News Headlines - 03 October 2012

▽Government axes West Coast rail contract - FT.com

Three officials at the Department for Transport were suspended on Wednesday after the award of a new contract to run the West Coast mainline rail franchise was cancelled because of “technical flaws” in the bidding process. The decision, which has thrown the government’s rail franchising policy into disarray, is a partial victory for incumbent Virgin Trains, which had mounted a legal challenge to the decision to award the contract to rival FirstGroup. The government previously defended the process as “robust”.

▽Mobile firms' truce opens the way to super-fast broadband - The Independent

Britain's three main mobile operators and the media regulator Ofcom have reached a crucial truce over much-delayed plans to roll out fourth-generation super-fast mobile broadband, known as 4G... The phone operators have agreed to plans for 4G to launch sooner than expected in May 2013, after an Ofcom-supervised auction of new airwave spectrum.

▽No UK return planned for Wolseley - The Independent

The company moved its tax domicile to Switzerland two years ago to avoid the controlled foreign companies tax regime, which applies UK tax on overseas earnings. The move cut ￡40m off its tax bill. The rules change next year. But Ian Meakins, Wolseley's chief executive, said at the moment there was no business case to return.

▽Obama And Romney Set For Presidential Debate

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney go head to head tonight in the first presidential debate of this year's race for the White House. The President will face his Republican challenger on a stage in an ice hockey arena at the University of Denver in Colorado - with an estimated 50 million Americans watching on TV.

▽BBC News - Julian Assange: Bail cash decision delayed

Supporters of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange face a wait to see if they will be asked to forfeit ￡140,000 of bail sureties after he sought asylum.