Business and Finance news

Premier Silvio Berlusconi suffered a heavy blow after two days of local polling across Italy, losing his stronghold Milan and the southern city of Naples, projections and partial returns showed Monday.
The defeat further weakens Berlusconi, already hit by sex scandals and falling approval ratings, and will likely deepen rifts with government ally, the Northern League, […]

Regulators have shut down a small bank in Washington state, pushing to 44 the number of U.S. bank failures this year in the wake of a severe recession and mounting troubled loans.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday seized Snohomish, Wash.-based First Heritage Bank, with $173.5 million in assets and $163.3 million in deposits. Tacoma, […]

European officials say the Group of Eight rich nations will offer about $20 billion in pledges and commitments for Arab countries that have thrown out autocrats and are struggling to build new democracies.
President Barack Obama and other G-8 leaders are debating how and how much to aid Egypt and Tunisia after uprisings there.
The leaders of […]

Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) are among 14 U.K. lenders whose debt Moody’s Investors Service is considering downgrading because the withdrawal of government support may increase their credit risk.
Santander U.K. Plc and customer-owned lenders including Nationwide Building Society also had their debt ratings put on review […]

Moody’s Investors Service is likely to say it will consider downgrading debt for 14 of the 18 British banks and building societies it covers as withdrawal of government support may increase credit risk, Sky News said.
More than one of the U.K.’s four biggest banks will be among the lenders to be put on review […]

The operator of China’s giant Three Gorges Dam plans to overhaul its finances after the government made a suprising admission last week that the world’s largest hydroelectric project has urgent environmental, geologic and economic problems.
The China Three Gorges Corp. said a government audit found 31 problems related to financial management, investment, bidding and other issues, […]

A New York lawyer disbarred after he pleaded guilty to insider trading charges testified Thursday that envy of Wall Street salaries led him to a role in what became the biggest hedge fund insider trading case in history.
Brien Santarlas was the first major government witness to testify at the second trial that resulted from the […]

Swiss investor confidence dropped for the first time in three months in May as a worsening European debt crisis and an appreciating franc clouded the economic growth outlook.
An index of investor and analyst expectations that aim to predict economic developments six months in advance fell to minus 11.5 from 8.8 in April, the ZEW […]

Defense contractor BAE Systems PLC said Tuesday it has agreed to pay a fine of up to $79 million to settle an arms export controls case with the U.S. Department of State, the largest civil fine ever levied by the department.
The State Department settlement of the civil case includes a possible $10 million reduction in […]

A security official says gunmen have opened fire on two soldiers in southern Yemen, killing one and wounding the other.
Another official in the same province said a security officer was snatched by unknown gunmen while in a taxi, and his location is unknown. Both officials were speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not […]