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Swedish home appliance manufacturer Electrolux announced that strong demand in several markets comprising North America helped increase its second-quarter profits.

The company's net profit, excluding items affecting comparability, stood at 1.1 billion kronor ($148 million) as against 633 million kronor during the same period of 2009.

Sales during the three month period remained down by 1% to 27.3 billion kronor.

Official sources have revealed that shipbuilder and repairer Atlantic Marine looks set to a new future under BAE Systems' North American operations after the aerospace giant completed its acquisition of the shipyards for a cash price of $352 million.

BAE spokeswoman Stephanie Moncada told United Press International, "BAE Systems' desire to acquire Atlantic Marine is solely based on their excellent record of performance in the shipbuilding and repair industry over the past several years."

It has been reported that the number of U. S. bank failures increased to 96 this year when federal regulators shut down six banks in Florida, Michigan and South Carolina.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that the financial crisis that led to 140 bank failures last year has now begun to hurt smaller banks and regulators have been closing banks this year at nearly double the pace of 2009.

The six banks closed Friday will cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s deposit insurance fund about $334.8 million.

"Keep politics out of art and culture", says Pakistani pop singer Ali Zafar, who arrived in Mumbai this month. He would like nothing better than to move to Mumbai and become a singing actor like Kishore Kumar. But would the current milieu of hostility allow him to make that move?

Records have shown that U. S.-based American International Group Inc. has reached a $725 million settlement in a securities lawsuit alleging insurance bid-rigging.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that AIG must pay $175 million within 10 days of winning preliminary approval of a federal judge in New York and $550 million later.

The long-running civil lawsuit, filed by a group of Ohio pension funds, accused the insurer of trying to inflate its stock price and of accounting fraud that artificially boosted its insurance reserves.

According to the official reports, Dell Inc. has said that it has proposed a settlement with U. S. regulators over the computer maker's accounting for deals with chip giant Intel Corp.

Dell said in a release that staff at the Securities & Exchange Commission agreed to recommend the settlement to SEC commissioners. The settlement would require approval of the SEC and a district court.