Shell agrees to annually sell natural gas to PetroChina for 20 years 

Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's biggest oil company, had agreed to sell an annual 2 million tones of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China for the coming 20 years. Shell (China) Limited said on Monday that the agreement was signed between the European oil giant and PetroChina International Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina), China's largest oil and gas producer. The Chinese company was not immediately available to confirm the news.

Obama taps heavyweights to help economy out of 'vicious cycle'

President Elect Barack Obama selected on Monday two heavyweights for his economic team, picking Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury and Lawrence Summers as director of the National Economic Council. The dual selection set up a formidable tag team to take on the global financial crisis. Geithner at the Treasury will likely take on a defensive role, spreading the remains of the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program, whilst Summers will be the architect of the administration's offensive economic stimulus proposals.

Wall Street rallies after U.S. gov't rescues Citigroup

Wall Street posted the largest two-day rally since 1987 on Monday, after the U.S. government rescued Citigroup late Sunday night. The U.S. Treasury Department decided to inject 20 billion U.S. dollars into the second largest U.S. bank by assets, after backing the bank with 25 billion U.S. dollars last month under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Citigroup's stocks jumped 58 percent after dropping 60 percent last week.

Grain production set for new high