Business with Reuters - International Herald Tribune

Luke MacGregor/Reuters

A branch of HSBC in London.

By JULIA WERDIGIER

HSBC said its growing Asian business had more than offset declining earnings in the United States.

Westpac seeks deal to create largest Australian bank

By TIM JOHNSTON

Westpac Banking said Monday that it was in talks to merge with St. George Bank, a deal that would rank as one of the largest corporate mergers in Australia and create the largest Australian financial institution.

Blind workers find a thrill in outsourcing jobs

By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS

In a Mumbai back office, Uma Phago - a blind woman hired to transcribe the medical dictation of U.S. doctors - thrives in a field that sighted people tend to find soul-deadening.

Photos and Audio: Embracing opportunity in Mumbai

As Gazprom's chairman moves up, so does Russia's most powerful company

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

In February, a worker in central Russia welded a pipeline to bring natural gas from the Yuzhno-Russkoye field in Siberia to market for Gazprom.

Dmitri Medvedev's swearing-in as the president of Russia confirms that the line separating big business and the state is becoming so fine that it is almost nonexistent.

Slide show: A quest for energy in Siberia

What's next for the Craig behind Craigslist?

By NOAM COHEN

Craig Newmark wants to become more of a public figure, capitalizing on his success to promote personal causes.

Craig Newmark lately is looking at life beyond his little list that has become one of the most popular U.S. Web sites.

Credit market woes take toll on MBIA

The bond insurer said Monday that it had swung to a $2.41 billion loss during the first quarter as it faced ongoing deterioration in the credit markets and recorded billions in write-downs.

MARKETS

U.S. shares gain as crude price slips

Wall Street rose modestly in early trading Monday as oil prices ticked lower and the dollar advanced.

INSIDE ASIA

Big reserves come with a catch

By ALAN WHEATLEY / Reuters

Money can't buy you love, sang the Beatles. Nor, as Asia is discovering, can $4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves pave a swift path out of poverty.

MARKET MAKER

A peek behind the price at the U.S. gas pump

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

Federal gas taxes are only one part of the prices at the pump and a harder-to-control factor is emerging as a main reason behind the increase in energy costs: the sinking dollar.

China trade surplus higher than expected

Reuters

China recorded a trade surplus in April of $16.68 billion, compared with $13.4 billion in March and $16.9 billion a year earlier, the customs administration said Monday.

Rising food prices take China's inflation rate to 8.5 percent

Cablevision strikes deal to buy Newsday

By TIM ARANGO AND RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

The $650 million deal will give Cablevision a 97 percent stake and return the paper to Long Island ownership.

In reality, TV contestants turn up losers

By DOREEN CARVAJAL

Participants on shows like "L'Île de la Tentation" don't know what's in store.

For the tanned and toned appearing in the popular French version of "Temptation Island," the palm fronds in paradise shield a gritty truth about reality television: marathon hours, sleep deprivation, token pay.

The dollar's dominance called into question

By PETER S. GOODMAN

A money changer in Manila counting U.S. dollars. Some economists say the dollar could lose more of its lead to the euro over the next decade or two, or, in the longer term, be overtaken by the Chinese yuan.

What are the chances that a day of reckoning is coming, when the dollar would be so weak that America would have to play by the rules that apply to every other country?

Talking about an 'evergreen revolution'

By MAYANK BHARDWAJ AND JONATHAN LEFF / Reuters

Forty years after he helped rescue the world from growing famine, and with a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies, Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is once again agitating for an agricultural revolution - this time a perpetual one.