IBT Staff Reporter

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.

Prospective buyers of online brokerage E*Trade Financial Corp are haggling over the value of its weakening mortgage portfolio, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday in its online edition, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Citigroup, the No. 1 U.S. bank by assets, is planning major job cuts over the coming months, CNBC television reported on Monday.

Google Inc's inroads into China relies on it linking up with local partners, navigating draconian regulations and understanding Chinese tastes to make it in one of the world's fastest-growing and lucrative Internet markets.

The media industry is on the brink of a second downturn in a decade, one that could accelerate the divisions between fast-growing targeted advertising and traditional formats aimed at mass audiences.

Sony Corp said sales in Japan of the new version of its PlayStation Portable (PSP) game gear reached 1 million units in the two months since its launch, hitting the 1 million mark at a quicker pace than the original model.

Now pay attention, 007! In the James Bond novels and films, it fell to technical expert Q to invent the gizmos and cunningly concealed weapons that helped the British spy cheat death and save the world.

In May, Alvin Clavon received a foreclosure notice on the simple, Spanish-style house in South Los Angeles that he shares with his wife and three boys.

Back in Pakistan from exile, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was due to file nomination papers on Monday for polls in January, but he may not take part unless President Pervez Musharraf ends emergency rule.

President Vladimir Putin accused Washington on Monday of plotting to undermine December parliamentary elections seen widely as a demonstration of his power in Russia.

An Indian film will be released officially Friday in Pakistan, a first for two countries that have banned each other's films for more than three decades.

President George W. Bush meets Palestinian and Israeli leaders on Monday in a drive for Palestinian statehood before he leaves office in 14 months.

T-Mobile's parent company in Germany has appealed a court ruling that would forbid tying customers into a two-year contract when they by one of Apple's iPhones, according to a report.

A non-profit's dream of giving away laptops to millions of kids in developing countries, bridging the technology divide, is being derailed in part by competition from well-known companies such as Intel and Microsoft, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Nintendo is calling on its greatest superhero to help make the its Wii game system even hotter than last year.

Private and company use of the Internet could lead to erratic operation of the information network within 3 years unless $137 billion in new infrastructure is put in place to prevent shortages, according to a new study.

With gift buyers pouring into retail stores across the country on Friday to kick off the Holiday shopping season, initial reports appear to be strong.

The makers of the muscle car and gas guzzler, may finally be seeing green.

You may not realize it, but a wealth of healthy -- and free -- food may be growing just outside your front door.

The British Government has come under yet more criticism today after the National Audit Office (NAO) said that it could have got the taxpayer “more money” from the partial sale of defence firm Qinetiq. Qinetiq was sold by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to US based private equity group Carlyle in 2003 for £42 million.

Stocks rebounded on Friday in an abbreviated session as the start of holiday shopping lifted retail stocks, while progress in a plan to relieve the credit market's strain aided bank shares. Shares of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup all rose more than 2 percent. The three banks, spearheading an effort to establish a superfund to ease problems in the credit market, are expected to seek support from others in the industry.

Online brokerage E*Trade Financial Corp is believed to be in merger talks with Charles Schwab Corp. and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp, according to a report on Friday on business news channel CNBC. An E*Trade spokesperson declined to comment, and a spokesperson for TD Ameritrade said the company has been pursuing growth through mergers and acquisitions but would not comment on E*Trade specifically. Charles Schwab also declined to comment.

Nearly simultaneous explosions from homemade bombs planted outside courts in three northern Indian cities killed at least 13 people in what a senior government official said were terrorist strikes. Officials said 59 people were wounded in the blasts at Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow, all in the populous state of Uttar Pradesh. Many of the dead were lawyers.

Eager shoppers stormed malls and stores across the country on Friday to snap up the early-bird specials that mark Black Friday, the first official day of the U.S. holiday shopping season. While shoppers were looking for giveaways and discounts, analysts and investors were watching for signs of consumer strength or weakness.

Freddie Mac's credit losses may surpass its historic high, if the U.S. mortgage market deteriorates more than what is forecast by the No. 2 mortgage finance company, Moody's Investors Service said.