Business News - AFP

BERLIN (AFP) - General Motors will keep open Opel's Bochum plant in western Germany, the head of the US firm's European division, Nick Reilly, said on Tuesday.

BEIJING (AFP) - China has stepped up its moves to curb banks lending massive amounts of money by issuing a rare warning it will restrict lenders' access and other operations if they do not meet risk requirements.

BERLIN (AFP) - German business confidence surged in November, a closely-watched survey showed on Tuesday, fuelling hopes that Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, could lead the continent out of recession.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's partly-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group on Tuesday said it was offering shareholders new stock at a discount of almost 60 percent under the country's largest ever rights issue.

HELSINKI (AFP) - Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said on Tuesday it would cut around 220 jobs in Japan as part of its plans to streamline its vast research and development operations.

PARIS (AFP) - The French international fashion group PPR is set to sell its consumer goods chains Fnac and Conforama to focus on its luxury brands, chief executive Francois-Henri Pinault said on Tuesday.

PORT OF SPAIN (AFP) - Commonwealth leaders meeting in Trindad this week face a "crisis summit" as they battle the global recession and face calls to action on climate change, the body's chief has said.

BEIJING (AFP) - China said Google has probably breached copyright laws by scanning Chinese books for its online library and supported writers to "defend their rights", state media reported Tuesday.

HELSINKI (AFP) - Finland's unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent in October from 7.3 percent in September, the national statistics agency said Tuesday.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Hitachi is planning to build railway carriages in Britain in a multi-billion-dollar deal that would also create hundreds of new jobs, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Gold prices soared to a record 1,174 dollars an ounce here on Monday as a sliding US currency and worries about a possible spike to inflation increased demand for the "safe-haven" metal, traders said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A rush to cash in tax incentives helped boost sales of existing US homes 10.1 percent in October, according to data Monday showing fresh momentum for the sector at the heart of the economic crisis.

MADRID (AFP) - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said Monday it was "premature" to declare the global financial crisis over, although the "freefall" in economic activity has been halted.

PARIS (AFP) - The French markets watchdog heard claims Monday that 17 current and former EADS aerospace executives saved themselves millions by exploiting insider knowledge of problems with the A380 superjumbo project.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's political leaders clashed Monday at a key business conference over how to fix rocketing public debt and spark economic recovery, with an election looming next year.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A Boeing 747, one of four engines powered by a 50-percent biokerosene mix, circled the Netherlands for an hour on Monday for what airline KLM called the world's first passenger flight using biofuel.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - European governments pulled back on Monday from a subsidy war feared by EU commission officials as US auto maker General Motors prepares severe job cuts in Europe.

NEW YORK (AFP) - The dollar came under fresh pressure Monday after comments suggesting US authorities may extend emergency stimulus measures, encouraging traders to move into riskier assets including gold.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Oil prices rose Monday as a weaker dollar helped boost demand for commodities.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Google is acquiring Web display advertising startup Teracent, the Internet giant announced on Monday.

MADRID (AFP) - With Spain facing its worst recession in decades, the government will approve this week a sweeping package of reforms aimed at changing the nation's economic growth model, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has voiced confidence that the US economy will make a strong recovery and poured cold water on talk of dropping the dollar as the key global currency.

LONDON (AFP) - British business will reshape the way it works as a consequence of the recession, with innovative lending practices and commercial models emerging, the nation's top employers' body said Monday.

WARSAW (AFP) - The European Union may have inched out of its sharpest recession since the global slump of the 1930s, but green shoots are not emerging uniformly across the 27-nation bloc's eastern member states.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - With its deal to buy Revolution Money, American Express is taking aim at the growing market for online and alternative payments, in a challenge to recognized leader PayPal, analysts say.

NEW YORK (AFP) - The 20-year record high bankruptcy rate for US banks and businesses is giving regional banks on sound footing the opportunity to expand swiftly and on the cheap.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US retailers are taking desperate measures to spark holiday sales in the face of what promises to be another troubled year-end shopping season.

MINSK (AFP) - Scorned as Europe's last dictatorship, ranked dismally by rating agencies and possessing few natural resources, Belarus has struggled to attract foreign investors.