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Business news from The International Herald Tribune, the world's daily newspaper online.

Profit up in first quarter, HSBC says HSBC said its growing Asian business had more than offset declining earnings in the United States. Westpac seeks deal to create largest Australian bank 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. Westpac chief bids for her old bank Just months after moving to Westpac Banking, Gail Kelly, the first woman to run a top-10 company in Australia, has wowed the industry with a bold bid to buy her former employer, St. George Bank. Blind workers find a thrill in outsourcing jobs 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. As Gazprom's chairman moves up, so does Russia's most powerful company 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. The Craig behind Craigslist 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. 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. Asia regains footing as Europe trades higher Shares in the Asia-Pacific region recovered earlier losses Monday, with the Australian stock exchange rising 1 percent. In Europe, the FTSE 100, CAC 40 and DAX all gained. Software services are burgeoning in China The value of software and services exported from China, while still small, is forecast to grow nearly 38 percent a year through 2011. Big reserves come with a catch 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. A peek behind the price at the U.S. gas pump 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. As U.S. politicians search for a solution to high oil prices, answers evade them The oil market is largely immune to Washington's machinations, and prices have more than quadrupled over the last six years for reasons that are increasingly disconnected from what happens in the United States. China trade surplus higher than expected 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 Food prices, which make up a third of the consumer basket, rose 22.1 percent, with meat and poultry prices up nearly 50 percent. Cablevision strikes deal to buy Newsday The $650 million deal will give Cablevision a 97 percent stake and return the paper to Long Island ownership. As markets emerge, newspapers find growth New newspapers - some backed by governments, others by business moguls and international conglomerates - are springing up from Rwanda to Tajikistan, attracting readers and advertising dollars. In reality, TV contestants turn up losers 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 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' 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. Profit up in first quarter, HSBC says HSBC said its growing Asian business had more than offset declining earnings in the United States. Westpac seeks deal to create largest Australian bank 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. Westpac chief bids for her old bank Just months after moving to Westpac Banking, Gail Kelly, the first woman to run a top-10 company in Australia, has wowed the industry with a bold bid to buy her former employer, St. George Bank. Blind workers find a thrill in outsourcing jobs 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. As Gazprom's chairman moves up, so does Russia's most powerful company 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. The Craig behind Craigslist 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. 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. Asia regains footing as Europe trades higher Shares in the Asia-Pacific region recovered earlier losses Monday, with the Australian stock exchange rising 1 percent. In Europe, the FTSE 100, CAC 40 and DAX all gained. Software services are burgeoning in China The value of software and services exported from China, while still small, is forecast to grow nearly 38 percent a year through 2011. Big reserves come with a catch 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. A peek behind the price at the U.S. gas pump 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. As U.S. politicians search for a solution to high oil prices, answers evade them The oil market is largely immune to Washington's machinations, and prices have more than quadrupled over the last six years for reasons that are increasingly disconnected from what happens in the United States. China trade surplus higher than expected 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 Food prices, which make up a third of the consumer basket, rose 22.1 percent, with meat and poultry prices up nearly 50 percent. Cablevision strikes deal to buy Newsday The $650 million deal will give Cablevision a 97 percent stake and return the paper to Long Island ownership. As markets emerge, newspapers find growth New newspapers - some backed by governments, others by business moguls and international conglomerates - are springing up from Rwanda to Tajikistan, attracting readers and advertising dollars. In reality, TV contestants turn up losers 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 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' 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.