Business News - AFP

FRANKFURT (AFP) - Investor confidence in Germany has slumped to its lowest level in more than five years in August, a key poll showed, signalling an imminent slowdown in the eurozone's biggest economy amid concern about the strong euro, high energy prices and the upcoming VAT hike.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Lehman Brothers said investment banking legend Felix Rohatyn , who saved New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s, had joined the Wall Street powerhouse as a senior adviser.

LONDON (AFP) - Struggling auto giant Ford Motor Co. said it would produce about two million engines per year in Britain by 2009, thanks to a multi-million-pound investment in "flexible" manufacturing.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's InterContinental Hotels Group said that first-half net profits have surged 75 percent and issued an upbeat outlook for the rest of the year.

HARARE (AFP) - Shoppers and commuters in Zimbabwe have been left out of pocket as a severe lack of low denomination banknotes blighted the first day of a new currency.

LONDON (AFP) - More than 427,000 people from the eight EU member states in eastern Europe have come to work in the UK since the bloc's enlargement in May 2004, according to government figures.

LONDON (AFP) - Crude oil futures have risen here as traders awaited Iran's official response to an international offer of incentives to suspend uranium enrichment, dealers said.

LONDON (AFP) - The euro has weakened against the dollar after a key confidence index in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, slumped to the lowest level in more than five years, analysts said.

LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets have advanced after Tokyo shares hit a three-month peak and despite a weak overnight showing on Wall Street, dealers said.

ANTOFAGASTA, Chile (AFP) - Unionized workers at Minera Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, continued their strike after rejecting a settlement offer from the site's majority owners, Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton.

RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia said that some of the 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft it will buy from Britain in a deal believed worth several billion dollars will be assembled inside the oil-rich kingdom.

SANTIAGO (AFP) - President Michelle Bachelet signed a trade pact giving China its first free-trade deal in Latin America and giving Chile access to China's enormous market and a foothold in Asia.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - SanDisk Corporation introduced the world's highest-capacity MP3 player and priced it to take a bigger bite of the market dominated by Apple's iPod.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia completed early repayment of more than 23.7 billion dollars (18.4 billion euros) of Soviet-era debt owed to the Paris Club of creditor nations, underscoring the country's new economic power.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabweans struggled to offload soon-to-be worthless cash as chaos and confusion prevailed ahead of a midnight deadline to convert to a new currency aimed at combating galloping inflation.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Three US government agencies are probing BP after the British energy giant partially shut down a giant Alaskan oil field due to a leaking pipeline, an official said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An arm of Morgan Stanley's banking group will acquire a US property manager, Glenborough Realty Trust, which owns office properties in Washington and California, for 1.9 billion dollars, the companies said.

NEW YORK (AFP) - The euro neared its highest point of the year against the dollar on expectations of rising interest rates in Europe's common currency zone, dealers said.

LONDON (AFP) - A carton of orange juice could be set for a steep price rise after wholesale prices of the tropical juice hit 16-year highs last week on fears for the harvest in the US state of Florida.

SYDNEY (AFP) - BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, is expected to post an annual profit exceeding 10 billion US dollars this week, setting a new Australian corporate record, analysts predict.

PARIS (AFP) - More than two years since France brought up its last lump of coal and turned its back on three centuries of mining industry, a new consortium plans to reopen a pit and resume excavations.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The eurozone economy is booming, but the good times may prove to be shortlived, with a potent combination of factors due to bite into growth in the coming months, economists warned.

BANGALORE, India (AFP) - India's best-known entrepreneur N.R. Narayana Murthy stepped down on his 60th birthday as chairman of software export giant Infosys, which he founded a quarter-century ago.

NEW YORK (AFP) - From its laptop batteries catching fire to seeing its earnings halve, topped off by a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) inquiry, Dell had a nightmare week.

MOSCOW (AFP) - As US gold giant Newmont battles to save its operation in the deserts of western Uzbekistan, instability and threats against personnel are making much of Central Asia a no-go area for normally hardnosed prospectors.

LA PAZ (AFP) - More than midway through Bolivia's schedule to nationalize its energy sector, the government of leftist President Evo Morales is mired in competing foreign and domestic interests and budget problems.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysia's troubled national carmaker Proton will supply 3,000 Wira models to Indonesia for use as taxis in a fresh drive to boost exports.

PARIS (AFP) - French energy groups GDF and Suez might dispose of some assets in order to secure European approval for their proposed merger.