IBT Staff Reporter

The state of California has agreed to settle a predatory lending lawsuit which it has filed against two former Countrywide Financial Corp. executives for $6.5 million.

India's former Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja, his personal secretary RK Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura have been arrested by India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over his alleged manipulation while allocating the second-generation telecom (2G) spectrum licenses in 2007 and 2008.

Dickstein Shapiro, a Washington D.C.-based law and lobbying firm, said that former U.S. Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) has joined the firm as a senior adviser.

Harmony, the world's fifth-largest listed gold miner, said October-December headline earnings per share totaled 69 cents, compared with 33 cents in the previous three months, boosted by record gold prices and said it was on track to meet its long-term production targets.

Arianna Huffington launched the news site in 2005 more as a commentary outlet and an alternative to other conservative news sites by inviting Arthur Schlesinger Jr. to blog. Now with the takeover by AOL, Huffington will become the boss of AOL group's editorial content.

Sanofi-Aventis is reportedly expected to sweeten its bid for U.S. biotechnology company Genzyme later this week. The two companies are said to be negotiating a cash deal worth $74 a share or $19 billion, plus extra payments linked to experimental multiple sclerosis drug Lemtrada.

Gold held near $1,350 an ounce on Monday after the metal's first weekly rise this year supported investor confidence in the metal, though a more optimistic view of the global economic outlook is continuing to weigh on prices.

Where the fast-paced worlds of travel and technology meet, smart phone applications provide travelers with better control over their hectic schedules.

Hasbro Inc's quarterly profit beat Wall Street estimates, helped by international demand for the No. 2 U.S. toy company's action figures, games and puzzles, and the company said it should be able to grow revenue and profit in 2011.

AOL has spent $315 million on one of its biggest acquisitions so far, news aggregator Huffington Post, adding another leaf to its portfolio of content which includes other names like TechCrunch and Engadget.

Sony Corp aims to boost flat TV sales in the next business year from April and will vary its procurement of LCD panels to help lower costs and turn its struggling TV operations profitable, a top executive said.

Hotels, energy and financial services conglomerate Loews Corp reported a better-than-expected 16 percent increase in quarterly profit, helped by higher net investment income from its limited partnerships.

France's Sanofi-Aventis was closing in on a roughly $20 billion deal to buy U.S. biotech group Genzyme while pausing to take a final look at the books, sources familiar with the matter said.

The program secures pre-admission for university students in the IESE Business School's MBA class and also places them in a prominent firm for two years at least so that they fulfill the experiential requirements of the prestigious full time program.

World stocks rose on Monday, hovering near a 29-month high on further signs of global economic recovery, and copper rallied to a record high while U.S. 10-year Treasury yields hit their highest since May.

As dust settles down after a 12-day uprising from citizens of Egypt, leaving scores of people dead and many injured, citizens have come up with a novel idea to remember the martyrs of the uprising.

A dossier of official documents giving insights into the release of the Lockerbie bomber is due to be published this week.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new mobile radiology application that allows doctors to see medical images and make diagnoses on Apple's iPhone and iPad. The Mobile MIM app should be available in Apple’s U.S. App Store next week.

All car lovers only dreamt of owning a flying car, but soon this will turn into reality and will be able to fly one next year.

Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am steals Super Bowl show with a tweak in the lyrics of 'Where is the Love?' to invoke President Obama and a post-show tweet on AT&T network.

Dutch biotech Crucell swung to a full-year loss, hit by a vaccine impairment charge and higher operating costs, but said on Monday Korean regulators back the resumption of production at its key Korean facility.

Randgold Resources sees a surge in production for 2011 as it reported a 43 percent rise in full-year profit in spite of operational and political setbacks. The company, which boosted its annual dividend by 18 percent to 20 cents, forecasts production to be between 750,000 and 790,000 ounces for 2011.

World stocks rose on Monday, hovering near a 29-month high on further signs of global economic recovery, and copper rallied to a record high while U.S. 10-year Treasury yields hit their highest in 10 months.

New car registration in January fell by 11.5 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

When the world's batsmen dazzle crowds at this month's cricket World Cup, many will use bats hand-made in India. But lucrative global branding that masks the bats' true makers threatens the country's craftsmen.

France's Sanofi-Aventis and U.S. biotech Genzyme kept investors in suspense about their $20 billion transatlantic pharmaceuticals merger on Monday, as sources predicted a deal within days.

U.S. crude futures edged above $89.05 a barrel on Monday, recovering from a near 2 percent drop in the previous session, supported by the political crisis in Egypt and a drop in the U.S. unemployment rate to a 21-month low.

U.S. oil and gas firm Anadarko Petroleum Corp said on Monday it had made its fourth natural gas discovery in the Rovuma Basin, the latest in a string of major deepwater natural gas discoveries off the coast of Mozambique.

South Africa's Harmony Gold more than doubled its second-quarter earnings on Monday, boosted by record gold prices and said it was on track to meet its long-term production targets.