Germany Asks Apple About iPhone’s Data-Gathering
The justice minister of Germany expressed concern on Monday over Apple’s practice of compiling data on users of its new iPhone, making the company the latest technology giant to fall afoul of the country’s strict privacy laws. The latest version of the company’s smartphone, the iPhone 4, went on sale in Germany on Thursday. Under German law, the mere act of collecting personal data without an individual’s permission, whether it be geographic location or Web traffic, is illegal. The company is also being asked to outline how long the data is being stored and for what purpose. Click here for the full story >>

Employees feel strain of rise in work intensity
Employees are feeling the strain because work has become more intense while people’s control over how they do their jobs has collapsed, according to research for a commission that includes top corporate executives. It also found the UK is suffering from a mismatch of skills. While companies complain about skill shortages, staff say their talents are under-used. The commission was created by the Work Foundation think-tank, whose staff have studied trends for 25 years. They found the UK has problems with work quality but they are not the ones often imagined. Click here for the full story >>

Banks ordered to stop penalising ISA customers
The Office for Fair Trading has published an in-depth report into the Individual Savings market and demanded that providers speed up the transfer process. It currently takes 26 days on average to switch ISA accounts. More than two million customers switch every year. The OFT said this should fall to 15 days by the end of this year and ultimately "just a handful" days. The slow process means customers are frequently missing out on interest, with many losing about five days' worth. Consumer Focus the watchdog said that millions in interest owed to consumers was being kept by the banks as a result. Click here for the full story >>

Google hit by French ruling on AdWords
Google is facing a new regulatory battle after the French antitrust authorities on Wednesday said Google had abused its dominant position in the internet advertising market when it barred a location data company from using its AdWords service. The Autorité de la Concurrence was responding to a complaint filed in February by Navx, a Paris-based producer of information on speed camera locations and petrol prices. The company alleged that Google had acted unfairly by suspending Navx’s AdWords contract without due warning. Click here for the full story >>

Private sector rejects role as public saviour
Some of Britain's fastest growing companies have questioned Government claims that the private sector will hire people made redundant from the public sector or encouraged to work through reform of the benefits system. George Osborne, the Chancellor, has said that the pain of public spending cuts can be eased by a revitalised private sector but many of those ­companies contacted by Your Business said this was unlikely in the short term. Click here for the full story >>

Auditors under fire for role in bank crisis
Auditors fell short of expectations of regulators and society at large in the run-up to the crisis by showing a "worrying lack of scepticism" in some of their audits of financial institutions, according to a paper published yesterday by the Financial Services Authority. The discussion paper - the most strongly worded official criticism yet of the audit profession's role in the crisis - raises the prospect of a step-up in enforcement against auditors, especially the Big Four. The FSA also suggested that auditors could face greater regulatory supervision if they failed to blow the whistle on irregularities in their clients' accounts. Click here for the full story >>

BP fined over tribal land output
British oil firm BP has been fined $5.2m (£3.5m) by the US Interior Department. The fine was imposed after the firm was accused of making "false, inaccurate, or misleading" reports regarding energy output on tribal lands in Colorado. The fine was levied by the department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, formerly the Minerals Management Service. Click here for the full story >>

UK firm Octel bribed Iraqis to keep buying toxic fuel additive
The former chief executive of a British chemical company faces the prospect of extradition to the US after the firm admitted million-dollar bribes to officials to sell toxic fuel additives to Iraq. Paul Jennings, until last year chief executive of the Octel chemical works near Ellesmere Port, Merseyside, and his predecessor, Dennis Kerrison, exported tonnes of tetra ethyl lead (TEL), to Iraq. TEL is banned from cars in Western countries because of links with brain damage to children. Iraq is believed to be the only country that still adds lead to petrol. The company recently admitted that, in a deliberate policy to maximise profits, executives from Octel – which since changed its name to Innospec – bribed officials in Iraq and Indonesia with millions of dollars to carry on using TEL, despite its health hazards. Click here for the full story >>

Shake-up at Axa Rosenberg
Barr Rosenberg, a pioneer of computer-driven risk management and investment, has resigned as chairman of Axa Rosenberg after an investigation into errors in the data systems used by the US asset manager he co-founded in 1985. Tom Mead, director of research, has also quit the board and is leaving the group after the investigation found that he and Mr Rosenberg had contravened the group’s code of ethics and its policy on managing and reporting risk when they tried to suppress information and discussion of the errors at senior levels. Click here for the full story >>

Toyota warns about faulty engines
Japanese car giant Toyota has warned about potential faults with the engines of about 270,000 cars it has sold worldwide, including the luxury Lexus. It said the engines could stall while being driven, but affected vehicles have not yet been recalled. This is the latest problem to hit the carmaker, which has recalled more than 10 million vehicles globally since last September. Click here for the full story >>

Energy firms face pricing probe, says Ofgem
One energy company is facing investigation on a postcode lottery over bills, with another also facing action from the regulator. The two, which have not been named, have been asked "serious questions" by Ofgem over price differentials. One must explain why the cost of energy is apparently different in one area of the country compared with another where it is competing for business. The pair will be named if an official investigation is launched, Ofgem said. Click here for the full story >>

US politicians amazed as ex-AIG boss Martin Sullivan pleads ignorance
The British-born former AIG chief executive Martin Sullivan drew derision from US politicians by admitting he knew virtually nothing about the insurance company's vast exposure to complex financial insurance products until the credit crunch sparked early signs of a meltdown at the near bankrupt firm. Sullivan, who was appointed OBE three years ago, has been attacked for being asleep at the wheel and is the latest British executive, following BP's Tony Hayward, to feel the wrath of US politicians. Click here for the full story >>

Bill limits for EU data roaming usage begins
Greater protection to prevent mobile phone and computer users from running up large data bills when overseas has come into force across the EU. New rules mean that users will be automatically cut off when their monthly bill for using the internet abroad reaches 50 euros ($61; £41), excluding VAT. Customers will receive a warning when they have used 80% of this limit. They can set their own monthly cut-off point by contacting their provider. Click here for the full story >>

Investors given code of conduct
A new code of conduct for big institutional investors has been published by regulators The Financial Reporting Council's "stewardship code" aims to make big investors more involved in the running of big companies. The code - recommended in the Walker review of corporate governance of banks - says shareholders should be required to take part in shareholder votes. But critics say the new code, which is voluntary, does not go far enough. Click here for the full story >>

Call for shake-up on company conduct
Only five complaints against multinationals brought by ethical campaigners over the past decade resulted in concrete improvements, according to non-governmental organisations calling for “radical reforms” of international guidelines on social, environmental and labour issues. A year-long revision of official guidelines on multinationals’ conduct was launched in Paris on Wednesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The review is the latest attempt to step up defences against environmental destruction and human rights abuses by companies operating in the developing world, often within the supply chains of big multinationals. Click here for the full story >>

AstraZeneca loses ulcer drug appeal
AstraZeneca, the UK pharmaceuticals company, has largely lost its appeal against a finding by Europe’s top antitrust watchdog that it abused its dominant position by blocking or delaying generic versions of Losec, its anti-ulcer drug. The decision by the Luxembourg-based General Court has been keenly anticipated because it could provide clarity on ways in which a dominant pharmaceutical company’s practices, particularly in the intellectual property area, can break EU competition rules. Click here for the full story >>

Tesco faces investors amid pressure over pay
Tesco faces investors at its annual general meeting later today amid mounting pressure on the UK's biggest supermarket. The retail giant holds its AGM - the last for chief executive Sir Terry Leahy before he steps down next March - as it comes under fire over pay issues and alcohol pricing. There is growing unrest over the pay packet of its US boss, brought to the fore when a lobby group urged shareholders to vote in protest at today's meeting. Click here for the full story >>

Up to 100,000 students 'ordered' to work for 'suicide factory' owner Foxconn
AS many as 100,000 students at a vocational school in the central Chinese province of Henan have been 'ordered' to work for Foxconn, the giant electronics manufacturer that has been plagued by a wave of suicides. Foxconn, which had revenues of $62bn (£41bn), more than Apple, Dell or HP, manufactures a range of products for the world's leading electronics brands, including Apple's iPad and Sony's Playstation 3. In response, Foxconn has said it will move a large number of its workers closer to their homes in central China and is planning a new factory in Henan. The China Daily, a state-run newspaper, said the company had drafted 100,000 students for three months to train them up in preparation for opening the new factory. One of the students, named as 17-year-old Lin Feng, told the newspaper that he was forced to join Foxconn or face being thrown out of school. Click here for the full story >>

EDF and Scottish Power under scrutiny over high energy bills
EDF and Scottish Power are the two companies under scrutiny by the energy regulator over "serious concerns" that some customers are paying too much on their energy bills. Ofgem revealed last week that it was monitoring two companies following suspicions that suppliers have been charging customers different amounts based on where they live or over-charging people who use pre-payment meters. It declined to name either company, saying it would only reveal this information if the investigation progresses to a more serious level. Click here for the full story >>

Executive pay rises out of line with results
Pay rises for chief executives are increasingly out of line with their performance, according to research published on Monday. Median pay and benefits for FTSE 100 bosses have risen by 5 per cent to £3.1m since 2008, according to a survey by MM&K, the reward consultancy, and Manifest, the proxy voting agency. Average earnings per share fell by 1 per cent in the same period. Over 10 years it found that remuneration had quadrupled for leading chief executives in spite of share price declines. Click here for the full story >>

PWC survey shows rise in fraud by public-sector staff
Fraud is on the increase in the UK's public sector as staff reductions and redundancy fears mean there are few resources being spent on internal controls, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The accountancy firm’s report, Fraud in the Public Sector, warns that economic pressures have a direct effect on people's ability to rationalise fraudulent actions and that economic crime has already risen in the past year. Ian Elliott, a PwC partner, said: "We know that these pressures are going to be felt sharply in the public sector in the coming years. Public-sector fraud has a disproportionately negative effect on reputation, employee morale, business relationships and those with auditors." Click here for the full story >>

To do 'God's work', bankers need morals
When Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein claimed that he and his fellow bankers were "doing God's work", there was near-universal incredulity. Banking has never looked less like a divine calling. Indeed, in the public mind bankers have achieved what would once have been thought impossible: they have managed to sink lower than journalists. Have banks become ethically as well as literally bankrupt since 1982, the year Siegmund Warburg died and, with him, the era of "relationship banking"? Was the love of money – to be precise, fat bonuses – the root of all the economic evil we are currently enduring? And, if the answer is yes, is tighter regulation the solution? Click here for the full story >>

Three backstabs and you’re out
It is the talk of the town. Ray Dalio, one of Wall Street’s most formidable traders, has declared war on “weasels” who spread gossip in his offices. Dalio has issued a decree aimed at silencing many of his 1,000 employees at the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. It warns that anyone who is overheard speaking maliciously about a colleague three times will be fired. The self-made billionaire has transformed a wish to “only speak well” into a corporate diktat: “Never say anything about a person you wouldn’t say to him directly. If you do, you are a slimy weasel,” he wrote in a confidential document called “Dalio rules” which has been leaked on to the source of most modern gossip, the internet. Click here for the full story >>

Adrian Furnham: How whistle-blowers can let off steam
Are whistle-blowers courageous, moral heroes who expose wrongdoing, or are they angry second-rate employees who want to get their own back? Should organisations encourage or discourage whistle-blowing? Is whistle-blowing a healthy safety valve or does it merely tempt disaffected employees to seek revenge? Companies often see whistle-blowers as traitors. The public are more likely to see them as courageous fighters for the truth. Whistle-blowing is often a serious matter. Whistle-blowers need to be sure of their facts and have sufficient robust evidence to stand up in a court of law. Sometimes whistle-blowers can be cranks. Journalists say they are often called by people with all sorts of impossible stories and little evidence to support them. Their motives are a curious mix of the personal and political. Click here for the full story >>

Diageo gives 'icing' fad the cold shoulder
Diageo has disassociated itself from "icing", a game in which young men are confronted with a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and down it in one go on bended knee. The game became an internet rage in recent weeks with videos of icing incidents posted to a website called "bros icing bros".  The site has shut down amid denials from the UK drinks company that it backed the site or endorsed the practice to promote the alcopop brand.  In a statement, the company said: "The 'icing' phenomenon was not created by, and is not supported by Diageo. It is counter to Diageo's values, and violates our marketing code, of which we are very proud. Diageo has taken measures to stop this misuse of its Smirnoff Ice brand and marks, and to make it clear that 'icing' does not comply with our marketing code." Click here for the full story >>

European drugs groups do most for the poor
Europe-based pharmaceuticals groups led by GlaxoSmith-Kline are outperforming US and Japanese rivals in efforts to ensure medicines reach the poor, according to an independent evaluation to be published today. UK-based GSK retained its prime position in the second Access to Medicines Index, while Merck of the US, known for its efforts on HIV and donations to treat river blindness, came next, ahead of Novartis, Gilead and Sanofi-Aventis. Click here for the full story >>

BP oil worker 'warned about vital safety problem but nothing was done'
A worker on the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig claimed he spotted a leak in safety equipment weeks before the explosion which has sent millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Speaking on tonight's Panorama programme on BBC 1, Tyrone Benton claims the leak in the blowout preventer was not fixed at the time but instead the faulty device was shut down and a second one used.  The claims will increase pressure on BP, which today saw its share price drop by three per cent after criticism from the White House of BP chief executive Tony Hayward for taking part in a yacht race around the Isle of Wight while the environmental disaster continues. Click here for the full story >>

Photo-Me hit with record fine for creating a false market
The city watchdog has fined the photo booth operator Photo-Me International £500,000, the largest ever fine of its kind, for late disclosure of inside information about its poor trading in early 2007. The Financial Services Authority said yesterday that Photo-Me, which also sells photo-processing equipment such as "minilabs", created a "false market" in its shares by not issuing a profits warning for 44 days until 2 March, 2007. Click here for the full story >>

Convenience food changes could save 'thousands of lives'
Tens of thousands of lives could be saved if major changes were made to processed and convenience foods, the UK's leading health watchdog will say today, challenging the government and the food industry to act to improve the nation's diet. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) will say in a major hard-hitting report that diet is not just a matter for the individual consumer. In what will be interpreted as a significant attack on the food industry, it recommends a series of changes. Click here for the full story >>

Levy aims to make City play fair
A multi-billion pound levy on bank balance sheets is to form a key part of George Osborne's Budget today, as the chancellor seeks to force the City to play a 'fair' part in cutting the deficit. Mr Osborne has made clear he will impose an open-ended levy of at least £1 billion a year, even without securing a global agreement, raising concerns that the tax will drive financial business away from Britain. Click here for the full story >>

iPhone 4 and Apple's silence on pollution in China
Announcing the iPhone4 at the WWDC conference earlier this month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, "it's a major jump from the original models. This is undoubtedly the most beautiful and sophisticated product I have created."  However in sharp contrast with this high-profile release, Apple has been silent about questions regarding their supply chain's heavy metal pollution. On April 16, 2010, 34 Chinese environmental organizations, including Friends of Nature, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, and Green Beagle, questioned heavy metal pollution in a letter sent to CEO Steve Jobs. 50 days have passed, and though the significant problems with the IT industry's violations of heavy metals standards have been reported through media, Apple has not given a word in response. Click here for the full story >>

Channel 4 chief warns on pay austerity
A new era of relative austerity beckons for senior executives in the UK media industry, the chairman of Channel 4 said on Wednesday. Lord Burns, a former Treasury mandarin, ruled out a repeat of the high salary and bonus packages offered to the broadcaster’s top managers under his predecessor Luke Johnson.  Presenting C4’s annual report, Lord Burns was asked about the remuneration of Andy Duncan, the former chief executive, who received £1.4m in spite of the broadcaster having to make cuts to its programming budget of £50m or 8 per cent as advertising fell by 10.5 per cent. Click here for the full story >>

P&G learns the lessons of the Facebook era
The scale of complaints about Pampers Dry Max, which became a public-relations nightmare for Procter & Gamble this year, was exaggerated because they were made on Facebook, according to the company’s marketing chief. The case demonstrated how unhappy customers can damage a brand using social networks. Pampers nappies, P&G’s biggest brand, suffered criticism when it launched its Dry Max range this year, with some mothers complaining of rashes on their babies. Thousands of people joined a Facebook page complaining about the nappies, which the company denied had caused harm. Click here for the full story >>

Network Rail bonuses 'daylight robbery'
Network Rail (NR) today announced six-figure bonuses for its top directors, sparking a storm of protest led by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond. Last month, Mr Hammond wrote to NR urging restraint and pointing out the company's top management already enjoyed "handsome" annual salaries. But today, NR said its top directors were getting bonuses totalling more than £2.25 million, including £641,000 for chief executive Iain Coucher whose annual salary is £613,000. NR chairman Rick Haythornthwaite said the bonuses "had been earned" but Mr Hammond said he was "very disappointed that NR executives have accepted bonuses of this scale in the current climate". Click here for the full story >>

Olympics 2012: Fans must use Visa for tickets
Sports fans who want to buy tickets by card for the London 2012 Olympics will only be able to use the Visa payments system. The restrictions are part of the sponsorship deal struck between Visa and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Visa credit and debit cards will be the only ones accepted at shops or cash machines at Olympic venues. The competition enforcer the Office of Fair Trading said it was looking into the matter. Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of the consumers' association, Which? said: "We think it's outrageous that some UK sports fans should be discriminated against in this way. Click here for the full story >>

FSA vows to press on with planned reforms
Regulators will not back away from their "more intrusive" supervision of financial firms and products even though the Financial Services Authority is being broken up. The FSA will press ahead with plans to eliminate commission for most retail financial advice and revamp the mortgage market, and it will continue to ask much tougher questions of top managers of banks and brokers, Hector Sants, the authority's chief executive, told its annual meeting. Mr Sants warned of pressure from the industry to revert to "light-touch" regulation as the crisis receded, but said "it is vitally important that regulators stand their ground and continue to be proactive". Click here for the full story >>

OFT slams insolvency industry for unfair fees
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has delivered a damning verdict on the insolvency profession and its treatment of taxpayers, small businesses and other unsecured creditors, which it said were not effectively protected by the system. The watchdog recommended a radical overhaul of the industry's controls and called for the Government to introduce an independent regulator that could impose fines and return overcharged fees to creditors. The OFT's seven-month study into the corporate insolvency market found unsecured creditors – such as HMRC - were charged 9pc more by Insolvency Practitioners than big banks who act as the industry's only real oversight. Click here for the full story >>

French firm agrees to pay $338M in bribery case
A French engineering firm has agreed to pay $338 million to settle accusations it engaged in a decade-long scheme with a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary to bribe Nigerian officials to win construction contracts, the Justice Department announced Monday. Paris-based Technip S.A. conducted the alleged bribery scheme from 1994 to 2004 so it could obtain contracts valued at more than $6 billion to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria, federal officials said. Click here for the full story >>

Sir Ronald Cohen: capitalism has its consequences
In 1969, a 24-year-old Ronnie Cohen graduated from Harvard Business School and looked at the opportunities for a young, ambitious alumnus of the world's most prestigious commercial faculty. Forty-one years after his graduation, the knighted Sir Ronald Cohen, one of the most politically-connected financiers in the UK, with a fortune of £200m, has been back to Harvard and a clutch of other top universities to tell the students about the next big thing in the business world – social finance. "If I had been leaving Harvard in 2010, this would be the area I would want to be going into," says Sir Ronald. "I think it is going to be similarly powerful because the impact of the recent crisis on peoples consciousness has emphasised the importance of dealing with the social consequences of the [capitalist] system." Click here for the full story >>

Bank auditors eyed for whistleblower role
Bank auditors face being forced to blow the whistle on irregularities in their clients’ accounts under plans to be discussed this week with the UK’s Financial Services Authority. A new discussion paper – the most in-depth study so far of auditors’ role in the financial crisis – is expected to suggest they work more closely with prudential regulators after government inquiries raised questions about the value of audit. Although the paper is specific to the UK, it is being watched by supervisors, politicians and auditors in Europe and the US, where separate inquiries into the role of audit and accounting are under way. Click here for the full story >>

BP must ensure its good intentions become a reality
With apologies to those who feel they have read enough on BP lately, I find the subject has a macabre fascination all its own. In particular, it seems an object lesson on the stubborn nature of corporate culture. In the recent Congressional flogging of BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward, one detail stood out. While BP engineers were exchanging e-mails before the accident describing Macondo as a “nightmare well”, the House energy committee found no trace of that news reaching senior management. That said, it seems clear that BP’s commitment to safety at the top is perfectly genuine. According to BP’s published record, for instance, its board committee on safety, ethics and assurance – comprising four non-executive directors – met seven times last year. Mr Hayward presented to each meeting in person. Click here for the full story >>

Funds wary of new code
Fund managers should attend the annual meetings of companies they invest in and explain in writing why they are voting against certain resolutions, according to a new City code that spells out investors’ responsibilities for the first time. The stewardship code has been developed in response to criticisms from Lord Myners, the former City minister, who labelled institutional shareholders “absentee landlords” for failing to engage sufficiently with banks heading for collapse. Some investors fear it is a step too far in trying to define how they must run their business. Click here for the full story >>

Eiris review names Britain as 'dirty man of Europe'
Britain is being accused of being the "dirty man of Europe" after new research showed that, of the world's top 300 companies, more than half of those most engaged in carbon-polluting sectors were based in the UK. A review of Europe's top 300 companies by the ethical investment consultant Eiris found that the greatest proportion of those with "very high impact" in relation to global warming came from the UK, more than double the number from any other country. Of those companies in the top 300 dedicated to solving or mitigating the problems of climate change, only 3% were located in Britain. Eiris's findings come at a time when BP, one of the UK's best-known companies, has attracted bad publicity worldwide over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Click here for the full story >>

Investors seek transparency over pensions
The UK’s biggest investors are demanding more transparency from companies over the pension perks awarded to top executives.  The National Association of Pension Funds and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, whose members hold £800bn and £85bn of assets respectively, have written to the chairmen of each company in the FTSE 350 warning that continued lack of transparency and overgenerous terms risk rewarding top executives for failure.  “Where boardroom pensions are more generous than those on the shop floor, investors may have questions about fairness that need to be answered.  “Shareholders need to see what’s going on under the bonnet if they’re to hold management to account. We hope that companies heed our call for greater transparency.” Click here for the full story >>

Private companies look to slash pension scheme costs, says PwC
Private sector employers are set to embark on a new round of pension cost cutting, a report published today reveals, axing final salary schemes of thousands of staff while also pursuing other strategies for getting rid of liabilities related to retirement benefits.  The survey shows that 32 per cent of companies have now shut their guaranteed final salary schemes to all staff, with no more benefits accruing, up from 14 per cent last year. Click here for the full story >>

Ethnic minorities still shut out of top professions?
A new report points to 'blatant and shocking' racism within some of the highest-paid professions. When former communities secretary John Denham said earlier this year that society is more comfortable with racial diversity than ever before, the UK gave itself a congratulatory slap on the back. But research out today suggests there’s much more work to be done: ethnic minorities apparently still feel doors are closed to them in some of the UK’s top professions (despite evidence suggesting they’re actually more driven than their white counterparts). Click here for the full story >>

Recession means employers getting tougher on poor timekeeping
Employers are taking a tougher line with staff because of the recession. One in six is now prepared to sack somebody for being late just two or three times, according to a survey.  Carried out on behalf of online jobs site CareerBuilder.co.uk, the survey also found 12% of UK business leaders would fire an employee for being late three or four times. And it found 39% are now paying more attention to workers' timekeeping than before the recession. Click here for the full story >>

Britons from ethnic minorities believe top professions are closed to them
Racism is still stopping Britain's ethnic minorities from entering the best-paid professions despite them having a stronger work ethic and greater drive than white Britons, a report released tomorrow claims.  The report, funded by the government and compiled by charity Business in the Community, whose president is Prince Charles, says too many ethnic minority Britons feel prestige jobs in the law, banking, media and politics are closed to them.  It finds "blatant racism", including taunts about being terrorists, is still closing doors and warns that the government and business must take tougher action. Click here for the full story >>

Food companies in massive lobby to block colour-coded warnings
Food manufacturers have been pouring millions of pounds into a last-ditch attempt to block a European plan to put red warning labels on junk food, in line with the British Food Standards Agency's front of pack red, amber and green traffic light labelling. Independent research shows that traffic lights are more effective than GDAs in putting consumers off unhealthy products. Click here for the full story >>

Retailers urge ministers to stop 'excessive' card charges
Retailers have called on the Government to keep to its word on cracking down on "irresponsible banking" by cutting the excessive charges imposed for processing plastic card transactions.  The British Retail Consortium's annual payments survey shows that it costs retailers four times more to accept a payment by debit card than it does cash, but this rises to a multiple of 16 times for credit card payments. An average cash transaction costs retailers 2.1p, compared to 8.5p for debit cards and a whopping 34p for credit card purchases. Click here for the full story >>

Rival oil companies get a taste of BP's medicine on Capitol Hill
Members of Congress tore into the big energy corporations last night for filing almost identical Gulf of Mexico oil spill response plans – which included contact details for a deceased scientist and steps to protect a marine mammal not found in the region's waters. It was an astonishing and sustained verbal battering which undermined attempts by Shell, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil to suggest that their working practices differ from those of BP; and that the catastrophe would not have happened if the leaking well had been theirs. Click here for the full story >>

Subprime consumers lash out at Goldman
Goldman Sachs is facing a wave of complaints from consumers over the business practices of its mortgage servicing unit, a subsidiary that collects payments on hundreds of thousands of loans worth tens of billions of dollars.  Consumer Affairs, a website that tracks consumer problems, said it had received 390 complaints against Litton in the past year, a 60 per cent rise over the prior 12 months, and more than triple the number logged against some similar-sized competitors. Many complaints against Litton come from consumers who say they entered into "trial" mortgage modification programmes that reduced their payments, only to find out later that they had been denied a permanent modification and owed more money than they would have if they had not entered the programme. Click here for the full story >>

Tesco braced for revolt as investors call for boardroom pay to be slashed
Tesco could face an investor revolt next month as a number of shareholder lobby groups line up to vote against the level of boardroom pay at the supermarket group.  Leading US investor CtW Investment Group today wrote an open letter to Tesco shareholders urging them to take a stand on what it describes as "excessive" pay at next month's annual meeting. RiskMetrics, whose Research Recommendations and Electronic Voting (RREV) service provides voting advice to UK pension funds, and Manifest, which also advises pension funds, have both raised a red flag over executive pay. Click here for the full story >>

BP to suspend dividends for rest of the year
BP said it would suspend dividends this year and set aside $20 billion to cover claims relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, after extended negotiations with Barack Obama, US president. The British oil company also agreed to establish a $100 million fund to compensate oil sector workers laid off as a result of the spill. Click here for the full story >>

Victory for food lobby as MEPs reject new labelling rules
MEPs caused outrage yesterday by rejecting a colour-coded system of food labelling which health campaigners said would inform consumers about levels of fat and sugar and halt rocketing levels of obesity. MEPs backed the Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) system favoured by food manufacturers including Pepsico, Danone and Kraft. Click here for the full story >>

Victims' fund buys BP some breathing space
With its agreement to pay $20bn for the fund to compensate victims of its huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP has bought itself relief from the immediate crisis it faced. The cost in slower growth and lower profits will be felt for many years to come.  BP's plans to cut capital spending and sell off $10bn (€8bn, £6.8bn) worth of assets, signs of how gravely the company has been weakened, have prompted a reassessment of its long-term prospects.  Once the leaking well is plugged, BP's board - possibly with a new chief executive - will have to rethink the company's strategy. Click here for the full story >>

Reforms of the City 'will keep consumers safe'
A major overhaul of how the City is regulated will ensure that consumers will never again be confronted by the prospect of a full-scale banking crisis, the Treasury claimed yesterday.  Mr Hoban said the old system had "failed spectacularly" to head off risks. "No one was controlling levels of debt and, when the crunch came, no one knew who was in charge," he said. "What this package of reforms does is to make sure that we have the right regulatory architecture in place that identifies and tackles the systemic risk and makes sure there is proper protection for consumers so that never again will they be let down." Click here for the full story >>

Hamish McRae: It's time for regulators to be more judgemental about risk-takers
As it happens, the chief executive of the FSA, Hector Sants (who will retain his role under the new structure), gave a speech about this yesterday to the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, "Do regulators have a role to play in judging culture and ethics?" The nub of his argument was that many of the causes of the financial crisis were rooted in behaviour. "Even after all the supposed lessons learned exercises," he said, "we are still seeing some decisions by management in major firms that we would judge not to be prudent." As a result, greater intervention would be needed from regulators to ensure decisions made by firms deliver the outcomes society expects. Click here for the full story >>

BP’s next great battle is already looming — to restore its battered reputation
At the time it was viewed as revolutionary — a bold attempt to turn a new page for one of the world’s most controversial industries. When John Browne stepped on to the sunlit stage of the Frost amphitheatre at Stanford University in California in 1997, he set out to try to rebrand BP as Beyond Petroleum — a positive world force for clean energy and a better future. But BP’s brand now lies in tatters. Mr Browne’s slogan mocked in a thousand viral e-mails: Beyond Pollution, Back to Petroleum, Broken Promise. Click here for the full story >>

‘Shoppers are confused by ethical claims’
Shoppers are being confused by ethical and green claims, research for The Times suggests. About 44 per cent of “concerned consumers” — those who take an interest in the environmental and social impacts of their purchases — believe that the big grocers are doing enough to tackle social and environmental issues, up from 32 per cent in 2008, according to a Populus poll for The Times. However, customers struggle to differentiate between supermarkets or evaluate individual claims, which has added to the appeal of cross-industry standards such as the Fairtrade logo. Click here for the full story >>

Gulf oil spill: BP accused of lying to Congress
BP has been accused by a senior US politician of lying to Congress to reduce its liabilities, after an internal company document showed that the oil giant's own worst-case assessment of the size of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico was 20 times its public estimate. Click here for the full story >>

BP used 'risky' well design
The environmental cost to BP of the oil spill is mounting on a daily basis, as the company's partners distance themselves from the "risky" methods it uses to drill its wells. John Kennedy, Louisiana's state treasurer, said this weekend that the environmental and economic cost could be as high as $100bn (£67bn) – with the $20bn BP has agreed to put in an escrow account to cover costs being just "a good start". Click here for full story >>

Barclays to admit risk over Lehman
John Varley, the chief executive of Barclays, will this week admit that the British bank took a considerable and unquantifiable risk in buying Lehman Brothers' US brokerage business at the height of the financial crisis. Mr Varley, testifying in a New York courtroom, is expected to tell a US bankruptcy judge that Barclays was uncertain as to exactly which assets and liabilities it was taking on when it agreed to the purchase just days after the calamitous collapse of the investment bank. Click here for the full story >>

Inquiries mount after PwC ‘failed to notice’ mistakes
PricewaterhouseCoopers is facing an inquiry by accounting regulators into its failure to notice that JP Morgan was paying up to £16 billion of clients’ money into the wrong bank accounts. Last week the Financial Services Authority fined the investment bank £33.3 million — the largest penalty that the City regulator has imposed — for breaches of client money rules under which customers’ funds became mixed with the bank’s own cash over a seven-year period. Click here for the full story >>

Insider trading rises as FSA bosses receive record bonus
Insider trading has risen to its worst in six years, according to new figures from City regulator the Financial Services Authority. Of the 144 takeover bids launched in the year to April, the FSA identified ‘suspicious activity’ before 44. The number’s up by almost a third since 2008 – in fact, last time it was this high was 2004. But while the FSA’s new, aggressive tactics to prevent insider trading don’t seem to be working, the regulator’s directors have taken the opportunity to award themselves a juicy bonus – which has managed to get backs up in the City. Click here for the full story >>

Bosses 'panicking' over World Cup distraction
Managers fear the soccer World Cup could cost them up to £1 billion in lost production as workers take time off to follow their team, according to a report today. The Chartered Management Institute said more than half of 700 employers surveyed were "panicking" at the financial impact of staff being distracted by the tournament in the coming weeks. A majority of employers feared that "endless" conversations about football will divert employees' attention from their job, and they suspected that soccer-loving employees were planning to take unauthorised time off to watch games. Click here for the full story >>

BP accused of judge-shopping for seeking Republican judge to handle lawsuits
BP has been accused of “judge shopping” after pushing for a specific judge in Houston, Texas — the centre of America’s oil and gas industry — to handle the lawsuits against it. In a move condemned yesterday by several legal experts as indicative of corporate arrogance but defended by others as accepted tactical manoeuvring, the British energy group has filed papers requesting that all pre-trial matters in litigation relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster be assigned to US District Judge Lynn Hughes. Click here for the full story >>

Rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel 'encouraged' to take risks
Jérôme Kerviel, the "rogue trader" accused of losing the French bank Société Générale £4 billion in secret trading, claimed he had been "encouraged" to take huge risks by his bosses, as he went on trial. His lawyer, Olivier Metzner, France's star of the bar, set the scene for his defence – claiming he was a scapegoat of the type of reckless capitalism that led to the US subprime disaster, the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers and the ensuing financial crisis. Click here for the full story >>

MPs expenses: More than 200 MPs entitled to nearly £10.5million in 'golden goodbyes'
A total of 218 MPs who retired or were beaten at last month's election are entitled to £10,432,053.92, according to The TaxPayers’ Alliance, the value-for-money campaign group. This works out at an average of £47,853 each, of which £30,000 of each payment is tax-free. An official report into MPs’ expenses last year recommended that members who step down voluntarily should receive only eight weeks’ pay. Click here for the full story >>

Climate groups call on FTSE to remove BP from ethical stock market indices
Environmental groups are calling for BP's removal from stock market indices tracking socially and environmentally responsible companies. The oil major, which is battling to contain the Gulf of Mexico spill, is listing on the FTSE4Good indices, which select companies based on their progress towards "environmental management", "climate change mitigation and adaptation" and other criteria. BP is also part of the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 index, which lists European companies with "leading environment practices". Click here for the full story >>

One in five of us are miserable at work
A new survey has found that a fifth of us don’t enjoy our jobs, which doesn’t bode particularly well for the recovery of the British economy. The survey, which was published to mark VQ Day, a celebration of vocational qualifications, found that secretaries and retailers were among the most depressed workers in the UK. At the top of the list, though, were civil servants, almost half of whom say they hate their jobs. Click here for the full story >>

Antitrust probe looms for Apple on mobile ads
US antitrust regulators plan to investigate whether Apple is unfairly restricting rivals such as Google and Microsoft in the market for advertisements carried on the iPhone, iPad and iPod, people familiar with the move said on Wednesday.  Apple has introduced its own network to sell display, video and interactive adverts in the small programs known as apps, which have fuelled the rapid adoption of Apple’s devices. On Monday, it said it had sold $60m worth of adverts that will begin on July 1 and run for the rest of the year. Click here for the full story >>

World Cup Profits Bypass Asian Soccer-Ball Stitchers
Asian workers who stitch nearly all the world’s soccer balls have seen little improvement in lives dominated by poverty, a report said days before the start of the World Cup, which promises sports gear companies a sales bonanza.  Thirteen years after companies such as Germany’s Adidas AG and Nike Inc. joined labour and development organizations to end the use of an estimated 7,000 children to stitch soccer balls, “child labour continues to exist” in the three main ball-making countries of Pakistan, China and India, according a June 7 report by the Washington-based International Labour Rights Forum. Click here for the full story >>

UK directors feeling squeeze, says IoD
Board members are struggling to cope under the weight of legislation and regulations introduced since the financial crisis, the UK’s Institute of Directors warned on Wednesday as it launched revamped guidelines.  The IoD on Thursday publishes its updated Director’s Handbook, which aims to help board members understand their duties, responsibilities and liabilities after changes in regulation in a host of areas from remuneration to corporate manslaughter. Click here for the full story >>

M&S chief signs off with 44% pay rise
Sir Stuart Rose received a pay rise of 44 per cent in his last year in charge of Marks & Spencer. The executive chairman earned £2.6 million, including £1.4 million in bonuses and cash allowances. After deferred shares are included his pay rose to £4.3 million. Remuneration at the retailer has been a sensitive issue since Sir Stuart angered shareholders by becoming the combined chairman and chief executive in 2008. Click here for the full story >>

A Labour Movement Stirs in China
Striking workers at a Honda auto parts plant here are demanding the right to form their own labour union, something officially forbidden in China, and held a protest march Friday morning. Meanwhile, other scattered strikes have begun to ripple into Chinese provinces previously untouched by the labour unrest. A near doubling of wages is the primary goal of the approximately 1,700 Honda workers on strike here in this South-eastern China city, at the third Honda auto parts factory to face a work stoppage in the last two weeks. Click here for the full story >>

UK alarm over attack on BP
UK industry expressed alarm yesterday at the "inappropriate" and increasingly aggressive rhetoric being deployed against BP by Barack Obama, US president, warning that the attacks on the oil company could damage transatlantic relations. The references to "British Petroleum" - which has not been the company's name since 1998 - by senior US politicians have fuelled fears of a backlash against UK groups in the US. Click here for the full story >>

Office of Fair Trading probes investment banks
Investment banks are to come under the glare of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) after the watchdog today announced a study into some of their fees and services. The OFT said it planned to look at the equity underwriting market - where companies raise funds through share placings - after concerns were raised. Last year recession-hit companies raised about £70 billion of equity capital in the UK and forked out an estimated £2 billion in charges, according to the OFT. Click here for the full story >>

Company that builds iPhones ends suicide payouts to families
The giant Taiwanese manufacturer of the iPhone has said it will no longer pay extra compensation to families of employees who kill themselves, after a spate of suicides at its sprawling south China factory. Foxconn, the world’s largest maker of contract electronics goods, will cease condolence payments of 100,000 yuan (£10,000) and provide only the officially stipulated amount of one tenth of that sum. Click here for the full story >>

Hackers reveal details of thousands of iPad 'VIPs'
The email addresses of around 114,000 Apple iPad owners who subscribe via America's second largest mobile phone provider AT&T were hacked by an internet security group. The breach is being interpreted as a major embarrassment for both Apple and AT&T and provoked fears that iPad users, subscribed via AT&T's 3G network could be at risk from phishing scams. Click here for the full story >>

Insider dealing suspicions in a third of all deals, says regulator
Almost a third of the takeovers on the London Stock Exchange last year were preceded by suspicious share price movements, suggesting insider dealing or other market abuse may have been taking place, the City watchdog said yesterday. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said analysis of the 144 takeover announcements made to the Stock Exchange last year had uncovered "abnormal pre-announcement price movements" in 30.6 per cent of cases. That was the highest figure since 2004. Click here for the full story >>

Letting agents 'let off the hook' by government
The government is under fire after scrapping plans for tougher regulation of the letting industry. ARLA, the body that represents letting agents, criticised the decision. Ian Potter, operations manager at ARLA, said: "A great fear is that a lot of agents who were looking at tidying up their practices will now feel they can run amok and add to the poor reputation we have at the moment." Citizens Advice also said the move to scrap stronger regulation was a mistake. Click here for the full story >>

Alstom's bid to clear its name
Almost three months after three of its senior executives were arrested during dramatic dawn raids across the UK, Alstom wants to make a few things clear. Sitting in the offices of the €11bn (£9bn) power and transport engineer on a serene, tree-fringed street outside central Paris, the drama of the Serious Fraud Office's Operation Ruthenium seems a world away. Speaking for the first time since the raids, Jean-Daniel Laine, head of ethics and compliance at Alstom, has launched a rigorous defence of the engineer's anti-corruption procedures, suggesting the anti-corruption probe is a world away from reality at the company. Click here for the full story >>

Apple’s grip on apps probed
American regulators are planning to investigate Apple’s business practices to see if it is harming the developing market for software that runs on mobile phones and the iPad, its latest hit device. The investigation by the Federal Trade Commission is one of a string of challenges in the pipeline as concerns over the technology giant’s increasing dominance continue to grow. Arch-rival Google is most concerned about Apple’s attempt to break into the mobile advertising market. It complained last week that Apple’s new rules for applications developers in effect barred it and other competitors from selling advertising inside iPhone and iPad apps. Click here for the full story >>

FSA pays £22m in bonuses
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) paid its staff record bonuses of £22m last year, despite railing against similar awards paid at the banks that it regulates. Seven staff at the City watchdog, which attracted heavy criticism for its regulation of banks before the financial crisis, were paid bonuses of more than £45,000. One official received an award of £80,000. Although the FSA’s staff handbook states that the annual individual incentive plan should “reward and retain our highest performers”, the regulator has disclosed that 84% of its staff received a bonus in 2009-10. The average payment was £7,269. Click here for the full story >>

BP promised it could stop leak 10 times bigger than Gulf of Mexico spill
BP was given permission to drill in the Gulf of Mexico after submitting documents promising it was equipped to deal with a spill 10 times larger than the current leak. The papers will be a further embarrassment to the oil company, as it currently struggles to contain the spill spewing an estimated 19,000 barrels into the ocean daily. Meanwhile Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, will visit the site of the spill for the first time on Tuesday. He will meet with federal prosecutors and state attorneys general in a move that will increase speculation that a criminal investigation will be launched. The development could hit BP’s share price. Click here for the full story >>

Hedge funds need tighter rules on risk
Many hedge funds are so poorly run, have such volatile performance and high exposure to risk, that investors need greater protection from regulators, a study published today by the European School of Management & Technology concludes. The report contradicts claims by the hedge fund industry that the sector does not need the sort of tighter controls proposed by the European Union's new Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers. Click here for the full story >>

Trafigura faces criminal charges over attempt to offload toxic waste
The London-based oil trader Trafigura faced criminal charges for the first time today, over the environmental scandal which caused international uproar last year and forced it to compensate thousands of Africans made ill by toxic waste. At the start of a trial in Amsterdam – at which Trafigura is accused of an initial attempt to get rid of the waste cheaply in the Netherlands – prosecutor Look Bougert told the court the company had put "self-interest above people's health and the environment". Click here for the full story >>

Network Rail warned on bonuses after 'mixed' performance
Bonuses this year for top Network Rail (NR) directors must reflect the fact that the company's 2009/10 performance has been "mixed", rail regulators said today. NR should back up any bonus decision "with clear evidence of the benefits that have been brought to the railway as a whole", said Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) chief executive Bill Emery. There was strong criticism last summer of the level of 2008/09 NR bonuses, which saw top NR directors get deals worth a total of around £1.2 million. Click here for the full story >>

EDF ran secret lobbying campaign to reduce nuclear waste disposal levy
The nuclear industry is being offered what campaigners claim is a taxpayer subsidy on the disposal costs of waste from new reactors following a secret lobbying campaign, the Guardian has learned. The revelation will put further scrutiny on the new government's promise that there will be no subsidy for nuclear power. Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne, the new energy and climate change secretary of state, admitted to the Guardian this week that the government already faces a £4bn funding black hole over existing radioactive waste. Documents released under a freedom of information request reveal the extent of behind-the-scenes lobbying last year in Whitehall by EDF Energy, the French firm that wants to build the first new reactors in the UK for decades. The lobbying focused on the two key proposals which were revised in March. Click here for the full story >>

After Spate of Suicides, Technology Firm in China Raises Workers’ Salaries
SHANGHAI — Stung by labor shortages and a rash of suicides this year at its large factories in southern China, Foxconn Technology said Wednesday that it would immediately raise the salaries of many of its Chinese workers by 33 percent. The pay increase is the latest indication that labor costs are rising in China’s coastal manufacturing centers and that workers are demanding higher pay to offset an increase in inflation and soaring food and property prices. Click here for the full story >>

Cable backs inquiry into takeover rules after Kraft deal
The takeover Panel has launched a review of the rules governing mergers and acquisitions in the wake of Kraft's £11.7bn purchase of Cadbury earlier this year. The public consultation could lead to major changes in takeovers in this country, including raising the minimum acceptance threshold beyond "50 per cent plus one" and restricting the fees paid to investment bankers. The Panel said that given the significance and nature of the issues raised by the Cadbury sale, it had decided to "break with its usual practice" of setting out specific proposals and recommending drafting amendments to the takeover code. Click here for the full story >>

David Prosser: Principle before profit? The two are not mutually exclusive
The ethical investment industry has not always been taken seriously by hard-nosed City professionals focused only on performance data. Though there are several fund management firms that have long specialised in ethical and environmental investors, with many more offering the odd product or two, the mainstream view in the City might be characterised thus: that picking stocks on the basis of anything other than expectations about how they might perform is a practice strictly for hippies. Click here for the full story >>

HP accused of ignoring unions after announcing 9,000 job cuts
Jim Hansen, national officer at PCS union, which represents 2,000 HP workers in Britain, said he wrote to the computer giant just hours after the news broke on Tuesday asking for more information on what it would mean for staff but said so far it “hasn’t responded”. The company is yet to disclose where the job cuts will fall around the globe, but PCS is worried that a significant proportion could land in the UK. HP members of the PCS union, working on government contracts, have already walked out on a two-day strike in March this year in a row over job security and pay. Click here for the full story >>

Tim Geithner to push for G20 bank transparency in Busan
Mr Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, also said that he would be lobbying hard for new restrictions on derivatives trading, as part of an attempt to toughen up the global financial regulatory framework. Speaking ahead of the meeting Mr Geithner said disclosure, particularly in relation to the financial health of the European banking system, was one of the key areas of focus. "There's a very good case for trying to bring more transparency and disclosure to these markets and the major institutions," he said. Click here for the full story >>

JP Morgan hit with largest fine in FSA's history
The Financial Service Authority on Thursday sent out a major warning to City investment banks to tighten up the way they look after their clients' money as JP Morgan received the largest fine the regulator has ever handed down, for putting as much as £16bn of customers' funds in to the wrong bank account. JP Morgan was fined £33.3m by the FSA for what it described as "serious breach" of rules governing the segregation of the bank's money and that of its clients. Though no money was lost, the misallocation of the funds would have meant JP Morgan's clients would have lost their money if the bank had collapsed. Click here for the full story >>

Probe as carbon deal hit by bribe accusations
Police are probing a planned deal for a British company to rent one-fifth of Liberia's forests, in a striking example of possible criminal activity around the expanding business of carbon emission trading. The City of London police yesterday arrested the director of a Merseyside-based business in connection with an alleged plan to pay Liberian officials $2.5m (£1.7m) in connection with land concessions the company hoped would earn it more than $2bn, people familiar with the matter said. Click here for the full story >>

Crozier got £2.5m in final year with Royal Mail
Adam Crozier was paid almost £2.5 million in his final year in charge of Royal Mail, it was revealed yesterday. Mr Crozier, who left the postal operator to run ITV in March, received a £1.5 million bonus for meeting performance targets under a long-term incentive plan, according to Royal Mail’s latest annual report. This was in addition to his £633,000 salary, a further £206,000 in lieu of a pension and other benefits worth £19,000. The payout was attacked as “outrageous” by the Communication Workers Union, which said that Mr Crozier had left the company before its multibillion-pound modernisation programme had been completed. Click here for the full story >>

Pru break-up? Thiam in line for bumper deal if he goes
Tidjane Thiam could walk away with a large slice of the £5.2 million pay and bonus package he was aiming for this year if he is ousted as chief executive of Prudential. A bumper severance deal for Mr Thiam, whose job is under pressure after his $35.5 billion acquisition of AIA failed this week, would be certain to cause ructions among investors. One said yesterday: “There would be an almighty row.” The Pru abandoned its AIA takeover on Tuesday, leaving it with a £450 million bill, including a £153 million break fee payable to AIG, the owner. Click here for the full story >>

Pru shareholders revolt on executive pay
Three of Prudential's largest shareholders have delivered a further blow to the company ahead of its annual meeting in London tomorrow by voting against the pay packages it has offered its executives. Aviva Investors, Schroders and Co-operative Investments, all top 20 investors in the insurer, have told Prudential they cannot approve its remuneration report because of concerns over incentives offered to two of its new executives. The investors are known to have concerns about so-called "golden hello" deals handed to Nic Nicandrou, finance director, and Rob Devey, head of Prudential's UK business, who both joined the company last year. Click here for the full story >>

How can an ethical fund hold BP?
Shareholders are the latest victims in the oil spill disaster – with no solution in sight, BP’s share price is plummeting as fast as the black gold is pumping into the Gulf of Mexico. On Tuesday alone its shares dropped by 13pc and they are around 30pc down over the past two months. This is bad news for private investors and fund managers. BP is traditionally a defensive stock, meaning UK equity funds and cautious managed funds, as well as FTSE trackers, could have exposure to the mega cap and be feeling the effects of the fallout. Click here for the full story >>

Former employees sentenced over Bhopal leak
A court in Bhopal on Monday sentenced a top industrialist and six others to two years in prison after they were found guilty of criminal negligence over the devastating gas leak at a Union Carbide plant that killed thousands more than 25 years ago. Keshub Mahindra, former chairman of Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary, is currently chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra, the family industrial conglomerate that encompasses one of the world’s largest tractor producers and India’s largest sport utility vehicle maker. Click here for the full story >>

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