Japan

As the two-day G8 summit is set to start today in Deauville, much hype has been made of the need for the group of states to discuss and decide new policies on matters including supporting new regimes in North Africa and the Middles East or reviewing Japan's nuclear crisis and discuss new policies regarding nuclear power.

Sony today announced its earnings for the financial year ending 31 March, 2011, recording a loss close to its initial estimate.

France, which currently holds the rotating presidency for the Group of Eight and the G20 is hosting the annual G8 summit in Deauville on May 26 and 27. The meeting is due to focus on issues including the global economy, political and security issues such as drug trafficking and terrorism, exiting from Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear program, the Middle East and North Africa and Internet governance. Following the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant, n...

The U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable has warned that Britain could face the economic "hydrogen bomb" of a second financial emergency.

While Obama has spent the last days receiving and giving praises during his three-day state visit to the United kingdom, he will tomorrow fly to Deauville in France, accompanied by British Prime Minister David Cameron, where both leaders will attend the G8 summit.

FIFA, football's governing body, has announced it is to investigate vice-president Jack Warner and presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam over bribery allegations.

In a post on the PlayStation blog, Sony representatives officially confirmed that the PlayStation Store will not be up and running until the end of the month.

Created as part of a French initiative to address the first oil crisis in 1975, the G8 is an informal group of advanced economies, which meets once a year at a Summit of Heads of State and Government.

Nearing the end of its two-month long PSN hacking disaster, despite estimating an up to $171 million loss, Sony has managed to record a two per cent rise in share value.

The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is rumoured to be on a visit to China in what many observer see as an indication of the role of Kim Jong-un as a potential successor to his father. Although his whereabouts remain partially unknown, he was reported by South Korean media to have taken the train to China, which is known to be North Korea’s main ally.

In a recent meeting with the Wall Street Journal Sony Corp. executive deputy president Kaz Hirai and CEO Sir Howard Stringer indicated that only a "very small" percentage of PlayStation Network users went so far as to cancel their accounts after the network was restored.

A recent report from the Dow Jones Newswire has indicated the reason for the delaying the PSN relaunch in Japan stems from government intervention.

Shares in InterContinental Hotels were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the group reported a rise in revenue and operating profit in the first quarter ended 31 March.

Shares in Centrica were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the energy company issued an update in which it predicted 2011 earnings growth at a "more modest" rate than previously expected.

Politicians, not least in the USA and Europe, are espousing greener energy and advocating massive reductions in carbon emissions in the relatively near future, whilst doing little to allay the fears of a generally ill-informed public on a practical means to bring this energy policy about. An obvious practical means but the one most prolific in doomsday scenarios, is the development, expansion and more intensive use of nuclear power.

Dutch electronics giant Philips has reported a fall in net income but a rise in nominal sales in the first quarter of the year.

Shares in British banks were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after some ominous and disappointing news from Japan and the U.S.

BAA, the owner of airports such as Heathrow, Stanstead and Glasgow, has reported a 0.9 per cent rise in passenger numbers in March.

On his visit to Pakistan the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said that Britain is responsible for many of the world's problems, referencing in particular the ongoing Kashmir dispute.

Shares in British banks were mixed on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as some encouraging signs about the state of the global economy vied in the minds of investors with Japanese and European worries.

Shares in Compass Group were up on the FTSE 100 in afternoon trading after the company said it had a "good first half" year ended 31March.

Shares in Compass Group were down on the FTSE 100 in afternoon trading ahead of the catering company's first half pre close trading update.

Insurance company Lloyds of London said today that in 2010 it made a profit of £2.2 billion, despite the impact of "significant claims" resulting from natural disasters.

We were expecting the parabolic move in commodity prices to be interrupted by a correction at some point. While it could not have been anticipated as the catalyst for a pullback, the catastrophe in Japan two weeks ago prompted a sizeable sell-off in risk assets, including commodities. The question is whether in the aftermath of this event, or other lingering concerns, commodities can restart a substantive move to higher levels.

Shares in British banks were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as investors continued to buy after last week's panic sell offs.

Forget Britain's "Special Relationship" with America, largely a mirage of the Foreign Office and its existence unknown to most Americans. Even as World War II was ending, the cracks in the relationship between Britain and the United States were becoming ever more obvious to contemporaries and for more recent generations can be studied by reading books, both military and political, such as Armageddon and Nemesis by Max Hastings.

Shares in British banks were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as investors started to regain their confidence after a spate of global events triggered panic selling.

The equity markets began to deteriorate weeks before the devastating natural disaster in Japan. Food inflation in the emerging markets and the ensuing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa causing an unwelcome spike in oil prices, and hawkish comments from the European Central Bank at a time when the continent's peripheral countries are struggling, collectively weighed on equity prices. Now news from Japan that is troublingly fluid regarding the earthquake's aftermath, which has soc...

Shares in British banks were mixed on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the G7 said it would take action to help the Yen, following the disaster which struck Japan a week ago and is still crippling the nation.

Shares in Premier Farnell were up on the FTSE 250 in morning trading after the distribution group reported a strong rise in revenue and pre-tax profit in the full year ended 30 January.