BUSINESS

Apple is denied a trademark for the popular iPad Mini by the US Patent and Trademark Office on the grounds it is "merely descriptive".

Dubai and Abu Dhabi's convention centres are reporting bumper years in 2012, as global businesses increasingly look from West to East.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, the opening up of the economy and the creation of numerous private universities have given a new generation hope of a bright future.

Wealthy Gulf governments are increasingly paying private sector companies to train teachers - but is corporate help really the best way to improve state-run education?

Bank of Cyprus depositors with more than 100,000 euros could lose up to 60% as part of an EU-IMF bailout restructuring move, officials say.

Welsh rugby's four regions hold informal talks with their English counterparts about meaningful cross-border competition.

The Central Bank of Cyprus eases some of the restrictions imposed as banks on the island reopened, following an international bailout deal.

A survey by an accountancy firm of Scottish football's top 32 clubs finds four in 'financial distress'.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades says the island will not leave the euro, as the central bank announces a slight easing of capital controls.

Our daily morning business round-up looks at the main stories in Europe and Asia.

The government is to scale back some of its plans to test a radical new reform to the welfare system.

Online retailer Amazon says it will buy a book discovery and recommendation website Goodreads, which has 16 million members.

How will Cypriot banks explain this one?

We gather more and more, yet we're still hard-wired to stuff things in files and folders - but this is changing, writes the BBC's Ian Hardy.

The UK's services sector grew at its fastest pace for five months in January, raising hopes that the economy will avoid falling back into recession.

Can civil war be as big an attraction as mountains for Nepal?

Tight capital controls in Cyprus could last for up to a month, the country's foreign minister says, on the day crisis-hit banks re-opened to customers.

Shares reach new highs at the end of the last trading day of the quarter, driven by optimism that Cyprus' problems are under control.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it continues to have "confidence" in its managing director Christine Lagarde.

Queues formed ahead of the re-opening of Cyprus banks, but customers were only allowed to withdraw small amounts of cash to prevent a run on the banks