IBT Staff Reporter

A U.N. panel of experts has demanded that Burkina Faso investigate weapons transfers to the rebel-controlled northern part of the neighboring West African state of Ivory Coast.

Somali pirates said on Tuesday they had seized a yacht in the Indian Ocean with a British couple aboard and were taking the vessel to the Horn of Africa nation with a view to demanding a ransom.

After months of industry hype, Hollywood on Tuesday rolls out the red carpet for Michael Jackson movie This Is It showing the final performance of the fallen King of Pop.

Visa Inc posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday, as consumers used their debit cards more, and the company raised prices, sending shares up 2.4 percent.

Barry Diller may be about to hang a 'for sale' on Ask.com, saying on Tuesday that his search advertising business could be open to a takeover given the competition it faces from Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday told a packed room of Wall Street dealers and bankers they could not look America in the eye and argue that financial regulation is fine as it is.

A health reform bill with a government-run insurance option faced an uncertain future in the Senate on Tuesday, with many centrist Democrats uncommitted and Senator Joe Lieberman strongly opposed.

The Obama administration's executive pay czar said his authority should not be expanded beyond setting compensation guidelines for seven banks and automakers that have received extraordinary taxpayer bailouts.

The Obama administration's executive pay czar said his authority should not be expanded beyond setting compensation guidelines for seven banks and automakers that have received extraordinary taxpayer bailouts.

Top Democrats in the Senate have reached an agreement to extend the soon-to-expire $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said on Tuesday.

A key U.S. congressional committee will release draft legislation on Tuesday to restrict future bailouts and give the government a new way to deal with giant financial firms that get into trouble, a senior congressional source told Reuters.

Norfolk Southern Corp , the No. 4 U.S. railroad, said on Tuesday that its earnings in the latest quarter fell nearly 42 percent as the economic downturn continued to weigh on freight volumes.

Google announced new software tools for its Android operating system for smartphones on Tuesday, just ahead of Motorola's Droid cell phone for Verizon Wireless.

Anheuser Executive Sues for Bias; Home Prices Up Slightly; Nokia-Apple Row Continues

A legal battle between Apple Inc and Nokia over patent infringement is likely to last for more than a year, said Bill Merritt, the head of mobile licensing firm InterDigital.

A former top female executive at Anheuser-Busch InBev NV has sued the world's largest brewer for gender bias, accusing it of paying women less than men while maintaining a frat party atmosphere.

The Brazilian unit of French commodities group Louis Dreyfus said on Tuesday it agreed to take over Brazilian firm Santelisa Vale to create the world's second largest sugar cane processor.

The European Union will on Wednesday approve Britain's plan to break up failed bank Northern Rock, paving the way for a split in early 2010 and the eventual sale of parts of the bank, a source familiar with the situation said.

Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn on Tuesday said the auto maker will decide within the next two weeks on whether it will buy insolvent assembly firm Karmann.

Germany's new government will take a fresh look at the planned sale of carmaker Opel to Canada's Magna and may consider dropping its support for the deal, a member of the trust overseeing Opel said.

Position limits would guard against excessive concentration in the energy futures market, the chief U.S. futures regulator said in a speech to natural gas officials on Tuesday.

The Australian Dollar opens little-changed today against its U.S. counterpart at 0.9150. Despite a poor lead from local equities, the Aussie held onto support around the 0.9130 where buyers emerged pushing it up towards an intraday high of 0.9182. Supporting the unit was a positive quarterly NAB business confidence survey which increased by 20 points.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn on Tuesday offered CIT Group's small bondholders protection of the value of their debt if these investors support his effort to block the lender's reorganization plan.

Group 1 Automotive Inc , the No. 4 U.S. auto dealership, posted a quarterly profit on Tuesday that was double the year-earlier figure, but its cautious outlook for the current quarter sent its shares down 12 percent.

Cisco Systems is buying privately held Web security company ScanSafe for about $183 million, a move that will intensify its battle with security giants Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc.

Visa Inc posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday, as consumers used their debit cards more, and the company raised its dividend and authorized a share repurchase plan, sending shares up 1 percent.

The bankrupt shell of carmaker General Motors Co is making its first major asset sale, selling a Delaware manufacturing plant to Fisker Automotive, which will make plug-in hybrid electric cars beginning in 2012.

SL Green Realty Corp, a New York office owner and commercial real estate lender, said on Tuesday it expected to play a role in the restructuring of the debt on two huge Manhattan apartment complexes teetering on the edge of default.

The gains in U.S. home prices in recent months may not be sustainable and increases in some areas of the country appear to be in bubble territory, an economist known for his property market expertise said on Tuesday.