IBT Staff Reporter

Apple Inc and major music labels are betting that the launch of three-tier pricing at the iTunes Music Store will boost music sales with a new mix of song-based packages and give consumers more options.

Australia's government will build a new A$43 billion ($30.7 billion) national high-speed fiber-optic broadband network, rejecting bids in a controversial tender involving some of the country's largest telecommunications firms.

Microsoft has allowed HP an extension to its existing rights to continue selling the aging Windows XP OS on the company's business desktops, workstations, and notebooks in place of Windows 7.

A group of investment bank underwriters and companies have agreed to a nearly $600 million settlement with investors to resolve litigation over alleged fraud in the pricing of initial public offerings in the late 1990s, according to a lawyer involved in the case.

Dell said Monday it has agreed to sell $500 million in notes due in 2014 with the largest bank in America serving as underwriters as shares gained 1 cent to close at $10.33 after analyst raise his share to a buy from neutral with price target of $11.40.

For the first time in 16 months, PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii and the Xbox 360 sales in March.

The United States and Switzerland will head back to the negotiating table to revise a 1996 bilateral tax treaty in an effort to cool a high-profile dispute between the two nations over banking secrecy laws, the U.S. Treasury said on Monday.

The U.S. budget deficit almost hit $1 trillion during the first six months of this fiscal year which began on October 1, according to estimates released on Monday by the Congressional Budget Office.

An Indonesia military plane crashed into an airport Monday and burst into flames, 24 people onboard were killed, an air force spokesman said.

Shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo declines Shares of the largest banks in United States tumbled on Wall Street after Calyon analyst Mike Mayo downgraded the stocks with an underperform rating.

Andrew Bodnar, a former top executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co , faces up to a year in jail after pleading guilty to lying to federal officials about a deal to block a generic version of the company's top-selling medicine.

Citigroup is pressing on with its corporate revamp to make the most of its non-core non-bank businesses, announcing that the interim leader for its Citi Holdings unit will stay on.

U.S. President Barack Obama told the Muslim world on Monday the United States was not at war with Islam, using his first international tour to try to repair America's damaged image abroad.

Blockbuster Inc , the largest store-based U.S. movie rental chain, said the risk that it may not complete a deal to amend its credit facilities raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern, according to a securities filing on Monday.

Its official: the tech sector is not immune to the current economic crisis.

Allen Stanford, the billionaire Texan accused of an $8 billion fraud by U.S. regulators, expects to be indicted by a federal grand jury in the next two weeks, according to an ABC News interview released on Monday.

The Associated Press unveiled rate cuts on Monday to help member newspapers reeling from declining advertising revenue and said it would sue websites that use its members' articles without permission.

Merrill Lynch & Co, now owned by Bank of America Corp , agreed to pay $75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by employees who lost money investing in Merrill stock through their retirement plans.

Microsoft and Google have been steadily adding partners to their competing health platforms, and both companies made new announcements today.

Somali pirates hijacked three ships in just two days, taking a small Yemeni boat, a Taiwanese fishing vessel and a British cargo ship.

The United States would trim U.S. missile-defense spending, cancel some big-ticket weapons programs and buy more arms for fighting insurgents in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, under a 2010 budget plan.

Shares of Sun Microsystems Inc tumbled 23 percent after it rejected a $7 billion buyout bid from IBM, leaving the smaller server and software maker vulnerable to lawsuits from shareholders nervous about its viability as a stand-alone company.

IBM’s move to buy Sun have broken down, however, IBM is still the best option for the company, according to industry watchers.

Stocks broke a four-day winning streak on Monday after a prominent analyst revived worries over the health of banks and the potential collapse of a takeover of Sun Microsystems bruised sentiment in the technology sector.

Ford Motor Co, shares rose Monday to 22 percent after completed its debt restructuring of $9.9 billion or 38 Percent, according to the reports.

General Motors Corp has attracted 20 potential buyers for its struggling Saab brand and could complete a sale by June as it rushes to offload unprofitable units in a sweeping restructuring.

U.S. securities regulators charged a Toronto-based fund manager, who describes himself as the Chinese Warren Buffett and his hedge fund with operating a multimillion dollar investment fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday.

Yahoo Inc is partnering with other online music providers as the Internet giant tries a fresh approach to getting an edge in the evolving digital music business.

Investors seem to be getting comfortable with Apple Inc's stable of executives amid uncertainty about Steve Jobs' return to the helm of the consumer electronics titan he founded.