Wednesday newspaper round-up: British Airways, UK economy, WPP...

27th Oct 2010 06:19

The chairman of British Airways has launched an attack on "completely redundant" airport checks and said the UK should stop "kowtowing" to US demands for increased security.The comments by Martin Broughton reflect broader industry and passenger frustration over the steady accumulation of rules on everything from onboard liquids to hand baggage that have blossomed since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the FT reports.Interest rates will start to rise sooner than expected after official figures showed the economy growing at its fastest rate for a decade, economists have said. Growth over the past six months reached 2 per cent, the fastest pace of expansion over two consecutive quarters since 2000, according to the Office for National Statistics. The economy received a further significant boost when Standard & Poor's, the ratings agency, revised its outlook on Britain from negative to stable and confirmed the country's AAA credit rating, the Telegraph reports.Europe's debt woes have returned to the fore after Greek premier George Papandreou threw open the door to fresh elections and vowed to liberate the nation from "slavery and surveillance". Spreads on 10-year Greek bonds jumped 31 basis points to 9.57pc and the euro tumbled 2 cents to $1.385 against the dollar as investors awoke to the risk of political upheaval in Greece, not helped by warnings from bond giant PIMCO that Athens will default within three years, the Telegraph reports.One of the City of London's top bankers was assailed in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday for playing both sides of the 2007 takeover of EMI and misleading a client to juice his multi-million-pound bonus. Citigroup's David Wormsley picked his way cautiously through a barrage of questions and insisted he had no memory of the conversations in which he is alleged to have lied to Guy Hands, the private equity baron who had been one of his closest friends and business associates, the Independent reports.WPP, the world's biggest advertising group, is experiencing its fastest growth in a decade, reflecting a healthy recovery in corporate confidence. Sir Martin Sorrell, the company's chief executive, said that its third-quarter results would show its strongest revenue growth in nearly ten years. "Everything we see in the rear-view mirror is good," he said, the Times reports.The Government today unveiled details of its new 'Junior Isa' savings accounts. They will take the place of Child Trust Funds, which are being slowly phased out. The key difference is that the Government made contributions to the CTF, but will make none to the Junior Isas. Instead they will be funded entirely by parental and family contributions. However, all returns will be tax free, the Times reports.A British insurance executive was sent to jail for 21 months today for paying $2 million in bribes to win lucrative foreign contracts. Julian Messent, 50, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty last week to two counts of making corrupt payments to Costa Rican officials between February 1999 and June 2002. Messent, the former chief executive of PWS International, a London-based reinsurance broker founded by Lord Pearson, the former UKIP leader, was prosecuted by the SFO after the case was referred by the Foreign Office in October 2005, the Times reports.Growth in air cargo dipped last month, reflecting weak consumer and business confidence across the world, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) warned yesterday. International passenger traffic rose by 10.5% in September compared with the same month last year, outstripping the 6.5% year-on-year growth recorded in August, according to the latest assessment by the global airline industry body, the Independent reports.