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News Corp the media empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch strengthened its ties with Liberty Media

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News Corp, the media empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch, strengthened its ties with Liberty Media Group yesterday, announcing a deal that will make News Corp the top shareholder in Gemstar-TV Guide International. News Corp said that in exchange for the Gemstar stake, Liberty Media would acquire 121.5 million News Corp American Depositary Receipts and become the company's top non-voting shareholder.Analysts have said the stronger link with Liberty Media would also put News Corp in a better position to bid for Hughes Electronics.General Motors, the automotive giant, is expected to put Hughes up for sale within months. News Corp has been touted along with others as a likely buyer of Hughes for its DirecTV satellite company.News Corp's ADRs were up about 4 per cent and Gemstart-TV Guide was up 5 per cent. Liberty Media, run by cable TV programming tycoon John Malone, was up a fraction.Under the deal, News Corp will buy Liberty Media's 21 per cent stake in Gemstar-TV Guide, a provider of interactive programming guides and publisher of TV Guide magazine. The purchase will boost News Corp's stake to 43 per cent and make it Gemstar-TV Guide's biggest single shareholder.. High street banks and building societies yesterday faced mounting pressure to address complaints from customers with poor rates on their Tax Exempt Special Savings Accounts (Tessa).

High street banks and building societies yesterday faced mounting pressure to address complaints from customers with poor rates on their Tax Exempt Special Savings Accounts (Tessa). The Banking Ombudsman, which adjudicates on complaints and can force banks and building societies to pay compensation, published tough new guidelines on how it will decide the thousands of cases that are flowing in. The ombudsman said it was likely to force providers to pay compensation in cases where customers have not received a "fair" rate of interest on their Tessas, and where people have not been properly informed about their right to transfer to a new provider.While the ombudsman's remit is to rule on compensation, not to determine policy, yesterday's guidelines are expected to force banks to respond more actively to unhappy customers.A spokesman for the ombudsman's office said: "Banks and building societies should be aware of how we intend to rule. We expect that they will bring their decision-making into line."The move by the ombudsman comes two days after the industry's regulator, the Banking Code Standards Board, issued stricter guidelines on Tessas.. The oil price surged back above $31 a barrel yesterday after an unexpected fall in US stocks compounded fears that a high-profile summit of the oil cartel Opec will do little to ease the pressure. The oil price surged back above $31 a barrel yesterday after an unexpected fall in US stocks compounded fears that a high-profile summit of the oil cartel Opec will do little to ease the pressure. For the first time in a quarter of a century, the sheikhs, emirs, crown princes and presidents of the 11 nations responsible for 40 per cent of world oil production yesterday sat down around a table to discuss the future of their organisation and the energy market in general.But the high-profile two-day summit in Caracas, Venezuela, will not put a single additional barrel on the market despite the fact that Western consumers are faced with the highest crude oil prices since the 1991 Gulf War.Opec president and Venezuelan energy minister, Ali Rodriguez, has made it clear Opec will first observe how the market reacts to the 800,000-barrel a day production increase due to take effect next week. In addition, an extra 1 million barrels of oil from US strategic reserves comes on stream next month.If any further adjustments are necessary they will be made at the Opec ministerial meeting scheduled for 12 November.

Lawrence Eagles, an analyst at GNI Research in London, said: "I am not expecting anything out of Caracas. I'm expecting a big back-slapping exercise."Yesterday, the price of a barrel of Brent crude for November delivery jumped as much as 2.3 per cent, or 75 cents, to $31.13, about a dollar below its price before the US announced plans last Friday to open the taps on 30 million barrels of its reserves. It later fell back below $31.Yesterday's price fall was triggered by a report from the American Petroleum Institute showing US stocks fell 2.24 million barrels last week compared with forecasts of a 1.5 million increase.The price was further supported by statements by the UK, Luxembourg and Germany that they would not support the use of European strategic reserves to increase supply. European Union ministers are due to discuss using state inventories on Friday.Despite the posturing by both sides, no one is talking of a return to the confrontational stance of the 1970s, when oil was explicitly employed as a political weapon."There is no confrontation," said Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, the summit's host and the driving force behind Opec's reinvigoration after years in the doldrums. "We have listened to the calls for dialogue - that is the way forward."Mr Chavez spoke of a possible meeting between Opec and the Group of Seven industrialised nations, which could take place in November.The summit itself will discuss a wide number of topics, ranging from new energy sources and environmental issues to enhanced economic relations among member nations, and is expected to result in the signing today of the so-called "Declaration of Caracas".President Chavez has broadened the agenda to include issues such as poverty reduction, the debt question and the creation of an Opec bank. Venezuela is also pushing for the formal adoption of a price-band mechanism, with a view to stabilising the price of a barrel of crude in the US$22-28 range.Meanwhile the International Energy Agency, which forecasts the market for the major industrialised economies, called its own extraordinary meeting for next Wednesday to discuss the oil price..

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