Bond legend Sir Sean Connery has been reportedly under fresh investigations into tax deals in the Costa del Sol. A Spanish judge has called for an extensive probe into alleged monetary irregularities surrounding the Scots star and wife Micheline Roquebrune. Officials suspect those involved in the sale of Connery”s former home in Marbella of up [...]
Posts Tagged ‘pound’
Fighters pound NW Pakistan; two soldiers killed
February 1st, 2010 |
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Fighter jets and helicopters yesterday pounded a district in northwest Pakistan where a suicide bomber killed 17 people a day earlier, in a response described by authorities as “severe”. The attack came as two security personnel were killed by another bomb blast yesterday. Also, Pakistan’s
Britain cuts terror fight in Pakistan as pound falls: minister
January 21st, 2010 |
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Britain has cut back its counter-terrorism programme in Pakistan due to the fall in the pound’s value, a minister has said, drawing criticism a major “terrorist threat” was being neglected. Programmes in counter-terrorism and radicalisation in Pakistan had been cut as the Foreign Office was
Richard Gere facing $50k fine for tree slaughter
December 2nd, 2009 |
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Richard Gere is reportedly facing a fine of up to 50,000 dollars for chopping down as many as 200 trees in Pound Ridge in Westchester.
The ‘Pretty Woman’ actor opened the bed-and-breakfast Bedford Post inside a restored farmhouse with wife Carey Lowell in February.
According to Bedford’’s Record-Review, the deforestation in nearby Pound Ridge to create a [...]
Boyle to snub luxury mansion because her pet cat hates ‘being posh’!
November 23rd, 2009 |
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Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle is snubbing luxury mansions and purchasing her shabby council house instead – because of her pet cat Pebbles.
Boyle, 48, is due to get a 100,000-pound first royalty cheque after her debut album ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ became the most pre-ordered CD ever.
And Boyle will use the money to buy the [...]
US resort offers cheap room deal – if guests opt to sleep in a tent
August 9th, 2009 |
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A US luxury resort is offering rooms for as little as $19 (£11) per night, but guests have to sleep in a tent.
For two weeks in August, guests at the San Diego resort can opt for a "Survivor Package" that charges less for each amenity they give up.
The cheapest deal – $19 – means guests sacrifice a bed, breakfast, air-conditioning, towels, toilet paper, a mini-bar and lighting.
Staff will even unscrew the headboard from the wall – but leave a small tent.
The Rancho Bernardo Inn boasts three pools, two restaurants, a spa and golf course.
The Survivor Package, from 16 to 31 August, starts at $219 (£131) per room and gets cheaper as each amenity is taken away.
General manager John Gates said that during tough economic times it was a way to help people stay at a nice resort who normally could not afford to.
"It’s our way of getting people here that might not normally come," he told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
He said it was hoped that people who tried the promotion would return to stay at full price.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
ITV in £25m Friends Reunited sale
August 6th, 2009 |
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ITV has sold Friends Reunited for £25m four years after buying it for £120m.
The buyer is Brightsolid Limited, which is owned by DC Thomson, publisher of comics such as the Beano.
The announcement came with the release of half-year results, which were hit by the worst decline in UK television advertising on record.
ITV made a pre-tax loss of £105m in the period. There was no more information given on the recruitment of a new chief executive to replace Michael Grade.
The £105m loss compares with a £1.5bn loss in the same period of 2008, although last year’s figure was hit by a £1.6bn charge reducing the value of investments made in 2000 and 2004.
ITV’s advertising revenues fell by 15%, which was slightly better than the 17% fall in the overall market.
The broadcaster’s pension fund deficit had ballooned to £538m by 30 June, compared with £178m at the end of 2008.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
In your face
August 6th, 2009 |
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By Zoe Kleinman
Business reporter, BBC News
Remember the days when it seemed as if everyone was on Friends Reunited Childhood sweethearts rekindled old flames, old school chums exchanged news and reunion parties were all the rage.
Then along came sites like Facebook and we all started virtually poking each other instead.
The rise and perceived fall of Friends Reunited is well documented.
The pioneer of social networking enjoyed a meteoric success in the early 2000s and then faltered when competitors in the very marketplace it had created effectively crowded it out.
Or so the story goes. In fact, the Friends Reunited brand has quietly been doing rather well. It boasts 19 million members and its sister site Genes Reunited has 650 million names on its database.
A quick look at ITV’s online portfolio profits for the first six months of this year reveals more good news.
Out of a profits total of £18m, £10m was generated by Itv.com and the "majority" of the remaining £8m came from Friends Reunited, a spokesperson says.
Competition
After the launch of Facebook in 2004, Friends Reunited suddenly found itself being criticised for being too basic by comparison – it lacked any applications such as gaming and voting tools with which to entice returning members.
Friends responded by launching dating and shopping services, as well as the Genes Reunited ancestry tracing service.
And although it may enjoy global popularity, Facebook, the grand dame of social networking, has yet to make any money.
Speaking to the BBC last month, Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said the company is making money, but it’s advertising revenue is being used to fund growth.
It does not expect to become profitable before 2010.
Humble beginnings
Friends Reunited got off to a humble start in a kitchen in Barnet, North London.
Co-founder Julie Pankhurst had the idea in 1999 when she was pregnant and curious about which of her old school friends were also starting families.
Her husband Steve and business partner Jason Porter were looking for internet-related business ideas and decided to develop something which would enable people to get back in touch with each other.
The result – Friends Reunited – launched in July 2000. Its original revenue model was subscription-based; members could view other members’ profiles for free but a £7 annual fee was required to make contact.
However, following the proliferation of other social networking sites which were all free to use, it dropped its subscription charge in May 2008 and switched to an advertising model.
‘Not embarrassed’
This morning, ITV’s chief operating officer John Cresswell told the BBC that he is not embarrassed by the media organisation’s decision to sell the website at a fraction of the original £175m price.
"It was bought four or five years ago by the then management team, as the first move to give ITV some online presence," he said.
"This current management believes that the future for online for ITV is about video, and we’re investing our money into itv.com… that’s where we think the strategic direction of the business should go. Friends (Reunited) wasn’t important and so we decided to sell it."
ITV may be going in a different direction, but if Friends Reunited continues to make profits at its current rate, its new owners Brightsolid may have snapped up a bit of a bargain after paying £25m for it.
"I don’t think we overpaid, but don’t think we underpaid either," says Brightsolid’s chief executive Chris van der Kuyl.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Major Eurofighter deal signed
July 31st, 2009 |
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Ministers have welcomed the signing of a £3bn contract for 40 Typhoon jets as "excellent news" for the armed forces and the defence industry.
The first of the new aircraft, part of the Eurofighter defence programme, are expected to enter service in 2013.
About £900m has been knocked off the cost of the contract after heated negotiations between the UK and its partners Germany, Italy and Spain.
Unions said the deal would protect jobs in Lancashire and Bristol.
‘Excellent news’
The UK has been seeking greater value for money from the latest phase of the Eurofighter project as constraints on its defence budget increase.
On Friday, the four partners – who launched the Eurofighter programme in 1988 – agreed to buy a total 112 combat jets between them in a deal worth £7.7bn.
The UK has said it will order 40 – 24 of those to replace jets previously sold to Saudi Arabia. They will operate from bases in Lincolnshire and Fife.
"This is excellent news for both our armed forces and UK industry"
Quentin Davies, defence equipment minister
Negotiations over the contract have been tense with sources suggesting the UK was determined to bear down on costs while its partners were worried about securing the future of 100,000 jobs.
The Ministry of Defence said the agreement was a major milestone in the Typhoon programme, a key element of European defence co-operation.
"This is excellent news for both our armed forces and UK industry," said Quentin Davies, minister for defence equipment and support.
"The contracts have also enabled partner nations to programme significant savings. For the UK, this is of the order of £900m."
‘Vote of confidence’
Manufacturers of the jet fighter had warned of thousands of job losses if no agreement was reached.
Unions said the deal would safeguard jobs across the UK, particularly in Lancashire where the plane will be built and in Bristol where its engines will be made.
"After many months of negotiations this announcement on the Typhoon Tranche 3 is great news for the workers and for UK manufacturing," said Bernie Hamilton, from the Unite union.
"This order is a vote of confidence in the skills of UK defence workers."
Under the original agreement, the four countries were to split 620 jets between them in three separate batches. The latest agreement means 559 will either have been delivered or be in production.
The final batch has been divided into two tranches, fuelling speculation that it may be axed – although governments have always denied this.
The global recession is forcing all countries to reconsider their defence budgets and with an estimated cost per plane of £100m, the Typhoon programme has come under particular scrutiny.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) took delivery of its first quota of Eurofighter Typhoon jets in 2003.
Critics say it is an outdated Cold War weapon but the RAF says the upgrade means the fighter will be able to operate more effectively in Iraq and Afghanistan. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Global IT unit knocks BT profits
July 30th, 2009 |
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See BT’s share price
Telecommunications firm BT has reported a sharp drop in quarterly profits, following problems at its global IT services arm.
Pre-tax profit dropped 45% to £272m in the three months to June 30 from £497m in the same period a year earlier.
BT has also revised the estimate of its pension deficit to £5.8bn, from its previous estimate of £2.9bn.
The company cut 2,300 jobs from the global IT services division during the quarter, as it tried to reduce costs.
"We are on track to deliver reductions in operating costs and capital expenditure of well over £1bn and to generate group free cash flow of over £1bn this year," said chief executive Ian Livingston.
"BT Global Services is making progress although there is still much to do," he said. The division saw revenue down 4%, as firms cut their spending on telecoms services.
Despite the problems, BT shares jumped 12% in morning trade as the results were better than analysts’ forecasts. Investors were also buoyed by chief executive Ian Livingston saying that the firm had seen a "solid start to the year".
Cost cutting
Global Services, which gives large organisations telephone and IT services, made a loss of £124m, down from a £1m profit a year ago. Overall revenue increased 1% during the period to £5.2bn.
BT’s retail revenue fell 2% to £2,110m mainly because of a reduction in calls and lines revenue, the firm said.
The firm, which has 10,000 employees, has offered staff the opportunity to take long holidays in exchange for a pay cut, to avoid to avoid redundancies.
One option available to staff is an up front sum of 25% of annual salary in return for taking the whole year off.
In May, BT said it would cut about 15,000 jobs this year, mostly in the UK, after posting an annual loss of £134m.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Toure completes Man City switch
July 29th, 2009 |
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By Chris Bevan
Manchester City are close to signing Arsenal defender Kolo Toure for about £15m, BBC Sport understands.
City boss Mark Hughes, who failed to lure Chelsea centre-back John Terry to Eastlands last week, has long admired the Ivory Coast international.
Toure was first linked to a move to City in January but the Gunners insisted then that he was not for sale.
The 28-year-old has been with Arsenal since 2002 but failed to hold down a regular starting place last season.
Newspaper reports that Toure has agreed personal terms with City are premature but the deal is expected to be completed by the end of this week.
Toure has played 326 games for the Gunners, scoring 14 goals, and has two years left on his contract at the Emirates Stadium.
He handed in a transfer request in January, which was rejected by the Arsenal board.
606: DEBATEYour thoughts on City’s pursuit of Toure
As well as missing out on Terry, Hughes had a £15m bid for Everton defender Joleon Lescott rejected earlier this month.
But the Gunners, who have already sold striker Emmanuel Adebayor to City for £25m this summer, have been more receptive to offers from the oil-rich Eastlands club.
On top of capturing Adebayor, City have already brought in former Manchester United forward Carlos Tevez, midfielder Gareth Barry from Aston Villa and striker Roque Santa Cruz from Blackburn for a total of about £55m this summer. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Dongle users face stiff penalties
July 29th, 2009 |
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Mobile broadband users face stiff penalties for exceeding their download limits even though most aren’t aware of what those limits are.
A survey conducted by price comparison website Moneysupermarket found that three in four mobile broadband users risk such charges.
It found that over half did not know what their limit was, with a further 24% not even realising they had any.
O2 charges £200 for every extra gigabyte used and 3 charges over £100.
By contrast, Vodafone charges £15 per extra gigabyte with Virgin and Orange offering a £14.95 penalty.
Only T-Mobile has no charge and will advise heavy downloaders to change tariff.
Deterrent
Mobile broadband, in which users plug a so-called dongle into their laptop or computer, is becoming more popular.
"Dongle users are most at risk of incurring charges from exceeding download allowances as limits on dongles tend to be much lower than fixed-line packages," said James Parker, manager of mobiles and broadband at Moneysupermarket.
Someone with a three gigabyte limit would be able to do a few hours of surfing per week, download three music tracks per week, watch two hours of video on YouTube or iPlayer, download one film and spend a few hours on Skype.
"You’d only need to double that usage to find yourself with a £600 bill from O2," said Mr Parker.
In its defence, O2 said that the high penalty was "used as a deterrent and to make sure that others using the network had a good experience".
"Very few of our customers go over their limits," said a spokesman.
"We text them when they are at 50% of the usage, and again at 90% and again if they go over. We keep them well-informed and people understand our pricing structure," he added. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Amy Winehouse funded ex hubby’s drug habit in jail
July 28th, 2009 |
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Amy Winehouse used to help her former husband Blake Fielder-Civil get drugs while he served his sentence in prison, the jailbird has revealed.
Fielder-Civil, who was sentenced to 27 months in jail for assaulting a pub landlord in 2007, said the singer helped fund his drug habit while he was behind bars.
“Whenever I needed heroin I [...]
Ibrahimovic seals Barcelona move
July 27th, 2009 |
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Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o's has reached an agreement with Inter Milan to join the Italian champions, according to his agent.
Barca have had an offer of about £38m plus Eto’o, in exchange for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, accepted while Alexander Hleb will also join Inter on loan.
"The deal is sealed, next week he will start working with Inter," said the 28-year-old’s agent Josep Maria Mesalles.
"When he signs the contract he will be at (coach) Jose Mourinho’s disposal."
Reports suggest Eto’o has agreed a five-year deal with Inter and will earn about £9.6 a season. It brings an end to his five-year stay at the Nou Camp.
"It’s done," said Mesalles. "We have reached an agreement with Inter. Samuel talked to Mourinho and is very happy to be wearing the Nerazzurri shirt. All the details have been filed.
"It’s complete harmony with us and the Nerazzurri club. We are very happy and satisfied. The deal’s sealed, next week he will start working with Inter.
The agreement should give the green light for Ibrahimovic’s move in the opposite direction, despite the 27-year-old Sweden striker picking up a wrist injury during Inter’s friendly defeat by Chelsea on Tuesday.
Inter and Barca have yet to confirm the news but the Italians announced on Thursday that Ibrahimovic’s injury is not as serious as first feared.
606: DEBATEmascotman
Inter president Massimo Moratti said on Tuesday: "Until things are wrapped up, there’s nothing to say but I am confident.
"Eto’o is one of the most important players on the market. Along with Ibra, he’s one of the most wanted. It’s a good chance for us to have another champion."
Ibrahimovic was the top scorer in Serie A last season and Moratti had nothing but praise for the 27-year-old.
"He’s a very serious professional," he said of the Swedish international. "He has always behaved well with us.
"He helped us win the championship and he was top scorer last year."
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, who transfer-listed Eto’o last year, has said he believes the Cameroon striker should leave the club.
"I am convinced that the best thing for Barca is for Eto’o to leave," stated Guardiola. "Could I be mistaken Maybe so. But I am here to make these decisions."
Guardiola added Eto’o's departure would be good for the team.
"I feel that it is best for the club and the team. It’s a question of feelings," said Guardiola. "I am not here to change anyone’s character, but I can decide on which players I want to count on for the season.
"After what we won, we had to change the dressing room. I took this decision from my experience as a footballer."
Eto’o had been on the verge of a deal with Manchester City but Mark Hughes’s side withdrew their interest last week.
The forward signed for Barcelona from Mallorca for £16m in 2004.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Man City a small club – Ferguson
July 26th, 2009 |
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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says Manchester City "are a small club with a small mentality".
The Scot is unimpressed by City signing Carlos Tevez when the Argentine left Old Trafford at the end of last season.
A city-centre billboard appeared soon after, saying "Carlos Tevez, welcome to Manchester" under a sky-blue graphic.
"It’s City isn’t it They’re a small club with a small mentality. All they can talk about is Manchester United; they can’t get away from it," he said.
"They think taking Carlos Tevez away from Manchester United is a triumph. It is poor stuff."
Manchester City have spent heavily in recent weeks, with Emmanuel Adebayor signing from Arsenal for about £25m, midfielder Barry coming from Aston Villa for £12m, Paraguayan frontman Santa Cruz costing £18m from Blackburn, and Tevez arriving for £25m.
Ferguson, who was speaking on the Premier League champions’ pre-season tour in China, claimed that Adebayor had attempted to sign for Manchester United before committing to City.
"When someone offers you that kind of money, it is a big attraction," said Ferguson. "That is the reason they have gone there.
"At the last minute, from what I can gather, either Emmanuel Adebayor or his agent phoned us after they had agreed a deal with City and then did the same with Chelsea. He was desperate to get to either Chelsea or us."</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Equality watchdog gave contract to chair’s friend
July 25th, 2009 |
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TV company’s £300,000 contract ‘broke EU rules’
Trevor Phillips’s position as chair of Britain’s equality watchdog is under intense pressure in the wake of revelations that it unlawfully awarded a £300,000 contract to a company run by one of his close professional friends.
The six-figure sum swallowed up the entire publicity budget for the launch of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
The commission was also shaken last week by the resignation of Ben Summerskill, of Stonewall, a gay rights group. On Friday, he urged that Phillips should quit his post. Summerskill’s departure and remarks will intensify scrutiny of the watchdog’s finances. The Observer has learnt that a confidential investigation into the award of the contract was ordered by Nicola Brewer, the commission’s former chief executive, but has not been made public.
The investigation examined the award of a contract to Juniper TV, a company headed by Dr Samir Shah, who has known Phillips since they worked at LWT in the 1980s. In 2007, as the commission was being set up, Juniper was awarded a contract to produce My Story, a 30-minute video in which the public and celebrities talked about “difference”.
According to the tendering document, the project was the “first EHRC product reflecting and publicising the new organisational branding”, but it ran into financial trouble. Concerned about spiralling costs, the commission attempted to terminate the contract. “There was an issue about halfway through the production,” Shah said. “They sought to bring the project to a close and we said we would expect them to pay us the cost of completing it.”
Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information act reveal the commission then demanded Juniper “shave” the costs of the production. But despite this, the EHRC still ended up paying Juniper £307,802, exceeding the £300,000 publicity budget for the commission’s launch.
“An internal audit report did subsequently raise concerns over budget and procurement processes in the transition team around this project,” a commission spokesman said. “The report concluded that EU procurement rules had not been followed, concerning whether or not the tender for the project should have been advertised across Europe.”
The revelation comes at the end of a turbulent week for the watchdog after Summerskill stood down, taking the total number of commissioners who have left to six. It also emerged that Alun Davies, the head of its disability committee, is leaving, as is its director of stakeholder relations, Bradley Brady. There is speculation that Sally Greengross, another commissioner, will leave soon.
The exodus is seen as a result of growing disquiet over Phillips’s role. As chairman, he works a three-and-a-half-day week and is paid £110,000 a year. There was speculation the government would not renew his contract this summer. The decision by the equality minister, Harriet Harman, to reappoint him triggered the recent departures.
In his resignation letter, Summerskill expressed concerns over the watchdog’s finances, stating: “As chair of the commission’s audit and risk committee, I would feel entirely unable to offer future reassurance … that the commission was being led and the commission’s affairs conducted with appropriate probity.”
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Lenders plan break-up of Gala Coral
July 25th, 2009 |
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RBS invites bids for parts of indebted betting group
Debt-laden gambling group Gala Coral could be broken up and parts sold off to secure urgently needed cash for the private equity-owned business, according to plans being drawn up by its leading lender, the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The RBS proposal comes in the midst of restructuring talks and ahead of a major debt deadline for the gambling group, which is jointly owned by Candover, Cinven and Permira. It must repay £80m to its lending banks by September and £150m in 2010.
RBS’s loan exposure to Gala Coral’s £2.7bn of debt is thought to be relatively small but the bank plays an influential role as the agent for all the group’s senior debt holders.
The bank’s proposal appears to have been worked up without consulting Gala Coral, which has hired investment bank Lazard to look at restructuring options, including a partial debt-for-equity swap. Gala Coral told the Observer: “We are not looking to sell off assets or break up the group. We have £200m on the balance sheet and we are not seeking an equity injection.”
But RBS, which is majority owned by the taxpayer, has approached a number of potential investors inviting them to take an opportunistic stake in the gambling group or to bid for any of its bingo, casino, betting-shop or online divisions.
An RBS presentation, seen by the Observer, has been circulated to potential Gala Coral investors. “The company needs to address its debt burden and is considering a number of options to raise cash,” it says. “Candover and Permira are financially strained and unlikely to be willing to inject more equity.”
RBS concludes: “There may be an opportunity for a new party to invest up to £250m for a ‘non-controlling’ stake in the company. [An] alternative is a spin-off of one of the company divisions.” The presentation stresses that a £250m investment would be structured as “non-controlling” so as not to trigger change-of-control clauses in Gala Coral’s debt agreements.
Last April, Gala Coral’s three backers injected £125m of rescue capital into the group as part of a refinancing deal. Since then, all three have written down the value of their investments to zero and Gala Coral’s buyout debt is trading at deeply distressed rates on the secondary market. Some suppliers to the group had their credit insurance withdrawn by Euler Hermes earlier this year.
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Voice technology firm hits back
July 24th, 2009 |
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By Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent, BBC News
Voice-to-text firm Spinvox has reacted to BBC allegations over its technology, finances and privacy standards.
In a blog post on its company website, it described the allegations as "both incorrect and inaccurate".
The BBC has been told that most voice mail calls handled by Spinvox are transcribed by call centre staff, rather than converted automatically.
In the blog post, Spinvox said this was incorrect. "All speech technology requires training," it added.
Humans were used to correct and inspect some audio and text, but it said Spinvox had delivered "world-leading breakthroughs" in speech recognition technology.
Data register
The Buckinghamshire-based company, founded in 2003, also denied that it had broken data protection rules by sending messages out of Europe for transcription.
It said it was permitted to process data outside the European Economic Area and its security systems had the confidence of both customers and investors.
But its entry in the Data Protection Register says there will be no transfers outside Europe.
When the BBC contacted the Information Commissioner’s office again after Spinvox’s statement a spokesman said it would still be writing to the firm about this issue.
It does appear that the company is trying to expand its call centre operations overseas to handle big new contracts in Latin America.
In a recent Spinvox advert on an outsourcing website, the company said it was in need "of some significant support" with voice-to-text transcription services.
It went on to explain that the work involved "a combination of voice to text transcription & quality assurance for some messages that have been automatically converted by our voice recognition platforms."
In its blog the company also denies that it is facing financial problems after staff were asked to take part of their pay in the form of share options.
It says that is an "opportunity" it routinely offers staff, and that it currently operates profitably.
The most recent accounts for Spinvox show that in 2007 it made a loss of £36m on revenue of £2m. The average pay in a workforce of 219 was £96,369, and the highest paid director earned £546,000.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
California settles budget dispute
July 21st, 2009 |
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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and leading California legislators say they have agreed a plan to close a state deficit of more than $26bn (£17bn).
Mr Schwarzenegger said the plan would include $15bn of spending cuts and no significant tax increases.
Legislators said they are hoping to vote on the plan on Thursday.
Mr Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency earlier this month after legislators missed a deadline to agree a budget for the coming financial year.
Amid a protracted fiscal crisis, the office of the state controller has been sending promissory notes, or IOUs, to thousands of contractors and sellers providing state services.
Monday’s deal came after more than two weeks of intense negotiations.
"We are very happy to have a basic agreement," Mr Schwarzenegger said as he announced the plan.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Sri Lanka agrees $2.5bn IMF loan
July 20th, 2009 |
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Sri Lanka has agreed a $2.5bn (£1.5bn) loan accord from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the help it weather the global economic crisis.
The agreement will now go the IMF board for final approval.
Reports suggest that an initial $313m will be made available immediately once the loan is approved.
The Sri Lankan government has said that the money will also be used to pay for post-war reconstruction work in the north and east of the island. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.