IBT Staff Reporter

As China evolves from a nation of savers to one of borrowers and investors, banks are salivating over the prospects, but risks loom in a market where consumer credit is a novelty and competition is intensifying.

An improving political climate, and the potential for major mineral discoveries, has reawakened interest in Africa among Australian mining companies that have traditionally rated the continent too risky.

Google Inc., the world's biggest Web search engine, said on Friday it is looking to hire more engineers in Japan to develop new technologies in one of the most advanced markets for mobile technologies.

Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said on Friday that G7 financial heads would discuss exchange rates when they meet in Singapore on September 16, but he declined to say if the yen would be at the center of those talks.

New U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is trying to depersonalize the Fed by making its decision-making more democratic and easier to understand, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

European shares rebounded slightly on Friday, regaining some ground after losses suffered this week on growth and inflation worries, as oil slipped to a five month low.

BP told U.S. lawmakers on Thursday that it could restart its giant oil field in Alaska by the end of October after rusty pipelines forced part of the field shut last month

French holiday resort operator Club Mediterranee reported a 1.2 percent rise in third quarter revenues on Friday, with strong demand from Asia offsetting weak demand in France

Laundry and clothing services firm Davis Service Group Plc said on Friday it expected first half trading conditions to continue into the second half

The FTSE 100 index rose on Friday, recovering from a sharp sell off over the past two sessions, as crude oil prices fell and Asian markets gained.

Bus and train operator Go Ahead Group Plc's new financial year has started in line with expectations

Amazon.com on Thursday unveiled a widely anticipated Internet service offering movies and TV shows that can be downloaded to personal computers

Cool weather, the return to school and strong demand for flat screen TVs and laptops helped to drive a 21.7 percent rise in weekly sales at John Lewis department stores

The Office of Fair Trading will look at bank charges for customers who overdraw their accounts after winding up a months long probe into penalties for the late payment of credit card bills.

Coffee farmers at Guatemala's small Chanmagua cooperative opened their land and growing methods to stiff scrutiny last year, in the hope an environment friendly seal would bring them higher prices.

Pubs operator JD Wetherspoon reported a 24 percent boost in profit on Friday for a year during which it has experimented with restricting smoking ahead of a national ban.

Philadelphia on Thursday opened a public high school where students work on wireless laptops, teachers eschew traditional subjects for real-world topics and parents can track their child's work on the Internet.

The United States has arrested a second Internet gaming executive, adding to fears it is cracking down on the lucrative industry and sparking share price falls on Thursday that wiped over $1.5 billion off the market value of the sector.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday he would quit within a year but refused to give an exact date to placate Labour Party mutineers who want a speedy change of leader to revive their fortunes.

Investments in offgrid energy generation projects are the quickest way to get electricity to the 1.6 billion people in the world without lights, a World Bank official said on Wednesday.

The pound has fallen on uncertainty about Tony Blair's remaining tenure as British prime minister but any longer-term impact on UK assets should be short-lived if finance minister Gordon Brown replaces him.

Google Inc., the world's biggest Web search engine, said on Thursday it was seeking partners to contribute contents for a video service in Japan.

Sony Corp. (6758.T) shares fell as much as 2.6 percent on Thursday, hit by another delay in the launch of its PlayStation 3 game console, but outperformed sector peers and the broader market by the end of the day as investors weigh the likely impact of the delay.

Online gaming group PartyGaming is not bidding for sports betting rival Victor Chandler and is unlikely to get into a bidding war for World Gaming plc, Chief Executive Mitch Garber said on Thursday.

Carphone Warehouse has been fined 245,000 pounds over failings in its sales of mobile insurance over the telephone.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell on Thursday with Partygaming leading the losers after Sportingbet's chairman was detained by U.S. authorities

Overseas property investors should be wary of Bulgaria as market growth collapses and rental competition hots up

The competition watchdog proposed on Thursday to ease price controls on directories firm Yell Group Plc from April 2008, saying it faced increased competition from a new rival and the Internet.

IBM will build a next-generation supercomputer for the U.S. Energy Department with the potential to achieve a sustained speed of 1,000 trillion calculations per second