QPR fans give thanks a billion times over

Bernie Ecclestone does not mince his words. "One thing’s for sure," he says. "If we owe anything, we pay it back."

Ecclestone, one of the wealthiest men in sport with an estimated fortune of £2.24 billion, was not referring to his family policy on monthly credit card repayments. The Formula One impresario was alluding to the debts he inherited when, along with Flavio Briatore, another of motor racing’s more colourful characters, he took over Queens Park Rangers.

Their arrival was greeted with rapture by long-suffering fans who in recent years have seen the club teeter from one calamity to another. The subsequent arrival of an even wealthier investor – Lakshmi Mittal, reputedly the world’s fifth-richest man – consolidated a new nickname for the club.


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The N-word: What was the last nationalisation?

Northern Rock being taken into public ownership may have left you scratching your head - what was the last thing to be nationalised?

Nationalisation is a controversial concept. Even the exact definition of the term can be a complicated business.

The most-quoted example of the last nationalisation in the UK is the creation of British Aerospace - a single entity to tackle the major private American aerospace firms; and British Shipbuilders - a merger of a number of UK yards - in 1977.

But there are some who would point to other events since 1977 that have come close to being nationalisations.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines nationalise as "to bring (land, property, an industry, etc) under state control or ownership".

Under a loose interpretation of this, some might argue that the last thing to be nationalised in the UK was Railtrack.



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Nigeria: NDIC Urges Politicians to Pay Back Loans

Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has read the riot act to politicians who owe the liquidated banks to pay back such debts. The corporation made the appeal in Abuja while playing host to the members of the House Committee on Banking and Currency who were in the place to perform their oversight functions.

Receiving the honourable members, the NDIC managing director/chief executive officer, Mr Ganiyu Adewale Ogunleye, urged the honourable members to prevail on debtor politicians to pay back their debts.

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Sprint to Write Off Up to $31B in Nextel Value

"When Sprint did the [Nextel] deal, it seemed to make a lot of sense," telecom industry analyst Jeff Kagan told the E-Commerce Times. "Like with all deals, all the pieces had to work, but the deal at that time looked good. Now, a few years later when the results are not yet there, we can question if they should have done it. That's a tough position for a company to be in."

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