The selection of Sarah Palin as a running mate has given a major impetus to the campaign of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, according to the latest poll.The poll, released on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal and NBC, shows that the Palin factor has lifted enthusiasm among McCain's supporters.It shows that a majority of voters are comfortable with the idea of the first term Alaska governor as vice-president.
19-year-old Indian-American pre-med student Atul Nakhasi is suddenly the darling of Democratic Presidential candidates.
Ailing auto maker Chrysler is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection as early as next week, irrespective of whether the company reaches a deal with its lenders or forges an alliance with Italian entity Fiat SpA, says a media report.
Three persons, identified as Ankhi Das from New Delhi, Ram Sahu from Mungeli (Chhattisgarh) and Vivek Sinha from Indore (Madhya Pradesh), were booked.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner is scheduled to outline the plan to employees, the Wall Street Journal reported. "This is real, hard stuff," one person briefed on the plan told the paper. "It not only assures our survival, but will make us a radically leaner, more focused company with much lower fixed cost."
For innovation, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank are followed by Infosys, TCS and HCL Technologies in the top five. These are followed by Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications, Wipro, Satyam, M&M and Hindustan Lever (now known as Hindustan Unilever in the order of their rankings.
A deal between MTN and RCom could be announced this weekend despite threats of legal action to block the deal, the Wall Street Journal said in a report in its online edition on Thursday, quoting two unnamed people familiar with the situation. The report added that the two companies are "getting very close to announcing the deal. If there are no last-minute disagreements, the announcement may come as early as Sunday or sometime next week."
At a time when companies are cutting costs and jobs to tackle the economic downturn, global retail chain major Wal-Mart has doled out $933.6 million in bonuses to its workers.
The news of global IT giant IBM buying Sun Microsystems has been doing the rounds for years. So, despite the Wall Street Journal reporting that an approximately $6.5 billion buyout is imminent, analysts remain sceptical.
Citigroup Inc is closing a hedge fund co-founded by chief executive officer Vikram Pandit, 11 months after the bank bought the fund management company for more than $800 million.
Indian Parliament would need to ratify New Delhi's commitment to the agreement by June in order for Congress to have the time to pass the nuclear pact into US law before President George W Bush leaves office, The Wall Street Journal noted, citing State Department officials. "But a lack of action in India in recent months is leading many in Washington to believe the Bush administration has run out of time," the paper said.
Bharti's talks with South African mobile operator MTN Group Ltd are now centered on a full takeover by the Indian operator for a combination of cash and stock, The Wall Street Journal said quoting a person familiar with the situation. The person said Bharti was considering paying as much as $20 billion in cash, said the paper. Bharti said on Tuesday it was in talks with MTN to 'combine the strengths of the two leading players from emerging markets.
Italian car maker Fiat is in talks to acquire 35 per cent stake in ailing American auto major Chrysler, says a media report.
Hinting at hard measures like further ban on exports to control rising prices, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said inflation is also being stoked by cartel like behaviour in some sectors of Indian economy. Noting that soaring prices of rice and other basic food items are a matter of worry, Chindambaram said inflation is also being stoked by a mismatch of supply and demand and by cartel-like behaviour in some sectors of the economy. Export bans in steel were considered.
The world's largest pharmaceutical company by sales told the scientists and technicians around the world that it is eliminating their jobs. By the year end, it expects to have laid off five per cent to eight per cent of its 10,000 researchers, the Wall Street Journal said, quoting head of Pfizer's research and development Martin Mackay.
The poll, which has margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, found that just 19 per cent of Americans now say that nation is headed in the right direction, while 68 per cent say things in the US 'are on the wrong track.'
While poll participants were clear that they prefer a Democrat in the White House, when asked to pick between McCain, Obama and Clinton, the votes were tied. Voters prefer Democrats for issues such as the economy and health-care, but on terrorism and social issues, the Republicans came out as the preferred party.
Earlier this year, Yahoo! had spurned a $47.5-billion takeover bid from the software giant. The deal was mainly opposed by its chief executive Jerry Yang. Yang who is a co-founder of Yahoo! had last month announced that he would step down as the chief executive but would remain with the firm.
JP Morgan Chase is planning to slash nearly 21 per cent of workforce and lay off 4,000 employees by January at Washington Mutual, which was acquired by the investment banking major in September.
"Iraq is now a rear-guard action on the part of al Qaeda," General James Conway, the head of the Marine Corps and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the paper in interview. "They've changed their strategic focus not to Afghanistan but to Pakistan, because Pakistan is the closest place where you have the nexus of terrorism and nuclear weapons."
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he is not planning to resign or retire despite his allies suffering a crushing defeat in the general election and asserted that he intends to stay in office to guide the democratic transition in the country.
Rupert Murdoch's international financial daily The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Company, is all set to launch its facsimile edition in India next month. The newspaper, to be launched in Mumbai, is likely to be priced at Rs 30 a copy.
'As long as the military and the madrassas rule just across the border, Afghanistan will never find peace,'says Chris Patten.
The aircraft, an Ilyushin 62 owned by Air Koryo, the North Korean state airline, made a stopover in Myanmar on August 7 and sought air traffic controllers' permission to fly over India en route to Iran. Initially the air traffic control in Kolkata gave the plane the go-ahead, but around noon on August 7, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in New Delhi messaged Kolkata cancelling the permission, reports WSJ
The Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 52 per cent voters favour Obama against 42 per cent who support McCain, showing a four per cent increase since the poll two weeks ago. The poll has a margin of error plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
Ruud Lubbers, who resigned as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees following allegations of sexual harassment, claimed he took the step to help Annan, 'who is facing a series of problems.'\n
'Young Osama was shocked by the government's use of massive military force against the rebels, and by the subsequent damage to the shrine,' says Yaroslav Trofimov, author of The Siege of Mecca.
Teams of American and Iraqi negotiators spent months haggling over the deal which will be presented to the Bush administration and the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for formal approval or rejection, the Journal said.
A government-backed investment company from Dubai plans to invest $2.5 billion in Asian economic giants India and China over the next two years, a leading financial daily said on Monday.
Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is all set to purchase Dow Jones and Co., publishers of the Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion, ending the century-long ownership of the Bancroft family.
Bharti Airtel, India's largest cellular operator, is planning to raise its offer to about $22.63 per share to acquire control of South African mobile player MTN, according to a media report. Quoting a person familiar with the 'deal,' the Wall Street Journal said on Monday that Bharti is considering raising the offer to about 175 South African rand (or $22.63) per share for control of MTN.
The move came as the United States and its European allies are believed to have faced resistance in pushing their case for referring Iran's nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council.
The recent action comes amid the ongoing tension between India and China after the violent standoff on June 15 in Galwan Valley area in eastern Ladakh in which both sides suffered casualties.
Reuters Group Plc, which runs one of the world's leading news agencies as well as other financial data businesses, today said it has received an unsolicited takeover offer, but did not identify the potential bidder.
Beverages giant Coca-Cola plans to acquire US energy drink firm Glaceau, in which Tata Tea has 30 per cent stake, in a deal that could be worth over $3 billion, US media reports said on Wednesday.