Press corps in Kuala Lumpur all knew FBC had close links to the Malaysian government with special access

Corporation suspends relations with leading film-maker accused of conflict of interests over 'palm oil' programmes

Good to see that old loyalties endure. Who should be seen popping into the food hall at Marks & Spencer's High Street Kensington branch yesterday but former executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose? We couldn't tell whether his combo of dazzling white shirt and denims was from one of the myriad collections he launched at M&S but he was certainly dressed for the hot weather.

The crisis at the International Monetary Fund continues to play havoc, with officials forced to change their plans at short notice. "We're sorry to inform you that we are postponing the International Monetary Fund's event for bloggers set for the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City on 7 June," says a missive from the authority, which explains that John Lipsky, who had been intending to host the bash, now has other commitments in his role as acting managing director. But is it Mr Lipsky's schedule that's the problem, or does the IMF simply wish to avoid hotels at all costs these days?

CNBC was keen to catch up with John Dowd, attorney to Raj Rajaratnam, after last week's guilty verdict in the Galleon insider trading case. And though the business channel's viewers didn't get the benefit of Mr Dowd's views for long, a clip of what he did say is now being passed round online. "Do you have comment for CNBC?," the cameraman asks. To which Mr Dowd replies "Get the fuck out of here. That's what I've got for CNBC."

The Money Honey?

Tonight's must-see TV is a new programme on CNBC. CNBC Meets... is the first in a series of interviews with "some of the world's most influential high-flyers" and is hosted by Tania Bryer. Those of you unfamiliar with Bryer's work should know she once replaced Ulrika Jonsson as TV-am's weather girl and has done loads of showbiz reporting for Sky. That doesn't quite square with CNBC vice-president John Casey's talk of "Tania's access to some extraordinary business people", but she has secured fellow former "it girl" Tamara Mellon for tonight – an interview conducted in the walk-in wardrobe of Mellon's New York apartment, no less.

Betfair's mysterious Twitter page turns out to be a marketing experiment. As the Diary has reported over the past week or so, the online poker company's official Twitter page spews out a stream of bizarre messages every day, none of them related to gambling. Now Richard Bloch, its international PR manager, explains: "It took us a while to work out how Twitter worked – we realised people don't want to be bored with links to the website and bombarded with marketing, so we had to mix it up and provide information as well as something interesting." It seems to be working: Betfair has 7,000 followers so far.

More than a billion $100 bills, representing roughly 10 per cent of the entire stock of US currency on the face of the Earth, is being stored in two highly-fortified Government warehouses after printing problems left it unusable.

It's good to see our friends in the US are keen to kiss and make up now that BP finally seems to be getting its act together over the Gulf oil spill. Simon Hobbs and Mark Haines, the anchors of CNBC's Squawk on the Street, have taken to wearing ties emblazoned with the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes.

Does Doug Williams, head of the Centre for Economic and Business Research, feel snubbed? He wasn't asked to sign any of the letters dispatched by groups of economists last week on spending cuts, but wants it known he would have said no if he had been. "The fact that a number of Nobel Prize winners have signed such letters says more about the low quality of people receiving Nobel prizes than the credibility of the letters," Doug adds.

McGraw-Hill's CEO thinks Apple's mystery device is a tablet powered by iPhone software.