In Short

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

Up to 100 vie for Great Southern

The deadline has closed for bids for the nine-strong Great Southern hotel chain, which could fetch up to €200 million.

It is understood that up to 100 expressions of interest have been submitted, but it is not clear how many of these are genuine offers.

Several leading developers and builders such as Bernard McNamara and Paddy Kelly are understood to be interested in some of the properties. The Government has said the hotel chain is being sold as a "going concern". The hotels are ultimately owned by the Dublin Airport Authority.

Chevron earning disappoints market

Chevron, the second biggest oil producer in the US, yesterday said earnings came in below Wall Street expectations after a week in which its main rivals delivered big numbers.

Net second-quarter earnings rose 18 per cent to $4.4 billion (€3.45 billion), or $1.97 a share, from $3.7 billion, or $1.76 per share, a year ago. Analysts had expected earnings of $2.21 a share.

The results included the $300 million cost of repairing and removing infrastructure damaged by last year's hurricanes,in the Gulf of Mexico. - (Financial Times service)

Diplomacy shaves $1.30 off oil price

Oil prices fell more than a dollar yesterday as the United States and Britain sped up diplomacy for a UN resolution aimed at halting a 17-day war between Israel and Lebanese Hizbullah guerrillas.

The move eased fears that the conflict would spread to major oil producing countries in the region.

US crude futures fell $1.30 to $73.24 a barrel while London Brent crude fell $1.62 to $73.39.- (Reuters)

Interest rate rises affect borrowing

Higher euro-zone interest rates showed the first signs yesterday of having hit borrowing for house purchases. Money supply growth figures watched closely by the European Central Bank have also slowed.

Yesterday the ECB said annual growth in euro-zone lending to households for house purchases had slowed to 11.8 per cent in June, down from 12.1 per cent in May. The ECB is still expected to raise its main interest rate by a quarter-point to 3.0 per cent next week, however, to head off inflationary dangers.- (Financial Times service)

Indians protest at outsourcing

Half a million bank workers in India, home to one of the world's most robust outsourcing industries, walked off their jobs yesterday to protest against moves to outsource their own work to private domestic companies.

The one-day strike was a response to "continuing attacks on the banking industry and bank employees' jobs and job security", said the All India Bank Officers' Association, one of three unions organising the protest.- (Financial Times service)

Court upholds Ebbers conviction

A federal appeals court in New York yesterday affirmed the conviction and 25-year prison sentence of former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers.

Mr Ebbers had appealed after a jury last year convicted him of conspiracy, securities fraud and related crimes for engineering an accounting fraud that led to WorldCom's collapse, the largest US bankruptcy.

Mr Ebbers had argued that there were mistakes in the original trial and that the sentence was unreasonably long. - (Reuters)