IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. legislation aimed at curbing online piracy, which had appeared to be on a fast track for approval by Congress, appears likely to be scaled back or jettisoned entirely in the wake of critical comments over the weekend from the White House, people familiar with the matter said.

Spain sold 4.88 billion euros ($6.18 billion) of 12- and 18-month T-bills on Tuesday, passing the first test of market appetite for its debt since a two-notch sovereign rating downgrade on Friday.

British luxury brand Burberry Group Plc reported a sharp slowdown in U.S. sales growth as it chose to cut back supplies for department stores to sell through their discount outlets, knocking its high-flying shares.

Consumer prices in the euro zone fell more than expected in December, data showed on Tuesday, signaling a retreat from a November peak and giving the European Central Bank more room to cut rates to historic lows as the economy heads for recession.

AIA Group Ltd , Asia's No.3 insurer and about one-third owned by American International Group Inc , may bid for the $6 billion Asian insurance operations of ING Groep , sources said, with the prospective sale expected to draw heavy interest from rivals.

ZTE Corp, the world's No.4 handset maker, said on Tuesday that it expects its global smartphone shipments to at least double this year as it seeks to boost margins in the competitive sector, and plans to launch Windows-based smartphones in China later this year.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday following a long holiday weekend, with futures for the S&P 500 up 1.01 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.95 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 1.1 percent at 1027 GMT.

An unofficial panel of experts cleared global accounting groups KPMG and Ernst & Young of any responsibility for a $1.7 billion accounting fraud at Japan's Olympus Corp, though the role of the firms remained under official review.

Mazen Dajani, chief executive of Jordan's CTI Group, says the Arab Spring accomplished what the global financial crisis of 2008-9 did not: it pushed his company, one of the world's largest shippers of cement, into the red.

Asian shares and the euro rose on Tuesday as slightly better-than-expected Chinese economic growth data soothed investor worries that the euro zone debt crisis is dragging down the global economy.

More than four years after the United States fell into recession, many Americans have resorted to raiding their savings to get them through the stop-start economic recovery.

Samsung Electronics Co said on Tuesday it planned to merge its 'bada' mobile software with a platform backed by chipmaker Intel Corp in its latest push to diversify away from Google's Android.

Asian shares and the euro rose on Tuesday as slightly better-than-expected Chinese economic growth data soothed investor worries that the euro zone debt crisis was slowing global activity.

South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group, which includes Samsung Electronics Co, said on Tuesday it would raise its 2012 investment to a record 47.8 trillion won ($41.4 billion) as it seeks to consolidate its leading position in mobile chips and flat screens.

Nicole Gamble is the sort of person cruise ship companies must be dreading after the grounding and weekend capsizing of the Costa Concordia ocean liner off the coast of Italy.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley plans to tell employees this week that bonuses will drop, with cash payouts capped for now at $125,000, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley plans to tell employees this week that bonuses will drop, with cash payouts capped for now at $125,000, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

China's economy grew at its weakest pace in 2- years in the latest quarter, and it appeared headed for an even sharper slowdown in the coming months as export demand fades and the housing market falters.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Sunday named Neil Ashe as the new president and chief executive of its global eCommerce business as the world's largest retailer in a move to bolster its online presence.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Sunday named Neil Ashe as the new president and chief executive of its global eCommerce business as the world's largest retailer in a move to bolster its online presence.

Accounting groups KPMG and Ernst & Young have been cleared of responsibility for a $1.7 billion accounting fraud at Japan's Olympus Corp, one of the nation's worst corporate scandals, in a report issued on Tuesday by a company-appointed panel of lawyers.

Asian shares inched higher and the euro stayed above a 17-month trough on Tuesday as investors focused on economic data from China to gauge the impact of the euro zone debt crisis on global growth.

Accounting groups KPMG and Ernst & Young have been cleared of any responsibility for a $1.7 billion accounting fraud at Japan's Olympus Corp, one of the nation's worst corporate scandals, in a report issued on Tuesday by a panel of lawyers appointed by the company.

Germany, the only major euro zone member to retain a top-notch credit rating, refused on Monday to consider boosting the bloc's rescue fund, while Greece was under pressure to urgently break a deadlock in debt swap talks if it is to avoid an unruly default.

Wikipedia, the popular community-edited online encyclopedia, will black out its English-language site for 24 hours to seek support against proposed U.S. anti-piracy legislation that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said threatens the future of the Internet.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's cut its credit rating of the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro zone's rescue fund, by one notch to AA+ on Monday, three days after it cut the ratings of France and Austria by the same margin.

Three former executives at bankrupt Nortel Networks reached into the cookie jar a decade ago to enrich themselves, prosecutors said, opening a fraud trial that dredged up memories of one of the most spectacular casualties of the 1990's dot-com bubble.

U.S. legislation aimed at curbing online piracy, which had appeared to be on a fast track for approval by Congress, appears likely to be scaled back or jettisoned entirely in the wake of critical comments over the weekend from the White House, people familiar with the matter said.

More than 100 evangelical leaders descended on Brenham, Texas this weekend in search of the elusive anti-Romney candidate around whom conservative Republicans could rally. Once again, they failed. Why?