Monday newspaper round-up: George Osborne, Entertainment One, Prudential...

Nearly 500,000 people on long-term sickness benefit will have to take up jobs or have their welfare payments cut by a third, the Times reports.The move, expected to save up to £4bn, is part of the Government's plan to find economies of at least £16 bin from the £195bn welfare budget by 2014-15. Incapacity benefit, which has cost the taxpayer £135bn in the past ten years and goes to 2.1m people, is one of the largest items of welfare spending, the Times reports."Too tough" banking regulation will put a "drag on economic recovery" and cost upwards of 10m jobs globally, the world's leading bankers have warned. The Institute of International Finance(IIF) yesterday launched a determined backlash against national governments who want to "gold-plate" the new Basel III regulations with "arbitrary constraints, the Independent reports.The world is shifting into a "dangerous" phase of unilateralism in currency and trade relations, the world's leading banks have warned after a fractious summit of ministers in Washington, the Times reports. Josef Ackermann, chairman of the Institute of International Finance and chief executive of Deutsche Bank, said that some leaders were pursuing narrow national or regional interests that could damage a "fragile" world recovery.Peppa Pig could be set to complete her transformation from a favourite of Britain's TV-watching pre-schoolers to that of a global, billion-dollar brand. Entertainment One, Peppa Pig's owner, is about to strike a key television deal in the United States, The Times has learnt. The deal, understood to be with Nickelodeon, America's most-watched children's channel, will mean that Peppa airs in the United States this Christmas.Google has built a car that can drive itself and tested it on more than 100,000 miles of public roads. The experiment, which was carried out in San Francisco, was almost incident-free. The sole mishap was when the driverless car was bumped from behind by another vehicle at a traffic light, the Telegraph reports.China is sitting on a profit of nearly $1.5bn from a bold trading strategy in copper based on expectations of an emerging markets-led boom. Beijing's bet that a 'super-cycle' in metals markets would keep copper prices high, despite the financial crisis, has paid off, according to dealers' calculations, the FT reports.British companies are seeking to serve and expand their shareholder base in the United States by listing their shares on a new platform for the over-the-counter market in New York, rather than seeking a listing on the main New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq platforms. Last month Kingfisher, the home improvement chain, became the latest British business to join OTCQX, bringing the total number of UK-registered companies there to 14, the Times reports.The City watchdog is now taking three times as long to approve new financial businesses as it did before the crisis, raising new concerns over damage to London's standing as an international financial centre. Entrepreneurs seeking to set up new financial services businesses such as banks, brokerages or hedge funds must now wait almost three months on average for a decision from the Financial Services Authority, according to data released under the Freedom?of?Information?Act, the FT reports.An oil-splattered BP engineer's boiler suit has become one of the most successful Halloween costumes in the United States. More than 10,000 of the outfits have been sold in the approach to this year's October 31 holiday, which Americans are renowned for celebrating elaborately, the Telegraph reports.Jupiter's successful listing is thought to have alerted both Standard Life and Prudential of the possible gains to be made from either floating or partially selling their fund management arms, Standard Life Investments (SLI) and M&G, says the Independent.