IBT Staff Reporter

Some Chinese Internet users have this week been able to access blocked websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, relishing the newfound freedom although the reason for the breach in China's Great Firewall of censorship was a mystery.

Taiwanese group HTC is confident new models coming to market in April will turn around the ailing fortunes of the world's No.5 smartphone maker, and help to boost its annual sales volumes above last year's level.

CVC Capital Partners is to buy Nordic construction products and machinery distributor Ahlsell from Cinven and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners for 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion), in Europe's biggest private equity deal since last summer.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a firmer open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones futures and Nasdaq 100 futures rising 0.1-0.2 percent at 4:58 a.m. ET.

Wolfgang Schaeuble was playing Sudoku on his iPad as he waited to hear whether Greece's negotiating team had persuaded private creditors to accept a bigger loss on their Greek bonds.

A long-running legal fight between Apple Inc and a debt-laden Chinese firm over the iPad trademark moved to a higher court on Wednesday, in a potentially decisive hearing that will set a precedent for the rest of mainland China.

Share of HTC Corp jumped on Wednesday after it launched its One series of models, taking the fight to Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc with fast graphic chips and advanced music and photography functions.

Microsoft Corp unveils the first widely available test version of Windows 8 on Wednesday, giving the public the first chance to try out the slick, new-look operating system it hopes will restore the company's fading tech supremacy.

Forgot where you put your glasses? A Japanese robot can find them for you, and guide you to where they are.

David Sokol, who left Berkshire Hathaway last year amid a scandal over his stock trading while at the company, would receive about $1 million in retirement payments every year, according to a regulatory filing.

Investment banker Felix Rohatyn, who helped rescue New York City from its mid-1970s financial crisis, has agreed to sit on the board of New York State's $25 billion infrastructure bank, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday.

Blackstone Group LP co-founder Stephen Schwarzman got about $213.5 million in salary, share of profits and cash distributions from his holdings in the world's largest private equity firm in 2011, up 33 percent from the previous year.

Oracle Corp and SAP AG are scheduled to kick off a retrial on June 18, 2012, over copyright infringement allegations against a SAP unit, a U.S. judge ordered on Tuesday.

Web-based software maker Salesforce.com Inc's cancellation of plans to build a massive office complex in San Francisco has puzzled investors and city officials.

A federal judge in Brazil declined to grant an injunction suspending the Brazilian operations of oil major Chevron and offshore oil-rig contractor Transocean over a November oil spill northeast of Rio de Janeiro, providing temporary relief to the two companies.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to add 300 workers to its fast-growing office in Salt Lake City, Utah, by the end of the year, Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein told employees at a town hall meeting there on Tuesday, according to a Goldman staffer who was present.

Moody's Investors Service was ordered to defend against a lawsuit by a whistleblowing former analyst who claimed it illegally retaliated against him for questioning its ratings practices for risky mortgage debt.

Yahoo could be trying to boost its acquisition value by demanding licensing fees from Facebook for the use of its technology, as the one time Web-pioneer considers strategic M&A options, according to patent experts.

Digital music start-up MOG isn't actively trying to sell itself, its chief executive said on Tuesday, responding to a report that said his company is struggling in the competitive music subscription business.

The Justice Department is conducting a criminal probe into whether the world's biggest banks manipulated a global benchmark rate, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Rati Motwani of Mumbai treats her 7-year-old daughter to a fast-food fix almost every weekend.

Twitter will expand its advertising program for the Apple Inc iPhone and Google Inc Android devices, hoping to better tap into its growing mobile user base and ramp up revenue.

JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to use size to its advantage, leveraging its various components to boost annual earnings more than 25 percent over time, bank executives said on Tuesday.

Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone has joined the board of LightSquared, the cash-strapped company backed by his firm Harbinger Capital Partners, as he seeks a bigger role in the telecom startup whose chief executive has just resigned.

Yahoo has demanded licensing fees from Facebook for use of its technology, the companies said on Monday, potentially engulfing social media in the patent battles and lawsuits raging across much of the tech sector.

The Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008 on Tuesday and the S&P 500 also hit a milestone, as buoyant U.S. consumer confidence data and a sharp drop in oil prices nudged the nearly five-month rally forward.

Apple Inc is hosting a media event next Wednesday, where it is expected to unveil a faster, better-equipped version of its popular iPad tablet to thwart increasing competition from deep-pocketed rivals such as Amazon.com Inc.

The Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since 2008 on Tuesday and the S&P 500 also hit a milestone, as buoyant U.S. consumer confidence data and a sharp drop in oil prices nudged the nearly five-month rally forward.

It's not a message you hear often from risk-averse big banks but Bank of America Corp Co-Chief Operating Officer Thomas Montag on Tuesday told a roomful of hedge fund investors and managers that he had some good news.