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.

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.

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.

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.