In short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Lufthansa set for 19% stake in JetBlue

German airline Lufthansa has agreed to buy a 19 per cent stake in US discount carrier JetBlue Airways, the airline with which Aer Lingus already has a working relationship. Lufthansa will pay $300 million for the stake, which will give it a partner to help steer US fliers to transatlantic flights. Aer Lingus established a similar relationship with JetBlue earlier this year.

An Aer Lingus spokesman said yesterday that the JetBlue-Lufthansa deal would have no impact on its partnership arrangement with the US carrier.

O'Reilly raises his holding in IN&M

Sir Anthony O'Reilly has raised his holding in Independent News & Media to 26.25 per cent following the purchase of one million shares yesterday. Sir Anthony bought the shares at €2.21 each. The purchase came just a day after he bought a separate block of one million shares, thus bringing his total outlay in two days to almost €5 million. Independent News & Media closed at €2.215 last night, up 6.5 cent on the day.

First shipment for Kenmare mine

Kenmare Resources has made its first shipment of ilmenite from its Moma titanium mine in Mozambique. The 23,000 tonnes of product will proceed to Europe for unloading, while another vessel arrived at Moma yesterday for loading. Charles Carvill, chairman of Kenmare, said the shipment was "the big step which we have all been waiting for".

Kingspan in £4m zero-carbon deal

The UK government has pledged to pay Irish insulation and building materials specialist Kingspan £4 million to build 200 zero-carbon homes in Bristol, in what is being billed as the "world's most sustainable community".

The development will include a mix of affordable and private homes.

AWAS orders 31 Boeing 737s

Dublin-based aircraft leasing company AWAS has placed orders for 31 next-generation Boeing 737 aircraft. The estimated list value of this deal comes to $2.3 billion. AWAS currently has eight aircraft on order with Boeing, bringing to 39 its total firm orders with Boeing.

Mortgage fraud crackdown in UK

UK banks are seeking to crack down on mortgage fraud as evidence mounts of a rise in the number of fraudulent borrowers. Abbey and Lloyds TSB are among the banks reporting a surge in the volume of potentially fraudulent mortgage applications.

The Council for Mortgage Lenders is also cracking down, working with police to investigate the possibility that organised criminals are operating in the market.

"We are identifying two or three times as many cases of possible fraud as we did in the first part of this year," said Steve Williams, risk director at Abbey. - (Financial Times service)

Siemens revokes top appointment

Siemens yesterday revoked the appointment of the finance director of its €40 billion industry sector only a week after Europe's largest engineering group promoted him.

Hannes Apitzsch, currently the finance director of its automation and drives unit, was due to take over as chief finance officer in the industry sector on January 1st.

Mr Apitzsch, who was yesterday unavailable to comment, had also withdrawn his candidacy for the post, the company said.

Siemens said it had decided to revoke the appointment on a precautionary basis after a company lawyer was allowed to see the preliminary report of prosecutors in Nuremberg into a union funding scandal. - (Financial Times service)