IBT Staff Reporter

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor may walk free because the global financial crisis has cut donations to the court trying him for war crimes committed in neighboring Sierra Leone, its chief prosecutor said.

An Obama administration task force is carefully analyzing restructuring plans of General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC , but bankruptcy is not the panel's goal, a U.S. senator said on Tuesday. Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan met with task force members this week on the turnaround plans submitted by GM and Chrysler that include a request for $22 billion more in bailout m...

A New York businessman's claim to recover $10 million he invested with Bernard Madoff's firm, days before the financier's arrest will not be treated differently than other customer claims, a judge ruled on Tuesday. In January, New York fuel service company president Martin Rosenman sued court-appointed trustee Irving Picard for the return of $10 million wired to the Madoff firm and put into a ...

is down more than 50 percent or about $10 trillion. Bernanke warned on Tuesday the severe U.S. recession may drag into 2010 unless the government succeeds in stabilizing the banking system and financial markets with strong action.

Gamers beware: Keeping too tight a grip on the console and furiously pushing the buttons can cause a newly identified skin disorder marked by painful lumps on the palms, Swiss scientists said on Tuesday. Called PlayStation palmar hidradentitis by the scientists, the skin disorder can cause painful lesions on the palms similar to patches found on the soles of children's feet after taking part...

Wall Street's fat cats are in the public's doghouse, and it could be a long time -- if ever -- before the eye-popping paychecks and glamour of the last two decades return.

have been shipped with Windows XP. While most netbooks currently run on a stripped-down version of Windows XP, Windows 7 was designed to work fully on the inexpensive laptops, he said. Buyers of netbooks with the low-end version of Windows 7 will have the option of upgrading to the more powerful versions, Ballmer said. Analysts expect Windows 7, which will replace the unpopular Windows Vista, t...

Thousands of protesters marched on Thailand's seat of government on Tuesday to demand that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down, adding to his troubles as the economy slides into recession.

Pakistani Taliban militants announced on Tuesday an indefinite ceasefire in the Swat valley in the northwest of the country, a day after the army said it was ceasing operations in the region.

Four soldiers with U.S.-led coalition forces and an Afghan civilian working for them were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said.

Sri Lankan soldiers battled on Tuesday inside the last town the Tamil Tiger separatists control, and the government said it had no plans for a truce amid U.N. and E.U. calls for a halt to fighting.

At least 13 people were killed and scores wounded in the Somali capital Tuesday as Islamist rebels battled police and African Union peacekeepers throughout the day.

would keep borrowing costs exceptionally low for some time and pledged to use all available tools to stimulate the economy and heal financial markets. The Fed chairman made no mention of the prospect the central bank would purchase longer-term U.S. government debt, marking his third consecutive appearance in which he has not mentioned the possibility, which was front-and-center in a statemen...

Stocks rose on Tuesday as investors snapped up beaten-down shares while reassuring results from Home Depot Inc boosted sentiment a day after Wall Street sank to a 12-year low. The benchmark S&P 500 index held a slight edge above its November bear market low as an advance in such shares as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase eclipsed news th...

Thomson Reuters Corp posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, raised its dividend and said it expected revenue to grow in 2009 despite job cuts and reduced spending among its financial industry customers. The news and financial data publisher, whose shares rose as much as 6.5 percent on the results, said on Tuesday that all its businesses would help increase...

have been shipped with Windows XP. While most netbooks currently run on a stripped-down version of Windows XP, Windows 7 was designed to work fully on the inexpensive laptops, he said. Buyers of netbooks with the low-end version of Windows 7 will have the option of upgrading to the more powerful versions, Ballmer said. Analysts expect Windows 7, which will replace the unpopular Windows Vista, t...

Thomson Reuters Corp posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, raised its dividend and said it expected revenue to grow in 2009 despite job cuts and reduced spending among its financial industry customers. The news and financial data publisher, whose shares rose as much as 6.5 percent on the results, said on Tuesday that all its businesses would help increase...

Fiat has extended by another three weeks a halt in production at its Termini Imerese plant in Sicily, with the plant now set to be shut from March 27 to April 12, a company source said on Tuesday.

U.S. home prices plunged at a record pace in December, data showed on Tuesday, while consumer confidence also hit a record low in February as Americans feared an already deep recession was likely to get even worse. Prices of U.S. single-family homes fell 18.5 percent in December from a year earlier, with the pace of decline speeding up, according to the S&P/Case Shiller home price index. Tha...

Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, dropped to its lowest close in two weeks on Tuesday as global stocks fell to a near 6-year low.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned on Tuesday that unless government efforts succeed in restoring financial stability, the nation's recession may not end this year.

Yahoo introduced several tools on Tuesday that it says will help marketers target their ads more efficiently at a time when many of them are cutting advertising spending drastically. One of the new products lets marketers target people with tailored display ads based on the terms they used in Yahoo's search engine. Another tool customizes display ads based on the websites people have visited an...

North Korea said on Tuesday it was preparing to launch a satellite on one of its rockets, which analysts have said would actually be the test-firing of a long-range missile designed to strike U.S. territory.

Stocks fell from session highs on Tuesday after data showed consumer confidence plunged to a record low in February, with expectations for an even weaker economy and more jobs lost. Adding to the gloom, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned in testimony that the recession, which started in December 2007, may not end this year. Major indexes had risen more than 1 percent earlier in the ses...

U.S. consumer confidence plunged to another record low in February with expectations that already dire economic conditions will continue to weaken and the jobs market will further deteriorate. The Conference Board, an industry group, said on Tuesday that its sentiment index fell to 25.0 from a downwardly revised 37.4 in January. The median forecast of economists polled by Reuters was for a readin...

American International Group, rescued twice last year by the U.S. government, is asking for more aid and bracing for a fourth-quarter loss of roughly $60 billion, a source familiar with the matter said. It would be the biggest loss in a quarter in corporate history.

Stocks rose on Tuesday as investors snapped up shares in beaten-down sectors, including financials, a day after Wall Street skidded to a 12-year low. The benchmark S&P 500 index held a slight edge above its November bear market low, as JPMorgan , up 3 percent, and Citigroup , up almost 5 percent, led a rebound in financial shares. Shares of Home Depot <...

hence time to resolution may take longer than expected, they said in a note. Toward $100 PER SHARE? We are not surprised to see Genentech refuse Roche's lower offer, said Andrew Weiss, analyst at Swiss bank Vontobel. We continue to believe that the Genentech asking price of $112 is too high, and that eventually Roche will need to improve its offer to $95-100. Genentech shares trade...

Prices of U.S. single-family homes plunged 18.5 percent in December from a year earlier as the monthly pace accelerated, according to a Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index on Tuesday. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 2.5 percent in December from November, compared with a 2.3 percent decline in the previous period, S&P said in a statement....