UNITED STATES

It's likely to be a bitter-sweet Fourth of July holiday weekend, gas price-wise, for U.S. motorists. Gas prices have edged lower recently, but are still up substantially from a year ago, in early July 2010.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez confirmed on Thursday he is a cancer patient. The controversial leader, who has been a thorn on the side of the United States for more than a decade, said from Havana, Cuba, that he had undergone a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.

Bad food habits in children can lead to eating disorders and anorexia nervosa is one of them. Anorexia is characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an intense fear of gaining weight. According to the estimate of the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, anorexia case in children between 8-11 years are on increase.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Thursday are: Oshkosh Truck, Phoenix New Media, National Bank of Greece, Hovnanian Enterprises and Beazer Homes. The top after-market NYSE losers are: Eastman Kodak, SouFun Holdings, CapitalSource, China Ming Yang Wind Power and Noble Corp.

Stephen Colbert, who hosts Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, has received approval from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to form his own Super PAC.

In the most memorable Fourth of July recall, here is the transcript, the significance and media excerpts of interpretations of President John F. Kennedy's 1962 speech in the Independence Hall.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn could walk from charges that he raped a hotel maid. NYTimes reports that US prosecutors are meeting with Strauss-Kahn's lawyers to discuss the possibility of dropping the felony charges against the former IMF director.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said it will be unthinkably damaging to the economy, much more damaging than even what we faced in the dark period of '08 and '09, if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling by August 2011.

Eastman Kodak shares plunged 15 percent on Thursday after a U.S. trade panel upheld portions of a ruling unfavorable to the company in a patent fight over digital camera technology in cellphones.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday at a conference that he would remain as President Obama's top economic official for the foreseeable future after a report saying he was considering stepping down.

A top Federal Reserve official said on Thursday large-scale bond buying can be an effective monetary policy substitute when the central bank runs out of room to cut interest rates.

The aeronautics unit of Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by sales, said on Thursday that it plans to cut about 1,500 jobs to reduce costs in response to a flattening of U.S. defense spending.

A U.S. trade body declined to fully reverse a ruling that Apple and Research in Motion Apple did not infringe Kodak's patented technology for digital cameras in cellphones, sending Kodak shares down 17 percent in extended trading.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is considering stepping down later this year, but will not make any decision until after until after debt limit negotiations conclude, people familiar with his thinking said on Thursday.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is considering stepping down later this year, but will not make any decision until after until after debt limit negotiations conclude, people familiar with his thinking said on Thursday.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will not make any decision about leaving the Obama administration while focused on striking a deal to raise the U.S. debt limit, a U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is considering stepping down later this year, but will not make any decision until after debt limit negotiations conclude, people familiar with his thinking said on Thursday.

Good news for Apple fans - according to a Nielsen survey of mobile customers in the U.S., Apple's iPhone has seen a sharp spurt in growth despite rival Android platform still being the most popular choice among smartphone users.

Opel Chairman Nick Reilly said General Motors was very satisfied with progress at Opel, but stopped short of commenting on whether the U.S. auto maker had put the European unit up for sale.

A dispute between Harbinger Capital's telecom start-up LightSquared and GPS makers flared on Thursday with each side blaming the other for interference between systems like aviation navigation and a high-speed wireless network that LightSquared wants to build.

Recent numbers from Nielsen may be suggesting Google's Android isn't growing at same pace it once was.