Australia's Hoyts Group said on Tuesday it has been sold by its private equity owner Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) to an investment vehicle set up by Chinese entrepreneur Sun Xishuang.

Bankers responsible for floating companies and selling new shares into the market will enjoy a well-earned rest this Christmas after their busiest year since 2007, having notched up business worth almost $865 billion in the last 12 months.

U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Monday once again paused its review of the proposed $45 billion merger of Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc, citing delays in getting documents from Time Warner Cable.

China's Xiaomi [XTC.UL] is raising over $1 billion from investors including Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC that would value the smartphone maker at over $45 billion, a person familiar with the deal said.

Apple Inc has pushed out its first-ever automated security update to Macintosh computers to help defend against newly identified bugs that security researchers have warned could enable hackers to gain remote control of machines.

North Korea, at the center of a confrontation with the United States over the hacking of Sony Pictures, experienced a complete Internet outage for hours before links were restored on Tuesday, a U.S. company that monitors Internet infrastructure said.

U.S. stocks rose for a fourth straight session on Monday, with both the Dow and S&P 500 ending at records as large-cap technology shares gained and offset continued weakness in energy names.

Britain's accounting watchdog has launched an inquiry into the preparation, approval and audit of Tesco's accounts over the last four years, including the role of external auditor PwC [PWC.UL].

World share markets extended their 'Santa rally' into a fourth day on Monday, as a recovery in beaten-down oil prices and the ruble and more calls for quantitative easing from the ECB helped lift sentiment.

Uber Technologies Inc is under fire in Taiwan and the Chinese mainland mega city Chongqing over concerns that it and its drivers are not appropriately licensed, adding to a string of official complaints aimed at the fast-growing U.S. start-up.

Chief executives got their deal-making confidence back in 2014, emboldened by a clearer outlook for their businesses to take the global value for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to their highest annual level since 2007.

China opposes all forms of cyberattacks and cyber "terrorism", the country's foreign minister told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday.Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remarks in a telephone call with Kerry on Sunday night, according to a statement posted on the foreign ministry's website on Monday.

Malicious software likely linked to China was used to infect visitors to a wide range of official Afghan government websites, U.S. cybersecurity researchers say.

Ten years ago, the boss of Qatar Airways, who takes his first new A350 jet this week, warned Airbus it was flying off course. Boeing was knocking on his door with a "super-efficient" jet boasting 30 percent fuel savings thanks to a carbon-composite design.

Geopolitics plague Lithuanians at this frozen Russian border post, where a return trip by car can mean 48 hours of queuing. It is a reminder for some of why the former Soviet republic will cement its move to the West by joining the euro zone next month.

U.S. president Barack Obama has rejected the charge that he has been outmaneuvered by Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying in a TV interview due for broadcast later on Sunday that Putin was presiding over "a huge economic contraction" due to the Ukraine crisis.

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it would not cut output to prop up oil markets even if non-OPEC nations did so, in one of the toughest signals yet that the world's top petroleum exporter plans to ride out the market's biggest slump in years.

British companies plan to cautiously relax their grip on pay in 2015, but rises will be limited by higher costs for holiday pay and workplace pensions, as well as weak productivity growth, the Confederation of British Industry said on Monday.

Mexico's competition regulator on Sunday approved AT&T Inc's $1.7 billion purchase of local cellphone company Iusacell, with unspecified conditions, a statement said.

Milagros Diaz has been rolling cigars for 48 years, so long she cannot even smell tobacco anymore, and she is thrilled that the U.S. market is finally opening up for her handmade Cuban "habanos".

This spring, Taser International Inc won a small but high-profile contract to supply body cameras to the London police. But the deal nearly collapsed over one issue: where the video footage would be stored.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell 25 cents in the past two weeks, tumbling to its lowest level in more than five-and-a-half years, according to the Lundberg survey released Sunday.

The allure of investing in Mexico's historic oil sector opening has been dimmed by the plummeting price of crude, putting pressure on the government to offer bigger incentives to private investors in the first major round of contracts up for grabs.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, dogged by a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras, vowed on Thursday to stamp out graft at the flagship firm and place it under strict corporate governance.

The United States has sought help from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia in combating cyber attacks such as the one Washington on Friday accused North Korea of carrying out against Sony Pictures, U.S. officials said.

In the heart of western Europe, the Belgian-Dutch-German rust belt has been dealt another blow. Two car plants closed this month as companies sought cheaper labor elsewhere, the final chapter of a manufacturing boom that began when coal mines fuelling Europe's industrialization shut in the 1960s.

A "shimmering" Paul Cezanne painting of the Mediterranean with a castle in the background is expected to attract the big-money buyers at a February auction that includes works by Modigliani, Giacometti and Picasso, Christie's said on Wednesday.

When Metro Bank prepared to launch in 2010 as the first new bank to appear on British high streets for over a century, its founders broke with convention by outsourcing the construction of its computer systems.

Workers at planemaker Boeing's (BA.N) Everett plant near Seattle are following extra safety measures after three air bag-related accidents, including the death of a technician last month, the company said on Friday.

The European Central Bank should start buying government bonds to tackle poor investor confidence and low inflation in the euro zone, governing council member Luc Coene said in an interview published on Saturday.