Nobel laureate James Watson is planning to auction his Nobel medal.

It will be the first known time a living recipient has put his medal up for auction.

The new president of the European Commission has come under renewed pressure over the tax avoidance schemes instituted in Luxembourg when he was prime minister.

Now the EU executive has said it will see that legislation is quickly put in place to better scrutinise tax avoidance deals for big corporations.

Detectives from Scotland Yard are to fly back to Faro next week to sit in on the interviews of 11 suspects in the continuing Madeleine McCann case.

The Operation Grange team has devised a reported 253 questions to put to the suspects, which may include Robert Murat, Mrs Murat’s wife aka Michaela Walczuck, her former partner Luís António and two other expat Britons.

Expats without a vote but hoping to do so in next year’s general election have been given a reason to hope they can, although pundits believe it will not come in time.

A Bill is in the works to restore voting rights to any British expats who’ve lived abroad for more than 15 years.

French telecom company Altice SA reported over the weekend that the race to control Portugal Telecom is over as PT's Brazilan owners had agreed to 'exclusive talks' over the detail of the Altice €7.4 billion offer.

This exclusivity agreement ends the race for Isabel dos Santos, businesswoman and daughter of Angola’s dictator, who has been left at the altar,  as have been the private equity bidders Apax Partners and Bain Capital which had hoped to make a killing on the upside when PT is sorted out and ready for resale.

British MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown hopes to gain support on Tuesday for legislation that will change the rules affecting British expat voters before next year’s general election.

The rule currently debies Britons residing overseas from voting in UK elections if they have been abroad for more than 15 years.

Banco Espírito Santo (BES) is being investigated in New York on suspicion of its branch in Miami having been used for money laundering via a Venezuelan businessman, according to Monday’s Wall Street Journal.

The Aman Bank in Libya, owned 40% by BES, also is accused of helping Muammar Gaddafi and his inner circle to get money out of the country in early 2011, before the rebellion ended the dictator’s regime in October that year.

After five years of steady prices hikes, the cost of oil fell on Monday.

Brent crude sunk to $67.53 a barrel, the cheapest it has been since October 2009, but later crept up to just above $70 a barrel.