Samsung Electronics has agreed to pay $90m to settle legal action over microchip price-fixing allegations.
It must also co-operate in suits against other microchip manufacturers.
The South Korean company faced claims customers had been forced to overpay for equipment containing its dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips
Peter Hartz, the official at the centre of a bribery scandal surrounding car giant Volkswagen, has been given a two year-suspended prison sentence.
Hartz, a guiding hand behind former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s labour reforms, was fined 560,000 euros ($726,000; £369,000).
The former head of personnel at Europe’s biggest carmaker escaped jail after cutting a deal with prosecutors
Volkswagen’s former personnel chief Peter Hartz has admitted making illegal payments to union officials.
The confession, made through his lawyers, came at the start of his corruption trial in Germany.
A one-time advisor to former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Mr Hartz faces 44 charges of breach of trust
Australia’s wheat exporter AWB has been suspended from US government contracts and faces permanent exclusion, for paying bribes to Iraq’s former regime.
The step was taken “based on evidence of illicit activities”, said US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.
Last month, a judicial inquiry found AWB broke UN oil-for-food programme rules by paying Saddam Hussein $222m (£112m) to secure contracts
Mobile phone giant Vodafone has been fined 76m euros ($100m; £51m) by a Greek privacy watchdog.
The Greek agency responsible for privacy said Vodafone had failed to protect its network from hackers who monitored 106 mobile accounts.
The accounts targeted included those of Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis as well as senior military officers and journalists
US authorities are investigating Sony’s electronics unit and have asked for information about its static random access memory, or SRAM, business.
It comes two weeks after the Department of Justice launched an inquiry into fellow SRAM chip makers, Samsung and Cypress Semiconductor.
Sony said it would co-operate with the investigation, which it called an industry-wide inquiry
The retrial of Deutsche Bank boss Josef Ackermann and five other former board members of mobile phone firm Mannesmann has begun in a Duesseldorf court.
Last year, the six were cleared over their roles in approving bonuses worth about 60m euros (£41m; $76m) related to Vodafone’s purchase of Mannesmann.
The decision was later overturned, reigniting the corruption trial
Hewlett-Packard chairman Patricia Dunn has resigned with immediate effect amid allegations of illegal spying by the US computer firm.
Chief executive Mark Hurd said he had accepted the offer from Ms Dunn, who had earlier indicated she would leave in January over the scandal.
Mr Hurd described methods used by HP to try and identify who was behind boardroom leaks as “very disturbing”
Five UK firms are among 30 companies to have been fined a total of 314.7m euros (£211.5m; $399
European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has accused Microsoft of orchestrating a “co-ordinated campaign” to discredit her.
Ms Kroes’ comments have come as her department and the US software giant continue to clash over Microsoft’s forthcoming Vista operating system.
In an open letter to the Financial Times, Ms Kroes insisted she was not running a “vendetta” against the firm