LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) – State Street Bank Europe
has resigned with immediate effect as a participant in
British sovereign bond auctions, the country’s Debt Management
Office said, as banks find it increasingly unattractive to take
part in these sales.

“Overnight, State Street Bank in Boston has announced its
withdrawal from various global cash bond trading activities,
which includes UK government bonds,” the DMO said.

LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) – British police said on
Monday there was no evidence that journalists from Rupert
Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid had deleted a murdered
schoolgirl’s mobile phone messages, a claim that led to public
revulsion and the closure of the paper.

It was a report last July that the paper’s journalists had
deleted voicemails on the phone of Milly Dowler in 2002, giving
her parents false hope she was still alive, that lit a fire
under a simmering scandal over phone hacking.

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron faces a split in the Conservative party over his reluctance to hold a referendum on proposals to fix the euro zone crisis.

The leaders of France and Germany agreed a masterplan on Monday for imposing budget discipline across the 17-nation euro zone, which Britain remains outside, saying the European Union’s basic treaty will need to be changed.

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Britain has doubled its
budget for security at venues for next year’s London Olympics
after underestimating the number of guards needed to admit
spectators, athletes and officials through airline-style
security, organisers said on Monday.

The Games are Britain’s largest peacetime security operation
and keeping the competition safe now looks set to cost more than
a billion pounds out of the event’s total 9.3 billion pound
($14.5 billion) budget.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has doubled its budget for security at venues for next summer’s Olympic games after underestimating the number of guards needed to admit spectators, athletes and officials through airline-style security, organisers said on Monday.

The games are Britain’s largest peacetime security operation and keeping the competition safe now looks set to cost more than a billion pounds out of the event’s total 9.3 billion pound budget.

LONDON (Reuters) – A tightening web of sanctions is squeezing Iran’s economy and placing a new burden on foreign firms wary of incurring hefty fines for violating the complex regulations.

The European Union added 180 people and entities to its Iran sanctions list on Thursday and laid out plans for a possible embargo of Iranian oil in response to mounting concerns over the OPEC producer’s nuclear program.

HUNTINGDON, England (Reuters) – Maggie Blight has only praise for the local state-funded hospital where she got her hernia fixed last year.

“I couldn’t fault it. It was excellent,” the 67-year-old family worker said of the care she received at Hinchingbrooke hospital in Huntingdon, 60 miles northeast of London.

LONDON (Reuters) – The government will underwrite 20 billion pounds of loans to smaller companies in a package of measures to boost the economy, while sticking to a strict austerity programme, Chancellor George Osborne said on Sunday.

Osborne is under pressure to find ways to revive a stagnant economy and avoid a return to recession without compromising a deficit-cutting spending squeeze.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will underwrite 20 billion pounds of loans to smaller companies in a package of measures to boost the economy, while sticking to a strict austerity programme, Chancellor George Osborne said on Sunday.

Osborne is under pressure to find ways to revive a stagnant economy and avoid a return to recession without compromising a deficit-cutting spending squeeze.

LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Britain will underwrite 20
billion pounds ($31 billion) of loans to smaller companies in a
package of measures to boost the economy, while sticking to a
strict austerity programme, Finance Minister George Osborne said
on Sunday.

Osborne is under pressure to find ways to revive a stagnant
economy and avoid a return to recession without compromising a
deficit-cutting spending squeeze.