Boss Zola steps up striker search after Franco blow January 10, 2010 WEST HAM boss Gianfranco Zola will up his search for a striker this week after Guillermo Franco picked up an injury in training. Italian Franco was Zola’s only fit, recognised striker with Carlton Cole still suffering with a knee problem. But the 33-year-old has suffered a muscular complaint and now faces at least three weeks [...]
Summer blockbusters and rise of 3D movies boost revenues for Cineworld January 7, 2010 CINEWORLD revenues were up more than 11 per cent last year after receiving a welcome boost from the rise in popularity of 3D movies. Box office takings were up by nearly 17 per cent and food sales were up by almost 10 per cent. These rises were enough to overshadow a drop in advertising revenue [...]
Technical signs point to dollar domination over the euro February 16, 2010 THE latest revelation in the Greek debt saga is that investment banks on Wall Street helped Greece and other southern European economies to move some of their debt off of their balance sheets through the use of securitisation and swaps over the past 15 years. This allowed them to reduce their official budget deficit figures [...]
Hershey lines up $10bn for Cadbury bid January 17, 2010 IN a gripping twist to the Cadbury saga, Hershey yesterday appeared to be lining up a staggering $10bn (£6.15bn) bank loan. The US confectioner seems determined to fight against the odds to snap up hostile takeover target Cadbury. The loan, believed to be from banks including JP Morgan and Bank of America, would give it [...]
A haunting tale of cat and mouse as a child takes on a serial killer March 10, 2010 BLACKLANDS BY BELINDA BAUER Corgi, £7.99 by Zoe Strimpel EXMOOR dripped with dirty bracken, rough, colourless grass, prickly gorse, and last year’s heather, so black it looked as if wet fire had swept across the landscape, taking the trees with it and leaving the moor cold and exposed to face the winter unprotected. Drizzle dissolved [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 10, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES BOCOM EYES $500M PRIVATE EQUITY FUND Bank of Communications is to launch a US dollar private equity fund in the latest sign of mounting Chinese interest in the asset class. BoCom International, the bank’s overseas arm, said on Wednesday it was targeting a $500m fund that would invest in mainland groups. The fund [...]
BIGBITEOFMOVIESUCCESS November 22, 2009 The Twilight Saga: New Moon, a film sequel in which British actor Robert Pattinson stars as a vampire, broke the all-time record for opening day takings in America at the weekend. The blockbuster took £72.7m (£44m) at the US box office on Friday, and a whopping $258.8m worldwide in its first three days. In the [...]
Mick’s Wolves lack the bite to frighten United March 4, 2010 WOLVES vs MANCHESTER UNITED TOMORROW – 5.30PM ESPN THE relationship between the red and blue sides of Manchester has been especially hostile this season thanks mainly to the Carlos Tevez saga. However, the little Argentinian did his old teammates a huge favour by inflicting Chelsea’s first home league defeat since November 2008 last Saturday. That [...]
Fresh row in TNK-BP saga May 27, 2009 THE acrimony between BP and its partners in the TNK-BP joint venture flared up anew yesterday as a group of Russian shareholders put up their own candidate to rival the British company’s choice of chief executive. BP unveiled Pavel Skitovich, a former head of Russian mining firm Polyus Gold, as its choice to lead the [...]
Eastern Europe currencies will suffer as Greek crisis unfolds January 26, 2010 OBSERVERS of the Greece’s fiscal crisis might be forgiven for thinking that there has been little impact on other countries. The credit default swap markets – which measure the perceived risk of a sovereign debt default – have been remarkably well behaved, with the unsurprising exception of Greece. But if you look more closely at [...]