IBT Staff Reporter

Playboy Enterprises Inc has agreed to be taken private by founder Hugh Hefner, after he raised his bid by 12 percent, ending months of negotiations.

A group of Israeli university lecturers sign a petition boycotting the University Center of Samaria situated in the large West Bank settlement of Ariel.

Research In Motion said on Monday it will filter pornographic internet content for its Blackberry smartphone users in Indonesia, following government pressure to stop access to porn sites or face its browsing service being shut down.

UK department store chain Debenhams Plc said bad weather in December impacted like-for-like sales by 2.5 percent to 3.0 percent for the 19 weeks to January 8.

UK recruitment consultancy Michael Page International Plc reported a 32 percent rise in fourth-quarter gross profit, as most of the growth came from permanent recruitment and said it was optimistic about its 2011 prospects.

Stock index futures were lower on Monday as concerns about the euro zone pressured sentiment and overshadowed news of several big acquisitions.

General Motors unveiled the all-new 2012 Chevrolet Sonic at the North American International Auto Show on Monday.

Sanofi-Aventis shares fell 2 percent on Monday after the French drugmaker said it was in direct talks with bid target Genzyme but that significant differences remained over the price of its offer.

Portugal does not need to apply for EU aid, Spain's Economy Minister said on Monday, as pressure mounted on Lisbon to seek outside help in managing its finances and risk premiums on both countries' debt widened.

Liverpool were dumped out of the FA Cup after a 1-0 loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford in the third round, in Kenny Dalglish's first game in charge.

England soccer star David Beckham and his wife, former Spice Girl singer Victoria Beckham, are expecting their fourth child in summer.

Air France-KLM saw a 2 percent increase in passenger traffic in December after heavy snowfall across Europe and the U.S. that will shave an estimated 70 million euros ($90.36 million) off revenues, the airline group said on Monday.

French drugmaker Sanofi Aventis SA said on Sunday it was in discussions with U.S. bid target Genzyme Corp over ways to value a key Genzyme drug, in a sign the two sides are moving closer to a deal.

The United States and UK have settled a jurisdictional dispute that will allow U.S. inspectors to examine whether the British auditors of Lehman Brothers Holdings improperly cleared questionable accounting, Bloomberg said on Monday.

Nintendo Co plans to ship about 1.5 million units of the 3D-capable handheld game players in Japan in the first month after its launch on February 26, President Satoru Iwata said in an interview with the Nikkei business daily published on Monday.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.52 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.44 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.35 percent at 4:05 a.m. EST.

Walt Disney Co is in discussions on allowing content from some of its television networks to be available on sets embedded with Yahoo Inc's Internet-TV software, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Credit Suisse , Switzerland's second-largest bank, is taking a tougher stance on bonuses as regulators clamp down on these payouts which came under fire during the economic crisis.

No TV network is ready to fund a project based on Wonder Woman

With the initial curiosity over, Oprah's channel is seeing a decline in viewers, hopefully it will settle at this point and give her good future run

Mozilla's Firefox has replaced Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the most popular web browser in Europe, according to StatCounter, a market-research firm.

U.S. chemicals group DuPont said on Sunday it will buy Danish food ingredients and enzymes firm Danisco for $5.8 billion to boost its position in the fast-growing food sector.

China's trade surplus narrowed in 2010 for the second straight year, giving Beijing grounds to rebuff U.S. pressure for faster currency appreciation ahead of President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington next week.

China should further diversify its huge foreign exchange reserves away from U.S. government debt to reduce its risk exposure, a central bank official said in comments published on Monday.

A group of private equity firms including Apollo Global Management is interested in a buyout of food and beverage company Sara Lee Corp , and has made an approach to the company, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday.

Mounting fears over sovereign debt in the euro zone kept the euro tethered to four-month lows against the dollar on Monday, with investors nervous ahead of a flurry of bond sales from the region's weaker states.

U.S. Chemicals firm DuPont said on Sunday it will buy Danish food ingredients and enzymes firm Danisco for $5.8 billion, in a rare large deal that should boost its position in the fast-growing food sector.

China is set to further clamp down on the country's buoyant housing market by imposing a long-debated property tax for the first time in the southwestern city of Chongqing, domestic media reported on Monday.

Chemicals maker DuPont is close to a deal to buy Danish food ingredients and enzymes company Danisco for more than $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.