IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday proposed increasing the borrowing authority of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp with the Treasury Department to $100 billion from the current $30 billion.

Trevor Manuel was appointed to head a powerful new planning body on Sunday, keeping South Africa's former finance minister at the heart of policy-making in President Jacob Zuma's first cabinet.

Pride International Inc said it agreed with Chevron Corp to terminate the remaining contract term of a rig in West Africa, after an inspection revealed unacceptable levels of corrosion.

Canada's Savanna Energy Services Corp said it would raise C$110.3 million ($96 million) by way of a bought-deal financing to pay down the company's bank debt and for general corporate purposes.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili met opposition leaders on Monday after a month of street protests aimed at forcing him from power.

Swedish carmaker Saab said on Monday the field of potential bidders for the General Motors unit had been narrowed down to a few candidates with a final sale to be agreed hopefully sometime in early summer

Pope Benedict used his first speech in Israel on Monday to remember the six million Jews killed by the Nazis and try to heal fresh wounds over his reinstatement of a bishop who denied the Holocaust.

Energizer Holdings Inc said on Monday that it planned to buy S.C. Johnson & Son Inc's Edge and Skintimate brands for about $275 million, adding shaving creams and gels to its Schick-Wilkinson Sword razor business.

The U.S. military denied on Sunday it had used the incendiary chemical white phosphorus in a battle that killed civilians in west Afghanistan last week, after a rights group said it was investigating suspicious burns.

Mainland China on Monday reported its first confirmed case of the new H1N1 strain of flu, a man in southwestern Sichuan province who had flown home from the United States.

King Pharmaceuticals Inc on Monday reported a quarterly net loss on acquisition and other charges, but results topped analyst estimates.

The new flu strain spread to mainland China, state media reported on Monday, and killed a third person in the United States, as the number of cases of H1N1 influenza worldwide jumped to more than 4,300.

A suicide bomber killed 10 people at a security post in Pakistan on Monday as the army pressed on with an offensive against the Taliban in which the government said 700 militants had been killed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Egypt on Monday for talks seen aimed at showing he can be a true Middle East peace partner before he heads to the White House on May 18.

President Barack Obama will aim on Monday to build support for a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system by highlighting a drive for greater efficiency he predicts could save trillions of dollars.

Four big U.S. banks on Monday announced plans to sell more than $6 billion of common stock, in an effort to raise capital and repay funds received under the government's bank bailout program.

EU antitrust regulators are expected to say this week that Intel Corp illegally paid computer makers to postpone or cancel the launch of products containing chips made by its main rival, sources familiar with the case said on Sunday.

Nortel Networks Corp, the telecom equipment maker that filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, said on Monday its quarterly loss widened as the global economic downturn contributed to a sharp drop in revenue.

Four big U.S. banks on Monday announced large common stock offerings and said they would use proceeds to repay funds received under the government's bank bailout program.

HSBC Holdings said first quarter profits were well ahead of last year, swelled by record results in its investment bank and resilience in Asia, but would have been down without accounting gains on its debt.

AstraZeneca Plc's experimental heart drug Brilinta has beaten Sanofi-Aventis SA and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's blockbuster Plavix in a pivotal clinical trial, lifting its shares sharply.

Stock index futures pointed to a fall of about 1 percent at the open on Monday as investors paused after a strong run and several major banks said they will issue nearly $7 billion in new stock.

Stock index futures fell about 1 percent on Monday as investors paused after a week when bank stress test results and optimism on the economy boosted the S&P 500 index into positive territory for the year and the Nasdaq closed out its ninth week of gains.

Stock index futures fell about 1 percent on Monday as investors paused after a week when bank stress test results and optimism on the economy boosted the S&P 500 index into positive territory for the year and the Nasdaq closed out its ninth week of gains.

The downward trend in the financial crisis is easing and national economic stimulus packages are starting to work, billionaire investor George Soros was quoted as saying by a German newspaper on Monday.

French energy giant EDF (EDF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) agreed to sell a stake in nuclear operator British Energy to Centrica (CNA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), striking a partnership with the gas group to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK.

Honda Motor Co said on Monday its new Insight model became the first hybrid to be crowned Japan's best-selling car last month.

HSBC Holdings , Europe's biggest bank, said first-quarter profits were well ahead of last year, swelled by record results in its investment bank, but would have been down without accounting gains on its debt.

Oil fell more than $1 a barrel toward $57 on Monday, pressured by weaker European equities, a firmer dollar and caution over prospects for a global economic recovery.