Written By Unknown on Kamis, 12 Februari 2015 | 00.12
Apple is the first company in US history to achieve a value above $700bn (£459bn).
The tech firm set the record at the close of trading on Wall Street on Tuesday, making it almost twice the size of the next biggest company, oil producer Exxon Mobil at $385bn.
Apple shares rose almost 2% in the trading session, closing at $122.02.
It gave the company a market value of $710.7bn (£466.1bn).
Apple, which has reported record sales and profit in recent quarters, has crossed the $700bn line before in the course of daily trading but Tuesday was the first time any US company had finished the day above that line.
At the end of January the company reported quarterly profit of $18bn (£11.8bn) for the final three months of 2014 - the largest ever made by a public company.
Its financial performance was driven by its new range of larger iPhones, with 74.5 million handsets sold between October and December.
And a job advert recently sparked speculation it was preparing to challenge Google's search engine dominance.
Apple had announced earlier on Tuesday that it was to spend nearly $850m on a solar energy project, aimed at generating enough power for its new corporate headquarters in Cupertino, retail stores and other operations in California.
It is being constructed on 2,900 acres of land and was a response, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, to the company's concerns about climate change.
He said construction would begin later this year and be completed by the end of 2016.
Sky has won the rights to show 126 live Premier League matches per season for three years from 2016-17 after winning the rights to five packages of games.
The broadcaster, which owns Sky News, won the rights to games kicking off at 12.30pm on Saturdays, 28 games on Sunday at 1.30pm and 28 at 4pm.
A further 28 matches split between Monday and for the first time Friday evenings, and 14 games divided between Bank Holidays and Sundays, were also part of the packages.
The Sky matches are part of a record-breaking broadcast deal that will see Premier League clubs receive a record revenue of £5.136bn, a 70% increase on the current deal.
After an intensely competitive auction that went to two rounds of closed bids, Sky and BT agreed to pay the equivalent of £10m per game for the right to screen live matches over three seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
The deal represents a £2.118bn increase on the £3.018bn Sky and BT agreed to pay for their current three-year rights deal, which expires at the end of next season.
Jeremy Darroch, Sky's Group Chief Executive, said: "This is a good result and confirms that Sky is the unrivalled choice for sports fans.
Video:Scudamore Announces Rights Winners
"We went into the Premier League auction with a clear objective and are pleased to have secured the rights that we wanted.
"Our strong performance across the board gives us financial strength and flexibility. We have a clear plan to absorb the cost of the new Premier League deal while delivering our financial plans."
Under the new deal Sky will pay £4.176bn to show 126 games each season. The remaining rights, which include Saturday evening and midweek matches, were secured by BT for £960m.
Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, welcomed the deal.
He said: "It is an endorsement of what the Barclays Premier League delivers that these broadcast partnerships have been extended and enhanced today.
"We are grateful for the continued belief that Sky Sports and BT Sport have in the Premier League and our clubs, both as a sporting competition and organisations to work with."
The broadcasters were competing to buy the rights to 168 games a season, divided in seven packages of matches including various kick-off slots Friday evening and the right for broadcaster to have first or second choices of matches.
There were five packages of 28 games and two of 14 games each, with no broadcaster able to purchase more than 126 games.
The record-breaking deal means the Premier League is now the second most valuable sporting competition in the world, with only the NFL generating more revenue from broadcast contracts.
The deal emphasises the popularity of the Premier League and the power of its brand.
The competition has seen a huge increase in the value of its rights since it was founded in 1992, when Sky paid £191m for a five-year deal to show 60 matches per season.
By 2001 that had increased to £1.75bn over three years, and in 2012 the league secured a 71% increase in its value to more than £3bn for 154 games a year, or £6.5m per match.
The major beneficiaries will be the clubs and players. Under the current deal even the club finishing bottom of the league is guaranteed £60m, enough to ensure that all 20 Premier League clubs are ranked among the richest 40 clubs in Europe.
The league says its distribution of the income means it is the most equitable and competitive in world football, with a ratio of 1-1.6 between the top and bottom clubs.
Players can look forward to an increase in wages in line with the rise in value of the deal as clubs compete for the best talent.
Currently the average Premier League player earns around £40,000-a-week, or £2.08m-a-year, with the very best players earning more than five times as much.
The deal is likely to be just the start of the good news for clubs.
The league will now begin the process of selling its international rights, which generated a further £2.28bn in the last rights sale, nudging the total from all broadcast rights, including highlights, above £5.5bn.
That figure is likely to be eclipsed when the sales process concludes later this year.
The deal will see the clubs come under pressure from supporters' groups and politicians to ensure some of the vast wealth is distributed to the grassroots game and lower leagues, as well as to fund a reduction in ticket prices for match-going fans.
John Petter, BT Consumer CEO, said: "I am pleased we will be showing Premier League football for a further three years and that we have secured the prime Saturday evening slot.
"These new rights will enhance our existing schedule of football, rugby and other international sport."
:: Skyshares fell 4.1% on Wednesday morning when the FTSE 100 began trading for the first time since the rights announcement while BT stock rose 3.7%.
David Cameron has hailed business as "the country's job engine" as he unveiled plans to help expanding firms through the financial "valley of death".
The Prime Minister said a Tory Government would launch a financing scheme to help the country's 500 fastest growing companies.
Mr Cameron made the pledge during a speech to the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference where he outlined a series of steps taken by the Government, which he said had helped support business.
And he warned companies had reason "to fear the alternative" in a sideswipe at the opposition, which has faced claims of being anti-business.
The PM argued a Labour government would mean "more borrowing, more debt, higher interest rates, a loss of confidence in Britain".
Video:Labour On Cameron's Pay Rise Call
In an apparent move to spike opposition accusations of a "cost of living crisis", Mr Cameron also called on business leaders to pass on the benefits of economic growth and low oil prices to staff.
He said economic success should be reflected in the contents of workers' pay packets.
"Put simply - it's time Britain had a pay rise," the PM told the conference.
Unions have dismissed his call as "pre-election mood music".
But Mr Cameron rejected criticism that he was pressing for private firms to increase wages while limiting public sector pay.
He said: "Within the public sector we have actually seen quite a lot of pay increases through progression, through people taking on new skills and talking on new tasks.
"And we have seen that take place, for instance in the NHS, so that people have had pay rises, in many cases year on year."
Outlining Conservative plans for the so-called Help To Grow scheme, Mr Cameron said the Business Bank has identified a £1bn-a-year finance gap preventing businesses from expanding.
Video:PM Criticises Labour
The initiative would help firms span this "valley of death" funding gap, he added.
A pilot scheme will be launched at the upcoming pre-election Budget using £100m from the British Investment Bank.
Mr Cameron also announced that if the Conservatives win the May poll, they would increase from 50% to two-thirds the proportion of business rates that can be kept by local councils, aimed at encouraging them to support commercial development.
He told the business audience this would be "a further big incentive to get councils on your side and get Britain building".
In Nick Clegg's speech to the conference, he urged businesses to smash the glass ceiling for women and called for a million more female workers in employment by 2020.
The Deputy Prime Minister told the audience: "If we are to stand a chance of smashing that glass ceiling we need British business to hold the hammer.
"If we can unlock the talents of women, British business will boom."
Greece is to present to eurozone finance ministers a plan to break from its bailout commitments, despite intense creditor opposition.
Speaking ahead of a vote of confidence on the proposals in the Greek parliament - won easily by the anti-austerity coalition government - prime minister Alexis Tsipras insisted there was "no way back" in his bid to rewrite the terms of the rescue deal.
He said Greece was seeking a new arrangement with its bailout creditors that would not condemn Greeks battered by five bitter years of income cuts, tax hikes and record job losses "to a lifetime of misery".
His finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who has insisted the €240bn bailout deal is dead, heads to Brussels this evening to try to secure continued support, but no new loans, until a final four-year deal can be crafted by September.
The so-called bridge agreement proposals include Greece tapping the European Central Bank (ECB) for €1.9bn in profits made from Greek state bonds and the issuance of up to €8bn in short-term debt to meet its immediate financing needs.
Video:A Guide To Greece's Economic Woes
Athens has also promised a 10-point plan which will include renewed efforts to tackle tax evasion and corruption but also promote employment.
One condition of its EU-International Monetary Fund rescue was delivering a primary budget surplus of 3% in 2015 before debt repayments.
The new government has argued such targets - achieved through tax hikes and wage cuts - make an economic recovery impossible and it is pushing to halve that figure to 1.5%, a result it delivered in 2014.
But opposition to the country's efforts to change the terms of its bailout remains fierce.
The ECB, part of the so-called Troika of lenders to Greece, said last week it had stopped accepting the country's bonds as collateral - citing uncertainty over its bailout commitments.
Germany, the main European contributor and a champion of fiscal discipline, has taken a tough line and tempered market hopes that a compromise could be on the cards.
Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned the negotiations would be dead if Athens pulled out of the current bailout programme.
He also said there was no chance of reaching a final deal in Brussels on Wednesday.
The current bailout programme ends on 28 February so both sides are under pressure to reach a deal.
The lack of any agreement could force Greece into bankruptcy and ultimately push it out of the eurozone and to adopt a new currency.
Markets remain jittery on the prospect of a default and 'Grexit' from the single currency - with the main Greek stock market falling 5% on Wednesday - with banking stocks again feeling the bulk of the pain.
The country's defence minister has raised the possibility of Greece seeking a loan deal with either the US, Russia or China should it be unable to strike an agreement with its European partners.
A new cyber intelligence agency is being created in the US after the "game changing" attack on Sony Pictures.
There is currently no single government unit responsible for co-ordinating cyber attack responses - but that is about to change.
President Barack Obama's homeland security advisor - Lisa Monaco - says the new agency will pool and spread data on cyber breaches which she said are increasingly large and sophisticated.
Recent hacking attacks on Sony, Hope Depot and Target have led Mr Obama to move cyber security to the top of his 2015 agenda.
Barack Obama says cyber security is a top priority
The Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Centre is designed to "fill the gaps" in US cyber defences.
Last year's hack of Sony - reportedly by North Korea - saw data stolen, computers disrupted, and the studio forced to halt the release of a satirical film about the country's leader Kim Jong-Un.
Emails between executives were also leaked, and in recent days co-chairman Amy Pascal announced she would be standing down.
She had earlier apologised for "insensitive and inappropriate" comments in her messages.
Reuters quoted a White House official as saying the Sony incident had been a "game changer".
At the moment, cybersecurity responsibility is spread across the National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the US military's Cyber Command.
The President will host a "cyber summit" with industry and government leaders at Stanford University in California on Friday.
A project to test driverless vehicles is being launched today in the hope the UK will become a leading global supplier.
A shuttle is being tried out in the London borough of Greenwich and an electric pod will be used on closed roads and pedestrian areas in Milton Keynes and Coventry.
Vehicles trialled in Bristol will also help gauge public reaction to the cars and assess legal and insurance issues.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The UK is at the cutting edge of automotive technology - from the all-electric cars built in Sunderland to the Formula One expertise in the Midlands.
"It's important for jobs, growth and society that we keep at the forefront of innovation, that's why I launched a competition to research and develop driverless cars.
Video:UK Driverless Car Trials Begin
"The projects we are now funding will help to ensure we are world leaders in this field and able to benefit from what is expected to be a £900bn industry by 2025."
The Government says there are no legal barriers to the testing of automated vehicles on public roads.
Dr Nick Reed from the Transport Research Lab, which is running the Greenwich trials, said the shuttles use sensors to avoid hazards.
Video:The Future Of Driving?
"Safety is paramount in our research and the vehicle is detecting moving objects around it, and if pedestrians are moving into its path it will slow down, and if they continue into its path it will come to a safe stop ahead of the pedestrian," he said.
It is hoped £19m of Government funding will help British designers get ahead of competitors.
In the US, Google has been testing its version for several years and car companies have been showing off their designs.
Video:How The Finished Pods Will Look
For the UK trials, a qualified driver will be ready to take control if necessary.
David Williams, head of underwriting at insurance firm Axa, said: "Currently whoever is driving the car, or cars, are responsible for the accident, but going forward what's it going to be?
"Is it going to be the manufacturer of the vehicle? The person who programmed the software? And it gets even more complicated - most of these vehicles, they're not driverless all the time, they have the ability for people to interact and take over."
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Gallery: Mercedes Unveils Driverless Car At CES
The Mercedes-Benz F015 Luxury in Motion autonomous concept car is shown on stage during the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas
The interior features a wooden floor and four futuristic armchairs covered in white Nappa leather, which rotate to face each other
The struggling construction group Balfour Beatty is lining up a former head of BHP Billiton's energy business as its new chairman amid speculation that it could receive a fresh takeover bid as soon as this month.
Sky News has learnt that Philip Aiken, who sits on the boards of National Grid and Aveva, is expected to be appointed as Balfour Beatty's chairman within days.
Mr Aiken's appointment will come just weeks after the company was forced to take a £70m hit to the profits of its UK construction business following a review of its books by the accountancy firm KPMG.
A string of profit warnings and management changes have sparked turmoil at one of the best-known names in the British construction industry.
Directors of Balfour Beatty hope that Mr Aiken will bring stability to its boardroom as new chief executive Leo Quinn attempts to restore the City's confidence in the company.
The new chairman is an experienced businessman, although he was involved in a major row over corporate governance last year when London-listed Essar Energy was the subject of a cut-price takeover deal.
Balfour Beatty said last September that an independent review would examine "focus on commercial controls, on 'cost to complete' and contract value forecasting and reporting at project level".
The company, which has a contract to help convert London's Olympic Stadium into a new home for West Ham United FC, has already issued a handful of profit alerts to the market in the last 18 months amid poor cost controls.
Its decline sparked the departure of its chief executive and finance director, with Mr Marshall also planning to leave when a successor is appointed.
The company had already taken £135m in provisions related to its UK construction arm, meaning that last month's charge took the total to more than £200m.
Last month, Sky News revealed the appointment of Philip Harrison, the finance chief of corporate travel agent Hogg Robinson, to the same role at Balfour Beatty.
The construction group is also fighting for its independence, following the collapse of a merger with Carillion last year and a £1bn approach from John Laing Infrastructure Fund for its infrastructure arm.
Carillion is free under Takeover Panel rules to make a new bid approach as soon as this month.
London, New York and San Francisco have seen the number of smartphone thefts plummet - thanks to so-called kill switches.
Apple, Samsung and Google have all implemented techniques for owners to effectively render a phone useless if it is stolen.
As a result, smartphone thefts have fallen by half in London, 40% in San Francisco and 25% in New York City.
San Francisco district attorney George Gascon said: "The wireless industry continues to roll out sophisticated new features, but preventing their own customers from being the target of a violent crime is the coolest technology they can bring to market."
Boris Johnson has welcomed the fall in thefts
New York state attorney Eric Schneiderman said: "The huge drops in smartphone theft that have occurred since the kill switch has been on the market are evidence that our strategy is making people safer in our cities, and across the world."
Apple added a kill switch - known as Activation Lock - in September 2013.
Samsung followed in April last year, and Google made it a standard feature on Android with the November release of Lollipop.
A California law mandates that all smartphones must be fitted with a similar feature by 1 July - if they are to be sold in the state.
That is likely to prompt the remaining smartphone makers to get on board.
London mayor Boris Johnson added: "We have made real progress in tackling the smartphone theft epidemic that was affecting many major cities just two years ago."
More budget cuts would be "morally unjustifiable and economically unsustainable", Scotland's First Minister has argued.
Nicola Sturgeon used a speech in London to claim the UK Government's economic policy had failed "categorically and comprehensively" and caused "misery" for some of the UK's most vulnerable people.
Speaking ahead of the General Election, where her party is predicted to make significant gains at the expense of Labour, Ms Sturgeon said she hopes Scotland can "exert a beneficial influence on developments" in London.
The Scottish Government will "make the case for a more rational economic policy at Westminster", Ms Sturgeon pledged, while adopting a different approach north of the border "based on partnership, fairness and prosperity".
The rejection of austerity by the SNP could cause problems for Labour seeking a power-sharing deal in the event of a hung parliament in May.
Ed Miliband has committed his party to "sensible" cuts to tackle the deficit.
The First Minister, addressing an audience at University College London, said she does not believe "any economic policy can be seen as a success when it has caused such severe anxiety and misery to so many of our most vulnerable citizens".
She added: "The current UK Government's economic policy has failed even on its own terms.
"It has failed to reduce the deficit as planned, and it has failed even more comprehensively to rebalance the economy.
"Economic policy is a means not an end; it is the means for citizens to lead happy, healthy, fulfilling lives.
"The entire focus of the Westminster debate is on the deficit.
"Now, the deficit is hugely important. But it is a symptom of economic difficulties, not just a cause of them.
"It's simply untrue to say that we are 'all in this together'.
"The cuts have had a disproportionate impact on women, people with disabilities and people on low incomes.
"The most vulnerable are bearing the heaviest burden. This human cost is in itself too high a price to pay for current policies."
And the First Minister argued: "The UK Government's economic policy has failed: categorically and comprehensively.
"But what the UK Government is now telling us is this: austerity hasn't worked, so we need even more of it.
"It is morally unjustifiable and economically unsustainable."
She also said: "After a momentous 12 months in Scotland, we will see a hugely significant 12 months across the whole of the UK. And I hope that Scotland can again exert a beneficial influence on developments here in London.
"So we will make the case for a more rational economic policy at Westminster, and we will use the powers we have in the Scottish Parliament to pursue a different approach; one based on partnership, fairness and prosperity."
A Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael criticised Ms Sturgeon, saying: "All the bombast in the world will not change the reality that the UK Government's economic strategy is working."
Labour's shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran said: "Every vote for the SNP in May is another boost for David Cameron, and makes it more likely that he will be Prime Minister for another five years."
David Cameron has been challenged to reveal whether he discussed tax evasion at HSBC with Lord Green, the bank's former boss who was subsequently appointed a Tory minister.
There were fierce clashes at Prime Minister's Questions amid revelations that wealthy donors to political parties were among those who legally held accounts with HSBC's private Swiss bank.
Ed Miliband said Mr Cameron was a "dodgy prime minister" who is "up to his neck" in the HSBC tax avoidance scandal - but the PM hit back, claiming his rival had relied on trade union cash to win the Labour leadership.
Mr Miliband claimed that the Prime Minister must have talked to Lord Green about HSBC as a coalition minister issued a press release in 2011 referring to the investigation into HSBC's Geneva account holders.
Allegations of tax evasion and avoidance centre on HSBC in Switzerland
The Opposition leader said: "Do you expect us to believe that in Stephen Green's three years as a minister you never had a conversation with him about what was happening at HSBC?"
Mr Cameron said the Tories had a far better record than Labour on tax avoidance - introducing measures to stop hedge funds dodging levies, make foreigners pay stamp duty and tax all bank profits.
Video:Labour MP Asks Cameron About HSBC
Labour MP Sharon Hodgson asked Mr Cameron directly whether he had conversations about HSBC tax avoidance with Lord Green, adding: "If not, why not?"
The Prime Minister said "every proper process was followed" when Lord Green was made a minister in 2011.
He said: "I consulted the Cabinet Secretary, I consulted the director for propriety and ethics, and of course the House of Lords appointments commission now looks at someone's individual tax affairs before giving them a peerage.
"I made the appointment, it was welcomed by Labour, and three years later they were still holding meetings with him."
Mr Cameron pointed out that Lord Green was the head of Labour prime minister Gordon Brown's business advisory council and was invited on a trade mission by the party in 2013 - three years after the HSBC revelations first surfaced.
The party leaders also clashed over donors, with Mr Miliband claiming that seven Tory donors who had given £5m to the Conservatives were linked to the scandal, which involved the banking giant's Swiss arm.
During PMQs in the Commons, Mr Miliband said: "You gave a job to the head of HSBC and you let the tax avoiders get away with it.
Video:Hodge 'Astonished' By Lord Green
"There's something rotten at the heart of the Conservative Party and it's you."
Mr Cameron replied: "For 13 years they sat in the Treasury, they did nothing about tax transparency, nothing about tax dodging, nothing about tax avoidance.
"This government has been tougher than any previous government. That's why they are desperate, that's why they are losing."
The Prime Minister pointed out that Labour donor Lord Paul was also caught up in the revelations.
Mr Miliband named Lord Fink as undertaking "tax avoidance activities" in Switzerland.
The Tory peer said the allegation was untrue and defamatory and challenged him to repeat the claim outside the Commons or withdraw it publicly.
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith denied The Guardian's report that he was the holder of an account at the HSBC Suisse private bank.
