News Today - Apr 22

* Internet search company Yahoo Inc. announced Tuesday that it would slash 5 percent of its workforce, as it reported a first-quarter profit that fell sharply from a year earlier but still managed to beat Wall Street's forecasts. full story

* The world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton, posts a 1% slip in iron-ore production for quarter,
with sharper falls for other base metals.

* In testimony to Congress, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner defends the government's financial stability plan and says there is enough capital to implement the measures.

* Japanese trade surplus is decimated in March, diving to 1/100th of its year-ago level, with fiscal 2008 posting first deficit in 28 years.

* Current economic conditions in Germany continue to deteriorate, but investment professionals became more upbeat in April about future prospects in part due to economic stimulus measures, according to a monthly survey.

* New York Times Co. shares fell 16% Tuesday after the company reported a wider loss in the first quarter.

* The Reserve Bank of India Tuesday walked down the middle path of expectations and cut its benchmark lending rate by a quarter-point to 4.75%, in response to the impact of the global downturn on the domestic economy.

* The British economyhas entered deflation for the first time in almost half a century, heralding a fall in wages and freeze in pensions, Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation fell to -0.4 percent in March, indicating that prices paid by consumers last month were lower than a year ago - a trend not seen since March 1960, The Telegraph reported.