IBT Staff Reporter

Taiwan's China Development Financial Holding has sold its stake in the Taipei 101 building for an T$860 million ($26 million) profit to a unit of Ting Hsin International group, paving the way for the food company to enter the island's property market.

The U.S. office market vacancy rate reached 15.9 percent in the second quarter, its highest in four years and rent fell by the largest amount in more than seven as demand from companies and other office renters remained weak, real estate research firm Reis said Inc.

Destination South America: envision lush rainforests, smoggy cities, century-old cathedrals, trekking expeditions, and meat. Lots of meat. From the lauded steaks of Argentina to the fried guinea pig of Peru, meat is central to South American diet and culture.

Chinese carmaker Beijing Automotive aims to outmaneuver Canada's Magna in the race for General Motors unit Opel with an offer that foresees less state aid and fewer job cuts.

Unseasonable weather and consumers without the stimulus boost they received last year were expected to have dampened U.S. retail sales in June, analysts said.

Global mining giant Rio Tinto said on Tuesday four of its employees in Shanghai had been detained by the Chinese authorities.

The police's public order tactics are inadequate, a review into April's G20 protests in London concluded on Tuesday, although it said the operation itself had been highly effective.

Saudi Aramco and France's Total signed on Tuesday 13 agreements with contractors to build a $9.6 billion joint-venture refinery in the kingdom, state news agency SPA reported.

Kuwait's Aref Energy Holding Co may sell a stake in its gas joint-venture in Texas next year in a scheme to diversify investments, the firm's general manager said on Tuesday.

Economic upheaval has raised the urgency of clinching a new global free trade deal, and will be discussed by G8 leaders this week, the head of the World Trade Organisation said on Tuesday.

Oil dipped below $63 a barrel on Tuesday, pressured by investors' caution over prospects for economic recovery and by an expected increase in U.S. gasoline stocks for the week when Americans traditionally drive the most.

Soaring U.S. unemployment and a shrinking economy drove delinquencies on credit card debt to an all-time high in the first quarter as a record number of cash-strapped consumers fell behind on their bills.

U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as investors turned cautious ahead of earnings season, and talk of a second stimulus package underscored worries about the U.S. economic recovery.

Yahoo launched a new search note feature on Tuesday that allows Yahoo searchers to take and save notes as they visit various websites.

The global car market will take until 2013 to return to last year's sales levels, a senior executive at Nissan Motor Co said on Tuesday.

Brazil's antitrust regulator is likely to impose temporary restrictions to the takeover of food maker Sadia by rival Perdigao to ensure both companies operate separately until a final ruling is made, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.

G8 leaders plus Brazil, India, China, Mexico and South Africa will agree at a summit on Thursday to conclude the Doha round of world trade talks successfully in 2010, according to a draft communique seen by Reuters.

Bayer is in advanced takeover talks to expand its animal health unit and is likely to benefit from the ongoing overhaul of the U.S. healthcare sector, a German newspaper said.

European initial public offerings remained sparse in the second quarter, with most companies likely to defer going public until mid-2010, an expert on new listings from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said.

China, Russia and Brazil will use this week's G8 summit in Italy to push their view that the world needs to start seeking a new global reserve currency as an alternative to the dollar, officials said on Tuesday.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co has reached a deal to unload half of the equity in South Korea's No.2 beer maker, which it agreed to buy for $1.8 billion, to Affinity Equity Partners, two sources with direct knowledge of the process said on Tuesday.

Pope Benedict issued an ambitious call to reform the way the world works on Tuesday shortly before its most powerful leaders meet at the G8 summit in Italy. His latest encyclical, entitled “Charity in Truth,” presents a long list of steps he thinks are needed to overcome the financial crisis and shift economic activity from the profit motive to a goal of solidarity of all people.

Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama made a pointed quip Tuesday about Russia's sale of Alaska to the United States in the 19th century.

Following are remarks by U.S. and Russian policymakers and company executives about business ties between the two countries during President Barack Obama's two-day trip to Moscow.

Top U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said Tuesday a naphtha hydrotreater remained shut at its 87,400 barrel-per-day Ardmore, Oklahoma refinery after a Saturday night fire in the unit.

Three major hospital associations have offered to contribute about $155 billion over 10 years to help pay for a U.S. healthcare overhaul, The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing industry sources.

Japan's wind power industry installed 183 megawatts (MW) of capacity in the year ended in March, 2009, down 1.3 percent from a year earlier, a government linked research unit said in a report on Tuesday.

The following are key excerpts from the speech by U.S. President Barack Obama to graduating students of the New Economic School in Moscow on Tuesday. The text was provided by the White House.

Unseasonable weather and consumers without the stimulus boost they received last year were expected to have dampened U.S. retail sales in June, analysts said.