PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Leading Indian and US film makers have formed a Hollywood-Bollywood coalition to fight piracy in the South Asian nation -- one of the world's biggest movie markets.

MILAN (Reuters) - Wealthy Italians have grown richer during the economic crisis thanks to money shipped home under a generous tax amnesty, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study.

SWEIMEH, Jordan, March 3 (Reuter) - Islamic banking must speed standardization to grow while monetary authorities should enact laws that allow expansion into new Sharia-based products in domestic markets, industry experts said on Wednesday.

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - General Motors should raise its share of the reorganization costs for its European arm Opel in order to get state aid from Germany, Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Monday, citing German government sources.

Recession or no recession, Boston-area video game companies are attractive to venture capitalists - the investors who fund much of their growth. ``I would argue there's probably a little too much capital'' available for game developers, said Alex Finkelstein, a general partner at the Boston investment firm Spark Capital, at a meeting last week of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Enterprise Forum. But Jeffrey Anderson, one of the region's best-known game entrepreneurs, said local investors are hesitant to place big bets on video game development. ``There's been a transition in the VC [venture capital] market to a more conservative view, with the economic meltdown in the last 18 months,'' said Anderson, former president of the online adventure game developer Turbine Inc. and founder of Quick Hit Inc., of Foxborough, which makes an online football game. Greater Boston is a major center of video game development, with big players like Harmonix Music Systems Inc., maker of the Ro

Kenya's fragile peace hangs in balance after spiraling feud between president, prime minister. A public feud between Kenya's prime minister and president, whose agreement two years ago to share power ended the country's worst violence since independence, has many of their compatriots worried that the bloodshed could resume if efforts by the U.S. and African powers fail to cool tensions.

Kofi Annan asked to help Kenya again as dispute between prime minister, president intensifies. Kenya's prime minister said Monday that he wants former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to mediate a dispute with the president that is threatening a power-sharing agreement that helped end postelection bloodshed two years ago.

Kenya's prime minister suspends 2 ministers over corruption scandals in their ministries. Kenya's top two leaders issued contradictory statements about whether two Cabinet ministers had been suspended on Sunday following corruption scandals that have plagued their ministries.

Auditor: Kenya lost millions of dollars in corrupt food deals on maize meant for the poor. Kenya wasted up to $26 million through corrupt deals in a government program meant to feed the country's poor, a senior private auditor said Thursday.

Oscar ballots in mail, but counting to 10 can be complicated when picking best picture. It used to be that picking a best-picture Oscar winner was as easy as one, two, three.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co will close its five-diamond property in Las Vegas this May, after the hotel struggled with a slide in demand and revenue.

Mergers and acquisitions of media, entertainment companies decrease in 2009. The number of media and entertainment media and acquisitions deals fell by 49 percent in 2009, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Over the years, the Shields family and employees at their medical testing network have been dependable contributors to Democrats in Massachusetts. But Thursday night, they will host their second fund-raiser for Charles D. Baker, the Republican candidate for governor and former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. It's one of many examples of how Baker, in his torrid fund-raising drive, has mined with extraordinary efficiency the health care industry he left last July to become a candidate. A Boston Globe analysis of contributor reports shows that in seven months Baker's campaign raised more than $122,000 in contributions tied directly to Harvard Pilgrim. This includes not only $43,000 in contributions from Harvard Pilgrim's employees, directors, and affiliated companies, but also a broad array of vendors: its accountants, auditing firm, advertising agency, information technology providers, and consultants. In total, Baker has raised at least $263,000 from employees of health-care provid

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hotel companies may not be earning any points with Wall Street this year, but many analysts expect 2011 will hold rich rewards.

Bridges, Bullock tabbed early Oscar favorites by bookmakers; 'Avatar' favored for best picture. Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock are early favorites to win Oscars in the top acting categories at the Academy Awards, oddsmakers said Tuesday.

OSLO (Reuters) - Nations accounting for most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions have restated their promises to fight climate change, meeting a Sunday deadline in a low-key endorsement of December's "Copenhagen Accord."

Considering the economic climate, 2009 was not terribly gloomy for the IT security space, and 2010 looks even better, reports Dan Kaplan.. h1Considering the economic climate, 2009 was not terribly gloomy for the IT security space, and 2010 looks even better, reports Dan Kaplan./h1 pNo single market can claim immunity from the global financial meltdown that has crippled the United States in a way not seen since the Great Depression./p pBut there are exceptions to rules ? at least partial ones ? and few would dispute that given the sophisticated threat landscape and ongoing compliance demands, IT security is being seen as a business essential./p pSome 15 months removed from the Lehman Bros. collapse, which marked the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history and sparked a domino effect of economic calamity not seen in generations, the IT security industry pulled through relatively unscathed, according to experts. In some verticals, the space actually has flourished. So, it is no wonder t

Is the energy giant an angel or demon? . Gazprom faces regular opprobrium for its bullying ways of using energy as a pressure and political tool. Seen by some, mostly Russians, as the symbol of a successful and strong Russia, others see it as a dominating juggernaut, economic right arm of the Kremlin implementing, or should we say, imposing its policies by using energy as a weapon.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Global business leaders warned Western governments Wednesday that a populist crackdown on the financial industry could crimp a fragile recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s.

Market could be as big as $600 billion per year . I thought I was prepared for my first visit to China. Back in 2006, I started visiting the country regularly for a business venture. But my first time there, I saw something completely unexpected... It wasn't the booming economy. Or the jungle of brand-new skyscrapers. Or even the sheer number of people. No. What amazed me most was how much the Chinese love gambling. Gamblers are everywhere. At one of the factories I visited outside Shenzhen, I noticed groups of workers playing billiards for money during their breaks. And every third storefront along the city streets had guys sitting out front playing cards and other betting games, with a pot of cash in the center. For years, the Chinese have indulged their fanatical gambling habit by playing illegal lotteries and informal betting games. But this year, all that will change. Dramatically. Last summer ? on July 1, 2009 ? the Chinese government quietly approved a new gambling law, allowing