Britain's Ministry of Defense said Thursday it had signed a 15-year deal with arms company BAE Systems PLC to supply ammunition to British troops and modernize the country's outdated munitions factories.
Serbia's foreign minister said the link is clear -- U.S. and Western support for Kosovo's secession from Serbia has helped fuel tensions in Georgia's separatist province of South Ossetia.
Mexican cement maker Cemex SAB on Wednesday said it would seek World Bank arbitration over Venezuela's move to nationalize its local cement plants this week -- a step it called flagrantly illegal.
Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd. said Thursday its second-quarter income fell by two-thirds because of high energy prices and fewer orders as a result of the worldwide economic downturn.
The euro rose against the dollar Thursday as oil prices continued a volatile ride. The 15-nation currency bought $1.4826 in European morning trading compared with the $1.4768 in late New York trading the night before.
The Dutch bank Fortis NV said Thursday it has agreed to sell its 49 percent stake in a Chinese asset management business to Old Mutual PLC for $244 million in cash.
Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky told a parole hearing in a Siberian court on Thursday that he does not plan to return to the oil industry where he made his fortune.
Tesco PLC said Thursday that it has sold $1.1 billion worth of property in leaseback deals, filling the coffers of Britain's biggest grocer for potential further overseas expansion.
U.S. criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz said Thursday he plans to call former Bosnian Serb political leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic as a witness in a related case at the U.N. Yugoslav Tribunal.
The British government withdrew most of its home sales statistics for the last three years on Thursday because of doubts about the accuracy of the figures.
Surrounded by flickering candles and flanked by armored personnel carriers, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev led a requiem concert Thursday for South Ossetia's war dead in the breakaway region's devastated capital.
