IBT Staff Reporter

European Union leaders met on Wednesday to discuss a comprehensive plan for tackling the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

A lawyer for Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers earlier this year accused the British Broadcasting Corporation of pursuing an investigation of alleged computer and phone hacking to undermine Murdoch's bid to acquire full ownership of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

European Union leaders were holding talks on Wednesday to try to agree on a convincing, comprehensive plan for tackling the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Europe not to be complacent about its peace and prosperity on Wednesday, as German lawmakers approved plans to boost the firepower of the euro zone rescue fund ahead of an emergency EU summit.

Ford Motor Co posted a lower third-quarter profit after taking a hit from plunging metals prices and sustaining losses in its European and Asian operations.

European Union leaders hold talks on Wednesday to try to agree on a convincing, comprehensive plan for tackling the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

European shares inched higher on Wednesday in a choppy session as better-than-expected U.S. data and forecast beating results just about offset diminishing expectations for an EU debt-crisis summit.

Turkey struggled to provide shelter on Wednesday to tens of thousands left homeless by an earthquake that killed nearly 500, and rescue teams began taking painful decisions to call off searches for those buried alive.

Muammar Gaddafi's fugitive son Saif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi are proposing to hand themselves into the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a senior Libyan military official with the National Transitional Council said on Wednesday.

BP passed its final hurdle to returning to the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, receiving its first permit to drill a new well since its role in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Libya's interim leaders hope to ask the Security Council to end U.N. authorization for a no-fly zone and NATO intervention by October 31 but need a few days to decide, a Libyan U.N. envoy said on Wednesday.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been forced to cancel a trip to Geneva for a United Nations meeting this week after his wife and some of his aides were denied visas, state media said on Wednesday.

Freddie Mac's chief executive, Charles E. Ed Haldeman Jr, will step down by the end of the year, the regulator of the company said on Wednesday.

Ford Motor Co posted a lower third-quarter profit after taking a hit from plunging metals prices and sustaining losses in its European and Asian operations.

New British banking venture NBNK has submitted a bid proposal for Northern Rock, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, putting NBNK in competition with Virgin Money for the nationalised British bank.

Pakistan's security service provides weapons and training to Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan, despite official denials, Taliban commanders say, in allegations that could worsen tensions between Pakistan and the United States.

Stocks rose on Wednesday as details from the European summit to resolve the debt crisis began to emerge.

The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of financial sabotage.

Shares of Amazon.com Inc fell 11 percent on Wednesday, a day after the company forecast a disappointing outlook for the current quarter on costs related to Kindle and other investments to grow the company.

An Egyptian court jailed two policemen on Wednesday for seven years for their cruel treatment of an activist whose death helped kindle the popular revolt against Hosni Mubarak.

The Eurozone aims to leverage its 440 billion euro bailout fund, the EFSF, several fold but finance ministers will only agree the details of how that will be done in November, according to a draft statement to be issued after a summit on Wednesday.

After a three year delay, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes its first commercial voyage from Narita airport in Tokyo to Hong Kong.

Stocks briefly added to gains in afternoon trading on Wednesday as a draft statement obtained by Reuters said the euro zone aims to leverage its 440 billion euro bailout fund, the EFSF, several fold.

We are born pre-wired for mental illness

Sitting in his empty seafood restaurant in Sudan's historic port of Suakin, Hashem Abdullah is dreaming of better times -- particularly the hope that foreign tourists will one day visit his run-down hometown.

U.S. packaging company Bemis Co.'s third-quarter earnings slipped 9 percent from the prior-year period as customers who use the company's packaging products faced lower sales volumes and tightened their purse strings.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was expected to name Interior Minister Prince Nayef as his heir after a mourning period for Crown Prince Sultan ends on Thursday, formalising a smooth succession in the world's biggest oil-producer.

Israel's help for earthquake-struck Turkey is a purely humanitarian gesture, both countries said on Wednesday, playing down prospects of their troubled relations being on the mend.

German Chancellor Angel Merkel won a parliamentary vote with a large majority on Wednesday on boosting the firepower of the euro zone rescue fund, handing her a strong mandate to negotiate at a crunch EU summit later in the day in Brussels.