IBT Staff Reporter

General Motors Corp expects to have a 'very healthy' cash balance when it emerges from bankruptcy court protection in the next 60 to 90 days as a leaner company, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday.

Cell phone maker INQ Mobile plans to introduce a Twitter phone in time for the Christmas sales season, hoping to benefit from surging interest in the micro-blogging service, INQ's head told Reuters on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as key housing data provided further evidence the U.S. recession was abating.

Bank of America Corp , JPMorgan Chase & Co and several other banks said they have raised at least $18 billion as lenders scramble to extricate themselves from Washington's grip.

The U.S. climate change bill making its way through Congress is the best legislative bet to help the country take the lead in tackling global warming on the world stage, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Monday.

Global consumer confidence is stabilizing after falling for 18 months, providing a glimmer of hope for a shattered world economy in which three quarters of households cut spending, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley plans to raise $2.2 billion in common equity to bring it closer to repaying its TARP loans, the company said on Tuesday.

Somali government forces drove Islamist insurgents from two districts of the capital on Tuesday in another day of heavy fighting that killed dozens of people, residents and officials said.

Japan approved on Tuesday plans for a missile early warning system and some ruling party lawmakers suggested Japan should inspect North Korean ships, as a report said the North was preparing to fire a mid-range missile.

The top item on the Chinese website of Beijing's embassy in Pyongyang is a condemnation of North Korea's nuclear test.

Pepsi Bottling Group raised its earnings forecast for the current quarter and full year on Tuesday, citing improved U.S. soft drink sales, lower commodity costs and less volatility in currency exchange rates.

The co-chief executive officer of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd received U.S. antitrust approval to buy the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

Express Scripts Inc launched a public offering of 23 million shares on Tuesday to raise money to finance its acquisition of WellPoint Inc's drug benefits unit.

Pakistani soldiers Tuesday rescued scores of students and staff from a military-run college who were abducted by Taliban militants in the northwest of the country, a military spokesman said.

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith plans to resign her government post, media reported on Tuesday, a new casualty of the expenses scandal sweeping through parliament.

The death toll rose to least 61 on Tuesday from an underground fire that killed illegal miners at a disused gold mine in South Africa, Harmony Gold Mining Co. said.

General Motors Corp said it had reached a preliminary deal to sell its Hummer brand, part of its effort to shed half of its eight U.S. lines and leave bankruptcy court protection as a leaner company.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will lobby the United States on Tuesday to rethink its demand to curb West Bank settlement growth, a dispute that has strained ties as the allies try to close ranks against Iran.

Google's open source Android operating system has been used as a smartphone operating system, and now the software will be used in Acer netbooks that are set to come out in the third quarter.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has signaled the anointment of his youngest son as heir to the ruling family dynasty as the rival Koreas bolstered their militaries along a disputed sea border on Tuesday.

Express Scripts Inc launched a public offering of 23 million shares on Tuesday to raise money to finance its acquisition of WellPoint Inc's drug benefits unit.

Brazilian search planes spotted debris in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday that could be wreckage of a missing Air France flight carrying 228 people that disappeared in a storm the day before, the air force said.

British identity checking business GB Group Plc is comfortable with analysts' forecasts for its current financial year, helped by growth across all areas of the business, Chief Executive Richard Law said.

U.S. President Barack Obama makes a second foray into European diplomacy this week facing pressure to demonstrate his consensus-building foreign policy can produce results where his predecessor George W. Bush's go-it-alone style failed.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a flat open on Wall Street on Tuesday as investors awaited key housing data a day after the S&P 500 index jumped to its highest close in seven months.

The United States can be a role model to the Muslim world, President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes in April unexpectedly saw their biggest monthly gain in 7-1/2 years, a report from a trade group on Tuesday showed, buttressing views the U.S. recession was easing.

WPP Plc, the world's largest advertising group, said like-for-like revenue in the first four months of the year dropped 6.7 percent after trading worsened in April.

General Motors Corp is about to open the door on the biggest garage sale in U.S. industrial history.