Thousands of entrepreneurs and celebrities face huge tax bills after a British businessman based in the Seychelles lost a long-running court battle over his residency yesterday.

The Court of Appeal ruled that Robert Gaines-Cooper was liable to pay UK tax despite spending less than 91 days a year in the country because England had remained "the centre of gravity of his life and interests", the Times reports.

Argentina has declared that it is taking control over all shipping between its coast and the Falklands, in effect awarding itself the power to blockade the disputed islands. According to a decree issued by President Kirchner last night, all ships sailing through the waters claimed by Argentina must hold a permit. The measure seems likely to deepen a row over conflicting claims to oil beds lying inside the Falkland Islands' territorial waters, the Times reports.

Vodafone's chief executive, Vittorio Colao, yesterday called for policymakers to scrutinise Google's hold over search advertising on mobile phones, to boost competition in the industry "before it's too late".Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, declined to respond last night, and said he would seek to discuss the matter personally with Mr Colao. Although he did say: "As long as we're pro- consumer we'll be fine," the Independent reports.

Cazenove, the Queen's stockbroker, was embroiled in a criminal insider dealing scandal yesterday after it was alleged that a former partner made almost £300,000 trading on confidential leaks from within the 187-year-old company.
Malcolm Calvert, a Cazenove marketmaker until he retired in 2000, is being prosecuted for 12 counts of criminal insider dealing for buying shares ahead of six takeover deals in which Cazenove advised, the Times reports.

The hostile takeover approach for VT Group from Babcock International to create a £2.3 bn support services powerhouse could yet be a broken up by Lockheed Martin, a true heavyweight of the defence industry. The American company could be lined up as a potential preferred "white knight" bidder for VT in its attempt to see off the unwanted advances of Babcock, the Times reports.

The Obama administration's faltering efforts to pass climate change legislation suffered another blow on Tuesday when BP and ConocoPhillips abruptly pulled out of the leading business group lobbying for curbs on US greenhouse gas emissions, the FT reports.

Millions of savers are losing money by putting their cash into a savings account due to poor investment returns and the increasing cost of living, it has been disclosed. With the consumer prices index rising to 3.5%, basic rate taxpayers now need to earn a rate of 4.38% on their savings before they begin to see a real return, while higher rate tax payers need to earn 5.83%. But with typical rates on a no notice savings account dropping to 0.02 % to 0.73%in the past month, it means basic rate taxpayers are losing the equivalent of 2.92% a year, with higher rate tax payers losing 3.06%, according to the figures from personal finance statisticians Moneyfacts, the Telegraph reports.

The European Union has shown its righteous wrath by stripping Greece of its vote at a crucial meeting next month, the worst humiliation ever suffered by an EU member state. The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own tax and spend policies altogether. It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126.9 of the Lisbon Treaty in what would amount to economic suzerainty, the Telegraph reports.

As today's expected unemployment figures show another stabilisation in the headline numbers, the Office for National Statistics has reported that the equivalent of an extra 2.8m people are officially "underemployed" - that is having to work fewer hours than they want - in addition to the 2.6m officially out of a job, the Independent reports.

Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota, will today make only his third public appearance following the global recall programme that has rocked the Japanese car giant, offering a progress report on his company's efforts to get on top of the problems. Mr Toyoda is today expected to give figures on how many vehicles around the world have now been modified, the Independent reports.

Foreign demand for US Treasury bonds fell by a record amount in December as China purged some of its holdings of government debt. China sold $34.2bn in Treasury securities during the month, the US Treasury said yesterday, leaving Japan as the biggest holder of US government debt with $768.8bn, the FT reports.

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