9am briefing: Caltongate deal hits the skids

A DEAL to revive the £300 million Caltongate scheme has been scuppered.

City leaders have admitted that attempts to rescue the development in the Old Town, which sparked an international inquiry into Edinburgh's world heritage status, had come to nothing following the collapse of talks with a new developer, Allied London.

Lloyds returns to profit

LLOYDS Banking Group has returned to the black with bumper first-half profits of 1.6bn - double those expected.

The bank, which accounts for a third of UK mortgages, was helped by a dramatic drop in the number of bad loans.

Charges for bad loans fell to 6.6bn in the six months to June from 13.4bn in the same period last year. Total income rose by 5 per cent to 12.5bn.

Last year the bank reported a first-half loss of 3.96bn.

RBS reaches branch deal with Santander

ROYAL Bank of Scotland today announced that it has reached a deal to sell 318 branches to Spanish banking giant Santander.

The long-awaited sale, which comprises 311 RBS-branded branches in England and Wales and seven NatWest sites in Scotland, is set to bolster Santander's position in the business banking sector.

Edinburgh University cancer breakthrough

SCOTTISH scientists have made a breakthrough in the search for the causes of testicular cancer in young men.

The team from Edinburgh University were able to grow human testicular tissue in mice, allowing them to focus in on the changes that occur before birth which may lead to cancer in later life.

They will now use the method to test what factors, such as environmental chemicals and obesity in pregnant women, might influence changes in the cells.