IBT Staff Reporter

Blackstone Group LP is finding it more difficult to find new deals as credit markets tighten, which will affect near-term results, President Hamilton James said on Monday.

Facing continued deterioration in the U.S. housing market, upscale home builder Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. said on Monday that it expects to take a charge of $90 million to $110 million related to land impairments and write-offs.

Fugitive U.S. millionaire Jacob 'Kobi' Alexander, who has made political connections and pledged to invest millions of dollars in Namibia, secured another delay in his extradition hearing on Monday.

Central banks in the world's leading economies pumped money for a third day into the financial system on Monday, but in smaller amounts as investor nerves steadied over the dangers of a credit squeeze.

The economy has added non-farm jobs at a steady pace so far this year, but with businesses cutting back on hiring temporary workers, economists say the labor market may be on course to weaken.

As China's export prices rise, a pressing global debate is emerging: is the 'China price' pumping up world inflation?

With world stocks have fallen more than 7 percent in a month and some indexes down more than 10 percent from their highs, some market players are saying the time is near to buy.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group said on Monday it and outside investors would pour $3 billion of new capital into Goldman's Global Equity Opportunities fund, a long-short quantitative hedge fund hurt by recent market volatility. In the statement, Goldman acknowledged for the first time that market conditions had led to fund losses.

Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) said on Monday quarterly net income more than tripled -- boosted by merger and real estate deals -- but revenue at the private equity powerhouse fell below analysts' estimates in its first earnings report as a publicly traded company.

Oil prices climbed above $72 a barrel on Monday as calming financial markets on the back of cash injections by central banks worldwide put the spotlight back on robust energy demand expectations.

Asia's central banks took further steps on Monday to calm markets roiled by fears over a credit squeeze, with the Bank of Japan injecting $5.1 billion into the banking system and others pledging to follow suit if needed.

India's third-largest software services exporter, Wipro Ltd., is in talks for software and technological support contract for an upcoming Boeing facility in India, an official said on Monday.

Internal investigators have uncovered more than 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of dubious payments at Siemens' telecoms and turbines divisions, far more than previously thought, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said.

World oil prices are headed for $100 per barrel, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez predicted on Saturday, and said he will cut supplies to the United States if the U.S. government attacks the South American nation again.

A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced a television reporter to one year in jail for fabricating a report that Beijing dumpling makers used cardboard as a filling.

Years of economic policy mistakes after the fall of Saddam Hussein left unemployed young Iraqis easy targets for recruitment by al Qaeda and other insurgents, a U.S. Defense Department official said on Sunday.

China's economic indicators may have entered the danger zone, forcing the central bank to continue tightening steps to prevent the economy from overheating, a senior central bank official said in remarks published on Monday.

Noisy protests against a historic but controversial nuclear energy deal between India and the United States disrupted the Indian parliament on Monday as lawmakers demanded the government cancel the agreement.

In Manhattan, the much maligned apartment co-op board, famous for rejecting notables such as Richard Nixon and Mariah Carey, may turn out to have been the last line of defense against risky lending practices.

The boss of a Chinese toy manufacturing company involved in a Mattel recall after its products were found to contain excessive lead levels has hanged himself, Chinese media reported on Monday.

The world's No.2 soft drink firm PepsiCo has agreed to buy Russia's top juice maker Lebedyansky for $1.5-2 billion to boost its modest Russian juice market share, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Asian stock markets made a tentative recovery on Monday following last week's hammering as fears of a global credit crisis eased after central banks around the world pumped money into banking systems.

The quality of Chinese home loans is worse than in the United States, where a subprime mortgage crisis is causing turmoil in global financial markets, according to a prominent academic quoted in a Hong Kong newspaper on Sunday.

Stock of Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's No. 3 maker of personal computers, may be overpriced when compared with its peers Hewlett-Packard and Dell , Barron's said on Sunday.

Japan's Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. is considering selling its loss-making mobile phone operations and is already in preliminary talks with several domestic cellphone makers, a source close to the matter said.

Between the shelves of product catalogues on the wall of a spartan office in an eastern German lighting factory sits a framed quotation, in bold black lettering on silver paper, from Winston Churchill.

Biotechnology giant Amgen Inc is gearing up for cost cuts as it weathers a siege on its lucrative anemia drug business that accounted for about half of its sales last year.

Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC), top shareholder of South Korea's Hyundai Oilbank Corp., will pick preferred bidders for a 35 percent stake in the refiner, sources close to the deal said on Monday.

U.S.-financed China Public Security Technology will provide software that links to at least 20,000 police surveillance cameras being installed along streets in southern China, according to the New York Times on Sunday.