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HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Shares of China Strategic Holdings soared Wednesday after it announced plans to trade a part of its newly acquired stake in American International Group Inc.’s Taiwan unit for a wider presence in the Taiwanese financial-services sector.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Hong Kong-listed investment company China Strategic said it […]

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MOSCOW — A 37-year-old Russian lawyer for an international investment fund, Hermitage Capital Management, died in a pretrial detention center on Monday, nearly a year after he was arrested in an escalating feud between the Russian authorities and the company, Russia’s Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday.
The lawyer, Sergei L. Magnitsky, who was in charge […]

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LONDON — Kraft took its $16.3 billion bid for Cadbury, the British chocolate and chewing gum maker, directly to shareholders on Monday after the Cadbury board rejected the offer as too low.
But Kraft did not raise its offer, sticking with its original proposal from September. Kraft, which makes of Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies, […]

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WASHINGTON — Legislation that its supporters say would provide greater protection to investors sailed through a House committee on Wednesday, but not before the lawmakers added a provision to ease new auditing standards for small and medium-size companies.
The full House, meanwhile, overwhelmingly approved a bill to accelerate restrictions on credit card companies that had been […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Comcast Corp's quarterly profit rose 22 percent, beating expectations, as it sold more phone and Internet subscriptions, helping the top U.S. cable operator fight competition from phone and satellite companies for video subscribers.
Shares of Comcast jumped 5.1 percent in premarket trading as it reported 361,000 new high-speed Internet customers and […]

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A U.N. report forecasts a return to growth in Asian economies and trade in 2010. But U.N. economists recommend Asian governments increase trade within the region and become less dependent on markets such as the United States and Europe. The report by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific says Asia’s […]

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PARIS — Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beverage company, said Thursday that it would sell its operations in Eastern and Central Europe to a private equity firm in a deal that may be worth more than $3 billion.
The sale is the latest in a series of divestments that the company, based in Leuven, Belgium, set […]

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BRUSSELS — The European Union and South Korea took a major step Thursday toward a free trade deal aimed at generating billions of euros in new trade flows.
With the global trade talks deadlocked and amid concerns over a rise in protectionism, analysts said that the deal could send a powerful signal to other nations, […]

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HONG KONG — American International Group, the U.S. insurance giant that received a massive government bailout to avert a collapse last year, announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to sell its Taiwan life insurance unit to a Hong Kong investor group for $2.15 billion.
The sale of Nan Shan is the largest so far […]

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MOSCOW — Just a few years after compelling foreign oil companies to renegotiate their contracts in Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin has invited executives from some of the largest such companies to discuss new work on Siberian natural gas fields.
Executives from Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total and other companies met with Mr. Putin in […]

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World trade and climate change are the two most prominent issues at the summit talks in Pittsburgh Thursday and Friday of the G-20, the influential group that brings together key members of the developing world and the big economic powers. Agreements on trade and global warming have been out of reach so far, at least […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Major exchanges differed on how far U.S. securities and futures regulators should align their rules, with the world's largest - the Chicago Mercantile Exchange - arguing against a one-size-fits-all rule.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission were holding an unprecedented joint meeting on Wednesday in an effort […]

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WASHINGTON – A federal court in Newark, N.J. has rejected Schering-Plough Corp.’s request for a $473 million tax refund related to the drugmaker’s efforts to avoid paying taxes on $690 million in overseas profits it brought back to the U.S. from offshore subsidiaries.
Income generated overseas that is reinvested into a company’s international operations is generally […]

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PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy of France on Tuesday announced steps, agreed to by bankers, to curb excessive compensation in the industry as he pledged to push for tighter international rules at a meeting of global leaders next month.
“It’s too easy to say we’ll do nothing because others aren’t,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “France must lead […]

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FRANKFURT — The bankruptcy filing of the Arcandor retail and mail-order group has left its former chairman and chief executive, Thomas Middelhoff, defending himself in two inquiries related to his four years at the company.
German prosecutors are investigating Mr. Middelhoff, who once led the media giant Bertelsmann, over real estate deals between a business associate […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil rose nearly $1 toward $74 a barrel on Friday, after earlier hitting 2009 highs, as data in the United States promised economic recovery and a potential revival in energy demand.
Home sales data for July showed recovery in the U.S. housing market, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that […]

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The Macquarie Group, the Australian bank, and China Everbright, a financial services group, said Wednesday that they were forming two funds that would seek a total of $1.5 billion for infrastructure projects.
It is the fourth such pairing involving major new plans for mainland China this month.
Macquarie and Everbright said they would contribute $100 million […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally requested that Congress raise the $12.1 trillion statutory debt limit on Friday, saying that it could be breached as early as mid-October.
"It is critically important that Congress act before the limit is reached so that citizens and investors here and around the world can remain […]

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CHICAGO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange declined slightly for the second session on Thursday as dollar regained strength. Silver and platinum both ended lower.
Gold price for December delivery fell 3.40 U.S. dollars, or 0.4percent, to finish at 962.90 dollars an ounce. Earlier in […]

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WASHINGTON — The secretary of transportation and the Senate majority leader both expressed confidence Tuesday that the Senate would revive the “cash for clunkers” program by voting to infuse it with another $2 billion, as the House did last week.
The Senate minority leader said the Senate would hold a vote, although he did not predict […]

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