IBT Staff Reporter

A consortium led by Pallinghurst Resources has raised its takeover offer for Australian mining firm Consolidated Minerals Ltd., valuing it at A$642 million ($544 million) and winning the support of Consolidated's board.

Doctors backed away on Sunday from a controversial proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder akin to alcoholism, saying psychiatrists should study the issue more.

U.S. private equity fund Lone Star is in talks with several strategic investors to sell Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), Lone Star chairman John Grayken said in an interview with a local newspaper on Monday.

Shares of investment firm State Street fell after investors balked at the $4.5 billion price tag it paid for a smaller rival in February, but weakness in the shares now gives investors the chance get a piece of the firm when it is poised to benefit from expanding global securities markets, Barron's reported on Sunday.

Investment banks helping Cerberus Capital Management LP finance its buyout of Chrysler, the U.S. arm of automaker DaimlerChrysler, will launch a road show in the next week to raise funds for the deal, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, citing a source familiar with the matter.

A $12 billion debt sale announced by Home Depot on Tuesday would be the biggest test of demand for U.S. corporate bonds in four years but will likely find ample buyers, analysts said.

Raytheon Co. on Saturday filed a protest with the U.S. government over its award of a U.S. cargo contract to rival contractors, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.

Global real estate investment is still buoyant but a few cracks are starting to show as higher borrowing costs begin to bite, making 2007 a pivotal year after an extended bull run in property prices.

Central banks around the world should raise interest rates further to curb inflation pressures, the Bank for International Settlements said on Sunday.

Wagering on the outcome of the Conrad Black fraud trial is a risky proposition, as lawyers representing the former media baron and three co-defendants present widely divergent versions of events in their final statements to the jury.

Iran sees no need to hold the U.S. currency, the country's central bank vice-governor said

The fight over higher automobile fuel efficiency standards shifts to the House of Representatives this week with big car companies regrouping after a stinging defeat in Senate energy legislation.

DaimlerChrysler is looking towards a rosy future after the sale of its U.S. arm Chrysler, the car maker's chief executive told a German newspaper.

As frustrated as travelers may be with crowded planes and delayed flights, these are the realities of the leaner U.S. airline industry as it claws its way back to profitability after a brutal years-long slump.

The European Union breathed a sigh of relief over the weekend after the bloc's leaders agreed on a way to reform its institutions, but critics from Britain to the Netherlands called for referendums that could derail a deal.

As rising health-care costs hurt workers and retirees alike, America's trade unions are seen inching toward a broad-sweeping agreement with U.S. corporations on health-care reform.

Ford Motor Co. has hired accountancy group KPMG to examine the books at its British units Jaguar and Land Rover ahead of their expected sale later this year, the Sunday Times reported.

Economists and analysts say the implosion of faltering global trade talks would carry big costs.

BP Plc expects to restart on Monday 10,000 barrels per day of Alaskan oil production at its giant Prudhoe Bay oil field, halted June 18 for a pipe leak, a BP spokesman said.

It was Wall Street's version of hide and seek this week as some of the world's largest investment banks remained tight-lipped on the likely fall in price of some complex securities that may soon infect global debt and equity markets.

Gazprom and Italian oil firm Eni unveiled a plan on Saturday for a big new pipeline to take Russian gas under the Black Sea to Europe, undermining an earlier plan to extend a Turkish route.

One of Wall Street's oldest maxims will be put to the test next week: markets don't hit bottom on a Friday.

The United States expects North Korea to shut down the reactor at the heart of its nuclear arms development program within about three weeks, top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said on Saturday.

At some stage in everyone's career comes a desire to throw down tools and walk away, and plenty of motivational books say you should resist that temptation. Now, a new book says quitting can be a good strategy.

The London Stock Exchange is to buy its Italian counterpart for 1.6 billion euros ($2.15 billion), the two exchanges confirmed in a statement on Saturday, the latest step in a global consolidation of exchanges.

The European Union will work to overhaul its 27-nation treaty to replace an EU constitution it rejected in 2005.

A Russian bank has received $25 million of North Korean funds which had been frozen in a Macau bank account, removing an obstacle to a deal over North Korea's nuclear program, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Drought affecting large swathes of China has left more than 8 million people short of water, and many livestock have died of hunger, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves! go the stirring words that open China's national anthem.