Mongolia chose U.S. miner Peabody Energy , a venture between China's Shenhua and Japan's Mitsui & Co, and a Russian-led consortium as preliminary winners to jointly develop the prized Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit, a senior government source said on Monday. The project, which may require initial investment of more than $7 billion, is seen as vital to kick-start the land-locked nation's economy. It will also generate billions of dollars in revenue for the companies involved and add tens of millions of tonnes of increasingly rare coking coal used by steel makers.

Entirely reliant on non-captive sources to feed its plants in Europe, Tata Steel will stick to long-term policy of being an "early stage investor" when it comes to acquiring raw material assets, a senior company official said.

The Osama bin Laden household in Pakistan's Abbottabad town used to buy and sell gold jewellery, perhaps as a way to raise money, it has emerged. Nearly two months after bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs who raided his Abbottabad hideout in the early morning hours of May 2. Photo is from the U.S. Government.