February 7: View your News

February 7: View your News

The AOL logo is seen on the outside of the building housing the companies corporate headquarters in New York

AOL Inc has agreed to buy The Huffington Post, the influential and rapidly growing news, analysis and lifestyle website, for $315 million, the struggling US Internet company announced on Monday.

The move will create a media group that will have a combined base of 117 million visitors a month in the United States, and reach 270 million people globally, AOL said in a statement.

The deal follows efforts by AOL's chief executive Tim Armstrong to turn around the dial-up Internet access business by trying to turn it into a media and entertainment powerhouse, despite difficulties in attracting investors.

AOL suffered sharp declines in advertising sales and dial-up subscriptions in the fourth quarter of 2010, driving overall revenue down 26%.

Virender Sehwag carries his bats during a practice session in Kanpur When the world's batsmen dazzle crowds at this month's cricket World Cup, many will use bats hand-made in India. But lucrative global branding that masks the bats' true makers threatens the country's craftsmen. In cricket-mad India, family businesses that have supplied the country's leading cricketers for generations face an uncertain future of anonymity as global giants swamp the game with cash in exchange for TV-friendly logos on the big-hitters' bats. 'Buying players with advertising is far cheaper than investing in making bats. We are crafting bats, they are using stickers. They are ruining our brands, because we cannot afford to give that kind of money, those royalties to the players,' says Rakesh Mahajan, director of B D Mahajan and Sons (BDM). In his dust-filled workshop in Meerut, dozens of workers cut, glue, sand and bend hundreds

Labourers work at the site of a residential estate under construction in Kolkata

India's economy is expected to grow at 8.6% in the fiscal year that ends in March, the government said on Monday, powered by expansion in the services sector and roughly in line with market forecasts.

Last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said high inflation was a serious risk to growth momentum, underscoring the worries of policymakers about headline inflation above 8.4%.

A Reuters poll last month forecast India's economy would grow 8.7% in the current fiscal year and 8.5% in the year that ends March 2012.

India's expected GDP growth this fiscal year will be helped by a rebound in agriculture, which is expected to grow at 5.4% on good monsoon rains after expanding by just 0.2% a year earlier following one of India's worst droughts in decades.

The full-year outlook implies a slowdown in fiscal fourth quarter growth to about 8%

A worker turns a valve to release drilled oil, near the Dead Sea

US crude futures reversed gains from earlier on Monday to fall below $89 a barrel, as investors looked past the political crisis in Egypt and took note of heavy inventories in the US.

Oil prices were also earlier buoyed by comments made by OPEC members at the weekend. Kuwait said oil prices could exceed $110 a barrel if Egypt's unrest continued, and Venezuela said prices could more than double to $200 if the Suez Canal closed.

Iran -- which holds the rotating OPEC presidency -- said there would be no need for an emergency OPEC meeting even if oil prices hit $120.

India's Trade Minister Anand Sharma shakes hands with US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke before their meeting in New Delhi

US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Monday he was concerned about India's tariff, non-tariff barrier in bilateral trade relations.

Locke's remarks came after a meeting with Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma.

Despite India's growing global weight, it is only the United States' 14th biggest trading partner and obstacles, from outsourcing controversies to the Doha world trade round and market access, have put the brakes on faster integration.