IBT Staff Reporter

A giant 8-foot, 100-pound fiberglass Lego man that washed up on Siesta Key, Florida beach Tuesday morning has left crowds wondering how it got there and who did it?

Few economists have been as spectacularly wrong as Thomas Malthus, who predicted in 1798 that unchecked population growth would doom the Earth to starvation.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is moving closer to emerging from its record bankruptcy, and that its Chapter 11 reorganization is now backed by creditors who hold more than $160 billion of claims.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday European leaders should agree on what would amount to a 50 percent write down of Greek debt from the private sector at a summit to tackle the euro zone debt crisis later.

Britain's top share index was steady Wednesday, with investors keeping largely to the sidelines as the prospects for a comprehensive deal to tackle the euro zone debt crisis at a summit looked slim.

The Islamist leader whose party is now Tunisia's most powerful political force met stock market executives on Wednesday to send the message that the government ushered in by the Arab Spring revolt will be business friendly.

Andy Rooney, the venerable TV essayist, is in serious condition. Here are some of his best quips through the years.

Oil futures edged lower on Wednesday, giving up earlier gains due to pervasive investor jitters that Europe may fail to deliver a firm solution to its sovereign debt crisis.

Israel's help for earthquake-struck Turkey is a humanitarian gesture with limited prospects of rebuilding ties between the former allies, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

Rajat Gupta, a former director of Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Procter & Gamble, was arrested on Wednesday on insider trading charges, making him the most prominent executive to be accused in a broad U.S. crackdown on illegal leaks of corporate secrets.

Shelling killed two Yemenis in the Old City of Sanaa, designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO, government officials said Wednesday, violating a cease-fire signed by the government and a dissident general backing opposition groups.

A former Goldman Sachs director, who also was once the global head of elite consultancy McKinsey & Co, will surrender to the FBI on Wednesday to face criminal insider trading-related charges, a person familiar with the investigation said.

The Bank of England's means to boost the fragile British economy are limited as the euro zone crisis is weighing on growth, the Bank's chief economist Spencer Dale said in a newspaper interview published on Wednesday.

Chelsea will face Everton in the Carling Cup in a bid to progress into the quarterfinals of the tournament at the Goodison Park on Wednesday.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected to give a European summit on Wednesday only vague promises of economic reform instead of the firm undertakings demanded by European leaders.

European shares edged higher in thin, choppy trade Wednesday ahead of a meeting of regional leaders to try and resolve the two-year-old euro-zone debt crisis.

Bankers were locked in a high-stakes poker game with politicians over the scale of write-offs on Greek bonds on Wednesday, making little visible progress just hours ahead of a crucial meeting of European leaders to solve the debt crisis.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes turned negative on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq falling 1 percent as discouraging corporate results preceded a meeting of European leaders to tackle the region's debt crisis.

Research In Motion won't upgrade the software for its much-maligned PlayBook until February, months behind schedule, and the tablet computer still won't feature the popular BlackBerry Messenger application after the makeover.

Demand for a range of long- lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose more than expected in September to post the largest increase in six months, cementing views of a step-up in economic growth in the third quarter, even though new orders for transportation equipment fell.

Boeing Co posted a larger quarterly profit on Wednesday that topped analyst forecasts on strong operating margins and the company upped its profit forecast for 2011.

The dark shadow of German-driven austerity measures squeezing Greece has revived historical enmities and evoked comparisons to the massive destruction of the Mediterranean country at the hands of Nazi Germany over 65 years ago.

The Dow and S&P 500 rose on Wednesday on optimism about corporate earnings and positive signals ahead of a meeting of European leaders to tackle the region's debt crisis.

People in the city of Homs and nearby areas of northwest Syria staged a general strike on Wednesday over President Bashar al-Assad's intensifying military crackdown on protesters, and two were killed in one town, activists and residents said.

Boeing Co. posted a larger quarterly profit on Wednesday that topped analyst forecasts on strong operating margins and the company upped its profit forecast for 2011.

Mitt Romney has backtracked his earlier statements supporting the controversial Senate Bill 5 in Ohio

Economic pressures are tempting G20 governments to resort to protectionism in a misguided bid to shield their domestic markets from problems that are unrelated to trade, the World Trade Organisation said in a biannual report on Wednesday.

Business Secretary Vince Cable, who has called for tough action against tax dodgers, has been fined for failing to pay his own tax bill, his office said on Wednesday.

Dell on Tuesday unveiled a new flagship ultra-thin laptop XPS 14z, whose thinness (0.9 inches) and low price ($999) could pit it as a formidable rival of Apple's MacBook Pro. The XPS 14z features the second-generation Intel Core i5 / i7 processors, an HD WLED display for great entertainment experiences, a slot-load optical drive and NVIDIA graphics option. Its unique design maximizes screen size, delivering a 14-inch screen in a 13-inch form factor.