IBT Staff Reporter

Top South Korean lender Kookmin Bank posted a bigger-than-expected 14 percent rise in quarterly profit on Monday as it sold a stake sale in an insurance venture with ING Groep, but forecast a tough year ahead and a squeeze on margins.

Nikko Cordial, the Japanese brokerage unit of Citigroup, said its quarterly profit rose 72 percent from a year earlier, as growth at its asset management division overshadowed a loss at its investment banking arm.

China is tightening application procedures for firms seeking to manufacture drugs, state media reported on Monday, following a rash of scandals over fake medicines and corruption in the industry.

Verizon Communications Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday driven by strong wireless subscriber growth, though analysts were unimpressed by its Internet subscription sales. Verizon Wireless's customer growth exceeded Wall Street expectations and made up for slowdown in Verizon's landline, or wireline, business.

Hulu, an online video service formed by two media conglomerates, will begin a private test on Monday with two new partners in one of big media's most ambitious attempts to court viewers wherever they spend time.

EBay division Skype and mobile phone group 3 have launched a mobile handset that allows Skype users to make free Internet calls to each other while on the move.

Internet and telecoms giant Softbank Corp (9984.T: Quote, Profile, Research) will spend about 40 billion yen ($350 million) to start operations next year at a new data centre in southwestern Japan, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.

Japanese electronics group Toshiba Corp. posted a jump in quarterly operating profit on Monday, thanks to solid flash memory chip prices and power plant sales, and raised its full-year outlook by 12 percent, closer to market estimates.

Canadian home buyers look poised to reap the rewards as U.S.-based mortgage insurance companies bid for a foothold in the hot domestic housing market.

Humana Inc posted a sharply higher quarterly profit on Monday, above Wall Street's target, on continued strength in its Medicare health plans for the elderly and its plans for employers.

UBS AGwarned it may face more writedowns on its fixed income portfolio but said, just a day before reporting results, that its third-quarter pretax loss would be no worse than already predicted.

The anticipated departure of Merrill Lynch & Co Inc Chief Executive Stan O'Neal would mark a surprising flameout in a career that had been impressive in its ascent.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp on Monday posted a better-than-expected 38 percent rise in first-half operating profit, helped by strong sales of power systems and elevators to emerging nations, and it raised its full-year outlook by 17 percent.

China has the world's largest commercial bank, its biggest aluminum maker, its No. 2 oil firm and its fourth-largest investment bank. It has five of the world's 10 biggest companies, versus three for the United States.

Oil refiner Tesoro Corp. said it would review an unsolicited proposal by Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. to buy a minority stake in the company for about $1.4 billion, but urged shareholders to take no action on the offer.

Architect Christopher Pak understands what upwardly mobile Koreans want and that's why his latest project, a 22-story residential tower, has no apartments on the fourth and fourteenth floors.

Rising mortgage payments and tighter lending standards for refinancing amid the subprime credit crisis have dried up once-easy access to home equity loans for many middle-income borrowers -- so desperate borrowers are using credit cards to cover basics while trying to keep up with home payments.

General Motors Corp, one of the world's top two automakers, said it had yet to regain a competitive edge in the United States while future growth would come increasingly from markets such as China and Brazil. GM lost more than $12 billion in the past two years, and is in the midst of a sweeping restructuring that includes cutting more than 34,000 jobs and closing 12 plants in North America.

The dollar slid to a record low against a basket of major currencies on Monday, weighed down by expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut this week and perhaps another move by the end of the year.

Oil leapt to a record high for a third day on Monday, surpassing $93 as Mexico briefly halted one-fifth of its production and the U.S. dollar struck new lows. Oil prices have soared by more than a third since mid-August as a stand-off between Turkey and Kurdish rebels, dollar weakness, easing interest rates and winter supply fears attracted a fresh wave of investment capital.

Thousands of borrowers are poised to challenge lenders over debt insurance, in what has been hailed a new consumer revolution against mis-selling and unfair charges.

The Fed can now turn to pursuing a "risk management" interest rate policy that insures against a steep economic downturn.

Sudanese government officials and Darfur rebels will meet privately on Monday to discuss an agenda for peace talks but delegates said little real progress was expected in the absence of key rebel leaders.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told Iraq he supports a crackdown on Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq but wants a peaceful solution to the crisis, Iraq's government said.

Tropical Storm Noel strengthened on Sunday as it crept over the Caribbean and threatened to lash impoverished Haiti with potentially deadly rains, U.S. forecasters said.

Wall Street expects a two-day Federal Reserve meeting this week to end with another cut in interest rates as financial firms struggle with losses tied to subprime mortgages and related securities.

When the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra (INSO) holds a concert in Baghdad, organizers don't like to advertise: in fact they would prefer as few people as possible know about it.

Find the smiling face on the computer screen and reduce stress. Researchers at McGill University in Montreal say that tests have shown that doing just that for five or 10 minutes helps cut stress and boosts confidence.

Walgreen plans to put kiosks that can make DVDs of popular movies in drugstore photo departments next year, using a new system that would increase selection while avoiding piracy.