A tale of betrayal and backstabbing in vicious Westminster-on-the-Tiber November 25, 2009 LUSTRUMBY ROBERT HARRISHutchinson, £18.99 ROBERT Harris is the author of best-selling historical novels such as Fatherland and Enigma. In 2003, he wrote the first of his books based in Ancient Rome, Pompeii. This was followed in 2006 by Imperium, the first in a trilogy about the statesman and orator Cicero. Lustrum is the second. It [...]
Google needs to start rewarding its customers November 23, 2009 WHY is Google winning? And what does it tell us about the future?A fortnight ago, Rupert Murdoch told Australian Sky that he would stop Google from indexing all of his content, preventing it from becoming a one-stop aggregator. Murdoch has been saying for a while that he wants to stop his newspapers haemorrhaging cash by [...]
Microsoft and News Corp in Google attack November 23, 2009 MICROSOFT has held talks with News Corp about removing the latter’s online news content from Google’s search results and listing them exclusively on its Bing search engine instead. Talks are still at an early stage, with a question mark over the terms and payment for the deal. The giant media companies are said to be [...]
Trekking with condors and canyons makes the Wild West unforgettable November 22, 2009 COMPUTER-controlled fountains rising out of an artificial lake on the Las Vegas Strip cavorted to the strains of The Pink Panther. Later we joined the midnight crowds singing along to Don McLean’s American Pie at a laser show in Fremont Street, downtown where the first casinos were built. It couldn’t be a greater contrast with [...]
Liverpool can come out on top in front of Kop November 19, 2009 LIVERPOOL vs. MANCHESTER CITYTOMORROW 12.45PM, SKY SPORTS 1IT is too early to start talking about six pointers, but a win for Liverpool against Manchester City at Anfield tomorrow will send out a clear message that they are still very much part of the Big Four. Rafa Benitez has been under pressure since the very first [...]
$1bn lifeline for Japan Airlines November 18, 2009 Japan Airlines has been offered $1bn (£598m) emergency funding from Delta Air Lines and its SkyTeam partners, as Tokyo refused to rule out allowing the carrier go bust. The package includes a $500m equity injection, a revenue guarantee worth $300m and $200m in asset-backed funding. JAL’s shares plunged to an all-time low on news the [...]
cruise control November 17, 2009 IF I told you that I recently indulged in a spot of mid-week mud-larking, then where would you picture me? The wilds of Scotland? The Yorkshire Dales? Well, not quite. This time I was in the EJ Churchill Sporting Ground near High Wycombe. When I emerge from my car, it sounds like I’ve arrived at [...]
Merlin lines up Sunderland November 16, 2009 The backers of theme park group Merlin Entertainments are lining up John Sunderland as chairman ahead of a stock market floatation next year. Merlin’s shareholders, which include Blackstone and Dubai International Capital, have identified the former chief executive and chairman of Cadbury-Schweppes to take the firm public. Merlin Entertainments, which owns Alton Towers, Legoland and [...]
Tories could give Sky the Ashes back November 15, 2009 Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said yesterday that a Tory government could overturn Labour’s decision to return a host of sporting events to free-to-air channels. Last week, a government-appointed panel – led by former Football Association chief executive David Davies – recommended that the Ashes cricket, international football World Cup and European Championship qualifying matches, [...]
Ireland can hold France in crucial Croke contest November 12, 2009 REPUBLIC OF IRELAND vs. FRANCETomorrow 8pm, Sky Sports 1IRELAND haven’t tasted defeat in Dublin since the 2006 World Cup qualifiers when they lost 1-0 to France in September 2005. Since then they have won five and drawn seven of 12 competitive home games. It is never easy to analyse international football form, as teams play [...]