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Lloyds Banking Group has been forced to abandon its plan to withdraw from the Government's toxic debt insurance scheme after failing to raise enough capital to meet the Financial Services Authority's strict requirements.The decision dashes the hopes of Eric Daniels, chief executive, who wanted a wholesale exit from the asset protection scheme to prevent the taxpayer's stake in the bank rising above 43% and limit the scale of state-aid remedies threatened by European regulators, the Telegraph reports.Shares in Ireland's battered banks sparked into life yesterday as investors digested the terms of the Irish Government's scheme to take billions of euros of bad loans off their books. Bank of Ireland finished the day ahead by 18 per cent at €3.38 (£3) but that looked pedestrian compared to Allied Irish Banks which gained a spectacular 31% to €3.39, the Independent reports.BSkyB will today launch a bitter attack on Ofcom, accusing the regulator of exceeding its legal powers and using flawed analysis to insist that it cuts the price for selling Sky Sports and Sky Movies to rivals. The satellite broadcaster, 39.1% owned by News Corporation, parent of The Times, was last night preparing to file a critical response to Ofcom's consultation on the subject today. The regulator proposed in June that Sky drop the cost of buying Sky Sports 1 or Sky Sports 2 from £13.48 to between £9.41 and £11.24, the Times reports.Britain is in danger of suffering a bout of post-election blues next year, the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership said yesterday. Charlie Mayfield said that while he did not expect a "double dip" ? where the economy escapes recession only to slip back into it again ? there was a danger that consumer spending would suffer after the general election, after which taxes are expected to rise, the Times reports.Lord Levene of Portsoken, the chairman of the Lloyd's of London insurance market, has launched a fierce attack on Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, his counterpart at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), for branding banks "socially useless" and saying that the Square Mile needs cutting down to size. Lord Levene, one of the City's most respected commentators and a former Lord Mayor of London, also criticised the chairman of the regulator for arguing that preserving the competitiveness of the UK's financial sector need not be a main priority, the Times reports. Barack Obama's decision to scrap Bush-era plans for a missile defence shield on Thursday triggered dismay in central Europe and among Republicans on Capitol Hill, amid claims that it amounted to a major security concession to Russia. Unveiling one of the biggest reversals on national security since coming to office, the US president said that he would abandon predecessor George W. Bush's plans for ground-based interceptors in Poland and a related radar site in the Czech Republic, deploying instead a new system that could hit shorter-range Iranian missiles, the FT reports.Lord Mandelson called on Brussels on Thursday night to ensure that Germany's offer of multibillion-euro subsidies to smooth the sale of General Motors' European arm does not begin a "subsidy war", with governments using state aid to protect jobs. The UK business secretary's intervention in the escalating political row over the takeover of Opel and Vauxhall by Magna, the Canadian car parts manufacturer, reflects London's fears that jobs at GM's Vauxhall car plants in Ellesmere Port and Luton will be sacrificed to keep Opel's four German plants going, the FT reports.Colourful City character Frank Timis is at the centre of another controversy after confusing statements about a potential takeover of African Minerals, the company of which he is executive chairman. In a regulatory statement yesterday, African Minerals said it was in "advanced" talks with Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) and "several large industrial corporations in Asia" over a potential takeover of the group or an iron-ore partnership. However, ENRC issued a statement just two hours later which appeared to pour cold water on Mr Timis's announcement, the Telegraph reports.British Land is to complete the sale of half of the £2.2bn Broadgate office complex to Blackstone, the private equity group, as it prepares for a fresh push into the UK property market. The UK's second-largest real estate company was last night finalising the cash-and-debt deal, which will see the creation of a joint venture with Blackstone to hold the 32-acre City of London estate, the FT reports.Guy Hands, founder of private equity firm Terra Firma, on Thursday admitted that if the May 2007 auction for music group EMI had happened two weeks later, he would never have bought the company, by far his biggest investment. His comments, at a conference in New York, are the closest Mr Hands has ever come to admitting, albeit implicitly, that he regrets doing the £4bn deal that has attracted worldwide media attention and tied up a third of the capital in his two most recent funds, the FT writes. Google, battling controversy over its plan to put all the world's books online, is now planning to put a little back into the physical world, by letting people create new paperbacks from some of the oldest out-of-print titles. It announced yesterday that two million out-of-copyright titles will be made available for printing at libraries and bookstores that use the "Espresso Book Machine", a special on-site printer that can create a 300-page paperback in five minutes, the Independent reports.