IBT Staff Reporter

Japan's main opposition party will vote on Saturday for a new leader to replace scandal-tainted Ichiro Ozawa, in a move likely to boost its fading poll ratings ahead of an election just months away.

The speaker of Israel's parliament accused German-born Pope Benedict on Tuesday of showing detachment from Jewish suffering in the Nazi Holocaust, adding to criticism that has marked his Holy Land pilgrimage.

Angle Energy Inc said it agreed to buy certain assets within its Ferrier core area in western central Alberta for C$22.5 million in cash.

GlaxoSmithKline will take a 16 percent stake in Africa's biggest generic drug maker, Aspen Pharmacare, to expand its emerging market footprint in a deal worth 3.47 billion rand ($418 million).

U.S.-born reporter Roxana Saberi, free after more than three months in an Iranian jail, said on Tuesday she wanted to rest and be with her family after she was acquitted of spying for the United States.

Five young girls slipped briefly into comas and nearly 100 were taken to hospital after a gas attack on their school on Tuesday, the third in a series of such incidents north of Kabul, Afghan officials said.

Afghanistan said on Tuesday it hoped the newly named commander of U.S. and NATO troops would do more to avert civilian deaths, which had soured relations under outgoing commander General David McKiernan.

Stocks pared gains on Tuesday as declines in financial and technology shares outweighed positive comments on the economy from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and efforts by Bank of America Corp to shore up its balance sheet.

U.S. auto parts maker Hayes Lemmerz International Inc (HAYZ.O) said on Monday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Earlier this evening Advanta, which through its FDIC-insured bank Advanta Banc Corp makes credit card loans, declared its intentions to allow its securitization trust to go into early amortization, while concurrently launching a coercive tender offer for the securities issued by the trust.

General Motors Corp. is considering all options to cut costs, even moving out of its Detroit headquarters, but no decision has been made, chief executive Fritz Henderson said on Monday.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn wants the board of Biogen Idec Inc to consider splitting the biotechnology company into one firm focused on neurology and another focused on cancer.

Every household in Britain should by 2020 be able to cut its energy bills and carbon footprint using smart meters and handheld devices to control energy use closely, the government said on Monday.

Hopu Investment Management Co., led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s China partner Fang Fenglei, on Tuesday acquired a 5.8 percent stake in China construction Bank Corp for about $7.3 billion from struggling Bank of America Corp, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

Cash-rich private equity firms are preparing to deploy newly-raised funds, dispelling some of the gloom in the sector and raising hopes that buy-out deals are in the pipeline.

Was it a sucker's rally?

Stock futures pointed to a higher open on Tuesday after positive comments on the economy and banks from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and news Bank of America sold its stake in a Chinese bank to help shore up its balance sheet.

British consumers are expected to cut back even further on their communications spend in the months ahead, a study found, adding additional pressure to telecoms who have already seen profits shrink.

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Tuesday said speculation the company may buy German software firm SAP was a 'random rumor.'

Oil prices rose more than a dollar on Tuesday to a six-month high above $59 a barrel, boosted partly by a weaker dollar and gains on equity markets.

Stock futures pointed to a flat to higher open on Tuesday as investors weighed Bank of America Corp's sale of a stake in a Chinese bank and Ford Motor Co signaled it would take advantage of a recent rally by selling stock to raise cash.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is unlikely to reduce its oil demand forecast in its next report, its chief said on Tuesday.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc said it agreed to buy Foundation Coal Holdings Inc for $2 billion in stock in a deal that would create the third-largest coal producer in the United States.

Nissan Motor Co lost $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter amid a global slump in car sales, and forecast more losses this year as it looks to conserve cash by putting product launches and growth plans on hold.

CME Group, the world's largest derivatives exchange, is gearing up for a U.S. cap-and-trade carbon policy that could mean a boom in green futures and options trade, a top CME official said on Monday.

U.S. index stock futures pointed to a nearly flat open on Tuesday, as investors eyed Bank of America's sale of a stake in a Chinese bank and Ford signaled it would take advantage of a recent rally by selling stock to raise cash.

U.S. climate change legislation is unlikely to pass this year due to concerns about the recession and contention over the implementation of the program, according to energy and carbon market experts.

A lack of project funding threatens to undermine the solar industry's already fragile growth prospects, two of the sector's biggest players said on Tuesday, reporting profits that missed market forecasts.

The world's largest exchange for trading carbon emission credits expects to more than double its trading volume this year as more companies come to the bourse to manage their environmental costs.