IBT Staff Reporter

Summers are filled with ice cream and picnics, swimming pools and festivals, and this year the festivals are bigger and more spectacular than ever before.

A higher than expected inflation gauge reading, solid New Home Sales and an increase in company operating profits all gave the Aussie dollar a boost in local trade yesterday as it recovered from an early morning dip to 0.8425 to push marginally above the 85 cent handle.

Canada has launched a probe into Google Inc as legal problems escalate surrounding the search engine's disclosure that it collected private data while taking photographs for its Street View product.

Four of five U.S. broadband users are unaware of the speed of their connections, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday.

Four of five U.S. broadband users are unaware of the speed of their connections, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday.

Citigroup Inc's CitiFinancial unit will shut 330 of its U.S. branches and cut between 500 and 600 jobs, in an effort to cut costs at the business and make it more attractive to potential buyers.

Stocks fell on Tuesday as energy shares slid after the latest failed attempt to halt the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. government announced a criminal probe into the disaster.

U.S. safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into the possibility that accelerator pedals could be entrapped by floormats in Ford Motor Co 2010 Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans.

It is said that on his retreat from Greece after his great military expedition there, King Xerxes boarded a Phoenician ship along with a number of his Persian troops. But a fearful storm came up, and the captain told Xerxes there was no hope unless the ship's load was substantially lightened.

The Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate on Tuesday, the first G7 industrialized economy to do so after the global recession, but said the European debt crisis made its next move highly unpredictable.

Manufacturing grew for a 10th straight month in May and construction spending notched its fastest pace in nearly 10 years in April, suggesting the U.S. economy will add jobs and weather Europe's debt storm.

An Australian zoo has posted an urgent plea on its Facebook page for help in returning eight stolen endangered monkeys, so small they could fit in a handbag or the palm of your hand.

Shares of Apple Inc rallied on Tuesday, as a successful international launch of its iPad tablet prompted Wall Street analysts to raise earnings and sales estimates.

U.S. safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into the possibility that accelerator pedals could be entrapped by floormats in Ford Motor Co 2010 Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans.

Alcoa Inc said Tuesday it reached a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers union on a new 4-year labor contract covering 5,400 workers at 10 of the aluminum producer's manufacturing locations in the United States.

Covidien Plc plans to acquire ev3 Inc for $2.6 billion to boost its business in stents and other vascular devices, underscoring the favorable deal climate in the medical technology industry.

Stocks were little changed on Tuesday after data showed manufacturing expanded for a tenth straight month, but worries of wider fallout from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico kept a lid on gains.

Small businesses are borrowing more than they were at the depths of the recession, but their appetite for loans remains poor, data released by PayNet Inc on Tuesday showed.

British Airways Plc and officials from the Unite trade union plan were holding talks on Tuesday to try to resolve a dispute with cabin crew staging the latest in a series of strikes.

Hewlett-Packard Co said it aims to boost margins by cutting jobs and reallocating spending to more profitable technology services, shrinking its workforce by a net 3,000 jobs, or 1 percent, over three years.

Wall Street was little changed in choppy mid-day trading on Tuesday after erasing losses as data showing U.S. manufacturing expanded for a tenth straight month failed to quell fears of a slowing economy.

AIG's rejection of a lowered takeover offer by Prudential for its Asian life insurance business has shifted attention back to the company's IPO plans.

Prudential Plc's bid for rival AIG's Asian unit was close to collapse after the British insurer failed to secure a price cut, triggering talk it might itself become a takeover target.

Hewlett-Packard plans to spend $1 billion to bolster its corporate services business, and will shrink its workforce by 1 percent, or 3,000 jobs, over three years.

More U.S. employers expect to pay higher salaries to new hires as demand for professional staff improves with a stronger economy, a semiannual survey by Dice Holdings Inc found.

The manufacturing sector expanded in May for a tenth straight month but at a slower pace than in April while employment rose slightly to its best level in six years, according to an industry report released on Tuesday.

Canada became the first of the G7 major industrialized countries to begin hiking interest rates following the global financial crisis, raising its key rate on Tuesday by a quarter-point to 0.50 percent.

It's pretty easy to recognize a terrible cover letter within the first 2 seconds of reading one. People tend to forget that this document is a sales tool - you use it to sell yourself to a prospective employer. That being said, it's very easy to ruin your potential sale with just a few simple words.

The decade of the 1960s stood orthodoxy on its head. It was a time when alternative everything got a hearing. Expertise came into doubt; the phrase some decisions are too important to be left to the experts was heard everywhere.