Barratt Developments, the FTSE 250-listed house-builder recently besieged by renewed rights issue rumours, hit a 52-week low yesterday after a pair of brokers spooked investors in the sector.

Shell's decision to pull out of Britain's largest wind farm project leaves our national renewable energy sector looking decidedly deflated this morning. The "London Array" was intended to be the world's biggest wind farm, with its 341 turbines planned for the Thames Estuary. The scheme's designers hoped it would be capable of generating 1,000 megawatts, enough to power a quarter of the capital's homes. Shell had an equal share in the project with E.on and Denmark's DONG Energy. Now the oil conglomerate has put its stake on the market, the entire project is in jeopardy.

Exxon Mobil outdid its European rivals yesterday with record first-quarter profits despite falling production and growing problems in Nigeria.

Descendants of John D Rockefeller, America's first and biggest oil industry magnate, say that ExxonMobil, a company spawned from his 19th-century monopoly Standard Oil, faces becoming obsolete if it does not step up the search for alternative fuels.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc said on Wednesday it is to cut 180 jobs in Aberdeen and review practices regarding contractors, as it sells oilfields in the North Sea.

It's easy to forget as we bullet down the information super-highway, but 67 per cent of British people still get "most" or "all" of their news from the old-fangled flashing box in the corner of the living room. (And kitchen, and bedroom, and kids' bedrooms, and... hey! Put down the remote and listen to me.) But something sad is happening on that box. Politics – the democratic debate that determines our fate – is slowly, steadily disappearing, or being rendered ever-more useless. Where the top-ranking politics shows used to be, there is now a message: We're sorry if your picture has been disrupted. Normal service will not resume, ever.

The first international conference designed to question the scientific consensus on climate change is being sponsored by a right-wing American think-tank which receives money from the oil industry.

Just after midnight, almost 20 years ago, an unqualified crewman was at the helm of the Exxon Valdez super-tanker when it ran on to a reef sending 11 million gallons of crude oil spilling into the Prince William Sound.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward is this week expected to put the problems of a self-confessed "dreadful" 2007 behind him when he unveils the green shoots of recovery at the struggling oil major.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company, yesterday unveiled the biggest ever annual profit from a quoted corporation, breaking through the $40bn (£20bn) barrier for the first time.

Television show Stars In Their Eyes is reportedly facing the axe after 16 years on British screens.

Half a century or so ago there was a summer in Spain when two great matadors, Antonio Ordonez and Luis Dominguin, fought mano a mano, hand to hand, with a simple, thrilling imperative. It was to prove who was better, who had the more sublime talent and the hardest competitive nerve.