IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. auto sales jumped to a seven-month high in March led by a 41 percent surge at Toyota Motor Corp after the Japanese automaker offered the steepest discounts in its history to win back sales lost during its recent safety crisis.

Australia officials have unveiled a prototype for a bionic eye device, which looks like a pair of sunglasses that could help regains the sight of the visually impaired.

The Federal Reserve's balance sheet fell in the latest week, Fed data released on Thursday showed.

The court has been told, an elderly patient of Jayant Patel should have been treated with iron supplements instead of rushed into an unnecessary bowel operation that had a high risk of death.

Women suffering increasingly common caesarean birth complications will no longer require blood transfusions due to breakthrough surgical treatment.

Walt Disney Co on Thursday said it will offer applications from all of its businesses on Apple Inc's new iPad electronic tablet, offering popular TV shows, video games and interactive books.

Jean-Paul Bell also known as Dr B Loony, the clown doctor who co-founded the charitable organization which brightens the lives of child patients across Australia, says those in hospitals were usually itching for a laugh.

U.S. auto sales jumped 24.3 percent in March, the strongest result in months, led by a rebound at recall-hit Toyota Motor Corp , which offered record incentives aimed at putting the crisis behind it.

Claire Murray, 24 from Perth who received controversial second liver transplant following the first failed one due to drug addiction died in a Singapore hospital.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said mephedrone - currently freely available to buy on the internet and in shops selling legal highs - would join amphetamines and cannabis as an outlawed class B drug, the second most dangerous kind.

Citigroup Inc's spinoff of its life insurance unit, Primerica Inc saw its shares gain more than a third in its debut on optimism that the life insurer will benefit from a rebounding economy.

The number of workers filing new claims for jobless aid fell last week and factory activity in March hit its highest level in more than 5-1/2 years, strengthening hopes for continued economic growth without government support.

Audits are underway at a new Internal Revenue Service unit set up to catch rich tax cheats hiding funds in tax shelters, but don't expect a flood of evaders to come to light any time soon.

Microsoft Corp on Thursday filed a lawsuit claiming British video game accessory maker Datel Design and Development Ltd is illegally copying the software company's game console controllers.

The Dow and the S&P 500 rose on Thursday, thanks to upbeat economic data, but the Nasdaq was stagnant as investors pummeled shares of Research In Motion following downbeat results.

A federal appeals court denied on Thursday Microsoft Corp's request that a full panel of judges rehear arguments in its long-running patent dispute with a small Canadian technology company.

Parents who are preparing to set foot on a plane with small children can be, understandably, quite anxious about this experience. Children can be difficult adjusting to change and there’s nothing quite like flying in a plane.

The Dow and the S&P 500 rose on Thursday, thanks to upbeat economic data, but the Nasdaq was stagnant as investors pummeled shares of Research In Motion following downbeat results.

The number of workers filing new claims for jobless aid fell last week and factory activity in March hit its highest level in more than 5-1/2 years, strengthening hopes for a self-sustaining recovery.

Chrysler expects steady U.S. sales growth to start in June, the one-year anniversary of the automaker's emergence from bankruptcy, its U.S. sales chief said on Wednesday.

EBay Inc did not engage in trademark infringement and dilution by selling counterfeit Tiffany & Co merchandise on its website, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday, but it ordered further proceedings over the jeweler's claim of false advertising.

The Dow and the S&P 500 rose on Thursday, lifted by upbeat manufacturing and job market data, but the Nasdaq slipped as investors pummeled shares of Research In Motion .

Mazda Motor Corp said it expects a single digit increase in March U.S. sales, lagging the projected growth in industry sales, after cutting back on sales to rental companies and incentives to consumers.

Boeing Co said on Thursday that it was deeply disappointed that top rival EADS was trying to win more time to prepare a bid for the Pentagon's multibillion-dollar refueling aircraft contract.

Japanese auto sales jumped by a quarter in March to cap a business year that relied heavily on government incentives, while South Korea's Hyundai Motor continued to rack up impressive sales growth, sending its shares to a record high.

Ford Motor Co's sale of its Volvo unit this year will leave the No. 2 U.S. automaker with no luxury brand outside North America.

EBay Inc did not engage in trademark infringement and dilution by selling counterfeit Tiffany & Co merchandise on its website, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday, but it ordered further proceedings over the jeweler's claim of false advertising.

NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) - The euro rallied against the dollar on Thursday, lifted by quarterly positioning and gains in the single currency against the Swiss franc as investors looked ahead to the U.S. non-farm payrolls report. Traders cited talk of intervention by the Swiss National Bank as lifting the euro against the franc, adding there was some SNB activity in the dollar/Swiss franc pair.

The Nasdaq turn negative on Thursday, weighed down by a drop in Research In Motion Ltd , but the Dow and the S&P 500 clung to modest gains on optimism over stronger-than-expected manufacturing and jobs data.