The author of an editorial linking Rio Tinto Group’s actions in China to 700 billion yuan ($102 billion) in excess charges for the steel industry said the article was his own opinion and used previously published data, Bloomberg reported. Jiang Ruqin, an employee with the Jiangsu Province Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, said he has no involvement in a legal case against four Rio employees detained last month, and that no “leaders” assigned him to write the essay or reviewed the piece before publication.

The world economy cannot sustain any further rise in the oil price, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist warned as oil prices rose toward a record high for the year. Fatih Birol told the Financial Times that prices higher than about $70 could dampen a world economic recovery. “If we go one step further, if we see prices go much higher than that, we may see it slow down and strangle economic recovery,” he said of oil prices on Friday, when the European benchmark was around $70.

Ford Motor Co. has slowed the bidding process for its Volvo unit in an effort to get a better price for the Swedish car brand, according to a person close to the U.S. company, The Wall Street Journal reported. The knowledgeable person said Ford has decided to wait for General Motors Co. to wrap up the sale of its Opel unit in Germany, and is hoping to invite a loser in that two-way bidding race to bid for Volvo. The person added there currently are three bidders for Volvo: a group led by China's Geely Holding Group Co., Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co.

A selloff in Chinese stocks Wednesday, in part on fears that loan growth could be braking, sent a jolt through other regional markets from Mumbai to Sydney, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hopes of a world-wide economic recovery increasingly center on continued growth in the developing world, and China in particular. The Australian dollar has been rising on expectations of Chinese purchases of the country's metals and other resources. U.S. and European banks and consulting firms hope China's continued growth will generate fee income that has become scarcer at home.

When top US and Chinese officials meet on Monday for the first high-level talks of the Obama administration, the American complaints about China’s currency that long bedevilled relations will barely be on the table, the Financial Times reported. For years, Washington alleged that Beijing unfairly manipulated its currency, the renminbi, to support exports, and demanded that China allow it to appreciate to force structural changes in its economy.

China's Beijing Auto said intellectual property issues were behind its failure to reach an deal with General Motors over its Opel unit. General Motors' European business said on Thursday it had agreed to continue detailed talks with both Magna and RHJ International on its German unit Opel, but did not mention Beijing Auto, which had also submitted an offer. Beijing Auto did not mention in the statement what are the next possible steps after the end of its Opel bid.

General Motors Corp. on Monday said it received final offers for its Opel and Vauxhall operations in Europe from three bidders, without naming them, The Wall Street Journal reported. A person familiar with matter said Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., owned by the Chinese government, has submitted a final bid. Another person close to the discussions on Friday said Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna International Inc. and Belgian investment group RHJ International SA are the front-runners to clinch the deal.

Australia's trade minister said on Monday China's detention of Rio Tinto employees would not hurt economic relations if handled properly, but said the case was a signal to everyone looking to invest in China, Reuters reported.

After quitting his job as a senior engineer at Chrysler to join China's fledgling domestic auto industry, Frank Zhao had a stark premonition. “I saw the end of Detroit," says 45-year-old Mr. Zhao, who now supervises 1,200 engineers building a new generation of vehicles for Geely Holding Group Co., one of China's top-selling brands. Geely, with a group of financial backers, is now considered a front-runner in the bidding for Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo unit, The Wall Street Journal reported. A decision could come in the next several weeks, according to people familiar with the situation.

A summit of the Non-Aligned Movement opened at Egyptian Red Sea resort town Sharm El-Sheik Wednesday with a call from Cuban President Raul Castro for a new international financial system to shield developing nations from the global recession, The Associated Press reported. The new system, he said, must give developing countries "preferential treatment." He did not elaborate. U.N.