TYNE and Wear Metro workers are to be balloted for industrial action following a row over pay. The Rail Maritime and Transport union said its members will vote in the coming weeks after talks with the operating company DB Regio failed to produce a "realistic" offer. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the "insulting" 1.3 per cent pay offer left the union with no option but to ballot for strike in defence of their members' standards of living. "It wasn't transport workers who created this economic crisis and we will not sit back and wait for our members to take the hit in their pockets," he added.

BANKRUPTCY RISE: The number of people declared bankrupt is expected to rise today as fears grow over the impact of Britain's return to recession. The Insolvency Service figures for the first quarter of the year is predicted to be around 9,500, up from 8,626 in the final quarter of 2011, which was the lowest level since spring 2004. However, the predicted figure is still below the 12,539 recorded in the first three months of last year. Continued low interest rates meant bankruptcies fell sharply last year, dropping by almost a third on 2010. But rising unemployment and tighter lending criteria from banks have sparked fears the recent improved trend is about to end.

PENSIONS STRIKE: Hundreds of Ministry of Defence firefighters are set to join next week's public sector strike over pensions, it has been announced. Unite said almost 700 MoD firefighters will take part in the one-day walkout on Thursday(10) in the bitter dispute over the Government's controversial pension reforms. Civil servants, health workers, lecturers, immigration officers, other MoD staff and members of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary will be stopping work or taking part in rallies and demonstrations next week. Unite said there will only be skeleton staff at bases where flights take off to supply British forces in Afghanistan.

WEETABIX SOLD: British cereal favourite Weetabix has come under Chinese ownership. The Shanghai firm will take a majority 60 per cent share of the Weetabix Food Company, placing a £1.2 billion value on the cereal giant, while current private equity owner Lion Capital will retain a 40 per cent stake. Northampton-based Weetabix, which also owns Alpen and Ready Brek, was founded in 1932 and was family owned until 2004 when it was bought by a Texan private equity firm. Weetabix Food Company, the UK's second biggest cereal manufacturer, exports to more than 80 countries, employs nearly 2,000 people and generates annual sales of more than £420 million. Weetabix cereal alone accounted for seven per cent of the UK's cereal sales, with annual figures of £100 million. The transaction is subject to regulatory and government approvals in China, although completion of the deal is expected in the second half of the year.