IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. and Chinese officials in Washington on Monday laid out differences on human rights in China, U.S. exports on high technology products, and China's exchange rate as they held ongoing talks to resolve strategic and economic issues.

U.S. stocks were set to rise at the open on Tuesday after strong Chinese trade data eased concerns of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy and pointed to strong global demand.

Oil prices pared losses of more than 2 percent on Tuesday as the dollar erased gains.

Microsoft brings aboard Skype for $8.5 billion. With Skype, Microsoft is getting an established player in the increasingly competitive voice and video calling market. Skype has 170 million connected users and logged over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010.

After 25 years of marriage, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have split up, they said in a joint statement.

Amazon's cloud-based locker service can now be accessed by iOS devices iPad and iPhone after Amazon added an update to its Cloud Player service.

U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday as strong Chinese trade data eased concerns of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy and pointed to strong global demand.

Microsoft is close to buying internet telephony network Skype in an $8.5 billion deal, a source familiar with the situation said, as it seeks to regain ground on growing rivals such as Google.

A new app is able to diagnose a stroke with the same accuracy as a medical computer workstation.

U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday as strong Chinese trade data eased concerns of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy and pointed to strong global demand.

The head of Tokyo Electric Power Co asked the government on Tuesday to help shoulder the burden of compensating residents displaced by the crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a bill that is expected to run into tens of billions of dollars.

Deutsche Post DHL posted consensus-beating quarterly earnings and affirmed its 2011 outlook as demand from Asia boosted profits at its express delivery business.

Greece denied on Tuesday a Dow Jones report that it expects a new aid package of nearly 60 billion euros ($85.71 billion) to deal with its debt crisis.

Google Inc. plans to launch its cloud-based music locker service at its developer's conference Google I/O to challenge Amazon's early mover advantage in the music streaming service.

China stormed back to post a hefty trade surplus in April as exports hit a record while imports eased more than expected, weighed down by sustained monetary tightening and high commodity prices.

Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> on Tuesday denied a report its output would return to pre-quake levels two or three months earlier than expected, but said it will try to resume normal production as soon as possible.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.2 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.1 percent at 0818 GMT.

Deutsche Post DHL's earnings beat estimates in the first quarter as demand from Asia boosted profits at its express delivery business.

China's Huawei Technologies is making an aggressive push into the consumer electronics space, marketing its new smartphones and tablet PCs in glitzy Beijing malls and even a Milan fashion show as it seeks to emerge from decades of obscurity.

Microsoft Corp is close to buying Web video conferencing service Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion including debt, a source familiar with the situation said, underscoring the technology giant's growing ambition to plug a hole in its mobile offerings.

Robert Stempel, the first engineer to become the chief executive of General Motors Co , died on Saturday in Florida, the Detroit Free Press reported. He was 77.

Microsoft Corp is close to buying web video conferencing service Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion including debt, a source familiar with the situation said, in a deal which would rank as the biggest for the software company.

China posted its biggest trade surplus in four months in April, swinging from a trade deficit in the first quarter, as senior Chinese and U.S. officials sought to resolve disputes over trade and other policy differences.

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - An avid Twitter user's desire to help Japan recover from the devastating March earthquake and tsunami has resulted in a charity e-book based on material gathered from around the world -- all within three days.

Microsoft Corp is nearing a deal to buy Internet phone company Skype Technologies for more than $7 billion, and a deal could be announced as early as Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Oil prices tumbled after the CME group raised crude futures margins by 25 percent following volatile trading in recent sessions, while Greek woes pulled the euro down to a six-week low against the yen on Tuesday.

LeBron James scored 35 points with 14 rebounds and led 98-90 overtime victory over the Boston Celtics .

Sheila Bair, a free market advocate who helped oversee the most dramatic bailout of the financial system since the Great Depression, will leave the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp on July 8, the agency announced on Monday.

YouTube is adding more than 3,000 mainstream movies for users to rent starting on Monday, along with the millions of free user-created videos the popular website is best known for.