IBT Staff Reporter

Seoul on Friday named Kim Kwan-jin, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), as the new defense minister for South Korea. The 61-year-old former Army general replaced Kim Tae-young after the latter resigned in the wake of Tuesday' North Korea attack that killed two South Korean soldiers and two civilians.

The holiday season means some of the busiest days for companies such as Fedex and UPS.

It was called the “Facebook Election” when Obama won nearly 70 percent of the vote among Americans under age 25 reaching them through Facebook. Essentially, Obama won on the wave of youth support, using Facebook.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal refuses to take anything for granted and will look to win against Berdych despite a dramatic twist in events required to see the Spaniard eliminated. On Thursday, Federer and Murray booked their places in the semis with wins over Soderling and Ferrer respectively.

Microsoft announced its gains in mindshare with 15,000 developers building apps for its recently launched Windows Phone 7.

Some studies indicate that Cyber Monday and other web promotions have taken customers out of line on Black Friday.

South African president Jacob Zuma set off to Harare on Friday expecting to even out the disputes of Zimbabwe's power-sharing government which is almost on the verge of collapse. The Zimbabwe standoff worsened as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai filed a lawsuit against ruling president Robert Mugabe accusing him of violating the global political agreement (GPA) signed between them.

It was a tightly contested second day at the Gabba, when Mike Hussey frustrated England with an unbeaten 81, in the first test of the 2010 Ashes.

Japanese automobile joint venture Nissan Motor India Limited will unveil the diesel variant of its Micra compact hatchback car in December second week.

Japan's economic recovery showed some positive signs as inflation increased in October for the first time in almost 24 months.

Beginning well before midnight on Thursday, in malls throughout the nation, the lifeblood of the American economy – the consumers – will start queuing up outside the locked entrances of various retail stores, forming longer and longer lines, clutching ads and lists and coupons, sipping coffee and hot chocolate, rubbing their hands and stomping their feet for warmth, exciting each other with anticipatory chatter, and waiting, waiting for the clock to strike the appointed hour, the clerk to open ...

The European Union is attempting to find alternate sources of rare earth mineral after China's exports of the mineral fell drastically last month.

Authorities in Seoul are verifying the reports of sounds of artillery fire heard around Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. It is yet to be determined where the firing originated from.

Germany's argument for a policy to make private investors pick up part of the bill for any future bailouts won support from France as more European countries seem to require financial aid.

Ford Motors, the second-biggest U.S. automaker, opened 40 dealerships in China on Thursday and plans to add another 26 by year's end.

General Motors has said that it would invest $163.2 million in its operations in Flint and Bay City, Michigan and Defiance, Ohio. This investment is to support engine production for the Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Cruze and a new small car, which will be built in the United States.

Netflix has moved its video-on-demand streaming service to the cloud, taking its datacenter to Amazon Web Services EC2 (AWC), citing the need for agility and the high cost of running Oracle on IBM as its primary motive.

Windows Phone 7 saw 80 per cent increase in the number of developers registering apps and games with the platform in two months since its launch, Todd Brix, Senior Director for Windows Marketplace at Microsoft, wrote in the official blog.

Infosys is all set to enter West Bengal. The company said it has been allotted 50 acres of land by the government to set up an IT campus at Rajarhat.

Ten General Motors executives bought shares at the initial offering price, documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed on Wednesday.

A study from Pew Internet indicates the richer you are, the more times per day you use the internet.

That homegrown American genius and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin was of the opinion that the national bird should be the turkey. The other Founding Fathers overruled him, obviously. Nonetheless, the turkey has in a way become the nation’s bird – the one most Americans want perfectly cooked and centerpiecing their tables for the two biggest feasts of the year.

India expects to spend about $95.47 billion on information and communication technology (ICT) in the country by 2014, driven primarily by hardware and telecom, according to research firm Gartner.

Novell's Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon said on Wednesday that UNIX copyrights are in Novell's hands, quieting fears that Microsoft had clinched its UNIX copyrights.

United States President Barack Obama has announced intent to take on the Uganda's most feared Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Responding to US legislation passed in May this year, Obama declared his four-point strategy which called for disarmament of Joseph Kony-led LRA fighters.

More than 187,000 square miles of on-shore barrier islands in Alaska have been designated a 'critical habitat' for polar bears. The move welcomed by environmentalists is aimed at tackling the threat of extinction of the species.

Peter Siddle's career best 6/54, including a 9th Ashes hat-trick, stunned England, restricting the visitors to 260 on the first day of the fist test of the 2010 Ashes series.

After nearly a 17-year long wait, Russia could finally be a member of the World Trade Organization by 2011, as it finally reached a deal with European Union, the last opposing member, on Wednesday.

A reignited civil war after the Southern Sudan referendum on independence could cost the International community and the country at least $100 billion, a think-thank report said. The January 9 vote is likely to go in the favor of the oil-rich South Sudan's demand of secession from the North. Tensions have been escalating in the region with reports of a fresh wave of attacks led by the government troops on South Sudan regions.