IBT Staff Reporter

Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich pressed rival Yulia Tymoshenko to concede defeat on Monday after a narrow victory in a presidential election that could tilt the ex-Soviet state back towards Moscow.

The abrupt resignation of SAP AG's chief executive Leo Apotheker put pressure on the group's stock on Monday as the market sought direction on where the world's largest business-software company is headed.

Iran said it will start making higher-grade reactor fuel on Tuesday and will add 10 uranium enrichment plants over the next year in a nuclear expansion sure to stoke tensions with the West.

The cascading crisis at Toyota Motor Corp stemming from the massive recall of some of its vehicles is prompting other manufacturers that adopted its production system to ask whether the incident reveals a fundamental flaw in the Toyota Way.

Toyota Motor Corp is preparing a recall of its new Prius hybrid car in Japan as early as Tuesday, followed by similar steps in the United States, Europe and other markets, a source familiar with its plans said.

Electric cars must be backed by smart power networks if they are to help the world's climate problems, environmentalists warned on Monday as European ministers prepared to debate a strategy for the sector.

Greek unions pledged on Monday to fight austerity measures with a public sector strike this week, the first test of the government's commitment to cut deficits and a ballooning public debt which has shaken the euro.

Stock index futures were lower on Monday as nagging worries about euro zone sovereign debt continued to weigh on sentiment.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group , Japan's third-biggest bank by assets, outshone it larger rivals and posted its biggest profit in seven quarters on Monday, helped by an improvement in its stock portfolio and a decline in bad loans.

The space shuttle Endeavour bolted off its seaside launch pad on Monday on a voyage to install the last two main pieces of the International Space Station

More than a century into its existence, Philips is once again betting heavily on semiconductors. This time the consumer electronics firm is looking to harness their potential as a source of light.

Greece will lower the current 75,000 euro income threshold that is subject to a 40 percent tax rate as part of reforms to urgently boost government revenues, the country's finance minister said on Monday.

Japanese bank lending logged its biggest annual fall in more than four years in January as companies faced with overcapacity and a murky economic outlook steered clear of borrowing for capital investment purposes.

Mining group Xstrata reinstated a dividend amid a bullish outlook for metals demand after posting a 41 percent fall in 2009 profit on Monday, in line with expectations.

China's third-largest online game operator NetEase.com said it has suspended new user registration for World of Warcraft in China and will reapply for a license to operate the expansion pack of Activision Blizzard's hit game.

The euro and growth-linked currencies fell on Monday as investors unwound risky trades amid growing worries about eurozone's debt problems, dismissing assurances from European finance ministers at the weekend.

IBM is beginning a long-awaited upgrade to a range of servers and other hardware to make them more energy-efficient and competitive than rival products by Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems Inc.

Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich headed for a slender victory on Monday in a bitterly contested presidential election but rival Yulia Tymoshenko refused to concede.

President Barack Obama said on Sunday he will hold a meeting with Democratic and Republican lawmakers to discuss ways to move forward on legislation to overhaul the healthcare system.

China has closed what it claims to be the largest hacker training website in the country and arrested three of its members, domestic media reported on Monday.

A senior Chinese envoy was in North Korea to prod the reclusive state back to stalled nuclear talks while the South sent a team across the border on Monday for talks to restart tourism projects halted due to political wrangling.

Barclays Wealth, the private banking arm of British bank Barclays , has hired another three bankers from UBS , adding to the 10 who were recruited in August last year.

Chinese inspectors tracing new cases of contaminated milk have shut dairy firms in the northwest and seized 72 metric tons of milk powder tainted with melamine, an industrial compound that killed at least six children in 2008.

Sidestepping the usual slapstick comedy and animal tricks, a number of advertisers tried to score during Sunday's Super Bowl with commercials that tapped into men's ambivalence with their everyday lives.

Citigroup Inc has held talks with private equity groups and hedge funds over the sale of $3 billion in car loans in a move to clear troubled assets from its balance sheet, according to a report by the Financial Times.

CIT Group Inc has hired former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain as its new chief executive, the commercial lender said late on Sunday, wagering that the well-traveled executive can guide its post-bankruptcy turnaround.

Shares in Toyota Motor Corp edged higher after the head of the world's largest automaker made a public apology for safety problems and said it would bring in outside experts to review quality controls.

President Barack Obama said on Sunday the economy has turned the corner and resumed growth.

Toyota Motor Corp, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said Sunday.