THE Co-operative Bank has stopped offering loans to new business customers, part of measures designed to quell growing concerns over its capital position.

Angry shareholders of HSBC on Friday bombarded the group's board with barrage of accusations ranging from financing Mexican drug cartels to supporting tax havens, slashing jobs and mis-selling products.

News Corp has adopted a �poison pill� to prevent challenges to Rupert Murdoch's control of his family media empire , as it splits into separate entertainment and publishing businesses.

The BBC has suspended its chief technology officer and admitted wasting nearly �100m on a five-year project intended to make the corporation "tapeless", saying that to continue with the project would be "throwing good money after bad".

Nervous investors interrupted the global market rally last night, with major indices in Japan, the UK and across Europe turning negative in the face of economic concerns.

CALLS are growing for a public inquiry into failures to clean up coal mines across Scotland after a new report revealed a potential �60m shortfall in funds for one region alone.

Households paid off �241m more mortgage debt than they borrowed in an effort to get on top of their debts. Before May last year, net lending had never been negative since the BBA started collecting the data in 1997.

Member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, Paul Fisher, said today there was little chance of a return to boom conditions in the UK economy anytime soon.

An alarming report by the Crown Estate revealed the country was on the verge of serious disruption in March. ob Hastings, the Estate's energy director, said: �We really had only six hours' worth of gas left in storage as a buffer.

BRUSSELS--Europe must create a single resolution mechanism backed by a common pool of money to help wind down struggling banks, European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio said Friday.