Bankers strike

THOUSANDS of HSBC workers will stage a nationwide 24-hour strike today in a dispute over pay, the biggest industrial action against a leading bank for more than eight years.

Members of Amicus will picket the bank's branches across Britain and will lobby HSBC's annual meeting in London.

Union activists will hand out packets of peanuts to shareholders, symbolising their anger at an imposed pay deal.

The bank said it expected most of its 1,500 branches to remain open .

Rail stoppage MIDLAND Mainline train services will be disrupted today because of the first of a series of strikes by guards in a row over safety.

The Rail Maritime & Transport Union has called 24-hour walkouts for today and over the next three Fridays in an escalation of a long-running dispute.

The union is campaigning to have a guard in each portion of a multiple unit train, arguing that one worker could not cover a whole train because there is no access between units.

Virgln Atlantic

SIR Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic today reported its best profits performance since 1999, despite losing £60m to higher fuel costs.

Buy-to-let fall THE buy-to-let market has come to a standstill as rising interest rates and flat property prices take their toll, figures showed today.