UNITED KINGDOM

Six former BP employees sued by the oil major for breach of contract in Singapore have applied to the court to set aside a search order that had allowed BP's lawyers to seize their personal computers, mobile phones and thumb drives, court documents showed.

AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless are planning a partnership to displace credit and debit cards by letting consumers pay with the contactless wave of a smartphone, Bloomberg News reported, citing three people with direct knowledge of the plan.

British finance minister George Osborne urged the country's banks in a newspaper interview to use strong first-half profits to boost business lending rather than pay large bonuses.

A new Australian study suggests that ADHD in adolescents might be linked to Western diets that tend to be high in refined sugar and sodium, total fat and saturated fat.

The international community is pressuring the Juba and Khartoum governments to speed up preparation for a vote on South Sudan's future - a decision that will be dominated by the fate of coveted oil resources -- but an expert on the African country criticizes the lack of understanding about Sudan.

China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

Asian stocks sagged on Friday as worries U.S. growth data may surprise on the downside and downbeat comments from a Federal Reserve official gave investors reason to book profits from a steady rally this month.

The Australian Dollar has opened around USD0.9000 this morning after trending higher in the early part of the European session.

The Aussie's three-week ascent towards US90.50 came to an abrupt halt yesterday immediately after the release of the much-anticipated June quarter inflation data.

ConocoPhillips , the third-largest U.S. oil company, reported a 150 percent increase in underlying quarterly profit, in a dramatic bounceback of its volatile refining business.

Oil and gas producers ConocoPhillips, ENI and BG Group reported big jumps in second quarter profits on Wednesday thanks to higher oil and gas prices and firmer refining margins.

Senators postponed a hearing on whether British oil giant BP Plc influenced the release of the Lockerbie bomber, saying on Tuesday key witnesses had stonewalled the investigation by refusing to appear.

An increase in the Australian Conference Board leading index from 0.1% to 0.3% during the month of May added some underlying support to the Aussie dollar in Asia yesterday as it held firm above the 90 cent handle etching out gains to enter offshore exchange at 0.9025.

BP Plc said the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department had launched a probe into market trading connected to the oil giant's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP Plc's ousted chief executive, Tony Hayward, will not testify to a Senate committee examining whether the oil giant influenced the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Senator Robert Menendez said on Tuesday.

Broadband services are getting faster in Britain but the gap is growing between advertised speeds and actual download rates, telecoms regulator Ofcom said on Tuesday.

The euro hovered close to a two-month peak against the dollar on Tuesday, retaining support after last week's European bank stress tests revealed no horrors while increased demand for riskier assets weighed on the dollar.

BP Plc is expected to install an American known for diplomacy as chief executive, replacing Tony Hayward who has come under fire for his gaffe-prone handling of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Biotechnology company Genzyme Corp is weighing an informal takeover approach from France's Sanofi-Aventis but is not looking to sell the company, a source familiar with the situation said on Monday.

The Aussie dollar held on to support around 0.8940 during the Asian session despite a lower than expected second quarter Producer Price Index or PPI as its referred to.

Of two potential suitors for biotech Genzyme , industry insiders say Sanofi-Aventis is a far more likely buyer than GlaxoSmithKline , which already has a presence in rare diseases.