Wednesday, May 27, 0730 GMT

Top stories

The Times: Linda Cook, the head of Shell's gas business, resigned after losing out on the chief executive role to Peter Voser, currently the finance director of the oil company.

New York Times: The US government will gain 70 per cent of car maker General Motors and the United Automobile Workers union will hold 17.5 per cent.

The Times: Virgin Atlantic's annual profit doubled to £68 million ($110 million) but rival airline British Airways had its biggest loss in more than 20 years.

Comment

Ian King in The Times: Perhaps the release of Virgin Atlantic results has been timed to embarrass British Airways during a ferocious battle for clients.

Edmund Conway in the Daily Telegraph: The next crisis phase will be a sovereign debt one and comparisons with other economies will be the measure of solvency.

David Prosser in The Independent: For pension schemes, the balance between protecting the individual and not over-burdening employers has gone awry.

Upside

The Times: Sales at Camelot Group, which runs the National Lottery, rose to £5.1 billion ($8.1 billion) as a growing number of customers decided to take a punt.

Daily Telegraph: Shareholders of Aim-listed Sibir Energy were offered 500p a share by Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas company.

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