US drone strike, Deutsche Bank Libor fine and a mammoth issue

A US drone strike killed two western hostages in an al-Qaeda compound in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, the White House has confirmed.

Warren Weinstein, an American held by al-Qaeda since 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian national who had been hostage since 2012, were killed accidentally in the counter-terrorism operation in January. The disclosure that two hostages were killed in a US strike will raise fresh questions about the limits of such operations, and whether imperfect intelligence unnecessarily risks civilian lives. (FT and NYT)

In the news

Boardroom election concerns Business leaders have become frustrated at the tactics and tone of the Conservative election campaign, amid concern in British boardrooms that Ed Miliband is mounting a stiffer challenge for Number 10 than expected. Twenty FTSE 100 and other business leaders have told the Financial Times they are anxious that, despite presiding over an economic recovery, David Cameron has not opened a lead over Labour. (FT)

Libor liabilities Deutsche Bank has paid a record $2.5bn to authorities in the US and UK to settle allegations that it manipulated the Libor benchmark rate, a key interbank borrowing rate that underpins as much as $350tn of debt worldwide, from student loans to complex financial instruments. In addition to forking out the largest total fine to date in the worldwide investigation into the Libor scandal, Germany's biggest bank was ordered to dismiss seven employees, while a London subsidiary, DB Group Services, is pleading guilty to US criminal wire fraud charges. (FT)

War of words Russia accused the US on Thursday of deploying military trainers in the combat zone in east Ukraine in a new war of words after Washington said Moscow was engaged in a military build-up in the war-torn region. The statement from Moscow came hours after the US said Russia was breaching a six-week-old ceasefire deal in eastern Ukraine. The deployment of air defence systems near the frontline. The diplomatic finger-pointing came amid reports of a resurgence of violence in east Ukraine during the past week. (FT)

Med rescue funding increased European leaders are to triple funding for search-and-rescue operations aimed at migrant boats in the Mediterranean following crisis talks in Brussels. This comes after more than 750 people died on a boat crossing from Libya on Sunday. The number of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa has risen sharply in recent months, and more than 35,000 are thought to have crossed from Africa to Europe this year. (BBC)

Nasdaq nadir The Nasdaq Composite closed in record territory on Thursday, completing a 15 year recovery from one of the most spectacular equity market busts experienced by investors. The $7.7tn technology bellwether has finally topped its March 2000 dotcom bubble peak of 5,056.06 and is within easy distance of the intraday record of 5,132.52. (FT)

Google hedge Google chairman Eric Schmidt has purchased a stake in hedge fund manager DE Shaw. Mr Schmidt, who said he had been an investor in DE Shaw's funds for many years, acquired a 20 per cent stake in the company on Thursday from the liquidators of collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers. (FT)

It's a big day for

HSBC, which holds it AGM in London on Friday morning. Stuart Gulliver, HSBC's chief executive since 2011, is under attack on multiple fronts.. Politicians and regulators are up in arms at the string of scandals, while shareholders are concerned about declining profitability. (FT)

Food for thought

A mammoth undertaking An international team of scientists has sequenced the complete genome of the woolly mammoth. Dr Love Dalen at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm said that the first ever publication of the full DNA sequence of the mammoth could help those trying to bring the creature back to life. A US team is already attempting to study the animals' characteristics by inserting mammoth genes into elephant stem cells. (BBC)

Tech 2.0 The Nasdaq has passed the record it set 15 years ago just before the Internet bubble burst. Here's a look at the personalities and companies behind the tech boom then and now. (Bloomberg)

Everything to play for In two weeks, if the polls are right, intense horse-trading will begin to form the next government. The general election on May 7 will be the most unpredictable contest in a lifetime. (FT)

First steps, Hong Kong style In Hong Kong the pressure to excel starts early - there are now classes preparing toddlers for that all-important nursery interview. Competition for places is fierce and parents will go to extreme lengths to ensure their little one has the best start in life. (BBC)

Happiness in a cold climate Happiness seems to be most abundant a long way from the equator - at least according to the new World Happiness Report 2015. The 10 happiest countries are Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia. (Bloomberg)

Video of the day

The May 7 election is one of the UK's most unpredictable ever. Europe is one issue that separates Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband. So who is winning the argument?

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