April 18 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

Royal Bank of Scotland Group has cleared a key hurdle towards its hopes of paying a dividend for the first time in 11 years by striking a 3.5 billion pound deal to fill the hole in its staff pension fund. https://bit.ly/2vqoXO6

Marks & Spencer Group Plc is to shut a distribution centre near Warrington in Cheshire, placing 450 jobs at risk, as it seeks to revamp the way in which its products reach stores. https://bit.ly/2EVgEco

The Guardian

WPP Plc has hired a New York-based recruitment firm Russell Reynolds as it begins the global search to replace founder and chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell. https://bit.ly/2ERoVhz

Australia has joined the U.S. and UK in publicly blaming Russia for a "malicious" global cyber-attack last year. The attack appeared to be an attempt at espionage, stealing intellectual property and laying the foundation for a future attack on infrastructure. https://bit.ly/2H4QZ75

The Telegraph

Facebook Inc was exposing private friend lists to app developers without their knowledge until two weeks ago, despite claiming to have blocked the service three years ago. https://bit.ly/2JVplqX

Tesla Inc called a halt to production of its Model 3 electric sedan for the second time this year in another setback for Elon Musk's first mass-production car, though said it will move to around-the-clock production once its sites reopen. https://bit.ly/2qFd1T6

Sky News

Lloyds Banking Group is taking the axe to its UK branch network again by announcing 49 further closures, with 305 staff losing their jobs. https://bit.ly/2vvyh3t

British luxury carmaker Aston Martin has signed up seven banks to prepare a 4 billion pounds stock market flotation that would rank among the City's most anticipated share sales for years. https://bit.ly/2vnpCjh

The Independent

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), which manages more than 1 trillion pound for its clients, said that it had voted against 215 UK pay deals in 2017, 40 per cent more than in the year before. https://ind.pn/2JWjdyW ($1 = 0.6996 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Sandra Maler)