IBT Staff Reporter

In releasing his fiscal 2011 budget on Monday, President Barack Obama said his proposal includes funds to lay the groundwork for these reforms. Instead of dramatic action, the plan seeks to boost health information technology, cheaper generic drugs and certain Medicare payment changes.

Stocks gained on Tuesday, helped by encouraging earnings, and as a rise in pending home sales helped calm fears of weakness in the housing market.

U.S. prosecutors apparently made the mistake of giving wiretap recordings gathered against Galleon hedge fund insider trading defendants to securities regulators, legal briefs said, potentially compounding a fight over confidential evidence central to the case.

Funding to fight diseases including parasites that cause disfiguring elephantiasis, hookworms and a blinding eye infection called trachoma, would more than double under the 2011 budget proposal, to $155 million from $65 million.

A report by the Geneva-based International Union Against Cancer (UICC) highlighted nine infections that can lead to cancer and urged health officials to drive home the importance of vaccines and lifestyle changes in fighting the disease.

A court has dismissed a regulator's claims that Cohmad Securities Corp and three of its top executives helped the now imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff conduct a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Consolidation among online gaming firms is set to spark into life in 2010 with a possible deal between PartyGaming and Austria's bwin seen as the potential catalyst for a wave of takeover activity.

A Democratic senator said on Tuesday he has asked 30 U.S. companies, including Apple, Facebook and Skype, for information on their human rights practices in China in the aftermath of Google's decision to no longer cooperate with Chinese Internet censorship efforts.

President Barack Obama would meet the Tibet's exiled spiritual leader Dalai Lama, the White House said on Tuesday.

Recent cyber attacks on Google are a wake-up call and neither the U.S. government nor the private sector can fully protect the American cyber infrastructure, the director of U.S. national intelligence said on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday after encouraging earnings reports from economic bellwether United Parcel Service and industrial conglomerate Emerson Electric.

American International Group Inc , which was bailed out with a $182.3 billion U.S. aid package, named a former top Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc lawyer as general counsel on Tuesday.

The Obama administration is prepared to impose fees on financial firms for as long as necessary to ensure that every cent spent on bailing out banks is repaid, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday its U.S. sales rose 24 percent in January, a month when the industry was rocked by Toyota Motor Corp's massive recall of some of its top-selling vehicles.

A vast majority of online banking customers use their login credentials to access other websites, sharply increasing risk of attack to their bank account, Internet security firm Trusteer said on Tuesday.

Google has taken the unusual step of using real-world advertising to promote its Chrome web browser in Europe ahead of a regulatory change that will make it easier for consumers to switch Web browsers.

Home buyers in much of the United States paid thousands of dollars below asking prices in December and for the first time in 11 months gained negotiating power, real estate website Zillow.com said on Tuesday.

White House economic adviser Paul Volcker, whose star is rising in the Obama administration, will urge Congress on Tuesday to rein in risky investing by big banks, according to testimony obtained by Reuters.

Government officials warned that the rise of Apple's iPad tablet computer could prove a threat to national infrastructure.

British oil major BP Plc reported a lower than forecast 33 percent rise in fourth-quarter replacement cost profit as refining margins were squeezed and warned an operational turnaround would slow in 2010.

(Corrects 7th paragraph to show Google did not initiate the EU case against Microsoft but entered as an interested third party)

White House economics adviser Paul Volcker will urge Congress on Tuesday to rein in risky investing by big banks to help prevent them becoming too big to fail, according to testimony obtained by Reuters.

The Obama administration is prepared to impose fees on financial firms for as long as necessary to ensure that every cent spent on bailing out banks is repaid, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday after encouraging earnings reports from United Parcel Service and D.R. Horton and as a rise in pending home sales helped calm fears of weakness in the housing market.

U.S. stocks rose on Monday in mid-day trading after manufacturers reported better than expected earnings this morning.

A top Democratic senator said on Tuesday he has asked 30 U.S. companies, including Apple, Facebook and Skype, for information on their human rights practices in China in the aftermath of Google's decision to no longer cooperate with Chinese Internet censorship efforts.

As more people connect to social networks to share pictures and connect with friends and family, a new report is showing that spam and malware attacks targeting social users is hitting new heights.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will seek Saudi Arabia's spiritual influence and probably its financial clout to reconcile with the Taliban during talks with King Abdullah this week.

Pending sales of previously owned homes edged up as expected in December, a survey showed on Tuesday, which should help to calm fears of renewed weakness in the troubled housing sector.