IBT Staff Reporter

India's gold imports are set to grow by a quarter in April from a year ago, the first rise since August, and demand should strengthen ahead of festivals later in the year, the head of metals trading firm MMTC Ltd said on Tuesday.

China this week marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of its navy with a parade in the seas off the northern port city of Qingdao.

Madagascar's government banned public demonstrations on Tuesday to maintain security after two people died when armed forces broke up a protest backing ousted leader Marc Ravalomanana a day earlier.

Turkish police on Tuesday detained 37 people with suspected links to al Qaeda, state-run Anatolian news agency said.

Rare talks between North and South Koreas fizzled on Tuesday with the rivals unable to even agree on a venue for the meeting, which had already been clouded by Pyongyang's threat to restart its nuclear arms plant.

Piracy incidents nearly doubled across the globe in the first quarter of 2009 almost entirely due to an upsurge in attacks by gangs off the Somali coast, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Tuesday.

South Africa's ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma called for a massive turnout at an election on Wednesday to give his ruling party a decisive mandate in its toughest test since the end of apartheid.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has lost support for his handling of the economy, two polls showed on Tuesday, the eve of what is expected to be one of the bleakest budgets in decades.

Penguin Group has become the first international publisher to sign an English electronic book distribution deal in China after seeing significant growth in the United States, the head of the group said on Tuesday.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday of misusing a UN conference on racism at which he attacked Israel's policy toward the Palestinians as racist.

President Barack Obama will participate in a meeting on Thursday with executives of U.S. credit card companies, the White House said.

What's in a handshake? The clasping of hands by President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has set off a debate over what kind of signal Obama was sending.

Coca-Cola Co reported a lower quarterly profit on Tuesday that met Wall Street estimates as the weak global economy led to slower international sales growth.

President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a $100 billion U.S. loan to the International Monetary Fund to boost the IMF's resources and urged a bigger stake in the IMF for emerging powers.

State Street Corp , one of the world's biggest institutional investors, reported a 10 percent drop in quarterly profit on Tuesday and said that it had $5.9 billion in unrealized losses in its investment portfolio.

Diversified U.S. manufacturer United Technologies Corp reported a 27.8 percent fall in quarterly profit as a slumping economy crimped demand for its jet engines and air conditioners.

The Treasury still has about $134.6 billion available in its coffers from last fall's bank bailout package and that should be enough for it to avoid asking Congress for more money, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

Merck & Co , which plans to buy rival drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp later this year, reported lower-than-expected sales and earnings that it attributed to the global economic slowdown.

Britain should only support energy production from burning wood and other biomass where proven carbon cuts result, said a report by the Environment Agency, a public body which advises government. Investors and energy companies plan to invest billions in developing British power plants running on wood chips, straw and other biomass, in response to UK climate change policies which add a premium for generation of low-carbon electricity.

Caterpillar Inc , the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, reported its first quarterly loss in 17 years on Tuesday, pulled into the red by more than half a billion dollars in charges from its wave of recession-triggered layoffs.

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday on concerns about the state of corporate profits after several major U.S. companies reported disappointing quarterly results and even cloudier outlooks.

UnitedHealth Group Inc posted slightly lower first-quarter profit on Tuesday as membership in commercial plans for employers fell, but the results topped analysts' expectations, and the insurer backed its 2009 profit forecast.

MUZU.TV, an Irish-based video Web site which has won plaudits from the music industry for the way it pays artists when their music is played online, has signed a deal with the world's largest label Universal.

Solar stocks have skyrocketed since March on optimism about government efforts to stimulate demand for the clean energy source, but analysts warn that with earnings season beginning, investors in the high-flying sector are in for a strong dose of reality.

Schering-Plough Corp , which Merck & Co is in the process of acquiring, reported higher-than expected first-quarter earnings on Tuesday as the drugmaker cut costs.

The U.S. Treasury's plan to purge toxic assets from banks' balance sheets is vulnerable to fraud and abuse and needs tough rules against conflict of interest, the government's bailout watchdog said on Tuesday.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp said first-quarter profit fell by more than half as fees tumbled, and the bank slashed its dividend 63 percent in an effort to build capital.

Royal Dutch Shell still plans to start exploration drilling next year in Alaska's potentially oil-rich Chukchi Sea in spite of a new legal setback, a company manager in Alaska said on Monday.

Wal-Mart Inc's plan to eliminate jobs at its China unit has met with resistance from the up to 1,400 workers involved, the U.S. retailer said on Tuesday.