INDIA

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's embattled government will likely boost spending on social programmes in a populist budget on Monday, even as India is threatened with a potentially ballooning subsidy bill for food and fuel.

Oil hovered above $112 a barrel on Friday and Asian stocks broke a four-day losing streak as concerns eased that a recent surge in energy prices would hurt demand for riskier assets and threaten broader economic growth.

It will be awfully hard for William and Kate’s nuptials to match the intense media coverage and global impact of another Royal Wedding from thirty years ago -- when William’s parents Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married

Biogen Idec stock price can appreciate to the mid $70s based on five areas of potential upside, according to RBC Capital Markets. The brokerage upgraded its rating on shares of the biotechnology company to outperform from sector perform and increased its price target to $75 from $60.

There is now more evidence that speculators are pushing up the prices of food commodities.

Inflation did not immediately follow because of the severity of the economic recession. However, as some economists correctly predicted, it was only a matter of time. In Europe, it's starting to heat up.

At least 100,000 trade unionists marched through the Indian capital on Wednesday in a protest against high food prices and unemployment, piling pressure on an administration under fire over corruption scandals.

In the muggy forest of central Liberia, a gang of workers is inching its way along a railway track, cut long and straight through an otherwise impenetrable mesh of trees and vines. The drone of insects is interrupted by a high-pitched drill and the clang of hammers as workers put the finishing touches to the perfectly aligned steel tracks.

PC giant Hewlett-Packard Co's quarterly sales and outlook came in below Wall Street expectations, sending its shares down 11 percent in the afterhours trading on the NYSE.

South Africa's Afripalm Resources signed a memorandum of understanding with Steel Authority of India to build a steel mill in South Africa, the Business Day reported on Wednesday.

State-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp may file the draft prospectus for its share sale this week, its chairman A.K. Hazarika said on Wednesday.

Ford Motors India will launch a new version of the Fiesta Sedan 2011 in Indian markets this year.

Tens of thousands of trade unionists, including those from a group linked to India's ruling party, marched through the streets of the capital on Wednesday to protest food prices, piling pressure on a government already under fire over graft.

According to PwC, deals in defense and aerospace were at three-year high, with 17 deals in Q4 totaling over $4 billion in value.

South Africa will export 4 million tonnes of surplus maize to the world's biggest emerging markets but wants to ensure security of food supplies in southern Africa first, a minister said on Tuesday.

Muammar Gaddafi vowed to die in Libya as a martyr in an angry television address on Tuesday, as rebel troops said eastern regions had broken free from his rule in a burgeoning revolt.

Bloody crackdown against demonstrators is set to cost the Libyan government heavy as officials withdraw while soldiers deflect towards protesters in the first signs of the Moammar Gaddafi's regime beginning to crumble.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's four-decade-old rule appeared in increasing jeopardy on Monday when days of anti-government protests reached the capital for the first time and security forces killed dozens of people.

As anti-government protests sweep across Libya, even entering the once-tranquil capitol of Tripoli, and major foreign oil companies suspend or withdraw operations in the wake of civil unrest, there are many unanswered questions.

Jaguar and Land Rover is in talks with top Chinese sport utility vehicle maker Great Wall Motor Co about a potential China tie-up, two executives told Reuters on Monday.

Governments including those of the U.S., Sweden, UK, Taiwan and India have issued travel advisories against all non-essential travel to conflict-ridden Libya, where a large number of casualties have already been reported.