IBT Staff Reporter

Yasuo Fukuda appeared on Tuesday to be a shoo-in to become Japan's next prime minister but his rival, hawkish former foreign minister Taro Aso, vowed to battle on against all odds.

News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said on Tuesday that he was leaning toward making online Wall Street Journal free, but had made no decision yet.

Commerzbank is bracing itself for a higher-than-predicted loss from investments related to risky U.S. mortgages that is set to knock a hole in profits, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co, a struggling subprime mortgage lender, on Tuesday posted a $260.2 million quarterly loss and said it remained unsure it would survive the fallout from a slumping U.S. housing market.

OPEC will probably hold consultations about a further output increase if the price of oil stays above $80 a barrel for more than 15-20 days, an OPEC source said on Tuesday.

U.S. crude oil hit a record high of $81.24 a barrel on Tuesday, the fifth consecutive trading session that prices have reached an all-time peak.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday after forecast-topping earnings from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc calmed investors' fears about the recent credit turmoil as investors anticipated an interest rate cut.

Gold slipped in late business on Tuesday as investors took profits from 16-month highs, but sentiment stayed bullish ahead of an expected rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Embattled British bank Northern Rock said a majority of customer calls it had received on Tuesday were to reinvest money in accounts, and queues for cash withdrawal were considerably down from past days.

Negotiators for the United Auto Workers union and General Motors Corp were scheduled to resume discussions later on Tuesday as GM factory employees went to work as usual on the fourth day without a new contact.

Criticism of Greenspan's policies rose as his memoir was released but observers say he will endure as one of the best central bankers.

A U.S. federal judge tossed out a lawsuit by California's attorney general on Monday seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from six automakers for damaging the state with climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. posted a 3.2 percent decline in quarterly earnings on Tuesday as the U.S. investment bank wrote down mortgage and leveraged loan assets, but the results beat expectations and its shares rose. The results soothed investors concerned that the widening U.S. subprime mortgage crisis would wallop investment bank earnings.

The New York Times Co said on Monday it will end its paid TimesSelect Web service and make most of its Web site available for free in the hopes of attracting more readers and higher advertising revenue.

Ford Motor Co may accelerate cost cutting if a slowing U.S. economy puts the auto maker at risk of missing key financial goals in 2008 and 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Tuesday, citing an interview with an executive.

The dollar steadied above last week's record lows versus the euro on Tuesday as investors chose to hold fire ahead of a widely-expected Federal Reserve interest rate cut.

The Federal Reserve is expected to chart a new course on Tuesday and cut benchmark interest rates for the first time since mid-2003 to protect the economy from a housing downturn and jittery credit markets.

The review of all security companies in the country comes after a shooting incident involving guards from the U.S. firm Blackwater.

Oil struck an all-time high above $81 a barrel on Tuesday, fuelled by concerns of a winter supply squeeze in top consumer the United States, where an anticipated interest rate cut was calming recession fears. Supply risks and fund flows into energy from poorly performing equity markets have driven up the price of crude to record highs for the past five trading sessions.

Internet search company Powerset moved a step closer to launching its natural language search engine on Monday as it opened its search technology to outside users for the first time.

A European Union court upheld an anti-trust ruling from 2004 against Microsoft on Monday, rejecting the software giant's appeal.

A Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium will be given Dutch Finance Ministry approval later on Monday for its bid to take over Dutch bank ABN AMRO, a source close to the deal said.

Argentina's 2008 budget bill, presented to Congress on Friday, sees annual inflation of 7.3 percent and calculates gross domestic product growth at 4 percent.

Britain will guarantee all existing deposits at embattled mortgage bank Northern Rock, finance minister Alistair Darling said on Monday.

Major handset vendors have much more to gain than to lose from the buzz Apple Inc's coveted iPhone will create when it arrives in European stores for the key shopping season ahead of Christmas.

Top U.S .phone company AT&T Inc said on Monday that it was ordered to pay $156 million after losing a jury verdict in a patent infringement case brought by TGIP Inc.

It could be due the climate, the large number of students or the ethnic mix of the people who live there, but whatever the reason London and Toronto have the highest number of Facebook users.

Oil soared to a record above $80 a barrel on Monday on worries that global energy supplies could shrink to critical levels this winter heating season due to strong demand growth.

Hartford Financial Services Group Chief Financial Officer David Johnson said on Monday the insurer will generate $140 million of surplus in the second half of 2007, giving it a total of $640 million available.