John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination by seeking to wrest the mantle of change from Barack Obama in a speech that mixed appeals to patriotism, criticism of Washington and a promise to work with political foes

Russia's central bank intervened heavily to support the rouble as analysts said $21bn of foreign capital might have been pulled out of the country as Moscow paid the price for its conflict with Georgia

US stocks fellfor a fourth successive day, re-entering bear market territory, as rising jobless claims and weak retail sales figures raised fears about the health of the economy

China Development Bank's plan to bid for Dresdner failed in large part because Chinese leaders refused to agree to the deal in time

Bank stocks in Europe and the UK fell sharply and the risk of owning their debt leapt on Thursday after the European Central Bank declared a crackdown on abuses of its bank liquidity operations

Unilever broke with a near 80-year tradition of appointing insiders to the helm of the multinational by naming Paul Polman, a highly respected top manager at Nestlé, as chief executive, replacing Patrick Cescau

Wal-Mart and other discount stores reap the benefits of a nervous US retail scene in the back-to-school season, while fashion outlets suffer falls in sales

BP expects to remain partners with the Alfa-Access-Renova group of Russian tycoons for years in spite of the dispute over their TNK-BP joint venture, the oil company said

Dick Cheney, the US vice president, pledged that Washington would stand behind Georgia, helping rebuild the country's economy and promoting Georgian efforts to join Nato to protect against Russian aggression

Pakistan vowed to defend its territory against foreign intrusion as anger mounted after a raid on a border village, which US officials confirmed had been carried out by special forces

US trade officials are close to filing a case against China at the World Trade Organisation challenging export restrictions on raw materials used in steel-making and other industries

CNBC and LinkedIn are combining their business audiences through an alliance between the financial news channel and the professional social network, which highlights the growing advertising clout of specialist online communities

Google launched its web browser in part to stop its rival, Microsoft, from "Balkanising" the internet by carving it up in ways that favoured its own services, the internet company's chief executive officer said

Oil companies' profitability fell to 19 per cent last year as rising costs eroded gains from the rise in oil prices, according to an industry study from IHS Herold and Harrison Lovegrove

National City, the US bank that has been among the hardest hit by the subprime crisis, is trying to reduce its exposure to the riskiest category of home loans by offering customers cash to close their untapped home equity lines