LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Britain’s economy risks slipping
back into recession after barely growing in the third quarter, a
business group said on Tuesday, as data showed that
manufacturers are running out of steam.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), which represents
companies employing one in six UK workers, said the Bank of
England’s latest asset purchase programme may not be enough to
avert a double-dip recession.

LONDON (Reuters) – Around two-thirds of the most expensive corporate hospitality packages for the 2012 London Olympics have yet to be sold, although organizers said on Wednesday they were confident of finding buyers for the rest despite the gloomy economic outlook.

Prestige Ticketing Ltd, the company with sole corporate hospitality rights inside the Olympic venues, said it had sold 30-40 percent of its allocation, with strong demand for the tennis, diving and equestrian events.

LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Around two-thirds of the most
expensive corporate hospitality packages for the 2012 London
Olympics have yet to be sold, although organisers said on
Wednesday they were confident of finding buyers for the rest
despite the gloomy economic outlook.

Prestige Ticketing Ltd, the company with sole corporate
hospitality rights inside the Olympic venues, said it had sold
30-40 percent of its allocation, with strong demand for the
tennis, diving and equestrian events.

LONDON (Reuters) – British manufacturing activity unexpectedly grew for the first time in three months in September, although a slide in new export orders highlighted the dangers facing the sluggish recovery, a survey showed on Monday.

The Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI headline activity index rose to 51.1 last month from an upwardly revised 49.4 in August. This was well above the 48.6 forecast in a Reuters poll, and none of the 31 economists surveyed had expected a reading above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction.

LONDON (Reuters) – British manufacturing activity unexpectedly grew for the first time in three months in September, although a slide in new export orders highlighted the dangers facing the sluggish recovery, a survey showed on Monday.

The Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI headline activity index rose to 51.1 last month from an upwardly revised 49.4 in August. This was well above the 48.6 forecast in a Reuters poll, and none of the 31 economists surveyed had expected a reading above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain must stick to its austerity drive and avoid tax cuts while it tries to wipe out a record deficit, Chancellor George Osborne said on Saturday, as a senior member of his party accused him of lacking a “coherent and credible” long-term growth plan.

Speaking before his party meets for its annual conference, Osborne said abandoning its public cuts and tax rises would lead to an immediate rise in interest rates that would be “disastrous” for the economy.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain must stick to its austerity drive and avoid tax cuts while it tries to wipe out a record deficit, finance minister George Osborne said on Saturday, as a senior member of his party accused him of lacking a “coherent and credible” long-term growth plan.

Speaking before his centre-right party meets for its annual conference, Osborne said abandoning its public cuts and tax rises would lead to an immediate rise in interest rates that would be “disastrous” for the British economy.

LONDON (Reuters) – The phone hacking scandal that engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire could turn out to be Britain’s “Watergate” with fallout that lasts for decades, former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein said on Thursday.

The American journalist, who helped win his newspaper a Pulitzer Prize for his work on the 1970s crisis that brought down U.S. President Richard Nixon, said there were “striking” parallels between the two cases.

LONDON (Reuters) – The government will compensate the families of those killed and wounded by soldiers on Northern Ireland’s “Bloody Sunday” in 1972, one of the pivotal events in a three-decade conflict in the province.

The deaths of 13 protesters during an unauthorised civil rights march in the town of Londonderry fuelled violence in the province and boosted recruitment by the Irish Republican Army, which fought a violent campaign to end British rule.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is to close a tax loophole used by financial services companies when they lend each other securities, in a reform that will save the taxpayer around 40 million pounds a year, the Treasury said on Thursday.

New laws will be put before parliament next year to ban a form of tax avoidance using Manufactured Overseas Dividends (MODs), payments made during the sale and buyback of stocks or other securities, the Treasury said in a statement.