UR TV CAST

This would lead to more overlaps between the stores of each bidder and more store disposals required to receive bid clearance. However, the wider definition would also bring more competing supermarkets into each region.The OFT declined to comment on the detail included in its report but it is understood that the problems in defining a local market was one of the reasons it decided to refer four of the bids. Only the bid from the retail entrepreneur Philip Green was cleared.Under the terms of reference used by the commission into its investigation into the sector in 2000, a competitive local market was defined as one in which there were three competing supermarkets within 15 minutes drive of each other.But now it is believed the OFT is considering changing this to a drive-time of 20 minutes in rural areas. They follow last week’s decision by the OFT to refer the bids from Wal-Mart/ Asda, J Sainsbury, Tesco and William Morrison to the Competition Commission.

Britain’s biggest supermarket groups have sought to play down speculation that the publication of the Office of Fair Trading report into the bid battle for Safeway would contain fresh revelations that would damage their takeover hopes.
Weekend reports suggested that the detailed findings, expected this week, would attempt to redefine what constitutes a local market and the “drive-time” to local supermarkets. NTT DoCoMo, which has a 20 per cent stake, is expected to support the fund raising.Last week 3 UK announced it had signed agreements to extend its loan facilities by a year to March 2005 with a syndicate of 16 banks and its equipment suppliers as well as Hutchison. Tim Pennington, finance director of 3 UK, said: “In a difficult financial market the package of measures we put together, combined with the recognition of 3 UK’s full compliance with all existing banking covenants and the support of our shareholders and suppliers, meant the proposals were extremely well received.”. Hutchison has said it will honour its commitment and will also pay KPN’s share if the Dutch group, which owns 15 per cent of 3, refuses to support it. The service, which allows users to make video calls and watch video clips, is the first of its kind to launch commercially in the UK.Hutchison Whampoa bought the Superdrug health and beauty chain as part of a takeover of its Dutch parent, Kruidvat, last autumn.Last week, Hutchison, the ports-to-telecoms conglomerate that owns 65 per cent of 3, said it was preparing to give its 3G operation another £800m of funding.3 is hoping to raise another £1bn from its shareholders on a pro rata basis, meaning Hutchison would have to commit £650m, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo would need to stump up £200m and KPN Mobile would have to pay out a further £150m. He now dreams of “a long, long war” – and not just a guerrilla war fought by occupied Iraqis. “Everybody’s watching very closely,” said Riaz Durrani, an official with the hardline MMA religious bloc, organisers of the anti-war protest.Certainly, Mohammed Mustapha, a PhD student of chemistry who went to yesterday’s protest carrying his two-year-old nephew, is watching everything.

Some of the banners jeered the catchphrases thought up by the Pentagon’s psy-ops people and so often repeated on TV. Twenty-four-hour news channels mean each development is being followed in extremely close detail – not so much ball-by-ball as bomb-by-bomb. Why does Tony Blair preach democracy and then ignore the will of his people? Why does George Bush ignore the will of the UN Security Council? Why does one rule apply to Iraq and another to Israel?This war is different from its forerunners. Many – though not all – wore the beards and skullcaps that denote young men from religious schools.Their outrage was acutely felt Time and again, people accosted me with questions. Yet it was large, peaceful – it was evidently controlled by the authorities from behind the scenes – and significant.A solid wall of closely packed heads stretched at least half a mile down the length and breadth of one of Lahore’s central boulevards. Pakistan’s day of celebration and fun was supplanted by anger, anxiety and protest.No one provided a reliable estimate yesterday of the throng that flooded the streets of Lahore, summoned from far and wide at the behest of the mullahs – some of them former mentors of the Taliban – who run Pakistan’s religious parties.Most news reports have tended to downplay the latest anti-war protests around the world because the turn-out has been smaller than the million-plus crowds of pre-war protests Yesterday’s demo in Pakistan was no exception. The parade, through Islamabad, was cancelled by the government of General Pervez Musharraf, a man whose task of balancing an alliance with the United States in its hunt for al-Qa’ida with rising anti-American sentiment becomes daily more difficult.And the India-Australia final was dwarfed by the awful but compelling images from Iraq.