The largest civil service union is to unveil the result of a national ballot that could lead to walkouts at the time of the Budget later this month.

Anheuser-Busch runs adverts in 10 US newspapers, seeking to defend its reputation against claims that it is watering down Budweiser and other beers.

Haruhiko Kuroda, nominated to be the next head of Japan's central bank, promises to do "whatever we can do" to raise inflation to 2%, sending Japanese shares higher.

Shares in department store Debenhams fall 10% after the firm said bad weather in January would dent its profits for the first half of 2013.

Bank of Ireland records a loss of 1.8bn euros for 2012, as the Irish lender saw little respite in the pace at which it had to write off bad loans.

Rangers Football Club report an operating loss of £7m although it says "extraordinary progress" has been made.

HSBC reports higher underlying profits in 2012, despite a $1.9bn fine from regulators for money laundering.

The number of loans being offered by banks has continued to fall, in spite of the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS).