Officials said the bombings occurred at around 8:30 am (0530 GMT) at the western gate into the Green Zone, which houses the offices of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s parliament and the US and British embassies.

A queue of cars was waiting to enter the Green Zone when the vehicles exploded, a security official said.

The attack, which the militants said was aimed at France’s visiting defence minister Gerard Longuet, was the third major assault on Afghan security targets in four days and one of the worst security breaches in years.

“A person in Afghan army uniform opened fire on his comrades, killed two soldiers, injured seven others, then was targeted himself and was brought down,” Afghan army spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.

The safe passage was part of an accord on humanitarian access to the capital and other Libyan cities secured in Tripoli on Sunday by UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, said deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

The Kadhafi government also agreed to let a United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs mission into Misrata, said UN humanitarian spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker.

The intense pounding of Ajdabiya came a day after at least eight people were killed and 27 wounded as the forces loyal to Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi fired rockets at rebel positions there, hospital officials said.

“Kadhafi’s forces approached the city, they bombed the western gate. The sound of the guns are coming closer, that’s why many are leaving,” said Omar Salim Mufta, a 27-year-old resident rebel supporter who has not taken up arms.

With fears growing that refugees will attempt a chaotic mass escape by sea from the city of 400,000, UN envoys in Tripoli demanded an end to attacks on Misrata by forces loyal to strongman Moamer Kadhafi.

The International Organisation for Migration warned that the vast numbers wanting to flee Misrata, about 215 kilometres (130 miles) east of Tripoli, was threatening to overwhelm an international sea rescue operation.

Regime supporters also broke up two rallies in southern Syria, wounding five people after a presidential vow to end emergency rule within a week was dismissed as not enough and was followed by new protests.

In the country’s major port, Latakia, around 10,000 people took to the streets late on Sunday after the funeral of a protester killed on Friday, a rights activist told AFP.

Results from all of Nigeria’s states announced by the electoral commission showed Jonathan had handily beaten his northern rival, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari. The electoral commission was yet to officially declare him the victor.

Returns from all 36 states and the capital showed Jonathan with more than 22 million votes compared to some 12 million for Buhari.

“Because… the path to addressing these (problems) is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable,” S&P said.

Other countries with the same coveted AAA rating had taken firm action to deal with their deficits, S&P officials said, but Washington remained locked in a political battle that only fueled further deterioration.

Negotiations on a deal expected to be worth up to 80 billion euros ($115 billion) follow a technical mission last week to Lisbon by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

A spokesman for the EU representative in Lisbon said the officials were in Lisbon to get “the opinions and arguments of all the parties” as they went into talks with Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos and other leaders.

The 26-year-old McLaren driver, world champion in 2008, surged through the field on fresh tyres in the closing stages before brilliantly passing the German with less than five laps remaining.

The win in Shanghai was the 15th victory of Hamilton’s Formula One career and brought Vettel’s recent winning streak to an end.

Even if allied governments conclude that building in a remote control to disable anti-tank launchers might be more trouble than it’s worth, the mere possibility is transforming the role of high-tech weapons in warfare.

“The more advanced technology becomes, the more it becomes integrated in networks, the more opportunities there are for attacks,” David Lindahl, a research scientist at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, told AFP.

The Left Front, led by the Communist Party of Indian (Marxist), or CPI-M had, until recently, won every election in the eastern state since 1977.

But straight successive losses in council, parliamentary and municipal polls have left the communists struggling for survival.

Rajaratnam, the central figure in the biggest Wall Street insider trading trial in decades, sat expressionless in Manhattan federal court as the jury heard a September 30, 2008 FBI phone tap with co-conspirator and fellow trader Danielle Chiesi.

“Look, the other thing is right, it’s been widely speculated. What people don’t know is the time,” Rajaratnam was heard telling Chiesi as they discussed chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s then imminent sale of a manufacturing business.

The results highlighted how the third-largest U.S. bank, which teetered on the brink of collapse in the financial crisis, has stabilized but is still struggling to generate real growth.

The results were better than expected, which supported Citigroup’s stock on a day when the U.S. equity market was falling. But like other big banks, the company’s profit came mainly from dipping into money previously set aside to cover bad loans.

Philips is moving its loss-making TV business to a 30/70 joint venture with Hong-Kong based monitor maker TPV and has the option to sell out. The Dutch group has struggled to compete with lower-cost Asian rivals Samsung and LG Electronics.

Van Houten, a restructuring expert who took over as CEO this month, said he was assessing the profitability of Philips’s 400 or so business areas and “taking the blanket off” its laggards, a hint that further sales could be on the cards.

S&P, which assigns ratings to guide investors on the risks involved in buying debt instruments, slapped a negative outlook on the country’s top-notch credit rating and said there’s at least a one-in-three chance that it could eventually cut it.

A downgrade, which would leave Germany and France with a higher rating, would erode the status of the United States as the world’s most powerful economy and the dollar’s role as the dominant global currency.

Portuguese debt premiums rose to new record highs, also pushed up by mounting speculation that Greece will be forced to restructure its debt.

Representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are in Lisbon to set the terms for what would be the euro zone’s third bailout in a year after multi-billion euro deals for Greece and Ireland.

German government sources told Reuters in Berlin that they did not believe Greece, which sealed a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout from the EU and IMF a year ago, would make it through the summer without a restructuring.

Market confidence was also hit by a new threat to Portugal’s pending bailout from the rise of an anti-euro party in Finnish elections.

Financial markets are increasingly convinced Greece will have to renegotiate the terms of its public debt, recognizing that its economy cannot grow fast enough to service a burden that is set to swell to 160 percent of national output.

German government sources said on Monday that Athens, which is struggling to impose national belt-tightening aimed at regaining creditors’ faith, would not avoid opting for a restructuring before the end of the summer.

The True Finns’ hostility to the bailout is the biggest hurdle in talks that begin this week, when the right-leaning National Coalition will reach out to the populist party and opposition Social Democrats to form a majority government.

“Of course there will have to be changes,” Timo Soini said of the Portugal package, a day after the party more than quadrupled its share of the vote to turn Finland’s pro-EU politics on their head.

“We wanted to be able to take more people out but it was not possible,” said Jeremy Haslam, who led the International Organization for Migration (IOM) rescue mission.

“Although the exchange of fire subsided while we were boarding … we had a very limited time to get the migrants and Libyans on board the ship and then leave.”

Doctors said around 200 more demonstrators were overcome by tear gas during the clashes when they marched outside their normal protest zone in the streets near Sanaa University, a hub of pro-democracy demonstrations that have lasted three months.

“We neared the Sanaa Trade Center when police confronted us with tear gas, and suddenly opened heavy gunfire on us from all directions,” said Sabry Mohammed, a protester.

Two witnesses said security forces killed three mourners when they opened fire on a funeral for a man killed the day before, which turned into a demonstration on a highway outside the town of Talbiseh, north of the central city of Homs.

One resident said he counted five tanks and saw soldiers wearing combat gear deployed around the town.

A man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire in the ministry in central Kabul, killing two employees and wounding seven, said Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimy.

The man was also wearing a suicide-bomb belt, but did not have time to detonate it, said Azimy, who had earlier described the man as a soldier rather than an insurgent in army uniform.

Japan is struggling to bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control after it was crippled by the March 11 natural disasters, a process that could take the rest of the year.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said on Sunday it hoped to achieve a cold shutdown to make the reactors stable within six to nine months.

A list of the things that could go wrong shows that the operation could take longer — or be derailed altogether if unknown factors are considered, like another powerful quake.

Even the government was quick on Monday to lower expectations. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference that the time frame could be achieved if “everything goes smoothly.”

Buhari, a former military ruler from the arid, dustblown north, had hoped to at least force a second round against Jonathan, the first head of state from the swamps and creeks of the oil-producing Niger Delta.

But a Reuters tally of results from 35 of 36 states across Africa’s most populous nation showed Jonathan on 22 million votes to 12 million for Buhari. Nowhere near enough voters were registered in the remaining state for him to catch up.

The government, however, blamed the weeks of anti-government unrest in the country on ultraconservative Muslims seeking to establish a fundamentalist state and terrorize the people, in the latest official effort to portray the reform movement as populated by extremists.

The Egypt-style standoff in the central city of Homs followed funeral processions by more than 10,000 mourners for some of those killed in clashes Sunday that a rights group said left at least 12 people dead. It also brought a high-stakes challenge to security forces over whether to risk more bloodshed – and international backlash – by trying to clear the square.

For the first time, Standard & Poor’s lowered its long-term outlook for the federal government’s fiscal health from “stable” to “negative,” and warned of serious consequences if lawmakers fail to reach a deal to control the massive federal deficit.

An impasse could prompt the agency to strip the government of its top investment rating in the next two years, S&P said. A loss of the triple-A rating would ripple through the American economy, making loans more expensive and credit more difficult to obtain.

Nevertheless, officials remained hopeful they can stick to their freshly minted “roadmap” for cleaning up the radiation leak and stabilizing the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant by year’s end so they can begin returning tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes.

“Even I had expected high radioactivity in those areas. I’m sure (plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.) and other experts have factored in those figures when they compiled the roadmap,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Like Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant they lie within a few hundred miles of the type of fault known to unleash the largest tsunami-spawning earthquakes.

Called subduction zones, these happen when one tectonic plate is lodged beneath another. And because the so-called Manila Trench hasn’t been the source of a huge quake in at least 440 years, some experts say tremendous stresses are building, increasing the chances of a major rupture.

The blasts marked the start of a violent day in the Iraqi capital, where two more bombings and a jewelry heist left three more dead and 15 wounded.

The twin suicide car bombs rattled windows across Baghdad shortly after 8 a.m. The cars blew up just outside a security checkpoint on a heavily traveled road leading into the Green Zone from Baghdad’s international airport.

More than three dozen scientists grade the Gulf’s big picture health a 68 on average, using a 1-to-100 scale. What’s remarkable is that that’s just a few points below the 71 the same researchers gave last summer when asked what grade they would give the ecosystem before the spill. And it’s an improvement from the 65 given back in October.

At the same time, scientists are worried. They cite significant declines in key health indicators such as the sea floor, dolphins and oysters. In interviews, dozens of Gulf experts emphasized their concerns, pointing to the mysterious deaths of hundreds of young dolphins and turtles, strangely stained crabs and dead patches on the sea floor.

The oil giant at the center of one of the world’s biggest environmental crises is making strong profits again, its stock has largely rebounded, and it is paying dividends to shareholders once more. It is also pursuing new ventures from the Arctic to India. It is even angling to explore again in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where it holds more leases than any competitor.

“BP has a critical role to play in meeting the world’s ever-growing need for energy,” BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said at the company’s annual meeting in London last week.

The company introduced an edgy design Monday for its signature model, giving it a flatter roof, a less bulbous shape, narrowed windows and a sharp crease along the side. Gone is the built-in flower vase on the dashboard.

It’s the first overhaul since 1998, when Volkswagen came up with the New Beetle. VW, which wants to triple its U.S. sales of cars and trucks over the next decade, says the changes will appeal to more buyers, especially men.

Those factors raised the odds and were a substantial influence on suicide attempts even when known risk contributors like depression and being bullied were considered, said study author Mark Hatzenbuehler, a Columbia University psychologist and researcher.

His study found a higher rate of suicide attempts even among kids who weren’t bullied or depressed when they lived in counties less supportive of gays and with relatively few Democrats. A high proportion of Democrats was a measure used as a proxy for a more liberal environment.

Their successes, spurred by big election gains in November, go well beyond the spending cuts forced on states by the fiscal crunch and tea party agitation. Republican governors and state legislators are bringing abortion restrictions into effect from Virginia to Arizona, expanding gun rights north and south, pushing polling-station photo ID laws that are anathema to Democrats and taking on public sector unions anywhere they can.

All this as the thinned ranks of Democrats find themselves outmaneuvered in statehouses where they once put up a fight. In many states, they are unable to do much except hope that voters will see these actions as an overreach by the Republicans they elected – an accidental revolution to be reversed down the road.

Customers were clamoring. The backlog of orders swelled.

The zinc and aluminum widgets made by his company, Horio Seisakusho Co., appear insignificant at first glance. But the tiny metal components represent a vital fraction of the thousands of parts used in a single car.

“On my watch, controllers will not be paid to take naps. We’re not going to allow that,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

That’s exactly the opposite of what scientists and the Federal Aviation Administration’s own fatigue working group say is needed after five cases disclosed since late March of sleeping controllers. The latest one occurred just before 5 a.m. Saturday at a busy regional radar facility that handles high altitude air traffic for much of Florida, portions of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

Ibrahim Coulibaly, whose so-called “Invisible Commando” suddenly emerged two months ago to fight soldiers loyal to strongman Laurent Gbagbo, denied rumors his fighters might challenge the authority of the government installed at the cost of thousands of deaths and injuries.

In an exclusive interview Sunday with The Associated Press, he called himself a general, used his nickname IB, and pledged his allegiance to democratically elected President Alassane Ouattara.

The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.

Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.

But U.S. diplomats in the southern port city say they’re here to stay – even if it’s at their peril.

It’s a quandary for the Obama administration as the U.S. tries to move from invading power to normal diplomatic partner. But with the last American troops obligated to be gone by year’s end, the protection of American diplomats will fall almost entirely to private contractors and Iraqi security forces.

The shells from Maine’s signature seafood are being used to manufacture decorative tiles, trivets and drinking-glass coasters. Work is under way to utilize them in countertops and tabletops. And at the University of Maine, a professor has developed prototypes of biodegradable golf balls and plant pots made out of ground-up lobster shells.

“Instead of dumping the shells at landfills, the idea is to add value to the product, which hopefully will funnel back into the industry,” said David Neivandt, a professor of chemical and biological engineering who created a biodegradable golf ball with a core made of lobster shells.

“And that is what Chicago students need today,” Emanuel said of Brizard, whom he called “J.C.” while introducing him at a press conference at a nearly empty Chicago high school because students are on spring break. Chicago is the nation’s third-largest district with more than 400,000 students and 675 schools.

Brizard’s appointment was Emanuel’s first major personnel announcement as he prepares to take over City Hall from retiring Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who didn’t seek a seventh term. Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s former White House chief of staff, easily won February’s election and will be sworn in to office May 16. He’s out to remake the city’s schools, including crusading for a longer school day and other reforms to improve student learning and teacher quality.

The president, who has been campaigning to raise taxes on the wealthy, paid the government $453.770 in federal taxes, about a quarter of the income. Just last week, he renewed his push to end Bush-era tax cuts for households with annual incomes above $250,000 – noting that that would include him.

The White House released tax returns for the Obamas and for Vice President Joe Biden and his wife on Monday, the deadline for Americans to file.

New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., which recently won a new 20-year license for Vermont Yankee but has fought with state officials since the discovery of radioactive tritium at the plant, says the state doesn’t have the authority to prevent continued operation of Vermont Yankee.

“The question presented by this case is whether the state of Vermont … may effectively veto the federal government’s authorization to operate the Vermont Yankee Station through March 21, 2032,” the lawsuit says. “The answer is no.”

Her home was across the street and she saw “a big shiny car pull up and three men in suits get out.” It was an unusual sight. Most men in town worked in the steel and iron mills and only wore suits to church on Sundays.

She later learned the men worked for the federal government and told her mother that her father had been killed in a plane crash in Cuba. It would be years before she would learn he was one of the four Alabama guardsmen killed in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

A federal jury heard closing arguments in the case against Lee B. Farkas, the former chairman and majority owner of Ocala, Fla.-based Taylor Bean and Whitaker. Prosecutors said Farkas was the ringleader of a scheme that has already resulted in six guilty pleas to a fraud that totaled nearly $3 billion. Taylor Bean collapsed in 2009, causing its more than 2,000 employees to lose their jobs. Taylor Bean’s primary banker, Alabama-based Colonial Bank, also collapsed in 2009 – the sixth-largest bank collapse in U.S. history.

Federal officials have said the case against Farkas is the most significant to develop out of the nation’s financial crisis.

Forty-five years later, gay rights advocates say similar arguments are being advanced to defeat a bill that would make the state the first to require the teaching of gay history in public schools. The California Senate approved the landmark measure last week, but it needs to clear the Democrat-controlled Assembly and Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.

Yet the debate about what children should learn about sexual orientation mirrors earlier disputes over whether groups such as 20th Century German immigrants, women, Muslims and Jews would have a place for their heroes and heartbreaks in the history books.

Negotiations on the sum and payback conditions in a deal expected to involve tens of billions of euros follow an evaluation mission last week to Lisbon by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The government of Prime Minister Jose Socrates government fell last month when parliament rejected an austerity plan, forcing Lisbon to bow to market pressure and seek an European Union-IMF bailout.

As authorities prepared to discuss Portugal’s financial bailout, fresh worries over indebted eurozone nations helped the price of ‘safe-haven’ gold to reach fresh record highs.

The euro dropped to $1.4332 in London morning trade from $1.4431 late in New York on Friday.

“We are one shock away from a full-blown crisis,” said World Bank president Robert Zoellick Saturday about the surge in basic food prices.

“The financial crisis taught us that prevention is better than cure. We cannot afford to forget that lesson,” he said at the close of the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

After two years of booming sales, the growth in China’s auto market — which in 2009 overtook that of the United States to become the world’s largest — tapered off to eight percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2011.

That slowdown — which still meant the sale of 4.98 million units — comes as Beijing winds back stimulus measures put in place to combat the global financial crisis and curbs the number of licence plates issued in the capital.

The negotiations on the sum and payback conditions follow an evaluation mission last week to Lisbon by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Portugal goes to early polls on June 5. The government of Prime Minister Jose Socrates government fell last month when parliament rejected its latest austerity plan, forcing Lisbon to bow to market pressure and seek an EU-IMF bailout.

Selling for as much as $20,000 apiece, Kwanpen bags are made in a spacious, brightly lit workroom where about 50 staff work meticulously to meet the exacting demands of fashionable women the world over.

Kwanpen is a family-owned enterprise operating in one of Singapore’s industrial suburbs, the only luxury leather goods brand from a city-state better known for electronics, petrochemicals and finance.

Medvedev led a business delegation to the Chinese financial hub as he seeks to diversify Russia’s economy beyond oil and gas and entice more foreign capital into what he has called a “very bad” domestic investment climate.

He held talks with Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Donald Tsang and visited the stock exchange, where he said several Russian companies were considering Hong Kong listings.

This week President Barack Obama promised to cut the US deficit by $4 trillion in 12 years. His Republican adversaries have promised marginally bigger cuts over 10 years.

Onlookers might be forgiven for thinking Washington’s noxious partisan politics is not that noxious after all.

“We must act now,” said World Bank President Robert Zoellick at the close of the the two organisations’ meetings in Washington.

“Waiting for the situation to stabilize will mean lost opportunities. In revolutionary moments, the status quo is not a winning hand.”

“Restructuring is simply not in the cards,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual spring meetings in Washington.

“There is no such discussion,” he stressed, adding that “the pain and the cost are higher than the benefits.”

A Group of 20 delegation member told AFP the seven “included the G5” — the United States, France, Britain, Japan and Germany — and “two big emerging countries,” suggesting China and India.

The move would boost fraternal scrutiny in the elite G20 club, underscoring the growing worry over how structural problems in one large economy can spill across the world and pull others down — as became apparent in the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

A source familiar with the situation told Reuters at the weekend the two sides were in preliminary talks.

Buying Synthes would allow healthcare conglomerate J&J to further diversify its business, but a deal at $20 billion would be a premium of less than 9 percent to Synthes’s closing market value on Friday, which some analysts said looked too low.

Philips is moving its loss-making TV business to a 30/70 joint venture with Hong-Kong based monitor maker TPV and has the option to sell out. The Dutch group has struggled to compete with lower-cost Asian rivals Samsung and LG Electronics.

Van Houten, a restructuring expert who took over as CEO this month, said on Monday he is assessing the profitability of Philips’ 400 or so business areas and “taking the blanket off” its laggards, a hint that further divestments could be on the cards.

Portuguese debt premiums rose to new record highs in early trading, also pushed up by talk of Greek debt restructuring, which Athens again denied.

Representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are in Lisbon to set the terms for what would be the euro zone’s third bailout in a year after multi-billion euro deals for Greece and Ireland.

U.S. stock market gains early in the quarter encouraged investors to buy equity funds, which charge relatively high fees compared with bond funds. Events like Japan’s March 11 earthquake and unrest in the Middle East did make some investors more cautious, but markets kept most of their gains.

“When you have good markets, it tends have be a very profitable source of growth,” said KBW analyst Rob Lee.

Vehicle sales are anticipated to rise to 23 million units by 2015, up 27 percent from their level in 2010, a senior Chinese government official said on Monday in Shanghai, just ahead of the official opening of the Shanghai Auto Show.

That figure suggests a slowing growth rate because it is lower than the 32.4 percent rate in 2010, in which China’s sales totaled 18.1 million units. Car sales alone rose a third last year to 13.8 million units.

State-owned CEZ, central Europe’s biggest utility group, plans to build two additional units at its Temelin plant near the Austrian border as well as up to two other units in neighboring Slovakia and another at its Dukovany station in the east of the Czech Republic.

In the running to build the plants are Toshiba Corp unit Westinghouse, an alliance of Russia’s Atomstroyexport and Czech firm Skoda JS, and France’s Areva.

Addressing one of their biggest challenges, the 187 IMF nations on Saturday recognized the alarm among developing countries about huge inflows of speculative cash that are stoking their growth but also their inflation rates.

“When inflation goes up in emerging markets, it’s not just an emerging market problem, it’s a global inflation and possibly interest rate problem,” said Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who chairs the IMF’s steering committee.

Life as a top trader at Glencore, the world’s leading commodities marketing group, means grueling long hours and intense pressure to strike killer deals, salved by handsome financial rewards and a family-like camaraderie.

Its shrewd traders are arguably the most valuable asset at the secretive Swiss company, which announced on Thursday it was going public.

Disappointments from Alcoa (AA.N), Google (GOOG.O) and others in the first week of earnings have dampened some of the enthusiasm about results, ensuring that eyes will be glued to reports in the coming days.

On tap this week are top technology and financial company results, including Yahoo (YHOO.O), Intel (INTC.O), IBM (IBM.N), Texas Instruments (TXN.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Citigroup (C.N). This blitz of numbers will come during a holiday-shortened week. U.S. financial markets will be closed on April 22 in observance of Good Friday.

At the start of 2011, growth looked solid. The U.S. unemployment rate was finally dropping, consumers were in a spending mood, and economists were busily upgrading first-quarter growth projections to the range of 4 percent.

Those forecasts are falling fast. Many economists now think the U.S. economy grew at a sluggish 1.5 percent to 2 percent pace over the first three months of the year, and one forecaster even raised the possibility of a negative reading.

The reserve rate rise, which followed an increase in benchmark bank interest rates on April 5, was the seventh since China stepped up efforts against inflation in October and underscored the government’s determination to keep the economy on an even keel.

The move was not a surprise — investors predicted more tightening after last week’s data showed an acceleration in inflation, and more worryingly, sustained capital inflows that threaten to keep inflationary pressure high.

The world’s largest biotechnology company is expected to detail its experimental products in development, including drugs for pancreatic cancer and a bone-building antibody in its first such meeting since 2008.

Investors will also learn if initial sales are going well for Amgen’s latest bone drug — its most important near-term driver of profits — when the company reports first-quarter earnings the day before the meeting.

Finance ministers in Washington for semi-annual talks took sharper aim than in previous years at the United States’ $14 trillion debt.

While most of the criticism came from emerging market economies, some advanced nations joined the chorus.

Papaconstantinou denied a media report circulating earlier that the IMF believed Greece’s debt burden was unsustainable and had told European government and central bank officials that Athens should restructure next year.

“Restructuring is simply not on the cards,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an IMF meeting in Washington. “I think that the situation will improve and we will be able to go back to the markets in 2012.”

“Of course there will have to be changes,” Timo Soini, told reporters a day after the party more than quadrupled its share of the vote to turn Finland’s traditionally pro-EU politics on their head.

True Finns came third in Sunday’s election with 19 percent of the vote, taking its number of seats in the 200-strong parliament to 39 from 5 in the 2007 election. [nLDE73H0J6]

The largest U.S. bank lost more than $2.39 billion in its home loan business as revenue fell and expenses rose. The foreclosure mess that began in the fourth quarter of 2010, with borrowers accusing major banks of repossessing homes without having the right paperwork in place, was a key source of higher costs in the quarter.

BofA also named Chief Risk Officer Bruce Thompson as its new chief financial officer, becoming the sixth new CFO in seven years. The current CFO, Charles “Chuck” Noski, is stepping aside after less than a year in the post due to a serious family illness.

Oil prices fell below $109 a barrel as gasoline prices jumped to $4 a gallon in six U.S. states, raising fears higher fuel costs will undermine crude demand.

European shares were down in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was 0.4 percent lower to 5,969.91. Germany’s DAX slipped 0.7 percent to 7,127.41, and France’s CAC-40 was down 0.9 percent to 3,938.55.

The company introduced an edgy new design Monday for its signature model, giving it a flatter roof, a less bulbous shape, narrowed windows and a sharp crease along the side. Gone is the built-in flower vase on the dashboard.

It’s the first overhaul since 1998, when Volkswagen came up with the New Beetle. VW, which wants to triple its U.S. sales of cars and trucks over the next decade, says the changes will appeal to more buyers, especially men.

All that was done with an average annual household income equivalent to $38,000, according to documents released by William Browder, an American-born investor barred from Russia.

Browder has been campaigning against Russian corruption since 2009 when his lawyer died a year after being sent to prison. Authorities have not explained why Browder was himself expelled as a security risk in 2005 in the first place.

The Egyptian Exchange’s benchmark EGX30 closed 3.17 percent lower at 4,956 points, deepening the previous day’s 3.43 percent decline.

The drop pushed the index’s year to date losses to over 30 percent – a clear reflection of the crisis of investor confidence confronting the Arab world’s most populous nation in the wake of the uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.

Nevertheless, officials remained hopeful they can stick to their freshly minted “roadmap” for cleaning up the radiation leak and stabilizing the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant by year’s end so they can begin returning tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes.

“Even I had expected high radioactivity in those areas. I’m sure (plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.) and other experts have factored in those figures when they compiled the roadmap,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Customers were clamoring. The backlog of orders swelled.

The zinc and aluminum widgets made by his company, Horio Seisakusho Co., appear insignificant at first glance. But the tiny metal components represent a vital fraction of the thousands of parts used in a single car.

The concession sought by sports and entertainment company AEG would allow the company to expand its robust presence in a rapidly developing area considered a cornerstone of the city’s downtown revival.

The company’s initial printed pitch, which a City Council committee will begin considering Monday, envisions a deal that would grant it the ability to build on a 2.4-acre parcel within its LA Live hotel and restaurant complex that the city planned to use to expand its aging convention center.

The answer likely hinges on what happens after the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion effort to boost the economy expires. Some investors warn that the end of the program, known as QE2, will upend the stock market and push other markets in unexpected directions.

Under QE2, the Fed buys Treasurys from investors who can then put the money in stocks and other investments. Economists call it quantitative easing, and it is the second time the Fed has used the tactic.

The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.

Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.

Welcome to The Social Network, presidential campaign edition.

The candidates and contenders have embraced the Internet to far greater degrees than previous White House campaigns, communicating directly with voters on platforms where they work and play. If Obama’s online army helped define the last campaign and Howard Dean’s Internet fundraising revolutionized the Democratic primary in 2004, next year’s race will be the first to reflect the broad cultural migration to the digital world.

The United Arab Emirates’ telecommunications regulator has outlined plans to limit access to the Blackberry Enterprise Server system, which provides the most secure form of communication on the handheld devices. It is used by many international companies and government agencies to keep emails and other data safe.

Only organizations with 20 or more BlackBerry accounts would be allowed to use the service under the UAE’s proposed new rules. Others would need to rely on a less-secure system that analysts say is easier for authorities to monitor and could cause accessibility problems for corporate users.

The shells from Maine’s signature seafood are being used to manufacture decorative tiles, trivets and drinking-glass coasters. Work is under way to utilize them in countertops and tabletops. And at the University of Maine, a professor has developed prototypes of biodegradable golf balls and plant pots made out of ground-up lobster shells.

“Instead of dumping the shells at landfills, the idea is to add value to the product, which hopefully will funnel back into the industry,” said David Neivandt, a professor of chemical and biological engineering who created a biodegradable golf ball with a core made of lobster shells.

But they’re on opposite sides of a Supreme Court case over the ability of states and groups such as the Audubon Society that want to sue large electric utilities and force power plants in 20 states to cut their emissions.

The administration is siding with American Electric Power Co. and three other companies in urging the high court to throw out the lawsuit on grounds the Environmental Protection Agency, not a federal court, is the proper authority to make rules about climate change. The justices will hear arguments in the case Tuesday.

The show has become one of the industry’s most important as automakers look to booming China to drive profits. China overtook the United States in 2009 as the biggest auto market and growth stayed strong through the global crisis.

General Motors, Toyota, BMW and others, including China’s own small but fast-growing brands, are working hard to woo China’s newly prosperous buyers. World premieres are planned for a new Chevy Malibu, a BMW luxury coupe and other models, putting Shanghai on a par with auto shows in Detroit, Tokyo and Frankfurt as a global platform for new products.

Braving snow showers and a frigid wind outside the state Capitol building, the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate told tea partyers she’s glad to stand with Gov. Scott Walker. Hundreds of labor supporters surrounded the rally, trying to drown Palin out with chants of “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Scott Walker has got to go!” and “Recall Walker!”

“Hey, folks! He’s trying to save your jobs and your pensions!” Palin yelled into the microphone. “Your governor did the right thing and you won! Your beautiful state won! And people still have their jobs!”

They wrapped up three days of talks with pledges of closer cooperation and better surveillance of the global economy. However, it was uncertain just how far countries would be willing to go in reforming their domestic policies in response to international pressures.

The United States, which is facing plenty of criticism for its soaring federal budget deficits, campaigned to get the International Monetary Fund more heavily involved in monitoring currency rates.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized the banks, the largest by far being Superior Bank, based in Birmingham, Ala., with $3 billion in assets and about 70 branches in Alabama and Florida.

A newly chartered bank subsidiary of Houston-based Community Bancorp LLC was set up to take over Superior Bank’s assets and deposits. The new subsidiary is called Superior Bank NA.

The nonbinding plan lays out a fiscal vision cutting $6.2 trillion from yearly federal deficits over the coming decade and calls for transforming Medicare from a program in which the government directly pays medical bills into a voucher-like system that subsidizes purchases of private insurance plans

The GOP budget passed 235-193 with every Democrat voting “no.” Obama said in an Associated Press interview that it would “make Medicare into a voucher program. That’s something that we strongly object to.”

Higher fees from battling lawsuits and costs related to its mortgage business led to a 39 percent decline in BofA’s first-quarter earnings, the bank announced Friday. It wasn’t what investors wanted to hear, since just three months ago the bank announced several big charges and settlements that seemed to resolve many of its mortgage problems.

“It seems like some of the mortgage-related issues that they said were behind them are actually not behind them yet,” said Paul Miller, a bank analyst at FBR Capital Markets.