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In laying out a new budget to tackle Britain's fiscal mess, newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has proposed a multibillion-pound bank levy, which will apply to the balance sheets of U.K. banks, as well as a hike in the value-added tax.

After a year and a half of art market anguish, there are signs of a comeback, with the tone set by Lucian Freud's black eye. The coming wave of contemporary art auctions are estimated to be 68% higher than last year, bringing a renewed hope to collectors around the world.

The champion of London's homeless, Mark Guard, is becoming nearly as famous as his celebrity neighbors, including Maggie Thatcher, Joan Collins, Sean Connery and Nigella Lawson. Guard, the self-appointed leader of a group of squatters, is grabbing headlines again after taking up residence in...

Apparently no one told Rupert Murdoch that the recession is over. Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (NWS) is closing its Boston bureau, according to a memo sent out Thursday by managing editor Robert Thomson. "The economic background to the closure is painfully obvious to us all," wrote Thomson, adding...

While regulators wrestle with how to curb banking bonuses, no one seems to have noticed that women working at London's top 50 banks and finance companies in the City are receiving bonuses worth an average of 80 percent less than their male counterparts. That means men take home about five times...

Americans who live overseas are finding there's no place like home. Maybe it's a sign of the improving U.S. economy, or of the tough economic conditions abroad, but whatever the reason, the allure of living overseas seems to be fading for many Americans. The number of U.S. citizens in Britain fell...

London visitors are being putpocketed, and it's not as bad as it sounds.As a way to brighten the economic crisis for some people, a broadband provider is funding a putpocketing program in which 20 former pickpockets are surreptitiously putting money back into unsuspecting people's pockets at...

Summer's nearly here, and Americans are planning their big blowout vacations. For many people, that planning includes mapping out their travels in big tourist cities.Too many people just buy a tourist pass for a lump sum and forget about it. They mistakenly think that simply flashing that card at...

What does the Evening Standard have to be sorry about? The U.K. tabloid isn't saying anything about the sins it committed, but it is promising to provide more details soon. If this seems like a publicity stunt, that's because it is. The Evening Standard was recently acquired by a Russian...

This has to happen a lot more than we know: A British guy in South London was mugged last week by a gang of youths on bikes. The thieves took his wallet, but when he handed over his cell phone, they took one look at it and gave it back."They told me: 'we can't do anything with that.' It is just one...