Germany, France draw battle lines over eurozone bonds

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) - Germany dismissed a French-led call for euro zone nations to issue common bonds, a day before a European Union leaders' summit which investors are looking to for new measures to counter the bloc's debt crisis. After a torrid week, stock markets rallied on optimism that the Wednesday summit would produce measures to foster growth and ward off the threat of contagion should Greece exit the euro. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 1. ...

After Yahoo deal, challenges abound for Alibaba

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group could command a Facebook-rivalling valuation of $100 billion when it comes to list its shares, possibly by 2015 - but its more immediate challenge is to hang on to top spot in the country's $36 billion e-commerce market. Founded and led by Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma, Alibaba faces increasingly tough competition in its e-commerce stronghold from well-funded rivals 360buy, which is backed by Digital Sky Technologies, Dangdang Inc and Amazon.com Inc. ...