IBT Staff Reporter

The U.S. food industry is in store for a smorgasbord of mergers and acquisitions as companies look to gain more revenue and earnings growth and new, innovative products.

Starting July, chain smokers will be banned in the outside cafes of Sydney Bondi Beach, Councilor Kerryn says.

Gordon Parker, with other team of psychiatrists, will go on a study to discover what the mental disorder Melancholia really is.

The United States kept up pressure on China on Thursday to let the yuan climb as Beijing disclosed it was sounding out exporters on whether they could cope with a stronger exchange rate.

World stocks slipped back from recent closing highs on Thursday and the euro fell half a percent against the dollar on worries about Greece not receiving European Union aid.

The euro dropped on Thursday on a report that Greece is not hopeful of aid from the European Union, while Asian stocks hovered near a two-month high, supported by solid growth expectations for the region.

Stock index futures dipped on Thursday, one day after the Dow pushed to a 17-month high, while investors awaited data on consumer inflation and the labor market.

Greece raised the stakes on Thursday in its quest for EU help to tackle its debt crisis, warning it cannot achieve promised deficit cuts if its borrowing costs remain high and might have to call in the IMF.

Research study at one university in Australia showed that older mothers raise smart kids than younger mothers.

China Mobile's forecast-beating results suggest its years of investment in data services is paying off, helping the world's largest mobile carrier report an unexpected rise in revenue per user.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.2 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.07 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.12 percent.

Greece's prime minister warned on Thursday that Athens would not be able to make planned deficit cuts unless it can borrow money more cheaply and said he would prefer not to have to turn to the IMF for help.

Greece may seek financial aid from the International Monetary Fund next month because it is growing increasingly pessimistic about the prospect of help from the European Union, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Thursday.

A top executive for Microsoft Corp's MSN China will leave the joint venture, Microsoft said on Thursday, in a setback as the firm struggles to compete in China's hotly contested social networking space.

A rise in the yuan would be a disaster for labor-intensive Chinese exporters, a semi-official trade group said on Thursday, as frictions grow with the U.S. and other Western powers over Beijing's stable currency policy.

A rise in the yuan would be a disaster for labor-intensive Chinese exporters, a semi-official trade group said on Thursday, as frictions grow with the U.S. and other Western powers over Beijing's stable currency policy.

China faces important negotiations over its exchange rate in coming weeks, the U.S. ambassador to China said on Thursday, adding that it was not just the United States that wanted action on the Chinese yuan.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator, reported a 3.6 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, its best profit in a year and beating expectations as revenues per user posted a rare rise despite intense competition.

Cellphone developer HTC Corp said it is confident it can fight off a recent technology patent infringement lawsuit from iPhone maker Apple Inc and promised to issue a formal response in the next few weeks.

Japan's Nikkei average edged lower on Thursday, slipping from a two-month high hit the previous day, as recent gainers including Canon and real estate shares such as Mitsui Fudosan retreated.

Regional bank Comerica Inc on Wednesday said it has repaid $2.25 billion of federal bailout money, while Hartford Financial Services Group Inc said it sold $1.95 billion of stock to help repay $3.4 billion of its bailout funds.

A purified form of an omega 3 cuts the number and size of precancerous bowel growths (polyps) in people whose genetic make-up predisposes them to bowel cancer, finds research published ahead of print in the journal Gut.

Scientists have identified Rab35 which act as a switch mechanism controlling traffic in our body cells. Defects in this trafficking pathway can have severe consequences, leading to numerous diseases such as high cholesterol, neuropathies, sterility and complications in immune response. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these disorders is crucial to developing possible treatments and new ther...

Apple Inc board member Jerry York was hospitalized on Wednesday near his home in Detroit after suffering a collapse, a person familiar with the matter said.

Google Inc is working with Intel Corp and Sony Corp to develop a new class of Internet-enabled televisions and set top boxes, according to a media report.

Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.

Insurance plans that uses financial incentives and other methods to encourage patients to receive care from doctors who keep medical costs lower are becoming increasingly common. But these efforts may not be based on reliable estimates of doctor performance and may not achieve the intended savings, according to the to a new RAND Corporation study.

The role of selenium in diabetes has been controversial, with some studies suggesting that it raises diabetes risk and others finding that it is protective. Now, research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism, has shown that, for men, high plasma selenium concentrations are associated with a lower occurrence of dysglycemia.

Fungi have significant potential for horizontal gene transfer, a new study has shown, similar to the mechanisms that allow bacteria to evolve so quickly, become resistant to antibiotics and cause other serious problems.