Cannes Jewellery Heist: Reward Offered

Lloyd's of London has offered up to one million euro (£864,000) for information leading to the recovery of jewels stolen from a Cannes hotel.

An armed man pulled off a brazen daylight heist at the luxury Carlton Hotel on July 28, in one of the world's biggest ever jewellery thefts.

The jewels, which were taken from the hotel used to film To Catch a Thief  - the 1955 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock about a jewel thief, had an estimated value of £88.48m.

Carrying a semi-automatic pistol, his head covered with a cloth, the robber stole jewels that were part of an exhibition by a group owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev.

Authorities say the man escaped with "all kinds of different" jewellery, including "rings, pendants, and earrings encrusted with diamonds".

The Carlton Hotel in Cannes

The exhibition was held in a wing of the hotel with direct access to the street and police said they had not been told that it was taking place.

Prosecutors say the robber entered the exhibition room through a French window that opened on to a terrace, which itself looks on to the popular Croisette avenue in Cannes.

"A reward of up to €1m pro rata is offered to the first person who provides information which leads to recovery of the goods. Offer subject to certain conditions," Lloyd's said in a statement.

Cannes has fallen prey to thieves several times recently, notably during this year's film festival, which attracts a glittering array of celebrities from the movie world.

In a pre-dawn heist at a hotel during the festival in May, thieves stole £660,000 of jewellery due to be loaned to movie stars.

That robbery took place in the hotel room of an American employee of Swiss jeweller Chopard while she was out for the evening, police said.

Anyone with information about the jewel heist should contact SW Associates at reward1millionE@gmail.com.

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Heathrow Plane Returns Over Technical Fault

A British Airways plane bound for Hong Kong has returned to Heathrow airport because of technical problems.

Sky sources said the aircraft developed a problem with its left wing landing gear, which would not retract. 

There were 298 passengers on board BA flight 25, which landed safely at the London airport.

A BA spokesperson said: "The Boeing 747 experienced a minor technical problem and returned to Heathrow as a precaution.

"Engineers are currently examining the aircraft.

"The 298 passengers may yet be able to fly to Hong Kong later this evening, if engineers can fix the problem, or alternative plans will be made."

The plane jettisoned fuel before landing. Pic: Sam Reed

In May this year, a BA flight caught fire as it flew over central London - leading to a dramatic emergency landing at Heathrow.

According to an official accident investigation, doors on both engines had been left unlatched during maintenance.

They then fell off as the aircraft left the runway, puncturing a fuel pipe on the right engine.

It is still not known what caused the fire.

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Amazon's Jeff Bezos Buys Washington Post

Bezos Letter To Washington Post Staff

Updated: 8:05am UK, Tuesday 06 August 2013

This is the letter written by Jeff Bezos to the staff of The Washington Post:

You'll have heard the news, and many of you will greet it with a degree of apprehension. When a single family owns a company for many decades, and when that family acts for all those decades in good faith, in a principled manner, in good times and in rough times, as stewards of important values – when that family has done such a good job – it is only natural to worry about change.

So, let me start with something critical. The values of The Post do not need changing. The paper's duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners. We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we'll work hard not to make mistakes. When we do, we will own up to them quickly and completely.

I won't be leading The Washington Post day-to-day. I am happily living in "the other Washington" where I have a day job that I love. Besides that, The Post already has an excellent leadership team that knows much more about the news business than I do, and I'm extremely grateful to them for agreeing to stay on.

There will, of course, be change at The Post over the coming years. That's essential and would have happened with or without new ownership. The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about – government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports – and working backwards from there. I'm excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention.

Journalism plays a critical role in a free society, and The Washington Post -- as the hometown paper of the capital city of the United States -- is especially important. I would highlight two kinds of courage the Grahams have shown as owners that I hope to channel. The first is the courage to say wait, be sure, slow down, get another source. Real people and their reputations, livelihoods and families are at stake. The second is the courage to say follow the story, no matter the cost. While I hope no one ever threatens to put one of my body parts through a wringer, if they do, thanks to Mrs. Graham's example, I'll be ready.

I want to say one last thing that's really not about the paper or this change in ownership. I have had the great pleasure of getting to know Don very well over the last ten plus years. I do not know a finer man.

Sincerely,

Jeff Bezos

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Labour: Workers '£6,000 Poorer' By 2015

The average worker will have lost more than £6,000 in real terms under the coalition by 2015, according to Labour.

The Opposition claims they will be £6,660 poorer by the time of the next election, with incomes £1,520 lower in real terms compared to 2010.

Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie says the amount of money lost is enough to pay for the average family weekly shop for a year and a half.

Labour is accusing David Cameron of presiding over a record 35 consecutive months of falling real wages, with spending power down in every month during his time in power.

Its analysis suggests Labour's James Callaghan is the only other PM on record to have overseen more than a year of constantly falling real wages.

Real wages fell for 17 consecutive months under Mr Callaghan - less than half the total period of consecutive real wage decreases under the current Government.

As the wider economy continues to recover and the Tories reap the benefits, Labour is battling to make the cost of living a key election battleground.

Its figures are based on forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility and figures from the Office for National Statistics.

At loggerheads: David Cameron and Ed Miliband

Further analysis of figures from the House of Commons library also suggest that by 2015, workers will have seen their spending power fall more than in any other G7 country since 2010.

Labour's study also revealed a regional disparity, with workers in Yorkshire and the Humber, Wales, the North West and the South West of England seeing the biggest real wage drops.

Real wages are now 8.1% lower in Yorkshire and the Humber, compared to a 5.5% decrease in the South East, the figures showed.

Mr Leslie, shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said: "David Cameron will go down in history as a disastrous Prime Minister for people's living standards.

"He is totally out of touch, his economic policies have failed and the result is working families are massively out of pocket."

"Far from never having it so good, many working people have never had it so bad. Prices have risen faster than wages in 36 out of the 37 months since David Cameron has been in Downing Street. This is the worst performance of any Prime Minister on record."

Mr Leslie claimed Labour would reverse the cut in the top rate of tax, introduce a new 10p tax rate, take steps to tackle high energy bills and protect tax credits for working families.

Coalition figures blamed the Opposition for driving the economy into the ground when they were in power, which had driven up the cost of living as a result.

They highlighted low interest rates and Government moves to slash income tax for millions, reform welfare to ensure it pays to work and increase the state pension.

Government whip and Lib Dem Mark Hunter said: "The reason the cost of living is high is because Labour crashed the economy. For them to criticise the coalition for cleaning up their mess is utterly hypocritical.

Conservative Business Minister Matthew Hancock added: "Today's squeeze on living standards is a direct result of Labour's disastrous economic policy that got us into this mess.

"If they were in government now, Labour would make hard-working people worse off. Their plan for more borrowing and more debt ... would mean soaring mortgage rates and higher bills."

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'Bad Bank' Pays Back £1.9bn To Taxpayers

The so-called 'bad bank' behind failed lenders Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley paid another £1.9bn to taxpayers in the first half of the year and saw a sharp fall in soured loans.

UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), the state-owned firm responsible for winding down the mortgage books of the collapsed banks, said Government repayments surged more than 70% from £788m a year earlier.

Its underlying pre-tax profits increased 10% to £529m as the improving economy and housing market saw the number of borrowers in severe arrears drop 29%.

Repossessions fell more than 8% to 3,871 and charges for bad debts dived.

Chief executive Richard Banks said: "All that suggests that the economy is starting to improve and people's finances are starting to improve."

Britain's housing market has been stimulated in recent months by Government schemes that have boosted mortgage approvals and lifted prices.

In a separate report today, the lender Halifax said house prices increased at their fastest pace in almost three years in July - rising 4.6% on an annual basis, 0.9% month-on-month.

It pointed to increased market activity as the economy improved amid the assistance measures for buyers.

The Help to Buy initiative allows people to get on to the housing ladder with a 5% deposit, while Funding for Lending encourages banks and building societies to lend more to households and businesses.

Mr Banks added: "There are definite signs of a moderate recovery and the mortgage market has been stimulated through the Help to Buy scheme.

"I think it will be a continued steady reduction in the number of customers in arrears," he said.

UKAR has now repaid a total £6.6bn to the Government, but still owes another £42.1bn.

It expects to fully repay the state within the next 10 years - which would be 13 years after the company was formed to manage the loan books of B&B and Northern Rock after the former building societies failed during the financial crisis.

It is winding down a £66.1bn total loan book and has 584,000 customers, of whom around a third are on interest-only mortgages.

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Summer Of Sporting Success Boosts Retailers

Retailers have enjoyed their best July growth since 2006 - the last time the country saw a prolonged heatwave.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said warm, sunny weather helped sales rise 2.2% on a like-for-like basis compared with last year as beer and burgers, together with swimwear, sun cream and sandals buoyed consumer spending.

It was the third consecutive month of improvement after a fall in April when shops were hit by freezing conditions, the BRC said, though deep discounting also helped reel shoppers into stores.

Easy rider: Chris Froome won the Tour De France

Online sales growth was 7.9%, a relatively slow improvement for the burgeoning sector as the weather encouraged consumers to get out from behind their computer screens.

BRC director general Helen Dickinson said the "very solid" sales performance was also driven by a 'feel-good factor' arising from the arrival of the Royal baby and sporting success.

She cited the Wimbledon win by Andy Murray, Chris Froome's Tour de France victory and the start of the Ashes.

She said: "While we know that the picture is still variable and the high street in particular continues to face considerable challenges, these positive results will be welcomed in town centres around the country that depend so much on retailers performing well."

David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, which compiled the figures, added: "Food and drink saw the best growth performance since November 2009, with champagne, beer and other drinks as well as burgers, baps, summer fruits and ice cream all seeing significant increases."

In other categories, DIY and gardening was strong after a very slow start to 2013, together with toys including paddling pools.

But not all high street retailers benefited from the higher temperatures.

Greggs the bakers blame the hotter weather of recent months for poor trading.

Pre- tax profits for the first half of the year were £11.4m - down by £4.6m on a year earlier.

The company warned the performance meant that full-year profits would be lower than expected and it intended to reshape the business, focusing on services for its 'food on the go' customers while store expansion would be slowed.

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Former Hovis Boss Finds Appetite For Lucozade

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Michael Clarke, the former chief executive of Britain's biggest branded food producer, is switching to the drinks sector with a role advising one of the world's biggest buyout firms on a £1.5bn bid for Lucozade and Ribena.

Sky News understands that Mr Clarke has been engaged by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) to work on its offer for the two drinks brands, which are being offloaded by GlaxoSmithKline, the FTSE-100 pharmaceuticals giant.

His role is the first UK post that he is understood to have taken on since resigning from Premier Foods in January, midway through a restructuring of the company behind Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes.

Mr Clarke's departure from the role after less than 18 months shocked City investors and cast renewed doubt over the company's future. It has since regained momentum under Mr Clarke's successor, Gavin Darby, and last month produced a strong set of results, with underlying trading profits up by 50% during the first half of the year.

KKR, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is among the world's most prominent private equity groups, owning large UK-based businesses such as Boots, the high street chemist, and Pets At Home.

The firm is up against stiff competition to buy Lucozade and Ribena, which GSK wants to sell before the end of the year.

A host of other drinks groups, including Suntory, the Japanese giant, and AG Barr, which owns Irn-Bru, are examining offers.

Their stiffest competition will come from private equity groups, with Blackstone and Lion Capital among those with an extensive track record of investing in the sector.

In 2005, they acquired the European beverages division of Cadbury-Schweppes, selling it four years later to Suntory for roughly £1.5bn.

Other buyout firms, such as Bain Capital, CVC Capital Partners and Onex, a Canadian fund, are among those also considering bids.

The outcome of the auction of Lucozade and Ribena will go some way towards reshaping the UK soft drinks market.

Britvic and AG Barr, which makes Irn-Bru, recently saw a proposed merger approved by competition authorities, but it has since been abandoned because of the shifting economics of the original deal.

It is likely that Mr Clarke would take on a board role at the drinks producer if KKR was successful with its offer, although the nature of this was unclear on Tuesday.

KKR declined to comment while Mr Clarke could not be reached for comment.

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Warning Over £100,000 Charity Executive Wages

Six figure salaries for staff at Britain's taxpayer-funded foreign aid charities risk bringing the industry into disrepute, the Charity Commission's chairman William Shawcross has warned.

Some 30 people working at the 14 leading UK charities that make up the 50-year old Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) are paid more than £100,000 a year, according to new figures. 

A Daily Telegraph investigation into charity industry salaries showed British Red Cross CEO Sir Nick Young earns £184,000 a year. 

James Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, earns £163,000, while the charity's chief operating officer Anabel Hoult earns £168,653.

William Shawcross says some salaries will not seem fair to donors

Mr Shawcross told the Daily Telegraph: "It is not for the commission to tell charities how much they should pay their executives. That is a matter for their trustees.

"However, in these difficult times, when many charities are experiencing shortfalls, trustees should consider whether very high salaries are really appropriate, and fair to both the donors and the taxpayers who fund charities.

"Disproportionate salaries risk bringing organisations and the wider charitable world into disrepute."

Three years ago, 19 staff members at the DEC charities, which are mandated to raise funds quickly for crisis-struck parts of the world, earned more than £100,000.

DEC says it has run 62 appeals and raised more than £1.1bn since launching in 1963.

The charities involved with DEC include Action Aid, Age International, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of charity leaders organisation Acevo, said the intervention by Mr Shawcross was "deeply unhelpful".

The average salary for a charity chief executive was £58,000, he said and added: "The big national and international charities are very demanding jobs and we need to attract the best talent to those jobs and that's what we do."

Sir Stephen denied that the high salaries could put off donors.

He said: "This simply isn't an issue for donors. Donors are more concerned about the outcomes, the performance and the efficiency of these organisations.

"To keep talent, really strong people, at the top of these organisations they need to be paid properly. These are still not excessive salaries when you compare them to the public and private sectors."

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Former Tory Leader Howard Moves To Strike Oil

A British firm chaired by former Tory party leader Lord Howard has signed a deal with the government of war-torn Somalia to hunt for oil and gas.

Soma Oil & Gas, founded earlier this year, intends to carry out offshore and onshore surveys despite a report last month from a United Nations monitoring group that foreign oil exploration could inflame conflict in the region.

Somalia, which has been fought over by multiple warlords, clan militia forces and Islamist insurgents, has effectively been in a state of civil war since 1991, though a conference in London in May - chaired by Prime Minister David Cameron - heard that significant progress to ease hostilities had been made under a new internationally-backed government in Mogadishu.

The oil deal is the first signed by the new administration, which is propped up by a 17,700-strong African Union force to fight off al Qaeda backed-insurgents and international aid.

The international community has invested millions to combat Somali pirates

Several of Somalia's potentially rich oil and gas blocs are claimed by rival companies, because deals were signed by the different authorities which emerged in the long years of war that preceded the appointment of the new government last September.

"It is expected that this will attract further investment and facilitate exploration in an area of immense economic potential for the nation," Somalia's Ministry of National Resources said in a statement.

The company, which expects to take up to 18 months to complete its surveys, said it would be working alongside Somalia's government to bring its oil and gas industry in to line with international standards.

Somalia remains a dangerous country despite peace efforts

Its statement said it would conduct seismic surveying in Somalia's territorial waters in areas agreed with the government and in certain limited onshore areas.

The aim, it said, was to "collate and reprocess historic seismic data using modern techniques" to prepare "an evaluation of Somalia's petroleum potential."

It is understood any finds could potentially lead to the firm participating in a bid process with oil and gas majors for extraction licencing.

Lord (Michael) Howard says he hopes to boost Somalia's economy

Lord Howard - who served as Home Secretary in John Major's government - said the survey deal reflected the "close collaboration" between Britain and Somalia.

"It is our intention to assist Somalia to develop an active hydrocarbons sector that will attract significant foreign investment to the country," he said.

His statement concluded: "We intend that Soma Oil & Gas' commitment in Somalia will boost the local economy and generate new opportunities for employment for Somali nationals."

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Osborne Urged To Begin Lloyds Share Sale

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The agency which manages taxpayers' stake in Lloyds Banking Group has told George Osborne that the sale of the Government's shareholding can begin imminently, paving the way for a disposal to take place within days.

Sky News understands that UK Financial Investments (UKFI) has informed the Treasury that it believes that the recent surge in Lloyds' share price means that taxpayers could receive value for money from a sale as early as this week.

The advice to the Chancellor does not mean that a placing of billions of pounds-worth of Lloyds stock will definitely take place that soon.

The Treasury has said consistently that it will not be rushed into a sale and that no timetable has been set following Mr Osborne's Mansion House speech in June in which he said the time to begin offloading the stake was fast-approaching.

However, Treasury sources said they had been told that UKFI was "actively considering" pursuing an imminent sale, with this week considered to be the last viable window for a big share trade before September.

A disposal of part of the Government's 39% stake in Lloyds is almost guaranteed to happen by the middle of September if the bank's share price maintains its recent momentum.

Such a deal has been widely forecast since Lloyds' resounding return to the black last week, when it announced a £2.1bn profit for the first half of 2013.

Whatever the timing of a disposal, it would be a significant moment in unwinding the legacy of the financial crisis that initially hit the UK in 2007 when Northern Rock was forced to seek emergency funding from the Bank of England.

Mr Osborne has been given the advice by UKFI

The precise size of a Lloyds share sale is unclear although bankers say it is unlikely to account for less than a quarter of the Government's stake, which would be worth just over £5bn at today's share price just before the market close of 74.1p.

During the last 12 months, Lloyds shares have soared by nearly 140% as investors have begun to understand the bank's future profitability and potential shareholder returns.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, Lloyds chief executive, used last week's interim results media briefing to issue thinly-veiled encouragement to Mr Osborne to begin selling taxpayer-owned shares.

He said it was a matter for the Chancellor to determine when to do so, although his repeated references to the risks of a repeat of the eurozone crisis triggering market volatility were a clear hint of his belief that a delay could undermine efforts to sell taxpayers' stake for a profit.

In subsequent meetings with investors, he is understood to have pledged that Lloyds would seek to pay out up to 70% of its profits in dividends within three years, a promise that should offer continued support to its share price in the coming weeks.

Lloyds has been prohibited from paying dividends to ordinary shareholders since its £20bn bailout in 2008, which followed its takeover of the stricken mortgage lender HBOS.

The price of any Government placing of Lloyds shares would be crucial to Mr Osborne's presentation of a sale, with 73.6p the average price at which the last Labour government acquired the stake.

Although an imminent placing would be unlikely to occur above that level, bankers and investors believe it would be possible to do so for a price above 70p, which itself is well in excess of the 61p at which the stake is recorded in the national accounts.

The lower figure does not take into account £2.5bn of fees paid by Lloyds for implicit guarantees covering its toxic loans in the wake of the 2008 rescue.

The initial sale of part of the Government's Lloyds stake would be structured by engaging investment banks after the stock market closes and reaching out to scores of potential investors to build a book of orders for the shares before markets open the following morning.

Lloyds and UKFI declined to comment.

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