IBT Staff Reporter

President Barack Obama called senators on Saturday to check that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had enough support for a second term and two key senators said the nomination was on track.

President Barack Obama called on the U.S. Congress on Saturday to create a bipartisan panel that would look at ways to rein in the country's soaring deficits.

The Democratic chairman and a Republican on the Senate banking committee said on Saturday they were confident Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would win confirmation for a second term.

Here's a plot twist worthy of any Hollywood movie. To save independent films from extinction, the time may be near for some low-budget movies to play outside theaters, instead of in them.

Apple's global roll-out of it's iPhone got a boost this week as UK's Vodafone sold over 100,000 units within seven days of launching.

Zain Saudi Arabia , the kingdom's newest mobile phone operator, said on Saturday it is in talks with lenders after missing some commitments last year on a two-year $2.5-billion Islamic loan.

Volkswagen revised its previous assumptions for global car market sales lower by 67 million vehicles for the period through 2018, Automobilwoche reported, citing a letter presented to VW's top management.

General Motors expects it will need to build a new greenfield manufacturing facility in the near future in China to accommodate strong growth in the world's largest auto market, but it will not be building a plant this year, its China president said on Saturday.

Germany will host a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in May to focus efforts on reforming financial regulation in the wake of new U.S. proposals for governing banks, a finance ministry spokesman said.

Citigroup Inc on Friday said it is trying to move to London a New York lawsuit by British private equity firm Terra Firma over that firm's purchase of music business EMI Group.

Google Inc founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin plan to sell about 10 million of the company's shares over the next five years, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

The head of the U.N.'s panel of climate scientists promised on Saturday to tighten research procedures but dismissed talk he should resign over an erroneous projection that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035.

Minsk on Saturday accused Russia of acting illegally in applying full export fees to oil pumped to Belarus, in a sign that the dispute -- which some fear could disrupt supplies to Europe -- is far from resolved.

More than 2,000 ethnic Karen people have fled their villages in eastern Myanmar after deadly attacks by government troops in the past week, a humanitarian group said Saturday.

Japanese ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa denied on Saturday any wrongdoing in a funding scandal that is dimming his party's mid-year election prospects, and vowed to stay on in his key position.

Haiti mourned its dead on Saturday and hundreds gathered in the ruins of a wrecked Catholic cathedral to honor an archbishop and other victims killed in last week's earthquake as the government ended search-and-rescue operations.

Vice President Joe Biden told Iraqi officials on Saturday the United States backed a ban on Saddam Hussein's Baath party and said he had faith Iraq would resolve a row over the banning of election candidates suspected of links to it.

President Barack Obama launched an extraordinary attack on the Supreme Court on Saturday, saying a ruling on corporate donations to political campaigns this week strikes at democracy itself.

For God's sake, blog! Pope Benedict told priests on Saturday, saying they must learn to use new forms of communication to spread the gospel message.

Spyker Cars NV is well-positioned to purchase ailing Swedish carmaker Saab after negotiations with owner General Motors in Stockholm, a spokesman for rival bidder Genii Capital said on Saturday.

Technical problems caused an engine to be disengaged during the maiden flight of the Airbus A400M last month, but at no time was the flight in danger, a company spokeswoman said on Saturday.

The Financial Stability Board , charged by the G20 to coordinate national regulation in response to the financial crisis, on Saturday welcomed U.S. proposals to limit banks' size and trading activities.

Ben Bernanke's confirmation to a second term as Federal Reserve chairman suddenly appeared in jeopardy on Friday even after U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would back him.

China needs no lessons about its Internet from the United States, the head of an online media association said through official media on Saturday after the United States rapped Beijing over information freedom.

In 2009, almost all central banks showed an increased love for gold. In the recent past, Russia's central bank addded 800,000 ounces of gold to its reserves last month, increasing its holdings of the metal to $22.4 billion. The bank's gold reserves climbed to 20.5 million ounces from 19.7 million the previous month. And, India's central bank also purchased gold in 2009 to increase its foreign reserves.

¨Gold prices will continue to witness an uptrend in 2010 but investors should expect continued high volatility-resembling an amusement park roller coaster ride, according to Jeffrey Nichols, Senior Economic Advisor to Rosland Capital. In his latest commentary on market trends, Jeffrey Nichols said that gold prices won't move up higher without interruption.The two main sources of gold price volatility will continue to be the investment demand for the yellow metal and volatility in dollar's exchan...

A favorite Wall Street measure of investor anxiety surged on Friday as U.S. stocks sank on concerns over the White House's plan to rein in risk-taking by banks indicating more stock market turmoil in weeks ahead.

China hit back at U.S. criticism of Internet censorship and hacking on Friday, warning that relations between the two global heavyweights were being hurt by a feud centered on web giant Google.

Motorola Inc has asked U.S. regulators to bar Research In Motion from the U.S. sale of its products, accusing the BlackBerry maker of infringing on five Motorola technology patents.