IBT Staff Reporter

High definition movie DVDs in the Blu-ray format have outsold the rival HD DVD standard in Europe this year, breaking the 1 million barrier and constituting 73 percent of all HD movie discs sold.

General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal agreed to start offering interactive advertising services and subscribe to a ratings service from TiVo Inc, the companies said on Tuesday.

A pearly white robot that looks a little like E.T. boosted a man out of bed, chatted and helped prepare his breakfast with its deft hands in Tokyo on Tuesday, in a further sign robots are becoming more like their human inventors.

Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf said farewell to military colleagues on Tuesday as he prepared to become a civilian president ahead of January's general election.

President George W. Bush told Israeli and Palestinian leaders gathered for a Middle East conference on Tuesday that the time was right to work toward peace but cautioned the path would be difficult.

Citigroup Inc is selling up to 4.9 percent of itself for $7.5 billion to the Gulf Arab emirate of Abu Dhabi, giving the largest U.S. bank fresh capital as it wrestles with the subprime mortgage crisis and the resignation of its chief executive. The capital injection will shore up Citi's balance sheet, which has been hurt by some $6.8 billion of writedowns and losses in the third quarter, and the potential for another $11 billion in the fourth quarter.

A security flaw in Apple Inc's Quicktime media software can be taken advantage of by malicious programs, according to security researchers, making applications like iTunes that depend on the standard open to hacker attacks.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark 30-share sensitivity index, the Sensex, began the new week on a positive note ending up strongly 395 points at 19,248.

Tata Motors, a group company of India's leading tea-to-truck business conglomerate is reportedly ahead in the race to acquire ailing U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co.'s British luxury car brands Land Rover and Jaguar which was put up for sale earlier this year.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc Monday reached an agreement with Merck for the acquisition of marketing rights for Mecavor in the United States.

Crude oil declined for a second day in New York as sliding U.S. equity markets heightened speculation OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) will increase output to cap prices and reinforce global demand.

Funds rose, driving 10-year note incomes to the lowest level since March 2004, as concern that subprime losses continue to extend a decrease in stocks and increased the request of fixed-income assets.

Oil fell on Tuesday on expectations that OPEC may increase output and following a decline in global stock markets. U.S. oil fell dropped 80 cents to $96.90 a barrel by 11:09 p.m. EST, after shedding more than $1.00 earlier. London Brent crude fell by 61 cents to $94.71 a barrel.

Nintendo may face tough competition this holiday shopping season, but not from any of its competitors.

Emerging markets and the need for more storage helped push server revenue higher in the third quarter, with market leader Hewlett Packard retaining the lead.

Gold prices rose to a two-week high on Monday following investor concerns over the dipping dollar, soaring oil prices and speculation over further US interest cuts.

Virtual citizens may one day use their bodies and brainwaves, not their keyboards, to move their cyber identities in online worlds, Japanese technology researchers hope.

Leading U.S. retailer Wal-Mart said Monday it is nearly tripling the number of its online sales this year, offering deals for the entire week entire week.

Sony Corp said Monday that the lighter, slimmer new version of its Playstation Portable game player reached 1 million in sales in Japan in two months, beating the original model’s pace by two weeks.

The hit a two year low against the yen and hovered near record lows against the euro on Monday as financial services firms continued to warn about the slowing economy and lower expectations, raising the chance that the Federal Reserve may but interest rates.

U.S stocks declined on Monday after turbulent Monday trading as financial sector woes deflated holiday sentiment entering the post Thanksgiving week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 237.44 points, or 1.83 percent, to close at 12,743.44, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 55.61 points, or 2.14 percent, at 2,540.99.

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc Co-President Greg Fleming told employees on Monday he has tremendous confidence in the company's long-term prospects and said the company's strategy is fundamentally sound. Our core businesses continue to perform well, our strategy is fundamentally sound and our incomparable global footprint and capabilities position us to take advantage of market opportunities around the world, he said.

US stocks were nearly flat in Mid-day trading on Monday, recovering after earlier losses following continued concerns over a weakening credit market and a worsening subprime mortgage situation.

Crude oil futures fell on Monday amid expectations that oil cartel OPEC could decide to boost supply at next week.

Japanese heavy machinery maker IHI said on Monday it would sell property in Tokyo to Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co, posting an extraordinary gain of 77 billion yen ($710 million) this business year.

European planemaker Airbus wore two masks in China on Monday -- the joy of landing what could be its biggest ever aircraft order by volume, contrasted with growing despair over the plunging value of the dollar.

A former top legal executive at Samsung Group on Monday made fresh accusations against the country's largest conglomerate, saying it had used subsidiaries to help create a 200 billion won ($215.8 million) slush fund.

Softbank Corp, Japan's smallest cellphone operator, aims to raise the number of its third-generation base stations to more than 50,000 next year, President Masayoshi Son told a group of reporters on Monday.

Sumco Corp, the world's second-biggest silicon wafer maker, said on Monday its profit slipped in the nine months to Oct. 31 on strong sales of wafers used to make microchips, but it kept its full-year forecast.