IBT Staff Reporter

Small and medium-sized U.S. businesses seeking to finance capital equipment showed further signs of distress in November as loans more than six months past due rose for the 22nd consecutive month, PayNet Inc reported on Monday.

Alcon's independent directors have criticized a takeover bid from Novartis, saying the Swiss drugmaker is trying to circumvent protections for minority shareholders.

International Mining Machinery Ltd. (IMM), a Chinese mining equipment company, aims to raise about $500 million from a Hong Kong initial public offering by February, sources close to the deal told Reuters on Tuesday.

Canada-listed coal miner SouthGobi Energy Resources (SGQ.TO) plans to raise about $400 million from a Hong Kong initial public offering this month, according to a term sheet obtained by Reuters.

AgBank, China's No. 3 lender by assets, is likely to make its multibillion dollar IPO only in the second half of 2010 or even later, as it tries to sort out its bad loans and waits out an expected round of capital raising by other Chinese lenders, sources said on Tuesday.

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell more than expected in November because of the end of a rush to beat the initial expiration of a popular tax credit, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Dealmakers in China may well find a lot of the action this year in an unlikely place.

Susana Balbo is to Argentine wine what Martha Stewart is to homemaking and Oprah Winfrey is to media in the United States.

The paparazzi are poised for snaps of princes and popstars at the front door, but you don't need fame or fortune to have fun at London's hot celebrity hang out, Mahiki.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained on Tuesday as investors welcomed further signs of improvement in the manufacturing sector, brushing off a sharp slump in pending home sales for November.

Hollywood actor Vince Vaughn wasn't a gatecrasher at a wedding last Saturday -- he was the groom.

Razor King Johnnie Stark is long dead, but the specter of violence raised by the brutal street fighter in No Mean City still haunts Glasgow seven decades after the novel's publication.

Polycom Inc said it will work with IBM to introduce videoconferencing services aimed at consumers, competing with Skype and a yet-to-be announced product from Cisco Systems Inc.

Nokia launched another patent case against Apple, in the latest step in an escalating legal battle between two leaders of the smartphone market.

Comic book meets investigative journalism in Footnotes in Gaza, a graphic novel by Joe Sacco that focuses on two days in Gaza in 1956 when Palestinians said hundreds of civilians were killed by Israeli forces.

Kraft Foods sweetened its 10.2 billion pound ($16.43 billion) hostile offer for Cadbury with cash, which may well be enough to land the British group, as long as rivals stay out of the race.

Britain's Good Food Guide has chosen 10 chefs it believes may make the headlines in the coming decade as Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal have done over the past 10 years.

Spain played it safe as it unveiled an artwork to represent its European Union presidency on Tuesday, avoiding the controversy of a year ago when the Czech Republic managed to offend most of the EU.

Stocks briefly added to losses on Tuesday after data showed a much bigger-than-expected decline in pending home sales.

The Miele Guide to Asia's finest restaurants is written by food experts who know and love the region (www.mieleguide.com).

U2 front man Bono has suggested that movie company success in fighting piracy could help the U.S. economically.

U.S. healthcare spending rose at the lowest rate on record in 2008 due to the recession, but still reached $2.3 trillion and devoured 16.2 percent of the U.S. economy, government analysts said in a report on Tuesday.

Nestle ruled itself out of a bid war over Cadbury and Kraft sweetened its $16.4 billion offer, but the U.S. food firm's biggest shareholder Warren Buffett warned it not to overpay.

For just a moment, stop obsessing about which 10 movies the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who are now in the middle of marking their ballots, will nominate for best picture.

Overweight middle-aged men may have a higher risk of heart problems and strokes and die earlier than their thinner peers -- even in the absence of some traditional risk factors, a new study suggests.

One in 10 of the some 130 million births around the world each year is premature, the vast majority in poorer countries where chances of survival are low, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

Smoking is well known as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, but scientists said on Monday that quitting the habit can raise the risk even more in the short term.

Mammograms should begin at 40 for women with an average risk of breast cancer and by 30 for high-risk women, according to guidelines released on Monday by two groups that specialize in breast imaging, contradicting controversial guidelines from a U.S. advisory panel last year.

By this time next week, James Cameron should have the two highest-grossing films in history.