US resistant to open skies agreement March 25, 2010 EUROPEAN negotiators said yesterday European ownership of US airlines was in sight after three days of “Open Skies” talks but reaction from the US suggested agreement remained distant. The US? departments of state and transportation made no mention of lifting ownership limits in summarising the talks that took place in Brussels. The two sides agreed [...]
Not good enough: That’s our panel’s verdict on Alistair Darling’s last Budget before the election March 25, 2010 WEDNESDAY’S?Budget was almost certainly Alistair Darling’s last. Even if Labour does hang on to power,?Gordon Brown is unlikely to keep him on as chancellor. For that reason, Darling was acutely aware of his own reputation, and managed to resist pressure to announce a raft of gimmicky pre-election giveaways. But our panel was still distinctly unimpressed, [...]
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK March 25, 2010 FILM NANNY MCPHEE AND THE BIG BANG Thompson returns as the magical nanny. LOURDES Award-winning film about pilgrims heading to the French town, starring Sylvie Testud. PERRIER’S BOUNTY Irish crime caper with Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and Jim Broadbent. DVD THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON Robert Pattinson makes teenage girls everywhere swoon once more. HARRY [...]
ICBC seeks to raise £2.5bn new cash in a bid to bolster its balance sheet March 25, 2010 INDUSTRIAL & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s biggest bank by market capitalisation, unexpectedly unveiled plans yesterday to raise £2.5bn in new capital to bolster its balance sheet. The plan was announced just after ICBC reported a 58 per cent rise in fourth-quarter profit, broadly meeting expectations. ICBC will sell up to 25bn yuan [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 25, 2010 MEDIASET Standard & Poor’s has upgraded its rating on Mediaset to “buy” from “hold” citing the Italian media company’s recent full-year results. Despite the 41 per cent drop in 2009 profits, S&P belives the fact that February revenues at Telecinco were up by as much as 40 per cent, will result in revenue growth in [...]
FTSE 100 soars to 21-month high boosted by Greek bailout March 25, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares hit a 21-month closing high for the third day in a row yesterday, helped by a rally in banks as sovereign debt concerns faded, while retailers were boosted by upbeat results from Next and UK retail sales. The FTSE 100 ended 49.77 points higher at 5,727.65, finishing above the 5,700-mark for the [...]
Watches of 2010 March 25, 2010 OVER the past ten days the world’s leading watch-making companies have been displaying their new creations in the Swiss city of Basel, for the BaselWorld Watch and Jewellery show. We’ve gathered together some of the best and most innovative watches that were on show in Basel and at February’s even more exclusive SIHH show in [...]
Wall St flat due to fears of debt crisis March 25, 2010 US stocks ended flat yesterday, dropping off earlier highs as a weak US bond auction and global debt concerns continued to weigh on investor sentiment. Indexes advanced for most of the session, with the Dow and S&P hitting fresh 18-month highs, but their gains mostly disappeared after the auction of seven-year notes and comments from [...]
Beat the blues with a slice of Caribbean sun March 25, 2010 WINTER is finally over, and the sun has been reminding us all of its existence in the past week or so. If you are already thinking ahead to next year and wondering how you will get through another few months of darkness and “snow days”, there’s a solution: buy a home in the Caribbean. Barbados [...]
you can still wear a bow tie in the city March 25, 2010 HOW many men in the City would be comfortable wearing a bow tie to work? Answer: very few, even among those who can actually tie one. It may once have been a cornerstone of the banking look, but now it’s about as common a sight in the Square Mile as a bowler hat. That’s a [...]
