IBT Staff Reporter

Riot police shielded Greece's national parliament Sunday as demonstrators gathered to protest against austerity measures on the eve of talks in Brussels on a 130 billion euro ($171 billion) bailout needed for the country to avert bankruptcy. (See Eurozone Crisis in Graphics and Interactive Timeline.)

China's central bank cut the amount of cash banks must hold in reserves on Saturday, boosting lending capacity by an estimated 350-400 billion yuan ($55.6-$63.5 billion) in a bid to crank up credit creation as the world's second-biggest economy faces a fifth successive quarter of slowing growth.

Profits of Chinese banks reached a record high of 1.04 trillion yuan ($165.10 billion) in 2011, marking an increase of 15.8 percent from 2010, China's banking regulator said.

It would make no sense to split the second bailout programme for Greece, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying by the weekly Tagesspiegel am Sonntag.

Greece's cabinet on Saturday approved a final set of austerity measures sought by the EU and IMF as a condition for a 130-billion euro ($171 billion) rescue package, raising the chances of a deal next week to avert a chaotic default on its debt.

Iceland's Financial Surveillance Authority said on Saturday it had sacked director Gunnar Andersen following a report into his time as an executive at failed bank Landsbanki.

A fire on Friday caused by a leaking pipe flange may temporarily idle production at BP Plc's 225,000 barrel per day Cherry Point refinery in Washington state, West Coast refined products trade sources said on Saturday.

China's central bank cut the amount of cash banks must hold in reserves on Saturday, boosting lending capacity by an estimated 350-400 billion yuan ($55.6-$63.5 billion) in a bid to crank up credit creation as the world's second-biggest economy faces a fifth successive quarter of slowing growth.

Italy's central bank governor urged the government on Saturday to rapidly implement planned reforms and take further steps to support the Eurozone's third-biggest economy, which he said would shrink by about 1.5 percent this year.

Italy's central bank governor urged the government on Saturday to rapidly implement planned reforms and take further steps to support the euro zone's third-biggest economy, which he said would shrink by around 1.5 percent this year.

Apple Inc. has requested European Union antitrust regulators to step in and settle a technology patent dispute between the company and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., according to a Motorola Mobility regulatory filing on Friday.

Apple has asked EU anti-trust regulators to step in and settle a technology patent dispute between the company and Motorola Mobility, according to Motorola Mobility.

In his biggest feat off the basketball court yet, Jeremy Lin has helped restore New York Knicks games to more than 1 million TV viewers in New York.

Apple Inc did not infringe patented technology owned by Android phonemaker HTC Corp, the U.S. International Trade Commission said on Friday, the latest ruling in the wide-ranging smartphone patent wars.

Have a white girl problem and don't know where to turn? Babe Walker, Twitter's snarky, self-obsessed socialite has produced the definitive guide on how to deal with life's trivial issues in a new novel out this month.

A U.S. grand jury added more charges against file-sharing website Megaupload and its executives, and also accused them of taking copyrighted content from sites such as YouTube for its own service, according to a new indictment released on Friday.

Kung Fu Panda creator Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc plans to build a production studio in Shanghai with some of China's biggest media companies, a landmark deal that gives the company a foothold in one of the largest untapped markets for Hollywood.

The $40 billion United Brotherhood of Carpenters pension fund, a long-time investor rights activist, is asking more than a dozen U.S. companies to start disclosing how long they have had the same outside auditor.

For the dozen or so niche hedge funds that make their money in the natural gas market, January's wild trading should have come as a welcome relief.

Time Warner Cable subscribers will finally be able to catch the recent rise of basketball sensation Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks, thanks to a new agreement struck with MSG Network, a spokesman for the cable company said.

The parent of Fidelity Investments, FMR LLC, plans to raise $250 million through a debt offering, according to U.S. regulatory filings.

Mitsui & Co Ltd's MOEX Offshore agreed with the U.S. Justice Department to pay at least $90 million to settle some of its liability in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the first government settlement involving the BP Plc Macondo well.

The head of Avon Products Inc's Canadian unit will become president of the cosmetics company's China business next month as the company contends with sliding sales there and a probe into alleged bribery of officials in that country.

Women's apparel retailer Christopher & Banks Corp said its chief executive Larry Barenbaum stepped down Friday.

Prompted by a delay in a big trade of a popular exchange-traded fund, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a closer look at a possible connection between high-frequency traders and hedge funds jumping in and out of ETFs, among other areas, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone told investors he will not quit plans to build a national mobile broadband service even after the startup wireless company he is backing suffered a serious regulatory blow this week.

Carlson Capital, a hedge fund based in Dallas, said on Friday that one of its former portfolio managers had received inside information from a industry consultant who has been arrested and charged with illegally passing on inside information.

U.S. securities regulators have widened their inquiry into the trillion-dollar market for exchange-traded funds, according to a person familiar with the matter.

CVS Caremark Corp said it received requests for information about a prescription drug discount program it runs for uninsured or under-insured individuals from both the U.S. government and the Texas Attorney General.