UNITED STATES

The long-awaited smart grid for U.S. power could play a major role in rolling out renewable energy like wind and solar, the top U.S. power regulator said on Wednesday.

Envoys for Honduras' de facto leaders and ousted President Manuel Zelaya resumed talks on Thursday to end a post-coup crisis, but were far from agreement on the key issue of returning the leftist to power.

U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday as investors grew hopeful about the economic recovery after a surprising quarterly profit from Alcoa Inc and data pointing to a stabilizing labor market.

Credit card issuers' recent actions prove that lawmakers should move up the effective date of new restrictions on card interest rates and fees, U.S. Representative Barney Frank said on Thursday.

The increasing use of dark pools, or venues where stock trades are hidden from public view, is a growing concern for regulators, the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.

The chief executives of Amazon.com Inc, FPL Group, Eastman Kodak and Kraft Foods are among business leaders attending a lunch meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday, the White House said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co has abandoned a plan to sell One Chase Manhattan Plaza, its Lower Manhattan office tower, because the bids it received were unacceptable, according to a source familiar with the matter.

U.S. housing prices may still fall more than 10 percent, killing an incipient recovery, as demand from first-time home buyers fades, leading economist Nouriel Roubini said on Thursday.

PepsiCo Inc reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue on Thursday, hurt by falling North American soft drink sales, and cautioned it did not expect a major revival of consumer spending next year.

Stocks rallied on Thursday on hopes of a strong earnings season after a solid profit from Alcoa Inc and a data suggesting stabilization in the labor market.

The increasing use of dark pools, or venues where stock trades are hidden from public view, is a growing concern for regulators, the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.

Suspected concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk will go on trial on November 30 facing charges of helping to kill 27,900 Jews during World War Two, a German court said on Thursday.

A senior aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday defended Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, who is facing calls for his resignation for having written about paying boys for sex in Thailand.

South Korea's foreign minister said on Thursday there were no signs that the North was in the final stages of restoring an aging nuclear plant, knocking down a report that operations could soon resume at the facility.

U.S. President Barack Obama's special peace envoy sought on Thursday an early relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian talks, but Israel said Washington's goal of comprehensive peace was an illusion.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless insurance hit a nine-month low last week and retailers reported their first monthly sales gain in over a year on Thursday, easing fears that recovery from recession would be unsustainable.

A large bomb exploded outside the Indian embassy in central Kabul on Thursday, killing 17 people and wounding 76, in the latest of a series of militant attacks on diplomatic and government buildings in the capital.

Japan's new prime minister will seek to keep periodically fraught ties with China and South Korea on track at weekend summits, avoiding rows that could hurt economic links and pitching his idea of an East Asia regional grouping.

President Barack Obama met on Wednesday with the two top Democrats in Congress to discuss ways to spur the economy and reverse a climb in the U.S. unemployment rate, which is now at a 26-year-high.

Beating Expectations; Jobless Claim Plunge; Citi Gets Good Marks

Valero Energy Corp said on Thursday that it is still assessing a hydrocracker that was shut earlier this week at its oil refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, following a small fire.