IBT Staff Reporter

Citigroup Inc agreed on Friday to sell its Phibro commodities business to Occidental Petroleum Corp , offloading a unit that has drawn criticism over star trader Andrew Hall's massive pay package.

Members of Telco, the holding company that controls Telecom Italia SpA, are discussing renewing their pact for one year when it runs out in April 2010, sources close to the issue said.

Iran and Afghanistan will dominate talks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next week on a trip to Britain and Russia that could also spur progress on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Moscow.

U.S. President Barack Obama felt humbled to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a senior administration official said.

U.S. President Barack Obama's push for healthcare reform gathered steam on Thursday as a Senate panel scheduled a key vote for next week and Democrats in the House of Representatives moved closer to unveiling a bill.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan has recommended an increase of 40,000 troops as the minimum necessary to prevail, two sources familiar with his recommendations said on Thursday.

Oil rose to more than $72 a barrel on Friday, as a positive demand outlook from the International Energy Agency outweighed a bounce in the dollar.

Wynn Macau's strong debut in Hong Kong on Friday shows appetite for gambling stocks is strong despite high valuations, and will cheer U.S. casino rival Las Vegas Sands , which plans a listing later this year.

Rock Band announced Friday it will launch an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch later this month. In the iPhone version from EA Mobile, allows users to choose if they want to play as a drummer, guitarist, bassist, or vocalist at any one of three difficulty levels.

Stocks headed for a lower open on Friday as a pullback in commodity prices weighed on natural resource shares after the U.S. dollar rebounded.

If consumer spending doesn't pick up later this year, a key retail sales forecast for the Christmas holidays may miss the mark, according to Dennis Jacobe, the chief economist at polling group Gallup.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had constructive talks Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy George Mitchell on advancing the Middle East peace process, his office said.

Swiss food group Nestle AG has launched syndication of a 4.75 billion euro ($7 billion) loan refinancing, priced at 12.5 basis points over Euribor, banking sources said on Friday.

The leaders of South Korea and Japan called on Friday for a new approach to force North Korea to give up atomic arms as Pyongyang planned to send an envoy to the United States, a trip which could revive dormant nuclear talks.

Italian fashion house Giorgio Armani presented a new 700-euro ($1,032) mobile phone on Friday, a stylish device aimed at complementing the designer's suits.

Shares of Wynn Macau, the Asia unit of U.S. casino giant Wynn Resorts, rose 9 percent in their trading debut, defying expectations, as Hong Kong feted its first IPO of a top global brand in years.

A suspected suicide car-bomber killed 49 people on Friday in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in an attack that the government said underscored the need for an all-out offensive against the Pakistani Taliban.

Canadian retailer Dollarama Inc, backed by private equity firm Bain Capital, priced its initial public offering of 17.14 million shares at C$17.50 ($16.60) a share, on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

German President Horst Koehler paid tribute Friday to 70,000 East German citizens who braved a feared crackdown by communist security police and took to the streets of Leipzig in a historic demonstration 20 years ago.

Spain's Repsol plans to list 20 percent of its Argentine unit YPF in March, 2010, daily ABC said on Friday, citing Repsol's local partner in YPF Enrique Eskenazi.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday dismissed suggestions that he should step down for the good of Italy's image, saying he was the only person qualified to lead the country now and by far the best in Italian history.

U.S. voice traffic carrier iBasis said some shareholders intended to reject Dutch telecoms group KPN's increased bid of $2.25 per share for the company.

Iran would blow up the heart of Israel if it was attacked by the Jewish state or the United States, a Revolutionary Guards official was quoted Friday as saying.

Japanese brokerage Nomura said on Friday it had hired two senior staff to co-head its fixed income business in the Americas as part of a push to expand its investment bank outside Asia.

French supermarket chains Carrefour and Casino are seen posting a small fall in third-quarter sales next week as falling food prices and consumer weakness in France outweigh growth in emerging markets.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday that the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is to be awarded to U.S. President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

Stocks rose on Friday as investors snapped up technology shares following upbeat broker comments on such bellwethers as Apple, offsetting a drag from natural resource shares after the dollar's rebound.

Global financial firms, emerging from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, are looking to shed India back office operations as they focus on core operations and cost cuts.

Any change at the top of UBS's U.S. wealth management business could signal the Swiss bank is trying to rehabilitate its America franchise after a bruising tax row, ready for an eventual sale.