Elizabeth Forman

The move is aimed at tightening its grip on the so-called broadcast "value chain" and positioning it to sell advertising direct. A slew of similar moves by Philips' rivals are expected to follow before Christmas.

Río Negro officials are encouraging the Chinese to look at corn, barley, wheat, potatoes, onions, squash, olives, vines and fruit. "We say soya won't be profitable . . . This is ideal territory for corn, we're pushing for that," said Juan Manuel Accatino, provincial production minister in Río Negro.

The euro was range bound against the dollar for most of the session at $1.3222. The Canadian dollar reached a seven-month high against the US dollar, strengthening on the back of a more positive growth outlook for the US announced by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

Sterling hit its highest level against the dollar since the start of September, reaching a session high of $1.6206, a 0.2 per cent gain. The pound rose 0.2 per cent against the euro to €1.2260, though it remained below a 20-month high against the single currency reached earlier in the week.

Many forecasters appear to be unwilling to give up on the view that green shoots have begun to appear in the UK. On the back of that, sterling looks set to continue to find buyers,” said Jane Foley, analyst at Rabobank.

The pound continued to make gains against the dollar and the euro, shrugging off economic figures earlier in the week that indicated the UK was technically back in recession.

Sales of Mario Kart 7 – a December release – were one of the few bright spots for Nintendo last year. The title was one of three to sell at least 1m copies in Japan, down from seven in 2010, according to Enterbrain, a magazine publisher.

Selling down part of the property portfolio(last valued at £36bn in 2004)is one option,but demand for high street space is hardly blooming.Demerging food from non-food could be another,albeit fraught with practical problems.Whatever the plan,any new owner would have to deal with huge public scrutiny

With 111 shopping days left, it has rolled out new collections and launched a 209,000 sq ft store. Investors' eyes have been elsewhere. Talk of a private equity bidder has pushed the share price up 14 per cent in seven weeks

There are still unresolved issues in the job market, however. The number of long-term unemployed – those jobless for 27 weeks or more – was unchanged in February at 4.8 million. These accounted for 40.2% of the unemployed. The unemployment rates for teenagers (25.1%), black people (13.8%)