Global

UK/IRAQ - Insurance companies have assured schemes that death benefits will be paid on reservists killed after being called up for a war against Iraq.

GLOBAL - The MSCI composite hedge fund index rose by 1.61% on an asset weighted basis during January this year.

GLOBAL - Calls for ever-tougher corporate governance reforms continue to be made throughout the pensions investment world.

UK/OECD - Insight Investment is in top-level talks with the government over an initiative to improve corporate social responsibility.

GLOBAL - Increasing numbers of companies are now viewing climate change as a significant issue, new research from Jupiter Asset Management has shown.

GLOBAL - Investments in emerging market debt will help pension funds balance the damage rising oil prices will have on conventional investments, a leading fund manager claims.

GLOBAL- Talks between Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (SSSB) over merging the firms' global index businesses are near to completion, according to a source at Citigroup.

GLOBAL - European equity values are suffering from a lack of positive corporate and economic news and the possibility of war in Iraq, according to Govett Investments.

GLOBAL - Hedge funds have returned 1.34% during January, down slightly from the 1.36% return posted in December, according to global indices provider MSCI.

GLOBAL - In both their internal business management and external brokerage relationships, Asia (ex-Japan)-based institutions are insisting upon increasingly high standards.