Strong sales at Whitbread's Costa Coffee chain are helping its shares to the top of the FTSE 100, and by a clear margin. The company, which also owns the Beefeater restaurant chain and the Premier Inn budget hotels, reported a 3.1 per cent rise in first ...

UK Prime Minister David Cameron will lead a key discussion on tax evasion and avoidance on Tuesday, as Group of Eight leaders tackle an important but complex issue on which progress can be slow moving.

Bankers on the panel would advise the Government on developments in the banking industry and provide an official conduit for conversations between senior politicians and executives.

However, one important question remains: how did one of the UK's safest banks - and one which, only a matter of weeks ago, was supposedly on the brink of a massive expansion, taking on more than 600 Lloyds branches - get itself into such a mess?

By Steven Scheer and Ari Rabinovitch. JERUSALEM | Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:12am BST. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is "ready to act" if need be to aid the euro zone economy and recent signs of market stabilisation mean that its interest ...