IBT Staff Reporter

A recent expedition to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico found that last summer's oil spill will likely affect the region for several more years.

South African resource-heavy stocks slipped on Tuesday as Libyan unrest prompted an equities sell-off while the rand firmed against the dollar, recovering from earlier losses as better-than-expected GDP data boosted the currency.

Pfizer Inc said it has settled all outstanding lawsuits involving accusations that it tested the experimental antibiotic Trovan on children in Nigeria during a 1996 meningitis outbreak without receiving adequate prior consent.

The Formula One season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, scheduled to be staged on 13 March, has been called off because of internal troubles in the nation.

New Zealand rescue teams worked under search lights early Wednesday to find scores of people trapped under collapsed buildings after an earthquake struck the country's second-biggest city of Christchurch, killing at least 65 people.

Iranian security forces have arrested a son of opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi, his website reported Tuesday, one week after his supporters took to the streets in their first demonstrations in more than a year.

Algeria's cabinet on Tuesday adopted an order to lift the 19-year-old state of emergency, a concession designed to keep out a wave of protests sweeping the Arab world.

Kosovo's parliament elected a Kosovo-Swiss businessman with close ties to Moscow as president on Tuesday as part of a power-sharing deal following December elections in the impoverished Balkan country.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will propose reducing $300 million in Medicaid spending by transferring all participants into a managed care plan as part of a speech on Tuesday outlining his state budget for the coming year, according to a report.

President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Tuesday that Islamist extremists were trying to rip Russia apart and that a wave of unrest across the Arab world could spark decades of strife by ushering fanatics into power.

West Africa's regional body ECOWAS said on Tuesday it was unable to join an African Union mission to mediate in Ivory Coast's power struggle due to threats of violence against it.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki ended a row over top judicial appointments that had threatened the country's fragile coalition government by saying on Tuesday that he would start the selection process afresh.

South Africa plans to set up a chain of pumping stations and treatment plants to prevent toxic liquids building up in defunct gold mines beneath Johannesburg from reaching dangerous levels.

Sarah Palin's ex-aide is working on a manuscript for a yet unreleased book, but supposed quotes from Palin have already started appearing in the media.

Pirates shot dead four American hostages on a yacht they had seized in the Arabian Sea, and a firefight left two pirates dead and 13 captured, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

South Africa's economic growth came in higher than expected in the fourth quarter, boosted by stronger growth in the mining and agricultural sectors, according to data released on Tuesday.

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.

Eighteen titles will be available at launch, the company says.

African farmland investment has the potential to match the exponential growth of Brazil's agricultural industry, the head of business development at privately owned agricultural operator Quifel said.

Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara will extend until March 10 the period of the ban he has called on cocoa exports to try to unseat his rival, a spokesman for his government said on Tuesday.

Muammar Gaddafi will neither leave Libya nor step down and a bloody fight to the end is likely with protesters intent on driving him out, the Libyan leader's former head of protocol said on Tuesday.

About 500 Egyptians protested in the capital on Tuesday demanding that new military rulers install a new government and lift the country's emergency law.

Thousands of Tunisians are fleeing Libya, many across its western land border, after a bloody crackdown there on protests against the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, state media reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. government faced mounting calls for action against Libya on Tuesday as the regime of Muammar Gaddafi used tanks, helicopters and warplanes to unleash fresh attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators.

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.

Justin Bieber sure knows how to give back. The 16-year-old pop star announced via Twitter that he will donate all the cut hair to a charity to auction.

Pension funds and shareholder groups will back the proposal for a succession plan at Apple’s shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

A desperate Chelsea side will make the trip to the Parken Stadium to face FC Copenhagen for the first leg of the last-16 round tie on Tuesday.

Video spoofs of Radiohead's new music video, Lotus Flower have taken YouTube by storm.