UNITED KINGDOM

British cable operator Virgin Media is continually looking to take costs out of the business and expects to reduce its property portfolio as part of that drive, its finance officer said on Wednesday.

The world may have already moved on, but quantitative finance guru Paul Wilmott is undaunted in his quest to save the global financial system from mindless mathematicians.

U.S. oil major Chevron Corp is in talks with Turkmenistan over its possible participation in developing the giant South Iolotan gas field, the company's country head said on Wednesday.

More than half of Britons being offered vaccination against pandemic H1N1 flu are turning it down because they fear side-effects or think the virus is too mild to bother, a survey of doctors showed on Wednesday.

Yesterday's release of the RBA board minutes from the November 3 0.25% interest rate rise cast some doubt as to the scale of the current wave of Monetary Policy tightening. In the minutes the central bank said ...further gradual adjustment in the cash rate would most likely be appropriate over time, though the pace of the adjustment remained an open question. The market had been looking for more aggressive wording given the hikes already priced in for 2010 and were somewhat disappointed by the...

Britain's Cadbury may team up with Italian chocolatier Ferrero to see off a hostile bid from U.S. group Kraft, an Italian newspaper reported on Tuesday, a combination that one analyst said made sense.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Tuesday he was confident the alliance would agree to increase substantially the number of troops battling Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan

Big banks stepped up warnings on Tuesday that tightening capital rules too soon could stall economic recovery, but policymakers said the bailed out sector cannot rely on taxpayers again in future.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Tuesday he was confident the alliance would substantially increase its forces battling Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

Britain's power generators face a coal against gas burning dilemma this winter that extends beyond fuel prices, with high coal stocks, limited coal-fired power plant lifespans, and carbon prices blurring decisions.

Britain's top share index was 0.5 percent lower in mid-session trade on Tuesday as investors paused for breath after a four-day winning streak, with falls in banks and miners offsetting gains in some defensive issues.

The chance of BHP Billiton making another attempt to take over rival Rio Tinto after a bid ban expires later this month is less than 30 percent, Liberum Capital said on Tuesday.

Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Monday revealed new investments in Nestle AG and Exxon Mobil Corp and that it has nearly doubled its investment in Wal-Mart Stores Inc .

Microsoft is plugging social networks into Xbox 360 in an effort to bring more games, entertainment and social experiences all from a single device, the company said on Monday.

With no local economic data released yesterday the Australian dollar bounced around between 0.9320 and 0.9350 for the majority of the Asian day searching for direction. The directionless trade continued well into the evening and throughout the European session only coming to life in North American exchange. Consumer Spending data out of the U.S surprised to the upside triggering a surge in demand for equities and riskier assets in general which benefited the Aussie dollar. At its peak the AUD/US...

Microsoft is launching its Zune media brand outside the US for the first time, a move to grab shares from the dominating Apple iTune after failure to compete with iPod.

Criminal gangs are making millions of dollars out of the H1N1 flu pandemic by selling fake flu drugs over the internet, a web security firm said on Monday.

Google is to talk with Chinese writers and publishers over copyright violations, a move following the search engine's settlement with some Western countries, Global Times reported on Monday.

Criminal gangs are making millions of dollars out of the H1N1flu pandemic by selling fake flu drugs over the internet, a web security firm said on Monday.

Afghanistan will form a new anti-corruption unit to investigate high-level graft after widespread criticism and demands from Washington for it to do more amid a wider regional strategy review.

Britain's largest wine warehouse chain Majestic Wine said it would get a boost from First Quench Retailing's fall into administration as it posted a 9 percent rise in first-half profit and robust current trading.