IBT Staff Reporter

Another 17 U.S. billionaires, including Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, have pledged to give away at least half their fortunes in a philanthropic campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

British packaging company DS Smith Plc said first half pretax profit rose 17.5 percent, helped by strong volume and revenue growth in the recycled packaging business.

Production at one of Toshiba Corp's key chip factories has been halted by a brief cut in power, the company said, hitting its output of NAND flash memory and likely helping rivals such as South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

Innovative program from the London School of Business and Finance offers an MBA through social media platform Facebook.

Heavy snow blanketed French skies on Wednesday resulting in fresh traffic disruptions for European travelers after last week’s transport shutdown even as storm lashed Portugal and Spain.

South Korea chose to freeze its key interest rates on Thursday, after hiking rates twice this year, as the global economic recovery slows down and tensions rise on the border.

Google's Android mobile operating system has closed the gap on market leader Nokia's Symbian, just two years after its launch.

Stock futures rose modestly on Thursday as Treasuries steadied after a jump in yields, while data on the labor market was expected later in the morning.

Edward Chow remembers the nervous days of the early 1990s in Hong Kong, when tens of thousands of people left the then-British colony, fearful of what would happen when Chinese rule returned.

Bingle has taken to Twitter to rant about her ouster as Speedo's face

U.K. lender Standard Chartered Plc sees double digit pretax profit growth for 2010 at its consumer and wholesale banking segments, and that it is tracking towards a strong performance in the full year.

Demi Lovato's lawyers work out a financial deal with the girl who was punched by her. The assault victim was Alex Welch, a backup dancer.

United Parcel Service plans to woo shareholders with a higher dividend and more share buybacks rather than use strong cashflow for large acquisitions, chief financial officer Kurt Kuehn told a German newspaper.

The latest study from the Modern Language Association of America shows a 6.6% rise in enrollments in foreign language courses among undergraduate and graduate students between 2006 and 2009

MasterCard is set to buy the card program management arm of British foreign exchange group Travelex and a deal may be announced on Thursday, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.3 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.3 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.2 percent. at 1051 GMT.

The website attacks launched by supporters of WikiLeaks show 21st-century cyber warfare evolving into a more amateur and anarchic affair than many predicted.

United Parcel Service plans to woo shareholders with a higher dividend and more share buybacks rather than use strong cashflow for large acquisitions, chief financial officer Kurt Kuehn told a German newspaper.

Another 17 U.S. billionaires, including Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, have pledged to give away at least half their fortunes in a philanthropic campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Internet auction site eBay is generally not liable for trade mark infringements committed by users on its site, the European Court of Justice said in a non-binding opinion issued on Thursday.

World stocks ratcheted higher on Thursday, adding to December's rally, and U.S. Treasuries steadied following their recent sharp sell off.

Temporary workers at Hyundai Motor <005380.KS> on Thursday agreed to end a one-month sit-in, pushing up shares of the South Korean top automaker.

U.S. Treasury prices edged up on Thursday as bargain hunters entered the fray after a two-day surge in yields while Asian stocks rose on hopes that stimulus measures will help the U.S. economy in the near term.

Morgan Stanley is planning to pay out 10 to 25 percent less bonus this year to its employees, owing to volatile market conditions, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a person familiar with the situation.

XIAHE, China - In the Tibetan monastery town of Xiahe, Gyelyanjia is visiting for a festival and taking the opportunity to do some shopping.

Credit card giants MasterCard and Visa came under intense cyber attack on Wednesday as supporters of WikiLeaks retaliated for moves against Julian Assange after the release of U.S. diplomatic cables that angered and embarrassed Washington.

U.S. Treasury prices edged up on Thursday as bargain hunters entered the fray after a violent two-day surge in yields, pulling the dollar lower, while Asian stocks rose on hopes added fiscal stimulus will help the U.S. economy in the near term.

Germans are now the world's number one Gold Bar buyers. Germany's swivel-eyed gold bugs simply show more imagination than journalists, policy-makers and academic economists.

For Kathryn Confer, refinancing the mortgage on her home in Erie, Pennsylvania, became a race against time -- first because she was drowning under a 10.5 percent interest rate and then because of the U.S. Congress.