LONDON (Reuters) - British banks do not expect to be more willing to lend to companies in the second quarter despite a probable increase in demand, a Bank of England survey showed on Wednesday.
The central bank's Credit Conditions Survey showed availability of credit for companies increased in the first three months of 2013 but was confined to large firms and the pace of growth was slower than in the fourth quarter.
Banks reported that small companies showed a big fall in demand for credit as the firms worried about a fragile economic outlook and that banks had a low tolerance for risky loans, the BoE survey said.
Banks polled for the BoE's quarterly Credit Conditions Survey said they would increase the availability of mortgages in the second quarter of 2013 after a rise in the January-March period.
Demand for mortgages increased in the first quarter, albeit at a slower pace than in the previous three months, and was expected to increase significantly in the second quarter.
The BoE's flagship Funding for Lending Scheme was launched last year as the latest attempt to get more credit flowing into the economy. So far, the scheme has had more of an impact on lending for mortgages than on loans for companies.
Banks said the FLS helped them reduce borrowing costs for households and companies and they expected a further tightening of loan spreads in the next three months, the BoE survey found.
(Reporting by David Milliken and William Schomberg)
The Belkin Grip Max Case provides protection and style for your iPhone 5. This contemporary, yet classic design features a light texture that adds visual and tactile appeal for a completely customized look. The thin, yet durable skin is a stylish way to keep your phone's surface free of scratches and scuffs, without adding extra bulk. Available in 3 different color combinations.
We first encountered Ergo Electronics at last year's Gadget Show Live, and since then the Birmingham-based tablet maker has graduated from its humble back-of-the-hall origins to become a major player. Its product range has swelled beyond its original budget ICS slates with a range of AIO PCs, thin-and-light laptops and even a Windows 8 tablet that has more than a few strong hints of a KIRF Surface about it. Now it's launched the GoNote Mini, a scaled down 7-inch version of the education-ready tablet / netbook hybrid that's been doing the rounds since last summer. We got to spend a few minutes playing around with the first production prototype and if you'd like to know more, after the break is where you want to be.
Connecticut lawmakers on Monday said they had reached an agreement on compromise gun control legislation that they said would be one of the toughest in the nation, 3? months after 20 children and six other people were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school.
The bill includes a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines like those Adam Lanza used to fire 154 shots in four 4 minutes Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, a new registry for existing high-capacity magazines and background checks for private gun sales, NBC Connecticut reported.
While the measure would ban the sale of ammunition magazines able to handle more than 10 bullets, Gov. Dannell Malloy and parents of the Sandy Hook victims objected to a "grandfather clause" that will allow current owners of such magazines to keep them.
But state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, a Democrat representing New Haven, told NBC Connecticut that the bill, which could be voted on as early as Wednesday, would still impose some of the nation's toughest gun control laws on Connecticut residents.
At a news conference Monday, Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, a Republican whose district includes Newtown, agreed that the deal was "the most comprehensive package in the country because of its breadth," The Associated Press reported.
In what was being described as a first in the U.S., gun owners would have to register current magazines accommodating more than 10 rounds with the state by January, The New Haven Register reported.
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The measure would also require universal background checks for all firearm sales ? many states don't require them for private sales, such as those between family members or collectors ? and would add 34 more weapons to the state's list of banned semi-automatic assault-style weapons.?
The Register reported that the bill would also strengthen penalties for gun trafficking and would expand the Board of Firearms Permit Examiners to include a mental health professional and a retired judge.
House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, a Democrat representing Hamden, told reporters the measure was meant to send a message to Washington that "this is the way to get this job done."
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Related: 'Grandfather clause' in Connecticut gun bill angers Sandy Hook families
A 52-year-old German immigrant by the name of Christian Gerhartsreiter is on trial this month in Los Angeles for the 1985 murder of California man John Sohus.
While Gerhartsreiter is little known, many have heard of his alter-ego, Clark Rockefeller. Rockefeller was the subject of Lifetime movie, "Who is Clark Rockefeller?" and a fantastic 2009 Vanity Fair profile.
His case may be the most unbelievable case of fraud in modern America. Now, if Gerhartsreiter is found guilty in Los Angeles, it may include a grisly double murder too.
"Clark Rockefeller"
In the 1990s, Gerhartsreiter, who is believed to have snuck into the country as a teenager, managed to convince many of New England's elite that he was the moneyed son of George Rockefeller and Mary Roberts.
He was so convincing that he managed to marry Sandra Boss, a high-earning Mckinsey executive with degrees from Stanford and Harvard Business School. The couple had a child together, living entirely off of Boss' salary,?said to be in the range of $2 million a year.
The couple eventually separated; Boss became suspicious of her husband's identity (she hired a private detective who confirmed he wasn't a Rockefeller) and his behavior was increasingly bizarre.
Gerhartsreiter responded by putting his $800,000 divorce settlement in gold coins and abducting their daughter. After an international manhunt, he was caught and sentenced to jail in 2009 for the kidnapping and assault and battery, with the jury rejecting the defense of insanity.
The court case revealed some other tall tales by Gerhartsreiter, according to the Boston Globe, ?including "his?work with the international Trilateral Commission; the blame he bore for the collapse of the Asian financial markets; and that he ended seven mute years as a child with the word 'woofness.'"
ABC News had more details from an FBI profile, noting that Gerhartsreiter "does not use metal utensils, will not eat bread unless it is white Pepperidge Farm with the crusts cut off, and that he met Sandra Boss at a Clue party where she was dressed as Scarlett O'Hara and he was Colonel Mustard. The two fell for one another while speaking Klingon, the language spoken by some on the TV series 'Star Trek.""
After that trial's publicity, Gerhartsreiter was traced back to Germany, where his birth parents said they had not seen him since 1978. Gerhartsreiter refused to accept this, instead claiming former actress Ann Carter had raised him (a claim she later denied).
The Murder Twist
The new trial in Los Angeles began earlier this month and relates to another time in Gerhartsreiter's life and another identity ? Christopher Chichester.
John Sohus and his wife disappeared in 1985 in San Marino. Sohus' alcoholic mother told friends that the pair had gone on a top secret mission for the government. Nine years later human remains were found under the Sohus' home ? the remains appeared to belong to John Sohus, and he appeared to have been bludgeoned to death, hacked to pieces, and put into plastic bags. His wife's remains have not been discovered.
For decades the case was unsolved, but as more details come out about Gerhartsreiter's past, he has emerged as a clear suspect.
A "Christopher Chichester" was known to have rented a guest house from Sohus' mother at the time. The same man later tried to sell witnesses an?Oriental rug that appeared to have a bloody stain on it, according to the Los Angeles Times, and had the victim's truck after his death.
One piece of Sohus' body was found in a plastic bag stamped with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Gerhartsreiter studied at the university during the time that that logo was in use.
This week the court heard testimony from a girlfriend who lived in New York with Gerhartsreiter during the late 1980s that he acted bizarre?when a police officer attempted to contact him about the murder. Gerhartsreiter ? then living as Christopher Crowe ? apparently dyed his hair black and his eyebrows blonde.
Gerhartsreiter's ex-wife, Boss, is expected to testify in the case, which may well bring out more details.
Gerhartsreiter may never testify in the trial himself ? defense lawyers are refusing to say if he will or not, according to the Boston Herald ? so jurors were shown?an August 2008 interview of Christian Gerhartsreiter on NBC's "Today", wherein he offers an oblique denial.
The denial comes around 11 minutes into the video below, but the entire interview is fascinating to watch ? for example, the moment where?Gerhartsreiter puts on a Scottish accent and recites Robert Burns.
Will He Be Convicted?
One big problem with the murder case is that events took place so long ago, at least two witnesses have failed to recognize Gerhartsreiter in court, the Los Angeles Times reports, and a lot of the evidence in the case is circumstantial at best.
Gerhartsreiter's defense rests upon pointing the blame towards John Sohus' wife Linda, arguing that she was more physically capable of killing her husband in such a violent manner (at 6 feet tall, Linda was almost a foot taller than Gerhartsreiter).
While nearly everyone agrees that Gerhartsreiter is an unusual guy, convicting him of murder may be a much harder task.
RIYADH (Reuters) - Two Kuwaiti citizens are among 94 suspected Muslim Brotherhood members on trial in the United Arab Emirates accused of planning to overthrow the state, Kuwait's prime minister said.
The two are "suspected of involvement in financing this cell", Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah said in an interview published by pan-Arab daily Asharaq al-Awsat on Saturday.
The UAE's attorney general was quoted in January as saying the group was linked to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and had sought to infiltrate state institutions with the aim of seizing power. The trial started early this month.
The Muslim Brotherhood is not banned in Kuwait, which has the most open political system in the Gulf, and several opposition politicians are openly affiliated with the group. Political parties are still barred in the country.
The UAE has avoided the unrest that has unseated autocratic Arab rulers elsewhere in the past two years. It has a state-sponsored cradle-to-grave welfare system and has come down hard on any sign of political dissent.
Kuwait and the UAE are both members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-member group of close Gulf Arab allies that also includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.
(Reporting by Angus McDowall; editing by Andrew Roche)
