Fitch's Greece downgrade and Moody's Spanish bank rating cut punished Asian markets overnight, and hit European shares this morning

In the same week that Japan mothballed its last reactor, South Korea began work on two new nuclear power stations

Car makers source iron from Brazil that contributes to Amazon deforestation, says Greenpeace ahead of Rio+20

Owners of three vessels with 29 sailors on board say North Korea is demanding a ransom payment for their release

Threatened closure averted as GM set to announce next Astra car model will be built at Merseyside and Polish plants

UK government making urgent preparations to cope with the fallout of a possible Greek exit from the single currency

Study of tree rings, corals and ice cores find unnatural spike in temperatures that lines up with manmade climate change

Two scientists involved in Spice project to simulate the cooling effect of volcanoes had submitted patents for similar technology

Number of jobless people falls to 2.63 million, the lowest since last summer, official figures from the ONS show

Panagiotis Pikrammenos named as Greece's caretaker prime minister, as financial markets brace for the country's possible exit from the eurozone