Thursday newspaper round-up: Strikes, BP, Italy...

Union bosses are plotting mass strikes at around the time of the royal wedding. The most senior figures in the movement are to meet early in the new year at a TUC meeting aimed at delivering co-ordinated mass industrial action in the spring against government cuts. Mark Serwotka, the leader of the 300,000-strong Public and Commercial Services Union, the largest representing civil servants, is promising to lead the disruption, the Times reports.An investor lawsuit against BP, claiming the oil giant repeatedly lied about its safety record, will be fronted by two ambitious politicians and range over more than five years of the company's communications with shareholders. A US court ruling helped to clarify the size and scope of the class-action suit, which is aimed at winning compensation for investors who lost money on BP shares in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill this year, the Independent reports.Royal Bank of Scotland is considering taking ownership of one of Britain's biggest regional hotel companies after failing to find a buyer for the business. Jarvis Hotels would be the latest in a series of companies effectively to fall into the hands of the taxpayer as RBS, which is 83%-owned by the government, wrestles with its portfolio of asset-backed loans, the Times reports.Italy's borrowing costs have jumped to the highest level since the financial crisis over two years ago, raising concerns that Europe's biggest debtor may slip from the eurozone's stable core into the high-risk group on the periphery. Yields on 10-year bonds rose 10 basis points to 4.86% after a poor auction of short-term debt in Rome. The Italian treasury had to pay 1.7% to sell €8.5bn (£7.2bn) of six-month bills in a thin post-Christmas market, up from 1.48% a month ago, the Telegraph reports.The efforts of the G20 and European Union to overhaul financial regulations have been lambasted for being "disingenuous political posturing" that are "increasing the likelihood of future meltdowns", an influential think-tank has warned. The TaxPayers' Alliance has published a paper accusing politicians and regulators of basing their response to the financial crisis on a "mistaken view of its causes" and "political considerations", the Telegraph reports.Coal prices have risen to two-year high as rain caused flooding in Queensland and a train accident closed a railway line to a major export terminal. Rio Tinto on Wednesday declared a force majeure on coal exports, a clause which allows it to miss contracted deliveries because of conditions beyond its control, the Telegraph reports.Berkeley Resources, the UK and Australian-listed uranium miner, said today that its exclusivity agreement with Russian mining giant Severstal has ended after the two failed to agree takeover terms. The announcement has raised fears that the deal may not now go ahead although Berkeley said it was still in talks with Severstal, which is majority owned by billionaire Alexey Mordashov, the Times reports.Simon Property moved a step closer to launching a full-scale takeover bid for Capital Shopping Centres (CSC), the owner of 14 UK shopping centres, by agreeing a £3bn loan from a consortium of banks yesterday. The US shopping mall owner said its board had given it the green light to make a 425p a share offer for CSC, the Independent reports.Fines levied against companies and individuals by the UK markets watchdog nearly tripled this year as the regulator further stepped up its enforcement operations in the wake of the financial crisis. The Financial Services Authority levied the largest fines in its history on JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, helping to lift the overall tally of financial penalties to a record £89m in 2010 from £35m in 2009, the FT reports.Groupon, the online coupon company that was in talks over a sale to Google for up to $6bn this month, has revealed a plan to raise up to $950m, in what could be the biggest capital raising by an internet company since Google went public more than six years ago. If the two-year-old company were to follow through on the plan, the extra cash would lift the total amount it has raised to more than $1.1bn and give it the firepower to continue a headlong expansion that made it one of the most talked about internet phenomena of 2010, the FT reports.