DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK): THE WEEK THAT WAS: Shell has lent $12m (£6.3m) for legal representation to former directors who may get caught up in the oil reserves scandal. It also says that it had replaced only 49pc of the oil it extracted last year (ShellNews.net) 2 April 05
A summary of this week's main business stories
Hank Greenberg, the founder of US insurer American International Group, stepped down as chairman as the company admitted that documents relating to its controversial reinsurance deals with General Re were "improper".
Elan, the Irish drug company that once dominated Dublin's stock exchange, has seen its shares more than halve in value after a third adverse reaction was linked to its lead drug Tysabri.
Debts at Network Rail are set to rise to £21bn over four years, the not-for-profit organisation has said.
Equitable Life, the insurer, claimed it could 'afford to lose' the multi-billion pound negligence trial against its former directors and former auditor, while the outcome for the defendants would be "nuclear".
Shell has lent $12m (£6.3m) for legal representation to former directors who may get caught up in the oil reserves scandal. It also says that it had replaced only 49pc of the oil it extracted last year.
Smith & Nephew, the FTSE 100 woundcare and artificial limb business, said that it was facing an industry-wide inquiry into relationships between surgeons and makers of artificial hips and knees.
Somerfield fired the starting gun on a highly competitive auction for the supermarket group by entering talks with three parties.
Pearson chief executive Dame Marjorie Scardino took home £1.54m in pay and bonuses last year, a £659,000 increase on 2003.
Computer maker Hewlett-Packard appointed Mark Hurd, chief executive of NCR, as its chief executive to replace Carly Fiorina, who was ousted earlier this year.
Sir Roy Gardner, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, took home almost £2m in pay and shares last year - at a time when millions of his customers faced record increases in their gas bills.
The London Stock Exchange's European suitors have had their takeover plans put on hold for six months after the Office of Fair Trading ordered a full-scale inquiry.
Telecoms company Hutchison Whampoa lost HK$25.3bn (£1.73bn) last year on 3, its global third-generation mobile business, after it changed its accounting policy to reflect more accurately the heavy cost of acquiring customers.
The eurozone business climate indicator, the monthly index, has dropped in March for the second month following grim data from Germany, France and Italy.
Mothercare has bucked the slowdown on the high street by becoming one of the first retailers to report an improvement in trading since Christmas.
Oil prices rebounded after Goldman Sachs bank, the biggest trader of energy derivatives, said prices could surge above $100 a barrel.
Shares in catering giant Compass fell 5pc after it cut profits forecasts for the second time in six months, blaming contracts in Iraq.
The British consumer's decade-long love affair with debt looks to be coming to an end after the Bank of England said borrowing against houses dropped dramatically in the fourth quarter of last year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/04/02/ccweek02.xml
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