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The world this week-Business

Tesco reported a worse-than-expected pre-tax loss of 6.4 billion ($9.6 billion) for the year to February 28th,

one of the biggest losses in British corporate history. The world's third-biggest supermarket retailer, which is being squeezed by discount rivals such as Aldi,

booked several charges and took a hefty write-down in the value of its stores. Dave Lewis, the chief executive, said it had been “a very difficult year”,

an understatement given the catalogue of profit warnings.

Meanwhile, Which? lodged a complaint with Britain's competition authority against what it described assupermarkets' “misleading”

pricing practices from “ dodgy multi-buys to baffling sales offers”. The consumer lobby said that convoluted pricing has left customers bewildered.

Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil giant, released its much-delayed quarterly results,

its first audited accounts since a corruption scandal involving former executives shook the government of President Dilma Rousseff.

The company wrote off 6.2 billion reais (2.1 billion) because of the alleged graft and a further 44.6 billion reais for overvalued assets, mainly on a petrochemical plant and a refinery.

Executives from Comcast met regulators at the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission to argue the case for their proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable.

Comcast did not comment about the talks, but the FCC might hold an administrative hearing on the deal, which would be a sign that it is not warming to the idea.

In an attempt to increase lending to business, the People's Bank of China lowered the level of cash that banks must set aside as reserves,

reducing the reserve-requirement ratio by one percentage point, the biggest cut since the global financial crisis in 2008.

This came after data showed that China's economy grew in the first quarter at its weakest pace since early 2009 and that industrial production had slowed considerably in March.

The Nikkei 225 stockmarket index closed above 20,000 for the first time in 15 years. Japanese shares have been boosted in part by a government-backed drive for companies to return more of their 231 trillion yen ($1.9 trillion) cash pile to shareholders.

Markets were also buoyed by Japan's first monthly trade surplus in three years.

Wonga, Britain's biggest payday lender, reported an annual loss, following a crackdown on the industry that led to a 36% drop in its lending volumes.

A 36-year-old day trader operating out of a suburban house in London that sits under Heathrow's flight path was charged by American authorities with involvement in the “flash crash” on May 6th 2010 that saw stockmarkets dive by 10% within just a few minutes.

Navinder Singh Sarao appeared in court to fight his extradition to America, where he is accused, among other things, of “spoofing” the futures market by placing phoney orders.

The febrile dealmaking in the drug industry continued as Teva, based in Israel and the world's biggest maker of generic drugs, launched an unsolicited $40 billion takeover of Mylan, an American rival.

Mylan had itself recently offered $29 billion for Perrigo, which has its headquarters in Ireland (that deal has been scotched).

If it succeeds, Teva's acquisition would be the biggest foreign takeover yet made by an Israeli firm.

After years of declining profit margins Volvo dismissed Olof Persson as chief executive. The Swedish lorry-maker named Martin Lundstedt as its new boss,

who currently heads Scania, a rival that is owned by Volkswagen. The German carmaker has had its own management problems of late, with its supervisory board issuing support for Martin Winterkorn as chief executive despite his spat with Ferdinand Pi?ch, the chairman.

Google launched a wireless service that charges $20 a month for phone and text services and $10 per gigabyte of data, but which refunds customers if they don't use all their data allowance.

It also overhauled its mobile-search algorithm to prefer sites that are mobile-friendly. The consequences for the search rankings of some organisations have caused the change to be dubbed “mobilegeddon”.

Cirque du Soleil was bought by a consortium that includes Fosun, a Chinese conglomerate that hopes to develop the acrobatic troupe's shows in China,

where they have not gone down so well with audiences used to large-scale circuses.

Fosun has been boosting its entertainment portfolio to tap into leisure spending by China's middle classes, buying Club Med this year and investing in Thomas Cook.