Despite insisting he wants to agree a recommended deal with the LSE's board, the newspaper suggested he may pull out of the process and put an offer directly to shareholders instead.

BBC: The LSE rebuffed a previous Deutsche Boerse bid in 2000

Europe, as I indicated in a previous posting, has had to go back to the drawing board following the Americans' decision to pull out of their joint 2016 and 2018 missions.

BBC: ��Six minutes of terror��

America has even threatened to pull out its troops from international peacekeeping operations unless across-the-board immunities are granted.

ECONOMIST: No conviction | The