Animation fails to bring Alice alive March 4, 2010 Film ALICE IN WONDERLAND Cert: PG THE idea of Tim Burton turning his imaginative powers to Lewis Carroll’s children’s fantasy, and roping in his old mucker Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in the process, seems so blazingly obvious it’s a wonder it took them this long. Sadly, it seems what they were waiting for [...]
Real and Barcelona are football’s Euro fat cats March 1, 2010 LUCRATIVE individual broadcast deals have helped Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona leave Premier League clubs trailing in the wealth stakes and cement their place as the two richest teams in the world. Real last season became the first team in any sport to record revenue of more than €400m (£341m), despite a relatively unsuccessful [...]
Black Cats still looking for win February 28, 2010 ENGLAND strike hopefuls Darren Bent and Bobby Zamora both drew a blank as Sunderland and Fulham drew 0-0 at the Stadium of Light. A drab match of few chances saw Sunderland, who are just three points above the relegation zone, fail to win for the 14th game in a row. Fulham, unbeaten in eight, climb [...]
Find a new you with a new look February 22, 2010 LAUREN Luke’s life was not going anywhere when she decided to ditch her job as a taxi dispatcher in a town near Newcastle and begin selling makeup on eBay. To accompany the products, she took photos of herself wearing the makeup to show how it could be used. Her buyers started asking more about how [...]
Affluent tax dodgers pay out £373m as HMRC tightens net February 16, 2010 HM REVENUE & Customs’ (HMRC) crackdown on wealthy tax evaders is gathering pace after investigators clawed back £373m last year, an increase of 21 per cent on 2008’s haul. Hedge fund managers and investment bankers were among those targeted by HMRC teams who examined the affairs of more than 50,000 people earning in excess of [...]
Competition Commission to continue fight over BAA sale February 10, 2010 THE Competition Commission (CC) is continuing its fight to force BAA to sell some of its airports, challenging a tribunal judgement giving BAA the right to appeal. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) last year ruled that the CC’s decision that Ferrovial-owned BAA should dispose of London Stansted and Scotland’s Edinburgh or Glasgow airports within two [...]
Bruce predicts curtains for the transfer window February 4, 2010 SUNDERLAND boss Steve Bruce believes the transfer window will be scrapped when a player eventually challenges the system in court as a restraint of trade. Bruce succeeded in pushing through a loan deal for Manchester City striker Benjani Mwaruwari despite missing the Monday deadline, but said the episode might otherwise have provided a test case. [...]
Dour Black Cats are foiled again in dismal stalemate February 1, 2010 SHAKY Sunderland extended their recent dismal run to just one league win in 14 matches after sharing a dour goalless draw with Stoke at the Stadium of Light. Chances were few and far between at either end as Steve Bruce’s men were frustrated by a resilient Potters side. In fact, it was the visitors who [...]
Bank may call time on its QE programme January 31, 2010 THE Bank of England is this week expected to turn off the stimulus taps and bring its unprecedented £200bn quantitative easing programme to an end when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets later this week. The central bank has been injecting money into the UK economy from last March and has so far bought almost [...]
Longevity risk gets a new benchmark January 31, 2010 A NEW association has formed to transfer longevity and mortality-related risk to the capital markets in the same way that some of the world’s biggest perils, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, are protected against by shifting the risk to investors via catastrophe bonds. The Life and Longevity Markets Association (LLMA), made up of a consortium [...]