What the other papers say this morning
FINANCIAL TIMES
Barclays in Qatar loan probe
UK authorities are probing an allegation that Barclays loaned Qatar money to invest in the bank as part of its cash call at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, which enabled the bank to avoid a UK government bailout. Neither Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Than nor Qatar Holding is accused of wrongdoing. Their lawyer at Stephenson Harwood and their spokesman declined to comment.
The bank said the authorities’ investigations were ongoing. It neither denied nor confirmed the revelation.
Owner of O2 arena in bidders’ sights
An Australian shopping centre operator, a Los Angeles bank chief executive and a Qatari quasi-sovereign wealth fund are among those expected to submit bids of $5bn-$8bn for Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner of London’s O2 arena, as early as next week.
Amazon paralysed by outage
Amazon’s homepage was knocked out for 49 minutes on Thursday afternoon in US eastern time, in an unusual outage that partly paralysed the world’s biggest ecommerce business by sales. The firm confirmed the US outage.
THE TIMES
Strike fear over Iberia’s cut plans
Spanish unions have rejected a new proposal for job cuts at Iberia. International Airlines Group, which owns Iberia and British Airways, announced plans to cut almost a third of workers
Cookie thief holds biscuit to ransom
Bahlsen, a food company, has received a ransom demand from a criminal disguised as the Cookie Monster for the return of its golden biscuit sign, which disappeared from its Hanover headquarters last week.
The Daily Telegraph
BCC: Give us a bigger lender
The British Chambers of Commerce is working with Labour to create a blueprint for a “British Investment Bank” amid claims that the Coalition’s own state bank is being blighted by political wrangling.
Talvivaara falls on Goldman sell call
The broker warned investors the miner will need to sell shares. Analysts cut their recommendation on Talvivaara to “sell” from “neutral”. Investors holdings in Talvivaara almost halved last year.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Peregrine Founder Hit With 50 Years
Russell Wasendorf Sr., was sentenced to the maximum 50 years in jail after admitting to orchestrating a fraud at his futures brokerage and misleading regulators for almost 20 years.
California Gets Rating Boost
Standard & Poor’s upgraded California to single-A from single-A-minus, after a months-long rally in California debt and almost a year since the ratings firm put it on positive outlook