Reliance raises Lyondell bid to $14.5 billion: inform

NEW YORK Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:31am EST Related News India"s Reliance ups LyondellBasell bid-sourceMon, Feb 22 2010India"s Reliance may raise Lyondell offer: reportFri, Feb 19 2010Lyondell creditor deal jeopardizes Reliance bidWed, Feb 17 2010DEALTALK-Lyondell creditor deal jeopardises Reliance bidWed, Feb 17 2010Lyondell settlement paves way for bankruptcy exitTue, Feb 16 2010 Stocks & &

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Indian energy company Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.BO) has raised its offer for bankrupt petrochemicals maker LyondellBasell ACCEIN.UL to about $14.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people with knowledge of the offer.

Deals

The revised bid will allow Lyondell"s creditors to opt for cash or equity as part of the deal, Bloomberg reported.

Reliance, India"s largest-listed company, had previously offered a deal that valued Lyondell at $13.5 billion, a source told Reuters last month.

Lyondell recently settled a dispute with creditors that paved the way for an exit from bankruptcy, leading analysts to suggest that Reliance may be forced to raise its offer or abandon it.

Spokesmen for Reliance and Lyondell did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Bloomberg report.

(Reporting by Anupreeta Das; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Deals

Im not lovin it! Five-inch handle brush detected in McDonalds burger

A teenager came perilously close to serious injury when he came across a five-inch wire brush lodged in a McDonald"s burger he was eating.

Brett Stephens was given the Chicken Legend sandwich by his mother who had earlier purchased the 3 snack from the fast food chain"s Kidderminster branch.

The 18-year-old had was shocked to discover the sharp object embedded in the meat part of the burger.

Nasty surprise: A teenage found a five-inch wire brush in his McDonalds burger

Furious: Janet Stephens (pictured) found the brush in a McDonalds burger

His furious mother Janet, said: "It was beyond belief. He bit into the burger and just shouted.

"I looked at it and started to pull it out and it kept coming - it was right through the piece of chicken.

"I have a three-year-old grandson too, I would hate to think what couldve happened if the burger had been for him and not my son."

Ms Stephens claims McDonald"s bosses simply laughed when she confronted them about the dangerous discovery and only offered an exchange.

"I called the store immediately but all they said to me was to bring the burger back and they would replace it for another one."

The incident has since been reported to Wyre Forest District Councils food safety team.

A spokesman for McDonalds said: "We are very sorry that our usual high standards were not met and we have launched an urgent investigation.

McDonalds takes the safety and quality of its food very seriously indeed and we offer our unreserved apologies for this isolated incident.

"We asked for the item to be returned, to help our ongoing investigation and to resolve this complaint to the customers satisfaction."

Peter Maloney, principal environmental health officer at Wyre Forest District Council said: "Once the relevant information has been collected by the investigating officer, the most appropriate action will be determined by reference to national legislation and local guidance on food safety."

Iraqs choosing commission rejects Nouri al-Malikis direct for opinion recount

Oliver August, Baghdad & , : {}

Iraqs choosing commission last night deserted a call by the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, for a relate of ballots in the Mar 7 polls, as his main opposition hold on to a slight lead.

With 95 per cent of the votes counted, Mr al-Malikis electoral list was a couple of thousand votes at the behind of that of Ayad Allawi, Iraqs initial Prime Minister after the central finish of the US-led occupation. Both men have done allegations of irregularities in the check and to illustrate put themselves in a on all sides to cry tainted if they should lose. Mr al-Maliki insisted that a relate was compulsory to forestall the security incident from deteriorating and equivocate the lapse of violence. He attempted to brag the commission in to starting a extensive examination routine in the goal of negligence down Mr Allawis momentum.

Last week Mr Allawi protested strongly conflicting large fraud, but stopped dire the explain once he appeared to be winning and is right away perfectionist formula as shortly as possible. Only questions over doubtful votes in a little provinces are holding up the process. The commission unhappy both the front-runners when it pronounced that it would go on the equate as normal but at the much-derided delayed pace. A relate could simply not be done, it said.

We cant begin all over again and equate the votes manually, pronounced Saad al-Rawi, of the Independent High Electoral Commission. We have some-more than 50,000 polling stations and 350,000 choosing officials. Do they wish us to resend all the list boxes behind to the stations and call behind all the officials?

Related LinksAllawi takes slight lead over al-Maliki in IraqArmy and military "meddled" in Iraq electionBoth sides explain feat in Iraq elections

The lead has switched multiform times in between Mr Allawis cross-sectarian Iraqiya bloc and Mr al-Malikis especially Shia State of Law alliance, signalling a close result, whoever comes out top. That points to weeks of formidable talks to form a government, raising the awaiting of a domestic opening that could set behind frail security gains as US infantry hope for to leave Iraq by the finish of subsequent year.

Many see the slowness of the equate as an denote of crude domestic influence. However, the UN, that helped to manage the election, says the conflicting is the case. According to officials, the equate is delayed due to the most safeguards built in to the routine to forestall fraud. All votes are tallied twice and any discrepancies are flagged up and checked twice again.

Still, frustrations are flourishing on all sides. They should have spoken the full formula a couple of days back, Mr Allawi told the BBC. I pronounced after the choosing accomplished that we need to have clarity and a really fast stipulation of the results, prior to people begin meditative what is function is wrong.

Mr Allawi and Mr al-Maliki might be a couple of thousand votes detached but that does not meant that the chair grant in the subsequent council will be similarly close. Nor is it protected to pretence that the leader of the renouned opinion will arise with the greatest total of parliamentary seats. They are awarded range by province, and the series of votes compulsory for winning a chair varies widely.

hair wig

Numbers come up for Gala as debt is slashed by 750m

Dominic Walsh & , : {}

Britains greatest bingo user has been saved from the hazard of tumble after the lenders concluded to a refinancing that will cut the debt towering from 2.6 billion to 1.85 billion, The Times has learnt.

The restructuring equates to that Gala Coral, that additionally owns a fibre of casinos and high travel bookmakers, will tumble underneath the carry out of the passageway financial providers, led by Apollo Management, Cerberus Capital Management, Goldman Sachs and Park Square Capital. Apollo will turn the greatest shareholder, with about twenty-five per cent.

The deal, that will be voiced today, will all but clean out the existent in isolation equity owners, Candover, Cinven and Permira. They are approaching to be since a tip equating to usually 1 per cent to 2 per cent of the equity in lapse for giving their agree to the refinancing. If they refuse, the restructuring could still be forced through, notwithstanding around a pre-pack administration.

The greatest crook is believed to be Permira, pronounced by insiders to have lost as most as 500 million on the gamble on Gala. The organisation was the last of the 3 in isolation equity houses to take a stake, fasten the ravel in Aug 2005. Unlike the co-owners, it never got the event to take any income out of the business.

Related LinksGala Coral fancies contingency as it cuts inspectorsGala Coral to strew 300 jobs in uninformed purgeMultimediaGRAPHIC: Gala"s residence

Under the conditions of the restructuring, the passageway consortium will barter 540 million of debt for a thirty per cent interest and have a money injection of 200 million in lapse for the superfluous 70 per cent of the equity. The following 100 per cent carry out could be widely separated somewhat by the tip to the benefaction owners and a government inducement worth up to a 10 per cent, depending on how Gala performs.

It is accepted that Galas government team, led by Neil Goulden, the chairman, and Dominic Harrison, arch executive, will stay on. Senior government have won plaudits for progressing the groups operational opening at industry-leading levels, notwithstanding the doubts over the destiny and the difficult trade backdrop.

The association was forced to beginner talks on a refinancing last year after the smoking ban, the retrogression and big taxation increases strike the bingo and casino businesses hard. Like the rivals, it has sealed multiform venues and strew hundreds of workers.

The refinancing was endorsed yesterday by a cabinet of the comparison lenders, led by Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Allied Irish Banks, Harbourmaster Capital Management and Alcentra. The understanding will be endorsed by a passageway lenders cabinet on Monday. The members of the comparison and passageway syndicates have until Apr 1 to opinion seen as a ritual with the understanding completing at the finish of May.

Mr Goulden, a key figure in the talks, refused to criticism on the sum of the refinancing last night, but reliable that a understanding had been struck. He said: Were gay agreement has been reached on the refinancing, that signficantly reduces the debt level. Gala Coral was a good association with a diseased change sheet. It is right away a good association with a clever change sheet.

The company, combined in Dec 1997 by a 236 million buyout of Gala Bingo from Bass, will try to reconstruct the worth of the commercial operation with a perspective to an contingent batch marketplace listing.

hair wig

Hindu holy man Paramhamsa Nityananda in stealing after sex film

Jeremy Page, Delhi & , : {}

Angry villagers have ransacked the domicile of one of Indias majority important swamis or Hindu holy men after internal radio stations promote footage that appeared to show him cavorting in bed with dual women.

Paramhamsa Nityananda, who claims dual million supporters in 33 countries, was not benefaction when the villagers stormed the sprawling shelter about nineteen miles (31km) from the southern city of Bangalore on Wednesday, according to internal police.

They pronounced that 100 officers had been deployed to strengthen the ashram, that is home to most Indian and Western devotees, and has been by multiform distinguished Indian politicians.

Mr Nityananda whose Life Bliss Foundation was founded in 2003 and right away has eleven ashrams around India and twenty-six in unfamiliar countries, together with one in London appears to have left in to hiding.

Related LinksHoly personality used church to run harlotry ringSurfing swami aims to have waves in IndiaYoga guru draws supporters to Scottish island

On Tuesday night, internal radio channels had aired footage that appeared to show Mr Nityananda, 32, kissing, embracing and fondling dual immature women in the same bedroom, but at opposite times.

The dual womens faces were confused in the grainy pledge footage, that was assumingly filmed with a dark camera, but one of them is at large rumoured to be a immature Tamil actress.

The Life Bliss Foundation says that the footage was faked, and has urged the military to examine the origins, but has nonetheless to insist who it thinks was responsible.

At this moment, we feel that a brew of conspiracy, graphics and gossip are at fool around in these new events that have unfolded. We are operative on a authorised march of action, it pronounced in a matter on the web site www.dhyanapeetam.org.

In these perplexing times, we instruct to reassure... devotees and well-wishers whose sentiments have been deeply harm by this conspiracy. We appreciate all the devotees and disciples for station with us during these times.

The conflict came less than a week after military in Delhi arrested an additional Hindu guru on guess of utilizing his ashram as a front for a high-class harlotry pole involving airline hostesses and college girls.

Shiv Myra Dwivedi, 39, was arrested along with an additional purported caterer and 6 purported prostitutes, together with one British Airways stewardess, according to Delhi police. BA is still questioning either one of those arrested was in truth a part of of the staff.

Swamis have been worshiped in India for thousands of years, creatively as leaders of Hindu eremite schools or sects, and a little of them explain millions of supporters and have turn hugely abounding from donations.

But a array of new scandals have stirred calls for stronger legislation and tighter supervision law to display charlatans and sex offenders.

Last year, Santosh Madhavan, a holy man from the southern state of Kerala, was locked up for sixteen years for raping and illegally restrictive dual immature girls from an institution that he ran.