Monday paper round-up: US healthcare, Shell, Rio Tinto

22nd Mar 2010 06:38

After more than a year of sweating blood, Barack Obama and his Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill have emerged victorious with the enactment of the most significant piece of US domestic social reform in more than 40 years.Declaring "this is what change looks like", Mr Obama on Sunday night hailed passage of the ten-year, $940bn healthcare reform bill as the culmination of a century of efforts to ensure universal healthcare for Americans, including attempts made by seven of his predecessors in the White House, the FT reports.Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina have won a board recommendation from Arrow Energy after lifting their joint takeover bid for the Australian energy producer from A$4.45 to A$4.70 a share in cash. The revised bid announced early on Monday values Arrow's Australian assets, chiefly its reserves of coal-bed methane gas in Queensland, at A$3.5bn (£2.1bn) and excludes the Brisbane-based group's international operations that are worth an estimated A$400m, the FT reports.British Airways has been forced to fly empty jumbo jets to cities around the world as it grapples with the first days of a cabin crew strike that was showing no sign of easing on Sunday night. As the Unite union organising the stoppage urged BA board members to "take matters in hand" and help re-start talks, the airline re-instated flights to more than 20 destinations in Europe, the US, Asia and elsewhere after it said extra crew were working despite the three-day strike that began on Saturday, the FT reports.EMI could be facing a fresh legal battle with Citigroup over an audacious plan to lease its American catalogue to rivals in a £400 million move to stop the bank taking over the business. The billionaire tax exile Guy Hands has hatched the plan to mortgage EMI's future to avoid breaching banking covenants that would allow Citigroup to take over in June, the Times reports.Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu has indicated he will plead guilty to bribe taking today as he faces a Shanghai court on charges of industrial espionage and bribery. The trial of Australian and three other Chinese employees of the mining giant, which opened this morning will be closely scrutinised for how Chinese metes out justice to foreign businesses, the Times reports.Alistair Darling will announce which government departments will be forced to bear the initial burden of cutting borrowing on Wednesday, in a Budget designed to add clarity and credibility to the government's deficit reduction plan.To counter the widespread view Labour's heart is not in the painful business of cutting the deficit, Mr Darling will reveal where he intends to make savings in Whitehall costs after 2011, effectively giving departments the starting points for spending negotiations with the Treasury, the FT reports.The head of Britain's biggest drinks group has launched a blistering attack on the Government's duty regime ahead of Wednesday's Budget, warning that further tax rises could threaten investment and jobs. Simon Litherland, UK managing director of Diageo, said that punitive duty increases imposed already had hit the sector hard and it would be "foolish to take any action which might prevent one of the country's most successful industries playing its part in the recovery", the Times reports.The Government will this week commit to its first deliberate direct involvement in state banking since the 1970s when the Chancellor launches a "green investment bank" to channel cash towards environmental projects, the Telegraph adds.Bankers vented their anger at proposals from Britain's two main political parties to impose an industry levy that could raise tens of billions of pounds. Senior London bankers said they were "deeply worried" by the proposals that emerged over the weekend for a new tax, adding that if any measure were enacted unilaterally it could have disastrous consequences for the City of London and the financial services industry in the UK, the Telegraph reports.The fashion retailer New Look could resurrect its £1.7bn flotation plans this week when its board meets to consider if market conditions have improved sufficiently since the deal was postponed last month. Executives at the group, owned by private equity firms Apax and Premira, are set to meet on Tuesday to consider the move, the Independent reports.