World business, finance, and political news from the Financial Times

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The ways Matisse and Picasso turned old age into art

Rich pickings
How private wealth is transforming cities

Highlights

SLIDESHOW

George W Bush paints a rosier legacy

11:42pm COMPANIES

Holcim and Lafarge in $40bn merger talks

Cement groups eye tie-up after value of deals this year hits $554bn

7:47pm

ECB ‘must spend big to lift prices’

Central bank would have to buy €1tn in bonds to raise inflation

12:04am

Weibo reins in its US IPO ambitions

Sina unit now looking for half the $8bn valuation it first targeted

5:32pm

Osborne in row over plans to seize tax

MPs, banks and charities want robust safeguards

4:06pm

Chinese group set to buy House of Fraser

Sanpower poised to pay more than £450m for venerable UK retailer

Manchester United's Scottish manager Alex Ferguson

©AFP

3:11pm MANAGEMENT

Sir Alex Ferguson signs for Harvard

Former Manchester United manager joins Ivy League in teaching role

The Diary Lionel Barber
Simon Kuper My Autobiography, by Alex Ferguson
Ferguson spreads his management gospel

DKPGJ6 The Transnistrian parliament building and statue of Vladimir Lenin in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria.

6:58pm WORLD

Transnistria: frontline in east-west clash

Pro-Russian territory lies within Moldova but is stranded in limbo

Construction workers work the construction of a new building

©AFP

1:46pm GLOBAL ECONOMY

US labour market emerges from winter blues

Slight disappointment as jobless rate remains at 6.7%

FT Weekend: food glorious food

Spring food special: cool for cuts

Leading a revival of the trade after years of decline, they will not only cut your meat, they’ll practically cook it for you
Jonathan Meades: kitchen-sink dreamer

Recollecting the far-from-impoverished food of his 1950s childhood
Hip hops

High-tech equipment allows you to clone your favourite beer – and even set up a mini-brewery in your house

©AFP

2:58pm

Matthew Engel from UK

Cricket season arrives with whimper

Cricket has become two different sports with little in common

©Getty

4:54pm COMPANIES

Sweden’s Meda spurns Mylan approach

Drugmaking union would create an entity with revenues of $9bn

Tesco pioneered the ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ retail concept, but it too felt the pinch over the holidays. Shares in Tesco, which recently pulled the plug on its US Fresh & Easy venture, fell on the news

©Bloomberg

5:34pm COMPANIES

Tesco director steps down before results

McIlwee’s departure fuels concerns over stability and direction

11:46am GLOBAL ECONOMY

BoE warns on asset management risks

Haldane argues $87tn industry is threat to financial stability

Comment and Analysis

©Corbis

4:51pm PERSONAL FINANCE

The challenge set by Nigel Farage

Britain’s political parties must improve their tactics against Ukip leader

Apr 3, 2014

John Gapper from LIFE & ARTS

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