Video sharing site YouTube has been given a terse directive by Viacom, the owner of cable networks MTV and Nickelodeon, to remove more than 100,000 "unauthorized" clips from the site.

Viacom has said that Google and YouTube have not kept up with their promise to install filters on the site which would identify the illegal clips on its site. It also said that YouTube is not willing to reach a "fair market agreement" with Viacom so that genuine clips can be uploaded on its website.

Ever since Google has bought the video sharing site for a reported sum of $1.65 billion, media companies have increased their pressure on YouTube to control the instances of illegal videos being uploaded on the site. Google has even set aside a sum of $200 million in order to protect the site and itself from any lawsuits due to copyright infringements.

The world's third largest pharmaceutical company, Sanofi-Aventis could sign a merger deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co within the next month, according to an unsourced story published in the French financial newsletter La Lettre de l'Expansion.

The newsletter also reported that both the companies have already signed a pre merger deal last week. If the merger deal goes ahead, then the product will see Sanofi leap frog Pfizer to become the world's biggest drugs company. The deal would be a feather in the cap for Chairman Jean-Francois Dehecq who will be retiring from his position at the end of 2009.

Though Sanofi refused to comment on the speculation, many analysts feel that the merger will not come as a great surprise to the pharmaceutical market. Says Oliver Kaemmerer, analyst at WestLB, "This wouldn't surprise me. Sanofi needs increased exposure to the U.S. market. They have substantially deleveraged their balance sheet since they took over Aventis, so they are prone to do something going forward."

US Airways Group Inc has strongly denied rumors that it will be increasing the bid for the hostile takeover of Delta Air Lines Inc by $1 billion in a $9.87 billion cash-and-stock offer.

Phil Gee, a US Airways spokesman, said that his company will not be increasing the bid and the current bid stands till it expires on February 1. "We have not raised our bid. The previous offer is still on the table and is set to expire Feb. 1", he said.

The latest denial comes after reports in the Wall Street Journal had said that the Arizona-based airline will be increasing the bid in order to win support from its creditors. It also reported that the bid will be increased only if Delta's creditors agreed to postpone a February 7 hearing on restructuring the carrier.

However Gee said that increasing the bid was possible only if approved by the governing board and the Securities and Exchange Commission was notified. US Airways has been desperate to takeover the Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc but the road has not been smooth with the airline filing for bankruptcy.

British life insurer, Prudential has made a dramatic U-turn selling its loss making internet banking arm, Egg for American financial-services company Citigroup in a deal thought to be around � million, nearly half the � million price tag that the company had valued the business when it bought out minority shareholders in 2005.

The Egg banking system has been a cash drain for the UK insurer group and had estimated to have burdened the company with a � million operating loss last year. The news comes as a surprise to many after Prudential had revealed that it had rejected a mega offer for the internet bank business last month

Pressure will increase exponentially on Pru's Chief Executive Mark Tucker as he tries to find an answer to the company's underperformance in various other UK businesses.