Lake Como’s new luxury retreat July 29, 2012 LAKE COMO is not the sort of place you’d imagine having any shortage of luxury. For all that, Casta Diva is supposedly the first luxury hotel to be built there in 100 years. Originally an 18th century villa belonging to the legendary soprano Guiditta Pasta, the hotel has been expanded beyond the singer’s (heavily and [...]
Summer in grand style at Stockholm’s stateliest hotel July 29, 2012 SWEDEN has a wintry reputation: reindeer and igloos; massive cable knit sweaters with dorky prints and, of course, a depressing lack of daylight. But winter’s flipside is, in my view, the more compelling reason to visit. A 2AM sunrise, green fields and summer houses and lakes, sailing, country pursuits of all types, rolling in the [...]
Armitstead thanks the rain after silver medal heroics July 29, 2012 OLYMPIC hero Lizzie Armitstead paid tribute to the miserable British weather last night after winning Team GB’s first medal of the Games in the rain-hit women’s cycling road race. Huge crowds braved the elements in west London and Surrey to cheer on the British racers, encouraging Armitstead to a silver medal finish after she narrowly [...]
Russian TNK-BP profit slumps on weak crude July 27, 2012 Russia’s third-largest oil producer TNK-BP International said on Friday its second quarter net profit slumped to $808m (£513) from $2.2bn a year ago on the back of lower crude prices and higher taxes. The company, half-owned by BP, said Russian Urals crude oil prices declined 7 per cent during the period, while it had to [...]
Romney’s trip to Europe draws attention to Obama’s diplomatic blunders July 25, 2012 MITT Romney’s overseas schedule this week is not just about creating the optics of a statesman. In Britain, Poland and Israel, the Republican presidential nominee will seek to showcase what he says is the damage caused by Barack Obama to America’s principles and three of her most important strategic allies. As a marked contrast to [...]
Rosneft returns to BP with offer for Russian arm July 24, 2012 A YEAR and a half after it sparked a £10bn row, Rosneft has waded back into the dispute between BP and its Russian partners by offering to buy half of their joint venture, TNK-BP. BP said yesterday it had entered formal talks with state-owned Rosneft to sell its 50 per cent holding in TNK-BP. Last [...]
Rosneft and BP in talks over TNK-BP stake July 24, 2012 Russian state oil company Rosneft said on Tuesday that it had expressed its interest in buying BP’s stake in Anglo-Russian oil firm TNK-BP and would enter talks with the British corporate. “The parties agreed to commence negotiations on this matter and signed a non-disclosure agreement,” Rosneft said in a statement. BP announced on 1 June [...]
UK energy policies are sabotaging industry’s global competitiveness July 23, 2012 THE revelation that George Osborne wants fossil fuels to remain a key and important supplier of Britain’s electricity generation shows he can talk the talk. But the chancellor will struggle to give legs to his policy. His statement comes immediately unstuck when you consider how the Treasury is preparing to lump huge taxes on such [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 22, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Electricity market reforms unworkable The Treasury’s refusal to back the energy department’s low-carbon agenda has made flagship electricity market reforms “unworkable”, “vacuous” and counterproductive, the government has been told. A draft bill designed to spur billions of pounds of spending on power sources such as wind farms and nuclear plants is so flawed [...]
Holy smoke! The Dark Knight Rises rocks July 19, 2012 FILM THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Cert 12A | By Steve Dinneen ***** UNLESS you’ve lived in a cupboard for the last six months, it won’t have escaped you that there is a new Batman movie. Even if you have, you’ll probably have heard about it anyway. You’ll have seen a trailer through the little crack [...]