Tuesday Papers: RBS cuts further 500 support workers - other news

Financial Times

* Royal Bank of Scotland has begun the process of shedding a further 500 back-office staff in its investment banking unit, as the group continues to cut costs.

* An “international currency war” has broken out, according to Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, as governments around the globe compete to lower their exchange rates to boost competitiveness.

* An internet virus that has damaged computer systems in Iran was designed by foreign governments to undermine the country’s nuclear ambitions, according to Tehran.

* United Parcel Service, one of the largest package delivery companies, is moving ahead with plans to establish a domestic service in China.

* Nestlé is challenging the global drugs industry with plans to invest SFr500 million ($510m) over the next decade to support the creation of a standalone health science business to tackle obesity and chronic disease.

* BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is expanding beyond the smartphone to take on Apple’s iPad with its first tablet device – the BlackBerry PlayBook.

* Mexico is taking out an insurance policy against oil prices falling next year, hedging its oil exports for 2011 at about $65-$70 a barrel.

* Jimi Heselden, one of Britain’s richest businessmen, has died after apparently plunging off a cliff on one of the Segway electric scooters his company makes.

* Stanley Chais, a Beverly Hills investment manager facing a civil lawsuit and criminal investigation over his ties to Bernard Madoff, the multi-billion dollar fraudster, has died.

* Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has warned US banks to end their “push back” against government pressure to draw up living wills that would make it easier to wind them up in case of failure.

* The Tokyo Stock Exchange has placed Takefuji on watch for potential delisting, citing the possibility that the company could file for court protection.