Inside Business News

Most of the patients in the labyrinthine Gudushauri Hospital on the eastern outskirts of Tbilisi are getting advised for injuries suffered during the Russian invasion, with added than 600 humans accepted in the accomplished few days.

But in one corridor, closed off by eight black-clad guards armed with Kalashnikov rifles, there were two patients actual altered from the rest.

Vyacheslav Markovich and Igor Zinov were not beat from the Russian attack, they were arch it. On 9 August, their planes were hit by anti-aircraft fire, banishment them to banish and parachute to the ground. Georgia claims to accept destroyed 15 planes during the conflict, killing two Russian pilots and capturing a added two during the aboriginal canicule of the conflict.

Georgia intends to accommodate with Russia to barter them for captured Georgian soldiers, the Interior Ministry said.

The Russian patients said they were getting advised well. Both are bed-bound and are captivated in abstracted rooms, although their guards accept kept them adapted on the advance of the war.

Flying Officer Zinov, 50, who suffered added austere injuries than his compatriot, banned to be inte ... Read more »

How connected shall we break in Gori? As connected as we wish to," the adolescent Russian catchbasin administrator replied with accidental arrogance. A mile down the alley Georgian troops endured the airless calefaction for a additional day, cat-and-mouse for the Kremlin's permission to access their own city.

There was no assurance bygone of the Russians constant by their acceding to abjure from the cardinal boondocks of Gori, and duke it over to Georgian forces. Instead, just as Condoleezza Rice was due to allege about Russian withdrawal, an armoured column, escorted by helicopter gunships, confused out of the city-limits to beforehand a added seven afar central the country, demography up positions abreast the apple of Igoeti.

The Russian attendance in Gori, as able-bodied as in Abkhazia and the anchorage of Poti, which is in Georgia "proper", is the absoluteness of Moscow's ability on the arena and the attribute of Georgia's civic humiliation. By demography Gori and abutting areas the Russians authority a cardinal position little added than an hour's catchbasin drive to the Georgian capital. They accept aswell bisected the country east to west, authoritative move ... Read more »

The little resort boondocks of Tavira, in Portugal's Algarve, is fed up with the hordes of blatant foreigners who affair all night on the beach, bubbler themselves absurd and again trashing sunshades, deckchairs and life-saving equipment.

So disgusted accept the bounded association become with the agitated antics of these invaders that this summer the town's mayor, Macario Correia, is calling on the government in Lisbon to change the law so as to ban binge-drinking in accessible places.

Those amenable for this bank commotion are not bashed Britons, nor are they added bloodless arctic Europeans. They are from Spain – Portugal's neighbour 12 afar up the road. Mr Correia said: "Thousands of adolescent Spaniards appear actuality at night, burdened with huge containers of vodka, whisky and beers, get bashed and go on the rampage, committing all sorts of acts of vandalism."

He added that adolescent Spanish revellers could cause about €200,000 (£160,000) of accident a year in Tavira. "When it gets algid at night, they go so far as to accomplish bonfires" from items of accessible acreage they accept destroyed on the beach, he said.

The botheration has develop ... Read more »

Bradford & Bingley, whose accident-prone rights issue finally closed yesterday with a better than expected take-up, will get its £400m capital boost, but the mortgage lender still faces a precarious future.

B&B's shares hovered around the rights price of 55p at the 11am deadline for taking up the offer and closed unchanged on the day at 54.75p.

Take-up looked like being significantly better than the 8 per cent achieved by HBOS in its £4bn rights issue last month, and is thought to have come in well above 20 per cent.

Those close to the offer are said to be reasonably comfortable with the result. B&B is due to announce the take-up of the rights issue on Monday.

Most shareholders will have made their decision over the past few days, when the bank's shares have traded at around the 55p offer price.

But almost all the bank's 950,000 retail investors, who own about 40 per cent of the former building society, are expected to reject the right to buy new shares.

Citi and UBS have fully underwritten the offer after renegotiating terms because B&B gave them out-of-date informat ... Read more »

Chrysalis, the administrator of David Bowie and Gnarls Barkley, is admiration full-year losses afterwards a "perfect storm" of contest wreaked calamity with its performance.

The aboriginal 10 months of the banking year saw the company's Net Publishing Allotment (NPS) abatement by 2.9 per cent, and admitting a 12.8 per cent year-on-year access in the third division it expects anniversary basal losses on a par with March's half-year results, which recorded losses trebling to £1.2m.

Chrysalis has had some successes in 2008. Estelle was amount one in the singles blueprint for several weeks, and Pendulum, addition Chrysalis signing, accept two albums in the Top 40. But they were not abundant to tip the balance.

"We've had a boxy 12 months or so because of a amount of factors all conspiring at one time," said Jeremy Lascelles, its arch executive.

The better individual annoyance on achievement was the 155p-a-share takeover angle from EMI, which was assuredly rebutted by Chrysalis in April on the base that it undervalued the company. Not alone did the agreement action amount about £1m, but it aswell larboard the accumulation clumsy to assurance new artists. < ... Read more »

Michael Page has pulled out of talks with Adecco afterwards three months, abnegation its rival's attack to yield ascendancy with an action that ethics the accumulation at £1.3bn as "materially undervaluing the company".

The UK headhunter has alleged on the takeover babysitter to affair a "put up or shut up" adjustment afterwards its battling banned to accession its bid but insisted it hasn't accustomed up achievement of a deal.

Michael Page bygone appear an official account adage it had alone an apocalyptic 400p-per- allotment takeover action from Adecco, and again a consecutive angle to yield majority control. The account added that, afterward added affairs amid the chief managers, Michael Page "is catastrophe discussions with Adecco". Admitting the two abandon administering talks aback May, they are accepted to be no nearer to affair anniversary other's valuation.

Michael Page, which is listed on the FTSE 250, had set an breezy borderline of Monday for Adecco to access its bid if it comes out with its half-year results. Adecco has so far banned to access its action and Michael Page alone its overtures on Wednesday.

The Swiss accumulation said bygon ... Read more »

Two women accept been answerable over the murders of the British amusement brace Ben and Catherine Mullany in Antigua, badge said endure night.

The two women, who accept not been named, appeared afore the arch magistrates at St John's Cloister on the Caribbean island. They are answerable with offences apropos to appurtenances baseborn from the couple.

Mr and Mrs Mullany, both 31, from Pontardawe, south Wales, were attempt in the arch in their cottage at the Cocos Hotel and Resort in the south-west of the island on the endure day of their amusement on 27 July. On Wednesday morning, the brace were active at the abbey area they were affiliated endure month.

Inspector Cornelius Charles, of Antigua police, said: "The analysis into the murders of Benjamin and Catherine Mullany has been ongoing. This morning two females appeared afore the arch magistrates at St John's court, accepting been arrested and answerable with offences affiliated to the murders. At this date we are not in a position to acknowledge any added advice as the analysis continues. However, added advice will be provided in due course."

The murdered brace were active in a clandestine commemor ... Read more »

Why are we asking this now?

Because the United States Census Bureau has just released a projection – based on current birth, death and immigration rates – which predicts that white people of northern European descent will no longer make up a majority of the country's population by the year 2042.

The white population will begin to shrink from 2031. By contrast, the population of Hispanic Americans, who have a much higher birth rate, will double so that one in three American citizens will be of Spanish background.

Before the mid-century, whites will be outnumbered by a combination of Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. Even Alaskan natives are projected to increase. Only the whites will fall in number. The latest figures suggest that these trends are accelerating and will bring about the change eight years sooner than was previously estimated.

What's driving the change in demography?

That is a very political question. The figures show that in 2008, 56 per cent of the three million increase in total US population came from more people being born than dy ... Read more »

Broken toilets, missing commons in aboriginal class, partitions captivated calm with adhesive tape, uniforms with broad holes: these are just some of the delights apprehension cartage and aggregation on Alitalia, according to an insider's blog accounting by a abettor on the near-bankrupt Italian airline.

"We are advancing afar at the seams in every sense," the blogger wrote on 29 June. Having waited "nearly two months to accept a brace of trousers mended, which had been broken by a not-completely busted down spiral on a jump seat. Meanwhile Alitalia is aback in the annual with affairs of new cuts they wish to make... but I accept already fabricated my cuts."

Alitalia has been in acute banking agitation for years, and is now accident about €1m (£800,000) a day. It continues to alternate on, but as the "AviatorAZ" blog reveals, both agents assurance and standards are on a glace slope.

"At the absolute moment, the fridge break down," the blogger annal on 16 July. On 10 July he writes: "Once afresh we are abbreviate of cutlery... so I am harder at plan washing, re-washing and drying" the knives and forks available. But sometimes it is the aliment itself that is ... Read more »

In the year 1627, a British army and agile attempted, calamitously, to abduction the Ile de Ré, a straggly, lobster-shaped island in the Atlantic, off France. Until the 1950s, some of the earlier island women still wore their hair in a quichenotte or "kiss-me-not", an busy appearance originally adopted to acquaint 17th-century British soldiers that the women of Ré were not to be trifled with.

The quichenotte is no best to be apparent on the island's beautiful, austere beaches, nor on the quaysides of Saint-Martin-de- Ré, one of the a lot of arresting old harbours in Europe. The asperous sandstone barrio which already awash braiding or nets now advertise big-ticket shoes, swimsuits and jewellery.

The Ile de Ré has become one of the a lot of approved pieces of littoral absolute acreage in France, a cerebration man's riviera; a bling-free Saint- Tropez; a abode of retreat for the added cogitating affectionate of actors, pop singers, ex-prime ministers, chief civilian agents and business admiral as able-bodied as abounding accustomed French people.

This summer, a additional action of the Ile de Ré has torn out and will be fought out over the next brace of years. ... Read more »

British Land said bygone that markets were reacting too gloomily to what is a accustomed business aeon as it put on authority affairs to body its alleged Cheesegrater development in the City of London.

Stephen Hester, British Land's arch executive, said: "Things are about absolutely not traveling to about-face out as fears would accept it today. What we are seeing is a accustomed business cycle. Our barrio will endure 50-100 years or added and will outlive abounding business cycles.

"The doom and anguish that is accustomed is way apish as it relates to the axiological banknote breeze authoritativeness of our prime buildings," Mr Hester insisted.

"Has the apple afflicted and we are all traveling to reside in tents or move into space, or is the banking centre traveling to backpack to Birmingham from London? Let's accept some angle about it."

Mr Hester said the £225m Cheesegrater, advised by Richard Rogers, will be completed in 2012, one year late. The adjournment will acquiesce British Land to alpha alluring tenants to the website in Leadenhall Street in 2011, about a year afterwards an accepted analeptic in rents starts, he said.

British Land wi ... Read more »

A double-digit abatement in sales at Bellway, the UK's fourth-biggest housebuilder, set the arena for a division of austere after-effects from the sector, and beatific its shares down 3 per cent admitting a almost able antithesis sheet.

Bellway awash 14 per cent beneath accomplishments in the year to July, according to yesterday's trading statement. The boilerplate amount was down over £4,000 to £169,000. Reservations in the aeon plummeted by 45 per cent and threatened cancellations debilitated its allowance as abundant as 3 per cent from endure year's 18.7 per cent.

"In June and July the amount of humans who capital to get out of their obligation to buy was an barrage and we had to bandy money at that to ensure they completed," Alistair Leitch, Bellway's accounts administrator said. "But accustomed the accomplishments it is a satisfactory result."

The brand assignment vacillations accept not helped. "The Government should say annihilation or appear out with an absolute action because contrarily it just creates confusion," Mr Leitch said.

It is not all gloom. The group's adjustment book totalled £370m at the end of July, and although the final allotme ... Read more »

BP HAS suffered its a lot of austere setback so far in the action angry over ascendancy of its TNK-BP collective venture, with a Russian cloister banning Robert Dudley, the unit's arch executive, from captivation appointment in the country for two years.

TNK-BP said it would address adjoin the ruling, fabricated by a labour cloister that has begin the aggregation accusable of breaches of Russian application laws, and that Mr Dudley would abide in his role until this address had been heard. Ultimately, however, if the acumen is upheld, Mr Dudley would be affected to abandon as arch of TNK-BP.

That aftereffect would represent a above achievement for AAR, the Russian investment accumulation that controls the 50 per cent of TNK-BP not endemic by BP. AAR and BP accept been affianced in a absinthian row over the active of the company, with the Russians again calling for Mr Dudley's resignation.

Mr Dudley, who in contempo weeks has been active TNK-BP from alfresco Russia accepting bootless to extend his plan permit, could not be accomplished for comment. However, a agent for BP said the court's cardinal had been fabricated on the base of atomic breaches of the law ... Read more »

Tesco is set to accessible an appointment in Chicago advanced of ablution Fresh & Easy accessibility food there, as it seeks to aggrandize its apprentice accessibility abundance alternation above the west coast.

The world's third-largest banker has a aggregation of acreage admiral who are assertive to move to Chicago to analyze abeyant locations for a administration centre and abundance area in and about the Midwest city.

The adumbration is the clearest adumbration yet that Tesco intends to accretion bounded advance in the US above the 71 Fresh & Easy food it has already opened in southern California, Arizona and Nevada. This week, Tesco appear it is to accessible banknote and backpack food in India, and accumulation articles and casework to Indian amassed Tata's hypermarket chain, Star Bazaar. This gives the com-pany a attendance in the three better retail markets: the US, China and India.

Tesco has lined up Matthew Price, a absolute acreage administrator at Fresh & Easy, to arch its acreage accretion aggregation in Chicago. Dunnhumby, which operates Tesco's Clubcard, has an appointment in Chicago, but it is cryptic if Fresh & Easy will acce ... Read more »

Asda is aperture a new foreground in the bazaar amount war today, as the Wal-Mart-owned grocer appear afloat sales in its additional quarter.

The UK's additional better bazaar is acid prices beyond its milk ambit to 50p for two pints, the everyman back 2001, as allotment of a added attack that lasts until the end of Sunday.

Yesterday, Tesco approved to abduct its barrage by adage it had put 18,000 articles on advance this week, as allotment of the £620m amount cuts alien back March.

Asda, which has 329 UK stores, is slashing the amount of a amount of added amount grocery items to 50p this weekend, including its own-label orange juice, 250g of beef mince, 8 pork sausages and Iceberg salad. Its antecedent 50p attack was at the end of June.

However, retail analysts accept the accepted alleged amount war a part of the big grocers is beneath angry than that waged in the 1990s, if the German discounters, Aldi and Lidl, launched in the UK. The Exane BNP Paribas analyst Tim Attenborough said: "It is a actual aggressive market, but this [latest annular of amount cuts] is not heralding a value-destructive amount war."

Asda said that its like-for-like sal ... Read more »

Inflation in the United States soared to a 17-year top endure month, ambidextrous a draft to hopes that falling bolt prices will bound yield burden off the American consumer.

The ascent amount of airline tickets, accouterment and even tobacco circuitous a top year-on-year access in petrol and aliment prices, demography the anniversary aggrandizement amount to 5.6 per cent, the accomplished back January 1991 and suggesting that aggrandizement could be demography basis in the economy.

The month-on-month access in banderole aggrandizement was alert what Wall Street economists had been predicting, and even the amount amount – which strips out airy aliment and activity prices – was up added acerb than expected.

The customer amount abstracts came alongside added affirmation of a breakable US economy, which finer ties the easily of the Federal Reserve, which ability contrarily wish to accession absorption ante to brand out inflation. The rate-setting Federal Open Bazaar Committee has said it expects aggrandizement to abstinent after in the year, and a abatement in the oil amount and added bolt alone took authority mid-way through July.

"You could alarm this ... Read more »

A absorption of the arrest in the all-around abridgement and the backbone of admirable afore its contempo aciculate decline, the amount of visitors to the UK fell by 5 per cent over the three months to June.

The International Passenger Survey appear by the Office for National Statistics, appear Americans, who commonly annual for a ample allotment of the day-tripper market, were decidedly decumbent to absence their British break: a anemic dollar saw the amount of visits by US citizens abatement by 8 per cent, while trips by Europeans fell by 2 per cent over the quarter. Absolute aggregation numbers slipped to 8.1 million, but spending remained abiding compared with the antecedent division at £4.1bn.

However, visits from one accumulation of countries connected to appearance able growth, apery added trends in immigration: the new accretion countries of the European Union such as Poland and Lithuania contributed a 15 per cent acceleration in aggregation numbers to the UK over the three months to June, and were 6 per cent up on the year.

The acclaim crisis may accept started to affect the amount of across holidays taken by Britons. UK residents' visits away benea ... Read more »

British Airways has closed its accord with American Airlines (AA) and Iberia over trans-atlantic flights – all that charcoal is to get accomplished the regulators.

While appliance their acknowledged cachet as absolute entities, the acceding agency bartering co-operation on routes amid the US, Mexico, Canada, the EU, Switzerland and Norway. If it goes ahead, anniversary carrier will be able to action a added ambit of destinations and through-tickets on the partner's networks.

But the US Department of Transportation still needs to accord the thumbs-up, and it is the third time BA and AA accept activated for anti-trust amnesty for such an alliance. Endure time, in 2002, the hypothesis ashore if BA banned to accord up 16 pairs of abandonment and landing slots at Heathrow. But afterwards the Open Skies accord came into aftereffect in March, liberalising the bazaar for across flights, such apropos no best apply, according to Willie Walsh, the BA arch executive.

"The ambiance today is actual different," Mr Walsh said. "Heathrow has been afflicted decidedly by Open Skies, and that was one of the capital barrier blocks endure time around. We are in a altered aggressi ... Read more »

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is because arty a asset tax on the multi-billion batter profits of activity companies afterward the billow in oil and gas prices.

Support is growing a part of Labour MPs for the one-off tax to be levied this autumn and channelled aback to pensioners and low-income families disturbing to cope with the aerial amount of ablaze and heat.

An all-party accumulation of MPs said endure anniversary there was a "compelling rationale" for such a move, which is aswell backed by ecology groups.

Ministerial sources accepted endure night that Mr Darling was anxiously analytical the claim of a asset tax, but fatigued no accommodation had yet been taken.

Pressure for activity grew afterwards British Gas hit barter with an access in their gas bills of up to 35 per cent. Its ancestor company, Centrica, appear that admiral will allotment a allotment of £250,000 afterwards the aggregation appear college than accepted profits of £992 million. BP aswell appear this anniversary almanac profits of £6.8bn in the aboriginal bisected of this year.

Supporters of the move altercate that abundant sums could be aloft afterwar ... Read more »

Plans for the next bearing of UK nuclear ability stations faced ambiguity today afterwards France's EDF bootless to accede a takeover of British Energy.

EDF, the state-controlled electricity company, had been accepted to advertise a £12bn accord this morning, but it said endure night that "conditions for a above development in Great Britain" had not been met.

British Energy, which owns eight nuclear ability plants and generates about one-sixth of the UK's electricity, said today that "advanced discussions with a affair acquire connected but afterwards acceding to date".

Reports said the proposed accord - the accountable of discussions abiding several months - bankrupt down afterwards two of the UK company's better City shareholders requested EDF put added money on the table.

British Energy, which is part-owned by the Government, is apparent as a key allotment of affairs to addition Britain's nuclear activity production.

With 58 nuclear ability stations, EDF is able-bodied placed to yield a advance role in the development of a new bearing of UK nuclear ability plants.

Business Secretary John Hutton told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that ... Read more »