United Kingdom

UK - AstraZeneca has dropped plans to sue Merrill Lynch Investment Managers over poor investment performance for its pension fund.

UK - Innovest Strategic Value Advisors has appointed Andy White as director of research in its London office.

UK - Transport & General Workers Union has held crisis talks with aerospace engineer BAe Systems over the future of four of its seven final salary pension schemes.

UK - The 2003 Watson Wyatt lecture is to be given by risk management expert Professor Neil Doherty.

UK - Schemes are creating a "bubble" in the bond market similar to the one which inflated technology stocks in the late 1990s, Aberdeen Asset Management warns.

UK - The £4.5bn West Yorkshire Pension Fund has gone live with Comino electronic document management and workflow system.

UK/US - The US Senate is set to hold a public hearing on an international treaty that will harmonise tax relief between British and American pension funds.

UK/AUSTRALIA - Royal & SunAlliance has agreed to sell Tyndall Investment Management (Australia) to James Fielding Holdings for around A$28m.

UK - Heath Lambert Consulting has been appointed as administrator to the whole of Merloni Domestic Appliances' UK-based £140m pensions operations.

UK - The Kodak Pension Plan in the UK is in the process of re-running its asset/liability model which is likely to result in a further increase in its exposure to absolute return programmes.