A $15.5 BILLION SETTLEMENT FOR MADOFF VICTIMS ABROAD About 720,000 investors outside the United States who lost money to Bernard Madoff have settled with their banks, receiving about $15.5 billion in all, according to law firms representing those victims of the fraud. The settlements cover about 80 percent of the clients represented by the firms, said Javier Cremades, founder of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, a Madrid law firm, who helped organize the alliance of 60 firms a year ago. The $15.5 billion figure represents, in theory, 100 percent of the amount clients had invested, Cremades said, but excludes in almost all cases the bogus gains listed on investor statements. A DRILLING COMPANY FINDS ITSELF IN UNCHARTED WATER Transocean's corporate motto is 'We're never out of our depth.' But after last month's fatal explosion on a Transocean oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, that assertion is open to question. In September, the company claimed the record for the deepest offshore well after it finished one for BP in the Gulf of Mexico that was 35,050 feet in vertical depth. Now Transocean might be in the record books for a less stellar achievement: contributing to what some experts predict will become the biggest accidental oil spill in history. 'GLIMMERS OF HOPE' FOR COLLEGE GRADS College graduates face better job prospects than the dismal environment encountered by last year's grads. But that doesn't mean the job market is thriving. Average starting salaries are down, and employers plan to make only 5 percent more job offers to new graduates this spring compared to last spring, when job offers were down 20 percent from 2008 levels, according to a study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Salaries for finance majors rose 1.6 percent, to $50,546, while those for liberal arts majors fell 8.9 percent, to $33,540. For graduates with computer-related degrees, salary offers rose 5.8 percent, to $58,746. BIG HURDLES FOR BRITAIN'S NEW LEADER As governments from Greece to Spain try to sell markets on their budget-cutting zeal, the country that may face the biggest hurdle is Britain. Propelled by a robust economy that collapsed in 2008, Britain's spending boom was the most expansive in Europe, producing a welter of shiny hospitals, school buildings and highways, along with a cadre of well-paid public officials. Now the new government led by Prime Minister David Cameron must unwind not so much the debt incurred from two years of economic stimulus efforts, but the structural deficits built up over more than a decade. NFL FAILS IN ITS REQUEST FOR ANTITRUST IMMUNITY The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request from the National Football League that it be granted broad antitrust immunity on the theory that it is a single entity rather than a collection of 32 independent teams. The ruling did not resolve a lawsuit brought by an apparel company after the league entered into an exclusive 10-year deal with Reebok. Before that deal, American Needle produced hats and other merchandise bearing team logos. The court said American Needle's claims were not barred at the outset but must be analyzed under a standard called the 'rule of reason' to determine whether the NFL's licensing practices harmed competition. BLAIR TO JOIN VENTURE FIRM AS ADVISER ON TECHNOLOGY Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, is turning his attention to Silicon Valley. Blair is becoming a senior adviser at Khosla Ventures, the venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, an investor and a proponent of green technology. Khosla Ventures made the announcement here on Monday at a meeting of its investors. The firm is investing $1.1 billion in clean technology and information technology companies. Blair will offer strategic advice on public policy to the firm's green portfolio companies, which include Calera, a manufacturer that uses carbon dioxide to create cement products. 