New York  - General Motors and Chrysler, held upright by 13.4 billion dollars in federal loans, are preparing new rounds of buyouts of factory workers to meet federal requirements and survive the recession, media reports said Monday.

The companies have already notified the United Auto Workers (UAW) union of their intention, according to unnamed union officials quoted by Bloomberg financial news.

The federal government is insisting that the companies cut costs and prove they can be viable by the end of March, or the loans will be recalled.

New York - US department store chain Macy's said Monday it will eliminate about 7,000 positions as part of a restructuring effort designed to save money as consumers have scaled back their spending.

The jobs amount to about 4 per cent of the second-largest US department store's workforce of 180,000 and come amid tens of thousands lay-offs at US companies in recent weeks.

Macy's also said it would cut its dividend to 5 cents per quarter from 13.26 cents and buy back 950 million dollars in bonds.

New York  - The earnings of toy company Mattel shrank by 46 per cent to 176 million dollars in the last quarter of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007, due to the firm's worst Christmas sales in decades, CEO Robert Eckert said in El Segundo, California, on Monday.

He blamed the economic crisis for the losses, which reduced quarterly revenues by 11 per cent to 1.9 billion dollars.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday congratulated Iraq for holding provincial elections that were transparent, credible and free of violence.

The elections on Saturday "strengthened Iraq's democracy and further the cause of national reconciliation," Ban said in a statement.

New York, Feb 2 : The mounting criticism surrounding Oscar-frontrunner `Slumdog Millionaire' is believed to be the result of negative campaigning from rival studios, which are trying to sabotage the film's chances of winning the prestigious award.

According to a story by LA Times, the Indian audiences were not impressed with the movie''s "white man" depiction of the subcontinent as a land of squalor and corruption.

It also attracted criticism for portraying India as "third world dirty underbelly".

New York, Feb. 2: Virgin Air billionaire Richard Branson wants to poach the "Miracle on the Hudson" U. S. Airways pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger III.

"I'd like him to come fly for us. We'll make him the best-paid pilot at Virgin - we'll give him double [the salary of] anybody else. He also can become one of the astronauts in my intergalactic spaceship company. The man can write his own ticket with me," the New York Daily News quoted Branson, as saying.