The US, UK and Canada refuse to ratify a UN communications treaty after a dispute about references to the internet in the agreement.

About 300,000 people who have failed to send in their tax returns for 2010-11 could soon see their goods seized, HM Revenues & Customs says.

Sentiment among Japan's big manufacturers worsens in the three months to December, underlining the weakness in its economy.

PetroChina agrees to buy a 49.9% stake in Canadian firm Encana's gas project in Alberta, as it looks to meet growing domestic energy demand.

Fitch maintains the French government's top AAA credit rating, the only major ratings agency left to say the country deserves to be among the world's most creditworthy borrowers.

EU leaders have agreed on a roadmap for eurozone integration beyond the deal on centralised banking supervision, Germany's Chancellor Merkel says.

The decline in the eurozone's manufacturing sector has eased, a survey indicates, a rare spot of good news for the recession-racked region.

Output in the UK construction industry fell 5.1% in October, which was the smallest decline since February, official figures show.