Business

Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE)'s most recent bid to buy Astral Media's television and radio services for CAD$3.4 billion has been approved on Thursday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the Canadian regulatory body which supervises broadcasting and telecommunications. The CRTC rejected BCE's initial bid for Astral in October, citing concerns over market competition. According to Jean-Pierre Blais, Chairman of the CRTC, BCE's most recent bid protects Canadians' interests because BCE will have to invest in

Last Tuesday, AusAID Australia and the World Bank's Global Environment Fund (GEF) reached an agreement to give the government of Kiribati US$5 million (AU$4,779,000, NZ$5,985,000, €3,885,000) to install solar panels around the country's capital, located on the Tarawa atoll. According to Business Desk of the Brunei Times, AusAID promised AU$3.2 million in funding, while GEF promised US$1 million. The country was the first in the Pacific to make a deal with the World Bank. The funding was part of a US$530 million (NZ$635 million) package annou

A package of six media reform bills introduced last week before Australia's Parliament — including one proposing appointing a Public Interest Media Advocate (PIMA) to monitor print and online sectors — was shelved yesterday by the Australian Labor Party, with only two passed before a seven week break for the country's legislative body. Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, had hoped to see the legislation package passed by the end of the week. The six-bill media advocacy legislation package, inclu

The United States economy shrank by 0.1% in the last three months of 2012 according to official statistics released on Wednesday by the United States Department of Commerce. The contraction in the economy comes after growth of 3.1% in the previous quarter (July to September) and is the first contraction since the 2009 recession. Economic growth is thought to have fallen due to cuts in government spending, including a 22% cut in the defence budget being the largest decline in defence spending since 1972. Economic analysts had expected a 1.1% i

All 187 store locations of Jessops camera retailer are closing in the United Kingdom today. The business, which went into administration earlier this week, is to leave its workforce of approximately 1370 jobless. While staff at the business' top office in Leicester, in central England, are not being made redundant with immediate effect, they are in the next few weeks to lose their positions. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the firm declared administrator of Jessops two days ago, has said an examination of the company indicated it was no longer c

Judge James A. Stoelker of Santa Clara County, California Superior Court was disqualified from hearing a case on predatory lending practices the day before Christmas, on a technicality. The case was filed by David and Salma Merritt of Santa Clara County against multiple defendants, including Countrywide, Bank of America, and First American Title, among others. The Merritts had challenged Judge Stoelker's involvement in the case, claiming many of his rulings had favored his former clients even when law would have indicated otherwise. Some of

U.S. President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney sparred Wednesday evening during the first of three presidential debates leading up to the 2012 election. According to Nielson, approximately 67.2 million people tuned in to the 90-minute debate moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS as President Obama, the Democratic nominee, and Romney, the Republican nominee, exchanged jabs on domestic policy and the U.S. economy. Viewership increased 28% from the first 2008 presidential debate, which had an audience of about 52.4 million peo

The proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was defeated in a plenary session of the European Parliament with 478 votes against versus 39 supporting; 165 parliamentarians chose to abstain. Pressure and activist groups across Europe celebrated the defeat of the legislation, attributing their success to mobilising the public to bring pressure to bear on MEPs. In thanking supporters, the UK's Open Rights Group (ORG) cautioned that Karel de Gucht, current European Commissioner for Trade, deferred any decision as to how the Commission w

Cyprus today became the fifth member state to seek access to funds from the European Union's bailout fund. The Cypriots join Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and neighbours Greece. The move was triggered after the Cyprus Popular Bank, the nation's second-largest bank, asked the government for recapitalisation. The bank has been hit hard, as has the wider Cypriot banking sector, by exposure to Greek economics. A Greek restructure of €200 billion in debt has caused the bank a €3.65 billion loss, and money is being lost on loans domestically and to Gree

China has pledged US$10 billion in credit to back joint projects with Central and Eastern European countries. Visiting Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao announced the deal at a business forum in Warsaw, Poland, and said he hopes the deal will facilitate the two sides' cooperation. To boost business and trade, Wen said that China wants to help with infrastructure projects, including new technologies and green economy sectors. Also discussed at the Economic Forum was a new investment cooperation fund which would initially boast US$500 million to assis

Former President of Liberia Charles Taylor was today found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes by the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, Netherlands. Taylor was acquitted of actually ordering the offences or being part of a joint enterprise to conduct them. The eleven-count indictment produced a four-year trial that heard allegations of rape, murder, sexual slavery, cannibalism, arms dealing, "blood" diamond trade, and use of child soldiers. Prosecution witnesses totalled 94 whilst the defence had 21 including the accused. Taylo

Dick Clark, U.S. entertainment media cultural icon, died at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California on Wednesday of a heart attack, according to his publicist Paul Shefrin. He was 82 years old. "Attempts to resuscitate were unsuccessful," Shefrin said. In December 2004, months after going public with his Type 2 diabetes, Clark experienced a mild stroke, after which he did less on-camera. Clark was a charismatic and successful entertainment-industry businessman. His business Dick Clark Productions featured teen dance television progra