China has reported a small slowdown in manufacturing growth, underlining the challenges its new leaders face in spurring economic growth.

China's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which surveys big firms, fell to 50.4 in January from 50.6 in December.

Annual profits at Royal Dutch Shell have fallen to $27bn (£17bn), from $28.6bn in 2011.

Profits for the last three months of the year rose to $7.3bn, against $6.5bn, but Shell was hit by generally weaker oil and gas prices during 2012.

Greece's finance minister believes that the worst is over for his country.

"There is definitely a glimmer of hope; light at the end of the tunnel," Yannis Stournaras said.

Eurozone finance ministers and the IMF have reached a deal on an urgently needed bailout for debt-laden Greece.

They have agreed to cut debts by 40bn euros ($51bn; £32bn) and have paved the way for releasing the next tranche of bailout loans - some 44bn euros.

The US will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest oil producer "by around 2020", an International Energy Agency (IEA) report has said.

The IEA said the reason for this was the big growth and development in the US of extracting oil from shale rock.

Japan's economy contracted in the July to September quarter, as a global economic slowdown and anti-Japan protests in China hurt its exports, while domestic consumption remained subdued.

Lawmakers in Greece have narrowly backed a fresh round of austerity measures, despite violent protests across the country.

The austerity package aimed at securing the next round of bailout funds was passed with 153 MPs in favour - a majority of just three.

HSBC bank has put aside a further $800m (£500m) to cover potential money-laundering fines in the US and has announced a fall in quarterly profits.

The bank had already put aside $700m after a US Senate report published in July said lax controls had left it vulnerable to money laundering.

The World Bank has approved an $80m (£50m) grant and pledged lending for Burma, the second poorest country in Asia, for the first time in 25 years.

The money will go to rural communities to build roads, bridges, schools and health clinics, theWorld Bank said.

China Investment Corporation (CIC), the country's sovereign wealth fund, has bought a 10% stake in the firm that owns London's Heathrow airport.

Heathrow Airport Holdings' other UK airports include Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Hewlett-Packard shares plunged to a 10-year low after its boss said it will take time to turn around the company that built its success on printers and computers.

Meg Whitman said revenue for 2013 would decline during what she called a "fix-and-build year."

Iran's beleaguered currency, the rial, has fallen to fresh record lows against the US dollar, according to media reports coming out of the country.

The rial fell a further 9% on Tuesday, following Monday's 18% decline, news agencies have reported.

A radical reform of UK workplace pensions is under way but the overall effect on savings remains unclear, economists have said.

Automatic enrolment into a workplace pension, which starts for some on Monday, will affect millions of people.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has said that nine out of 10 citizens will not see their income taxes rise in the new budget.

He has confirmed that there is to be a new 75% tax rate for people earning more than 1m euros (£800,000; $1.3m) a year.

Spain is due to set out its austerity budget for 2013 later, against a backdrop of a deteriorating economy and 25% unemployment rate.

Madrid is expected to outline 39bn euros ($50bn; £31bn) worth of savings, tax rises, and structural reforms.

Trade unions in Greece have begun the first general strike since the country's conservative-led coalition government came to power in June.

Wednesday's 24-hour walkout is to protest at new planned spending cuts of more than 11.5bn euros ($15bn; £9bn).

Japanese carmakers, including Nissan and Toyota, are cutting production of vehicles in China.

Nissan, the biggest Japanese carmaker in China, said output would stop from Thursday, three days earlier than a planned holiday closure.

Drinks company Diageo has announced it is in talks about buying a stake in India's United Spirits.

Diageo is reported to be trying to buy a 15% stake from Vijay Mallya, the man behind the Force India Formula One team and Kingfisher Airline, and 10% from other shareholders.

Former Olympus chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa has pleaded guilty to charges of falsifying accounts, covering up losses of $1.7bn (£1.1bn), at the opening of his trial.

Two other former executives, as well as the camera firm itself, filed a guilty plea in Tokyo District Court.

Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology, a major supplier for Apple, has halted production at a plant in northern China after a fight broke out among workers.

Foxconn confirmed that a "personal dispute" escalated into an incident involving about 2,000 workers, injuring 40 of them.