PRESS DIGEST - British business - June 27

The Times

UK OSBORNE MAKES A FUEL U-TURN

British finance minister George Osborne may have to raid Treasury reserves to pay for a 550 million pound ($857.86 million) U-turn over fuel duty that was sprung on unsuspecting ministers on Tuesday.

QATAR THROWS GLENCORE MERGER DEAL INTO DISARRAY

Glencore and Xstrata <XTA.L >were under mounting pressure to overhaul the terms of their $73 billion merger on Tuesday after the Qatari sovereign wealth fund demanded a substantially better deal.

The Telegraph

KING WARNS UK WILL NOT RECOVER FOR ANOTHER FIVE YEARS

Britain is facing at least five more years of financial pain, the Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King has warned, in his bleakest outlook for the economy yet.

GOODWIN: 'WE WEREN'T AT FAULT IN RBS FAILURE'

Former directors of Royal Bank of Scotland, including the lender's disgraced chief executive, Fred Goodwin, have denied claims they did anything wrong before the bank's collapse.

MERKEL DISMISSES MORE EUROBOND CALLS

Hopes that Europe could introduce eurobonds to help quell the crisis hitting the region were dealt a hammer blow after German leader Angela Merkel said they would not be used "as long as I live".

The Guardian

MURDOCH CONCEDES NEWS CORP FACES DIVIDED FUTURE

Rupert Murdoch has finally bowed to the demands of frustrated shareholders and conceded that News Corporation , the worldwide media empire he constructed, may have to be split in two after the phonehacking scandal tarnished the reputation of his newspaper division

The Independent

FISCAL UNION BLUEPRINT FAILS TO CALM MARKETS

Alarmed investors continued to push up the borrowing costs of Spain and Italy on Tuesday to dangerous levels, despite leaks of an official blueprint for loser fiscal union in the eurozone