UNITED KINGDOM

British bank Alliance & Leicester on Wednesday suffered a double blow from the impact of financial market turmoil, warning of sharply higher funding costs to add to a big writedown on the value of risky assets. Britain's seventh largest listed bank is estimating higher funding costs as it seeks to avoid a crisis that hit rival Northern Rock last year.

European shares cut Tuesday's losses and rose as a turnaround in shares of Barclays boosted UK banks and U.S. stock futures extended gains.

A U.K based firm is planning to unveil a $195 laptop targeted at students at the end of the month, making it the least expensive laptop offering yet.

European shares rose Monday as investors rushed to buy after recent volatility and selloffs, while Asian markets were mixed and U.S market was closed for a public holiday.

The pound declined on Monday after the UK government announced a plan to temporarily nationalize struggling bank Northern Rock, leading investors to grow more concerned about the country s economy.

Shares in UK banks rose on Monday on hopes of higher dividends and after the British government decided to nationalize stricken mortgage lender Northern Rock.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Britain's Barclays Plc, has named Mark Bamford as head of global syndicate to replace Geert Vinken, who is retiring.

Swiss bank UBS AG is confident the 287 million pound ($560 million) rights issue it is underwriting for British mortgage lender Paragon will be successful, a source close to the bank said on Monday.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that the decision to nationalise Northern Rock was the right move at the right time for the right reasons. Brown was speaking at a Downing Street briefing, after the news broke on Sunday that the struggling mortgage lender would be nationalized.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended his reputation for sound economic management on Monday in the face of mounting criticism over his decision to nationalize ailing bank Northern Rock after lending it 25 billion pounds ($49 billion). Brown helped transform the Labour Party in the 1990s by ditching an attachment to state ownership.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a political and public backlash on Monday after his decision to take ailing bank Northern Rock Plc into public ownership, the first UK nationalization since the 1970s.

The market for KPO or Knowledge Process Outsourcing, which follows the success waves created by ITO (Information and Technology Outsourcing) in the 1980s and the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) in the 1990s, is expected to touch $10-17 billion by 2010 and India is well poised to grab a major share of the market, a research paper released by the global audit, tax and advisory services group KPMG has revealed.

The U.K. government will nationalize Northern Rock Plc bank after a bid by Virgin Group Ltd. was rejected, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said today. The government did not select either of two bids by a Virgin consortium and an in-house proposal.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of companies applying to be wound up in England and Wales dropped by three per cent in 2007. Latest figures indicate 11,791 companies folded last year due to insolvency or other problems.

Lactalis McLelland has admitted its role in a diary price fixing scandal in which top supermarket chains and diary producers stand accused of colluding to fix the retail price diary products.

China's securities regulator has approved the creation of at least three new mutual funds to raise more than 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion), in an apparent effort to support the sagging stock market, sources said on Friday.

Signs of economic slowdown in the US and rupee appreciation notwithstanding, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the consortium that serves as the apex body of the Indian IT software and BPO industry said that India's IT-BPO industry is poised to achieve the target of $75 billion in overall software and services revenues by 2010.

The Competition Commission has said it may release a long awaited remedies report on the UK grocery market on Friday.

The EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Vivane Reding, has said that parts of the UK will be exempt from EU regulations on the telecoms market because of sufficiently high competition.

Manchester United has moved up the league table of the world's richest football clubs, putting it just behind Real Madrid, who have held their top position for the third consecutive year.

Viruses on mobile phones are still rare but nearly three-quarters of mobile phone users in developed countries are worried about security on their handsets, a survey showed on Wednesday.