PNC warned of cyberattack

Some PNC Bank customers may experience difficulty logging onto the bank's website, following a warning from a computer hacking group that it planned cyberattacks on PNC and other large banks.

PNC spokeswoman Amy Vargo said on Tuesday that the bank was aware of some intermittent problems, but she encouraged customers to try logging again if they have trouble the first time.

The al Qassam Cyber Fighters Group posted to an Internet message board that it would again target PNC, along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, U.S. Bank and SunTrust in a second phase of attacks that previously cut access to bank websites.

The U.N. says the Chinese filed the most patent applications in the world last year, overtaking the U.S. for the first time.

The U.N.'s World Intellectual Property Organization says China's patent office received 526,412 applications in 2011, ahead of the United States with 503,582 filings.

China overtook Japan in 2010. Japan received 342,610 patent applications in 2011.

Delta Air Lines Inc. is buying almost half of British airline Virgin Atlantic for $360 million as it aims to boost its share of the lucrative New York-to-London market.

Delta says it will form a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic, where the two airlines would share money from the flights operated under the partnership.

Sir Richard Branson will still own more than half of Virgin Atlantic, which will continue to fly as a separate airline under its own name.

With a nervous eye on the fiscal cliff, the Federal Reserve is expected this week to announce a new bond-buying plan to support the U.S. economy.

The goal would be to further reduce long-term interest rates and encourage borrowing by companies and individuals.

But the Fed's actions wouldn't rescue the economy. Chairman Ben Bernanke warned last month that if the economy fell off a broad fiscal cliff, the Fed probably couldn't offset the shock.