The Chinese have spotted another buying opportunity: Europe. After snapping up large tracts of Africa to extract oil and minerals, Chinese businesses are taking advantage of cash-strapped eurozone nations to gain a foothold. Read the full story

The euro plunged and US stock markets dived last night after Spain was stripped of its top-level credit rating by a leading rating agency over concerns about its economic growth. Read the full story

Nervous trading in Tokyo sent the euro into an early nosedive on Monday morning, as fears of further debt crisis contagion and stalling growth crept across dealing rooms. Read the full story

Nigeria’s state-run oil firm NNPC and China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) have signed a $23bn (£16bn; 18bn euros) deal. Read the full story

China’s inflation accelerated in April after house and food prices jumped and bank lending increased. The news will fuel concerns that the world’s third-largest economy is overheating and that Beijing may need to raise interest rates. Read the full story

Europe’s debt crisis mushroomed Wednesday as Spain saw its credit rating lowered, just as Germany sought to reassure nervous investors that Greece would not be allowed to go under, saying Berlin’s share of a key aid package could be approved in the next few days. Read the full story

The Goldman Sachs trader at the centre of fraud allegations denied wrongdoing today as he faced a hostile committee of U.S. senators. Read the full story

The City watchdog has announced it is launching a formal investigation into Goldman Sachs in relation to recent fraud allegations in the US. Read the full story

State-run Chinaoil has sold two gasoline cargoes for April delivery to Iran, industry sources said on Wednesday, stepping into a void left by fuel suppliers halting shipments under threat of U.S. sanctions. Read the full story

British Airways and Spanish airline Iberia have signed a deal to merge and create one of the world’s biggest airline groups. The merger, which was provisionally agreed in November last year, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Read the full story

A TOP executive in scandal-hit Anglo Irish Bank last night accused its former senior managers of thinking they “could walk on water”, as the disgraced lender announced the biggest corporate loss – €12.7bn – in Irish history. Read the full story

CHINESE car maker Zhejiang Geely agreed yesterday to buy Volvo for $1.8bn (€1.34bn), the biggest ever purchase of a car maker by a Chinese company. Read the full story

Google should obey Chinese government rules even if it decides to retreat from the country over hacking and censorship complaints, a Chinese government spokesman said on Tuesday. Read the full story

China’s demand for oil jumped by an “astonishing” 28% in January compared with the same month a year earlier, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says. Read the full story

The companies said on Thursday that BP has also agreed to sell Devon a 50 percent stake in its Kirby oil sands interests in Alberta, Canada, for $500 million and that the two companies would form a venture to develop Kirby. Read the full story

The Mexican telecoms magnate Carlos Slim Helú has been named the world’s richest man, with a net worth of $53.5 billion (£36 billion), the first time since 1994 that the No 1 spot has been held by a non-US citizen. Read the full story

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Israeli goods made in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank cannot be considered Israeli. Read the full story

The Japanese Government turned its guns on Toyota today as its Transport Minister hinted at a cover-up of safety issues at the carmaker that is under criminal investigation by the United States over the recall of millions of cars. Read the full story

Gordon Brown’s launch of a Labour election campaign promising economic recovery was in jeopardy last night as a record slump in tax receipts fuelled fears that Britain could slip back into recession. Read the full story

Russian, Chinese, French, Italian, Indian and other oil companies are among firms that have already expressed interest in investing in Uganda’s oil reserves estimated at 2 billion barrels to date. Read the full story

FIVE months after the collapse of a proposed tie-up between MTN and India’s Bharti Airtel, the two are set to go head-to-head in Africa’s cellphone industry, after Bharti launched a $10.7bn bid for most of the African operations of Kuwaiti telecommunications company Zain. Read the full story

Alarm bells ring in the US over the reluctance of foreigners in buying Treasury securities after a report showed a declining demand for long-term assets in December. Read the full story

Google Buzz, the new social networking site, has been reported to federal investigators in the US over allegations it violated consumer protection laws. Read the full story

The European Union has shown its righteous wrath by stripping Greece of its vote at a crucial meeting next month, the worst humiliation ever suffered by an EU member state. Read the full story

Goldman Sachs, the giant investment bank, is today at the centre of the row over the Greek government’s finances, amid recriminations over complex financial deals that allowed the eurozone nation to skirt its debt limits. Read the full story

The European single currency is facing an ‘inevitable break-up’ a leading French bank claimed yesterday. Strategists at Paris-based Société Générale said that any bailout of the stricken Greek economy would only provide ’sticking plasters’ to cover the deep- seated flaws in the eurozone bloc. Read the full story