IBT Staff Reporter

With the highly rated Million Dollar Mission episodes of Deal or No Deal having concluded Monday, NBC is brewing another stunt for its stalwart game show: an around-the-world tour.

Sony Corp said it would take a one-third stake in Sharp Corp's $3.5 billion LCD panel plant set for completion by March 2010, in an effort to meet fast-growing demand for flat televisions. The move is the latest in a wave of alliances among Japanese flat TV makers as they try to secure enough panels while keeping initial investments in check to fight steep price declines.

Web search company Google Inc has agreed to build an undersea cable with five telecoms operators that will link the United States to Japan, and provide the capacity to sustain a surge in Internet traffic between the continents.

A new round of talks to end Kenya's political crisis started on Tuesday with no clear sign of an agreement on power-sharing and the opposition threatening to resume nationwide protests. The talks being mediated by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan had come to a standstill on Monday with both sides saying President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga needed to step in to break the deadlock.

Thousands of Palestinians formed a human chain in the Gaza Strip on Monday in a protest against an Israeli blockade that has deepened hardship in the Hamas-controlled territory. Israel had put troops on alert along the frontier and threatened to open fire if protesters tried to surge across the border. Organizers had forecast 40,000 to 50,000 participants but only about 4,500 people turned out in inclement weather.

Pakistani army chief General Pervez Kayani is appointing a new head of military intelligence, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, the first major reshuffle in the military since President Pervez Musharraf quit the army. Musharraf, who seized power as a general in 1999, stepped down as army chief in November to become a civilian president of the country, which has been ruled by the military for more than half of the 60 years since its independence

Turkish forces fought Kurdish guerrillas at close quarters as they advanced on a key PKK base in northern Iraq on Monday, and Baghdad warned a prolonged incursion could have serious consequences for the region.

Asian stocks rose to their highest in three weeks after the world's largest bond insurers retained top credit ratings, easing concern that global economic growth will slow on new credit losses.

Investment banks saw the amount they earn in fees rise to record levels for the fifth year in a row in 2007, despite the impact of the credit crunch on major banks.

The Fairtrade Foundation has said that retail sales of the ethical Fairtrade brand jumped 81 per cent last year to £493 million.

Credit card network, Visa has said it is planning to raise a record $18 billion (9 billion pounds) in what would be the largest ever Initial Public Offering in the U.S.

Google eased to the top rank after being rated as number one brand in the UK leading the nation's other 500 brands.

Software maker Adobe Systems launched new software to make it easier for programmers to build applications that work online and offline.

The Japanese Internet Satellite that was launched on Saturday successfully reached the orbit, beginning a mission for a space-based infrastructure that will help remote corners of Far East and Southeast Asia to have access to information via the internet.

Sony Corp. revealed on Monday that the president of Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, a game software development arm of Sony's videogame division will resign on the last day of February.

The popular business networking site - LinkedIn - is launching a mobile version of its website, allowing users to look up profiles of other members and keep up to date with their network from mobile devices on the go.

Serbia intends to rule parts of Kosovo where loyal citizens still look to Belgrade for government, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Monday.

The United States expects to have about 140,000 troops in Iraq even after completing a planned drawdown of combat forces in July, the Pentagon said on Monday.

ImClone Systems, Inc., which is counting on regulatory approval of a blockbuster cancer drug, got a vote of confidence from an analyst on Monday.

Analysts questioned whether Apple could reach its stated goal of 10 million iPhones for the year, and mounted evidence that growth was slowing in the firm's mainstay product lines on Monday, sending shares slightly down.

Drama-plagued Britney Spears seems to be causing more waves in her bank account, than in personal life.

Microsoft will drop its HD-DVD external players for the Xbox360 and slash the price of its current stock after Toshiba announced last week is was giving up on the format.

Sen. Hillary Clinton will win the most delegates in a tight Ohio battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, the state's governor said.

The greenback was mixed at the start of the week, trading higher against the yen and easing versus the euro. US data will garner the lion’s share of the attention this week, with much scrutiny over the prospects for the economy to slip into recession. On the

YouTube, the Google-owned site, said Pakistan is to blame after access to its site on Sunday was left disrupted for two hours.

U.S. copper futures fell on Monday after reaching their highest levels last week since May 2006 on falling London Metal Exchange inventories.

Kevin Johnson, Microsoft executive, sent workers an upbeat email outlining a vision of how the company expects to combine Yahoo's resources and cultures following a successful takeover. The full-text of his internal memo is below:

This year's annual Academy Awards is turning out to be the least-watched Oscar show in 20 years.

Coffee rallied on Monday posting the highest gain since 1995 after the funds increased purchases on concern that supplies will not be enough due to high demand for the bean.