IBT Staff Reporter

Over 100 U.S. aerospace and defense industry executives are urging Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to hold off on proposed changes to Pentagon contracts with industry, warning they would dampen competition, raise costs and lead to further layoffs at a difficult time.

Asian shares and the euro gained on Wednesday on hopes that the threat of mass credit rating downgrades will pressure European leaders to come up with a convincing framework for resolving the euro zone debt crisis at a crucial summit later this week.

China's annual rate of export growth slowed in November versus October, vice commerce minister Chong Quan told reporters on Wednesday after an official media briefing.

Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp decided on Wednesday to set up an outside panel to advise on whether it should take legal action or make criminal complaints against those who cooked the firm's books, Kyodo news agency said.

General Motors Co is closing in on a package of proposed fixes for the Chevrolet Volt battery pack that engineers believe would eliminate the risk of a fire being triggered days after a crash, two people with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday.

Disgraced Olympus Corp decided on Wednesday to set up a special committee to consider possible legal measures, such as criminal charges and civil suits, against those responsible for hiding investment losses dating back to the 1990s, Kyodo news agency reported.

Sales of Nintendo Co Ltd's 3DS games device will hit 3 million units in the Japanese market within days, but consumers in the U.S. and Europe seem to be delaying their holiday season shopping due to poor economic conditions, the company said.

Ford Motor Co has begun considering successors for Alan Mulally, the chief executive credited with turning around the No. 2 U.S. automaker over the past five years, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Airlines will avert a shortfall in aircraft financing next year by relying increasingly on capital markets and alternative sources as pressure grows on European banks, Boeing Co forecast.

Security software maker McAfee laid off about 250 workers, equivalent to 3 percent of its workforce, in a bid to focus on core businesses and improve efficiency in a market led by rival Symantec.

Harry Potter is going Hollywood with a new theme park based at Universal Studios that will feature a Hogwarts castle as its centerpiece alongside rollercoasters and other rides.

A plan by France and Germany to increase fiscal integration in Europe is promising and could help avoid a mass debt downgrade of euro zone countries by Standard & Poor's, a director with the ratings agency said on Tuesday.

The Black Keys returned to rock 'n' roll on Tuesday with their new album El Camino that earned solid critical praise and quickly reached the top spot on iTunes' album chart.

French authorities who filed charges against director Lars von Trier no longer plan to prosecute him for remarks he made about Nazis at a Cannes Film Festival press conference in May.

Rapper turned actor/producer Ice Cube might be best known for lighthearted comedy fare such as Are We There Yet? and the Friday movies these days. But at least part of his attitude is still straight outta Compton.

The 2nd Annual American Country Awards enjoyed a strong double-digit surge over last year's presentation Monday night, while ABC's new game show You Deserve It fell and CBS took a win for the night overall by scoring the top five ratings slots of the evening, according to preliminary numbers.

Actor Alec Baldwin was involved in a dispute with an American Airlines flight attendant on Tuesday and asked to disembark an airplane because he was playing a smart-phone word game before departure.

Some three years after a labor dispute resulted in picket lines outside Tyler Perry Studios, the Writers Guild of America, East announced that it has reached a collective bargaining agreement covering the company's TBS television show, House of Payne.

Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday it agreed to acquire more than 450 children's book titles in the U.S. from publisher Marshall Cavendish.

The board of Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp <7733.T> is expected on Wednesday to consider legal action against former executives who cooked its books, a day after an investigative panel issued a damning report on senior management.

Canada is betraying its native peoples, who must deal with dreadful living conditions, poor health care and discrimination, the country's top aboriginal leader said in a fiery speech on Tuesday.

Canada's canola oil exports to India are expected to double in the next 4-5 years as the country's burgeoning middle class opts for healthier edible oil options, said an executive of the Canola Council of Canada.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday pushed back against reports that the Fed had lent banks $7.77 trillion or more during the financial crisis, saying they contained egregious errors and mistakes.

Chipmaker Broadcom's chief executive downplayed the risk to tech sales from Europe's debt crisis, saying expectations have already been lowered and that demand would stay strong in the long term.

Citigroup Inc is cutting 4,500 jobs worldwide, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on Tuesday, becoming the latest large bank to trim staff.

Lawmakers examining the collapse of MF Global skewered the top U.S. futures regulator for sitting out his agency's probe of the bankrupt brokerage, whose former chief executive, Jon Corzine, is due to face his own drubbing later this week.

Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat SpA, is guardedly optimistic the European Union will take steps this week to help the euro regain its credibility.

Amazon.com Inc is known as the world's largest online retailer, but the company is aggressively expanding in online advertising, putting it on course for a clash with Google Inc, the leader in the space.

Verizon Communications Inc plans to launch a standalone service allowing customers to stream movies and television shows over the Web, in a fresh challenge to Netflix Inc and the traditional cable TV business, according to several people briefed on the plan.