SYRIAN troops and tanks poured into protester hotspot Deraa yesterday as autocratic President Bashar al-Assad attempted to crush resistance in the city where an uprising began a month ago. At least 18 people were killed, causing the White House to condemn the use of violence and threaten to impose “targeted sanctions”. Security forces have killed [...]
China may be larger than US by 2016 April 25, 2011 IF the International Monetary Fund is right, whoever is elected President of the United States next year will be the last American to preside over the world’s largest economy. By 2016, the IMF believes, China will have overtaken the US as the biggest economy – the first time it actually pins a year on this [...]
Jury out in Galleon case April 25, 2011 THE fate of hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam was in the hands of a jury yesterday, after Wall Street’s biggest insider-trading trial in two decades approached its climax. In a case that featured FBI phone taps and former friends who testified against him, Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund, was accused of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 25, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES MPS PRESSURE VICKERS TO DEFINE BANK BONUS RULES Sir John Vickers is facing pressure from senior MPs to widen his work on making banks safer by defining new bonus transparency rules, to provide an early warning of the build-up of risk. Members of the Commons treasury committee will next month urge Sir John [...]
Fraud panel criticises SFO plans April 25, 2011 The Fraud Advisory Panel has slammed the break-up of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). In a Treasury consultation submission it said the planned changes “would be a wholly unwise and dangerous move in our view that would benefit only the criminal and be an enormously retrograde step in the fight against financial crime.” Under government [...]
Lloyds and Grainger in property deal April 25, 2011 Lloyds Banking Group will work with Grainger in a tie-up that will see the residential landlord manage a portfolio of homes on behalf of administrators. The innovative system will help return value to thousands of non-performing loans from Lloyds-backed housing groups that have fallen into administration. Non-performing loans from Lloyds’ so-called bad-bank, some of which [...]
Barrick Gold makes £5bn copper push April 25, 2011 RIO Tinto and BHP Billiton could soon face a new copper-mining rival after Barrick Gold announced a £4.7bn bid for Australia-based Equinox Resources. Canada-listed Barrick’s bid topped an earlier offer from China’s Minmetals Resources in a big bet on soaring copper demand. It represents the miner’s first major push outside its core gold-mining business. Equinox [...]
Investors on tenterhooks to see Glencore’s Xstrata plan April 25, 2011 GLENCORE will be forced to disclose whether it has imminent plans to merge with FTSE 100 miner Xstrata in its float prospectus, due to be released in the first week of May. UK listing law requires companies to provide a summary of “all material contracts” with external parties that could substantially affect their financial position. That [...]
US firms prepare for new say-on-pay rules for executives April 25, 2011 US FIRMS have already begun to make provisions for tough new rules giving shareholders more say in how much top staff are paid. A study by ClearBridge shows a significant number of the biggest US firms have already moved to cut the basic pay and benefits packages of their top staff. Firms including General Electric [...]
London to get wedding gift worth £107m April 25, 2011 DETRACTORS say the Royal Wedding could cost the UK economy up to £30bn. But a new survey from PwC claims that the nuptials will also have an economic upside. Visitors to the capital determined to share in the carnival atmosphere will be splashing out an estimated £107m while they celebrate. Around 560,000 people will flock [...]
