South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said a new era in inter-Korean relations is possible if the North is sincere about shedding its nuclear program, after Pyongyang accused him of &ldquo;madcap saber-rattling.

Lee says 'new era' with North Korea possible

Business Standard

A euro area composite index based on a survey of purchasing managers in both industries rose to 48.3 from 47 in November. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

Europe manufacturing, services contract less than estimated

UBS AG, Switzerland&rsquo;s biggest bank and a unit of ING Groep NV, started the New Year by selling top-rated covered bonds to cut funding costs while satisfying investor demand for the safest securities.

Banks start year with sale of covered bonds

US regulators, required by Congress to remove credit ratings from banking rules, have devised a plan anchored in a Paris-based group&rsquo;s rankings that assign zero risk to most European government debt.

US regulators embrace  zero-risk Greek bonds

BP Plc seeks to have Halliburton Co, its cement contractor for the Macondo well project whose blowout set off the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, pay all of the oil company&rsquo;s related costs and damages.

BP asks Halliburton to pay for oil spill damages 

US consumers, who are more confident than they have been in eight months, were lured to auto showrooms by holiday discounts and may have pushed car sales to the second fastest pace in more than two years.

US auto dealers have best December in five years

Manufacturing in the US probably expanded in December at the fastest pace in six months, remaining at the forefront of the expansion entering 2012, economists said before a report on Tuesday.

Manufacturing in US likely to post fastest growth in six months

Governments of the world&rsquo;s leading economies have more than $7.6 trillion of debt maturing this year, with most facing a rise in borrowing costs.

Big economies face $7.6-tn debt in 2012

Rivals to vie for market share with competing products.

Intel, Qualcomm in for a Las Vegas showdown 

Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) must pay about $750 million to Exxon Mobil Corp, a 10th of what the US company is seeking, for assets nationalised by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2007, according to two people with knowledge of the case.

Exxon gets $750 mn after Venezuela assets seizure

European leaders return to work from Christmas holidays seeking to buy time for the Spanish and Italian governments to wrest control over their debt and rescue the single currency from fragmentation as the region&rsquo;s crisis enters a new year.

Euro zone leaders aim to buy time to save currency

UK Prime Minister David Cameron pledged more action to deal with &ldquo;excess&rdquo; in pay in the finance industry as he said the country &ldquo;will get through&rdquo; a difficult year.

Cameron says UK will get through in 2012 

Coffee exports from India, Asia&rsquo;s third-biggest grower, may decline 15 per cent this year, as inventories fall and the European credit crisis curbs demand, an exporters&rsquo; group said on Monday.

Coffee exports may decline 15%

Samsung Electronics Co and Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's largest companies, told employees to brace for intense competition in a weak global economy as the government called for contingency planning. &quot;South Korea's economy is facing increased uncertainties this year, and the global economy may rapidly deteriorate if the European debt crisis worsens,&quot; Finance Minister Bahk Jae Wan said in a New Year statement released on Monday. &quot;Contingency plans to prevent contagion from Europe's crisis should be strengthened.

Samsung and Hyundai workers brace for crisis

US President Barack Obama, signing into law a $662-billion defence spending plan on Sunday, attached his own legal interpretation to several sections that the White House had contested with Congress, including a provision that requires suspected members of al-Qaeda be kept in military custody.

Obama signs defence spending law, with notes

The group, whose members weren&rsquo;t identified, filed the lawsuit in the district court of Stuttgart, Germany, according to a statement released on the OTS newswire late yesterday.

Porsche sued by fund group seeking $2.6 bn

A Chinese manufacturing gauge rose by more than economists expected, suggesting that a slowdown in the world&rsquo;s second-biggest economy may be stabilising.

Bloomberg