IBT Staff Reporter

With time running short, President Barack Obama failed on Tuesday to break a deadlock in budget talks between his Democrats and Republicans that threatens a partial shutdown of the government.

Tens of millions of customers and employees of major banks, hotels and retailers are now at risk of spear-phishing attacks after hackers stole their email addresses in what may become one of the biggest data breaches ever, security experts warned.

U.S. antitrust regulators may investigate Google Inc's dominance of the Web search industry, and will settle on the agency to launch a probe once scrutiny into the company's plan to buy ITA software is done, a source told Reuters.

With time running short, President Barack Obama failed on Tuesday to break a deadlock in budget talks between his Democrats and Republicans that threatens a partial shutdown of the government.

Online coupon site LivingSocial said it raised $400 million in a round of funding, bringing the total to more than $600 million as investors flock to companies that provide socially driven discounts.

The White House, locked in a battle on the 2011 budget, weighed in on the 2012 Republican proposal unveiled on Tuesday, saying it did not do enough to spread the sacrifice needed to reduce the federal budget deficit in the coming years.

Blockbuster Inc's future was at stake on Tuesday as billionaire investor Carl Icahn squared off against Dish Network Corp and two other suitors at a bankruptcy auction to decide the movie rental chain's next owner.

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that if House and Senate leaders could not reach a deal on the 2011 fiscal budget, he wants to meet with them again Wednesday until the matter is settled.

Sir Richard Branson, chief executive of the Virgin media empire, has announced plans to send five vessels to the deepest parts of the ocean - a feat that has never been done before.

By Rob Cox and Robert Cyran, Reuters Breakingviews

Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz is undertaking a global recall of some of its older-model M-Class sport utility vehicles for issues related to cruise control that may lead to a crash, Daimler and U.S. federal safety regulators said on Tuesday.

A European Space Agency satellite has measured record low levels of ozone over the Arctic, creating a situation similar to the ozone hole over the Antarctic.

Some Federal Reserve officials last month believed they would have to hold to an easy monetary policy course beyond this year while a few said the central bank should move to tighter conditions before year-end.

In the Champions League first-leg quarter final ties played around Europe, Real Madrid cruised past Tottenham Hotspur with a comprehensive 4-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu while German side Schalke 04 humiliated holders Inter Milan with a 5-2 win at the San Siro.

Nasdaq's late-night announcement to adjust weightings in the benchmark Nasdaq 100 Index spurred volatility in Apple shares and surprised U.S. fund managers, who questioned the timing of the news.

Brent crude jumped to a 2-1/2 year peak above $122 a barrel on Tuesday, gaining for a fourth straight day as conflict and unrest in Africa and the Middle East more than offset China's latest interest rate hike.

The S&P 500 failed to break a key technical resistance level for a second day on Tuesday as low trading volume raised further questions about the market's strength.

CBOE Holdings Inc Chief Executive Officer William Brodsky, who steered the operator of the biggest U.S. options market through an initial public offering last June, received a giant pay boost for his efforts.

Trade-by-trade and sometimes using a calculator, an FBI agent testified at hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam's insider trading trial how the government matched phone records with transactions that it contends were based on illegal confidential information.

Real Madrid planted one foot into the semi finals of the Champions League with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the first-leg of the quarter finals at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The leaked app appears to be a developer version of the Android Music player, which looks and feels much like the version of the application available for the Honeycomb-based Xoom tablet.

Shares of Google Inc fell nearly 3 percent on Tuesday, following a Bloomberg report that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering an antitrust investigation of the company's dominance of the Web search industry.

President Barack Obama warned on Tuesday that a federal government shutdown would seriously disrupt the U.S. economy, after Republican and Democratic leaders failed to make headway on a budget deal.

The Obama administration is preparing a comprehensive proposal for corporate tax reform in an effort to kickstart the legislative process in Congress, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

Scientists have discovered a new mineral inside a meteorite originally recovered in 1969.

The S&P 500 failed to break a key technical resistance level for a second day on Tuesday as low trading volume raised further questions about the market's strength.

A few weeks ago Lady Gaga released a harmonica-infused version of her top hit Born This Way on her Twitter account. Now, Lady Gaga has released the track for sale and will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sales to charity.

Seems you can't keep a safe haven down. Not when retained wealth worldwide needs to escape money-printing and zero rates at home. What options are left to anxious savers? What choice but the Euro is still open to the Swiss National Bank...?

(Corrects lead to reflect late-night announcement, not rebalancing)