UK Business News

BA considers £900m fall in profit

Martin Broughton, chairman of BA, admits the company is considering the consequences of a break-even position this year

• Analysis: Certainty for BA is uncertainty

• Business big shot: Willie Walsh

Takeover battle at British Energy hots up

British Energy has received two more preliminary proposals, one for almost £11 billion, higher than its current share price

• EDF's offer for British Energy faces opposition

• British Energy can go foreign, says Government

Regent Inns considers bids after sales fall

Owner of Australian-themed Walkabout bars and Jongleurs comedy clubs hit by smoking ban and falling consumer confidence

Ladbrokes defies the odds with profit rise

A gripping end to the football season has helped Ladbrokes weather the economic storm and post a gross win up 16 per cent

• Billionaire quietly builds Ladbrokes stake

• Ladbrokes buys Eastwood for £117.5m

World Business News

UK offers tax breaks to woo Bollywood

The UK is to offer the Indian film industry tax breaks and grants to entice more Bollywood projects to British locations

Las Vegas's bank broken on wheel of fortune

Sin City has been America's biggest boomtown for 30 years but it has hit the skids in the wake of the US housing crisis

• Las Vegas experiences spate of home rage

• Las Vegas economy looks like busted flush

Japan's silos key to relieving rice shortage

The United States and Japan are poised to flood the market with 1.5 million tonnes of US rice sitting in Japanese silos

• Tokyo stockpiles rice while others go short

• Rice prices hit records amid Burmese disaster

Qualcomm fights to set mobile TV standard

The American microchip maker Qualcomm is battling to set the UK's mobile TV standard by buying £8.3m L-band spectrum

• Qualcomm takes double-hit on patents

Analysis

Softly, softly prolongs misery

My colleagues and I have radically different responses to cold calling, so what's the best way of dealing with the menace?

Las Vegas looks like busted flush

Hotel occupancy is down, visitors are spending less, commercial deals are flagging and convention returns are dwindling

Tempus: time to change sectors? Not quite yet

Is there any reported evidence right now that investors should sell Rio Tinto and buy Royal Bank of Scotland? Unfortunately not

Money 

Exclusive: City watchdog condemns pension funds

In a damning report seen by Times Online, the Financial Services Authority accuses the insurance industry of offering misleading advice to retirees

• Women losing out on state pensions

• Pension boost for stay-at-home mums

Buy the kids a house

The benefits of helping your children on to the property ladder - and how to do it

• How to help the boomerang kids

• Lenders call time on parental help

Do not follow the investment fads

How chasing short-term returns can prove a costly mistake for fund investors

Law 

Hunter plans fresh talks in Tesco garden fight

After a judge refuses Sir Tom Hunter's request, the billionaire says he will start new discussions over Dobbies

• Dobbies to raise £150m after profits slump

• Tesco unfazed by warning from Dobbies on profits

MPs defeated in battle to hide their expenses

Speaker Michael Martin to decide whether to appeal against High Court's decision to force release of expenses

Yorkshire Ripper launches freedom bid

Peter Sutcliffe is likely to be told that he will never be freed when he is given the minimum term to serve for 13 murders