The government could be set to take even larger stakes in some of Britain's biggest banks under a plan being discussed.

The prime minister says he will announce a new banks rescue plan on Monday to encourage more lending.

Discount fashion retailer Matalan defies the economic gloom by reporting a rise in its holiday season sales.

Reuters - Wall Street will greet a new president this week with high hopes for a fresh start, but a deluge of corporate earnings reports pointing to a deepening recession could spoil the welcome party.

Reuters - World equities are still well above the rock bottom levels they hit at the end of last year, but half way through January the bounce has lost its spring.

Unemployment will soar to 3.4 million as the financial crisis deepens, say forecasters ahead of official figures this week.

The tough economic challenges facing the new president

Have you changed your travel habits in the downturn?

Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to unveil a second bailout for British banks to stoke more lending.

Reuters - Citigroup Inc has earmarked its Japanese retail brokerage operation, Nikko Cordial Securities, for sale, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to unveil a second bailout for British banks to stoke more lending.

The EU welcomes the gas deal announced between Russia and Ukraine but is anxious to see it take effect.

Reuters - Citigroup Inc has earmarked its Japanese retail brokerage operation, Nikko Cordial Securities, for sale, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

Reuters - Private equity firm Blackstone Group will launch a unit in South Korea this month to buy companies and real estate assets for a combined $2 billion, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Monday.

Reuters - Shopping is a national obsession in Singapore, yet this Lunar New Year retailers are struggling to get the city's usually insatiable shoppers to part with their cash as a cloud of economic gloom hangs over Asia.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to unveil a second bailout for British banks to stoke more lending.

The cellphone industry has a plea for the throngs descending on the nation?s capital for the presidential inauguration: go easy on the mobile communications.

Companies with shaky credit are especially vulnerable as their debts come due, and are likely to be among the earliest of many expected defaults this year.

The prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine agreed to a resolution of their countries? gas dispute early Sunday.

Far from being subdued by the shift in the country?s mood, the cable news network of choice during the George W. Bush years seems re-energized.

Rather than operate its own Web site, catalog and shops, the company will license products and sell them through third-party retailers.

IFC Entertainment will probably turn out to be one of the most aggressive buyers at the Sundance Film Festival when it comes to the number of films bought, if not the prices paid.

Over the last year there have been important new efforts to put these classics online.

The cost pressures prevailing in the newspaper business have led to rapid turnover at the top.

Without a rethink of their business models, many in the hedge fund business risk going the way of the investment banking dodo.

Interest in digital radio is rising, but it remains unclear when a full transition can take place.

The investigation of Arthur Nadel is leaving clients concerned that they might have lost as much as $350 million.

Online and mobile services offering listeners unlimited ?free? access to millions of songs are set to proliferate in the coming months, according to music industry executives.

New talent will be handy if CNN?s star medical expert, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, becomes the surgeon general.

Patricia Cornwell, the best-selling crime fiction writer, uses her latest Kay Scarpetta novel to promote ?American Rust,? a first novel by Philipp Meyer.

For many months, the media munched on denials from Apple that Mr. Jobs was in poor health, despite visual evidence to the contrary.

The Source hopes to gain more than it loses by chasing mainstream advertisers that do not want their ads alongside the adults-only kind.

People simply don?t want all the features that come with their cellphones, consumer research data suggests.

Members of The New York Times?s interactive news team are answering questions from readers Jan. 19-23, 2009.

While creator Robert Redford is criticized that the film festival is far too commercial, the knock on Sundance this year has been that it is will not be commercial enough.

Reuters - Royal Bank of Scotland will unveil up to 25 billion pounds ($37.30 billion) of losses for 2008 on Monday due to bad debts and writing off goodwill on its acquisition of ABN AMRO, a British newspaper said on Monday.

Reuters - Britain will throw its banks another multi-billion pound lifeline on Monday by allowing them to insure against steep losses and guaranteeing their debt to stop the credit crunch pushing the economy into a deep slump.

The economic recovery plan taking shape reads almost like an Obama campaign checklist, affording him a rare opportunity.

Carlos Slim Helú is near a deal to invest about $250 million in The New York Times Company, according to people briefed on the transaction.

Reuters - Citigroup said on Monday it is still committed to its Japanese brokerage and asset management units, denying media reports that the U.S. bank is actively looking to unload a major part of its Japanese business.