She has apoint to prove after a public roasting over her supposedfailings as chief executive

She has apoint to prove after a public roasting over her supposedfailings as chief executive -- now is her chance. The group has let it be known that it looked at thepossibility of doing deal with Xstrata 18 months ago andrejected the idea, not least because it did not want to changeits business mix. And only three weeks before Xstrata'sapproach, Anglo's board had run a slide rule over a deal -- thedecision was the same. Anglo's challenge is to maximise the size of thatdifferential so it can either put itself beyond Xstrata's reachor force the bidder to pay a fat premium to achieve control.

Xstrata boss, Mick Davis, has essentially acknowledged thatthe nil-premium proposal is effectively dead in the water,noting wryly that it is rare for nil-premium mergers to work "ifthe other party does not want to play with you". Anglo is in no mood to play, making it abundantly clear whatit thinks of Xstrata's proposal -- both in terms of value andstrategy. The market has bolstered Anglo's case a little, widening theminer's premium over its rival and indicating that Xstrata willhave to come back and offer more if it wants to take thingsfurther. So the group islogically seeking to string things out while assembling its caseto remain independent. -- Alexander Smith is a Reuters columnist. The opinionsexpressed are his own -- Stocks  |  Brazil By Alexander Smith LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - Anglo American is sitting backafter rejecting Xstrata's nil-premium merger proposal. The bid isn't sufficiently compelling to force Anglo to thetable or into the arms of a white knight.

She could play serious stuff and comedy," said Frank Thornton, who played opposite Sugden in the series as the stuffy floorwalker Captain Peacock."It was a very happy show to work on -- you can't play comedy with people you dislike," he told BBC television.Mark Freeland, head of BBC comedy, said she was one of television's iconic funny women."Her daftly enormous purple rinse and never-to-be-forgotten catchphrase are the stuff of comedy legend," he said.Sugden had also found success in the BBC TV comedy series "The Liver Birds" and played an occasional role as pub landlady Nellie Harvey in the long-running ITV soap opera "Coronation Street."(Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Steve Addison) People. She was a great professional," Reddin said.With her hair highly coiffed and referring frequently to her "pussy," Sugden played the bossy Mrs Slocombe throughout the run of the BBC's innuendo-laden Are You Being Served? between 1972 and 1985.Re-runs of the show in the United States in the 1990s gained her a new audience overseas."She was great fun, a very good actress, very versatile. Goldcorp (G.TO) was up 2.3percent at C$41.36, and fertilizer producer Potash Corp ofSaskatchewan (POT.TO) climbed 2 percent to C$110.71 On Wednesday, Canadian markets were closed for Canada Day. ($1=$1.16 Canadian) (Reporting by Nina Lex; editing by Peter Galloway) Stocks. LONDON (Reuters) - British actress Mollie Sugden, best-known for her role as Mrs Slocombe in the television comedy series "Are You Being Served?," has died at the age of 86. PeopleHer agent Joan Reddin told newspapers Sugden died on Wednesday after a long illness "She was a lovely, lovely person.