IBT Staff Reporter

Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina jointly bid more than $3 billion for Australia's Arrow Energy.

Gary Shedlin, who was most recently chairman of Citigroup's investment banking effort for financial institutions, focusing on client relationships, is departing to join Morgan Stanley , Bloomberg said citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

U.S. regulators are encouraging public pension funds that control more than $2 trillion to inject capital directly into the banking system by buying failed lenders, Bloomberg said, citing people briefed on the matter.

U.S. real estate investor Andrew Farkas is all set to buy Centerline Holding Co, a provider of real estate financial and asset management services, by investing $100 million in equity in the company, the Wall Street Journal said.

Most U.S. business economists expect the Federal Reserve to raise benchmark interest rates within six months by between a quarter and a half percentage point, according to a survey released on Monday.

Most U.S. business economists expect the Federal Reserve to raise benchmark interest rates within six months by between a quarter and a half percentage point, according to a survey released on Monday.

Kraft Foods Inc is being investigated by U.K. regulators on whether the company misled employees and investors in its battle to take over British firm Cadbury.

Any speculation that China might stop supporting the dollar in the next few years is absolute nonsense, a top state banker said.

AIG was closing in on a deal on Sunday to sell its foreign life insurance unit to MetLife Inc for about $15.5 billion in cash and stock, leaving it with a substantial minority stake in MetLife, sources familiar with the matter said.

Greece will not need foreign help to deal with its debt problems, central bank governor George Provopoulos said in a German newspaper interview released Monday.

China flagged on Saturday it will let the yuan resume its rise at some point as it unwinds the super-loose policies it has been pursuing to prop up the world's third-largest economy.

AIG was closing in on a deal on Sunday to sell its foreign life insurance unit to MetLife Inc for more than $15 billion in cash and stock, leaving it with a substantial minority stake in MetLife, sources familiar with the matter said.

Organizers of the New York Puerto Rican Day Parade, one of the largest U.S. outdoor events, said they are ending a 30-year relationship with the makers of Captain Morgan Rum citing Diageo PLC's plans to move distillation of the drink from Puerto Rico.

American International Group Inc was closing in on a deal on Sunday to sell its foreign life insurance unit to MetLife Inc for about $15 billion, in a transaction that would ultimately leave AIG with more than 20 percent of MetLife, sources familiar with the situation said.

The Australian Dollar has managed to hang onto its recent gains and opens the new week at 0.9060.

Iceland's government pledged on Sunday to restart talks and swiftly reach a new debt accord with Britain and Netherlands, a day after Icelanders crushed in a referendum the previous $5 billion Icesave deal.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised Greece Sunday that euro zone countries would help it overcome its financial problems and vowed a European crackdown on financial speculators Athens blames for its woes.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised on Sunday that euro zone countries would help Greece if its financial problems worsened and vowed a crackdown on market speculators whom the Greeks blame for their woes.

Troubled conglomerate Dubai World expects to put its debt plan to creditors as early as this week but the final proposal is being delayed by efforts to accurately value developer Nakheel's assets, bankers said on Sunday.

Bulls may get more room to run this week on the anniversary of the March 2009 lows -- if U.S. stock investors see more signs of stability after Friday's rally on smaller-than-expected job losses.

Britain is prepared to be flexible in reaching a solution with Iceland to repay debts, finance minister Alistair Darling said on Sunday, adding it would take many, many years for Britain to be reimbursed.

A blogger, who had faced a military trial for an article critical of Egypt's armed forces, has been released without bail after apologizing and on condition he removes the posting, his lawyer said Sunday.

Portugal's long-term budget austerity plan encompasses spending cuts via reducing tax breaks and containing public sector wages, but entails no Greece-style wage cuts or tax hikes, local media said on Sunday.

Glaucoma Australia has announced that half of the 300,000 Australians affected with glaucoma are not aware that they have it.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), the incidence of hip fractures among older Australians declined constantly between 1997 to 1998 and 2006 to 2007 with bigger drop for women than men

China has pledged to punish hackers who attacked Google if there is evidence to prove it, but said it has yet to receive any complaint from the world's top search engine.

Toyota Motor Corp could freeze new car launches this year if it is not satisfied the accelerator problem that forced a mass recall of its vehicles has been solved.

The United States and Britain are threatening to withhold support for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a coal-fired plant in South Africa, expanding the battleground in the global debate over who should pay for clean energy.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Sunday that relations with the United States had been seriously disrupted, after a rise in friction between the two big powers.