A RUSSIAN tycoon punched a fellow billionaire on a television panel show after a discussion on the financial crisis degenerated into petty name-calling.

The British parliamentary committee tasked with quizzing Rebekah Brooks and Rupert and James Murdoch over their roles in the phone hacking scandal should not act as a “lynch mob”, its chairman said today.

Billionaire Alexander Lebedev, owner of Britain’s Independent newspaper, was held inside the Moscow headquarters of a bank he owns while masked police rifled through company files, his spokesman said today.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is likely to sell its remaining €34 million interest in Indian media group, JPL, in order to further reduce its debt levels, according to analysts.

Independent News & Media PLC have agreed to sell the Independent and Independent On Sunday for a nominal £1 to Former KGB agent and Evening Standard owner Alexander Lebedev, it was announced today.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is expected to conclude the sale of its two loss-making English newspaper titles, the Independent and Independent on Sunday, to Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev today.

An announcement is expected in the next 24 hours in relation to Independent News and Media's plan to sell its UK Independent titles.

BRITAIN’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has effectively approved Independent News & Media’s (INM) proposed sale of its two London-based newspapers to Russian tycoon, Alexander Lebedev – although no update on the sale process has actually been given by the company itself.

London: There is no deal yet between Irish Independent owners Independent News & Media, in talks over its two loss-making British national papers, and Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, an industry source told Reuters yesterday.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is expected to complete the sale of its loss-making London-based newspaper titles – the Independent and Independent on Sunday – to Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev this week.

London: Independent News & Media (INM) seems to be moving closer to concluding the sale of its two London-based newspaper titles – the Independent and the Independent on Sunday – to Russian tycoon, Alexander Lebedev.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) has responded to press speculation by confirming that it has extended the outcome deadline of exclusive talks with Russian tycoon, Alexander Lebedev, over the potential sale of its two London-based newspapers to the end of next week.

Independent News and Media will extend talks over the potential sale of its London Independent and Sunday Independent titles for another two weeks.

The publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday said today it made an encouraging start to the year after advertising revenues rose in its national newspaper division.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is strongly considering selling its two London-based lossmaking newspaper titles – the Independent and Independent on Sunday – to Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev.

Former KGB agent and Evening Standard owner Alexander Lebedev is in exclusive talks to buy British newspapers The Independent and Independent on Sunday, it was confirmed today.

The Russian oligarch owner of the Evening Standard newspaper is in advanced talks to buy Independent News & Media (INM) newspapers The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, it was reported today.

RUSSIAN billionaire and one-time KGB spy, Alexander Lebedev, is understood to be locked in advanced talks to buy London-based The Independent and the Independent on Sunday.

The trouble with the web — apart from it being home to all sorts of bigotry, hatred and aggression — is that you have to pan through a lot of tedious material to find the interesting nuggets. Anyone can blog, true enough, but the flipside of being free is being free to be boring. Who cares what anyone else had for breakfast?

MANAGEMENT atIndependent News & Media (INM) may have stayed silent yesterday, but the group’s share price rose by nearly 20% to 23 cent on the back of renewed speculation that a sale of not only its London-based newspapers but also its Indian-based interests are imminent.

Media group Daily Mail and General Trust today reported better-than-expected trading despite “very limited” visibility over future advertising revenues.

Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group suffered more heavy losses today as the bloodbath in the banking sector showed no signs of easing.

FRESH speculation has arisen over the future ownership of Independent News & Media’s (INM) two main London-based newspaper titles — the Independent and the Independent on Sunday — after meetings were held with Russian billionaire investor Alexander Lebedev.

A Russian tycoon said today he and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev will pair up to create a new political party.

A Moscow newspaper that reported Vladimir Putin had divorced his wife and planned to marry an Olympic gymnast was closed by its publishers, just hours after the Russian president angrily denied the report.