IBT Staff Reporter

Brazil's Ultrapar is set to submit an offer for Royal Dutch Shell's European liquefied petroleum gas arm alongside a string of private equity bidders, the Financial Times reported.

A new survey suggests even smokers themselves prefer dating partners who don't smoke.

(Reuters Health) - If milk does the heart good, it might do the heart better if it comes from dairy cows grazed on grass instead of on feedlots, according to a new study.

The Australian Dollar opens sharply higher today at 0.8510. Despite a surprise drop in new capital spending, which fell 0.2 per cent in the first quarter, the Aussie rallied from an intraday low of 0.8220.

Prudential investors will back the group's bid for AIG's Asian life insurance arm provided it can negotiate a 10 percent cut in the deal's $35.5 billion price tag, the Sunday Times reported.

After a string of setbacks, British Airways shares might be on the verge of a rebound, business weekly Barron's reported.

Chinese inflation will peak this summer, a respected economist said, as a top planning official pinpointed decreased land supply and the rising cost of agricultural labor as driving strong prices of Chinese agricultural commodities.

Legendary investor Warren Buffett appears this week before a commission searching for the causes of the 2008 financial crisis, to provide his assessment on the role a much-maligned credit rating industry played.

Brazilian mining company Vale will raise iron ore prices about 35 percent to as much as $145 per metric ton in July as part of a switch to quarterly pricing, a Brazilian newspaper reported on Sunday,

Budget airline easyJet plans a class action lawsuit to win compensation for flight bans imposed by Europe's air safety authorities following a volcanic eruption in April, its chief executive told a German magazine.

Members of a British Airways cabin crew union began a second five-day strike on Sunday after talks held last week aimed at resolving the long-running dispute ended without agreement. The new wave of industrial action by the airline's cabin staff started officially at midnight (7 p.m. EDT) with little sign on the horizon of a breakthrough in the increasingly bitter row.

France's Budget Minister Francois Baroin said on Sunday the objective of keeping the country's AAA rating was a stretch and had an impact on economic policy decisions related to cutting the deficit.

Brazilian mining giant Vale will hike iron ore prices by around 35 percent to as much as $145 per tonne starting in July, a Brazilian newspaper reported on Sunday, without saying where it got the information.

The head of the London Stock Exchange said in Italian newspaper comments on Sunday that the German government's ban on short-selling is mistaken and risks being counterproductive.

Bangladesh has blocked the Facebook social networking site because of objectionable materials it contained about the Prophet Mohammad and the country's political leaders, a telecoms regulatory official said on Sunday. The government move followed publication of caricatures of the Prophet deemed hurtful to the religious sentiments of the country's majority Muslim population, the official said...

Greece will not restructure its debt and will not need more cuts to achieve fiscal targets set in the emergency funding programme it agreed with the European Union and the IMF, its finance minister told a Sunday paper.

The deadline for a deal on crucial labor market reforms in Spain between the government, unions and business representatives has been extended for a week from the end of the month, the Labor Ministry said on Saturday.

A group of lenders to the Texas Rangers sued on Friday to put the baseball team's equity owners, controlled by private equity investor Thomas Hicks, into bankruptcy.

The future of Prudential's deal to buy AIG's Asian life insurance arm remained uncertain on Saturday, with the U.S. Treasury saying it has not considered any other deal than the existing contract on the table.

The big, fat Indian wedding is the biggest bet for gold now. With gold prices soaring to over Rs 18,000 per 10 gm in India and global markets witnessing a huge surge, demand for gold jewellery had witnessed a fall in India. But, weddings are the saving grace now. With India witnessing thousands of weddings this marriage season, gold jewellery sales are set to go up in India.

Russia and the European Union, both humbled by economic crisis, are set to brush geopolitical disputes aside at a summit next week and instead focus on brass-tacks measures to boost their economies.

The U.S. Treasury and General Motors Co may select a lead underwriter for an initial public offering for the automaker as early as next week, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.

The United Arab Emirates' economic growth is expected to accelerate to up to 3.2 percent this year and no further major restructuring of Dubai debt is seen, the Gulf country's economy minister said on Saturday.

The European Central Bank could begin exiting its phase of loose monetary policy from July, ECB Executive Board Member Juergen Stark was quoted as saying by German weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche on Saturday.

The chief executive of nationalized Dutch bank ABN AMRO said it was unlikely the state would recover the full 30 billion euros ($36.8 billion) it has spent buying and supporting the bank, sparking calls for new parliamentary hearings into the aid.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble hinted that taxes may have to rise to consolidate Germany's finances one day after coalition sources said the government may scrap a discounted sales tax on some products.

Dogged by controversies, Zimbabwe has banned diamond exports till it gets the clearance from the Kimberley Process. The government said it has imposed the ban on all diamond exports, including those from Rio Tinto unit, until gemstones from its controversial Marange fields are certified by industry regulators.

Gold prices have set on fire but the demand for gold coins seem to have emerged stronger than ever with global investors going on the buying spree last year. As per the available statistics, investors bought 228.5 tonnes of gold in the form bullion coins, up by over 195% since 2000, when the investors bought 77.4 tonnes of gold coins.

NEW YORK/DENVER - Seeking information on possible price fixing in the digital music marketplace, the U.S. Department of Justice contacted the legal departments of the major record labels as part of an initial inquiry into Apple, sources tell Billboard.