IBT Staff Reporter

A planned new U.N. climate pact is shaping up to be a mildly tougher version of the existing Kyoto Protocol rather than a bold treaty to save what U.S. President Barack Obama has called a planet in peril.

The German government is examining competing plans to invest in carmaker Opel and aims to decide by the end of the month whether to provide the firm with financing guarantees, a leading Social Democrat said.

Canadian-Austrian auto-parts maker Magna has asked Russia's GAZ to make a bid for a stake in General Motors' German carmaker unit, Opel, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said.

Google is planning to release a video campaign for Chrome web browser through the Google TV ads network.

GMAC, the troubled automobile lender, may receive a $7.5 billion infusion from the U.S. government as early as next week, the Washington Post reported in its Saturday edition, citing unnamed sources.

U.S. bank regulators breathed a huge sigh of relief in early April when improving financial markets looked set to push the nation's 19 largest banks through the gauntlet of tough stress tests in reasonably good shape.

Germany has a plan to protect the assets of carmaker Opel from creditors if its U.S. parent General Motors is forced into bankruptcy next month, German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said in an interview with a German weekly.

An Iranian court will hear Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi's appeal against her eight-year prison sentence for espionage on Sunday, her lawyer said on Saturday.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood dismissed Saturday U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to deliver a speech to the Muslim world from Egypt as part of a plan to keep Arab and Muslim states divided.

Reclusive North Korea, which rattled regional security with a threat to hold a second nuclear test, said on Saturday it would not hold talks with its wealthy South Korean neighbor because it defiled Pyongyang's dignity.

Japan announced on Saturday its first confirmed cases of the new strain of flu -- a teacher in his 40s and two male teenage students who had spent time in Canada.

The Federal Reserve reduced the size of capital deficits facing several banks before releasing the results of stress tests on the financial institutions, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.

The new H1N1 flu killed its first patient in Canada, making it the third country after Mexico and the United States to report a death from the virus that has made more than 3,400 people in 28 countries ill.

Dubai-listed Air Arabia AIRA.DU, the Middle East's largest low-cost carrier by market value, earned 103 million dirhams ($28 million) in the first quarter, up 32 percent from the year-earlier period.

German travel company TUI is keeping to its plan to provide three vessels for TUI Cruises by 2012, weekly WirtschaftsWoche said, citing TUI Cruises head Richard Vogel.

Pharmaceutical magnate Francesco Angelini is interested in buying 60 or 70 percent of Italian soccer club AS Roma.

Despite major social problems, now is the moment to create a big European car maker by combining Italy's Fiat SpA with the European operations of General Motors, including its German brand Opel, Fiat's Chief Executive said on Saturday.

The Porsche and Piech families will hold around 45-55 percent stake in an entity to be formed from a planned merger between Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen and Porsche, according to a German weekly magazine, citing sources.

After months of shunning the initial public offerings of tech companies, investors have begun warming to them again, yet another sign the IPO market might be recovering.

Spain's Jazztel can maintain the pace at which it is capturing new broadband customers after signing up 43,300 new contracts in the first quarter, its chairman told newspaper La Gaceta de Negocios in an interview published on Saturday.

Telecom Italia SpA denied on Saturday a Corriere della Sera report that its management had discussed with two key investors the possibility of merging with Telefonica SA.

State Bank of India (SBI.BO), India's largest lender, reported a forecast-beating 45.6 percent rise in quarterly profit after gains from trading trebled and loan demand soared as borrowers scurried for funds in a slowing economy.

Jacob Zuma was sworn in as South Africa's fourth president since the end of apartheid on Saturday after he overcame corruption and sex scandals and reached the nation's highest office.

Microsoft says EU regulators will hand Google more dominance of the Internet search business if they go ahead with planned regulations on Microsoft's Windows operating system, the Financial Times reported.

Long-haul trips could be made in spaceships instead of planes in 20 years' time if Virgin's efforts to commercialize space travel succeed, the president of Virgin Galactic told Reuters in an interview.

Smaller, shorter and slower will be the key factors governing U.S. public-private partnerships going forward after recent proposed deals imploded due to political or financing troubles.

Job seekers looking for six-figure salaries during the recession are often so worried about their prospects that they ruin their chances with silly mistakes, according to a new survey.

AT&T Inc said Friday it will buy the bulk of Alltel Wireless assets being divested by Verizon Communications Inc for $2.35 billion, and will sell some Centennial Communications Corp assets to Verizon Wireless for $240 million.

Japan confirmed its first three cases of N1H1, or swine flu Friday, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency reports.