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Govt lines up boss for nationalised Northern Rock
The government has drawn up contingency plans for the nationalisation of Northern Rock ahead of the company's extraordinary general meeting tomorrow. Ministers reportedly hope the threat of a looming takeover will concentrate the minds of shareholders, who have so far failed to accept a private offer. The government has already secured a new boss for the troubled lender in the event of nationalisation. This weekend it was confirmed Ron Sandley, who was credited with saving Lloyd's of London in the 1990s, is on standby to act as provisional executive chairman after a government takeover. Mr Sandler confirmed he had agreed to take the post in the event of nationalisation. He explained his role would be to "get things stabilised, to make sure the bank has proper plans in place". Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats' economic affairs spokesman, welcomed the news but said it was a "pity" the government had not acted sooner.
Centrelink doles out AU$141 million to IBM
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Mormon Women Emerging From Shadows
A blog called Feminist Mormon Housewives, for instance, calls itself as "a safe place to be feminist and faithful" and offers the protection of anonymity.
Toscano said Beck's 1950s vision of motherhood astonished many Mormon women who believed the church, while not encouraging career women, had at least acknowledged women could work and still be good mothers.
Beck was not available for interviews, church officials said. Other LDS women came to Beck's defense, and pointed out that her talk also made clear that wives are "in equal partnership" with their husbands.
The agency which Beck heads, the Relief Society, is one of three Mormon offices open to women. Billed as one of the world's largest women's groups, with 5.5 million members, it provides spiritual instruction to women and aids needy families, among other things.
HMV 'sees no sign of slowdown' as sales rise
HMV, the entertainment retailer, today showed there is still life on the high street in the face of internet competition after beating forecasts with a 9.4 per cent rise in Christmas sales. The company, which is in the middle of a turnaround plan aimed at reducing its historic dependence on CDs in favour of popular computer games, said that annual profits would be close to £53 million - towards the top of analyst forecasts. The City had been expecting like-for-like sales growth of about 9 per cent, meaning that HMV's 9.4 per cent improvement in the five weeks ended January 5 are slightly ahead of consensus. Shares in the retailer rose 13.8 per cent to 115p in early trading. Simon Fox, HMV's chief executive and the former boss of Comet who joined the music retailer last September, said today's figures demonstrated he had "stablised the business".
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