The Group of Eight nations will be urged at their annual summit in Hokkaido to boost subsidies for farmers, after the Asian Development Bank warned that rising prices posed a threat to the world's poor

A top Beijing security official has warned that hostile movements are intensifying their efforts to sabotage next month's games

The closely watched buy-out of BCE, the Montreal telecommunications group, is set to proceed with its key terms intact following an agreement, announced between the purchasers and a group of banks to provide financing for the $34bn deal

The FTSE 100 index closed on Friday at its lowest level since November 2005 as it threatened to join counterparts in Asia, the US and Europe in bear market territory

The next editor of the Washington Post will be mandated to accelerate the combination of its print and online divisions, according to people familiar with a search that is expected to end early next week

Private equity group TPG Capital pulled out of a £400m capital increase for Bradford & Bingley after Moody's downgraded the UK mortgage lender's credit rating

Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada's second-largest bank, said it would take a pretax charge of about C$96m for the mispricing of derivatives by a senior trader who has left the London office of its investment dealer unit.

The Swiss bank confirmed it faced more heavy writedowns on its US credits, meaning that it would break even or make a loss in the second quarter

Tehran has sent a written response to an offer from the world's leading powers regarding its nuclear programme, amid hopes in the west that formal negotiations could begin

Senior executives at Société Générale faced renewed criticism after France's banking regulator slapped its biggest-ever fine for risk control failures on the bank following its inquiry into a €4.9bn rogue trading scandal

Engineering problems have thrown cold water on celebrations for the first oil produced from the troubled BP oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico

Google has run into a fresh storm over online privacy after a US judge ordered YouTube, its popular online video site, to hand over records detailing the viewing habits of its millions of users.

Europe's divisions over inflation were highlighted on Friday when José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, defended the European Central Bank against political critics

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York confirmed the estimated fair value of assets that were formerly held by Bear Stearns at about $29bn, about $1bn less than they were worth when the investment bank was sold to JPMorgan in March

The US lost jobs in June for the sixth month in a row while jobless numbers remained at an elevated level, signalling an ongoing deterioration in the labour market and helping to push back thoughts of a hike in interest rates