Friday newspaper round-up: WTO, Serco, National Grid

Negotiators are poised to seal the first global trade deal for more than a decade, in a rare victory for the World Trade Organisation, whose struggle to secure an international pact has increasingly threatened its relevance. The US and powerful developing-nation players, including China and India, have overcome differences in agriculture. This leaves negotiators in Geneva to put the final touches to a deal that will impose binding requirements to reduce red tape and ease the path for goods at borders around the world, the Financial Times says. The UK boss of Serco has left the troubled outsourcing company as it tries to rebuild relations with the government, which has accused it of overcharging taxpayers. The embattled group announced on Thursday that Jeremy Stafford, the head of UK and western Europe since March last year, had left with immediate effect. Stafford's departure follows the shock resignation last month of the group Chief Executive, Chris Hyman, The Guardian writes. A wave of new power plants due to come on line in the next two-and-a-half years have now have now been delayed because of political rows and policy uncertainty - increasing the risk of energy shortages, National Grid has warned. More than half of a series of new plants that had been due to start generating across the UK by March 2016 have now had their start dates pushed back, Steve Holliday, the company's Chief Executive, revealed, The Daily Telegraph. US Republican Senator Mitch McConnell seemed barely able to contain his fury as the Senate voted last night to curtail one of the chamber's most storied procedural manoeuvres, the filibuster. "Some of us have been around here long enough to know that the shoe is sometimes on the other foot," the Republican minority leader said. "You may regret this a lot sooner than you think." Senators in both parties have long held off on ending the filibuster, which allows the minority party in the 100-member Senate to hold up and derail presidential nominations by demanding a 60-vote threshold for approval, the Financial Times reports.Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline is today expected to unveil new jobs at its Montrose plant which it once came close to closing. GSK has had a presence in the town for more than 60 years and now employs about 270 workers producing ingredients for its respiratory treatments. Finance Secretary John Swinney is due to meet Roger Connor, the group's president of global manufacturing and supply, at the facility and the pair will reveal more details about the investment to the workforce, The Scotsman writes. Video games specialist Game Group is eyeing a £200m return to the stock market 18 months after controversial financier Henry Jackson bought the business out of administration. Sources told the Daily Telegraph that an IPO was one of the options under consideration as investors led by the American tycoon seek an exit from the chain.AB