IBT Staff Reporter

Shares in Adidas rose more than 3 percent on Monday as traders cited market talk that U.S. rival Nike and Japanese sports shoe maker Asics were interested in the German company.

Top bankers at ABN AMRO NV are threatening a fight with Royal Bank of Scotland over 750 million euros ($1.11 billion) of bonuses they want paid out, a newspaper reported on Monday.

UnitedHealth Group Inc said on Monday that it planned to affirm its 2007 earnings forecast of $3.49 to $3.50 per share in conjunction with its annual investor conference on Tuesday.

South Africa's Standard Bank said on Monday a majority of shareholders had approved the acquisition of a 20 percent stake in the group by China's biggest lender ICBC for $5.6 billion.

MetLife Inc, the largest U.S. life insurer, said on Monday it expects operating profit to increase for the fourth quarter and full year, helped by unusually strong investment results.

Swiss Life advanced a sweeping restructuring on Monday, unveiling plans to buy German investment advisor AWD in an agreed deal valuing AWD at $1.71 billion.

He once likened his singing voice to the mating call of a rutting stag. But Johnny Depp did not let it get in the way of arguably his most challenging film role yet

Beijing is battling to stamp out illegal sales of 2008 Olympic merchandise on dozens of unauthorized Web sites seeking to cash in on the Chinese public's Games fervor, local media reported on Monday.

Warner Music Group (WMG) and Sony BMG Music Entertainment are feeling increased pressure to follow EMI and Universal Music Group's lead in distributing music in the MP3 format, which forgoes restrictive digital rights management technology.

LiveJournal, the personal Web publishing service that jump-started blogging in Russia, has been sold by its U.S. owner to a Russian business partner, which will operate it independently, the companies said on Sunday.

At Tokyo's 12th Robo-One Grand Championship match, two-legged robots jabbed, ducked, hurled balloons and even sang in their quest to become world champ.

The British teacher jailed in Sudan for letting her students name a teddy bear Mohammad won a pardon on Monday and was released into British care.

Shares in Toyota Motor Corp have been battered this year, lagging both global auto peers and a weak Japanese stock market, but analysts are near unanimous that the world's most profitable carmaker is due for a bounce.

French telecom and media group Vivendi said on Sunday it will merge its video games unit with Activision Inc in a $9.85 billion deal that combines the hit Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft franchises under one roof.

Nasdaq opened an office in Beijing on Monday, a move that will let it step up efforts to attract more Chinese firms to list on the exchange.

A British teacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Mohammad will be released on Monday after receiving a pardon from Sudan's president, a source in a British parliamentary delegation said.

President Hugo Chavez crashed to an unprecedented vote defeat on Monday as Venezuelans rejected his bid to run for reelection indefinitely and accelerate his socialist revolution in the OPEC nation.

E*Trade's firesale of its mortgage-backed assets may be banks' new worst case scenario.

Wall Street's rebound from its first full-fledged correction in more than four years could continue this week if investors believe a plan to keep millions of Americans from losing their homes can work.

Oil bounced back above $89 a barrel on Monday as traders bet last week's nearly $10 selloff was overdone, and might turn the tides against an expected increase in OPEC output when the cartel meets later this week.

Asian stock markets mostly rose on Monday as financial shares extended gains on hopes of further U.S. interest rate cuts, but some technology stocks eased after Dell Inc's disappointing outlook.

OPEC will weigh a modest boost to oil supply at a meeting on Wednesday, but a $10 retreat last week in crude prices from a record high near $100 a barrel could tip the balance away from pumping more.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appeared headed for a narrow win on Sunday in a referendum on scrapping term limits on his rule, government officials said, but opposition leaders said the vote was too close to call.

President Vladimir Putin's party won a big majority in Russia's election on Sunday, but the opposition alleged fraud and vowed to contest a result that could help Putin keep a hold on power after he leaves office.

Nonverbal cues are subtle but have a dramatic impact on the way people are perceived

Google announced on Friday it will place a $4.6 billion bid for a portion of the 700MHz wireless spectrum up for grabs in a Federal Communications Commission auction to take place in January.

Washington said alleged that China turned down the request from U.S. Navy ship to visit Hong Kong on the last minute, blocking the Navy by the Kitty Hawk as well as accompanying U.S. ships away from Hong Kong territory during the Thanksgiving holiday.

On Friday, Google announced its participation in the auction of government of radio frequencies, which are to be used in future to deliver mobile phone services and Internet to consumers.

Sudanese demonstrators took to the streets of Khartoum after Friday prayers, demanding the execution of British teacher currently jailed for naming a teddy bear Mohammed.