The Chancellor made the claim as he prepared the ground for major changes in Britain's state-owned banks, suggesting that RBS could be broken up and shares in Lloyds Banking Group sold off before the election.

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

In a news conference, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke talks about current monetary policy and situations that would lead to a change in those policies.

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, ...

Environment minister Owen Paterson will on Thursday urge the UK to lead a European farming revolution using genetically modified crops, which he will say will reduce fertiliser and chemical use and improve efficiency.

It wants the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), which regulates the tunnel on behalf of the United Kingdom and France, to instruct the company to bring the charges down.

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.

When the authorities intervene in banking, their aim is to protect the economy from the banks rather than the banks from the economy.

China's manufacturing is shrinking at a faster pace this month, adding to stresses in the economy and financial system after interbank borrowing costs surged to the highest in seven years.

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.