WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
BANKS’ ASSET SELLING HINTS AT BETTER CONDITIONS
Banks are selling some of the companies they took over from their private equity owners during the financial crisis, such as Swedish fridge-maker Dometic and German construction group DSI, indicating that the economic cycle is turning. Bargain-hunting private equity executives have been frustrated at the dearth of companies being sold by the banks. But now financial markets have rebounded and the economy has stabilised some banks are looking to exit.
JAPAN SUFFERS PANGS OVER KOREAN PROWESS
Some 95 per cent of vehicles and 70 per cent of electronics sold in Japan are made by local companies.But that dynamic showed signs of shifting last month with the Japanese launch of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone.
HESELTINE BEGINS REGIONAL ROAD SHOW
Thirty years after Tarzan first swung through the concrete jungles of Britain’s blighted inner cities Michael Heseltine is visiting again as part of the latest government plan to reboot the economies of some of the country’s poorest areas. He is chairing the advisory board of its regional growth fund, which will pay out £1.4bn over three years for local projects.
WORLD OPINION COOLS ON WIKILEAKS
WikiLeaks is testing the boundaries of its public support round the world, judging from a broad sweep of international reaction. Publica-tion of a cache of more than 250,000 US embassy cables has divided opinion more evenly than its release earlier this year of 76,000 documents connected to the Afghan conflict and 400,000 from the war in Iraq.
THE TIMES
SPY IN WAGE PACKET TO TRACK INCOME AND TAX
The taxman has stepped up plans to download information straight from pay packets, calling time on the P60 and other documents in an effort to make sure the right amount of tax is deducted under the Pay-As-You-Earn system.
SOLICITOR FACING BRIBERY CHARGES URGES COURT TO HALT EXTRADITION
A London solicitor asked the High Court yesterday to block his extradition to America in connection with an alleged multi-million dollar international bribery conspiracy. Jeffrey Tesler, 62, a dual British-Israeli national, is accused by US authorities of conspiring to funnel more than $130 million (£85 million) in corrupt payments to Nigerian officials to secure engineering contracts.
The Daily Telegraph
SHELL TO BE PROSECUTED OVER BACTON GAS TERMINAL FIRE
Royal Dutch Shell is facing “serious” charges for alleged environmental and safety problems connected to a fire at its Bacton gas terminal almost three years ago. The Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told the energy giant’s UK subsidiary on Thursday that the company will be prosecuted jointly by both authorities.
SHOPPERS LOSE OUT ON ‘BILLIONS’ BECAUSE OF ‘DECEITFUL’ MARKETING
Websites, high street retailers and even television shopping channels have all engaged in a series of marketing practises that the Office of Fair Trading has warned are damaging not just to consumers but to the whole economy. The OFT has highlighted seven different techniques retailers use to mislead consumers.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
ELLISON SAYS ORACLE WILL ‘GO AFTER’ H-P
Oracle Corp. will use new hardware to attack onetime partner Hewlett-Packard Co. in the market for server systems, said Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison. The jibe Thursday came as Oracle announced new computers based on the Sparc chip technology developed by Sun Microsystems – which Oracle acquired in January – as well as updates to other products.
GOOGLE SET TO LAUNCH E-BOOK VENTURE
Google is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold. The long-delayed venture recently has cleared several technical and legal hurdles, people close to the company say. It is set to debut in the U.S. by the end of the year.