Ciena Corp will buy the optical networking and carrier ethernet business of bankrupt Nortel for $769 million, the two companies said Monday, after it trumped Nokia Siemens Networks in a three-day auction.

European Union leaders named  Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, who is little known outside his own country, as the bloc's first president.

Dutch grocer Ahold plans to cut costs by more than $521 million over three years, as it looks to sharpen its competitive edge in its main U.S. market and boost its underperforming shares.

Britain is most at risk among the big economies to lose its top-notch credit rating, while Japan faces a review of its rating if government debt issuance rises greatly, Fitch Ratings warned on Tuesday.

G20 policymakers are agreed that it is too early to pull the plug on economic life-support packages as the global recovery is still fragile, said British finance minister Alistair Darling.

The European Central Bank kept its main refinancing rate unchanged at a record low of 1.0 percent on Thursday, as expected by economists.

Investors are braced for signs on Thursday that the European Central Bank will soon start weaning banks off cheap and abundant liquidity given that expiry dates are approaching for the central bank's crisis measures.

BNP Paribas, the eurozone's second-biggest bank by market capitalisation, posted a surge in third quarter profits on Thursday that beat market forecasts and trumped the results of many rival banks.

Joint ventures with a family business and a show-business icon are key in Diageo's vodka plans.

Europe's economy will rebound next year and accelerate in 2011, the  European Commission said, paving the way for major deficit cuts.