IBT Staff Reporter

Samsung Electronics Co said on Monday that its first phone based on Google Inc's Android operating system would be available in major European countries Europe in June.

U.S. regulators have told Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc that following recent stress testing of the two banks they may need to raise more capital, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Qatar is in talks to buy a stake in Germany's Porsche and may also invest in other carmakers as the Gulf gas exporter looks to park some of its sovereign wealth abroad, according to media reports.

Renewed fears about the health of the global economy spooked markets on Tuesday as risks rose that Mexican swine flu may become a pandemic and a newspaper report said U.S. banks may need to raise fresh capital.

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Asian stocks slipped for a second day on Tuesday on worries about the potential economic fallout from the swine virus outbreak, even as investor reaction remained limited due to uncertainty about the full impact.

Oil prices extended losses on Tuesday, falling about 2 percent toward $49 a barrel after a report that Citigroup and Bank of America may need to raise more capital, renewing worries about the financial sector.

The rising risk that a global pandemic could snuff out frail signs of recovery in the world economy spurred nervous investors to seek safe havens on Tuesday, after the World Health Organisation raised its alert level for a deadly swine flu outbreak that started in Mexico.

Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's top PC maker, is launching a new line of inexpensive business laptops with fresh features targeting users at small and medium-size companies.

Oil prices extended losses and fell below $50 a barrel on Tuesday, as a rising death toll from a flu outbreak that started in Mexico fanned fears of a pandemic potentially hurting the world economy and air travel.

Too many regulators currently watch over U.S. companies and a fear that some industries may soon face even more rules could be hurting the U.S. recovery, two top financial industry executives said.

After 83 years of storied history and with a huge following for its famous older models, Pontiac on Monday became the highest-profile victim of the U.S. auto industry crisis with General Motors Corp's announcement the brand would cease to exist in 2010.

Operating acute care and behavioral health hospital, Universal Health Services Inc. said Monday its first quarter profit rose 14 percent despite slow in and out admissions patients.

Phoenix-based Stirling Energy Systems announced Monday it is expanding by launching Tessera Solar, a new unit to manufacture the products used to build large solar-thermal power plants in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

General Electric (GE) unveiled new technology that can hold information equivalent of 20 Blu-ray disks on one single standard disk.

The World Bank said today that it will provide Mexico with more than $205 million to fight the deadly swine flu which broke out last week.

Kate Harding has spent most of her life on one diet or another, losing weight but always gaining it back. Determined to improve her quality of life, she joined a fast-growing group of anti-dieting activists promoting overweight people's civil rights.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced Sunday it had reached a preliminary agreement for supporting Tanzania to ease the impact of the global financial crisis on its export-driven economy.

The cost of carbon capture and sequestration infrastructure in the United States that would include each of the coal-fired electricity plants in the country could cost over a trillion of dollars, industry experts told CBS news program 60 Minutes in a segment that aired on Sunday.

The head of a U.S. financial bailout watchdog panel said bankruptcy judges must be allowed to reduce home mortgage debt or the Obama administration's housing rescue efforts could fail in the areas where they are most needed.

US Steel Corp said Monday it will offer 18 million shares of stock and $300 million convertible note due to 2014 to pay its $500 million debt after its first quarter fells in the current weak demand of crisis.

The share of U.S. homes privately owned but empty in the first quarter of 2009 fell to levels last seen in mid-2007, a government report on Monday showed in a positive sign for the listless housing sector.

Storage-equipment maker Emulex Corp posted an adjusted third-quarter profit and said its board was reviewing an unsolicited bid by chipmaker Broadcom Corp.

Former CEO of Allianz Life, Bob MacDonald, chastised former rival Hartford Financial Services, saying its recent downturn was not the result of global economic recession, but rather inept management.

U.S. President Barack Obama proclaimed Monday April 26 through May 2 as National Crime Victims' rights week, honoring crime victims and pledging to fight future crimes.

On Monday, Toshiba Corp. said that it will start shipping NAND flash memory with 32nm process technology ahead of its original schedule.

The Federal Reserve meets this week at a time when the U.S. economy has shown some signs of improvement, and the central bank is likely to restate its support for boosting the economy through both conventional and unorthodox means.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is preparing to pursue other foreign banks for allegedly facilitating tax evasion by wealthy Americans following its high-profile case against Switzerland's UBS AG , an IRS official said on Monday.

Daimler AG on Monday reached an agreement with Chrysler, the U.S. automaker's owner Cerberus Capital Management, and the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp to exit its 19.9 percent stake in the company.