DUBLIN HOTELS ROW BEFORE COURT - The Irish Independent reports that a dispute over ownership of the D4hotels.com domain name and website has come before the Commercial Court.
The paper says MJBCH Ltd, the leaseholder of the former Berkeley Court Hotel and the former Jury's hotels in Ballsbridge and The Towers, claims exclusive entitlement to the operation and management of the domain name and website.
It has alleged it had a hotel operation and management agreement with the two defendant companies - Cloud Nine Management Services Ltd and Beechside Company Ltd, trading as The Park Hotel, Kenmare - to manage the hotels as the Ballsbridge Inn, Ballsbridge Towers and the Ballsbridge Court hotel, but that agreement was terminated in February.
In those circumstances, it claims the defendants have no entitlement to use the d4 domain name and website. The proceedings were admitted to the list of the Commercial Court yesterday.
The defendant companies deny the claims and say they at no time abandoned their rights to or property in the domain name, website or business name.
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DUBLIN 25th IN QUALITY OF LIFE LIST - The Irish Times reports that Dublin has a better quality of life than cities such as London, Boston and Barcelona, quoting the Worldwide Quality of Living Survey published today by Mercer consultants.
The paper says Dublin's quality-of-life ranking moved up two places in the annual survey, which is conducted to help governments and companies which place employees abroad.
Dublin is ranked 25th out of 215 countries worldwide and eighth in the EU league. European cities dominate the list of countries scoring highest on the quality-of-life index. Zurich tops the table again, followed by Vienna and Geneva. Vancouver and Auckland complete the top five.
African countries again dominate the list of countries scoring lowest for quality of life. Baghdad remains at the bottom of the table, followed by Bangui in the Central African Republic.
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UK INVESTORS NOW BACKING RATES RISE - British newspaper reports on fears of an interest rate rise. The Financial Times says investors are betting the Bank of England will have to raise interest rates at least once before the end of the year to curb inflation, after wholesale gas prices hit a new high and official data showed producer prices increasing at a record pace.
The FT says the soaring cost of oil on Monday drove the price of gas for next winter above £1 a therm for the first time in the futures market, more than double last winter's average, making steep increases in UK gas and electricity bills a near certainty.
The paper quotes some industry executives as suggesting that retail energy prices could rise as much as 20%, adding to the upward pressure on consumer price inflation.
The Office for National Statistics said annual factory gate inflation rose from 7.6 per cent to 8.9 per cent in May, the highest since comparable records began in 1986.
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BRITISH ENERGY REJECTS FRENCH OFFER - The Guardian reports that French hopes of speedily picking up UK sites for a new generation of nuclear power plants were set back last night when a £10 billion takeover offer for British Energy was rejected by the board.
British Energy said a proposal from EDF, which was almost £2 billion below Friday's closing share price, was insufficient for a company with the best locations for new plants and a fleet of stations that provide at least 15% of the UK's electricity.
