Topic: London

British retail sales fell at their fastest monthly pace in more than two years in April, after a record drop in fuel sales and a weather-related drop in clothing sales, official data showed on Wednesday.

Outgoing Bank of England policy maker Adam Posen said on Tuesday that he could have done better with his economic forecasting during the financial and euro zone debt crises, and welcomes three reviews of the central bank’s performance that period.

Britain's Barclays said it is to sell all of its $6.1 billion stake in U.S. asset manager BlackRock which it has held for almost three years.

London-based luxury jeweler Graff Diamonds, which kicked off its initial public offering (IPO) roadshow on Monday, is expected to get a weak response from investors due to its “risky” business model and lack of brand awareness in Asia, market experts told CNBC.

When Hong Kong businessman Mr. He paid a 35,000 pound ($56,000) deposit on a four-bedroom apartment in Britain, he believed it was a 40-minute walk from central London, his lawyer says. In fact it was a 40-minute journey by high-speed train.

London prices have risen 45 per cent over the past three years, compared to only 15 per cent in Geneva, 17 per cent in Paris and 10 per cent in New York, making London ever more expensive (and desirable) than its western peers.

High-end jeweler Graff Diamonds is forging ahead with an initial public offering to raise up to $1 billion, setting a price range on Friday for its Hong Kong flotation despite a sell-off in equity markets.

The euro zone is facing its darkest hour but will emerge more competitive than in the past, the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange told CNBC on Friday, though he noted that smaller businesses are very important to Europe’s recovery.

The world's top 29 banks may need a total $556 billion to meet tougher new capital rules, cutting returns by a fifth and forcing them to curb investor payouts and raise customer charges, Fitch Ratings said on Thursday.

Greece formally hands over the Olympic flame to a London delegation led by Princess Anne and including David Beckham on Thursday at the Panathenaic stadium where the first modern Games were held in 1896.

For those who love to shop, the search for that must-have item can be as fun as owning the actual product.  And some cities offer shoppers a bounty of options. Here are the top 10 international shopping destinations.

The governor of the Bank of England said on Wednesday that the euro zone is “tearing itself apart without any obvious solution" as he admitted that the UK central bank, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the government have been discussing contingency plans to deal with the prospect of a Greek exit from the euro or a collapse in the euro zone “for some time.”

Rebekah Brooks, a close confidante of Rupert Murdoch, was charged on Tuesday with interfering with a police investigation into a phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the tycoon's media empire and sent shockwaves through the British political establishment.

Demand for the world's priciest houses is likely to cool this year after two years of strong growth, as concerns over Europe's debt crisis, the health of the global economy and governments price cooling measures in Asia dissuade buyers, research showed.

United States and British regulators have been in discussions with the bank for almost a month about the trading group that disclosed more than $2 billion in losses, The New York Times reports.