IBT Staff Reporter

The 10 million extra government-provided condoms are poised, final touches being put on huge floats depicting Queen Cleopatra and Can-can dancers, and the Barack Obama masks are flying off the shelves.

to also convert their preferred shares into common stock, the Journal reported. Until most of the news is known, there will be a lot of volatility and probably a downward trend in the equity market because we don't know how much pain for investors government measures will induce, said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist with SJS Markets in Hong Kong. By which I mean, will curr...

to also convert their preferred shares into common stock, the Journal reported. In a separate report, the Financial Times said Citigroup is pressing the U.S. government to agree on a new capital injection that would increase the authorities' stake in the bank to about 40 percent, but stop short of an outright nationalization. The FT said Citi insiders expect a decision on the company's future...

Europe said on Sunday it was time to get tough with tax havens and strictly oversee all financial markets as part of sweeping reforms to avoid future meltdowns. European Union leaders met in Berlin to forge a common approach to the global economic downturn that they can take to a meeting in April of the G20, a group of rich and big emerging economies charged with reforming the rules of world fina...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this week will offer assurance that help is on the way for the troubled U.S. economy and may offer clues on additional steps that could be taken to halt an ever-steepening dive.

and the banks understand this. Deripaska denied reports his debts total about $30 billion, saying the figure had nothing in common with reality. He declined to give an exact figure for his total debt though he said the debt of his holding company, Basic Element, was less than $1.5 billion. RUSAL owes another $2.8 billion to Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov, part of a cash and equity...

was blamed by some politicians for exacerbating the banking crisis and economic meltdown. In the United States, regulators will soon launch a series of stress tests to determine which of the U.S. banks should get bigger capital cushions in case of a deeper recession, a person familiar with the plans of President Barack Obama's administration said. The largest U.S. banks are well capitali...

and the banks understand this. Deripaska denied reports his debts total about $30 billion, saying the figure had nothing in common with reality. But he declined to give an exact figure for his total debt. Deripaska said talks were taking place with investors who would like a stake in RUSAL. We have investors which have long sought to become shareholders in RUSAL. We are holding negotia...

Pressure mounted on Sunday on the chairman of UBS to step down after the Swiss bank was engulfed in a storm of criticism over its handling of a U.S. probe into tax fraud.

Pressure mounted on Sunday on the chairman of UBS to step down after the Swiss bank was engulfed in a storm of criticism over its handling of a U.S. probe into tax fraud. The Sonntag newspaper said it had surveyed the 246 members of the upper and lower houses of parliament and 23 said they wanted Peter Kurer to go, while 16 of them also thought Chief Executive Marcel Rohner should step down. I...

European leaders meeting in Berlin on Sunday backed oversight of the world's financial markets and products, including hedge funds, and urged that sanctions be drawn up to punish tax havens. A copy of the chair's summary from a summit hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel and seen by Reuters describes the situation in financial markets as fraught and says structural reforms and a focus on ...

European leaders meeting in Berlin on Sunday have backed oversight of all financial markets and products, including hedge funds, and urged that sanctions be drawn up to punish tax havens, according to a final statement seen by Reuters.

Russia's most indebted tycoon, Oleg Deripaska, said he does not need help from the state which is tackling an economic slowdown and hopes to reach agreement with creditors on restructuring billions of dollars in debt in the coming months. Deripaska's comments came just a day after one of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's most trusted aides said the billionaire had already received unprecedented ...

Royal Bank of Scotland is to announce a restructuring this week to create a non-core division into which unwanted assets will be placed, a banking industry source said on Sunday.

said in a statement the customer accounts were frozen until legal claims could be sorted out. Also, a federal judge presiding over the Stanford case, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, was recused because a relative has substantial Stanford holdings, according to a court filing. The Stanford scandal, hard on the heels of allegations that Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff carried out a $50...

European leaders meet on Sunday to form a consensual approach to tackle the global economic crisis, while U.S. President Barack Obama is due to unveil an ambitious plan to cut the ballooning deficit in half by 2013. Financial markets plumbed new lows last week on fears governments may have to intervene to nationalize struggling banks and as grim global economic data sent investors scurrying to se...

Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Carol Bartz could announce a major management reorganization as early as next week, according to the blog AllThingsD. The Wall Street Journal-affiliated blog, citing several sources inside and outside the Internet company, said the revamp would likely come on Wednesday, although it could be pushed out a week or two or rolled out in pieces. Bartz sent a memo to employees...

Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis. Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union. He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a t...

Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Carol Bartz could announce a major management reorganization as early as next week, most likely on Wednesday, according to the blog AllThingsD. The Wall Street Journal-affiliated blog, citing several sources inside and outside the Internet company, said the shift could be pushed out a week or two or rolled out in pieces. The blog cited a February 20 Bartz memo to employ...

ING Group is gauging the implications of the U.S. bank rescue aid plan announced earlier this month for its activities there, the Dutch banking and insurance group's next Chief Executive said in a newspaper interview on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday the United States and China could help the world recover from economic crisis by working together, adding Washington appreciated Beijing's confidence in U.S. government debt.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday won a referendum eliminating term limits opening a way for him run again as president in 2012 and possibly for many years to come.

Southern California Edison will not be able to pass on to its customers up to $30 million in costs to join a study of whether petroleum coke, an oil refinery byproduct, can be turned into a clean, low-carbon fuel for power plants.

Judging small, rich island nations purely on their wealth and emissions is unfair in climate change negotiations, Singapore's climate envoy said on Saturday, as pressure builds on more countries to curb carbon pollution.

By opening its first LNG plant and sealing a 20-year oil supply deal with China, Russia has taken huge steps this week toward its long-held aim of expanding its influence in Asia's hungry energy markets.

The creation of a new smart grid to bring the U.S. power delivery system into the 21st century got a major boost in the stimulus bill that was signed into law this week. All the power industry needs to figure out is what exactly a smart grid is.

College campuses were once a prime spawning ground for new digital music services. Those days appear to be over.

China has invited skeptical Internet surfers to help investigate the death of a man in custody who police say ran into a wall blindfolded while playing hide-and-seek, state media said on Friday.

Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc are talking with owners of major cable television networks about ways to give cable subscribers online access to much of the networks' programing, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.