COMPANIES

Eight Australian teenagers pulled off a criminal stunt earlier this week worthy of only one moniker: real life GTA. Although there is no indication the teens were inspired by games like GTA 4, the randomness and driving style, as seen in news helicopter footage of the two-hour car chase, will seem familiar to many a gamer.

Convicted mass murderer Charles Manson is up for parole today after being denied parole 11 times since 1978. Manson was convicted of seven counts of first degree murder, and is currently in Corcoran State Prison serving a life sentence. Manson boycotted his 2012 hearing today, in the past being quoted as saying he is a political prisoner.

The United States Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple and a handful of major book publishers on Wednesday, alleging that the companies colluded to raise the price of e-books back in 2010. Amazon is the clear winner here, but it won't win out in the long-run.

Russia's AvtoVAZ will seek to raise as much as $2 billion as part of an effort with Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. to increase its Russian market share and convert funds borrowed from the Russian government into AvtoVAZ shares.

Electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc. is charging into Norway after some cold weather testing with the Tesla Roadster and Tesla Model S and will open a new showroom is Oslo, the company announced Wednesday, all as part of plan to expand its Norwegian customer base.

Global biopharmaceutical firm Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) has agreed to buy KAI Pharmaceuticals, a privately held company based in San Francisco, for $315 million in cash.

Two of the biggest unions representing Unilever employees, Unite and Usdaw, have agreed to end their historic strike against the company, reported the Financial Times.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), the No. 2 computer services provider, announced a new campaign called “PureSystems” to sell computers and software for cloud computing.

Shares of Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) surged more than 8 percent Wednesday after the U.S. aluminum giant kicked off the Wall Street earnings season with an unexpected profit as it cut costs and improved productivity.

That Wall Street expects J.P. Morgan to outperform its peers shouldn't come as a surprise. Besides being the biggest, it's arguably among the three or four most stable big banks.

The government on Tuesday defended graphic tobacco labels and advertising that use pictures of rotting teeth and diseased lungs as accurate and necessary to warn consumers about the risks of smoking.

After a series of rumors surfacing in the media and final solid proof of a video demonstrating the company's Windows Phone lineup to pack NFC capabilities, Nokia has finally made it official and announced the unveiling of Lumia 610 NFC. The Finnish phone manufacturer has further confirmed that the company will pair up with the operator, Orange, to debut the range of Lumia 610 NFC in Europe with NFC accessories, including Nokia's Play 360 speaker and read NFC tags.

The measure, passed in the state House of Representatives by a 37-22 vote, would bar healthcare professionals from performing abortions after 20 weeks, except in the case of a medical emergency. The bill now goes to the state's Republican governor for approval.

HTC One X is giving a tough competition to another HTC phone, Titan II. The One X comes with Ice Cream Sandwich whereas Titan II runs on Windows 7.0 Mango OS. Check out the clash between Android and Windows OS

Tatsuya Ichihashi, a Japanese man who raped and killed British teacher Lindsay Hawker, lost an appeal against his life sentence.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) the Finnish mobile phone maker trying to turn around, warned its shift will take longer than expected. As a result, financial results for the first half of 2012 will be negative, it warned.

Bigger is always better, they say, and following on the same lines, Toshiba has recently announced the launch of its latest tablet with a gigantic screen size, delivering more screen real estate than any other tablet on the market. Yes, it's none other than Toshiba Excite 13. In addition to this, the company has also launched two new tablets in the Excite lineup series -- Excite 10 and Excite 7.7.

The Lumia 900 is suffering from data connection problems, Nokia has confirmed. The company has described the problem as a memory management issue.

Samsung had reportedly sent the prototypes of Galaxy S3 for carrier testing around two months ago in a lunch box disguise. Check out the latest features of the Galaxy S3 that include A True Super HD AMOLED Non-PenTile Display, Physical Home Button, 5-Column Modified UI, Ice Cream Sandwich, A Powerful Quad-Core Processor, 12-megapixel rear camera, 4G LTE and Near Field Communication, a powerful 2250 mAh battery and some revolutionary features like wireless charging, 3D Lenticular image t....

In case of the company's existing iPhone 4S, people didn't experience anything new when it comes to the device's look as it was pretty much identical to its predecessor, the iPhone 4. And that has probably paved the way for growing rumors that Apple will bring some change to the form factor of its flagship smartphone's next iteration.

When Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the most popular search engine announces first-quarter results after Thursday’s market close, the biggest question will be about overall revenue. Will it regain momentum lost in the fourth quarter?

Starboard Value, the hedge fund that owns 5.3 percent of AOL (NYSE: AOL), the No. 4 website, denounced AOL’s sales of patents as inadequate.

Apple may build its next-generation iPhone, presumably called the iPhone 5, with a 4-inch screen into a unibody case. Take a look at the gallery and see what a bigger iPhone would look like, and check out the other iPhone 5 4-inch screen concepts as well.

Alcoa Inc., the biggest U.S. aluminum producer, said Tuesday its first-quarter income fell 69 percent as higher costs offset increased revenue, but results beat expectations and shares jumped 5 percent.

If you have the iPhone 4S, or are eagerly awaiting the iPhone 5 release, and also want to buy a car that can maximize your phone's capabilities, BMW AG is hoping that its time and energy will woo you. BMW has a dedicated, Silicon Valley-based division whose job is to create an interface between drivers' iPhones and cars.

Michelin SCA, the world's second largest tire maker behind Bridgestone Corp., said Tuesday it will build a factory in South Carolina and expand another in the state in a $750 million expansion.

Not 24 hours after Sony announced it would slash about 10,000 jobs -- about six percent of its global workforce -- by the end of the year, the Japanese electronics maker announced on Tuesday that it has again doubled its annual net loss to a record $6.4 billion.

The purchase of Discovery Labware will expand Corning's life-sciences business, increasing revenue in that area by 40 percent. (It was $235 million last year.)

At one point Tuesday the shares fell to 31 percent below their price on June 23, 2009, the day before Dunn took over as CEO, through Monday's close. Initial euphoria over Dunn's resignation soon gave way to a selloff.