PORTUGAL

Britain has awarded energy companies the rights to develop the world's biggest offshore wind project in hopes the country will become a leader in the emerging industry, which is vital to slash carbon emissions.

Portugal's EDP Renewables (EDPR) expects to be awarded a 1.3 gigawatts development project in the third offshore wind farm leasing round in the United Kingdom, the company said on Wednesday.

Whether Europe's most troubled economies have the political will to tackle record deficits will preoccupy investors in Western Europe in 2010, along with Britain's election and potential overspill from emerging market crises.

Brazil's CSN (CSNA3.SA) (SID.N) offered on Friday to buy Portuguese cement producer Cimpor (CPR.LS) for 3.86 billion euros ($5.6 billion) as the steelmaker slowly diversifies from its core business outside its home base.

Brazilian steelmaker CSN has bid 3.86 billion euro ($5.56 billion) cash for Portuguese cement maker Cimpor, targeting new markets like Africa and eyeing a sport-led domestic construction boom.

When the global economic crisis hit in the autumn of 2008 there was a joke in Portugal that the world was finally catching up, and stumbling as it had after its own, home-grown housing bust in the early 2000s.

Lundin Mining Corp (LUN.TO) expects a higher capital expenditure budget for 2010, saying a large part of its budget will represent investment in new capacity.

Global equities slipped on Wednesday with Japan leading the falls on concerns over the pace of recovery, while crude oil prices recovered and the euro picked up from a one-month low on bargain hunting.

Fitch Ratings cut Greece's debt rating to BBB+ from A- with a negative outlook, the first time in 10 years a major ratings agency has put Greece below an A grade, citing fiscal deterioration in the euro zone's weakest member.

Wine-tasting and brewery-touring trips are popular in countries around the world. But connoisseurs of other beverages needs not be left thirsty. From Mexico to Japan, in nearly every corner of the

Germany and Spain will provide Europe's biggest growth in windpower over the next decade but Britain and Italy might give the best returns on investment, the head of the European Wind Energy Association said on Friday.

Euro zone finance ministers will take their first step towards exiting discretionary fiscal stimuli on Tuesday by accepting deadlines for deficit reductions proposed by the European Commission last month.

Oktoberfest in Munich. Kim and I figured, we're so close to Germany - we've just gotta do it, don't we? We felt out a couple of ex-pat friends. They were game. We booked our flight.

Twenty-year-old Emilia was desperately trying to get a ticket to the MTV Europe Music Awards Thursday, shivering outside the O2 World stadium on a chill grey evening in what used to be East Berlin.

The economic slowdown has not hurt the market for cross border mergers and acquisitions, which have become a mainstay of the global economy.

Global consumer confidence is rebounding, and in the United States has risen for the first time since 2007, amid signs the world economy is picking up although spending is still restrained, a survey showed on Wednesday.

News, details on corporate bond issues in the European markets on Monday:

Wynn Macau's strong debut in Hong Kong on Friday shows appetite for gambling stocks is strong despite high valuations, and will cheer U.S. casino rival Las Vegas Sands , which plans a listing later this year.

The International Monetary Fund will increase its forecast for global growth next year in the next few days to account for a faster recovery in major economies, its deputy director said on Monday.

In the midst of its first reunion tour in the summer of 2006, veteran hard rock act Alice in Chains played to a crowd of 30,000 at Portugal's Super Bock Super Rock festival. As the band performed a set of its classic cuts, a handful of fans unfurled a 25-foot-long sign that read, Alice in Chains Get Born Again.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso secured a second five-year term on Wednesday in a vote at the European Parliament.