France, home of historic Gitanes and Gauloises cigarettes with their iconic blue-and-white packaging, will require all tobacco companies to sell their wares in plain boxes from next year in an anti-smoking crackdown.
Legal & Regulatory
Chinese banks must cut coal lending, shift to cleaner businesses: study
China needs to cut lending to coal-related industries and shift more financing to cleaner businesses in order to address a huge funding gap that is hindering the country's war on pollution, a study drawn up in part by central bank researchers said.
China overhauling IPO process, mulls foreign firms listing: report
China will switch to a "registration system" for initial public offerings (IPO), ending the current approval process, the official China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday, a day after parliament began reviewing draft changes to the Securities Law.
Swedish watchdog may raise banks' reserves to cool housing market
Sweden's financial watchdog may increase the amount of capital the country's banks must set aside as reserves in a bid to cool a red-hot housing market, it said on Tuesday.
U.S. presses Mexico to ease poultry import limits brought by bird flu
The United States is pressing Mexico, the top importer of U.S. chickens and turkeys, to relax restrictions imposed on poultry shipments because of an outbreak of a strain of avian flu deadly to birds, an Agriculture Department spokeswoman confirmed on Friday.
Latest News
The European Union accused Google Inc on Wednesday of cheating consumers and competitors by distorting Web search results to favor its own shopping service, after a five-year investigation that could change the rules for business online.
Democrat Hillary Clinton blasted executive pay and tax rates for hedge-fund managers on Tuesday, using the first stop of her low-key campaign rollout in Iowa to highlight her promise to help Americans struggling toward economic recovery.
Business associations from the United States, Japan and Europe told Chinese officials on Monday they still have "strong concerns" about bank information technology rules and urged Beijing to formally suspend them.
More than 400 striking hourly workers represented by the United Steelworkers union (USW) at Lyondell Basell Industries' Houston refinery are scheduled to vote on the company's last, best and final offer on Monday and Tuesday, a local union official said on Sunday.
The United States is planning to impose a major new regulation on offshore oil and gas drilling to try to prevent the kind of explosions that caused the catastrophic BP Plc (BP.L) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing Obama administration officials.
Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) has rejected a contract offer from the United Steelworkers (USW) local chapter representing hourly workers at the company's Beaumont, Texas, refinery and renewed its offer of a six-year contract, a union official said on Wednesday.
Japan and Taiwan have imposed trade restrictions on poultry and poultry products from Ontario, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Tuesday, a day after bird flu was confirmed in the Canadian province.
Argentina's central bank will send regulators to the headquarters of Citibank Argentina on Monday, the head of the monetary authority has said, the latest move between the bank and the state over defaulted debt.
China's top regulator has ruled that more than half of the 54 mitigation projects that recently sought to register for carbon credits are ineligible, it said on Friday, amid worries that a glut of permits is undermining its pilot carbon markets.
