Portugal bailout could cost UK £3bn - papers

Britain could be forced to contribute more than £3bn to a Portugal bailout package following the Lisbon government's failure to push through its austerity measures on Wednesday.

The Open Europe think-tank claimed on Thursday the UK's share of any rescue package would be between €810m (£702m) and €3.7bn, via the European commission's €440bn bailout fund, the Guardian reports.

Prime minister José Sócrates's resignation on Wednesday night has left the country in political limbo, and piled extra pressure on European leaders who are gathering at a summit in Brussels on Thursday.

The country could become the third eurozone member after Greece and Ireland to seek assistance from the EU and will probably also ask for help from the International Monetary Fund.

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Goldman Sachs' chief tells court former board member broke firm's rules

Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, has told a New York court a former board member broke the bank's rules by revealing discussions of its strategy review to Raj Rajaratnam, a billionaire hedge fund manager on trial for insider trading.

Rajaratnam is accused of making $45m through trading shares based on inside information which prosecutors claim was from Rajat Gupta, a director on Goldman's board between 2006 and 2010, the Telegraph reports.

Blankfein was played a taped phone call July 29 2008 in which Gupta told Rajaratnam the Goldman's board had discussed the possibility of buying a retail bank or an insurance company at its last meeting.

Asked by the government prosecutor whether Gupta had violated Goldman Sachs policies, Blankfein replied "Yes".

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Sainsbury's warns on 'sudden' downturn

The chief executive of Sainsbury's has warned of a "sudden" downturn in consumer spending and "quite dramatic" change in shopping habits this year, with no sign of an improvement on the horizon.

Justin King made his comments as the country's third-largest supermarket chain reported one of its weakest underlying sales performances for more than six years, which failed to meet expectations, the Independent report.

For the 10 weeks to 19 March, Sainsbury's like-for-like sales - excluding fuel and VAT and adjusted for store extensions - fell by between 0.5-1%, although City forecasts of pre-tax profits remain at £661m for its financial year just ended.

King says: "The surprise is just how sudden that [change has come]. People have come out of Christmas and said: 'Right, now I am going to have to approach this different[ly].' People are waiting to get paid before deciding how much to spend."

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