Liverpool gets new £320m offer from billionaire Lim

Peter Lim, a Singapore billionaire, is offering £320m in cash for Liverpool football club and its liabilities.

The offer trumps the £300m offered by New England Sports Ventures - which was accepted last week by Liverpool's chairman, Martin Broughton.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says Mr Lim is also offering to provide £40m in cash to buy players.

Liverpool's board will find it difficult to ignore the offer, raising more uncertainty about the club's fate.

The offer coincided with the start of a case in London's High Court to resolve a power struggle on Liverpool's board of directors.

'Arrogance'

Royal Bank of Scotland, which holds the bulk of Liverpool's debts, is seeking a court order preventing the club's co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, from removing two board members, including Mr Broughton.

Philip Snowdon QC, for RBS, told the court that Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett were in "breach of contract" and guilty of "breath-taking arrogance".

Mr Lim, whose previous bid for Liverpool was rejected in favour of New England's, has an estimated net worth of $1.6bn (£1bn), according to Forbes magazine.

He made his fortune in fashion, logistics and agri-business.

His interest in English football stems from his ownership of several Manchester United themed bars in Asia - which have persuaded him that there is huge global potential for making money from top-flight English football.

There have been suggestions that he intends to sell the Manchester United bars if he secures control of arch-rival Liverpool.

What may excite Liverpool fans about the offer is that Mr Lim is promising to hand manager Roy Hodgson £40m to buy players in January's transfer window, says our business editor.

Google Adsense: Western Union now launched in four African countries

We're excited to announce the launch of Western Union Quick Cash® payments in four countries in Africa! You can now select Western Union Quick Cash payments in:

• Algeria
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Uganda

Western Union Quick Cash payments will reach you faster than checks, and they're free of charge. Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and will be available for pickup in your local currency at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.

A couple of things to note: We can send Western Union payments only to publishers that have an individual account at this time. Also, the payee name on your account must exactly match the government-issued ID card that you'll use when picking up your payments. For more information on how to sign up for and pick up Western Union payments, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Deborah Chang - AdSense Payments team 

Kissinger ordered low-key response to India's nuclear test, reveals book

Washington: In spite of his perceived personal animosity against the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, and the United States' decision to rearm Pakistan, the former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, had intervened to make the American response to the Indian nuclear explosion in May 1974 low key.

This revelation was made in a book by the former U.S. Senator and American Ambassador to India, late Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

The book will hit the stalls in the U.S. on October 12.

Titled “Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letter of an American Visionary,” the book is a collection of personal letters and journal entry of the former Senator.

Mr. Moynihan was informed about India's nuclear test while he was travelling in Britain.

Journal entry

In his journal entry dated May 18, 1974, Mr. Moynihan gives a glimpse of the instant response of the then U.S. administration.

“The (State) Department proposed to issue a statement that the U.S. ‘deeply regrets' the development, while noting India's reaffirmation of its commitment not to use nuclear energy for military purposes, we nonetheless considered this an unfortunate step, I cabled my approval and was off to Cambridge,” he wrote, adding that this was quickly stopped by Mr. Kissinger who was in Damascus at that time.

Michael Jackson memorabilia fetches $1 million in Macau

An auction of some 100 items of Michael Jackson memorabilia has fetched more than $1 million, with a basketball autographed by the late singer and Michael Jordan netting $245,000.

Showing the lingering appeal of the "King of Pop," the sale Saturday in the southern Chinese city of Macau drew bidders from around the world.

An unidentified Internet bidder paid $180,000 for a black crystal-studded glove and an arm brace Jackson wore while filming a promotional video for his 1995 album "HIStory." An Internet bidder also bought the basketball.

Of the 435 total items up for sale, other non-Jackson items sold included a costume worn by Bruce Lee during the filming of "Game of Death" and a costume Madonna donned during her Girlie Show world tour.

Randy Moss and Tom Brady had heated argument before trade

According to Charley Casserly of CBS, Randy Moss and Tom Brady had to be separated in the locker room recently after getting into a heated argument.

The real impetus for the Patriots' surprising willingness to deal Moss? Brady reportedly told Moss to cut his beard, at which point Moss told Brady to cut his hair because he looks like a girl. If the story is true, it's hard to blame Moss for telling Brady to essentially mind his own business. The Pats had no choice but to side with their franchise QB, though, to keep peace in the locker room.

Boudou: “It’s hard to imagine a more serious sanction from IMF than the ones we stood by all these years”

Amado Boudou, Minister of Economy, said the chances of there being a penalty by the International Monetary Fund are almost nil and that anyway, “it is difficult to imagine a greater punishment than that we suffered all these years.”

“The IMF has already passed in Argentina in ‘78, with Martinez de Hoz destroying the productive apparatus, with standby credits of the ’80s, with supporting the 1 to 1 (dollar-peso) of the ‘90s, leaving 25 percent of unemployed population, with the debt swap that led to the explosion of 2001″ said Boudou.

The chairman of the Economy Ministry said that “it’s hard to imagine a more serious sanction from IMF than the ones we stood by all these years.”

Anyway, the minister explained that “Argentina can not be technically sanctioned by article four because it is not mandatory.”

On this day, he will meet with the director of Western Hemisphere Department of the IMF, Nicolas Eyzaguirre.

Not yet confirmed whether Eyzaguirre will try to pass Article IV as “mandatory” or not. The Article provides regular reviews of the Fund on member countries.

What is known is that from this organism it is expected that the meeting will be “very pleasant and safe positive.”

Photo story: Born behind bars

A photographic journey inside a prison where babies live with their incarcerated mothers.

BOSTON — Behind the ominous barbed wire fences and concrete walls of the Santa Martha Acatitla prison in Mexico City, you may be surprised to find a cheerful nursery school with colorful walls, a maze of swings and slides and a gaggle of giggling toddlers.

The inmates at the female penitentiary include women serving sentences for murder, drug dealing, and kidnapping. But there are also about 50 children, living inside the prison with their incarcerated mothers.

Photographer Caroline Bennett stepped inside the prison walls to see what life was like within Santa Martha's gates. Here is what she found:

Inside "Cellblock H" where an inmate lives with her 18-month-old child and cellmate. The Mexican government has decided it will allow babies born behind bars to stay with their mothers until age 6, rather than be turned over to foster homes or unprepared relatives. 

A territorial controversy heats up in a classroom while inmates await their teacher. When children are not present, it quickly becomes clear that Santa Martha is indeed a prison where inmates live in extremely close quarters and where tensions can escalate quickly.

Tensions can quickly escalate among women living in such close quarters. The presence of resident children often subdues a scene before conflicts get out of hand.

A group of inmates listen to instructions before a small birthday celebration for a child in the classroom. The women of Santa Martha have formed a very communal, sometimes cliquish way of life, offering one another protection and support. 

Curious children looks out through the bolted gates of Santa Martha's daycare. Often with little  family on the outside, many of the children in the prison know nothing beyond the prison walls until they are cast out upon reaching their 6th birthday.

A prisoner watches the children of other inmates play with their mothers in the prison yard and longs for her own young children who live with their grandmother. As their babies were not born in the system, they are not permitted to live in the prison with their mother.