UNITED STATES

British private equity firm Terra Firma said it has bought Everpower Wind Holdings in a deal that a source said was worth around $350 million, looking to tap into the growing renewable energy sector.

IBM and India's top three outsourcing firms have each won five-year IT services contract from oil and gas major BP Plc, the firms said on Wednesday, amid hopes of a revival in technology spending.

The U.S. thrift industry on Wednesday reported its first profit since the third quarter of 2007, earning a slender total of $4 million in the second quarter, the Office of Thrift Supervision said.

The U.S. thrift industry reported on Wednesday its first profit since the third quarter of 2007, earning a slender total of $4 million in the second quarter, the Office of Thrift Supervision said.

Fannie Mae (FNM.N) (FNM.P), the largest U.S. home funding source, said on Wednesday it sold $2.0 billion in bills at lower interest rates than those seen in sales of the same maturities and sizes a week ago.

In the United States, there has been an increase in cases of typhoid fever resistant to the drugs most commonly used against the illness, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

Larger-than-expected gains in U.S. housing prices and consumer confidence on Tuesday lent new weight to views that the economy is emerging from the longest recession since the 1930s.

SAIC Motor Corp, China's biggest automaker, posted a 26.4 percent fall in first half earnings on provisions for its loss-making South Korean unit but was cautiously optimistic for the rest of the year as government policy initiatives bolstered automobile demand.

Oil pared early gains to drop below $72 a barrel on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session, as rising U.S. crude stockpiles and a dip in equity markets outweighed bullish economic data.

Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes rose for a fourth straight month in July to set their fastest pace since last September, while the inventory of unsold homes fell to the lowest level in 16 years, a government report showed on Wednesday.

China Life Insurance Co, the country's top life insurer, said it is studying possible investments involving IPO candidates Agricultural Bank of China and AIA, aiming to improve its returns.

U.S. regulators are set to buttress their defenses this week against a slew of sick banks still facing closure and the risks to the dwindling fund that protects depositors.

Hedge funds and bank trading desks are hiring again after the downturn and have already snapped up some of the most talented managers dislodged while firms struggled in the credit crisis, industry insiders said.

Tobacco use will kill 6 million people next year from cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a range of other ills, global cancer experts said in a report issued on Tuesday.

G20 finance ministers will discuss next week how to curb excessive bankers' pay but the group of leading nations is not expected to heed a French call to cap and tax bonuses, officials and analysts said.

The immediate crisis may be over but G20 policymakers meeting next week must still find a way to rebalance the global economy if the world is not to be doomed to repeat the past.

A surge in demand for aircraft pushed new orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods up at their fastest pace in two years in July, the government said on Wednesday, hinting a modest economic recovery was taking shape.

Senator Edward M. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, one of the most influential senators in the history of the U.S. died Tuesday night at age 77 after a battle with brain cancer.

Red Cross officials from South Korea arrived in the North for three days of talks on Wednesday in a rare meeting between the rivals to discuss the plight of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Edward Kennedy dies at 77; Exit Strategy a Must; Toyota retreats

Pakistani helicopter gunships stepped up attacks on Taliban positions in the South Waziristan region on Wednesday, a day after militants confirmed that their leader was dead and announced his successor.