A US presidential commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster has found no evidence to support charges that BP and its rig partners put profits ahead of safety.

Chief counsel Fred Bartlit, who was involved in the investigation of the Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea in which 160 workers died more than 20 years ago, said: "We have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favour dollars over safety," the Telegraph reports.

Gartmore hoisted the "for sale" sign last night as the departure of Roger Guy, its star stock-picker, capped a year of mounting woes. Shares in the fund manager, which floated at 220p last December, sank 18.9p to 107p after the announcement that Mr Guy would step back from day-to-day fund management by the end of the year. He will leave altogether next May. The Skandia Investment Group said that it was terminating its €38m mandate with Gartmore funds run by Mr Guy; Killik & Co also withdrew funds, the Times reports.

Rolls-Royce's share price rebounded by nearly 3% yesterday after it said it was making progress determining what caused an explosion that grounded a Qantas superjumbo jet last week. Rolls said that the problem was specific to the Trent 900, which is used by only a handful of airlines to power their Airbus A380s, the world's largest passenger jet, the Times reports.

The Russian internet company Mail.ru made a strong debut on the London Stock Exchange yesterday, with its shares increasing by almost a third. The company owns a small stake in Facebook, raising the profile of the flotation, which is the largest in the technology sector since the Chinese online retailer Alibaba listed in 2007. The shares were listed at $27.70 each — at the top end of its indicative price range — but shot up to $36.35 on its first day of conditional trading, the Times reports.

Retailers predict "tough" trading conditions on the high street will continue into next year, after they posted a sixth consecutive month of anaemic sales growth in October. Fragile consumer confidence continued to hit clothing and footwear chains, as well as retailers of big-ticket items, last month, although rising food price inflation helped grocers to deliver low growth, the Independent reports.

The greatest danger facing the global economy is a return to trade protectionism, Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has warned ahead of this week's meeting of global leaders in Seoul. In an interview with the Financial Times before the G20 summit opens on Thursday, Ms Merkel suggested that China must be persuaded with "facts and benchmarks" to set a "fair exchange rate" for the renminbi, rather than be attacked for its currency policy.

Britain will experience a slowdown in her economic recovery but escape a "double dip" relapse into recession, says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - the "club" of all the world's advanced economies. But while the US, Japan and Germany are set for expansion after their severe slumps, China and Brazil, hitherto two of the emerging markets' most boisterous powerhouses, are showing signs of a decline in growth, the Independent reports.

Administrators are seeking to sell parts of Rok within "days" after the building group collapsed, shocking the City. The demise of the former stock market darling, which carries out building repairs for insurers and councils, has left 3,800 jobs at risk and more than £60m of bank debt with Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, and Clydesdale. However, PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was on Monday appointed administrators to Rok Plc and Rok Building Limited, said it had already received more than 50 expressions of interest in acquiring Rok or individual contracts, the Telegraph reports.

Gold prices surged above $1,400 a troy ounce on Monday, setting a fresh nominal all-time high after Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, said leading economies should look at a modified global gold standard to guide currency movements. Gold traders said Mr Zoellick's comments were supportive to the metal's price, but added that heightened worries about Ireland's debt were also behind the surge. In euros, bullion broke above €1,000 an ounce for the first time since July as European investors piled in, the FT reports.

AOL may be preparing the way for a partnership with Yahoo! that would bolster the internet search engines' efforts in their fight against the might of Google. Reports in New York yesterday suggested that AOL had hired financial advisers to explore options for the company's future. Although it has not formally approached its much bigger peer with a firm offer, AOL, which has held previous merger talks with Yahoo!, was actively exploring ways that the companies could join forces, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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