Global business

Europe's competition regulator dropped a four-year investigation into claims that Qualcomm, a chipmaker based in San Diego, used unfair practices when distributing patent licenses by giving favorable treatment to companies that bought its chipsets. In 2005, six of Qualcomm's rivals and customers lodged the complaints, which have since been withdrawn as each reached a favorable settlement with the company.

Facebook has introduced a dual-class share structure -- similar to the way Google organizes its shareholders' voting rights -- which tightens the grip on the privately held company of Mark Zuckerberg, its co-founder and chief executive. The news was taken as yet another indication that the social-networking site is preparing for an initial public offering.

American International Group settled its dispute with Hank Greenberg, the insurance company's former boss. Greenberg left AIG amid an accounting scandal in 2005 and a falling out over money and management. As part of the settlement, AIG will drop a $1 billion claim against Greenberg, pay his legal fees and return personal items.

Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, revealed how close Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS came to collapse in October 2008. After Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, both banks had trouble raising funds in the markets and turned to the central bank, which lent them $103 billion in emergency aid. King revealed the details of the rescue now because both companies are considered to be stable. In 2007, news that Northern Rock received loans from the state led to a run on the bank.

The European Central Bank said it would tighten its rating standards for the asset-backed securities that euro-area banks use as collateral when seeking liquidity from the central bank. The move forms part of the ECB's plan gradually to withdraw the emergency measures it introduced during the financial crisis.

Hakan Samuelsson shocked corporate Germany by resigning immediately as chief executive of MAN, a truckmaker. Samuelsson was viewed as an able manager, though he had clashed in the past with Ferdinand Piech, chairman of both MAN and Volkswagen, which holds a 30 percent stake in MAN. The companies were rivals in an epic battle in 2006 for control of Scania, a Swedish rival.

Koenigsegg, a tiny maker of high-performance cars based in Sweden, pulled out of an agreement to buy Saab from General Motors. The deal was announced in June, but Koenigsegg's acquisition of Saab depended on a financing arrangement with the Swedish government that it was unable to secure. Meanwhile, GM said it would keep its four factories in Germany open as it restructures its European operations.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said he would suspend building Jewish settlements on the West Bank for 10 months in a bid to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians. But his offer excluded East Jerusalem, "natural growth" in existing settlements and buildings already under construction. Not good enough, said the Palestinians.

Most reactions to the choices for the European Union's top jobs were negative, as few had ever heard of Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister who is to be first permanent president of the European Council, or Catherine Ashton, a British commissioner who is to be EU foreign-policy supremo. Some said their invisibility was the whole point.

A breakthrough treaty was signed that aims to close fishing ports to ships involved in illegal fishing, bringing monitoring and enforcement to the dockside. The first 11 signatories to the deal, approved by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's governing conference, include Brazil, the European Union, Iceland, Indonesia, Norway and the United States.