BUSINESS

The top after-market NYSE gainers Wednesday were Millennial Media, FleetCor Technologies, NQ Mobile, Dillard's, Orbitz Worldwide and MBIA, Inc. The top after-market NYSE losers were Medicis Pharmaceutical, Teekay Tankers, McEwen Mining, China Nepstar Chain Drugstore and ING Groep NV.

Most of the Asian markets rose Thursday as hopes for monetary easing measures to be announced by China grew following reports that the country's inflation slowed down in July compared to the previous month.

China announced Thursday morning that its inflation cooled for a fourth straight month in July.

It's starting to look like people should stay away from Chicago-based bus service Megabus. The latest in a series of crashes, a Megabus in northeast Georgia burt into flames in a firey crash on Wednesday. No one was injured in the crash.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday after taking $2.85 billion of non-cash restructuring and impairment charges that overshadowed growth at its cable networks, the company's only major bright spot.

Wade Michael Page shot himself to death Sunday and was not killed by a policeman after his murderous rampage at a Wisconson Sikh temple, authorities said Wednesday.

The International Day of the Female Orgasm -- or Día Internacional del Orgasmo Femenino -- is a Brazilian holiday celebrated every year on Aug. 8.

“Assassin’s Creed 3” won’t be released until the fall, but the game’s box art has revealed that PlayStation 3 owners will be getting a special bonus. Those playing on Sony’s video game console will receive an exclusive downloadable content that will not be available for the PC, Xbox 360 or Wii U.

Almost every major news outlet has said Apple plans to slim down its traditional dock connector -- the outlet for connecting the iPhone to power sources, devices, utilities, and other accessories -- from 30 pins to either 19 pins, or possibly even just nine pins. Whatever the size is, it's getting smaller; one question still left unanswered, on the other hand, is whether or not the new dock connector will be MagSafe.

The New York Times Co. is close to a deal to sell its About.com division for $270 million, a move that would shed another non-core asset.

New Zealand police raided the home of Megaupload founder Kim "Dotcom" Schmitz in January, and now an exclusive video of the search has surfaced.

Pity the City. America is on a witch hunt against London's financial center, ruthlessly exploiting a few rotten banking apples to pursue their own political scheme, or so British MPs would have you believe.

Like many contentious issues, ethanol use has its backers and detractors. With a lower corn supply this year, the issue just got more contentious.

Apple has pulled its much-derided "Genius Bar" television commercials, which had been running during the 2012 London Olympics.

Police found a gun at the home of the 31-year-old ex-girlfriend of Sikh temple shooter Wade Michael Page. She is a nursing school student -- but also a felon, barred from having firearms.

Three days into its mission, the Mars Science Laboratory, known as Curiosity, is continuing to dazzle scientists and specialists with its first data reports from the red plant. Still more technology companies have acknowledged their participation in the NASA project

Rumors of a “Mass Effect 3” single-player DLC have been circulating ever since the “Extended Cut” expansion launched, and BioWare finally made the official announcement in early August. At the Electronic Arts Summer Showcase, the upcoming “Leviathan” DLC was unveiled, which will take place during Commander Shephard’s war on the Reapers.

The murder rate in South Africa – while still high – has actually been plunging over the past 15 years or so.

Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA), the largest government-controlled mortgage backer, reported its second consecutive quarterly profit for the first time in five years Wednesday, but its CEO said the company should cede business to private investors when the housing market finally recovers.

An Australian prostitute has won her case against a motel whose owner refused to rent her a room after a court had ruled the act discriminatory.

Though Twitter tried to safeguard itself by not immediately releasing to the police information on a user who threatened a gun massacre at a theater, legal experts say the social media site could have paid dearly for the decision

Toronto-based credit rating agency DBRS, Inc. announced today it is downgrading the sovereign credit ratings of the Kingdom of Spain and the Republic of Italy from their current "A (high)" ratings. The rating agency gave Spain's long-term rating a two-notch downgrade to "A (low)." Italy was taken down one notch to "A."

No surprise. Smartphones operating on the Android OS from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine and the iOS from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, now power 85 percent of all new smartphones, IDC estimated.

Many Americans were saddened and dismayed yesterday to read that McDonald's in Philippines offers curly French fries called "Twister Fries" at the fast food chain nicknamed "McDo." But that's not the only unique menu item in the world at fast food chains abroad. Whether or not these unique menu items will ever make it across seas to the U.S. is a mystery many fast food lovers wonder, but in the meantime, check out photos of menu items unavailable in America.

Amnesty International believes 1-million North Koreans have died of starvation since the 1990s, while millions more remain malnourished.

Russia's food security commission on Wednesday ruled out imposing a ban on grain exports, saying -- for now -- concerns that a serious drought will not cause one of the world's largest wheat producers to deliver a worldwide blow to the price of bread.

Two non-voting members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors have broken a long-standing taboo against wading into politics by publicly talking about how election-year considerations affect the decisions of U.S. central bankers.

Shares of Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: PSMI) jumped 7 percent to $15 a share as they started trading the first time as a public company. Peregrine becomes the third technology initial public offering in a month to rise at the opening of trade, jn contrast to the May 18 IPO of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social networking site.

These figures also do not include the hundreds of thousands --- perhaps millions – of Indians who are seriously injured by these frequent mishaps.