The Evening Standard (London, England) articles from December 2004

The Evening Standard (London, England) archives from December 2004

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Anthony Hilton Dec. 1--WORRYING SIGNALS FROM RUSSIA: Investors in the Russia's biggest oil company, Yukos, dismayed at the moves by the Russian government to seize its prize assets to compensate for past non-payment of taxes, have...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Mickey Clark Dec. 1--While blue-chip Rentokil Initial warned trading conditions will continue to deteriorate, and results at caterer Compass failed to meet expectations, one big City player was telling investors to be optimistic...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.
December 1, 2004... Dec. 1--TOKYO: Prosecutors today raided UFJ Bank's headquarters for the second time this year and are questioning former executives over allegations UFJ, subject of a takeover tussle between Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui...

Britain's shadow chancellor stays on message over government overspending.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Chris Blakhurst Dec. 1--It's a Wednesday night at a hotel in Park Lane and Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, is in full cry. The previous night he was doing something similar and tomorrow night he will be as...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
December 1, 2004... Dec. 1--IT'S NOT always so easy being a tax exile. No sooner do you move than the new place can alter its laws and, like a Bedouin, you have to up sticks again. Such a fate has befallen Mohamed Fayed. The Harrods and Fulham football club owner...

Disney's former legal adviser says firm's past president was incompetent.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Bill Condie Dec. 1--Disney's former president Michael Ovitz has been branded a "total failure" by the company's former chief legal adviser. In court testimony designed to protect his own actions but damning of Ovitz, Sanford...

British bargain hotels start to drive harder deals.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Jim Armitage Dec. 1--The days of the bargain London hotel room could soon be over, with influential figures showing operators no longer feel the need to slash rates in order to fill beds, writes Jim Armitage. This year's...

Lufthansa aims high as it starts class war with rivals.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Allan Hall Dec. 1--Lufthansa is launching a "luxury" campaign to lure first-class customers from discount airlines and other top European carriers. Starting today, top-paying passengers at a new terminal in Frankfurt can sit down...

Marks & Spencer cuts again for festive 'promotion'.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Fiona Walsh Dec. 1--Marks & Spencer is slashing prices by 20 percent tomorrow in a desperate attempt to kick-start Christmas spending, writes Fiona Walsh. The move comes amid growing fears that the retail sector is in line for...

India call centres alienate British clients, EDS warns.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Nick Goodway Dec. 1--Britain's biggest outsourcing group, EDS, warned today that many companies are badly served by moving their call centres to low-cost countries and would be better off shifting their back-office processing. --...

One in four British adults said to be ignorant about savings.
December 1, 2004... Byline: James Rossiter Dec. 1--An alarming one in five British adults admit to a poor knowledge of savings products. Add in the 6 percent of the adult population -- 2.7 million -- who say they have not even the faintest idea about the...

British quartet accused of dealing on Philip Morris-Gallaher inside information.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Malcolm Withers Dec. 1--Inside knowledge of a planned takeover of tobacco group Gallaher by rival cigarette giant Philip Morris was used by four men accused of operating an insider dealing ring to place huge bets on share price...

UK-based tour operator Travelsphere buys rival Page & Moy.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Jim Armitage Dec. 1--SAGA, the holiday and financial services group, today faces a major new competitor in the battle for the grey pound, writes Jim Armitage. Travelsphere, tour operator for the over-45s, has snapped up arch...

Islands in the sun.(Science Scoops)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... TALK ABOUT EXTREME ENGINEERING! The largest artificial offshore islands in the world will soon be finished in Dubai, the industrial capital of the United Arab Emirates. The two islands, which will be shaped like palm trees, will not be natural....

A whale of a story!(Science Scoops)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Did you know that scientists have found a 35-foot-long whale in a rock quarry in eastern Virginia? It's true! In fact, it's no ordinary whale--it's a whale of a new species! This whale's no landlubber. It's actually the fossil of a whale...

Hi, phoebe!(Science Scoops)
December 1, 2004... No, not the funny, flaky star on TV's hit comedy Friends, but Saturn's moon Phoebe. The sharp image you see here was taken last June by the $3.3 billion, plutonium-powered spacecraft Cassini that came within about 1,285 miles of the dark world....

SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize!(Science Scoops)
December 1, 2004... You game? To go into space? No kidding, your chances of being a civilian in space just soared skyward. Last October, the first commercially operated rocket plane, SpaceShipOne, flew into sub-orbital space twice within five days, winning the $10...

Speaking of impacts!(Science Scoops)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Be sure to look up every now and then when you're doing your homework, because you just never know what's headed your way. Take, for example, this story from Brenda Archer of Auckland, New Zealand. Last June, while Archer was in the kitchen...

Science on the edge.
December 1, 2004... I've walked across a volcano's hot lava flow. Do you think I'm reckless, maybe even crazy? Before you answer, let me ask you a question: If I offered you $5,000--or, say, a full year without homework--would you dare to do it? If you...

Getting the picture: dive with marine biologists as they search for new life forms. Descend deep into an ice cave as a medical researcher collects samples of frozen microorganisms. Travel with mountain climbers to position seismic sensors on Mount Everest. See astronauts assemble the Space Station and conduct experiments in orbit.
December 1, 2004... While few people ever travel on such extreme expeditions, IMAX film technology lets us share in these and many more amazing science adventures. In fact, getting the film footage itself is an extreme adventure! Shooting on Location ...

Handling crocodiles: some "tails" from the tropics.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2004... Crocodiles continue to beat nature at her own game even after 200 million years. They've outlived dinosaurs, survived Ice Age temperatures, and enjoy an enviable position near the top of the food chain. But today in Chiapas, Mexico's...

You don't really know a glacier ... until you've lived under one.
December 1, 2004... Have you ever gone on a vacation and been disappointed that the weather was cold and wet the entire time? Don't look for sympathy from Iowa State professor Neal Iverson, whose "vacation rental" is a cabin in a tunnel under a glacier on the...

Journey to the jungle.(Activity To Discover)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Imagine that you're the lead scientist on a project to study a fragile rain forest ecosystem. You plan to travel to Di Scover, a fictitious tropical country whose three main ethnic groups have fought with each other on and off for the last...

Spider-man and extreme science: a web of connections?
December 1, 2004... CHOMP! A radioactive spider bites chemistry student Peter Parker and he becomes the Amazing Spider-Man. Zap! Gamma rays mutate physicist Bruce Banner into the green-skinned "Hulk." Fiction? That depends. How much are real scientists like...

Survivors extraordinaire!
December 1, 2004... Excitement surged through the NASA Space Center as Columbia prepared for flight. Over 80 science experiments, submitted from around the world, had been stowed in racks aboard the space shuttle. Columbia literally buzzed with life as bees, ants,...

I, Robot frontier scientist.
December 1, 2004... Think for a moment. What are the qualities needed to be an extreme scientist? Strength, stamina, determination, willingness to take risks, ability to travel, curiosity. You could go on and on. But... nowhere in the list would you explicitly...

Engineers taking it to the extreme!
December 1, 2004... Extreme engineers ask what's possible and then put their hardhats on and dig in. Here are three engineering projects--real and speculative--all superlative! The World's Tallest Building Imagine a tower piercing the sky at 2,000 feet...

Possibility is everywhere ... even in poisonous snails!
December 1, 2004... If your image of snails involves a sluggish, slimy, harmless critter that you can either steam and eat with butter or dump into your fish tank to keep the glass clean, you've never met a cone snail. And that may be a good thing. Some...

Meteors ... and pearls in the sky!(What's Up)
December 1, 2004... The monthly All-Sky Chart depicts the sky (minus the Moon) as it appears at 6 p.m. (your local time) on Dec. 15. Useful all month, the chart (except for planet positions) is also accurate for 7 p.m. on Dec. 1 and 5 p.m. on Dec. 31. The...

Observing an occultation!(You Can Do Astronomy)
December 1, 2004... The largest object in the night sky is our Moon. During its course through the night sky, it sometimes passes in front of the more distant stars or planets. First you see the star or planet near the Moon, and next you don't. It's almost as if...

Why the winder solstice was a time of fear.(Stargazing Comic)
December 1, 2004... GREETINGS, GREETINGS, FELLOW STARGAZERS. I KNOW A LOT OF US FEAR THE NIGHT. THAT'S EASY TO UNDERSTAND. BUT THE WINDER SOLSTICE? WELL, TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, THE WINDER SOLSTICE WAS ALMOST UNIVERSALLY FEARED BECAUSE MANY PEOPLE BELIEVED...

Extreme temps.(Brain Strain)
December 1, 2004... Dr. Brain is a scientist studying extremophiles--organisms that thrive in extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, acidity, and so forth. Of course, the definition of "extreme" is from a human perspective, because to these creatures their...

Into the mouth of a giant: life at Mount St. Helens.(Fantastic Journeys)
December 1, 2004... Editor's Note: This month, "Fantastic Journeys" takes us on an expedition to the blast zone of Mount St. Helens, the site of the well-known $980 volcanic eruption and a much smaller eruption this year, where students do some extreme science of...

Courageous creature?(Animal Angles)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... We wouldn't have extreme science without courageous scientists. And for centuries, the symbol of courage has been Panthera leo--the lion. We've worshipped lions and associated them with royalty (for example, England's King Richard the...

Analysts expect final 2004 worldwide advertising spending to reach record.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Nick Goodway Dec. 6--The world advertising industry is set to beat all expectations in 2004 and can look forward to its best prospects since 2000, according to leading media services agency ZenithOptimedia. Total advertising...

Polish discount airline becomes second to fail in two weeks.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Nick Goodway Dec. 6--The second no-frills European airline to fail in a fortnight was on the brink of bankruptcy today. Air Polonia, which flies into Stansted, has suspended all flights, its call centre and online booking...

British defence contractor BAE warns of smaller-than-expected earnings growth.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Ross Tieman Dec. 6--Defence contractor BAE Systems today warned profit margins on its controversial 25-year-old Saudi contract, Al Yamamah, and weakening support work margins for the Ministry of Defence here would crimp earnings...

Australian BankWest looks to expand role in nation's retail banking sector.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Bill Condie Dec. 6--HBOS has stepped up its aggressive expansion of BankWest, the Australian lender it bought last year. In a major restructuring, BankWest is to merge many retail areas with its online division, significantly...

British banking giant HSBC hires senior executive from Asian rival.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Jake Lloyd-Smith Dec. 6--Banking group HSBC today scored a notable victory over its key British rival in Asia by snapping up Peter Wong, who last month abruptly resigned as head of Standard Chartered's China team. HSBC also...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.
December 6, 2004... Dec. 6--MOWLEM SOUNDS ALARM OVER 15 MILLION POUNDS PROFITS HIT: Construction services firm Mowlem today sounded its second profits warning in five months, just weeks before chief executive Sir John Gains hands over to Simon Vivian. Pre-tax...

Evening Standard, London, business notes column.
December 6, 2004... Dec. 6--NICKEL EXPANSION SLATED BY BID TARGET WMC: Aussie miner WMC Resources, fighting off a A$7.4 billion (2.9 billion pounds) takeover bid by Londonlisted Xstrata, said today it may spend up to A$650 million expanding its nickel business in...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
December 6, 2004... Dec. 6--Forget Kimberly and David. There's another unlikely love match in town: Digby and Gordon. Guests at the CBI Growing Business Awards dinner were the latest to judge for themselves just how besotted are the supposed standard-bearer for...

Marketing boss at British beverage maker faces suspension, investigation.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Jim Armitage Dec. 6--Allied Domecq's top marketing boss is being investigated over alleged irregularities surrounding the awarding of marketing contracts. Kim Manley, 42, has been suspended since the internal probe into...

Accountants abandon troubled British gaming firm shortly before trial.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Jim Armitage Dec. 6--Ernst & Young today sensationally quit as auditors to the Wembley casinos and dog-tracks group ahead of next month's high-profile bribery trial in the US. News of the move came as the group announced the...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Anthony Hilton Dec. 6--DANGER MONEY: First we had the corporate governance reforms, now we have the pay rises for non-executive directors. Executive pay consultants Watson Wyatt say there has been a 38 percent increase in the...

British manufacturing sector shows decline in factory output.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Jane Padgham Dec. 6--Gloom surrounding Britain's manufacturing sector deepened today with news of another unexpected fall in factory output. Reinforcing expectations that the Bank of England will leave interest rates at 4.75...

Worldwide oil prices retreat as production capacity increases.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Tom Nicholls Dec. 6--Oil prices look to have peaked after a dramatic price slump triggered by signs that supplies are more readily available and depleted oil stocks are recovering. The January Brent crude futures contract was...

London-based real estate developer quits 2 billion pound regeneration project.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Mira Bar-Hillel Dec. 6--Berkeley Group's St George offshoot has sold its stake in one of London's largest regeneration projects. Argent, a property arm of British Telecom pension fund manager Hermes, has bought out St George's...

Declining British engineering firm Jarvis warns of possible collapse.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Steve Hawkes Dec. 6--Cash-strapped road and rail engineer Jarvis today warned it may collapse in weeks unless it can complete the controversial 110 million pounds sale of its stake in London Underground consortium Tube Lines. ...

Virgin bids to take over British east coast rail line.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Robert Lea Dec. 6--Virgin Trains today unveiled an audacious bid to put the old British Rail InterCity network back together by taking over the running of the King's Cross-Scotland East Coast Main Line. With Virgin already...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.
December 7, 2004... Dec. 7--ROTTEN VEG PRODUCTIVITY HARD TO DIGEST AT SALVESEN: Struggling logistics group Christian Salvesen today warned that full-year pre-tax profits will be "similar" to last year after the continued fallout from contract losses and a slump in...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Anthony Hilton Dec. 7--TUBE BONDS ON THE RIGHT LINES: For more than five years, at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds, the Treasury negotiated with private-sector consortia to put in place the 30-year contracts under which...

Virgin Atlantic boss promises fares war on 'kangaroo route'.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Robert Lea Dec. 7--Virgin Atlantic today promised a price war on services from London to Sydney which could send air fares on the "Kangaroo route" tumbling by up to 30 percent. Accusing British Airways and Qantas of...

Developer Quintain is confident of green light for casino.
December 7, 2004... Byline: James Rossiter Dec. 7--Quintain Estates and Development is confident of winning Government approval to build a new super-casino at Wembley. Nick Shattock, Quintain's property director, said he was "OK" with the Government's...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
December 7, 2004... Dec. 7--A TRIP TO THE NORTH POLE is full of perils: polar bears, frostbite, collapsing ice. But now Matthew Hancock, an economist at the Bank of England, has met another as he prepares for his two-month trek to the freezing north. Hancock and...

New year sales have already started, says U.K. consumer electronics group's CEO.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Steve Hawkes Dec. 7--High Street retailers are engaged in a record level of promotional activity this Christmas as the big chains desperately bid to entice shoppers into their stores. Daniel Harris, chief executive of consumer...

Axe threat looms over hundreds in face of Credit Suisse overhaul.
December 7, 2004... Byline: James Rossiter Dec. 7--Credit Suisse today unveiled a radical overhaul of its investment banking operations, threatening the jobs of many of its 6000-plus London workforce. The Swiss group told investors it wanted to create a...

Formula One motor racing CEO's right hand man moves over.
December 7, 2004... Dec. 7--Bernie Ecclestone's legal defeat over the management of Formula One motor racing has sparked the ousting of his trusted lieutenant and moneyman from a key company in the billionaire's empire. Luc Argand, 56, and wife Emmanuele...

London boutique hotel goes up for sale at 12.5 million pounds.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Jim Armitage Dec. 7--Fashion and interior design doyenne Anoushka Hempel's flagship Bayswater boutique hotel, The Hempel, is up for sale. The disposal follows last month's sale of the former Bond girl's Blake's Hotel in South...

Insurer Marsh & McLennan seeks premiums cut in wake of U.S. scandal.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Steve Hawkes Dec. 7--Crisis-torn Marsh & McLennan wants insurers to cut premiums as it brings in a new business model following New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's damning investigation of the company. Chief executive...

Exploration drive by Libya signals start of big race for oil deals.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Tom Nicholls Dec. 7--The world's biggest energy companies are preparing to fight it out for a stake in Libya's alluring oil and gas industry. Of 122 companies that registered to apply for oil and gas exploration permits under...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Mickey Clark Dec. 7--Miners were the biggest losers among blue-chips today after broker Merrill Lynch went on the warpath and downgraded the entire sector. BHP Billiton led the way down with a fall of 11 pence to 579 1/2...

New York developer wins double payout on twin towers' insurance policies.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Bill Condie Dec. 7--The New York developer hoping to rebuild on the World Trade Center site, has won his legal battle to collect twice as much from his policies as insurers had originally offered. The money will be used to...

Rail engineer Jarvis drops out of student-housing business.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Steve Hawkes Dec. 7--Stricken rail engineer Jarvis gave a small lift to shareholders today by finally completing the sale of the bidding and management arm of its University Partnership student accommodation business. The...

Residential property specialist Grainger warns of limited house price growth.
December 7, 2004... Byline: James Rossiter Dec. 7--Britain's largest tenanted residential property specialist, Grainger Trust, today warned that the country faces limited house price growth over the next year. Grainger chairman Rupert Dickinson said house...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Mickey Clark Dec. 8--DEUTSCHE'S DIM VIEW HAS TOBACCO PRODUCERS GASPING: Tobacco producers saw the value of their shares go up in smoke today after being downgraded from buy to hold by Deutsche Bank, one of the City's biggest...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Anthony Hilton Dec. 8--With just three weeks left to the end of the year, the investment banks are beginning to fidget over where they will appear in the annual league tables for the various sectors of business they do -- mergers...

Apple to launch 51 pounds iPod.
December 8, 2004... Dec. 8--Apple Computer will launch a stripped-down version of its popular iPod music player for just $99 (51 pounds) next year, according to an industry report. Themacmind.com website reported that the virtually indestructible iPod Flash...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
December 8, 2004... Dec. 8--SIR MIKE HODGKINSON and David Mills, chairman and chief executive of Post Office Limited, the Royal Mail's retail arm, have been talking to MPs worried about branch closures. "We have, if you like, the last bastion of nationalisation on...

IBM's PC unit is sold to Chinese firm.
December 8, 2004... Dec. 8--Hi-tech giant IBM confirmed a landmark deal today to sell its personal computer business to a Chinese manufacturer for $1.75 billion (900 million pounds) in cash, shares and assumed debt, writes Jake Lloyd-Smith. The transaction,...

Betting ring says it didn't know leaked Credit Suisse info was confidential.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Malcolm Withers Dec. 8--A betting ring accused of insider trading had no idea that information leaked to it by former Credit Suisse First Boston compliance officer Asif Butt was confidential, a court has heard. Butt, giving...

Christmas worries put new freeze on cards for U.K. economy.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Jane Padgham Dec. 8--HOUSE PRICES: Mortgage rivals Nationwide and Halifax painted conflicting pictures of the housing market in November. The building society said property prices bounced back, rising 1 percent following October's...

Chiron plant stays shut, raising fears of flu-vaccine shortage.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Nick Goodway Dec. 8--Britain's biggest flu vaccine plant is to remain shut for another three months and worldwide supplies for next winter could be jeopardised. British regulators have suspended production for a further three...

News Corp talks could lead to exit by Liberty Media.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Jake Lloyd Smith Dec. 8--Little more than a month after John Malone's Liberty Media alarmed Rupert Murdoch with plans to raise its voting stake in his News Corp to 17 percent, the two sides are in talks that could lead to them...

U.K. restaurateur sits at top of multiple food chains.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Chris Blackhurst Dec. 8--It must be a great feeling, sitting in a bustling restaurant and knowing you own it. There's something intoxicating about the mixture of food, alcohol and people having a good time that simply isn't...

Virgin Atlantic Airways considers India link with bmi British Midland.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Robert Lea Dec. 8--Virgin Atlantic has signalled it could work with bmi British Midland to break BA's dominance of the London to India airline market -- set to become one of the fastest growing aviation routes in the world. A...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.
December 8, 2004... Dec. 8--6 MILLION POUNDS INTERNATIONAL GREETINGS CHEER: Cards and gift-wrap company International Greetings is optimistic on full-year prospects after a 17 percent rise in interim profits to 6.3 million pounds. Turnover grew by 16 percent to...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.
December 9, 2004... Dec. 9--DREAMWORKS MOVES 7 MILLION POUNDS INTO THE BLACK: Newly-listed movie studio DreamWorks Animation SKG posted a third-quarter profit of $13.7 million (7.4 million pounds) in its first earnings period as a public company. At the same stage...

Air China's IPO takes off with huge demand.
December 9, 2004... Byline: Bill Condie Dec. 9--Air China, the country's largest international carrier, has effortlessly raised the HK$8.36 billion (590 million pounds) it sought in an initial public offering, bankers to the sale said today. It sold...

Royal Bank of Scotland remains on target despite lending slowdown.
December 9, 2004... Byline: Nick Goodway Dec. 9--Royal Bank of Scotland is confident of producing the 10 percent rise in profits the market expects this year, pushing them up from 7.1 billion pounds to 7.9 billion pounds. Chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin,...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
December 9, 2004... Dec. 9--IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE to anyone familiar with Sir Terry Leahy that he has agreed to become a special adviser to Everton. After Tesco and his family, the Premiership club is his next love. Nevertheless, it's something of a...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
December 9, 2004... Byline: Anthony Hilton Dec. 9--Swiss Life today sold its UK closed life fund business for 205 million pounds to Resolution Life, the Fleming family-backed company specifically created to own and operate closed life fund companies. Two...

Upmarket builder Berkeley sees drop in demand for new homes.
December 9, 2004... Dec. 9--Upmarket builder Berkeley today delivered the strongest evidence yet that the housing slowdown has hit the new-homes market, as it revealed a 28 percent fall in reservations. The sharp fall came in first-half trading to the end of...

Bank of England leaves interest rates on hold as U.K. trade gap rockets.
December 9, 2004... Byline: Jane Padgham Dec. 9--The Bank of England today left interest rates on hold for the fourth month in a row following news of a shock blowout in Britain's trade gap. As the Bank's monetary policy committee froze the cost of...