IBT Staff Reporter

Greece and a team of EU, IMF and ECB inspectors reviewing the country's economy have agreed on a value-added tax cut to help achieve a broader political consensus on more austerity, a Greek newspaper said on Tuesday.

The Bank of Japan's loan scheme targeting growth industries drew solid demand on Tuesday, pushing its cumulative lending to just 60 billion yen ($740 million) from a 3 trillion yen cap and paving the way for debate within the board about expanding it.

Emerging nations are still conducting lots of consultations about choosing a candidate from their ranks to head the International Monetary Fund, South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday.

Franco-Belgian financial group Dexia is to hold talks with European Union regulators in the coming days to amend a restructuring plan which it agreed to after receiving a bail-out in 2008.

Moody's Investors Service said on Tuesday it has seen no progress on a consensus between Japan's government and opposition on fiscal policy, suggesting that a sovereign debt rating downgrade was likely after it completes a review within the next three months.

India's economy grew at its slowest pace in five quarters during the March quarter, as rising interest rates crimped consumption and investment, although the central bank is expected to continue tightening rates in its battle against inflation.

The FBI is investigating corruption at the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, which is now suspected to be deeper than originally thought.

Japan's economy offered more signs of recovery from the deadly March earthquake on Tuesday, but Moody's ratings agency warned both growth and government action may fall short of what is necessary to bring Tokyo's ballooning debt back under control.

Mike Brown will officially be introduced to the media as the new Los Angeles Lakers coach Tuesday at 3 p.m.

The truce between the tribal groups and the forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been broken and this has brought Yemen closer to a civil war.

The Dutch government announced today that by end of this year the country's famed marijuana-dispensing coffee shops would start to close to tourists and be open only to Dutch citizens.

Egypt deports Qassem Hosseini, an Iranian envoy, who was arested on suspicion of spying in Egypt, state news agency Mena reported.

A non-European head of the International Monetary Fund could mean a tougher, more realistic action plan for the euro zone debt crisis, Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens said in newspaper interviews on Tuesday.

Sony Corp said on Tuesday it was not certain when it could fully restore PlayStation Network videogame services in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, five weeks after a massive network security breach forced the company to shut them down.

Google Inc, the world's No 1 Internet search engine, will keep the focus of its Chrome operating system on notebooks for now, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

The euro hit a three-week high versus the dollar on Tuesday on a report that Germany could make concessions on efforts to put together a bailout for Greece, while Japanese shares rose on data suggesting industrial activity has begun to recover from a March earthquake.

Goldman Sachs invested more than $1.3 billion from Libya's sovereign-wealth fund in currency bets and other trades in 2008 and the investment lost more than 98 percent of its value, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing internal Goldman documents.

Talks between South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and Libya’s Col. Muammar Gaddafi ended on Monday without a sign of peace.

An E. coli outbreak, which is linked to contaminated cucumbers that has killed 14 people and made more than 300 seriously ill in Germany, has spread to other north European countries, Reuters reported.

North Korea released a Californian businessman who had been imprisoned since November 2010 on charges of proselytizing.

Carmaker Ford Motor is harnessing the power of cloud computing, analytics and Google innovation to make smart cars.

The European Union is racing to draft a second bailout package for indebted Greece to release vital loans next month and avert the risk of the euro zone country defaulting.

Sony Corp said on Tuesday it would restore all PlayStation Network videogame services by the end of the week except in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, weeks after a massive security breach leaked details on 77 million user accounts.

PBS website was hacked and login and password information have been posted with fake news that says murdered rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls are alive in New Zealand on Sunday after it televised its Frontline: Wikisecrets - a recent documentary on Wikileaks.

Japan's economy showed more signs of recovery from the deadly March earthquake and tsunami with last month's industrial output inching up and manufacturers planning to crank up production further in May and June, bringing it near pre-disaster levels.

The euro hit a three-week high versus the dollar on Tuesday on a report that Germany could make concessions on efforts to put together a bailout for Greece, while Japanese shares rose on data suggesting industrial activity has begun to recover from the March earthquake.

Protesters in Tripoli are on the rise, said activists, since a video on the Internet on Monday showed hundreds of angry funeral mourners shouting slogans against the Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

A teenager with ADHD suffered a seizure after consuming two 24-ounce bottles of Mountain Dew.

What image do you have in mind when you think of a business building? Are you tired of desolate scenes of people working before computers in a concrete jungle? Pasona, an internationally renown personnel outsourcing firm for its Urban Farm, the eco-office, breaks the typical perception about business offices.