President Barack Obama told Americans on Wednesday he had authorised US airstrikes for the first time in Syria and more attacks in Iraq in a broad escalation of a campaign against the Islamic State militant group.

Obama's decision to launch attacks inside Syria, which is embroiled in a three-year civil war, showed the seriousness of the threat American officials see from Islamic State. A year ago, the president shied away from airstrikes against Syria's government for its use of chemical

The British subsidiary of French train and turbine maker Alstom paid around $8.5 million in bribes over a six-year period to win transport contracts in India, Poland and Tunisia, Britain's leading fraud prosecutor alleged on Tuesday.

Alstom Network UK, which was charged with six offences of corruption and conspiracy to corrupt in July, allegedly paid bribes to win train infrastructure orders for the Delhi Metro and tram and infrastructure deals in Warsaw and Tunis between 2000 and 2006.

Markets have erased early gains and have turned choppy weighed down by heacthcare shares. Also, investors have turned cautious ahead of the IIP and CPI numbers which are due to be released tomorrow.

At 9.50 AM the Sensex is up 23 points at 27,080 and the Nifty has gained 14 points at 8,109 levels.

Sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs) have picked up after almost two years of decline. And, demand for passenger vehicles (PVs) in the domestic market rose for a fourth continuous month, by a strong 12.5 per cent, to 213,915 units in August.

Mumbai: Days after United Bank of India declared Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (KFA), promoter Vijay Mallya and three other directors wilful defaulters, the country’s largest bank State Bank of India on Tuesday said it has also sent a notice to tag them as “wilful defaulters”.

“We have already sent a notice to KFA (to declare it as a wilful defaulter). There is a mandatory time that needs to be given to them to respond and that time is currently on,” said Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson of SBI.

Serial entrepreneur and investor, Mr. Raju Vanapala has ventured ahead to tap the potential of online learning with his new venture, “LearnSocial“. This aims at building a global marketplace for Instructor-led Online Learning. With a team size of 50, LearnSocial identifies industry relevant courses for college fresher/s, mid-career professionals, senior professionals; and have also partnered with over 200 relevant industry experts to teach on this platform.

Unlike going into traditional online education or the new generation of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, LearnSocial offers Live Instructor-led online courses on wide range of topics including Technology, Languages, Business Management, Robotics and many others.

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd shares fell 1.7 percent.

Kotak Institutional Equities cuts the auto maker to "reduce" from "add" and lowered target price to 1,310 rupees from 1,404 rupees.

It cited valuations as the key reason. It further added that Mahindra and Mahindra has lost 13 percent market share in the utility vehicle segment over the past two years.

Honda shared its vision of the hands-free highway commute Tuesday, a car that can safely drive itself on the freeway while the driver's hands are off the wheel.

While the car is just a prototype, Honda says the technology could start appearing on Honda cars in 2020 and beyond.

KOLKATA: The telecom department (DoT) has dismissed Bharat Sanchar Nigam's (BSNL) demand for additional compensation of nearly Rs 589 crore for rolling out mobile networks in India's Maoist hotbeds as it would increase the final project cost well beyond the Cabinet-approved Rs 3,567.58 crore.

State-run BSNL had sought additional compensation equivalent to 16.5 per cent of the project cost to encourage its staff to work in hostile regions prone to left wing extremism.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) is looking to bridge the gap between its refining and marketing capacities to maintain its strong position in fuel retail as competition from private players is likely to increase post diesel deregulation.

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