Leads began to fizzle out and other murders demanded their space on DCI Garnish’s whiteboard.The inquiry found that while Tom’s very normality worked in his favour in life, in death it was a positive disadvantage to those who grieved for him and who wanted his killer – or killers – brought to justice.People with “a more colourful background”, as DCI Garnish puts it, not only account for the majority of the victims whose names appear on his whiteboard, but provide a hinterland of friends, associates, drug dealers, wronged business partners or jilted lovers, which give the police a rich territory in which to go about their work. Tom was not one of those.Such cases are all the more galling for detectives such as DCI Garnish, who is proud of Scotland Yard’s 90 per cent record in detecting murders, one that compares very favourably with a detection rate of less than 20 per cent for all crimes. Byron Grote, BP’s chief financial officer, has said New York would provide a “more natural home” for the listing, rather than London, where BP is based. He said US investors were more receptive to chemicals businesses.BP has also considered a sale of the O&D business, but a float is regarded as the most likely outcome.Last month BP reported record profits of $16.2bn for last year and lifted its dividend by 26 per cent, raising its total payout to shareholders for 2004 to $13.7bn, including stock buy-backs.With profits soaring, the company’s annual report, published this week, is likely to reveal a bumper pay award last year for its chief executive, Lord Browne. This business, known as olefins and derivatives (O&D), has had poor returns for years.According to reports, the company wants to raise about $3bn from the sale of a 50 per cent-plus stake in its O&D business. The unit, which makes $13bn of annual sales, makes plastics materials that are sold to the manufacturers of goods such as polythene and plastic pipes. The rest of the petrochemicals portfolio, the so-called “advantaged products” business, makes more sophisticated chemicals and materials that are used in goods such as polyester and plastic bottles.Before the initial public offering, the O&D unit will be separated into a stand-alone entity next month, and headed by Ralph Alexander, the chief executive of BP’s petrochemicals business.The flotation is planned for the fourth quarter of this year on the New York Stock Exchange.

Last April BP unveiled plans to spin off half of its petrochemicals portfolio,saying it would return the money raised via a share buy-back. BP has hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to advise it on a flotation of parts of its petrochemicals business with a book value of $8bn (£4.2bn) in New York this year. He is a non-executive director of News Corp and John Swire & Sons. Last month he ruled himself out of the chief executive role at Telstra, Australia’s biggest phone company.The two likely internal candidates to replace him are John Rishton, BA’s finance director, and Martin George, the commercial director. BA said it had not yet drawn up a shortlist of external candidates. Possible names include Willie Walsh, the former chief executive of Aer Lingus; Tony Tyler, the chief operating officer at Cathay Pacific Airways, where Mr Eddington was once managing director; and James Hogan, a former bmi executive who runs Gulf Air.Mr Eddington has presided over several crises at BA – from the slump in air travel after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US and growing competition from low-cost rivals to last summer’s fiasco at Heathrowin which thousands of passengers were stranded after staff shortages and other problems.

Mr Eddington wants to be back in his native Australia early next year and may travel in Europe in the months before his departure, the sources said.Mr Eddington, who joined BA as chief executive five years ago, has said he wants to retire this year and concentrate on non-executive posts. He has implemented drastic cost-cutting, although £300m of staff cost-savings pencilled in for this year have been delayed,Mr Eddington will unveil his latest two-year business plan to shareholders at BA’s annual investor day on Thursday.. Sir Anthony will become the combined company’s second-largest shareholder. The combined company will have an annual production of more than 150,000 tonnes of zinc and 46,000 tonnes of lead, as well as copper and silver.. Rod Eddington, the chief executive of British Airways, will leave the airline towards the end of the summer to return to Australia and focus on his non-executive jobs. Sir Anthony O’Reilly, the chief executive of Independent News & Media, the owner of The Independent, will receive €80m (£56m) in cash and shares from a proposed takeover of a mining company in which he is the principal shareholder.
Lundin Mining of Canada has agreed to buy ARCON International, a Dublin-listed zinc miner in which Sir Anthony has a 65 per cent holding.Under the deal he will get €40m in cash and a 9 per cent stake in the combined company, which a spokeswoman for ARCON said would be worth a further €40m.Sir Anthony has indicated that he will accept the deal, which requires approval from shareholders representing 80 per cent of the company. Lundin owns a mine in Sweden that has produced zinc, lead and silver since 1857.ARCON said the improved cash flows of the combined group would make it possible to develop further the Galmoy mine by investing in operations, production and also exploration.Peter Kidney, the chief executive of ARCON, said: “The timing of this potential transaction captures the recent strength in both zinc and lead commodity prices and enhances investor exposure to them.”It is the fourth major deal that Lundin has undertaken in six months.

The deal price of €93.6m represents a tenfold increase from its value of €8.6m after the company went throug`h a restructuring in 2002.Although the offer is below ARCON’s closing share price the day before the announcement on Thursday, the company said it represented a 30 per cent premium on the share prices three months ago.ARCON’s main asset is the Galmoy mine in Co Kilkenny in Ireland, which produces zinc and lead. Friends of the Earth said it wanted the Government to spell out clearly how the £110bn spent by public bodies each year – generating about 5 to 6 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions – will be harnessed to promote sustainability.FoE also called on Gordon Brown to drop GDP as the key measure of the economy’s success, and replace it with a measure which takes sustainability into account.. However, environmental groups fear the strategy will be short on firm targets. “Whenever there is a choice, short-term economic growth is nearly always prioritised over long-term environmental protection – even when the social consequences might be negative too,” Tony Juniper, the executive director of Friends of the Earth, said.The launch of the UK’s new sustainable development strategy today will be accompanied by two hours of speeches by ministers. The Government’s record on sustainable development comes under attack today as senior ministers prepare to unveil a fresh strategy to underpin Tony Blair’s commitment to the environment.
Critics claim that recent Whitehall decisions on carbon emissions trading, aviation taxes and road transport cast serious doubt on the Government’s willingness to challenge vested industrial interests. It will raise questions over how long Werner Seifert is going to last, and it puts Clara [Furse] in a difficult position,” the source said.The withdrawal of the bid spells an end to Mr Seifert’s ambition to take over the LSE, Europe’s biggest stock exchange by trading volume. However, the LSE does not find itself in a position to recommend a transaction at a price we find supportable.”An insider said that the development raised questions over the future of Mr Seifert and would also create problems for Clara Furse, the head of the LSE “This is a pretty incredible development.