Monday Papers: Average US shopper spent 7.2% more than last year -- other news

* Aggressive price-cutting by retailers over the Thanksgiving holiday brought economically battered shoppers into stores in droves, according to estimates for the weekend that marks the symbolic start of the US shopping season

* National Retail Federation, which represents leading stores, estimated that the average US shopper spent 7.2% more than last year

* Royal Bank of Scotland offers six months' grace to homeowners missing mortgage payments

* The widespread withdrawal of credit from the nation's businesses threatens the worst recession in 20 years for the manufacturing sector, according to EEF Manufacturers' Organisation

* Leading business groups and economists urge the Bank of England to slash interest rates to 2%

* Average property prices across England and Wales have fallen 8.1% over the past year, according to Hometrack

* More retail falures expected on the high street this Christmas, according to Experian research

* John Lewis sales fell 13% last week compared with the same period a year earlier

* Online traders are threatening to buck gloomy trend in retail sector

* More than one in four borrowers is worried about how to pay bills as fears mount about the growing personal debt mountain, according to YouGov report

* Banks will face more 'intrusive' oversight from the FSA as part of its plans to beef up its role and its staff

* Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, makes an urgent appeal to India not to punish his country for the terror unleashed in Mumbai, warning that militants had the power to precipitate a war in the region - FT interview

* Japan's economy is unlikely to respond to a planned fiscal stimulus but will have to endure higher unemployment and possibly a return to deflation and shrinking output, according to economy minister, Kaoru Yosano

* Volvo and Saab ask Sweden for aid as General Motors and Ford move to bolster marques' finances

* Shell deaths higher than other western groups with fatalities twice as high as BP's , according to figures compiled by the FT

* Gordon Brown is rewriting the government's legislative programme, trimming the number of bills and scrapping excessive burdens on business

* Home secretary Jacqui Smith under pressure to explain her role in arrest of Damian Green

* MPs are threatening to disrupt this week's opening of parliament in protest at Damian Green's arrest

* Society of Pension Consultants say government 'must back' Pension Protection Fund as more firms fall

* Tory MP Michael Fallon calls for change to banks' bail-out conditions

* Opec eyes production cut as Saudis signal oil price target