NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta, on trial over insider trading charges, has decided not to take the risk of testifying in his own defense, two days after his lawyer said it was "highly likely" he would take the stand.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Europe's plan to lend money to Spain to heal some of its banks may not work because the government and the country's lenders will in effect be propping each other up, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Global airlines braced on Monday for Europe's debt crisis to worsen during the year, warning it would wipe out the benefit to the industry of cheaper fuel prices.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares, commodities and the battered euro jumped on Monday after euro zone finance ministers agreed to lend Spain up to $125 billion to shore up its struggling banks, relieving markets that had feared a fiscal collapse in the country.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest U.S. health insurer by market value, said it would maintain the health coverage protections included in President Barack Obama's healthcare law regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the legislation.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's securities watchdog flexed its muscles by fining a foreign financial institution for insider trading for the first time, but punishments overall remain modest by global standards, sparking calls for tougher laws to deter a practice that has gone unchecked for years.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's inflation, industrial output and retail sales all flagged in May for a second straight month of sluggish growth that galvanized policymakers last week into taking their boldest action yet to combat a sharpening slowdown.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Google is searching for the answer to a four-billion-dollar question: can a new, gentler approach from a U.S. tech giant persuade the European Union to be more lenient in competition cases?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coffee roasters quietly pulled off a financial feat last year that went unnoticed by most customers: Adding a higher proportion of cheaper, lower-grade robusta to their grounds as the price of top-notch arabica beans surged.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks jumped on Wednesday, giving the S&P 500 its best day since December, as talk of a rescue of Spain's troubled banks and hopes for more monetary stimulus sparked a rebound from recent selling.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta on Wednesday tried to use phone records to sow doubt at his insider-trading trial about contact with now-imprisoned hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's second-highest official on Wednesday laid out the case for the U.S. central bank to provide more support to a fragile economy as financial turmoil in Europe mounts.