UNITED KINGDOM

Mobile phone group Vodafone could sell its stake in its joint venture with Verizon Communications for about $48 billion (25 billion pounds) before the end of the month, according to the Observer newspaper.

British blue chips swung to a closing loss on Thursday and erased earlier gains, dragged lower by a drop in mobile phone giant Vodafone and losses on Wall Street.

UK-based Barclays Bank Plc is looking to develop wealth management in India, where it sees potential in a growing middle class as well as non-residents, two senior executives told Reuters in an interview.

Britain's FTSE 100 index closed sharply higher on Friday as fresh bid talk buoyed mortgage bank Alliance & Leicester, while the Midcap 250 index hit a fresh high led by brewer Greene King.

Emirates, a small but increasingly influential airline, has jet maker Boeing Co. jockeying with rival Airbus SAS for a multibillion-dollar deal.

Britain's leading shares were barely weaker on Monday, propped up by gains in oil companies and miners such as BG Group as prices of crude oil and some metals traded near record levels, although most heavyweight sectors such as banks and pharmaceuticals eased.

China's yuan currency can probably begin to rise more swiftly given the reforms Beijing has put in place, but gradualism is still the guiding philosophy, the head of China's central bank said on Saturday.

Britain's FTSE 100 index saw earlier gains evaporate and ended lower on Thursday after mining stocks including Xstrata and Rio Tinto tracked a steep fall in commodities prices and handed back some of the sector's striking gains.

The headwind of rising U.S. interest rates may be about to ease, but investors are still facing tighter money across the board and some are beginning to sound warning bells about emerging markets as a result.

Many of the world's top food companies are not doing enough to help cut the salt, fat and sugar which are contributing to a global, diet-related health crisis, according to a report on Tuesday.

Britain's second largest airline officially entered the UAE market yesterday when Virgin Atlantic's Airbus A340-600 landed at the Dubai International Airport from London Heathrow. The new flight represents the airline's first Middle East route, and its 26th destination worldwide.

The world's biggest food group Nestle is buying Kraft Foods' North American frozen pizza business for $3.7 billion and ruled out an offer for Cadbury , it said on Tuesday.