IBT Staff Reporter

IBM will be leading a joint research initiative of 15 European partners to develop smart cloud storage architecture, which is likely to improve the global delivery of rich data and storage services across boundaries of countries and vendors.

The Obama administration is pushing for closer ties with America Indian tribes, announcing a second presidential conference with the tribes in December.

Two new Democratic senators will be sworn in this afternoon.

The unemployment rate in India is estimated at 9.4 percent or 94 percents out of 1000 persons in the labour force for the fixed reference period of financial year 2009-10, according to employment-unemployment survey by the Labour Bureau under the Labour and Employment Ministry.

A two-year investigation into possible ethics violations by U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, led today to the beginning of a trial before an eight-member, bipartisan House subcommittee. Rangel’s first move was to request a postponement.

The Obama administration is to present a transition plan for Afghanistan at the upcoming NATO summit in Lisbon. A gradual reduction of troops is to begin in July next year and all combat operations will end in 2014 as scheduled. The plan is also expected to suggest stepping up the efforts to build up the Afghan security forces.

While Oracle and HP's altercation over CEOs continued, nearly 400 of their clients switched to IBM servers and storage systems.

Brendon McCullum's unbeaten 124 ensured New Zealand take a 115-run lead into day five of the second test against India.

U.S. retail and food services sales rose more than expected for the fourth consecutive month in October, mainly spurred by a rise in auto and other motor vehicle dealer sales, a report from the U.S. Commerce Department stated.

Police authorities in North Carolina ended their search for missing Australian girl Zahra Baker, by confirming they have found her remains but assured that they will continue to investigate how she died.

Caterpillar Inc., which makes earthmoving machinery, agreed to buy rival Bucyrus International for a total of $7.6 billion, or $92 per share, in cash to boost its presence in the mining equipment industry.

In an attempt to topple Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government, four top officials, including two ministers, are set to resign on Monday afternoon. Even as the move might not be able to bring down the administration, it is likely to prompt early elections in the country, analysts say

Sebastian Vettel becomes the youngest Formula One champion with a master class performance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with title favorite Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber finishing 7th and 8th respectively.

Samsung has left its competitors behind in the DRAM industry.

The host of announcements related to banks made during the G20 Summit in Seoul last week could be credit negative for senior creditors of some banks, Moody's Investor Services said in a note.

U.S. wireless broadband and satellite network Lightsquared, owned by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, announced the successful launch of its SkyTerra 1 commercial satellite.

At least 12 people have been killed and dozens more are awaiting rescue as a huge fire engulfed a high-rise residential building in Shanghai. Several residents including elderly citizens are believed to be trapped in the 28-storey building located in the Jing'an district. Reports in the Chinese media state that the witnesses have spoken of hearing loud explosions.

The euroarea reported a trade surplus for the month of September, according to a report by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

After being dethroned by China as the world's fastest supercomputer maker, US has upped the ante and is creating two 20-petaflop supercomputers to reclaim the top position for the most powerful supercomputer.

Equity capital market transactions totaled $23.3 billion last week, with 59 deals in the Asia Pacific region in the last week, a report by Dealogic said.

In an attempt to embrace the Conservative base, French president Nicholas Sarkozy turned to right-wing politicians in the cabinet reshuffle, riddled with surprises, on Sunday.

Arsenal moved to second in the Premier League after surviving Eveton's late fightback to win 2-1 through goals from Sagna and Fabregas.

British housebuilder Persimmon Plc confirmed that current trading in line with expectations, and it still expects sales revenue to rise about 10 percent this year.

Majestic Wine Plc, UK's largest wine warehouse chain, reported a 20 percent rise in first-half pretax profit as sales rose on substantial increase in active customers, and the company lifted its interim dividend by 17.9 percent to 3.3 pence.

India's annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), marginally declined to 8.58 percent for the month of October 2010 as compared to 8.62 percent for the previous month and 1.48 percent during the corresponding month of the previous year, according to a government statement on Monday.

Singapore's retail sales (seasonally adjusted) decreased 2.4 percent in September 2010 compared to August 2010, the Singapore Department of Statistics said in a statement.

At the recent custody case of Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva the Los Angeles court judge ordered Mel to pay child support for his daughter.

Coty Inc, world's largest fragrance company with $4 billion sales for last year has added to its collection of celebrity fragrance endorsements with the signing of Lady Gaga to develop her own signature line.

Jay-Z and Gucci fashion house have come up with a leather bomber jacket to release his book 'Decoded' in a unique way. An interactive game with the Microsoft search engine Bing has been created to enable people to unlock clues to preview pages of the book.