Balfour Beatty is poised to reject a third merger offer from Carillion as hopes for the creation of a £3 billion construction "powerhouse" fade. Sources said the construction group headed by Steve Marshall, the under-fire chairman, is likely to reject Carillion's offer as the new proposal failed to address Balfour's two key concerns regarding the sale of its Parsons Brinckerhoff unit and the credibility of Carillion's assumptions on cost savings. - The TimesApple shares closed at a record high on Tuesday, as investors gained confidence that the technology company's best days are still to come. Shares topped the $100 mark in early-morning trading in New York, and closed up 1.4pc at $100.53, surpassing the previous record of $100.27 set on September 13, 2012. The new high draws a line under a turbulent few years for the iPad and iPhone maker, which saw its share price drop to just over $55 last year amid concerns that the company had lost some its innovative edge when Steve Jobs, the company's co-founder, died in 2011. - The TelegraphStandard Chartered has been banned from opening new US dollar bank accounts without the explicit permission of American regulators, amid a series of extraordinary restrictions, after officials warned the lender that it could be used as a conduit for illegal transactions. The New York Department of Financial Services said that it had imposed a $300 million fine on Standard Chartered after finding "numerous errors" in its anti-money laundering systems, only two years after the DFS had fined the bank $340 million for breaching US sanctions. - The TimesMilitants from Islamic State (Isis) claimed to have killed an American journalist long held captive in Syria in retaliation for ongoing US air strikes against its forces in Iraq. A propaganda video circulated on Tuesday showed a masked Isis fighter beheading a kneeling man dressed in an orange jumpsuit who is purported to be James Wright Foley, a photojournalist who went missing in Syria in 2012. - The GuardianA measure of global trade has soared over the past fortnight, signalling a possible return to health of the world economy. The Baltic Dry daily index of shipping costs has jumped by more than 40% in a month, soaring to 1,042 since it hit a post crash low of 732 in July. The jump in prices for sending freight goods around the world indicates that shipping firms are seeing a sharp rise in demand for their services. - The GuardianCairn Energy is to cut jobs in a bid to keep costs under control after telling investors that it wants to reduce its exposure to controversial drilling activity in the Arctic. The Edinburgh-based explorer estimates there could be more than three billion barrels of oil waiting to be found off the coast of Greenland, where its activities have been criticised by environmental campaigners, but earlier this year decided to focus on an ambitious programme off the west coast of Africa. - The ScotsmanHomeowners are scrambling to remortgage their properties to prepare for interest rates coming off the rock-bottom levels that have kept borrowing costs low in recent years. Remortgage applications rose by 21pc in July, the most for six months and the first time this year that growth in remortgages has outpaced purchases, according to figures compiled from 550 brokers and 900 estate agents by the Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB). - The TelegraphBC