Create your own free news widgets.

Luke Johnson, the chairman of ­Channel 4, has held secret merger talks with the ­German owners of Five after being encouraged to do so by the government communications minister, Lord Carter.Although the Christmas talks with ­Gerhard Zeiler, chief executive of RTL, which owns Channel 5, were described by Channel 4 as 'preliminary . [and] unlikely to lead to a merger', they will fuel speculation that the government is looking to privatise the state-owned but advert-funded broadcaster as part of a radical overhaul of public service television to be unveiled in the next two weeks.Yet Carter is also understood to have encouraged BBC executives to discuss a possible tie-up of the corporation's commercial assets with Channel 4 so as to consider all the options. These could include other companies taking stakes in a broadcaster that remains publicly owned.Talks with BBC Worldwide are understood to have been effectively shelved amid criticism from BBC executives that it would create a 'Fr

China's leading grid operator said it aims to spend as much as $14.6 billion over the next three to four years to roll out ultra-high-voltage power networks.

DON'T be selfish: take a holiday. Obsessive compulsive productivity isn't going to help the global economy when world trade is shrinking because the have-nots can no longer meet the ransom demands of the have-too-muches. The most responsible thing to do is take time out and spend. In 1986, Paul Keating warned us about becoming a banana republic. Today we should consider becoming a banana lounge republic.

A credit card combining travel rewards with no foreign exchange costs on overseas spending

ConocoPhillips said Friday that it will trim 4% of its workforce, or about 1,300 employees, and scale back spending as the energy company struggles with plunging oil prices.

Angola will spend US$400m to revamp its main airport in Luanda before hosting the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

MIAMI, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- The Spanish journalistAdriana Navarro travelled to her native land during Christmas to reporton cultural and political developments from her mother country....

THE US plans to spend $US825 billion ($A1.2 trillion) to rescue its economy from a crisis that the UN warns could engulf the world.

Rumpole of the Bailey creator John Mortimer, 85, died this morning following a prolonged illness. His family said in a statement that they were by his side when he passed away.Mortimer, who lived in what was formerly his father's house in the Chilterns, had been in a London hospital until a few days before Christmas before coming home, after which his condition deteriorated, said Tony Lacey, Mortimer's editor at Penguin.The novelist, playwright and former barrister, who was born in London in 1923, was known and loved for the comic lawyer Rumpole, whose dedication to cheap wine and motto 'never plead guilty', has been his most enduring creation. 'He would announce to me on the phone that he thought he ought to 'do a Rumpole' on asbos or weapons of mass destruction, or some similar topic about which he felt particularly strongly. Rumpole and John became increasingly fused,' said Lacey. Mortimer originally wrote the series for television, later spinning it off into a series of books and r

The government's financial bailout has not worked so far, a majority of respondents to a national poll say, and six in 10 don't want Washington to spend more money on the rescue.