INDIA

India will hold a general election between April 16 and May 13, a mammoth process in which 714 million people will be able to cast their votes in the world's largest democracy.

From the snowbound Chinese border to holy Ganges cities, tens of millions of Indians began voting in a month-long election with signs that an unstable coalition may emerge in the middle of an economic slowdown.

The Obama administration wants to ensure that legislation being crafted by Congress to fight global climate change does not violate international trade rules and backfire on U.S. exports, the top U.S. trade official said in a letter to a Republican lawmaker.

The global car industry is showing no convincing signs of recovery yet as sluggishness in developed economies has deeply dented demand, a Hyundai Motor Group vice chairman said on Wednesday.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul called on Wednesday for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, hoping that a U.S.-Russian pledge to join forces to eradicate nuclear weapons will encourage the region.

Rahul Gandhi's speech may have been wooden and the applause sparse, but that didn't matter for dozens of party cadres who trailed his every move on a campaign stop in northern India.

Royal Bank of Scotland is in talks with three banks interested in buying its Asian retail and commercial banking assets as it pulls back to core markets, a person familiar with the matter said.

World stocks were steady to weaker on Wednesday, trading off the previous session's 3-month high, while government bonds firmed as news of job cuts at Swiss bank UBS and weak data fanned economic concerns. UBS warned of a first-quarter loss of nearly 2 billion Swiss francs and said it would cut a further 8,700 jobs, weighing on other banking shares.

World oil demand is shrinking faster than previously thought as a slowing global economy erodes consumption and keeps oil prices under pressure, OPEC said on Wednesday.

Credit Suisse plans to set up its second back office in India by September and hire 350 staff by 2010 as it aims to reduce costs, the Swiss bank said on Wednesday.

World stocks fell on Wednesday, stepping back from the previous session's three-month high, and the low-yielding yen firmed as news of job cuts at Swiss bank UBS and weak U.S. and Chinese data fanned economic concerns. UBS warned of a first-quarter loss of nearly 2 billion Swiss francs and said it would cut a further 8,700 jobs, weighing on other banking shares.

Somali pirates hijacked two more cargo vessels and opened fire on a third on Tuesday in attacks that showed their determination to continue striking shipping in the area's strategic waterways.

Tech Mahindra, an Indian telecommunications outsourcing firm won a bid to buy Satyam Computer Services for $351 million.

Indian soldiers killed four rebels in the country's revolt-racked northeast on Monday, officials said, as authorities continued to flush out militants before the country's general election gets underway this week.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Monday that Group of Seven finance ministers will meet in Washington on April 24 and follow that gathering up with a Group of 20 ministerial session.

India's Tech Mahindra will pay more than $550 million for a controlling stake in Satyam Computer Services , throwing a lifeline to the fraud-hit firm and propelling itself into the top tier of Indian outsourcing firms.

India's Tech Mahindra won a bidding auction for fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services on Monday, in a deal that could lift the mid-sized outsourcer into the top tier of local software services firms.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd , the company snared in India's biggest corporate scandal, is set to announce a winning bidder for a controlling stake, and its shares jumped to a two-month high in anticipation on Monday.

A summit of Asian leaders in Thailand was canceled on Saturday after anti-government protesters swarmed into the meeting's venue, renewing doubts about the durability of the government.

Fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd has used 3 billion rupees ($60 million) of the 6.85 billion bank funds that it has arranged, The Economic Times said on Saturday citing documents from a highly placed source in the company.

Fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd's annual revenues appear to be about $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion, three sources who have analysed data provided by the outsourcing firm to bidders said on Thursday.