UNENF

LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays is expected to appoint Bob Diamond chief executive as part of an unexpected shake-up at the British lender, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Plans to radically re-draw cross-border economic government across Europe hit a stumbling block on Monday 10 days from a deadline for concrete action set by European Union leaders.

KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan’s government said Monday it has frozen assets held by some of Kabul Bank’s owners as the crisis-hit institution faced huge withdrawals by depositors nationwide.

LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks rose on Monday on hopes the U.S. economy can avoid slipping back into recession, although the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist warned of weak growth in both the United States and Europe.

LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks rose on Monday on hopes that the U.S. can avoid slipping back into recession, although the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist warned of weak growth in both the United States and Europe.

LONDON (Reuters) – iShares, the exchange-traded funds (ETF) operator owned by BlackRock , said on Monday it had launched a fund that will provide investors with easier access to the European high-yield bond market.

LONDON (Reuters) – Shares in Cable & Wireless Worldwide rose to their highest level since a profit warning in July after a weekend report that Singapore Telecom was considering a bid for the British operator.

LONDON (AFP) – New car sales in Britain dropped by 17.5 percent in August compared with the level 12 months earlier after the end of a government subsidy scheme, trade data showed on Monday.

LONDON (Reuters) – Encouraging news about the U.S. employment picture continued to spill over onto financial markets on Monday, lifting world stocks on hopes that a slip back into recession could be avoided.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian stocks touched one-month highs on Monday after the latest U.S. jobs data pacified for now investors who worried a second recession in the world’s biggest economy was nigh.

Almost 200,000 unemployed adults will lose around £500 a year if planned housing benefit cuts go ahead, union leaders warned today.

LONDON (Reuters) – PricewaterhouseCoopers UK (PWC) , one of Britain’s four biggest accountancy companies, announced plans on Monday to create 800 new jobs as it posted lower profits for the year ended June 2010.

LONDON (Reuters) – Santander could hire up to 6,000 new staff over the next year or two as part its expansion in Britain, the Financial Times said on its website on Sunday.

Bank of England policymakers are expected to keep interest rates on hold for the 18th month in a row this week amid gathering gloom over the economy.

Travellers could soon be using a credit card-sized smartcard to access public transport across Britain.