IBT Staff Reporter

A presidential election in Niger aimed at returning the West African uranium exporter to civilian rule will go ahead as planned on January 31 after logistical problems were solved, the ruling junta said late on Monday.

International ratings agency Standard and Poor's upgraded South Africa's outlook to stable from negative on Tuesday, and said the country's external balance sheet would remain manageable.

Nigeria raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent on Tuesday and took aggressive measures to tighten liquidity as its seeks to get inflation down to single digits.

New vehicle imports into Nigeria declined 18 percent in 2010, reflecting weak credit growth in sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest economy in the wake of a $4 billion bank bailout the previous year.

Algeria's state-run power utility plans to spend at least 8 billion euros on the construction of 10 power plants by 2018, the official APS news agency reported on Tuesday.

Facebook's German business has run into new restrictions on what it can do with email addresses, giving users more control over what happens to the names on their contact lists.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is against the United Nations' recognition of Alassane Ouattara as winner of Ivory Coast's election and wants an African Union probe into the poll, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Stocks fell on Tuesday weighed by disappointing blue-chip earnings, including 3M and Johnson & Johnson, ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech.

Verizon Communications reported a bigger-than-expected increase in wireless subscribers in the quarter just ahead of its launch of the Apple Inc iPhone.

Heavy rains in South Africa have so far cost the country's farming sector over 2 billion rand in damages, an industry official said on Tuesday.

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Tuesday pledged support for a new southern state in his first public address since the south of the country voted overwhelmingly to split from the north.

Thousands of Egyptians protested against the state on Tuesday in a rare show of strength to mark what online activists said was a Day of Wrath inspired by the revolt that toppled Tunisia's president.

Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said he expected to spend another 10 years at the company, after his surprise handover last week to co-founder Larry Page.

Verizon's profits increased, revenues decreased and the company fell short of expectations ahead of its iPhone launch in February.

3M Co reported higher-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday, lifted by strong sales to the electronics industry.

Nine Chinese cities in the southern part of the nation around the Pearl River Delta are proposed to be merged to create world’s largest mega city at a cost of $300 billion with a population of 42 million.

Diversified U.S. manufacturer 3M Co reported higher-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday, lifted by strong sales of products to the electronics industry.

With the 2011 edition of the Australian Open entering its final stages, it's time to review some of the more 'interesting' quotes in relation to the tournament so far.

Research by a UK-based independent property investment consultancy found that the property was considered a better investment than gold and shares for investors to invest their cash to make profit.

Verizon Communications added far more wireless subscribers than expected in the fourth quarter, dispelling any worries that customers would put off signing up until the company's Verizon Wireless venture begins selling Apple Inc's iPhone next month.

Outgoing Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Tuesday he expected to spend another 10 years at Google, after announcing his surprise handover last week to co-founder Larry Page.

Silicon Valley billionaire, Tom Siebel, founder of CRM vendor Siebel Systems, has sold his 62,000-acre Montana cattle ranch for $45 million.

The Gold Price fell to new multi-month lows against all major currencies on Tuesday morning, dropping to $1325 per ounce as capitulation and panic hit Asian investment traders, according to one Hong Kong dealer.

U.S. single-family home prices fell for a fifth straight month in November and could plumb new lows soon, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

Gold fell to its lowest in ten weeks on Tuesday, putting the price on course for its worst monthly performance in 13 months as safe-haven demand evaporated and investors booked further profits on the 2010 rally.

Google released a new Keep my opt-out extension for its Chrome browser in an attempt to uphold the users right to be left alone even as its competitor Mozilla added a do-not-track feature to allow users to bar third-party, advertsing targeted tracking.

Stocks fell on Tuesday as a slew of corporate earnings failed to persuade investors to add to the previous session's gains.

The companies that reported earnings before the markets open on Tuesday are: Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, 3M Co., EMC Corp., Corning, DuPont, Kimberly-Clark, Sherwin-Williams, Harley-Davidson and W.W. Grainger.

The Federal Reserve will continue to focus on low underlying inflation in pushing aggressive measures to support the U.S. recovery, even as European authorities fret about rising energy and food prices.