IBT Staff Reporter

Officials from eight nations including the United States began talks on a transpacific trade deal on Monday in a move Australia said could add momentum to stalled World Trade Organization talks.

American International Group Inc is holding back $21 million from retention bonuses due by Monday to current and former employees of its Financial Products unit, a source familiar with the matter said.

White House officials on Sunday confidently predicted quick final passage of healthcare reform but a top Democratic vote-counter said the party still needs to line up more support in the House of Representatives.

China has cleared Rio Tinto and the Australian government of blame for the collapse of a $19.5 billion tie-up between Chinalco and Rio Tinto last June, an Australian newspaper reported from Beijing on Monday.

The Federal Reserve would win sweeping new powers over nonbank financial firms and keep much of its authority over banks, under revised legislation to be unveiled on Monday by the chief architect of financial reform in the Senate.

Japan Post Bank bought about 300 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in U.S. Treasuries in the October-December quarter, the first time the bank bought U.S. Treasuries since the start of its privatization process in October 2007, the Nikkei business daily said on Monday.

University of Western Sydney was awarded with an 'Employer of Choice for Women' by The Federal Government's Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), a citation for the 7th consecutive year.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority , considered the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, said the global economy still faces considerable uncertainty, in its first annual review aimed at enhancing transparency.

U.S. regulators will announce a major Internet policy this week to revolutionize how Americans communicate and play, proposing a dramatic increase in broadband speeds that could let people download a high-definition film in minutes instead of hours.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there was no reason for Euro zone finance ministers to make any decision on financial aid for debt-ridden Greece when they met on Monday.

Bank of America Corp , the largest U.S. bank, plans to seek approval to expand its operations in China, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the situation.

The drug regadenoson is safe and poses fewer side effects than the conventional medication used during a cardiac nuclear stress test of heart transplant patients, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

Researchers from the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, have devised a better way to determine an individual's risk for problems, such as heart attack and heart failure, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Calgary have discovered the unique genes that allow the opium poppy to make codeine and morphine, thus opening doors to alternate methods of producing these effective painkillers.

The Australian Dollar opens higher at 0.9180 as the greenback and Yen weakened on Friday night and markets move back into currencies linked to economic growth.

The meeting with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, to discuss proposed major overhaul of the health system has been productive, says Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

Over half of medical students and junior doctors underestimate the amounts of radiation involved in regularly ordered scans with 25 per cent wrongly accept that magnetic resonance imaging emits radiation.

The widespread and unnecessary ordering of high-radiation CT scans which can trigger cancer has alarmed the Medicare watchdog, after a high increase in the number of health workers and doctors referred to the agency for investigation.

A study of the eye health across 30 Aboriginal communities, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, found an improvement in vision loss and blindness as compared to 30 years earlier. The most common Indigenous vision loss causes were unoperated cataracts, diabetes, uncorrected refractive errors or trachoma.

A total of over 90,000 people from Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay health districts have queued up for the vaccine against the human swine flu. Following the government warnings on the second wave of the pandemic, nearly 4000 have attended free weekend vaccination clinics at local schools. Another 87,000 visited their local GP for vaccinations.

Investors will try to tack another leg on to the year-long U.S. stock rally, looking to this week's economic data and statement from the central bank for evidence the recovery is still on track.

Greece should show it has taken steps to get its public finances in order before external help can be given, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said in an interview on Austrian television on Sunday.

Private equity firm KKR and U.S. music company Warner Music Group are in talks to launch a break-up bid for Warner's indebted British rival EMI , reported the Sunday Times.

BYD Co Ltd , a Chinese car and battery maker backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, said on Sunday its fourth-quarter net profit rose 500 pct thanks to robust car sales primed by tax incentives from Beijing.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday spurned foreign calls for the yuan to rise and showed no let up in scolding the United States over recent bilateral tensions.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday that external calls for yuan appreciation were unhelpful and even a form of trade protectionism, vowing that Beijing would stick to its own course for currency reform.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Bangkok on Sunday and planned to give Thailand's military-backed government an ultimatum: either call elections or face more pro-democracy demonstrations over the coming week.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who is criticized by media freedom groups, called on Saturday for regulation of the Internet and singled out a website that he said falsely reported the murder of one of his ministers.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday that external calls for yuan appreciation were unhelpful, vowing that Beijing would stick to its own course for currency reform while also warning of global economic risks.