German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to “stand helpfully by Greece’s side” but her economy minister said Germany would not offer a cash bailout.
Mrs Merkel was speaking ahead of a meeting in Berlin with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.

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U.S. regulators are looking into how Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs (GS.N) helped debt-stricken Greece arrange derivatives deals that critics say were used to disguise the size of its budget deficits.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made the disclosure on Thursday and suggested securities regulators also wanted the

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UAL Corp.’s (UAUA) United Airlines finalized its order to buy 25 of Boeing Co.’s (BA) 787 Dreamliners with an option to buy another 50.
United, the third-largest U.S. airline by traffic, hadn’t ordered new aircraft for 11 years. In December, United unveiled plans to order an equal number of planes from Boeing and rival Airbus, [...]

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Indian mobile phone company Bharti Airtel has offered to buy Kuwaiti telecommunications firm Zain’s African assets for $10.7bn (£6.8bn).
In a statement, Bharti said the two companies would now enter into talks which would last until 25 March.

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The number of immigrants entering the UK from Central and Eastern Europe has continued to fall, according to the latest figures.
Provisional numbers from the Office for National Statistics suggest the number of people from these countries fell by a third in the year to

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Air Products and Chemicals launched an unsolicited $5.1-billion cash bid to buy rival Airgas Friday in a move to create the largest industrial gas company in North America. Airgas shares jumped 42 percent in premarket trading.
Air Products, which supplies gases such as argon, helium and nitrogen

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Troubled Swiss bank UBS, which has been battered by a U.S. tax evasion probe, is reorganizing its U.S wealth management division in an attempt to stem outflows.
The Swiss bank, the world’s second largest wealth manager, said on

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BG Group said its pre-tax profits fell to £857m ($1.4bn) in the three months to the end of December 2009 from £1.3bn in the same period a year ago.
Full year profits for the UK gas producer were down to £3.9bn in 2009, from £5.5bn in 2008

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The US economy grew by an annualized rate of 5.7% between October and December, official figures have shown.
The number, which is a first estimate, is a big rise from the previous quarter’s growth rate of 2.2%.

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Toyota says it is recalling up to 1.8 million cars across Europe, including about 220,000 in the UK, following an accelerator problem.
The carmaker says it will recall eight models including the Yaris, the Corolla and the RAV4 sports utility vehicle.

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