IBT Staff Reporter

Amgen Inc's chief executive met with the top executive of Swiss biotech firm Actelion Ltd to discuss his interest in Actelion, but made no offer for the company, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing three people with knowledge of the situation.

General Electric could unveil a 755 million pound-plus ($1.2 billion) takeover of British oilfield services company Wellstream Holdings as early as Monday, the Financial Times said on Sunday.

Amazon.com Inc's websites in Britain, France, Germany and Spain suffered an outage for more than half an hour on Sunday night, but it was not immediately clear whether it was due to a cyber attack.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is in advanced talks with New York's construction unions to get their backing for its entry into New York City's retail market, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Expectations of low U.S. interest rates and one-way bets against the dollar saw it emerge as the new funding currency of choice for FX carry trades, the Bank for International Settlements said in its quarterly review.

Germany and France agreeing to make investors participate in losses in sovereign default was an important factor in the intensification of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, a Bank for International Settlements report said on Sunday.

A 19-year-old Dutchman arrested on Saturday over a cyber attack on the website of the public prosecution office was released on Sunday after admitting involvement in the attack, Dutch authorities said.

The Alaska Senate race is finally over, perhaps.

The Obama administration is seeking to give its allies and U.S. exporters a boost, proposing new rules that will ease trade in items that could prove to be security risks if they fell into the wrong hands.

Dubai's ruler appointed a new board for Dubai World , the flagship conglomerate which struck a deal to restructure $25 billion in debt earlier, appointing his uncle and key adviser as chairman on Sunday.

Austrian banker Sonja Kohn, accused in a U.S. lawsuit of being Bernard Madoff's criminal soul mate, was instead a victim of the man behind the biggest fraud in financial history, her lawyer in Vienna said.

The recent debate about the ethics of releasing the American cables by Wikileaks has spawned a new debate by freedom of speech on the internet. The internet has been a god-send for dissidents and freedom fighters to get across their message, without resorting to underground presses and more.

Top 3 philanthropists are women celebrities

The Swedish police announced that the bomb blasts in the capital, Stockholm, were acts of 'terrorism'. At a press conference on Sunday morning, the Swedish Security Police (Säpo) said it had taken over the investigations of case which appeared to be a suicide bomber attack.

China will ratchet up efforts to quell inflation in 2011 while pushing forward economic restructuring to help sustain robust growth, state media said on Sunday after the close of an annual policy-setting conference.

Germany is open to a discussion over whether countries that share the euro currency should harmonize their fiscal policy, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

A little roundup of Hollywood celebrities' bytes for the week

German auto major BMW has regained top slot in January-November period after a fierce battle for numbers with compatriot Mercedes Benz in the Indian luxury car market, inching closer to be the leader in 2010.

'Glee' cast members have an unexpected day off as it fall ill leading to the Friday's filming being cancelled.

The electric vehicle battery powered cars will start being competitive with gas-powered ones in about five years, the U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu, said at the annual U.N. climate talks.

At the Video Games Awards, release of 'Mass Effect 3' was announced, and winners declared. While just hours ahead of the 2010 ceremony, Microsoft delayed the news on much-awaited 'Gears of War 3'.

Ritchie and Madden get married at a small intimate ceremony

Leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it still favored a $70-$80 price range for oil, a restatement of a two-year-old policy that will be welcomed by consumer nations worried that rising oil prices may get out of control and hamper global economic recovery.

Cyber activists attacking organizations seen as foes of WikiLeaks briefly blocked a Dutch prosecution website on Friday after a 16-year-old suspected of involvement in the campaign was arrested in the Netherlands.

Governments, not the European Central Bank, have to solve the sovereign debt crisis, one of the bank's top policymakers Juergen Stark was quoted as saying on Saturday.

President Barack Obama will host a summit of corporate chief executives on Wednesday as his administration steps up efforts to mend relations with big business and win their support for his economic policies.

Dutch police arrested a 19-year-old man on Saturday on suspicion of joint responsibility for a cyber attack on the website of the public prosecution office.

After Google’s payment platform “Checkout” now Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds has launched an in-app carrier-billing payment system.

OPEC agreed to maintain current oil production levels at its meeting on Saturday while Saudi Arabia reiterated that $70-$80 a barrel was its favored price for crude.