Experts have been promising for decades to put a robot in everyone's home - and finally robots are beginning to make the transition from specialist to everyday use.
Spencer Kelly discovers the similarities between robots used for cleaning and those used by soldiers in Afghanistan for a very different purpose.
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The Hong Kong stock exchange has seen many proposed listings being cancelled or postponed Shares of Citic Securities have fallen on their debut at the Hong Kong stock exchange as market volatility continues to dent investor sentiment. Its shares fell by as much as 10% in early trade to HK$11.90 from an offer price of HK$13.30.
Citic securities, China's largest listed brokerage had sold 995.3m shares raising HK$13.2bn ($1.7bn, ￡1.1bn).
Many Chinese firms have recently cancelled or postponed their proposed listing on the exchange.
"It is a very difficult time for any initial public offering (IPO) because market sentiment is so weak right now," said Patrick Yiu of CASH Asset Management.
No appetite?Hong Kong stock exchange has witnessed sharp falls in recent days, with the Hang Seng index hitting a two-and-a-half year low on Tuesday.
Analysts said that given the uncertainty surrounding the global economy and the volatility in the stock markets, investors were being cautious.
"Investors want to look for stocks now with a track record, with very low valuations," said Mr Liu. "They don't have the appetite for new stocks."
The lack of investor confidence has seen listings worth some $4.5bn being cancelled or postponed.
Sany Heavy Industry Co has delayed the launch of the retail portion of its $3.3bn offering and also pushed back its listing date.
XCMG Construction Machinery Co, China's biggest crane maker also cancelled its proposed $1.1bn listing after some of the underwriters pulled out.
Activity remained subdued at US factories in the summer New orders at US factories declined slightly, adding to concerns over the health of the world's largest economy.The Commerce Department said orders for manufactured goods fell 0.2% in August, after rising a downwardly revised 2.1% in July.
Economists had expected orders to be unchanged.
But orders for capital goods - expensive items such as computers and communications equipment - rose 0.9%, the second gain in three months.
Sluggish growth in the US economy earlier this year has not been sufficient to reduce high levels of unemployment.
The economic recovery is "close to faltering", Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday.
On Monday, the ISM Manufacturing Index unexpectedly rose in September, beating expectations that the index would remain unchanged.
Millions of students will have access to the tablets, officials hope India has launched what it says is the world's cheapest touch-screen tablet computer, priced at just $35 (￡23).Costing a fraction of Apple's iPad, the subsidised Aakash is aimed at students.
It supports web browsing and video conferencing, has a three-hour battery life and two USB ports, but questions remain over how it will perform.
Officials hope the computer will give digital access to students in small towns and villages across India, which lags behind its rivals in connectivity.
At the launch in the Indian capital, Delhi, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal handed out 500 Aakash (meaning sky) tablets to students who will test them.
He said the government planned to buy 100,000 of the tablets. It hopes to distribute 10 million of the devices to students over the next few years.
"The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide," Mr Sibal said.
The Aakash has been developed by UK-based company DataWind and Indian Institute of Technology (Rajasthan).It is due to be assembled in India, at DataWind's new production centre in the southern city of Hyderabad.
"Our goal was to break the price barrier for computing and internet access," DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said.
"We've created a product that will finally bring affordable computing and internet access to the masses."
The company says it will also offer a commercial version of the tablet, called UbiSlate. It is expected to hit the shelves later this year, retailing for about $60.
Usability questionsMr Sibal says the device will enhance learning in India.
Experts say it does have the potential to make a huge difference to the country's education, particularly in rural areas where schools and students do not have access to libraries and up-to-date information.
Mr Sibal (right) hopes the tablet will end the 'digital divide' But critics say it is too early to say how the Aakash will be received as most cheap tablets in the past have turned out to be painfully slow.
"The thing with cheap tablets is most of them turn out to be unusable," Rajat Agrawal of technology reviewers BGR India told Reuters news agency.
"They don't have a very good touch screen, and they are usually very slow."
Critics also point out that an earlier cheap laptop plan by the same ministry came to nothing.
In 2009, it announced plans for a laptop priced as low as $10, raising eyebrows and triggering worldwide media interest.
But there was disappointment after the "Sakshat" turned out to be a prototype of a hand-held device, with an unspecified price tag, that never materialised.
Consumers are being hurt by global economic problems and a weaker labour market Retail sales in Japan registered a surprisingly sharp fall in August as a post-earthquake rebound petered out.Sales fell 2.7% versus a year ago, a much sharper decline than the 0.6% rate expected by markets.
It ends two months of rising sales during which the Japanese economy appeared to be returning to normality after the natural disaster in March.
The disappointing result mirrors a similar downturn in consumer spending and sentiment in the US and Europe.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, August sales fell 1.7% from July, which were themselves down a revised 0.3% from the month before.
Wholesalers meanwhile continued to do well, according to the data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
The volume of wholesale transactions accelerated to a year-on-year rate of 5.6% in the month.
The market has been relatively difficult for first-time buyers House prices are "lacking genuine direction", according to the Halifax, as it reported a 0.5% fall in values in September compared with August.Prices were down 2.3% from a year ago, leaving the average home in the UK worth ￡161,132, the lender said.
It said there had been a mixed pattern of monthly changes in prices, but broad stability overall.
And the lender said it expected little change in prices and activity during the rest of the year.
"Greater uncertainty about economic and personal financial circumstances, together with pressure on householders' finances from weak earnings growth, higher inflation and increases in taxes, are likely to be constraining housing demand," said Halifax housing economist Martin Ellis.
"Despite these pressures, low interest rates and a rise in employment over the past year, have been supporting the market."
LendingPrices in the three months to September were 0.1% higher than the previous three months.
The report of static house prices from the Halifax's lending data chimes with the latest figures from the Nationwide. The building society said last week that prices were "treading water".
However, the latest statistics on mortgage approvals from the Bank of England may suggest that sales funded by mortgage borrowing could pick up this autumn.
It said the number of new mortgages approved, but not yet lent, for home buyers rose to 52,410 in August - its highest monthly level since December 2009.
Each week we ask high-profile technology decision-makers three questions.This week it is Keith Collins, chief technology officer (CTO) of SAS Institute.
The company describes itself as the world's leading business analytics software company. With about 12,000 staff and customers in 126 countries, the company has a turnover of $2.43bn (￡1.5bn). Founded in 1976 by Jim Goodnight, the firm prides itself for investing 24% of its revenue in research and development.
What's your biggest technology problem right now?The biggest challenge is that the problems we are trying to solve have increased in complexity. Companies have more and more data, and more and more issues that they want to answer.
They have a flood of information from mobile devices, and all these data bring issues of large scale process optimisation and how to improve large scale forecasting.
Operational analytics allows people to fine tune their business. For example there is a big shift to trying to understand customers - in every industry. The products they buy, at which price. It's about customer satisfaction, whether it's for a mobile phone firm, an insurance company or ATM [cash] machines.
The analytics shows that consumers are more in charge than ever before.
We recently worked with a bank were customer satisfaction with ATMs was a huge issue, so we had to understand how to minimise the times when a machine runs out of cash, and project when the device fails.
Understanding the data made a huge impact on the customer satisfaction score and brought a $2m reduction in maintenance cost.
It's about bringing analytics to specific business problems. We had very good success with this in the retail space, and also help banks fighting credit card fraud.
Call centre optimisation is another example: How can you make sure you pay attention to your most important customers? When you are talking to a customer, do you know how they would prefer to get their information? And is there an opportunity to give them offers, to upsell?
There is an explosion in the understanding in the value of analytics. One problem is actually acquiring enough talent fast enough to deal with the demand.
So we are helping multiple colleges around the world to launch or improve and expand their analytics programmes.
What's the next big tech thing in your industry?We are investing very heavily in top performance analytics and high performance computing.
Today there's just a small set of customers that demand that scale, but that's accelerating quickly. What we now call high performance computing, in three to five years it will be standard.
This will not always be a big company thing. There is a whole shift to being more consumer centric, and making customers mobile.
Almost any new company that is starting out today has a completely digital view of the market. New startups understand that they need analytics as part of their company's DNA.
And lots of small and medium-sized companies are looking for ready business analytics solutions that they can just plug in - whether it is in the cloud or a targeted application. We will see a shift where this software is directly plugged into a company's process and consumed through the cloud.
Even small companies can act big, because everything that works on Amazon's cloud service rivals anything that our largest customers have.
Adoption of these new models depends a bit on the age of a company's leadership. There is a new generation of entrepreneurs who gets it from the beginning. We also see mid-sized retailers changing their game.
Larger companies usually adapt when a new board comes in.
What's the biggest technology mistake you've ever made - either at work or in your own life?I have a big problem here, picking the toughest one.
I once developed a whole set of brilliant technologies to near readiness, but had failed to tell the rest of the company about how it works.
So it's not just about having a vision, you need to plan the execution as well.
So I had this design technology for a data partition process to have the fastest data warehouse, but I didn't do a good job to educate our sales channel to take advantage of the opportunity.
Another one: I did not realise how fast the market for tablet computers would develop.
Falling demand and prices of flat-screen TVs have hurt profits at various electronics makers Samsung Electronics has issued a better-than-expected profit forecast for the third quarter as its handset business helped to offset falling demand for TVs and computer chips.Samsung said it expected an operating profit of 4.2tn won ($3.5bn; ￡2.3bn) a 14% dip from a year earlier, but better than market projections of 3.5tn won.
Compared with the previous quarter, the projected profit is up 12%.
Samsung is the world's second-largest maker of mobile phones.
"Its telecommunications business is seen very positive as shipments of smartphones and other high-end handsets expanded," said Park Jong-Min of ING Investment Management.
Advantage Samsung? Analysts said they expected Samsung's handset business to keep growing robustly, not least due to the Apple's decision to upgrade its existing model of iPhone4 with new features and technology, rather than launch a new version.Apple had been expected to launch an iPhone5 at a media event held earlier this week.
"Given Apple's relatively unchanged new iPhone, Samsung will have the opportunity to eat into Apple's market share with its hardware build-up and growing software power until next year," said Jang In-Beom of Bookook Securities.
Samsung has also been growing its presence in the tablet PC market.
Last month the Korean electronics manufacturer announced that sales of the Samsung GALAXY S II had crossed the 10 million mark, doubling from five million in just eight weeks.
'Major risk'Despite the optimism about the growth potential of its handset business, analysts said that external factors remain a big threat to the company in the short to medium-term.
There have been concerns that a slowdown in the US coupled with the ongoing debt crisis in Europe may hurt global growth and dent consumer demand.
"The macroeconomic situation will remain a major risk for Samsung in the fourth quarter," said Ahn Seong-Ho of Hanwha Securities.
At the same time, there are fears that volatility in the currency markets may also have a bearing on its earnings.
The Korean won has fallen as much as 10% against the US dollar since the start of July.
A weaker won makes Korean goods cheaper for foreign buyers.
"The weakening won may have inflated third-quarter profits," said Kim Young-Chan of Shinhan Investment Corp.
However, Mr Kim added the exchange rate remained a threat to Samsung as any recovery in the won would have a counter effect.
No breakdown was given, but Eurostat said its initial forecasts were usually "reliable".
Separate figures also released by Eurostat showed the eurozone unemployment rate unchanged at 10% in August from the previous month.
The number of people unemployed fell by 38,000 compared with July.
The unemployment rate in Spain, the highest in Europe, rose slightly to 21.2%, with youth unemployment hitting 46.2%.
However, the jobless rate for those under 25 in the eurozone as a whole fell slightly, to 20.4%.
Falling sharesAnalysts, who had expected a small rise in inflation, pointed to technical changes in the way price rises are calculated as a contributory factor in the sharp increase.
Continue reading the main story
Andrew Walker Economics correspondent, BBC World Service This rise in the inflation rate makes the situation even more complicated for the European Central Bank.
The ECB has been widely criticised for raising interest rates earlier this year, as several eurozone countries are struggling with government debt crises and economic growth that is either weak or completely stalled.
The ECB has an inflation target of close to but below 2%. So the increased rate of price rises will make the Bank even more cautious about making interest rate cuts.
In addition, some of the ideas being discussed for responding to the eurozone crisis involve a wider role for the European Central Bank which could be characterised as, in effect, "printing money". As this could be inflationary, the latest data on price rises underlines the potential risk of such a move.
"It's not a nice number, but I wouldn't panic that the high inflation which some have warned about for years is finally here," said Martin Van Vliet at ING."We will see inflation declining over the next months, staying above 2.5% but next year, with stable oil and food prices, we will fall to lower levels."
The European Central Bank target for inflation is 2%, and the bank raised interest rates in July from 1.25% to 1.5% in order to combat rising prices.
However, the continuing debt crisis makes further rate rises in the coming months unlikely, analysts say.
With confidence in the outlook for economic growth in the eurozone fragile, policymakers are unlikely to risk raising rates, they say.
Equally, however, sharply rising prices make a cut in interest rates less likely.
This put further downward pressure on markets that fell sharply in early trading.
Germany's Dax index was down 2.5%, with France's Cac 40 and the UK's FTSE 100 sliding about 1.5%.
The euro bailout fund cannot work because already indebted countries like Spain and Italy are contributing to it.
That's the view of Satyajit Das, author of "Extreme Money - Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk".
Speaking to the BBC's Mike Johnson, Mr. Das, a derivatives trader in Sydney for 30 years, said the European Financial Stability Facility is like 'a ponzi game', and that Europe's financially troubled countries will end up borrowing from themselves.
Transcript is below
Satyajit Das: What they have been trying to do is replace the lenders. So because the commercial lenders, which is banks and investors, will no longer buy debt issued by Greece, Ireland or Portugal and increasingly are questioning Spain and Italy, they had to find somebody else to give them the money. The problem is who is going to give them the money?
So they have patched together this European Financial Stability Fund which is a very tenuous process, because it doesn't have any money either, but it's guaranteed by a bunch of countries. But the problem here is that those countries themselves are in need of the money from the funds. It's almost a surreal secularity.
Then there is now the suggestion which was foisted on the Europeans by Timothy Geithner, the U.S. Treasury's Secretary that they ought to take the European Financial Stability Fund and the catch phrase being leverage. So we take a vehicle which doesn't have any money backed by dodgy guarantees, but then they will go and borrow even more money. So, basically, it's almost like a Ponzi game on a large scale.
Mike Johnson: It's an extraordinary thing to get your head around. Let me just get this clear, what we are going to have is a situation where countries which are on the verge of bankruptcy are going to be borrowing money effectively from themselves?
Satyajit Das: That's exactly what's going to happen. I will give you the picture. The European Financial Stability Fund is guaranteed by a whole bunch of countries including, interestingly enough, Spain and Italy. Spain and Italy between them make up 30% of the guarantee of the European Financial Stability Fund.
Now what they are going to do is then the European Financial Stability Fund is going to borrow from the European Central Bank, which has also obviously got support from Spain and Italy, and then lend the money to Spain and Italy. It's almost self dealing raised to an art form. It's abstraction on a level of money which is almost incomprehensible.
Mike Johnson: And is there anyone out there who think this is actually going to work?
Satyajit Das: The only people I think who think that are the politicians in Brussels and a few policymakers because to be very honest they don't have any solutions, and they are now playing almost confidence games to try to actually convince people that this will work. And ultimately it won't work because it all boils down to a simple fact.
At the end of the day, if you are going to do the shuffling of debt, you are going to have to have somebody who is good for the debt and we all know who that is, it is Germany. So they have to actually step up and their taxpayers, their savings have to be used to prop up these other countries. Now the body politic in terms of voters aren't willing to do that.
Mike Johnson: You think Germany, the German people will run out of patience with all of this before long, do you?
Satyajit Das: Well, before they run out of patience, they will run out of money because in the end if you actually look at the amount needed just to get through the next two or three years, if you take Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy, they have maturing debt. This is debt they have issued, about $1.5 trillion between now and the end of 2013.
So all of that money has to be found and at the end if Germany and France and the stronger countries start to take on that burden, their own credit worthiness will be called into question. And if they lose their triple-A ratings, well then the whole game starts to unravel yet again, and it's very difficult to see this having what could be called a happy ending.
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Mr Berezovsky began giving evidence as the case moved into a fourth day Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich is good at psychology, appearing humble and getting people to like him, a High Court judge has heard.Boris Berezovsky, 65, said his former business partner "intimidated" him into selling shares in Russian oil firm Sibneft for a fraction of their value.
The Russian oligarch is seeking ￡3bn in damages from Mr Abramovich for an alleged breach of trust and contract.
Mr Abramovich, 44, disputes the claims and denies making "oral agreements".
In a written witness statement given to the judge at the Commercial Court, Mr Berezovsky said: "He [Mr Abramovich] is good at getting people to like him and good at psychology in that way.
'Pressure'"He is good at appearing to be humble. He is happy to spend days just socialising with important or powerful people if that is what is needed so he can get closer to them."
When questioned by Mr Abramovich's lawyer Jonathan Sumption QC about his own past, Mr Berezovsky admitted he was one of the most politically-influential oligarchs in Russia in the mid 1990s.
But he denied any underhand dealings, telling the court: "I am not corrupt. I didn't corrupt anybody."
He also denied "fixing" an auction of Sibneft following its privatisation, and putting "pressure" on the then Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
"My way is not to make pressure," he said. "My way is to persuade and to explain why it is important to do."
Mr Abramovich watched proceedings from the public gallery as Mr Berezovsky began giving evidence to the judge, Mrs Justice Gloster, on the fourth day of proceedings.
The trial is expected to last more than two months.
They fell 37% at the open of Tuesday trading after losing 10% on Monday following an alert from the Moody's ratings agency.
Dexia is holding an emergency board meeting amid serious concerns.
The governments of France and Belgium, which are joint shareholders in Dexia, moved to guarantee its debts.
A joint statement from the countries' finance ministers said: "In the framework of Dexia's restructuring, the governments of France and Belgium, in coordination with our central banks, will take all necessary steps to ensure the protection of depositors and creditors."
The two ministers, who are at the wider European finance ministers' meeting in Luxembourg, have been discussing ways to support the bank.
Dexia's shares are worth only just over one euro, so almost any movement will result in a large percentage change.
Market concernsGreece-linked concerns are also hitting financial markets again after eurozone finance ministers delayed a decision on giving Greece its next instalment of bailout cash.
It came after Greece said it would not meet this year's deficit cutting target.
A meeting set for 13 October, when finance ministers had been expected to sign off the next Greek loan, has now been cancelled, says BBC Europe correspondent Chris Morris.
The UK's FTSE 100 index was down 1.5% at the start of trading. France's Cac was 3.3% lower, while Germany's Dax had lost 3.2%.
Greece announced on Sunday that its 2011 deficit was projected to be 8.5% of gross domestic product, down from 10.5% in 2010, but short of the 7.6% target set by the EU and IMF.
Eurozone banks have been hit by cash outflows since the summer amid fears that Greece, and possibly other governments, may ultimately default on their debts, and even leave the eurozone, leaving their lenders sitting on big losses.
Dexia's exposure to Greek government debt totals 3.4bn euros ($4.5bn; ￡2.9bn). Its total exposure to Greece - including to private-sector Greek borrowers - is 4.8bn euros.
It has already written off 21% of its Greek debts, but market prices now suggest the eventually loss to lenders could be in excess of 50% of the amount owed by Greece.
The bank is already partly-owned by the two governments, after it received a 6bn euros joint bailout at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
There were reports last week that the bank could be split up, and speculation of a possible nationalisation of the bank.
Another option under consideration is the sale of Credit Local, a unit of the bank responsible for lending to French local governments.
Markit says the German economy, the eurozone's main engine of growth, is stalling Manufacturing in the eurozone shrank at its fastest pace in two years in September, a business survey has shown.Markit's purchasing managers' index (PMI) of activity dropped to 48.5 last month, from 49 in August. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.
That is the second consecutive month that eurozone manufacturing has shrunk.
Greece, the focal point of the eurozone's debt crisis, saw its output contract for the 25th consecutive month.
"Manufacturers are reporting the worst business conditions for over two years, facing a combination of lacklustre domestic demand and falling export sales," said Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist.
The region has been weighed down as leaders struggle to prove that heavily indebted countries, led by Greece, will be able to avoid defaulting on their debts.
This has led to bailouts for Greece, the Irish Republic and Portugal - but the crisis has continued and has weighed on bonds and stocks globally.
Even in Germany, the engine of European economic growth, Markit's survey showed factory activity has come to a standstill.
The news was disclosed by Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the US financial services regulator.
Youku, which models itself on web video firm Youtube, was among the hardest hit, falling 18%.
Chinese search engine firm Baidu fell 9%, rival portal site Sohu lost 5.3%, and messaging firm Sina dipped 9.5%.
The fraud concerns have arisen after accounting irregularities emerged at a number of Chinese firms whose shares are traded in the US.
"There are parts of the Justice Department that are actively engaged in this area," said Mr Khuzami, when asked by the Reuters news agency whether criminal cases were being prepared.
He also confirmed that other federal prosecutors are involved in the investigation, but did not identify them, nor which Chinese companies and auditors are being looked into.
'A big issue'The probe is the latest spotlight to fall on Chinese companies and their accounting practices.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu resigned as auditors for software firm Longtop earlier this year, after the accountancy firm claimed to have uncovered evidence of falsified financial records.
Questions have also been raised over the indirect way in which some Chinese firms obtained their US stock market listings.Normally, a firm conducts a formal "initial public offering" on a stock exchange - something that is heavily regulated in the US and requires the detailed disclosure of a firm's finances to prospective investors.
However, many Chinese firms followed another route to market known as a "reverse merger".
This method involves the Chinese company being bought up by a smaller US firm that was already listed on a stock exchange, such as the Nasdaq, thereby minimising the company's disclosure requirement.
"Not having proper accounting and reliable audit review for publicly traded companies with operations in China is just not acceptable," said Mr Khuzami.
"We have to find a path to resolution of this issue. It is...a big issue for us."
A former investment banker who now works at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Khuzami has built himself a reputation as someone who is happy to go after some of the biggest names in the financial industry.
He has also filed against Goldman Sachs for misleading investors.
The three different surveys gave conflicting signals ahead of the official jobs data release on Friday Employment in the US non-manufacturing sectors may have fallen in September, a survey has suggested, although output growth remained steady.The ISM non-manufacturing index, which tracks services and construction sector activity, fell to 53 from 53.3 in August. Levels above 50 imply growth.
But the survey's employment sub-index dropped to 48.7, indicating job losses for the first time in 12 months.
However, separate data suggested the US private sector was still adding jobs.
The ADP jobs report, which is compiled each month by a major US outsourcing firm, registered 91,000 new private sector jobs across the US economy as a whole in September, somewhat ahead of market expectations.
The bulk of those new jobs, according to the report, were in the service sector - which accounts for about 80% of all jobs in the US.
The clear discrepancy with the non-manufacturing sector survey conducted by the Institute of Supply Management may point to a jump in government-sector job losses, which would be included in the ISM index, but not in the ADP report.
"The most significant thing is the employment index which fell," said Anthony Nieves, chair of the ISM's survey committee.
"This is a very tell-tale sign for non-manufacturing, given how labor intensive this sector is. The drop in the employment index reflects the prevailing sentiment in the business community which is one of caution, hesitation and uncertainty."
Meanwhile a third report, by consultancy Challenger, Gray and Christmas, calculated that nearly 116,000 job cuts were announced last month - the highest rate since April 2009 - thanks largely to layoffs by Bank of America and the US military.
Official US jobs data for September is due to be released on Friday by the US Department of Labor, and is expected to show an increase of 60,000 jobs for the US economy as a whole.
Analysts believe the case has put off US investment into Korea A South Korean court has fined US buyout fund Lone Star $20.9m (￡13.4m; 15.6m euros) and jailed its former Seoul chief for stock price-fixing.The decision by the Seoul High Court overturned a 2008 acquittal in the long-running case.
It had temporarily halted Lone Star's efforts to sell its 51% stake in Korea Exchange Bank (KEB).
Lone Star bought the stake in KEB for $1.2 billion in 2003 and later merged it with KEB's credit card business.
Spread rumoursIt was alleged Paul Yoo, who ran the firm's South Korean division, deliberately spread rumours that KEB Credit Services might reduce its capital and issue new shares, to reduce the price of a merger.
Yoo has been jailed for three years.
Lone Star has reached an agreement to sell its KEB stake to Hana Financial Group in a deal originally assessed to be worth $4bn. But the deal was put on hold awaiting the outcome of the court ruling.
The conviction, according to Seoul's Financial Services Commission, said Lone Star was likely to be judged unfit to be the majority owner of KEB.
The court case had thwarted Lone Star's attempt to sell KEB to Kookmin Bank in 2006 and to HSBC Holdings in 2008.
Public discord and the US buyout firm's legal woes have dissuaded foreign investors from acquiring Korean companies, said Henry Seggerman, president of New York-based International Investment Advisers.
Greeks continue to protest against the latest round of austerity measures European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials are heading for Athens to review Greece's progress in cutting its debt levels.They hold the key to releasing further bailout money the country badly needs.
On Tuesday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou hailed his country's "superhuman" efforts to cut its budget.
The review comes amid reports of a split among eurozone members about further support for Greece.
Citing "senior European officials", the Financial Times said a number of the bloc's 17 members want private investors to take a bigger hit in the proposed restructuring of Greece's debts.
Eurozone members are in the process of ratifying proposals put forward in July, one of which would see private lenders writing off about 20% of their loans to Greece.
The proposals also included expanding the powers of the eurozone bailout fund.
Continue reading the main story
Mark Lowen BBC News, Athens It has become the focal point of the anti-austerity demonstrations: Syntagma Square in the heart of Athens, in front of parliament.
A few hundred protesters gathered there again as the property tax was debated inside. They chanted "resist", calling politicians "thieves".
As news filtered out that the vote was passed, the mood turned. Protesters scuffled with riot police, who used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse them.
For an hour the trouble continued, police charging the crowds across the square and into the narrow streets beyond. Some projectiles were thrown, battered away by the police. As the night wore on, calm returned.
Anger is growing here at the austerity drive, with the property tax one of the most unpopular measures to date. And while the government has a tough time convincing its international creditors to stick with it, facing down an increasing wave of protests will be an immense challenge too.
Germany will vote on the plan on Thursday.Meanwhile, the head of the European Commission has stressed that Greece will not leave the eurozone. There has been growing speculation that the country will be forced to default on its debts, with some observers suggesting this would inevitably lead to it exiting the bloc.
However, in his annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg, Jose Manuel Barroso said: "Greece is, and Greece will remain, a member of the euro area."
He did, however, warn that the EU was facing its "greatest challenge".
There has been widespread criticism that leaders are acting too slowly in pushing through measures to address the wider debt crisis.
Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the ECB, has called on governments to speed up their policy response.
He told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra that leaders needed "to demonstrate their sense of direction", and do so quickly.
Deficit cutCommission, ECB and IMF officials will decide whether to release about 8bn euros ($11bn; ￡7bn) from a 110bn bailout package agreed last summer.
Discussions with Greek officials are expected to begin on Thursday.
A key obstacle to the payment was removed on Tuesday when the Greek parliament passed a controversial new property tax bill, first announced earlier this month, that aims to boost revenues.
Greece's new property tax has proved particularly unpopular Anyone who does not pay the new tax risks having their power cut off.
The tax is one of a number of austerity measures Athens is introducing, measures that saw Greece's budget deficit fall by more than 5 percentage points in 2010, Mr Papandreou said in a speech to German business leaders on Tuesday.
Speaking in Berlin, he said Greece would fulfil its obligations and hoped to be without a primary deficit from 2012.
He added that it was very important his country gets indications of support from "our European partners".
Renewed hopeThere has been renewed optimism this week that eurozone leaders may finally be ready to take decisive action to tackle the debt crisis.
G20 leaders met over the weekend to discuss the best way forward, but EU officials stressed that no grand plan of action had been agreed.
A number of ideas were reportedly discussed, including a 50% write-down of Greece's government debts.Other proposals included strengthening big European banks that could be hit by any defaults by highly indebted governments, and boosting the size of the eurozone bailout fund.
These helped to boost investor sentiment, with stock markets rising sharply on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones in New York closed up 1.3%, while France's Cac index ended up 5.7%, Germany's Dax 5.3% and the UK's FTSE 4%.
Asian and European markets were largely flat on Wednesday.
However, markets remain highly volatile, with investors remaining sceptical of policymakers' ability to solve the crisis quickly.
"Every time the market gets its hopes up that a solution to the eurozone crisis is near, the rug gets pulled from under it," said Ben Potter at IG Markets.
"Only when we see firm action being taken, rather than hollow promises, will confidence and sentiment begin to improve."
Japanese exports have been hit by the strength of the yen Japan's government has authorised the use of additional funds to help prevent the yen strengthening further, as figures show a slowdown in the growth of industrial output.The Finance Ministry said it could spend another 15tn yen ($196bn; ￡125bn) to stabilise the currency, which has risen in value as investors look for safety amid economic uncertainty.
Meanwhile, data showed factory output rose by 0.8% in August.
This was less than analysts expected.
"The recent 75-80 yen range [against the dollar] could pour cold water on the Japanese economic recovery," said Finance Minister Jun Azumi.
"We will take bold actions when needed and we don't rule out taking any necessary measures."
A strong yen makes Japanese exports more expensive to overseas buyers.
As well as boosting the fund designed to stabilise the yen, the government said it would continue to monitor foreign exchange traders' positions in order to deter currency speculation.
This is the latest in a series of moves by recent governments to halt the strength of the yen. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's recently-elected government has already announced subsidies for companies struggling to remain competitive.
Retail slumpAlthough industrial output grew by 0.8% in August, the government said it expected output to fall by 2.5% in September, before rebounding strongly in October.
On Thursday, figures showed a sharp fall in retail sales in August as a post-earthquake rebound petered out.
Sales fell 2.7% versus a year ago, a much sharper decline than the 0.6% rate expected by markets.
This week's data has led some analysts to question the strength of Japan's post-earthquake recovery.
Operator BAA also has three times as many staff ready to clear snow compared with last year.
Thousands of passengers were left stranded at the airport as 4,000 flights were cancelled over five days for heavy snow before Christmas.
But BAA said it now has 185 snow clearance vehicles and has 468 staff per shift, compared to 117 last year.
The operator said it has invested ￡32.4m so far to tackle severe weather.
BAA had been criticised following last year's disruptions and a report accused the operator of a breakdown in communication and lack of "preparedness" for the bad weather.
After the publication of the Winter Resilience Enquiry Report, BAA promised to invest ￡50m to avoid facing disruptions on a similar scale.
Announcing its "winter resilience programme", the airports operator said it has introduced a new "reservist" role whereby up to 950 staff will be deployed to the terminals to help passengers during disruption.
'More to do'BAA also has plans for a new airport control centre and improvements to passenger information.
But Normand Boivin, chief operating officer of Heathrow, said: "There is more still to do.
"There will be lots of attention on Heathrow the next time it snows heavily.
"We won't be perfect but we will be better and we will improve each time we practise our new response plans.
"There will still be times when, for safety reasons, airports have to close during severe weather, but the work detailed in today's report means this should happen less often at Heathrow and the airport responds better when it does."
Photos from around the world on 4 October
Court overturns convictions of Knox and Sollecito
Attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu
Hundreds camp out in New York's financial district
Libyan transitional authority troops ceasefire
Anti-Wall Street protest march
Nalgae makes landfall in Philippines
A selection of pictures from this week's news
Anti-Gaddafi fighters capture Sirte airport
Photos from around the world on 29 Sept
Newsnight's Peter Marshall reports on why, despite clear public anger about the prospect of continued financial bailouts for the euro zone, Germans apparently still in thrall to the European Project.
Broadcast on Thursday 29 September 2011.
The fall in petrol sales cost the Treasury nearly ￡1bn over the six months to June, the AA reckoned Drivers have cut their petrol consumption by more than 15% since the credit crunch and the recession.The AA has calculated that petrol sales in the first six months of 2011 were 1.7bn litres less than in the same period three years ago.
The AA says the drop in petrol sales is a direct result of record fuel prices.
Many drivers are struggling to make ends meet in any case, so the high cost of petrol leaves them with no option but to try to use less.
And businesses have been cutting back as well.
The cut in fuel purchases, comparing the first six months of this year with pre-recession levels, is equivalent to 40,000 delivery rounds by fully-laden petrol tankers.
One result has been lower emissions of potentially damaging exhaust fumes.
Another, says the AA, is that the fall in sales has deprived the Treasury of nearly ￡1bn in fuel duty between January and June this year.
And while supermarkets have attracted drivers looking for bargain fuel, hundreds of other petrol stations have gone out of business.
Energy-intensive industries have seen gas and electricity bills soar Despite government hopes that manufacturing will lead the UK recovery, there are fears some energy-intensive industries may be forced to leave the UK as prices rocket.Davin Bates is standing at the cool end of a tunnel kiln watching racks of cups and sugar bowls trundle out ready for glazing.
As we peer fifty feet in to the bright orange centre, he tells me that the internal temperature is well over 1000 degrees centigrade.
Then he breaks the bad news about his gas bill.
Davin is a management accountant at one of Stoke-on-Trent's remaining successful potteries, Steelite. It is a sprawling village of redbrick buildings employing 650 people which produces half a million pieces of crockery a week.
There are seven kilns in all. Keeping them fired up was costly enough last year.
But this year Davin has faced a 55% rise in the cost of gas. The firm's electricity bill has also gone up by 17%.
Tough decisions"We find it difficult to pass on these costs to our customers," says Davin.
He says profits are therefore getting squeezed and the company's future plans are in jeopardy: "Investment will have to be looked at, because this is coming off the bottom line," he adds.
Across the whole sector, energy bills are driving managers to make tough decisions.At the British Ceramic Confederation, Dr Laura Cohen has watched factory after factory close - and she identifies high energy costs as a major problem.
She knows that other companies have moved production overseas.
"We heard only a few weeks ago that one firm has transferred all of their manufacturing to China," she says. "Energy costs are a significant part of that."
It is a trend which is not confined to the long-troubled Potteries. Other parts of the country are hit too.
The huge chemical industry, which contributes ￡30m a day to the British economy, is also suffering.
At the family firm of Thomas Swan in County Durham, enormous sealed vats of chemicals are heated and stirred to make specialist powders and liquids for niche hair dyes, printing and cleaning products.
Managing director Harry Swan, a great-grandson of the founder, has steered the company through the recession and now finds himself hit by electricity and gas bills of almost ￡1m.
His plant uses 28,000 megawatt hours of energy a year. Even before the latest round of price rises, his extra energy costs this year were equivalent to a month's profit. He is dreading the next bill.
For the Chemical Industries Association, chief executive Steve Elliott fears British job losses could be imminent: "There will come a moment when people say enough is enough," he says.
"There will only be one direction of travel - out of the UK."
There could be worse to come.
Industries have been totting up the cost of government and European initiatives to promote a low-carbon economy, the so-called "green taxes", and some say their additional bill will run into the millions.
'Tipping point'Cemex UK runs the biggest cement plant in the country, based on the outskirts of Rugby. It is not averse to the idea of a green economy. In recent years it has moved away from dependence on coal alone.
It now also burns chippings from old tyres and a fuel made from minced-up household waste. But the company is worried about the impact of coming green taxes.
Director Andy Spencer estimates that they will increase his annual energy costs by ￡12m.
What most concerns Cemex is that other countries will not impose similar new taxes on their cement producers. His prices would then struggle to compete on world markets.So Andy Spencer's thoughts are already turning to the possibility of switching production out of the UK to Cemex plants abroad, particularly in Egypt.
"I can foresee a time when economically it makes more sense to do that and I don't think that time is far away," he says.
"We are very committed to the UK, but there is a genuine concern that we could reach that tipping point where the economics don't stack up to produce domestically in the UK."
This seems at odds with the government's goal of rebalancing the economy in favour of manufacturing industries. The Chancellor George Osborne has called for "a march of the makers".
Andy Spencer sees that march hitting a roadblock. "We know we need to make the transition to a green economy," he says.
"But it must not come at the price of exporting our domestic energy intensive industries."
No blank chequesThe Energy Secretary Chris Huhne says there is little the government can do about some energy price rises.
"How much of this is due to the fact that these businesses are very reliant on world market factors? We've had a 27% increase in the gas price on world markets over the year to August," he says.
"Now with the best will in the world, I can't do anything about that."But he argues the government's reform of the electricity market will reduce prices for business and domestic consumers alike.
He is working on plans to announce special help for high-energy industries later this year, and says that in 2020 the net effect of the government's energy and climate change policies will be to reduce bills across the board.
But he is sceptical of some complaints on green taxes.
"I don't accept that some of the stories we are hearing about green taxes are correct. There are some ludicrously inflated and exaggerated claims," he says.
"I do not want to see even the most energy-intensive industries leave the UK, that would be madness.
"But am I writing blank cheques to anybody who says they've got a problem? No."
File on 4 is on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 4 October at 20:00 BST and Sunday 9 October at 17:00 BST. Listen again via the Radio 4 website or download the podcast.
Qatar now has 11 years to prepare for the 2022 World Cup To say the football world was shocked when Qatar was given the right to host the 2022 football World Cup would be an understatement.Critics, and many still remain, wondered how such a massive event could be held in a country with a total population less than Greater Manchester's, and where the summer temperature can reach 50C.
However, the man at the helm of organising the tournament insists criticism is misplaced and that the Middle Eastern Emirate will be able to stage a memorable tournament 11 years from now.
Hassan al-Thawadi, the secretary-general of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, is looking to provide a World Cup memorable for all the right reasons.
Mr al-Thawadi said that two billion people were within a four-hour flight of Qatar, and that the World Cup would "build bridges of understanding between the Middle East and rest of the world".
And some bridges need to be built.
He said that since Fifa had awarded it the tournament, the emirate had faced an "avalanche of accusations and allegations" relating to claims it had bribed its way to securing the World Cup.
Mr al-Thawadi said Qatar had in fact conducted its bid campaign "to the highest ethical and moral standards".
'Promises'Now he wants to focus on leaving a "bold legacy" from hosting a World Cup which some analysts estimate could cost as much as ￡138bn to bring about.
Qatar hopes to leave a legacy in the areas of football development, air-cooling technology, building modular stadiums (which can be downsized after the event), and fan experience.
New stadiums will be built and existing ones will have their capacity extended "We can deliver... and fulfil the promises we made to the world," Mr al-Thawadi told delegates at the Leaders in Football conference in London.
He said Qatar has been drawing inspiration about how to host a successful event from a number of sources, including London 2012.
The small nation, population 1.7 million, is now looking to appoint a project management company by the end of the year - "a crucial appointment which we must get right".
It is also looking to draw up a "master schedule" for stadiums and infrastructure, in order to resolve any potential pitfalls on the road to 2022 as soon as possible.
There will be 12 stadiums in use at the World Cup, and it is hoped the first new one with air-cooling technology with will be in place by 2015.
CoolingIn addition, Mr al-Thawadi said the 2022 World Cup would benefit from a "state-of-the-art transport infrastructure" which needed to be largely constructed from scratch.
The official said that the small size of the emirate meant fans would be able to stay in the same hotel for the duration of the tournament, and also to travel easily and take in two games in one day at different venues.One on the thorny question of temperature, the country says it is also developing air-cooling techniques.
"Technology is already being trialled in open spaces in Qatar," says Mr Al al-Thawadi.
There has been talk of moving the World Cup to the winter, but this notion has been scotched my many, including the German football federation.
"We submitted a bid that looks towards hosting a summer World Cup - we are moving towards that," says the 2022 supremo.
He said it was up to the global football community to come to any unanimous decision if that situation was ever to be changed.
Meanwhile, nine of the stadiums being used will be modular, and Qatar will donate 170,000 seats to developing countries after the World Cup, when stadiums are slimmed down.
That he said, meant the country would not be lumbered with any large "white elephant" rarely full stadiums after 2022.
AlcoholFor potential visiting fans, Mr al-Thawadi wanted to quell fears that there would be nothing for them to do after matches.
Continue reading the main storyWe are confident and excited that this will leave a legacy of understanding, and that people can unite through a shared love of football”End Quote Hassan al-Thawadi Qatar 2022 "There is significant investment in tourism in Qatar, museums and entertainment sites, and a service industry dedicated towards fans," he says.
"We have always said alcohol would be available. It might not be as available as it is in London, but any fan that wants to enjoy a drink can do so."
He said the Qatar public would also be prepared for the influx of fans and, for example, their different dress sense.
In addition, he said Qatar was host to many different communities, including English people, and was "used to being hospitable".
He added: "We have hosted major events over the years" - including the 2006 Asian Games.
CatalystThe country has also applied to host the 2017 World Athletics Championship - in competition with London - and also the 2020 Olympics.
"The Olympic Games bid is not a distraction to 2022, and may be an opportunity for some synergies with the World Cup."
It is hoped the 2022 World Cup will help improve football quality in Qatar Hosting these large sporting events could, he said, be used as "an economic tool".
"The World Cup can be a catalyst of economic change," he believes, not only for Qatar but for the whole Middle East region.
He said a number of yet-to-be-revealed initiatives were in the pipeline to involve other Middle East countries' participation in the World Cup.
Finally, on the playing field, it is hoped that 2022 will provide the same boost to football in West Asia that the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan did for East Asia, particularly the two host countries.
"We want people to come and explore, and learn about us," he says.
"We are confident and excited that this will leave a legacy of understanding, and that people can unite through a shared love of football."
The shutdown if the refinery has affected gas, oil and jet fuel production. Shell has declared a force majeure on some of its customers after a fire shut down its refinery in Singapore last week. The fire affected its diesel fuel unit but forced Shell to shut its entire refinery, hurting its supplies.
The declaration of Force Majeure excuses a company from contractual agreements when an extraordinary event occurs which is beyond its control.
The refinery is Shell's biggest such operation globally.
"We confirm that Force Majeure has been declared on some of our customers," Lee Tzu Yang, chairman of Shell Singapore, said on the company's website.
"We continue to be in discussions with our customers to address their supply of product needs and to minimise any potential impact on them," he added.
The refinery has a capacity of 500,000 barrels a day.
Dexia received a 6bn-euro bailout at the height of the financial crisis Dexia has called an emergency board meeting amid fears over its exposure to Greek debt.Meanwhile, shares in the Franco-Belgian bank fell 10% on Monday after rating agency Moody's said it was reviewing Dexia for a possible downgrade.
The finance ministers of Belgium and France are meeting eurozone colleagues in Luxembourg, and are expected to discuss ways to support the bank.
Financial markets fell on news Greece would miss deficit reduction targets.
Greece announced on Sunday that the 2011 deficit was projected to be 8.5% of gross domestic product, down from 10.5% in 2010, but short of the 7.6% target set by the EU and IMF.
Write-offThe news affected financial markets across Asia and Europe, with bank shares among the hardest hit.
Eurozone banks have been hit by cash outflows since the summer amid fears that Greece, and possibly other governments, may ultimately default on their debts, and even leave the eurozone, leaving their lenders sitting on big losses.
Dexia shares initially fell 14% on news of the possible rating downgrde, and despite a rally back in later trading, they were still the worst hit in the financial sector.
Moody's cited Dexia's potential losses on a Greek debt default, as well as the bank's recent difficulties in borrowing short-term cash from markets, as reasons for the rating review.
Continue reading the main storyIt was only on July 15 that the European Banking Authority [stress tests]... portrayed Dexia as one of the strongest banks in Europe”End Quote
Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News Dexia's exposure to Greek government debt totals 3.4bn euros ($4.5bn; ￡2.9bn). Its total exposure to Greece - including to private-sector Greek borrowers - is 4.8bn euros.It has already written off 21% of its Greek debts, but market prices now suggest the eventually loss to lenders could be in excess of 50% of the amount owed by Greece.
Paris-based business newspaper Les Echos reported on Friday that the French and Belgian governments would discuss measures to shore up Dexia's balance sheet.
The bank is already partly-owned by the two governments, after it received a 6bn euros joint bailout at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
There were reports last week that the bank could be split up, and speculation of a possible nationalisation of the bank.
Another option under consideration is the sale of Credit Local, a unit of the bank responsible for lending to French local governments.
Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders told Belgian radio on Friday that Dexia's shareholders should be behind the bank and be ready intervene if there was a problem.
Price rises have recently been announced by all the major energy suppliers The cheapest domestic energy deal available to UK householders has risen above ￡1,000 a year for the first time.Scottish Power has withdrawn its ￡990 internet tariff, following moves by other energy providers in recent weeks.
Some online packages are cheaper than the average gas and electricity bill because of the lower overheads involved.
But these prices have risen in the same way as other payment options, with companies blaming wholesale costs.
TariffsLast month, EDF Energy became the last of the "big six" energy companies to announce increases in prices for domestic customers.
The tariffs across the industry have included price rises of up to 18%.
Price comparison website Uswitch said that in the last couple of months, energy companies had withdrawn some of their most competitive online rates.
Meanwhile, Mark Todd, of price comparison website Energyhelpline, said that the cull meant households with average energy use could no longer get any deals for under ￡1,000.
"This is the first time that has been the case and emphasises in stark terms how bills are reaching historic levels," he said.
Regulator Ofgem is studying whether higher prices are justified, while Energy Secretary Chris Huhne recently pledged to "get tough" with the six biggest energy companies on their tariffs.
Scottish Power Scottish & Southern British Gas Npower E.On EDF
Arsenal moved from Highbury to Emirates Stadium in 2006 Chief executive Ivan Gazidis has said Arsenal's financial future is bright despite a fall in turnover and profit.The Gunners reported group turnover for the year ending 31 May as ￡255.7m, down from ￡379.9m in 2010, while profit was also reduced from ￡56m to ￡14.8m.
Gazidis told the club website: "We are very secure - it's a good set of results again.
"This is a very solid, very healthy set of results and it gives us a good platform to move forward from."
Continue reading the main storyArsenal's accounts do not include the ￡30m gained from the sale of Cesc Fabregas, the ￡24m received for Samir Nasri or the ￡7m paid by Manchester City for Gael Clichy
A reduced income from property sales at the Highbury redevelopment and increase in player wages have played their part in the drops, but the figures do not include the sales of midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri to Barcelona and Manchester City respectively.
"We didn't have the same kind of profit from player sales that we had in the previous season and that explains the slight reduction in profit," added Gazidis.
"We haven't seen the same kind of profits from the property side that we have seen in the past but that was entirely to be expected. Our property business is debt-free so any new sales of property do accumulate cash, which is very positive for the future."
Mr Osborne has found ￡805m to freeze council tax in England in 2012-13 - saving people ￡72 a year.
But he stressed that money is still tight and there will be no deviation from his deficit reduction plan.
He said solving the eurozone crisis remains the most important factor in kick starting growth in the UK.
The chancellor has been under pressure from Labour to cut VAT to inject money into the economy - and from senior figures in his own party to scrap the 50p top rate of income tax.
'Debt crisis'But in a sober speech to party activists, the chancellor said it would be wrong to borrow money to fund temporary tax cuts or increase public spending.
He did, however, announce that the Treasury would engage in "credit easing" - a move aimed at cutting the cost of borrowing for hard-pressed businesses, as well as improving access to loans.
The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said the move, which would involve the public sector buying bonds issues by companies, was "potentially very significant" but full details would not be revealed until the chancellor's autumn statement in November.
In his speech, Mr Osborne said he had "thought hard" about what more can be done to boost growth and explored "every single option" - but "borrowing too much is the cause of Britain's problems, not the solution".
Continue reading the main story
Nick Robinson BBC Political Editor The most significant announcement in the chancellor's speech is also the one fewest will understand.
It is his pledge that the Treasury will engage in "credit easing" - ie some as yet unspecified way to underwrite loans to small businesses who are struggling to get credit now.
The speech that they are quoting at the top of government is by Adam Posen (a member of the Bank of England's interest rate-setting committee).
Although I'm told that his proposal for a new bank may take too long to implement.
"We would be risking our nation's credit rating for a few billion pounds more, when that amount is dwarfed by the scale and power of the daily flows of money in the international bond markets, swirling around ready to pick off the next country."We will not take that risk. We are in a debt crisis, it is not like a normal recovery. You can't borrow your way out of debt."
And he added: "I'm a believer in tax cuts - permanent tax cuts paid for by sound public finances.
"Right now, temporary tax cuts or more spending are two sides of exactly the same coin, a coin that has to be borrowed - more debt that has to be paid off."
Mr Osborne said Britain's economic troubles were caused by the "catastrophic mistakes" of the previous Labour administration, as well as banks which "let down their customers, let down their shareholders and let down this country".
'Underspend'He said the government is helping businesses by keeping interest rates low - "the most powerful stimulus that exists" - but borrowing billions of pounds more would put that at risk.
Mr Osborne's speech comes as the Institute of Directors called for a fresh effort to boost economic growth in the UK.
The chancellor announced increased investment in scientific research and the extension of mobile phone coverage to six million people - as well as extra cash from a Whitehall "underspend" to fund a council tax freeze.
The government cannot force councils to freeze bills but it is offering to give those that limit spending rises to 2.5% the money they need.Money would also be offered to the Scottish and Welsh administrations, which will choose how it is spent.
Speaking earlier to BBC News, Mr Osborne said a solution to the eurozone debt crisis must be found by the time the Group of 20 nations meet next month and failure to do so would be "terrible not just for Britain, not just for Europe, but for the entire world economy".
The chancellor, who is travelling to Luxembourg for a meeting with European finance ministers, told BBC News that the 17 eurozone nations meeting in Luxembourg on Monday must decisively figure out how to handle Greece's debts, and urged them to extend the size of their bailout fund.
Credit ratingThe chancellor's speech comes as Standard and Poor's said it would hold the UK's credit rating at the highest possible level in light of its "wealthy and diversified economy" and said the outlook remained "stable".
But the agency, which released the announcement just as Mr Osborne took to the stage in Manchester, said the government's efforts to correct the UK's public finances would "weigh on the economy".
For Labour, shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie said it was "staggering" the speech did not give more attention to the "growth problem".
He said: "His speech really seemed incredibly complacent and quite frankly out of touch, out of touch with the realities of some of the costs that ordinary people face, the difficulties that businesses are facing and no plan for growth."
But Andrew Tyrie, the senior Conservative backbencher who said at the weekend that the government was not doing enough to promote economic growth, told the BBC: "I think it's a huge step forward, and will be widely welcomed not only in the party, but by all those people in the country who also need a growth strategy to help them move forward."
Hayes joined the Wasps board in 2007, before taking ownership on December 2008 Wasps owner Steve Hayes has announced he is looking to sell the club.Hayes, who also owns Wycombe Wanderers FC - Wasps' fellow tenants at Adams Park - bought the Premiership outfit in 2008.
Hayes said a failure to receive backing for a new stadium at Wycombe Air Park had contributed towards the decision.
"The vision of planning and developing this facility was one of the key reasons I got involved in the club," he told the Wasps website.
"And being unable to bring this to fruition remains bitterly disappointing.
Continue reading the main story June 2004: Buys a 25% stake in Wycombe WanderersOctober 2007: Joins the Wasps board after buying 11.6% stake in the clubJanuary 2009: Takes full ownership of WaspsJuly 2009: Becomes owner of Wycombe, where he was previously managing directorJuly 2011: Fails in bid to create a new stadium for both clubsOctober 2011: Announces he is looking to sell Wasps"I fully believe that a new stadium for Wasps is essential in the coming years as we have always said that Adams Park was unsustainable as a long-term option.
"I will work with any potential owners to develop the sporting village model we had already come up with at an alternative location."
In his three years at the club Hayes has started an annual St George's Day game at Twickenham and oversaw an English club's first competitive game overseas.
"Any new owner will have to show me that their aspirations are to provide London Wasps with the right level of investment and structure to ensure that they are once again a team in the hunt for titles at the end of every season," the businessman added.
Former Wasps forward Lawrence Dallaglio, who is a member of the club's board, said: "Steve's passion and vision over the past number of years has helped bring the club to new audiences around the world and any new owners will take on a club in a healthy position in terms of the direction it is heading on and off the pitch."
Hayes insisted he will remain at the helm of Wycombe, but has not ruled out a future sale of the League One side.
"I want to assure [Wycombe supporters] that I remain fully committed to Wycombe Wanderers," he explained.
"Of course, as ever, if approaches are made to me for the club then these would be considered carefully based on what is best for the club but for now my intention is to remain the owner for the foreseeable future."
The 24-hour strike saw flights and ferry services cancelled, government offices and tourist sites closed, and hospitals working with reduced staff.
Many strikers expressed frustration and anger at the cuts.
The European Commission is discussing ways of propping up banks in Europe to protect them from the Greek crisis.
The general strike is the first since the Greek government announced an emergency property tax and the suspension of 30,000 public sector staff last month.
But despite these measures, the government has failed to cut its deficit to 7.5% of economic output (GDP) - a target it must meet if it is to receive the next instalment of bailout money from the EU.
Meanwhile, in its latest report on the European economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that economic growth is in danger of petering out and a global recession in the coming year cannot be ruled out.
Global financial markets have been in turmoil over fears that Greece could default on its debt, most of which is held by European banks. In other developments:On Tuesday, Moody's ratings agency slashed Italy's credit rating from Aa2 to A2, blaming an overall loss in confidence in eurozone governments.Despite the Italian downgrade, European markets rose sharply as trading opened on Wednesday.Belgium and France are working on plans to rescue the Franco-Belgian Dexia bank, which is exposed to Greek debt.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said again that Greece must remain a member of the eurozone.'Lives ruined'The government says the stringent austerity measures cannot be avoided if the country is to reduce its deficit of 8.5%.
Continue reading the main story Mark Lowen BBC News, Syntagma Square, Athens It is a very noisy demonstration indeed here, certainly the biggest demonstration by Greece's public sector in several weeks. The country has ground to a halt.
All of these people are extremely angry at the austerity measures that the government is desperately trying to push through to qualify for the next instalment of its international bailout, in order to stave off bankruptcy and avoid defaulting on its debts.
The government says it is in a very difficult position, because it must pursue its austerity drive to meet its fiscal targets and reduce the budget deficit to avoid bankruptcy within the next few weeks.
But this wave of social unrest is growing by people who say the measures are deepening the recession, stagnating the economy and stunting Greece's growth.
But the measures are hugely unpopular and have led to a wave of strikes and protests.Tens of thousands of people stayed away from work across Greece. In central Athens, at least 16,000 marched to Syntagma Square to join a demonstration outside parliament.
Although most of the protests were peaceful, police fired tear gas at small groups of demonstrators who were throwing stones.
About 10,000 people marched in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Critics of the austerity drive say it is deepening the recession, stunting Greece's growth - the economy will shrink 5.5% this year - and stopping the country from being able to reduce its government debt itself.
Protesters also say they are unfairly bearing the burden of the country's debt.
"This is an opportunity for the Greek people, whether in the public or in the private sector, to fight this, to deny this logic that we must bow our heads all the time to save the country and show patriotism," said 37-year-old protester Dimitris Kizilis.
"We believe, as workers, that patriotism is to respond with actions."
Continue reading the main storyThere are some European regulators and politicians who regard the downgrade of Italy and the woes of the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia as positive events (oh yes) ”End Quote
Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News Stathis Anestis, a spokesman for Greece's main union the GSEE, said the new measures were "just extending the unfair and barbaric policies which suck dry workers' rights and revenues, and push the economy deeper into recession and debt"."With this strike, the government, the EU and the IMF will be forced to reconsider these disastrous policies," he told Reuters.
Greek civil servant and trade unionist Tiana Andreou told the BBC that people's lives had been ruined.
"We have decided that we're going to stop this."
Some militant civil servants are promising to sabotage the moves. On Tuesday, protesters again blocked the entrance to several government departments, including the finance and transport ministries.
The government says it has enough cash to pay pensions, salaries and bondholders until mid-November, having previously said it needed more money by mid-October to avoid a default.
Inspectors from the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission - known collectively as the troika - have been in Greece this week to assess its financial situation.But eurozone finance ministers have delayed a decision on handing over the money, after Greece said it would not meet this year's deficit-cutting plan.
The government admitted that the budget deficit will stand at 8.5% this year, rather than the 7.5% target.
On Wednesday, the IMF's European chief Antonio Borges said there was no rush for the second bailout, and that he was "confident negotiations will come to a positive conclusion".
Guinea is the world's main exporter of bauxite Guinea's new mining code will curb corruption and make more money available for development, Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana has said. The code gives the government a free 15% share in mining companies and demands greater financial transparency.
Several foreign firms have warned that the code, which came into law over the weekend, will deter investors.
Guinea, despite being the world's main exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite, is one of Africa's poorest countries.
A democratic government was elected in December, ending the authoritarian and military rule that had blighted the country since independence in 1958.
In an address on national TV, Mr Fofana said the government would hold investors accountable and ensure they paid taxes and royalties.
Foreign companies would have to invest a minimum of $1bn (￡633m), he said.
'God-given riches'The BBC's Alhassan Sillah in the capital, Conakry, says this is intended to prevent companies bribing officials in exchange for cheap mining rights.
Continue reading the main story"[The] mining code adopted in Guinea increases considerably tax pressure on mining companies, making it senseless to invest in development and new projects”End Quote United Co Rusal Previous mining contracts would be reviewed to ensure there were no irregularities, our reporter says.
On Monday, Mines Minister Mohamed Lamine Fofana told Reuters news agency that the government had overturned an agreement by the ex-military junta to give secretive investment group China International Fund the rights to all of Guinea's unexploited resources.
The new code guarantees the government a minimum stake of 15% in companies and the option of buying a further 20%, Reuters says.
It also requires companies to carry out environmental and social impact studies before they are granted mining permits, the agency says.
The prime minister said this would prevent environmental degradation, making sure that communities living near mines did not suffer.
Our reporter says most Guineans have welcomed the mining code, hoping that they will finally benefit from the country's "god-given riches".
But it has been opposed by several big companies operating in Guinea, including Moscow-based aluminium company United Co Rusal, which said it would not make further investments in Guinea.
"[The] mining code adopted in Guinea increases considerably tax pressure on mining companies, making it senseless to invest in development and new projects," it said in a statement to Bloomberg news agency.
Another major investor in Guinea, Australia's Rio Tinto, also expressed concern about the code, saying it would cost the company an extra $10bn, the Christian Science Monitor news website reports.
Our correspondent says the government is unlikely to bow to business pressure because mining sector reforms was a key promise to voters in the build-up to December's elections.
The government took over from the military junta that had seized power in December 2008 on the death of the previous President, Lansana Conte, who had ruled for 24 years.
Guinea holds half of the world's bauxite reserves, as well as large deposits of gold and diamonds.
However, most of its citizens live on less than $1 a day.
Mr Joyce has received a threatening letter about his role in the dispute Qantas says its chief executive, Alan Joyce, has received a threatening letter related to its current industrial dispute.The letter comes amid a row between the Australian airline and unions on a restructuring and outsourcing plan that could lead to job cuts.
But officials from two unions have raised doubts about the authenticity of the letter, saying that it was not clear who sent it.
Police are investigating the matter.
According to reports in the Australian media, the letter went on to read: "The unions will fight you... Qantas is our airline, started and staffed by Australians, not foreign filth like you."
Irish-born Mr Joyce has been Qantas' chief executive since November 2008.
Luke Enright of Qantas confirmed to the contents of the letter to the BBC, though he refused to comment further on the matter.
Unions' anger However, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) accused the airline to turning the issue into a public relations exercise."We are unsure whether it came from an angry employee, or it may have been fabricated by the Qantas management to gain sympathy from the public," Steve Purvinas, federal secretary of ALAEA, told the BBC.
TWU's national secretary, Tony Sheldon, said: "This is an unsubstantiated piece of correspondence, that was either created by Qantas or sent by any of its 35,000 employees or people outside the company."
They said the airline had been losing public support because of its plans to restructure its business and relocate jobs outside Australia and as a result, it was trying to garner public sympathy using such tactics.
"The question here is, did they go to the police first or the media," TWU's Mr Sheldon said. "They released the letter to the media even before their staff knew about it."
Flights cancelledThe airline and the union members have been involved in a dispute that has seen Qantas' services being disrupted.
Last month, Qantas cancelled 28 flights, while another 27 were delayed after ground staff stopped work for four hours at all major Australian airports.
The union members have been striking against the planned restructuring that will see the airline's operations expand in Asia.
Qantas has also announced plans to launch two new airlines, including a budget carrier based out of Japan. At the same time, Singapore and Malaysia are being talked about as potential hubs for the other venture.
There have also been concerns that the outsourcing of certain jobs could result in as many as 1,000 job cuts in Australia.
Sony may merge its phone joint venture with its other mobile gaming business Shares in the Swedish telecoms firm Ericsson have risen on a report that Sony may soon buy it out of their mobile phone handsets joint venture.The Wall Street Journal says Sony wants to integrate the division with its tablet computer and hand-held games machine businesses.
The report said the Japanese firm may pay its partner up to 1.25bn euros ($1.7bn, ￡1.1bn) for its 50% stake.
Ericsson's shares climbed close to 8% in US trading after the news broke.
'Struggling'Despite Sony's reputation as a technology innovator, the joint venture has struggled to maintain market share.
Sony Ericsson accounted for 1.7% of all global mobile phone sales between April and June, according to a recent report by technology research firm Gartner.
That compared to a 3% share the previous year.
"The business has been struggling," said Mark McKechnie, a technology analyst at ThinkEquity.
"Sony's decision to use its brand with Ericsson's technology was a good idea, but it didn't work out. Now it wants more control to better compete against Apple and other [Google] Android devices."
