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The eurozone's debt crisis strategy was in chaos on Monday night after anti-austerity parties appeared on track to win a majority of seats in the Italian parliament, vastly complicating efforts to forge a government able to carry through EU-imposed reforms. In an earthquake result, the Five Star protest movement of comedian Beppe Grillo looked likely to emerge as the biggest single party in the lower house. The scourge of bankers and corrupt elites, Mr Grillo has campaigned for a return to the lira and a restructuring of Italy's €1.9 trillion (£1.64 trillion) public debt. The conservative bloc of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi looked poised to win the senate, coming back from the political grave with vows to rip up the EU's austerity plans and push through tax cuts to pull Italy out of deep slump. [The Telegraph]Up to 2,000 jobs are under threat at Tesco distribution centres as the supermarket shuts down sites across the country. The company is shedding up to 800 jobs at its Harlow site, 650 at Weybridge, 400 at Chesterfield and 150 at Magor in south Wales. Tesco has 32 distribution centres but wants to slim down its operations by shifting work to two new sites in Reading and Dagenham in an attempt to reduce costs and its carbon footprint. Bosses told staff of the job losses on Monday afternoon but said they will attempt to relocate workers to the new super hubs. [The Guardian]Rio Tinto has been put on notice for a possible credit rating downgrade because of concerns over rising debts, reinforcing the need for the Anglo Australian mining group to cut costs and make significant asset disposals this year. Standard & Poor's on Tuesday said there was a one-in-three chance Rio could lose its prized single-A credit rating in the next 12-18 months if it did not bolster its balance sheet.[Financial Times]BT is buying broadcaster ESPN's UK and Ireland television business from media giant Disney in a move which will bolster its challenge to BSkyB's domination of live sports coverage. Under the deal, the telecoms group will take on ESPN's sports rights packages including football matches from the Scottish Premier League (SPL), the FA Cup, Uefa Europa League and German Bundesliga. The agreement, which also includes the ESPN America channels, will see BT take over the rights from 31 July provide regulatory approval is secured. No figure was disclosed for the deal but it is understood to be in the low tens of millions of pounds. [The Scotsman]Ed Balls branded George Osborne the "downgraded chancellor" on Monday and warned that the Treasury remained in "complete denial" about the failing economy after Moody's stripped Britain of its triple A credit rating on Friday. The shadow chancellor echoed the late John Smith's famous description of John Major in 1992 as a "devalued prime minister of a devalued government" after Black Wednesday when he mocked Osborne, who he said had failed his own economic test. The accusation followed a weekend of bad press for Osborne, who had tied his party to protecting the UK's much coveted credit rating. After the downgrade, the pound fell to a two-year low and analysts warned of a grim economic outlook. [The Guardian]The incoming governor of the Bank of England rounded on the financial industry last night, warning that regulation alone could not rebuild the trust shattered by banks and urging them to rediscover their "core values". In an explicit swipe at Bob Diamond, the former chief executive of Barclays, Mark Carney said that "the time for remorse is far from over" in financial services. "Banks need to participate actively in reform, not fight it. Until recently, too few bankers acknowledged their industry's role in the fiasco," he told students during a speech at the Richard Ivey School of Business in Ontario. [The Times]Taxpayers face a bill of "at least" £50m over the botched West Coast rail contract because of a catalogue of mistakes by civil servants and lack of leadership, the Commons Public Accounts committee says in a report published today. Margaret Hodge, chairman, warned that the final cost "will be very much larger" after taking into account investment delays and the knock-on effect on other rail franchise operators. She added: "The franchising process was littered with basic errors. Senior management did not have proper oversight of the project. Cuts in staffing and in consultancy budgets contributed to a lack of key skills." [The Telegraph]The maker of London's black cabs, which was rescued from administration by the Chinese car company Geely, is to double its workforce as it aims to restart production of the taxis in a matter of months. Having bought Manganese Bronze, the owner of the London Taxi Company, out of administration earlier this month, Geely is to add about 100 jobs over the next year, almost all at the Coventry plant where the distinctive taxi is made. The factory currently has 107 workers, after 156 lost their jobs following Manganese's fall into administration last October. [The Independent]BC