City News

London stocks advanced on Wednesday, joining a rally in global equity markets fueled by strong manufacturing data from China and the United States.

The index added to gains after a report showed an unexpected rise in the U.S. ISM manufacturing index for August.

Police were investigating Wednesday the suspicious death of a man in London who newspaper reports suggest was a spy working for the foreign intelligence agency MI6.

Detectives said the body of the man, believed to be in his 30s, was found on Monday afternoon in the top-floor flat of an upmarket building within walking distance of the MI6 headquarters on the River Thames.

Copper prices slipped on Wednesday, having hit a one-week high earlier in the day. Benchmark copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange was trading at $7,320 a tonne at 1454 GMT from $7,382 at the close on Tuesday. Earlier it touched $7,409, the highest since August 10.

The union representing workers on London’s subway network, known as the tube, said Wednesday its members have voted to strike over planned job cuts, raising the prospect of severe disruption for millions of commuters.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers, known as RMT, said 45% of its 9,000 members took part in a ballot, with 76% voting in favor of a strike over the cuts it argues will compromise safety, and 88% voting in favor of action short of a strike.

“Here for good,” announces Standard Chartered’s new motto. The bank is not referring to London. Peter Sands, chief executive, and John Peace, chairman, have started to worry aloud about the supposedly fading appeal of London as a financial centre. Relocating “is something we have to think about”.

They would like you to know they’re not anti-regulation. They’re all for it – it’s just that they’d prefer all G20 countries to implement the agreed principles on capital, pay, tax and so on.

The sprawling, congested city of London speeds towards a greener, nimbler future Friday with the launch of a new bike hire scheme aimed at kick-starting a cycling revolution ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

Commuters and tourists infuriated by heavy traffic and often overcrowded, unreliable public transport finally have a two-wheeled alternative, similar to schemes already in place in Paris, Shanghai and dozens of cities worldwide.

Olympic chief Jacques Rogge on Wednesday praised London’s 2012 Games delivery team for being on time and within budget as the two-year countdown to the event gets under way.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President also complimented Rio de Janeiro for the city’s initial preparatory work for the 2016 Games and expressed his hopes that an African country could soon win the right to host an Olympics.

A cross-border trading strategy that takes advantage of regional copper price differences is further obscuring the red metal’s demand outlook.

The per-ton price for copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was recently about $60 more than a similar price on the London Metal Exchange, the main global hub for base metals. A difference this big means it is cheaper for traders to buy copper on the LME, which allows contract holders to take delivery of the actual metal in Asia, and ship it to China than to buy in Shanghai.

Last we saw David Beckham, he was inadvertently creating an eardrum-piercing cascade of screams as he walked into Centre Court at the All-England Club.

Now, he’s gone ahead and created More >

Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday said those killed in the 2005 London bombings would “never be forgotten”, as low-key ceremonies marked the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

The July 7, 2005 suicide bombings on three London Underground trains and a bus left 52 innocent people dead.

No official commemoration events took place, although wreaths were laid on behalf of Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson at the official memorial to the victims in London’s Hyde Park.