IBT Staff Reporter

Stocks sharply pared gains late Tuesday afternoon, with indexes pulling back after news that federal authorities have ramped up an investigation into insider trading on Wall Street.

Backpackers are traveling the world with high-tech toys and are often searching as much for free Wi-Fi as for historical sites.

Microsoft Corp plans to introduce a new tracking protection feature in the next version of its Internet Explorer browser, which will let users filter out sites they don't want to share information with.

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index fell during December from the previous month, a report said.

The Irish government unveiled a tough 2011 budget on Tuesday which foresees 6 billion euros in spending cuts and tax hikes, warning that passage was crucial to avert a deeper crisis and free u p EU/IMF aid.

Irish people braced for tough cutbacks and higher taxes on Tuesday as the government readied a new austerity budget to shrink a soaring deficit and win access to emergency loans from the EU and the IMF.

One of the U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks says that Chinese government had gained access to Microsoft source code which was used to hack into USG organizations.

The Gold Price held near last night's new record highs for US, Euro and Sterling investors in London trade on Tuesday, recording an AM Gold Fix at $1426 per ounce as world stock markets gained more than 1.5%.

The council of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is delaying on deciding whether to accredit foreign law schools because the matter needs more study.

Google Inc showed off a new Web store for games, news and other software applications on Tuesday in an effort to carve out a bigger role in the next generation of Internet media and entertainment.

Vodafone Essar, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group has signed a contract with Wipro, for its telecom services for enterprise business customers.

Chris Hughton was sacked as Newcastle United manager on Monday, landing the club in turmoil leading to press and fans all over England criticizing Newcastle owner Mike Ashley.

Strong interest in an auction of electronic surveillance and intelligence company Applied Signal Technology Inc has sparked a rally in tech firms likely to be targeted by defense contractors facing cutbacks.

On his 30th death anniversary, fans seem to be more interested in celebrating John Lennon and not wailing over his death.

Microsoft is offering customers of Salesforce.com thousands of dollars in rebates in a bid to woo them to its CRM system.

Obama has compromised with the Republicans. The wealthiest Americans will see their tax break continued for at least the next two years and the millions of unfortunate Americans who are out of work will see their unemployment insurance extended for 13 months.

Social networking site Facebook has no plans to ban content from a 'fan page' associated with WikiLeaks-at least, as of now.

3M Co set a 2011 profit forecast that could top Wall Street's expectations, saying that strong growth in emerging markets including India and Latin America would offset a tepid U.S. economy.

The head of the International Monetary Fund criticized Europe's disjointed response to the euro zone debt crisis on Tuesday after Germany and other states resisted his calls for bolder action.

The S&P 500 climbed to a fresh two-year intraday high on Tuesday as investors bet a deal to extend tax breaks will prompt increased spending and buoy the economy while preserving returns for shareholders.

Energy services company AGL Resources Inc. announced an agreement to acquire rival Nicor Inc. for about $2.4 billion in cash and stock, creating a leading natural gas distributor in the U.S.

A French court on Monday ruled that debris from a Continental Airlines plane had caused the tragedy that killed 113 people outside Paris 10 years ago while holding Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics guilty of involuntary homicide.

A computer hacker with no permanent home, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been described as highly intelligent, determined, intense and sometimes paranoid.

Cloud-based software maker Salesforce.com Inc is entering the business of selling database programs that manage vast arrays of corporate data, challenging leader Oracle Corp in the $21 billion a year market.

U.S. equities are the cheapest major asset class and the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 stock index will rise 20 percent in 2011, veteran money manager Martin Sass said on Tuesday.

Bank of America Corp will raise its dividend as soon as possible next year if it passes the current Federal Reserve stress test, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on Tuesday.

MetroPCS, the fifth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., plans to unveil a no-contract smartphone in the first part of 2011.

Chinese electronics maker Foxconn Electronics, a manufacturer of Apple Inc's products, plans to begin shipping the new version of the iPad tablet device, known as iPad 2, as early as the end of February, DigiTimes reported on Tuesday.

As part of its 'Operation Avenge Assange,' a group of Wikileaks supporters called The Anonymous plans a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against Paypal.