business

The Bank of England decided to inject a further $42 billion into the British economy through its quantitative easing program, raising the cumulative total to $332 billion. The extra asset purchases will be made over the next three months, a slower rate than before. America's Federal Reserve kept interest rates at a level close to zero.

At a conference in London several leading bankers criticized new proposals for regulating banks that are "too big to fail." Josef Ackermann, head of Deutsche Bank and chairman of the Institute of International Finance, defended large banks as the "most efficient" means of providing financial services to multinationals.

The British government tweaked its aid packages to Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. RBS will stay in the government's insurance scheme, but fewer assets will be covered and it will bear a bigger share of the first loss. LBG will no longer join the state insurance scheme and will instead boost its core capital by $34 billion.

UBS posted an unexpected loss in the third quarter, as net outflows from clients mounted in its private-banking business. The Swiss bank earlier this year reached a settlement with American authorities over "secret" accounts.

In an effort to diversify its foreign reserves, India bought 200 tons of gold from the IMF during October, which will nudge the country into the top 10 gold-holders worldwide. The news sent the price of gold to another high, approaching $1,100 a troy ounce.

The board of directors at General Motors made a surprise decision canceling the planned sale of Opel, the carmaker's European arm, to Magna, a car-parts supplier, and Sberbank, a big Russian bank. After talks with the German government, GM agreed in September to sell the business, though European regulators said they would study the deal amid concerns that German workers were being protected at the expense of more efficient plants elsewhere. GM wants to retain Opel because of the "improving business environment," but its decision sparked a furious backlash in Germany.

America's Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped an $87.4 million fine on BP related to an explosion at its Texas City refinery in 2005 that killed 15 people. The fine, the largest in OSHA's history, was imposed for BP's alleged failure to comply with recommendations after the blast. The oil company, which has already paid separate penalties, said it had spent $1 billion on improving safety and will contest the charge.

Palestinians and other Arabs were dismayed when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton marked a reversal of policy by accepting the assurances of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would "restrain" rather than "freeze" the building of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. She later sought to backpedal by insisting the settlements remained "illegitimate." There seemed little chance of peace talks resuming soon.

North Korea's news agency reported that reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods had finished and weapons-grade plutonium had been successfully extracted. Earlier, the government reiterated its readiness to hold talks with America on the subject.

The European Union's Lisbon treaty was finally ratified when Czech President Vaclav Klaus, signed it in Prague. It will come into force next month.

The Israeli navy intercepted a ship carrying what it said were hundreds of tons of Iranian weapons bound for Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.

Fears that civil strife in northern Yemen might spread into Saudi Arabia increased after suspected Al-Qaeda fighters killed members of Saudi and Yemeni security forces on either side of the border in separate incidents two days in a row.