IBT Staff Reporter

Media production firm Ten Alps Plc (TAL.L) posted a rise in first-half pretax profit due to cost cuts and improved margins and said it was comfortable with the full-year consensus view, sending its shares up 5.8 percent.

Having an integrated clean technology strategy will be a big part of winning business in the 21st century, a Coca-Cola executive told Reuters.com on Monday, and its investments in refrigeration will likely have the biggest impact on that strategy long-term.

Thousands of British Airways (BAY.L) cabin crew voted to strike, hours after the airline revealed a 3.7 billion pound ($6 billion) hole in its pension fund that will require deft handling by management if a proposed merger with Iberia (IBLA.MC) is to stay on track.

Nearly a dozen photos of the Google Phone, or as it's formally known as, the Nexus One, has been posted online. The photos, posted on Engadget, show that the Smartphone comes with only four buttons which are touch sensitive. The phone has a new grid icon at the bottom of the home screen, which when pressed brings up a webOS card-style preview of all home screen pages, according to the post.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) said on Monday it had acquired some assets of General Motors' Saab unit as part of a push to develop its own-brand cars.

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a lower court to dismiss a legal challenge by three Indiana pension funds to the government-backed sale of bankrupt automaker Chrysler LLC to a group led by Italian carmaker Fiat SpA.

A Chinese IT outsourcing company and an optical components maker are aiming to select investment banks in the next two weeks with the goal of making U.S. initial public offerings by as soon as the first half of 2010, one of their investors said on Monday.

Saturday Night Live featured more skits inspired by Tiger Woods' extra marital affairs' scandal over the weekend.

Citigroup laid out a plan to repay the money it owes the U.S. government, including issuing $17 billion of stock immediately, as the bank looks to end the executive pay restrictions that came with the funds.

Abu Dhabi's $10 billion move to help neighboring Dubai avoid default and a deal by Citigroup Inc to pay back U.S. government funds helped U.S. stocks rise in early Monday trading.

A family animated movie and two inspirational films took the top three spots at the U.S. box office over the weekend.

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is starting to influence power companies' investment decisions toward cleaner energy production, a survey by research group New Energy Finance shows.

Nike Inc Chairman and co-founder Phil Knight said the scandal surrounding Tiger Woods is part of the game in signing endorsement deals with athletes and did not back away from the athletic shoe and clothing maker's relationship with the golfer.

Malaysia's government will offer credible cuts in its emissions of carbon dioxide at the Copenhagen climate change summit in a bid to halt global warming, Prime Minister Najib Razak told Reuters on Sunday.

Disney's animated The Princess and the Frog hopped over feel-good football film The Blind Side, to take the top spot in North American box office sales in its first weekend in wide release.

The Philippines ordered the evacuation on Monday of thousands of people living near the most active volcano in the country, warning of a possible eruption within a week.

Thousands marched in ports and towns of southern Andhra Pradesh to protest plans to carve out a new state, as a backlash grew against demands for statehood in a challenge for the Congress party-led government.

The History cable network has cast its vote for The Kennedys, developing an eight-hour miniseries about the iconic American clan.

Oracle does not plan to offer any new remedies on top of proposals made earlier to EU competition regulators reviewing its plan to buy Sun Microsystems, a source close to Oracle said.

It's a good time to be Robert Downey Jr.

African nations agreed to resume U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen on Monday after a half-day suspension, accusing rich countries of trying to kill the existing Kyoto Protocol.

EU regulators signaled they could clear Oracle Corp's $7 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc, after the U.S. software company promised measures to ease competition concerns.

The Hurt Locker, an independent movie about a team of American bomb-disposal experts serving in Iraq, was named the year's best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Sunday.

Austrian director Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, a chilling exploration of the roots of Nazi terror, dominated the European Film Awards on Saturday, winning three prizes including best film.

GBP: This week has a lighter slate of economic releases scheduled in the United Kingdom than the previous week. Look for the Rightmove House Price Index (last -1.6%) plus the BOE's quarterly bulletin on Monday, then CPI (1.8%Y/Y) and RPI (0.2%Y/Y) on Tuesday.

HTC's Nexus One, or the Google phone was approved on Monday by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission after HTC Corp., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of smartphones, filed for permission for the phone.

Citigroup has struck a deal with U.S. regulators to repay $20 billion of government bailout funds, allowing the bank to exit the TARP program in 2010.

President Barack Obama may have some tough words on Monday for executives of top U.S. banks as he pushes them to step up small-business lending and get behind legislation to overhaul Wall Street regulations.

The Hollywood studio behind the Twilight teen franchise said on Friday it has acquired North American rights to distribute jailed director Roman Polanski's latest film, The Ghost Writer.