| London midday: Bids fail to excite buyers
LONDON (SHARECAST) - Losses at Barclays and AstraZeneca, who both launched multi-billion pound takeovers today, are offsetting oil sector strength and bid interest elsewhere, leaving London little changed at lunchtime. Barclays has launched an agreed all share offer for Dutch bank ABN Amro worth over 67bn, but the banks shares fell as analysts expressed doubts about the tie up and said the deal was fully priced. They reckon Royal Bank of Scotland, which has been circling ABN together with consortium members Fortis and Santander, is likely to trump todays deal. Barclays shareholders will own about 52% of the enlarged company. Annual pretax synergy benefits of about 3.5bn by 2010 are forecast with 23,600 jobs to go. Peers HSBC and Lloyds TSB also fell. AstraZeneca, meanwhile, has agreed to buy US biotech MedImmune for $15.2bn.
New 'backers make starting bids
Fort Collins - With only two openings on defense this spring, Colorado State linebacking newcomers John Clark and Ricky Brewer didn't lack for attention. Neither started the spring atop the depth chart. Both might finish with the first unit. Veteran Jeff Horinek, the returning starter in the middle, helped out both players who flanked him. Everyone returns on defense from last season except lone senior starters Luke Adkins at strongside linebacker and Jon Radford at weakside. Clark was brought in as a midyear transfer from Fresno (Calif.) City College to compete with sophomore backup Jake Pottorff on the weak side. Brewer, a redshirt freshman and former Mullen standout, made the most of his spring competing with backup Sedric Patterson on the strong side. "Ricky had been playing pretty well (until a hamstring pull last week) and he was moving into a starting position," CSU coach Sonny Lubick said.
Slater council picks date for next McQueen day
Slater Mayor Stephen Allegri announced the Steve McQueen Day committee had chosen March 23 as the date for the next Steve McQueen Day celebration, during the council's regular meeting at Slater City Hall on Tuesday, April 17. Allegri said that the event should become self-supporting financially. "The city financed it one time," Allegri said. "Now we're looking at making it self-supporting. I think it's real important to point out no events would have taken place if the city hadn't put seed money in them. Now they are self-supporting." In other business, re-elected council members Terry Jordan, Ron Monnig and Brownell Bryant were sworn in. Bryant was then voted mayor pro tem of the council. The council then discussed the open position for the unoccupied Ward 1 council seat.
Nude Photos Of Kate Moss Go To Auction
LONDON (April 16, 2007) -- Nude photographs of Kate Moss will be sold at an auction in London next month among a series of other pictures of the British supermodel. The photos will be auctioned May 31, Christie's auctioneers said Monday. Two nude portraits, a 1996 print by Irving Penn and a 6-by-6-foot square image by Albert Watson, are expected to sell for about $44,000 and $30,000 respectively, the auction house said. A set of six prints of Moss without makeup, taken by Chuck Close, could sell for up to $40,000, Christie's said. An unpublished photo, being sold by one of the 33-year-old's friends, is expected to sell for about $12,000. The portrait, taken by photographer Corinne Day in 1990, was shot in London two years after Moss was discovered at a New York airport at age 14.
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