Coins DIG

The report does not go as far as to claim what other U.S. carriers could offer the iPhone. But a source allegedly told the Web site that AT&T is "tired of taking the heat" for poor reception from iPhone users. In short, the report claims, AT&T officials believe the iPhone is hurting the company's image, and they are no longer interested in having exclusive access to Apple's handset.

"Inside of AT&T, we are hearing that the iPhone is causing more trouble than ever before," the report said. "On some level, having the iPhone is hurting AT&T's image. Because they are the only company to carry it, and it's such a data hog, it's largely to blame for AT&T's network troubles. We don't remember hearing about AT&T's 'horrible network' before the iPhone--do you?"

Philips Electronics NV swung to a fourth-quarter profit on improved operational earnings and lower charges, and said Monday it hopes to further improve profitability this year.

The company said net profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31 was €260 million ($367.6 million) compared with a net loss of €1.17 billion a year earlier, beating analysts' forecast for net profit of €255 million. Fourth-quarter sales were €7.3 billion, slightly down from €7.6 billion a year earlier

"Comparable sales came in at last year's levels, delivering a record profitability, adjusted for restructuring and acquisitions related charges, of 12.3%," said Chief Executive Officer Gerard Kleisterlee.

Terrorism is creeping back to the forefront of the American mindset, creating an election-year issue for emboldened Republicans and forcing President Barack Obama to reassert himself after a wobbly period of homeland protection.

U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to limit financial risk-taking could force banks, such as Goldman Sachs  or JPMorgan , to shed parts of their private equity operations.

Among the proposals, which require congressional approval, is that banks or financial institutions that own banks would not be able to own, invest in or sponsor private equity funds unrelated to serving customers.

The cervical cancer vaccine will reduce rates of the disease in women under 30 by two thirds within 15 years, experts have predicted.

Based on current uptake rates of the cervical cancer vaccine, cases of the disease will be cut by around 63 per cent by 2025.

With the Mobile World Congress fast approaching, the rumor mills have started to work overtime with some of them sounding outright preposterous and contradictory to earlier reports. This particular rumor we are about to talk of is one such thing.

A wave of risk aversion swept through currency markets
Friday pushing the dollar and the yen higher and knocking the euro sharply
lower.

The euro sank to $1.4394 from $1.4504 and to 130.57
yen from 131.93 yen. The dollar recently traded at 90.71 yen from 91.09 yen
late Thursday in New York,
according to EBS. The dollar was also up at 1.0268 Swiss francs from 1.0182
francs, while the pound fell to $1.6282 from $1.6335.

The decline in sentiment began in New York Thursday when retail-sales data for
December failed to live up to expectations and renewed concern about the health
of the economic recovery.

Gold's best year in three decades still didn't see it match the returns of an interest-bearing cheque account for anyone who bought the most malleable of metals during the last peak in January 1980.

Investors who paid US$850 ($1174) an ounce back then earned 44 per cent as gold reached a year high of $1226.56 on December 3 in London.

Upset netizens' effort to identify the Taiwanese traveler who burnt paper money at Peru's Machu Picchu had forced the man to apologize online.

The man, surnamed Liu , left an apology message on his blog where he post the video over criticism.

Liu put the video in which he visited Machu Picchu and introduced the sceneries nearby a few days ago.

The video drew local media attention and acute criticism online as he started burning paper money there.

U.S. bank stocks were mixed in trading ahead of the market open on Thursday, as talk of a proposed "TARP Tax" on the nation's biggest banks competed with a brokerage report urging clients to buy the three largest banks.