IBT Staff Reporter

Allied Irish Banks aimed to put the collective madness of a homegrown property bubble behind it on Tuesday with a jaw-dropping annual loss of 10.4 billion euros and a plan to axe over 2,000 jobs.

BP's planned $18 billion share swap and Arctic exploration agreement with Russia's Rosneft was cast further into doubt on Tuesday after its chief backer Igor Sechin stood down as Rosneft chairman and sources said BP faced a new legal challenge.

People.com is reporting that Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott plan on keeping the sex of their baby a surprise.

The recession and high gasoline prices offer the U.S. automotive industry a chance to reinvent itself as consumers inch toward acceptance of alternatives to the internal combustion engine, a top venture capitalist said on Tuesday.

VeriFone Systems Inc, the largest U.S. maker of payment terminals, expects to ship well over 1 million 'near-field communications' -enabled systems this year, underlining growing momentum for a technology that allows shoppers to buy with little more than a wave of a smartphone.

U.S. import prices rose more than expected in March to post their largest increase in more than 1-1/2 years, driven by a surge in imported petroleum costs and higher food prices, a government report showed on Tuesday.

The U.S. trade deficit shrank in February as both imports and exports fell, according to a government report on Tuesday that suggested a slowdown in global demand.

Hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam hopes a Superman will be able to help him win over the jury at his insider trading trial.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it expects oil demand to grow by 1.4 million barrels per day this year, around steady on its previous forecast and also in line with IEA figures.

U.S. stock underwriting was the sole strong business in an otherwise bleak first quarter for U.S. investment banks.

The scale of the challenge facing Nokia in the all-important smartphones market was underscored on Tuesday when a powerful new handset from Taiwan's HTC overshadowed two new models from the Finnish giant.

Flip Video, which Cisco purchased in 2009, is getting the axe as the company announces it is shifting focus back to its home networking business.

The European Central Bank's interest rates are very low and its monetary policy stance has become more accommodative than at the peak of the financial crisis, ECB policymaker Juergen Stark said on Tuesday.

Shares of Microsoft's Bing search engine are up to 30 percent.

Intel Corp. has announced that its tablet specific Atom Z670 processor which brings in improved battery performance and enhanced video capabilities is now available.

Stock indexes dropped 1 percent on Tuesday, hit by a sharp fall in oil prices and after Alcoa's lighter-than-expected revenue started the earnings season on a dour note.

Rumors were circulating the Internet Monday that Victoria and David Beckham plan to name their soon-to-be born daughter Santa.

Nokia announced Tuesday a pair of new smartphones as well as an update to its Symbian operating system as the company looks to soothe fears that its recent deal with Microsoft will cannibalize its own product offerings.

Tori Spelling used Twitter to announce that she and her husband Dean McDermott are pregnant with her third child.

Second seed Roger Federer progressed to the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters after mauling Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2 6-1.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC unveiled on Tuesday a new handset model that offers a library of movies and TV shows via a wide screen that will be available on the Vodafone network.

British inflation eased in March for the first time since last summer as grocers cut food prices, reducing the chance of a Bank of England rate hike in May and giving it leeway to support the still shaky economy.

Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Washington later this week are expected to reach an agreement on guidelines to identify global economic imbalances, French government sources said on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday after a disappointing revenue miss from Alcoa to start off the earnings season and a sell-off in commodities, coupled with Japan's upgrade of the severity of its nuclear crisis.

Wholesale Gold Bars slipped to a 3-session low in London trade on Tuesday, finally bouncing higher from $1455 per ounce - some 1.5% below yesterday's new Dollar high - as world stock markets fell and major-economy government bonds rose.

Nokia unveiled on Tuesday two new smartphone models running on improved Symbian software, a stop-gap measure aimed at stemming customer defections to rivals like Apple.

There will be quite a few anxious faces as Manchester United host Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, with an aggregate lead of 1-0 over their London rivals.

President Barack Obama's strongest supporters in the United States are at the lowest level of his presidency yet and support from liberals is also sharply down from earlier this month, according to a daily presidential tracking poll.

The hacker George Hotz, who settled with Sony after the company sued him for modifying his PlayStation 3 console, is getting a lot of flak from other hackers for not taking the fight further.