The Daily Telegraph

* Spain is sliding into a full-blown economic depression, with unemployment approaching levels not seen since the Second Republic of the 1930s and little chance of recovery until well into the next decade, according to a clutch of reports over recent days.

* José Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission, has demanded ‘zero tolerance’ on bankers' ‘bad old ways’ in a stinging attack on the role of financial institutions in the lead-up to the current recession.

* Spencer Dale, the Bank of England's chief economist, said he voted to limit the extension in quantitative easing to £175 billion, because he feared that a bigger increase could push asset prices up too high.

* Vodafone has launched a new service to capitalise on the popularity of social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

Daily Mail

* Sterling fell to its weakest level against the euro since April on Thursday, dropping through the key €1.10 mark, after Bank of England governor Mervyn King said a weak domestic currency was helping to rebalance the nation's economy.

The Independent