Business

As the market moves higher, thanks in part to a spate of takeover talk, electronics group Laird is missing out after it cut its full year dividend.
The company, whose components are used in smartphones, PC notebooks and computer game consoles, has dropped 13.4p to 128.6p, making it the biggest faller in the FTSE 250 index. [...]

Prime minister announces pay freeze for doctors, dentists and hospital consultants as well as senior managers across most of the public sector
Gordon Brown drew the election battle lines around the economy today, announcing a freeze on top public sector pay and declaring he had the strength of character to lead the country to recovery.
Brown stressed [...]

• BA accepts partial repeal of staff cuts on flights• Union mulls counter-offer as 5pm deadline for talks looms
British Airways has tabled an 11th-hour counter-offer as peace talks over a looming cabin crew strike go to the wire.
The airline responded to the Unite union’s offer of a 2.6% pay cut with its own demands. Unite [...]

While drugmaking giant GlaxoSmithKline has picked up a load of good press for CEO Andrew Witty’s developing world initiatives – from ploughing back some of the (tiny) profits made in Africa to the more interesting patent pool it announced for neglected tropical diseases – it is Californian rival Gilead that gets a higher approval rating [...]

Mayor Boris Johnson faces choice of cutting transport network or postponing tube upgrades after arbiter’s final ruling

Boris Johnson must consider making cuts to London’s public transport network or postponing improvements to one of the capital’s busiest underground lines after he was told to plug a £450m funding gap in a controversial public-private partnership to repair [...]