UNITED STATES

Royal Dutch Shell still plans to start exploration drilling next year in Alaska's potentially oil-rich Chukchi Sea in spite of a new legal setback, a company manager in Alaska said on Monday.

Wal-Mart Inc's plan to eliminate jobs at its China unit has met with resistance from the up to 1,400 workers involved, the U.S. retailer said on Tuesday.

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday on concerns about the state of corporate profits after several major U.S. companies reported disappointing quarterly results and even cloudier outlooks.

UnitedHealth Group Inc posted slightly lower first-quarter profit on Tuesday as membership in commercial plans for employers fell, but the results topped analysts' expectations, and the insurer backed its 2009 profit forecast.

Honda Motor Co. President Takeo Fukui said on Tuesday the U.S. market has shown signs of having bottomed out since the start of April.

The Obama administration will make about $500 million available to Chrysler LLC through the end of this month as it seeks to reach an alliance with Fiat, and up to $5 billion through May to help General Motors Corp restructure outside of bankruptcy, an independent oversight report on the Treasury Department's corporate rescue fund said on Tuesday.

Chemical maker DuPont reported a 59 percent fall in quarterly profit, trimmed its full-year outlook and said it would cut more jobs as weak economic conditions continued to constrict demand.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, Nasdaq and S&P 500 share indexes are up between 0.3 and 0.5 percent, pointing to a higher start on Wall Street.

Tesco , the world's No.3 retailer, showed its resilience to the economic downturn, posting a 10 percent rise in underlying annual profit to 3.13 billion pounds ($4.6 billion), a record for a British retailer.

Tesco , the world's No.3 retailer, showed its resilience to the economic downturn, posting a 10 percent rise in underlying annual profit to 3.13 billion pounds ($4.6 billion), a record for a British retailer.

The Obama administration will make about $500 million available to Chrysler LLC through the end of this month as it seeks to reach an alliance with Fiat, and up to $5 billion through May to help General Motors Corp restructure outside of bankruptcy, an independent oversight report on the Treasury Department's corporate rescue fund said on Tuesday.

Oil steadied above $45 a barrel on Tuesday, pausing after an almost 9-percent fall a day earlier as traders awaited further cues on demand from U.S. economic, corporate and oil inventory data.

Executives from Google Inc, AT&T Inc, Twitter and other high tech companies are visiting Iraq this week to explore how technology may help fight corruption and build a more accountable society, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

Chinese carmaker BYD is hopeful its exports can recover by the second half of 2009, after a decline of more than 70 percent in the first quarter due to the economic recession.

Zions Bancorp on Monday posted a big quarterly loss because of a write-down and commercial real estate losses, prompting Moody's Investors Service to downgrade it deep into junk status and warn that the large western U.S. bank could become undercapitalized.

Texas Instruments posted a surprise quarterly profit on better-than-expected revenue as demand for its chips improved in Asia, and it gave a rosier-than-expected outlook for the current quarter.

FPL Group's chief executive officer said on Monday that the company's Florida utility's $200 million smart grid initiative will link homes and power plants and support expanding use of solar power and electric cars.

IBM's quarterly revenue fell by a bigger-than-expected 11 percent as the slowdown in corporate spending hurt even one of the healthiest U.S. technology companies.

The New York Times dominated the Pulitzer Prizes announced on Monday, winning five of the coveted awards for investigative, breaking news and international reporting, feature photography and criticism.

President Barack Obama in a meeting with his cabinet on Monday asked his government to cut the US federal budget by $100 million dollars.

Officials in Pakistan say the military has killed 20 militants and destroyed their positions during an air raid near the Afghan borders.