Sunday Papers: other news

* Osborne set for hardest Budget in a generation as he attempts to grapple with the bloated public-sector debt legacy left by Labour; A predicted increase in VAT to 20 per cent would generate an extra £12bn each year; There is speculation that Osborne could raise the rate at which capital gains tax is levied from 18 per cent to 40 or 50 per cent.

* Barclays chief John Varley will this week admit that the UK bank took a considerable and unquantifiable risk in buying Lehman Brothers' US brokerage business at the height of the financial crisis.

* China is set to end its controversial 23-month peg to the US dollar which has been accused of keeping Chinese exports artificially cheap.

* BP in $50bn plan to plug finances; the oil company to divest all North Sea assets' in dramatic attempt to reduce its costs and is looking to axe £9.5bn in spending in order to sustain profitability amid the costs of the US oil spill.

* Britain's new Tory-Lib Dem coalition government is unlikely to help struggling mid-size companies, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (Cima).

* Virgin Bank slaps restrictive conditions on its mortgages.

* Shares in online dating site Easydate are expected to begin trading at the end of the month.

* The Bank of England governor has been crowned King of regulation, with more powers than any other central banker in the developed worlds.

* Tesco braced for shareholder revolt over executive pay.