Sunday newspaper round-up: Tesco, ISIS, Ebola...

12th Oct 2014 11:34

Fresh from a string of profit warnings and an accounting scandal, supermarket chain Tesco has seen another senior executive depart, says The Sunday Times. Company secretary Jonathan Lloyd, who was responsible for advising the group on legal and governance issues, has joined the recent boardroom exodus, and audit committee chairman Ken Hanna is also said to be stepping aside, the paper said.The Ministry of Defence has said that a "small specialist team" of UK troops is training Kurdish soldiers in Iraq to help in the battle against ISIS, according to The Independent. The team is training forces in the use of heavy machine guns supplied by Britain last month, the paper said.20,000 students are set to return to the UK from ebola-stricken countries in west Africa and universities are on "full alert", according to The Sunday Times. Cleaners are planning to monitor some students and their dormitories for up to three weeks - the maximum incubation period for ebola - but colleges have stressed that the risks are minimal.Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has said that the airline could double its presence in Scotland in two years if the air passenger duty (APD) is abolished, reports The Scotsman. He called the APD a "penal tax", the paper said.UKIP is on track to win up to 25 seats at the next election, The Sunday Times has said, citing analysis of private polling data leaked to the paper. A senior party figure told the paper that UKIP "could have as many seats as the Lib Dems after the next election".The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for countries to reform their economies before growth can come quickly, according to the Financial Times. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, head of the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee, said at the IMF's annual meeting: "To solve today's growth problem's we have to lift potential growth [...] if we don't address tomorrow's growth problems today, we will be left with today's problems tomorrow".The UK's largest minicab company, Addison Lee, is the centre of a potential £800m takeover by Singaporean transport group SMRT, writes The Sunday Telegraph. Just 18 months after taking control of Addison Lee, US private-equity firm Carlyle has put the company up for sale and a number of other private-equity firms including BC Partners, CVC and Charterhouse are said to be interested.Mortgage rates in the UK are set to slip as lenders attempt to attract customers amid signs of a slowing housing market and concerns about the global economy, according to the Mail on Sunday. The paper cited Ray Boulger, a mortgage export at Charcol, who said that rates have already started to fall as banks make end-of-year bids for market share.The former environment secretary, Owen Paterson, will warn this week that the UK will struggle to "keep the lights on" if ministers don't scrap the Climate Change Act 2008, reports The Sunday Telegraph. He is expected to say that the policy, which ties Britain into stringent environmental measures to cut the use of fossil fuels, should be suspended until other nations agree to take similar measures.