IBT Staff Reporter

Internet calling company Skype has secured a deal with Nokia under which the world's biggest phone maker will preload Skype software into some of its new smartphones starting from the third quarter of this year.

Telecom industry leaders including Nokia, China Mobile and Microsoft raced to announce online software stores on Monday in a drive to find new sources of revenue and please consumers.

China state radio said on Tuesday the government would offer cash rebates of up to 600,000 yuan ($87,719) to buyers of alternative energy passenger cars and buses in 13 major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.

Oil in New York fell to around $37 a barrel on Tuesday as bleak economic indicators turned the focus back to the worldwide slump in demand, outweighing lower supplies due to OPEC cutbacks.

Thousands of miles (kilometres) west of Detroit, a California start-up hopes to find a market for a three-wheeled, ultra-efficient, downright odd-looking car among consumers sick of spending their hard-earned cash at the gas pump.

Trade, energy and the global economic crisis will top the agenda of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Canada on Thursday, his first foreign trip since taking over the White House last month.

California, which is on the brink of running out of cash, will notify 20,000 state workers on Tuesday their jobs may be eliminated, a spokesman for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Monday.

Citigroup's quest to raise cash by selling assets is falling flat as would-be suitors have more interest in the parts of the business that Citi would like to keep, the New York Post said on Tuesday.

Countries must keep their promises to coordinate measures to revive the global economy rather than pleasing voters with protectionist policies, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Global assets of hedge funds may drop to $1.2 trillion by the end of the first quarter, down 35 percent from 2007 as the number of managers decline and funds rely less on strategies that use leverage, a UBS executive said on Tuesday.

Representatives of bondholders with some $28 billion in General Motors Corp debt have outlined specific proposals to the automaker on how to swap the debt for equity in a restructured company, a person with knowledge of the talks said on Monday.

Banco Santander SA, Spain's biggest bank, has quietly improved a deal to compensate selected private banking clients who lost money to accused swindler Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Monday.

Capital One Financial Corp, one of the largest issuers of MasterCard and Visa credit cards, said on Tuesday that credit card defaults rose in January in the United States as job losses accelerated and unemployment soared to a 16-year peak.

Rochdale Securities LLC said veteran banking analyst Richard Bove has joined the company from Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc.

suggesting they still have an immediate need for another $5 billion. Brad Coulter, director of the Detroit-based turnaround firm Okeefe & Associates, said the final price tag for a GM bailout could approach $50 billion if the market remains depressed. Chrysler, controlled by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, has been granted $3 billion and is seeking an additional $4 billi...

On Tuesday two oil flowstations operated by Royal Dutch Shell Nigeria's Niger Delta were attacked by gunmen three security sources said, Reuters reported.

to account for 10 percent of revenue by 2012, as lines between portable PCs and increasingly sophisticated mobile phones start to blur. The smartphone market has become increasingly crowded in the last two years, with Apple, Research in Motion and HTC winning market share at the expense of top smartphone provider Nokia. We genuinely believe that we can be actually one of the top five. Over ti...

PHILADELPHIA - Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc, Donald Trump's casino group, is expected to file Tuesday for bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company's board was scheduled to meet late Monday night to decide whether to authorize the filing, the newspaper reported in its online edition. Otherwise, the casino operator would be forced into bankruptcy involuntarily by creditors, t...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will not formally announce his new auto task force on Monday, a White House aid said, clarifying remarks from a spokesman earlier. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on board Air Force One on Monday he thought a formal announcement about the strategy would be released in a written statement later in the day. But a White House aide said no further not...

PHILADELPHIA - Hershey Co said on Monday its nonexecutive chairman resigned from the company's board of directors following a request from the chocolate-maker's controlling shareholder. Hershey said Kenneth Wolfe's resignation was effective immediately. Wolfe, who had served as the company's chairman and chief executive officer from 1994 to 2001, had served as nonexecutive chai...

from Antigua to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands to Miami.

TOKYO - Japan sank deeper into recession with its worst quarterly contraction since the oil crisis in the 1970s, its reliance on exports and soft domestic demand dragging down the world's second-largest economy. Hillary Clinton, in Tokyo on her first trip abroad as U.S. secretary of state, said Asia and the United States must fight the global crisis together. The U.S.-Japanese relationship was...

suggesting they still have an immediate need for another $5 billion. Brad Coulter, director of the Detroit-based turnaround firm Okeefe & Associates, said the final price tag for a GM bailout could approach $50 billion if the market remains depressed. My real interest in this is how much cash has to be put in, Coulter said. A parallel set of talks have been under way at GM's smaller r...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan agreed on Monday to restore strict Islamist law in the Swat valley to pacify a revolt by Taliban militants, and a suspected U.S. drone fired missiles in the region killing at least 26 people.

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's MDC may be reluctant to quit the new unity government formed to lead the country out of economic crisis, despite the arrest of one of its senior officials, a top party official said on Monday.

The Sudanese government and a Darfur rebel faction have agreed on confidence-building measures at talks in Qatar, Qatari media said on Monday -- a step that may eventually lead to negotiations on a peace deal.

A South Carolina sheriff Leon Lott said Monday he was not going to charge swimmer Michael Phelps after a photo smoking from marijuana pipe.

Shaq O' Neal, Kobe Bryant shares MVP award in leading West over East in All-Star game in 146-119 Sunday night victory in phoenix, according to associated press reports.

World stocks and the euro fell on Monday while safer government bonds rose as dismal Japanese growth data and fresh concerns about the financial sector fanned worries about the deteriorating global economy.