Vince Cable was stripped of key roles on the media and telecoms tonight after he told undercover reporters he had "declared war on Rupert Murdoch" and planned to block his efforts to take full control of BSkyB. Dr Cable survived as Business Secretary on the insistence of Nick Clegg. But in a humiliating rebuff he was told that he could play no further part in the decision over News Corporation's proposed takeover of BSkyB, writes the Times. Citigroup has warned of a fresh wave of bank failures and sovereign defaults in Europe unless EU leaders come up with a credible response to the crisis. Prof Willem Buiter, the bank's chief economist, said the eurozone was paralysed by a "game of chicken" between the European Central Bank and EMU governments, the Telegraph reports.Britain's five big banks are considering making a lending pledge to support businesses as part of a new pact with the Government. The commitment, which would include Barclays, Santander and HSBC, would be a first for banks that did not receive any direct government bailout money in setting public lending targets to help the economy. Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, which together received £66 billion from the Government during the financial crisis, have been signed up to lending targets for the past two years, according to the Times.Deutsche Bank, the German financial giant, agreed to pay fines totalling $554m in order to avoid prosecution in the US over tax shelter advice it gave to wealthy investors. The payment is the latest in the US authorities' investigation into tax-shelter products, originally designed by the accounting firm KPMG, which were sold to wealthy Americans around the beginning of the last decade, the Independent reports.House prices will dip by only 2% next year, propped up by a shortage of new properties coming up for sale, according to a new report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. It said that prices, which are expected to end the year broadly unchanged from January, would edge lower at the beginning of next year as consumer confidence slides and public spending cuts begin in earnest, the Times reports.The European Union has given the go-ahead for the bail-out of three of Ireland's troubled lenders, paving for the way for the full recapitalisation of the country's indebted finance sector. Anglo Irish Bank, Allied Irish Banks and Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) will each receive several billion euros in new funding and two of them will be put into run-off as part of an agreement with EU regulators, says the Telegraph.
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