BP won a big victory in its battle to limit the cost of compensation for its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after an appeals court called for an injunction to suspend payments to businesses that had not suffered losses as a result of the disaster. A majority on a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit appeals court ruled that a lower district court should draw up an injunction "tailored so that those who experienced actual injury traceable to loss from the Deepwater Horizon accident continue to receive recovery, but those who did not do not receive their payments until this case is fully heard and decided". - Financial TimesThe US called on China to rescind its controversial new air defence zone procedures on Monday because of the risk of accidents, as vice-president Joe Biden began a likely tense week of meetings with leaders in northeast Asia. Raising the stakes in the diplomatic dispute over the new Chinese rules, the US state department warned Beijing that the confusion over the zone could endanger airline safety. It was unclear whether the US was calling on China to rescind the actual zone, or some of the procedures that Beijing said were required to be followed. - Financial TimesMillions of NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland debit cardholders were left high and dry last night after a technical glitch crashed payment systems on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. As high street and online customers tried to complete transactions on what retailers had called Cyber Monday, they were told that payment had been declined. - The TimesPension funds could be given as long as 20 years to get to grips with their ballooning deficits, it was claimed yesterday, as the Pensions Regulator outlined plans to relax the rules on funding. It unveiled a proposed new regime to enshrine the Government's requirement that defined-benefit pension fund trustees should take into account an employer's need to invest for sustainable growth when asking for shortfalls to be addressed. Experts said that, in effect, the regulator was giving employers more breathing space to close deficits. - The TimesThe Serious Fraud Office is examining allegations Royal Bank of Scotland drove some of Britain's best-known retailers including Peacocks, Clinton Cards and HMV into the wall. The taxpayer-controlled bank was accused in a Government-backed report last week of 'systematically' profiting from vulnerable, mainly small, business customers placed in a division called its Global Restructuring Group (GRG). The SFO is already considering a criminal investigation into the treatment of these small businesses. - The Daily MailThe government is coming under pressure from energy firms to make a second stage of cuts to green levies or face gas and electricity price rises in the months before the 2015 election. Ministers agreed to scale back the Energy Company Obligation (Eco) scheme that cuts the fuel usage of poor households, while funding another subsidy out of taxation, reducing average energy bills by £50. - The GuardianAB
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