Thursday 06.30 BST. European stocks look set to join the heavy sell-off seen across Asia, which started in the US overnight in response to the Federal Reserve's confirmation that it expects to start easing its asset purchases later this year.

The prospect of an eventual �tell Sid�-style sale of shares in Lloyds Bank was raised by George Osborne as he claimed Britain's economy had emerged from �intensive care�.

Lloyds Banking Group was found to have the largest individual shortfall of �7bn, more than double the �3.2bn Royal Bank of Scotland has been told it must raise, while Barclays will have to find an additional �1.7bn of new capital and Co-op Bank �1.5bn.

A top businessman who threw his weight behind the Government's savage cuts is to be made an unelected minister and handed a peerage.

BEIJING | Wed Jun 19, 2013 6:56am EDT. BEIJING (Reuters) - Wanda Group, China's largest commercial real estate developer, aims to invest about $1 billion to build a five-star hotel in New York as its third major investment outside its home market, ...

The Environment secretary will say that using GM will make use of farm land and �free up space for biodiversity, nature and wilderness�.

LONDON | Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:42am BST. LONDON (Reuters) - The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined a property agent nearly a million pounds for defrauding vulnerable people, the largest-ever fine for a sole trader in the consumer sector.

Sir Mervyn King, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England who has spent more than two decades at Threadneedle Street, is to be made a life peer.

A survey of 30,000 people by the watchdog group, Passenger Focus, showed the travelling public are increasingly frustrated by the lack of staff at stations, delays and squalid lavatories on trains.

Royal Mail has begun a court battle with the Communication Workers Union after thousands of postal workers voted to boycott deliveries of rivals' mail and to oppose privatisation.