What the Sunday papers said
The Observer
- Libido-boosting drinks will flood into bars this summer as young clubbers are targeted with a potent new range of products that have been dubbed "Viagra pops".
War in Iraq means Chancellor Gordon Brown's April Budget plunging up to £12 billion further into the red.
An ugly spat has broken out between leading chefs and the Food Standards Agency, which encourages consumers to steer clear of raw shellfish to avoid being posioned. Chefs are angered as the advice could damage the multi-million pound oyster industry.
The Sunday Telegraph
- Quotes of the week: "Thank you for joining me at the annual Heron lunch. Today is St Patrick's day. You are welcome to celebrate it but I won't be offering you a Guinness." Gerald Ronson, head of Heron International, makes light of his involvement in the Guinness scandal that landed him a prison sentence.
The Hilton hotel in central London is to open a women-only floor after growing demands from female travellers for safer, more female-friendly accommodation.
Philip Morris, the world's biggest cigarette maker, has been ordered to pay $10.1bn in damages to US consumers who claimed they had been deceived into thinking "light" cigarettes were safer than regular brands.
The Government's public borrowing in the coming year will be £10bn higher than previously forecast by the chancellor, according leading City economist Roger Bootle.
The Sunday Times
- Sharewatch: Greene King finance director Michael Shallow clearly has confidence in the future. In the last month or so he has bought 15,352 shares in three tranches. The company is well placed to weather the economic downturn and is not "overexposed to the crowded London market".
The Mail on Sunday
- Private equity firms TDR Capital and Capricorn Ventures will launch a joint bid for the Pizza Express restaurant chain, this week, of £276m superseding the rival bid from Luke Johnson. Capricorn owns restaurant chain Nando's.
Football's Premier League will mount a robust defence of its £1.1bn deal with Sky when it replies to objections from the European Commission this week. The EC says negotiations on behalf of all 20 clubs in tantamount to price fixing.
The Sunday Express
- Chez Gerard founder Neville Abraham is set to outbid rival Guy Naggar for the restaurant company as early as this week.
ITV is considering following the BBC and ditching Sky when its contract with the media giant expires next year. Sky currently carries all of ITV's digital channels for an annual access fee of £17m.
The travel and tourism industry is being hit by a sharp fall in bookings as people delay travelling abroad following the outbreak of war. British airways has cut its flights to the Middle East as demand vanishes and holiday firms such as First Choice and MyTravel have seem a general drop in bookings.
Bank of England governor Sir Eddie George is expected assure investors that prospects for the UK economy remain good this week. He will also indicate the bank is ready to cut interest rates further from their 48-year low of 3.75 per cent.
The Independent on Sunday
- AOL Time Warner, the troubled US media group with debts of £18.5bn, is to bid for the broadband internet rights of the Premier League.
The Busines
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