Thursday newspaper round-up: BP, global boom, Osborne

All three main contractors in the BP oil spill took decisions that cut costs but increased the risk of a catastrophic blow-out at the well-head, the final report of the White House panel concluded last night. In a scathing indictment of safety standards across the industry, the report said the worst oil spill in US history was the preventable result of a failure of management by BP, Halliburton and Transocean, the Times reports. The greatest global boom of all time has barely begun. Over the next forty years, economic growth will quicken yet further as the rising powers of Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America reach their full stride. Crunching everything from fertility rates to schooling levels and the rule of law, HSBC predicts that the world's economic output will triple again by 2050, provided the major states can avoid conflict - trade wars, or worse - and defeat the Malthusian threat of food and water limits, the Telegraph reports.Europe urgently needs to formulate a "credible plan" to strengthen its hobbled banking system, Chancellor George Osborne will warn today. Addressing a meeting of European politicians and economists in Paris, he will warn that the region's lenders are acting as a brake on recovery, and that their finances need to be bolstered so they can better withstand the EU's sovereign debt woes, according to the Times.Renault has suspended three executives in a possible case of industrial espionage relating to a suspected leaking of secrets about the French carmaker's electric vehicle programme. Renault would not confirm the identities of the three people nor the reason for their suspension without pay since Monday but said that the disciplinary action had been taken after a four-month investigation, reports the Financial Times.Food riots, geopolitical tensions, global inflation and increasing hunger among the planet's poorest people are the likely effects of a new surge in world food prices, which have hit an all-time high according to the United Nations. The UN's index of food prices - an international basket comprising wheat, corn, dairy produce, meat and sugar - stands at its highest since the index started in 1990, surpassing even the peaks seen during the 2008 food crisis, which prompted civil disturbances from Mexico to Indonesia, says the Independent.Customers of Virgin Media and BT Vision face missing out on the latest top shows from America, including Boardwalk Empire and The Borgias, as the companies have failed to secure a deal for Sky's new drama channel. The satellite broadcaster yesterday confirmed Sky Atlantic would launch in the UK next month and would be free to its 10m subscribers. Virgin and BT, which show Sky channels including premium sports through a wholesale arrangement, have held talks over the new channel but have been unable to agree a deal, the Independent reports.Starbucks' familiar chunky white mugs will disappear from its British stores this year as part of a major rebranding exercise that will also see the American company drop its name from its well-known logo. The revamp will make the face of the woman who appears in the logo - known as the "Starbucks siren" - bigger and dispense with the white-on-green lettering that surrounds her, reports the Guardian. Detroit ended 2010 on a high note as the US motor industry finally appeared to be getting out of reverse. All the "big three" US carmakers reported strong sales figures for the month of December, while Ford even took the top sales slot from Toyota for the month, says the Guardian.