Sunday low down...

Good evening,

First Britain, then the rest of the world…

The Church of England, which owns a large portfolio of financial assets, has decided to cap the bonuses it gives to the guys who manage (invest, gamble and grow) these assets – to no more than 3 times their salaries. City boys who play with big money for their clients often get much fatter bonuses than this. It’s all related to how well they do every year. The Church of England is hoping to set a good example by knocking this on the head, so that no matter how well their boys do, from now… there is a limit on their rewards.

The News of the World, who are in all sorts of trouble at the moment for hacking celebrities phones, are now facing yet more charges for paying the police to turn a blind eye to their scheme.

In politics, The Liberal Democrats, seeking to re-establish themselves, have been circulating new flyers making no mention of Nick Clegg or in fact the coalition government at all. Perhaps they are hoping people will forget it has ever happened, especially given the coalition arrangement has been such a double-edged sword for them. Yes, they finally got voted (sort of) into power last year, but playing second fiddle to Cameron’s conservative party means they feel they’ve lost their voice and achieved very little.

Meanwhile, Greece, having already been bailed out by the rest of Europe, is still floundering. Germany has offered to help them plan a strategy for financial recovery, something they know well how to do.

Many people in Croatia remain outraged as two ‘national heroes’ are sentenced to 18-24 years in jail, for their part in the ‘ethnic cleansing of Serbians’ in 1995.

It may seem incomprehensible that so many people are mourning the imprisonment of these murderers but to many Croatians it represents a verdict of the legitimacy of their war and thus the Republic of Croatia itself.

The number of Russian billionaires has risen from 62 to 101 in the last year, largely due to the Internet taking off there, so they must be pretty pleased with themselves.

The Middle East remains wobbly, with uprisings still simmering in Bahrain and Syria.

Finally, NASA is preparing to outsource the job of putting astronauts into space. It is now conceivably cheaper for companies like Virgin to send people into the stratosphere, than for NASA itself. Richard Branson is said to be rubbing his hands together in glee…

See you tomorrow.