Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday said the government would invite international tenders by June next for the construction of the country’s much-hyped 6.15-kilometre long Padma Multipurpose Bridge project. “Tender documents will be out in next month or in first week of June for Padma,” he told a pre-budget meeting with the Economic Reporters Forum (ERD) at his ministry. Muhith informed that the tenders would be floated for three types of works -- consultants to supervise the construction of the bridge, construction of the main bridge and river training.

Zimbabwe's central bank chief on Wednesday dismissed government threats to seize foreign-owned banks that fail to meet black ownership requirements, in a rare public rebuke of colleagues. Gideon Gono -- a close ally of President Robert Mugabe -- dismissed threats that banks, including Standard Chartered, face imminent closure for failing to comply with the country's indigenisation laws.

By Lawrence White HONG KONG (Reuters) - Luo Juncheng, a delivery man and school dropout from China's Guangdong province, was 19 years old when he opened an account at Bank of China subsidiary Chiyu Bank in Hong Kong in mid-2009. Over the next eight months, he moved more than HK$13 billion ($1.7 billion) through the account, making nearly 5,000 deposits and more than 3,500 withdrawals in the largest money laundering case on record in the territory.

The Fitch ratings agency downgraded on Friday five Slovenian banks, including the two largest NLB and NKBM, citing the delay in the implementation of a solution for the eurozone country's wobbly banking system. The country's two largest banks, state owned Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) and Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM), saw their rating downgraded to BB- from BBB- rating with a negative outlook.