Dell Inc., the personal computer maker, unveiled a low-cost PC for China, its fastest-growing market. The PC is priced from about $335 to $520, the company said in a statement. Earlier this month, Dell reported a sharp drop in quarterly profit while revenue fell short of Wall Street expectations, adding that it foresaw pressure on growth and profit margins in the next several quarters as it spends money to restructure. The company had lost market share to the global industry leader Hewlett-Packard in the fourth quarter and in January. In China, the world?s second-largest PC market, Dell ranks third behind the Lenovo Group and Founder Technology.

Poor countries meet in Indonesia to discuss proposals they say would make a fairer global trade system.

Reuters - Caught between stubbornly elevated U.S. inflation and signs of weaker economic growth, the Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady as it wraps up a two-day policy-setting meeting on Wednesday.

Shares in US business software company Oracle rise by 3% after the firm unveils robust quarterly profits.

Flat screen televisions sell well again for Europe's third largest electrical retailer: Kesa Electricals.

Reuters - Real-estate magnate Sam Zell is negotiating a revised offer for publisher and TV broadcaster Tribune Co. , according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Playa Vista, the last large undeveloped tract on the West Side, was envisioned as a place where people could live, work, shop and play without leaving their neighborhood.

The elegance of a logic puzzle is determined by the ratio of two things: the simplicity of its rules versus the variety and depth of logic needed to solve it.

Australia's Qantas would be 'destabilised' if a takeover bid for the airline is blocked, the company warns.

Lord Black is accused of stealing $60m while he was chief executive of Hollinger International.

Gordon Brown prepares to deliver his 11th Budget, which is expected to be his last as chancellor.

An undercover investigation by BBC One's Whistleblower programme exposes serious customer service failings a major UK High Street bank.

Reuters - The head of France's biggest listed company, oil group Total SA , is being questioned by police in a probe into alleged corruption in Iran, a spokesman for the company confirmed on Wednesday.

Reuters - Dutch chemical distributor Univar NV said on Wednesday it had increased its offer price for U.S.-based rival Chemcentral to $650 million from $600 after a competing offer by Brenntag Holding GmbH.

Reuters - An insider trading case against Citigroup opens on Monday, with Australian regulators charging the U.S. bank's "Chinese Walls" were breached when it traded shares in a company it knew was a takeover target.

The boss of French oil giant Total is questioned by police as part of a probe into alleged corruption in Iran.

Virgin is cleared to launch a budget airline in the US ahead of a decision on a transatlantic 'open skies' deal.

A legal challenge the way Google calculates the popularity of websites is thrown out by a US judge.

Inter Link Foods warns that its losses will be even worse than it predicted in February

Reuters - Investment bank and brokerage Morgan Stanley on Wednesday said first-quarter earnings rose 60 percent on improved trading and banking results.

Reuters - Package delivery company FedEx Corp. said on Wednesday quarterly net profit fell due to the impact of a slowing economic environment, lower fuel surcharges and severe winter storms.

Reuters - The head of oil group Total SA, France's biggest listed company, is being questioned by police in a probe into alleged corruption in Iran, a spokesman for the company said on Wednesday.

Reuters - U.S. mortgage applications fell last week for the first time in four weeks, reflecting a drop in demand for home refinancing even as interest rates hovered near recent lows, an industry trade group said on Wednesday.

Remember the plunge a few weeks ago that triggered a global sell-off? In Shanghai, it was a buying opportunity.

Congress is taking aim at the identity theft scourge as a major consumer protection problem.

Dell unveils personal computers costing from £171, aimed at the huge swathe of internet novices in China.

A US woman who says her cat died after eating tainted pet food involved in a massive health scare sues makers.

Gordon Brown cuts the basic tax rate but critics say other changes mean few will be better off.

Sportingbet says that outstanding arrest warrants for its executives, issued by the state of Louisiana, have been cancelled.

Shares in US business software company Oracle rise by 3% after the firm unveils robust quarterly profits.

Reuters - Morgan Stanley posted a 60 percent jump in quarterly earnings on Wednesday, setting new records and exceeding expectations as debt and equity trading revenues surged.

Reuters - Package delivery company FedEx Corp. on Wednesday reported a dip in profit, citing a slower economic environment, lower fuel surcharges and severe winter storms, but came in above market expectations.

Reuters - JetBlue Airways Corp. , which suffered a major service disruption in February, on Wednesday lowered its earnings outlook for 2007.

Reuters - The head of oil group Total SA , France's biggest listed company, is being questioned by police investigating alleged corruption in Iran, a spokesman for the company said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Fremont General Corp. , which is trying to sell its unit that makes home loans to people with poor credit histories, said on Wednesday it is selling $4 billion of subprime residential loans.

Remember the plunge a few weeks ago that triggered a global sell-off? In Shanghai it was a buying opportunity.

Gordon Brown cuts the basic tax rate but critics say other changes mean few people will be better off.

People living in the most valuable houses in England should pay more council tax, a government review says.

Reuters - JetBlue Airways Corp. , which suffered a major service disruption in February, on Wednesday lowered its 2007 earnings outlook because of high fuel costs and potentially weaker demand.

AFP - British finance minister Gordon Brown announced on Wednesday that he would cut the basic rate of income tax in Britain from 22 percent to 20 percent in April 2008.

The US Federal Reserve leaves its main interest rate unchanged for a sixth meeting in a row at 5.25%.

Bertelsmann, the world's fourth-largest media group, sees annual net profit double, helped by ads and books.

Business groups give a mixed reaction to the Budget's revamp of corporation tax which sees the headline rate cut to 28%.

Sportingbet says that outstanding arrest warrants for its executives, issued by the state of Louisiana, have been cancelled.

Russia's richest woman wins a libel case against business magazine Forbes, raising questions about press freedom.

Reuters - Fears that turbulence in the high-risk mortgage market would spread eased on Wednesday after two lenders managed to secure enough money to stay afloat.

Reuters - Morgan Stanley won a major victory on Wednesday when a Florida state appeals court threw out a $1.58 billion award to billionaire financier Ronald Perelman over his 1998 sale of camping equipment company Coleman Co. to Sunbeam Corp.

AFP - The Federal Reserve was set to keep interest rates steady Wednesday while poring over the outlook for a US economy that is hurting from inflation and slow growth, analysts said.

The Federal Reserve omitted its statement indicating a bias toward raising rates rather than lowering them.

The US Federal Reserve leaves its main interest rate unchanged for a sixth meeting in a row at 5.25%.

Reuters - The U.S. Federal Reserve held benchmark interest rates steady on Wednesday and said it remained concerned on inflation, but it downgraded its assessment of current economic conditions and left its future policy options open.

Reuters - U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday after investors interpreted the Federal Reserve's latest policy statement as leading to a rate cut.

Reuters - Starbucks Corp. said on Wednesday it still expects to earn between 87 cents and 89 cents per share this year.

Reuters - President George W. Bush will meet next week with the chief executives from Detroit's largest automakers, the White House said on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve stopped using words that suggest the next move for interest rates will be upward.

Apple TV can connect your computer to your TV without wires ? as long as you have a wide-screen TV.

Reuters - Stocks rallied on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 notching its biggest percentage gain in eight months, after investors viewed a statement from the Federal Reserve as signaling the central bank's next move may be a cut in interest rates.

AP - Wall Street rallied sharply Wednesday after an economic assessment by the Federal Reserve ignited investor hopes that the central bank has warmed to the idea of lowering short-term interest rates.

EU ministers are due to vote on an 'open skies' aviation deal, which some British airlines regard as inadequate.

Phone firm Motorola says it will post a loss in the first three months of this year and lowers its revenue targets.

The Federal Reserve stopped using words that suggest the next move for interest rates will be upward.

Facing sluggish profits, Motorola dropped its quarterly revenue forecast by a billion dollars and announced a management shake-up.

Morgan Stanley?s earnings soared and the firm won a $1.57 billion court appeal. For its chief executive, it doesn?t get better than this.

David A. Stockman is expected to be indicted on charges of accounting fraud related to his role as chairman of the auto parts supplier.

One of the most difficult questions for entrepreneurs is what to pay themselves when they start out, if they pay themselves at all.

A House panel began an inquiry into the marketing and regulation of widely used anemia drugs that have raised safety concerns.

The move, which would reduce the company?s exposure to such risky loans, helped push up shares of Fremont General up by 16 percent, to $10.19.

The Federal Reserve raised investors? hopes that it had warmed to the idea of lowering short-term interest rates.

A former Bear Stearns banker won dismissal of charges that he was involved in a kickback scheme tied to the construction of a hospital in the Chicago area.

B. Franklin Kahn was one of the first developers to recognize that real estate investments could trade much like mutual funds.

Lenders and the government are being urged to cushion the blow to troubled borrowers and find ways to enable them to remain in their homes.

HBO?s chief executive is preparing for life after the ?The Sopranos? with a cachet of new offerings.

Paul McCartney will become the first artist to sign with Hear Music, a label being created by Starbucks.

Menu Foods is little known because it lacks its own brands. But it has come to dominate the business of making wet pet food for retailers.

A Moscow court ruled against the editor not for the contents of the article, but for commenting publicly on the controversy surrounding its publication.

Cambridge Heart said St. Jude Medical would take over efforts to sell its stress test equipment that doctors use to assess patients as candidates for defibrillators.

With the mobile Web, publishers and content providers are trying to avoid coming in late on another advertising bonanza.

Middlemen and marketing costs have long been viewed with suspicion by critics of commerce. But these practices are usually signs of market sophistication, not waste.

Two co-defendants of Conrad M. Black did nothing illegal or were in the dark about any wrongdoing at the company, their lawyers said.

Securities regulators approved new rules making it easier and faster for foreign companies to withdraw their stocks from the U.S. market.

Profit fell 2 percent in the fiscal third quarter from a slowing economy, severe winter storms and lower fuel surcharges.

The former chief of Qwest Communications knowingly repeated unreliable growth forecasts in 2000 and 2001, a former company official testified.

Nu Image acquired a controlling interest in the troubled First Look Studios, an independent film distributor.

Bruce Wasserstein, the chairman of Lazard, is considering selling his stake in ALM, publisher of American Lawyer Magazine and other legal publications.

South Korea?s economy expanded 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter, more than first estimated, as exports declined less than initially anticipated, the Bank of Korea said. The figure was revised from an initial estimate of 0.8 percent and was down from a revised 1.2 percent rate in the third quarter. Goods exports fell 0.5 percent, less than the initial estimate of a 1 percent decline, the report showed. It was the first quarterly drop in exports since the three months ended Sept. 30, 2004. Business investment rose 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months and construction climbed 0.6 percent in the quarter. Private spending advanced 1 percent in the quarter, compared with an earlier estimate of a 0.8 percent increase, the report showed.

Japan?s trade surplus unexpectedly widened in February after a decline in oil prices caused import growth to slow. Export growth slowed. The surplus rose 7.7 percent, to 979.6 billion yen ($8.3 billion), compared with February a year earlier, the government reported. The entire Lunar New Year holiday fell in February, cutting short the time companies could ship goods to markets that observe the holiday, and the economist Noriaki Haseyama said it was too early to determine if exports are stalling.

A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced the former chief financial officer of the dot-com company Livedoor, Ryoji Miyauchi, to 20 months in prison for inflating earnings reports. Two other Livedoor officials, Fumito Okamoto and Osanari Nakamura, were each given one-and-half-year terms with a three-year suspended sentence. A third, Fumito Kumagai, received a one-year prison term with a three-year suspended sentence. The sentences came a week after the same court sentenced the company?s founder and former chief executive, Takafumi Horie, to two and a half years in prison. The executives were accused of using complex schemes to fabricate 5 billion yen, or $42.5 million, in earnings.

The Australian airline Virgin Blue Holdings said it would buy six Boeing planes for 2.2 billion Australian dollars ($1.8 billion) as it accelerates plans for long-haul flights to the United States. Virgin Blue said it would buy six Boeing 777-300ER widebody aircraft, with an option for six more, and had signed an agreement with the International Lease Finance Corporation for a seventh, taking the total price to 2.6 billion Australian dollars. The purchase is part of Virgin Blue?s plans to start flights to the United States beginning in 2008 as it seeks new ways to beat competition on its routes within Australia and to islands in the South Pacific.

The new chief executive of Total, the French oil company, was questioned for a second time in six months over suspected kickbacks in Middle East energy deals. The executive, Christophe de Margerie, left, and two other executives were summoned for questioning in an investigation of an offshore gas deal with Iran, Total said, which denied any wrongdoing. Mr. de Margerie, who ran Total?s Middle East operations at the time of the 1997 Iranian deal, is already under investigation in a separate inquiry of irregularities in United Nations sanctions in Iraq. Mr. de Margerie became chief executive last month.

BASF and the Monsanto Company said they would collaborate to develop higher-yielding crops that are more tolerant to adverse conditions like drought. The companies will dedicate a joint budget of up to $1.5 billion over the life of the partnership to study crop yields and tolerance to stress for corn, soybeans, cotton and canola. The joint pipeline of products will include the companies? existing and planned yield stress and tolerance programs, with the first products expected to reach the market in the first half of the next decade. The link will allow the companies to bring more new products to the market than either could have done on its own, they said. Monsanto is based in St. Louis, and BASF is based in Ludwigshafen, Germany.