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Ireland's government unveiled an historic €6bn austerity package as it sought to unlock desperately needed loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.Brian Lenihan, the Finance Minister, revealed a series of draconian budget measures including an assault on social welfare, departmental spending cuts, a reduction in public sector pensions, and a widening in the tax net, as he attempted to bridge a budget deficit of 11.6% of gross domestic product. "The scale of this adjustment is demanding, but it demonstrates the seriousness of our intent," he said, the Times reports.Gold, silver and copper all hit new highs on Tuesday, as the prospect of a further round of quantitative easing in the US sparked fears of a weakening dollar, boosting demand for commodities as a hedge. Gold reached an intra-day high of $1,432.50 an ounce, an all-time record, before profit takers moved in. Silver futures hit $30.75 - the highest level since March 1980 - before easing in afternoon trade, the Telegraph reports.US government bond yields soared on Tuesday as investors reckoned that a tax deal between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans amounted to a "second stimulus" that will boost growth in 2011. The unexpected inclusion of a $120bn payroll tax holiday in an agreement between the president and the Republicans to extend all the Bush-era tax cuts prompted economists to increase sharply their growth forecasts for 2011, the FT reports.Britain's two state-backed "zombie" banks yesterday rejected calls for a break-up of Britain's banking giants, telling the Treasury Select Committee that the sector was "enormously competitive". Amid growing unrest at the "over-concentrated" nature of Britain's retail banking industry in the hands of the big four banking groups, both Lloyds' outgoing chief executive Eric Daniels and Stephen Hester, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, vehemently opposed suggestions that the big lenders should be broken up, the Independent reports.Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking insisted that the cost of a bank account is the same as a weekly cup of coffee as it faced MPs' accusations that customers are being stung by hidden charges. Britain's biggest high street bank denied that it made "excess profits" from its 24m current account customers and said that the market was "enormously competitive". Helen Weir, Lloyds' head of retail banking, told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee: "Our current accounts are profitable but not excessively so," the Times reports.Google made its most direct challenge to Microsoft yesterday with the launch of its new operating system that aims to defeat Windows in the battle for the future of personal computing. Users of computers running Chrome OS will be able to get online much more quickly as the system will turn on instantly and automatically log on to the web within seconds, the Times reports.The government scheme to help the elderly to pay their winter heating bills is a waste of money and should be scrapped in its present form, according to the chief of Britain's largest energy supplier. Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, told MPs yesterday that winter fuel payments, which gave £2.7bn to 12.3m pensioners last year ? including tens of thousands of expatriates in countries such as Spain and Portugal ? was a blunt tool for tackling fuel poverty and represented a poor deal for taxpayers, the Times reports.Investigators looking into BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill have accused one of the energy giant's suppliers of obstructing the inquiry. The White House oil spill commission said that National Oilwell Varco is not cooperating with its requests for information. The claim came as a Halliburton technician told a Coast Guard panel that he missed data on the upcoming "blow-out" that resulted in the deaths of 11 men aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig because he was taking a 10-minute smoking break, the Telegraph reports.Tesco increased its market share over the three months to November for the first time since May, while rival Wm Morrison's share slipped for the first time since 2007. According to Kantar Worldpanel, Tesco's market share increased to 30.7% from 30.6% last year, while Morrisons' dipped to 12% from 12.1%, the Telegraph reports.Two people have been arrested by police investigating the collapse of Crown Currency, the foreign exchange firm that went into administration in October. Members of Devon and Cornwall Police's economic crime department arrested the two men, who are aged 68 and 70. They also executed a number of search warrants in connection with the investigation in Cornwall and Glastonbury, the Independent reports.