LONDON - THE British government has become a majority shareholder in Lloyds Banking Group PLC in exchange for insuring more than 260 billion pounds (S$567 billion) in risky assets, the bank said on Saturday.

The deal raises the government's interest in the group from 43.5 per cent to at least 65 per cent. As a condition of the deal, the bank promised to increase lending by 28 billion pounds over the next two years, the majority to businesses.

NEW DELHI - THE US professor nicknamed 'Dr Doom' for forecasting the financial crisis has said the global recession will last all of this year and probably next, India's Mail Today reported on Saturday.

New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said that in the best-case scenario, the recession will continue through 2010 in advanced economies while job losses will persist for an additional year, the paper reported.

HOUSTON - ABOUT 1,000 people working around the United States for the troubled Stanford Financial Group founded by Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford were laid off on Friday by order of the court-appointed receiver in the investment firm's case.