U.S. President Barack Obama, facing criticism over huge budget deficits, will propose on Thursday shaving $17 billion from a 2010 budget that will still hover around $3.5 trillion, administration officials said. About half of the proposed cuts would come from the defense budget, and a total of 121 programs in areas including education would be

Microsoft Corp's next version of Windows is stirring fresh complaints of anticompetitive behavior from rivals who say the new version of the operating system gives unfair advantage to Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, the Financial Times reported. "Our initial review suggests this is a blatant use of the Windows operating system to change the market dynamics

Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer said he sees opportunities to work with Yahoo Inc to create a "better search product" but would not comment on discussions that the two may be engaged in. Ballmer's trip to the San Francisco Bay area has prompted speculation he might be meeting with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz about a

Google is more than a fabulously successful company — it is a cultural phenomenon facing increasing U.S. government scrutiny despite its chief executive's campaign support for President Barack Obama. The No. 1 Internet search company and provider of text-based search ads is finding size attracts attention from antitrust enforcers still party to a settlement with

Regulators are ordering some of the largest U.S. banks to find tens of billions of dollars of capital to cushion themselves in the event of a deep economic downturn. The results of government "stress tests" of the ability of the 19 largest U.S. banks to weather a deep recession will be released on Thursday evening

Barclays Plc said its first quarter profit rose 15% from a year ago as strong growth at its investment bank arm made up for a big jump in bad debts. Trading in April had been "generally consistent with the overall trend for February and March after an exceptional January," Britain's third biggest bank said. Barclays

Asian shares extended their rally on Thursday as encouraging signs about the health of U.S. banks and the global economy bolstered riskier assets such as oil and hurt safe-havens such as the yen. European shares were set to gain for a seventh consecutive session, with investors awaiting interest rate and policy decisions from the European