French oil firm Total says its head of exploration and production, Christophe de Margerie, is being investigated over claims that he paid bribes to win bids.
A French judge has also placed former Total executive Bernard de Combret under investigation.
Total said the allegations centred on deals relating to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has widened its investigation into corruption allegations at UK defence giant BAE Systems.
Together with Ministry of Defence Police, the SFO raided three business addresses and a home earlier this week.
The SFO said the raids were not related to existing inquiries into BAE defence contracts in Romania and Saudi Arabia
The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has been ordered to pay at least $78m (£42m) in compensation to workers who were forced to work during breaks.
A jury in a Pennsylvania court decided that Wal-Mart broke a state law by refusing to pay staff for the extra work they did.
The class action was brought by about 187,000 staff who worked for Wal-Mart between March 1997 and May 2006
Andrew Fastow, the former Enron finance executive, has been sentenced to six years in prison.
The US energy giant went bankrupt in 2001 with debts of $31.8bn (£18bn)
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
The former head of one of Austria’s biggest banks, Bank Fuer Arbeit und Wirtschaft (Bawag), has been arrested in France on fraud charges.
The Austrian Justice Ministry said French authorities had seized Helmut Elsner, Bawag’s ex-general director.
Bawag has been under investigation for lending ex-Refco CEO Phillip Bennett several hundred million dollars before US brokerage filed for bankruptcy
The world’s largest company is suffering yet another blow to its global reputation as Sweden follows Norway in blacklisting Wal-Mart stock from the portfolio of a national pension fund, citing persistent human rights violations.
Sweden blacklists “Mall-Wart” stock
The Swedish Second National Pension Fund has announced that it has sold its SEK 300m (USD 40.7m) stake in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Mexico
BP is facing a fresh lawsuit in the US, alleging it manipulated oil prices by limiting access to important storage facilities in 2003 and 2004.
Oil futures trader Richard Hershey claimed he suffered financial damage as a result of BP’s alleged action, which he said artificially affected prices.
BP said it had not seen the lawsuit and therefore could not comment