No one can accuse Cadbury's top managment team of fence-sitting. The conference call this morning, where chairman Roger Carr and chief executive Todd Stitzer dismissed, again, the hostile bid from Kraft, was punchy to say the least... more
Prosecutors in America have moved to seize four mosques and a Manhattan skyscraper owned by a Muslim group suspected of being controlled by Iran... more
Tullow Oil was one of the best blue-chip performers, climbing 84p to 1199p amid rising hopes that the world's biggest oil company ExxonMobil is poised to take a stake... more
Among the many curious delights of the British Library's extraordinary audio archive of world and traditional music is a haunting field recording of an Australian aborigine crying for a dead companion... more
So the Treasury Select Committee is to launch an investigation into unequal opportunities and sexism in the City? That will be an investigation then by a committee of MPs made up of just one woman and 13 white blokes... more
Texas billionaire Allen Stanford is to appear in a federal court in Virginia over allegations of massive fraud involving his Antigua bank, after he surrendered to the FBI... more
A judge has approved a highly criticised plea deal that fines BP $50 million (£36 million) for its criminal role in a refinery blast that killed 15 people... more
Sir Allen Stanford's alleged investment fraud may have been devised far from New York, in balmy Antigua and Houston, but its repercussions were quickly felt on Wall Street. ... more
The Texan billionaire who shook up Lord’s with his $20m match in the Caribbean faces $8bn fraud charges in the US. As investigators pore over Sir Allen Stanford’s books, we reveal the warning signs that should have been spotted... more
Banking: Goldman Sachs has lost $850 million in the collapse of Russian tycoon Leonid Blavatnik’s chemicals firm LyondellBasell, due to a disastrous loan thought to have been made out of its London offices... more
Industrials: Industrial giant LyondellBasell Industries is in danger of collapse as the twin threats of rising costs and global recession put the squeeze on the chemicals industry... more
Cricket: In times of trouble, the Stanfords always come out on top. This Texan family have survived the Great Depression of the 1920s, the oil crisis of the 1980s and the current credit crunch... more
When did it become a ho-ho-ho national joke for our celebrities to beat people up? The nation is chortling today over the photos of a trashed Lily Allen punching a member of the public outside Ronnie Scott's... more
BAE Systems is bracing itself for a wave of US subpoenas of senior staff after its chief executive and a high-ranking board director were detained by the US Department of Justice... more
Zandra Rhodes will design the set and costumes for an extravagant new production of Aida, the highlight of the English National Opera's new season announced today.... more
Chamillionaire, may have sold more than a million albums and a record-breaking three million ring tones but he can't drag more than a handful of people down to Kentish Town.... more
With two poorly received stagings and the season barely a month old, English National Opera needed a hit. In this raw and intelligent staging of Jenufa it has one.... more
Indie rock band Tapes 'n' Tapes have become one of the most blogged about bands of this year, but if they were feeling jaded by all the attention, they didn't show it at Dingwalls.... more
Terence Blanchard wasn't expecting a hand-luggage ban to ground his horn at Lyon airport. But after he got his instruments through the Channel Tunnel, he had the chance to put on a cracking show.... more
The Astronaut Wives' Club, by the talented young Al Smith, is like Desperate Housewives taken back 40 years and with all remaining men from Wisteria Lane blasted into space.... more
Sound check: German industrial metal band Rammstein literally play with fire in their live performances - and now they are about to unleash their singeing spectacle on London. Watch out for your eyebrows
Afternoon:
7°c
