House prices fell at their fastest annual rate for 19 months during May as buyers continued to stay away from the market, figures showed today. It was the biggest annual drop recorded since October 2009 and left the average home costing £160,519.

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Britain's rich and famous are moving out of central London's most up-market districts and being replaced by wealthy overseas buyers. The most prevalent overseas buyers in London have been from Western Europe, with 11pc of the market by value.

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A property millionairess is suing her daughter for her £3million home because she fears her new son-in-law will attempt to take control of the property. The property was registered solely in Beverley Lindsay’s name, but her mother claimed her payment, which represented 93% of the price

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France and Germany have called for tougher regulation for the world's financial system at the G20 summit. Obama also stressed the need for leaders attending the G20 to "deliver a strong message of unity" for the sake of the world economy.

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The FTSE 100 continued its decline this morning – heading to lows last seen in 1996. Part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group shed 8%, Royal Bank of Scotland fell 4% and Barclays lost 7%. It slid below the 3600 mark to close at 3512.1, a fall of 113.7 points (3.14%) on the day.

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Northern Rock - which expects losses of £1.4bn for 2008 - has been driving away customers to pay off £26.9bn in taxpayer loans racked up following its Bank of England rescue in 2007. The privatised lender will change its strategy to resume new mortgage lending.

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In Brussels, the European Commission warned Monday that the 27-nation European Union faced a “deep and protracted recession” and predicted that the bloc’s economy would shrink 1.8 percent in 2009, accompanied by the loss of 3.5 million jobs.

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The downturn is deepening at an alarming pace, according Business leaders have painted a bleak picture of the UK economy. The BCC's chief economist David Kern said that he now expected the UK economy to shrink by up to 2.4% in 2009, rather than the 2.2% he had earlier forecast.

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“These are not ordinary circumstances,” Mr. Bush said. “In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action.” The government will use part of the $700bn originally pledged to rescue US banks. It has set a deadline of 31 March for the firms to become viable.

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The European Central Bank, meeting in Brussels, cut its so-called rate by 75 basis points — to 2.50 percent from 3.25 percent — to help restart economic growth and to ease the financing problems of banks. England reduced the key rate by 1 percentage point — to 2 percent from 3 percent.

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