IBT Staff Reporter

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre, who played the game with a boyish joy and bulldog determination, filed his retirement papers with the NFL after a 20-season career, the league confirmed on Monday.

Saudi Arabia has taken in Tunisia's fallen strong man, but the oil wealth of the kingdom and its neighbours should ensure the poverty-driven unrest which ousted Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali does not follow him to the Gulf.

Top negotiators from the world's largest trading powers will meet next week to push for a global trade accord, a signal that political momentum may be building for completion of the stalled talks.

Rough diamond prices are expected to rise further this year, but will not match last year's sharp double-digit percentage rebound, which was boosted by restocking from jewellers, the head of De Beers sales division said on Monday.

Mauritius is in talks with India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited about a $2 billion oil refinery on the Indian Ocean island that could be operational by 2015, a minister said on Monday.

A former Swiss private banker handed over data on hundreds of offshore bank account holders to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday, saying he wanted to draw attention to financial abuses.

The chief of Ivory Coast's main cocoa-exporting port Abidjan played down its inclusion on an EU sanctions list on Monday, saying the only victims would be European firms contracted to carry out work at the port.

South African stocks fell on Monday, snapping a four-day advance, with paint company Freeworld Coatings sliding 4 percent after saying a proposed takeover bid by Japan's Kansai Paint was unfair to shareholders.

Floods have killed or left missing at least 40 people in South Africa and wrecked thousands of homes in neighbouring Mozambique, officials said on Monday.

Developing countries and economies in transition together attracted more foreign investment than developed countries in 2010 for the first time, a United Nations study showed on Monday.

Three people were killed in central Nigeria on Monday when soldiers opened fire to quell a fight between Christian and Muslim youths over voter registration for April elections, police and witnesses said.

International observers gave south Sudan's independence referendum their seal of approval on Monday and said a vote for secession was now virtually certain in their first official judgment on the poll.

Steve Jobs has changed the course of personal computing during his two stints as chief executive of Apple, while his idiosyncratic style and the iconic iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac have made him a household name.

Euro zone finance ministers called on Monday for an increase in the effective lending capacity of the currency bloc's rescue fund, but EU paymaster Germany said there was no urgency and it would be March before a firm plan was in place.

Monetary policy cannot speed up labor market healing or prevent asset price bubbles, and counting on it to do so may do more harm than good, a top U.S. Federal Reserve official said.

GlaxoSmithKline will record a legal charge of 2.2 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) for the fourth quarter, effectively wiping out its profit, as it settles further claims related to Avandia and sales practices.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, is greeting Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the U.S. this week with a promise of legislation to impose tariffs on Chinese goods to combat China’s alleged currency manipulation.

Vodafone is building a 3G broadband network in Albania, with Nokia Siemens Networks providing the infrastructure.

European planemaker Airbus celebrated a surprise win in the annual orders race against Boeing with the 10,000th plane sale in its 40-year history, part of a $5 billion order from Virgin America.

Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs has been granted medical leave to concentrate on his health, he said on Monday.

Research In Motion, makers of the popular Blackberry telephone and messaging system, said on Monday they would comply with an Indonesian government order to block access to porn sites from its devices.

Apple shifting from Infineon to Qualcomm for a new processor.

The United States today celebrates the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., America’s pre-eminent civil rights leader, who was gunned down by an assassin on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old.

Jay Cutler made a spectacular playoff debut by throwing for two touchdowns and running for two others as the Chicago Bears defeated the Seattle Seahawks 35-24 on Sunday to advance to the NFC championship.

Roger Federer fired up the Australian Open with a blistering start to his title defense on Monday, bringing some welcome warmth to an unseasonably cool Melbourne Park on opening day.

One of the most unpredictable NFL seasons in years is no closer to providing a clear favorite after another extraordinary round of playoffs saw the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons both eliminated.

Rafa Nadal begins his quest on Tuesday to become the first man to possess all four major crowns simultaneously since 1969 against Brazil's Marcos Daniel at the Australian Open.

A former Swiss private banker says he plans to hand over data on hundreds of offshore bank account holders to the WikiLeaks website at a London news conference on Monday.

Apple's CEO Steve Jobs has announced that he is going on medical leave, in an email to the iPad maker's employees, giving weight to a proposal for a CEO succession plan being pushed by some shareholders.