Thursday newspaper round-up: SABMiller, British Airways, Cairn Energy

SABMiller is in talks to swallow one of Africa's biggest brewers in a deal worth more than £6 billion.The Times understands that the owner of Grolsch and Peroni Nastro Azzurro is running the rule over the African beer operations of Groupe Castel.British Airways' four million frequent fliers will enjoy a substantial increase in the free miles they earn after the creation of a new transatlantic alliance. BA, American Airlines and Iberia yesterday formally announced a merger of their transatlantic operations. The deal will create a business with revenues of nearly $8 billion (£5 billion) a year, says the Times.Cairn Energy's first Greenland oil drilling season was a "royal flush" and the company will invest $1.2bn (£755m) on up to 12 wells over the next three years. The Edinburgh-based exploration company is already spending $400m on four wells in the unexplored Arctic region this year, of which the first found traces of gas and the second traces of both oil and gas, says the Independent. More than a third of applications for payouts from BP's oil spill compensation fund are either inflated, unsubstantiated or fraudulent, according to the official in charge of the $20 billion programme. Kenneth Feinberg, whom President Obama appointed on June 16 to manage the scheme for fishermen and others affected by the disaster, said that of the roughly 104,000 claims received, almost 40,000 needed to provide more information to support their claims, according to the Times.Ireland's business federation has joined foreign creditors in warning that a default by Dublin on the junior debt of Anglo Irish Bank and other lenders guaranteed during the crisis would be a breach of faith. "Ireland should honour its debts if it can," said Danny McCoy, head the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC), according to the Telegraph.The war of words over international currency valuations escalated yesterday when the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao told the European Union to stop pressuring Beijing to revalue the yuan as any rapid shift risked unleashing serious social unrest in China. Speaking in Brussels, Wen said that China would move towards making its currency more flexible but he rejected calls for a rapid appreciation as the issue threatened to dominate this weekend's meeting of the International Monetary Fund and G7 countries in Washington, the Guardian reports.Britain's Coalition government would have to revisit its plans for deep spending cuts if growth substantially disappoints, the International Monetary Fund has warned. The fund's latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report also raised the prospect of another fall in UK house prices, cautioning that property is overvalued, says the Telegraph.American banks' efforts to foreclosure on millions of delinquent mortgages have been plunged into chaos by a growing scandal over administrative inconsistencies and errors. North Carolina yesterday joined a number of states pursuing legal efforts to slow the tide of repossessions and protect homeowners from what several attorneys general now say are improper foreclosure procedures, reports the Independent.