UNITED KINGDOM

The Australian Dollar has held onto its recent gains and opens the new week at 0.8610. The Aussie closed higher on Friday after a range of positive Chinese economic data releases which boosted demand for the currency.

Most people around the world support significantly increasing government spending to counter the economic crisis, according to a 20-nation opinion poll released on Monday.

The Australian Dollar has held onto its recent gains and opens the new week at 0.8610.

Moves to save jobs and sites at carmaker Opel when a group led by Canada's Magna International takes control continued on Sunday.

Hundreds of millions of euros in German state aid planned for carmaker Opel is earmarked for operations in Russia, an Opel trustee with reservations about the project was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview.

Iran will not negotiate about its nuclear rights, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, after the United States said it would focus on the Islamic state's atomic activities in upcoming talks with Tehran.

The health of the terminally ill Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has deteriorated markedly in the past day, his brother and doctors said on Saturday.

British carmaker Bentley, owned by Volkswagen, is seeing some signs of revival in the super luxury vehicle segment and expects sales of premium cars to improve next year, one of its top executives said on Friday.

A Canadian-Russian consortium's plan to buy automaker Opel from General Motors faced more hurdles as scrutiny of German state aid intensified and labor leaders demanded a veto over job cuts.

The German government plans to support the planned construction of the Airbus A350 wide body plane with a state guarantee worth 1.1 billion euros ($1.61 billion), a magazine reported on Saturday. Focus magazine said the government would secure a loan from state-owned bank KfW, citing a confidential memorandum from Germany's finance and economy ministries to the parliamentary budget committee.

Cadbury turned up the heat in its defence against a takeover from Kraft as its Chairman Roger Carr said it was an unappealing prospect being absorbed into Kraft's low growth conglomerate business model.

President Robert Mugabe welcomed the first top-level European Union delegation to visit Zimbabwe in seven years with open arms on Saturday and said talks on implementing a power-sharing deal went well.

Iran said on Saturday it would not back down in its nuclear row with the West, a day after the United States said it would accept Tehran's offer of wide-ranging talks with six world powers.

Cadbury turned up the heat in its defense against a takeover from Kraft as its Chairman Roger Carr said it was an unappealing prospect being absorbed into Kraft's low growth conglomerate business model.

Cadbury turned up the heat in its defense against a takeover bid from Kraft on Saturday as its Chairman Roger Carr said it was an unappealing prospect being absorbed into Kraft's low growth conglomerate business model.

With Cadbury lacking a white knight bidder to come to its rescue in the face of Kraft's $16.1 billion bid, the two companies are set to face off on one question: How much is Cadbury really worth?

With Cadbury lacking a white knight bidder to come to its rescue in the face of Kraft's $16.1 billion bid, the two companies are set to face off on one question: How much is Cadbury really worth?

The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Friday that he was seeking an urgent meeting with the Iranian chief nuclear negotiator after consulting six major powers over proposals submitted by Iran.

Workers at Opel, German politicians and customers of Canada's Magna expressed concern on Friday about whether General Motors' decision to sell a majority of Opel to Magna and Russia's Sberbank will turn out to be a favorable deal.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said on Friday it was in talks with India's state-owned nuclear power body to build at least 6 nuclear reactors.

Dealmakers are not known for their patience. Yet that's what's needed more than anything else a year after Lehman's collapse.