Q and A July 26, 2012 DIRECTOR, DOUGLAS AND GORDON Q I’ve had my property on since March and, after the Budget, knocked £350,000 off the price to get under the £2m SDLT bracket. I’ve still not sold. What are my options, given I can’t afford to go lower? A No comfort here but many sellers are in the same situation. [...]
No idyll this: Cairo Year One July 26, 2012 All day every day for a year, Nermine Hammam roved around Tahrir Square and Zamalek in Cairo. Armed only with her Nikon camera, she was snapping the Egyptian revolution – the initial 18-day uprising and its grisly aftermath. With 70,000 pictures to choose from by the close of the year, Hammam had to perform an [...]
Have a very VIP Olympics July 26, 2012 THE OLYMPICS have finally arrived and London’s VIP landscape is ready and set to go. There are a number of venues across the capital being transformed to cater to deep-pocketed high-rollers who have a penchant for partying. The first of such pop-ups is The Retreat in the City which is being created this week at [...]
A good week for music at the Royal Albert Hall July 26, 2012 Prom 12: This was the third outing for Daniel Barenboim’s Palestinian-Israeli West Eastern Divan Orchestra this proms, midway through its Beethoven symphony cycle. We were treated to a superbly sonorous, expressive and caramel-like Pastoral Sixth and a slightly too-quiet famous Fifth, interspersed with work by modern French composer Pierre Boulez. There was something of a [...]
China have the power to beat USA in Olympic gold rush again July 26, 2012 OLYMPIC fever is upon us at last. With one study suggesting home support can boost a host nation’s medal haul by over 50%, Team GB’s official target of 48 medals, just one more than they claimed in Beijing four years ago, seems conservative. Sporting Index’s spread of 62-64 is more realistic but we shouldn’t get [...]
Hannon’s Maureen to bounce back from unlucky Newmarket run July 26, 2012 IT’S a relatively quiet weekend on the racing front as everyone eagerly awaits Frankel’s next start in Wednesday’s QIPCO Sussex Stakes. However, there is still some decent action and the main tip is Richard Hannon’s MAUREEN in tomorrow’s Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot (3.25pm). The daughter of Holy Roman Emperor was an unlucky loser in [...]
Nomura CEO quits as insider trading scandal widens July 26, 2012 Nomura Holdings named Koji Nagai as its new CEO on Thursday and said it was likely more insider trading cases would come to light in a scandal that forced Kenichi Watanabe to quit as head of Japan’s top investment bank. The management shake-up was confirmed in a news conference at the end of a dramatic [...]
Alcatel to axe 5,000 jobs as battles downturn July 26, 2012 Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent will axe 5,000 jobs and exit or restructure unprofitable markets in a drive to cut costs by €1.25bn (£967m) by the end of next year as it battles stiff competition and weak demand. The move comes after the Franco-American group warned last week it would miss its 2012 profit margin target [...]
Lending to euro zone private sector drops in June: ECB July 26, 2012 Loans to firms and households declined in June, fuelling expectations that the European Central Bank (ECB) may have do more to stimulate the ailing Eurozone economy when it meets next week to set the bloc’s interest rates. Loans to the private sector fell 0.2 per cent from the same month a year ago, in line [...]
Cameron pledges action after GDP shock July 26, 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Thursday to do more for the economy after GDP data released this week showed the economy had contracted more than expected in the second quarter of 2012. “We’ve got to do more. We’re going to roll up our sleeves and do everything possible to get business going in Britain, [...]
