IBT Staff Reporter

Iran's foreign minister warned Arab neighbors on Thursday not to put themselves in a dangerous position by aligning themselves too closely with the United States in the escalating dispute over Tehran's nuclear activity.

The Canadian dollar touched a six-week high against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday after Canadian manufacturing data beat expectations and solid demand at a euro zone debt auction eased investor fears about Europe's sovereign debt crisis.

A special charge pushed Morgan Stanley into the red in the fourth quarter, but the Wall Street bank still posted better-than-expected results by cutting non- compensation costs, sending its shares higher.

Housing starts fell in December as groundbreaking on rental property posted a big decline, splashing some cold water on hopes the still-weak housing sector could boost economic growth this year.

An opportunistic offensive performance helped the Washington Capitals overcome the struggling Montreal Canadiens 3-0 on Wednesday to move top of the Southeast Division.

Actor Mark Wahlberg apologized on Wednesday for saying events may have turned out differently had he been on one of the planes that crashed on 9/11, after incurring the wrath of critics and one victim's widow.

Research In Motion may still see software licensing as an important part of its turnaround plan, even though Samsung has denied that it might pay to use the BlackBerry maker's technology or even buy the company.

Canadian manufacturing sales rebounded in November to their highest level since October 2008 after a mild downturn in October, led by the machinery, automotive and energy sectors, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.

Influential U.S. online publisher Huffington Post Media Group has teamed up with L'Espresso on an Italian edition.

Stocks rose early Thursday, putting the S&P on track for its third straight advance after Bank of America and Morgan Stanley reported earnings and as strong demand at European bond auctions eased euro zone debt concerns.

Bank of America reported a fourth-quarter profit of $1.58 billion, or 15 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of 16 cents a share.

Enbridge Inc's sole public deal with a native group along the route of the proposed C$5.5 billion ($5.42 billion) Northern Gateway pipeline collapsed after chiefs of the Gitxsan First Nation rejected the offer, but a spokesman for the company said on Wednesday new talks are expected.

The Obama Administration rejected the Keystone oil pipeline on Wednesday, a move that Republicans decried for sacrificing jobs and energy security in order to shore up the president's environmental base before elections.

Two years after it requested $500 billion to fight off a global slump, the International Monetary Fund's call for a further $600 billion to limit the fallout from Europe's debt crisis prompted supportive words from Brussels on Thursday but no stampede in the rest of the world to commit the cash.

China Communist Party members can now carry a tablet PC to verify identification cards, read the blogs of cadres and manage state-owned firms without fretting that using a bourgeois Apple Inc iPad will ruin their street cred.

Stocks edged higher at the open on Thursday after Bank of America and Morgan Stanley reported earnings and as strong demand at European bond auctions lessened euro zone debt concerns.

Sony Ericsson <6758.T> was sucked back into a loss in 2011 by an industry slowdown and cut-throat competition, leaving new owner Sony facing an uphill struggle to join the top tier of handset providers.

Stocks were set to rise at the open on Thursday after Bank of America and Morgan Stanley reported earnings and as strong demand at European bond auctions lessened euro zone debt concerns.

The International Monetary Fund expects the euro zone economy to contract by 0.5 percent this year and warns that tensions arising from the bloc's debt crisis threaten global growth, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Thursday quoting a draft of the World Economic Outlook .

Eastman Kodak Co, which invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the moon, has filed for bankruptcy protection, capping a prolonged plunge for one of America's best-known companies.

New applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a near four-year low last week, a government report on Thursday showed, pointing to continued improvement in the labor market.

New applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a near four-year low last week, a government report on Thursday showed, pointing to continued improvement in the labor market.

The British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp looks set to settle at great expense a string of legal claims after admitting wide-scale phone hacking that was both known about and concealed by senior management.

Stock index futures rose on Thursday after Bank of America and Morgan Stanley reported earnings and as strong demand at European bond auctions reflected improved risk appetite.

The British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has acknowledged to victims that executives covered up the scale of illegal activity by destroying evidence and lying to investigators, victims' lawyers said on Thursday.

Starbucks Corp , the world's largest coffee company, is finalizing its retail partnership with India's Tata Coffee Ltd and hopes to announce the deal by the end of this month, a senior official of the Indian company said on Thursday.

Greece and its bondholders have made little progress since resuming stalled talks on a debt swap, three sources close to the talks told Reuters on Thursday, with time to strike a deal and avoid a messy default running out rapidly.

Japanese authorities, while reluctant to act now, may consider engaging in a rare intervention to stem yen rises against the euro if the moves appear to be driven by speculators and sharp enough to severely hurt business sentiment.

Economic reforms in highly indebted Greece are coming along slowly, but the Greeks have made many sacrifices and people must be patient, the head of the European Commission's special task force to help rebuild the Greek economy said on Thursday.