IBT Staff Reporter

The world has become far too hot for the aptly named Exit Glacier in Alaska.

The Obama administration reasserted its commitment to banning proprietary trading by banks with draft legislative language on Wednesday, despite signs that Congress is unlikely to adopt such a rule.

World stocks slipped on Thursday while the euro held above a recent 9-month low against the dollar as the European Central Bank prepared to announce next steps in stimulus withdrawal after its policy meeting.

Anheuser-Busch InBev forecast a challenging start to 2010 with US volumes under pressure after mixed fourth-quarter results.

Shareholders of Washington Mutual Inc have filed a complaint against the savings bank holding company for not convening an annual shareholders' meeting for nearly two years, court documents show.

Asian shares failed to hold on to their early gains, slipping into negative territory as worries about Greece and the outlook for the global economy made investors cautious.

Asian shares eked out gains and the euro extended its rise on Thursday after Greece announced fresh austerity measures to reduce its deficit and on data pointing to a rebound in the U.S. jobs market.

The chief executives of Britain's Prudential Plc and American International Group met employees of the two firms in Southeast Asia on Thursday, in a bid to address concerns about the insurance industry's record M&A deal unveiled earlier this week.

The United States, France and other Western powers are preparing a plan for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program and hope to persuade Russia and China to back it.

Dutch anti-Islamist leader Geert Wilders scored major gains in local authority polls on Thursday, making him a serious challenger for power in a June national election, preliminary results showed.

Frightened by more heavy aftershocks, coastal residents in Chile camped out on hillsides on Thursday, five days after one of the strongest earthquakes in a century killed more than 800 people.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 shook Taiwan early on Thursday, injuring 11, stopping transport and causing minor damage and fires in the southern half of the island.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai must take significant steps to fight corruption, the U.S. military's top officer said on Wednesday, suggesting Washington was concerned inaction could undercut the campaign against the Taliban.

The Obama administration reasserted its commitment to banning proprietary trading by banks with draft legislative language on Wednesday, despite signs that the U.S. Congress is unlikely to adopt such a rule.

Directors of State Street Corp paid departing Chief Executive Ronald Logue $5.4 million as the cash portion of his incentive compensation for last year, the company said in a securities filing on Wednesday.

Foot Locker on Wednesday posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that fell a penny short of Wall Street estimates, but beat on revenue and cited a same-store sales increase for January and February.

The two largest U.S. military shipyards warned on Wednesday that the U.S. Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan funded 13 fewer surface ships in the near term, which would likely result in layoffs across the industry and higher shipbuilding costs.

Starbucks Corp said that its cafes in UK and Japan will soon sell its Via instant coffee, which helped boost same-store sales at U.S. outlets in the latest quarter.

Wells Fargo & Co , the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets, paid Chief Executive John Stumpf compensation worth $21.3 million for 2009, a package that likely makes him the highest-paid U.S. bank CEO, according to materials filed with U.S. regulators.

Iceland has made a last-ditch compensation offer to Britain and the Netherlands in talks over $5 billion lost in Icesave accounts, ahead of a Saturday referendum which is expected to nullify the current deal.

U.S. health regulators warned units of Nestle and more than a dozen other foodmakers about overstating or misstating the nutritional value of baby food, nuts and other products on their labels.

Nortel Networks Corp said it received U.S. and Canadian court approval for the sale of its carrier Voice over Internet Protocol and application solutions business to Genband Inc for about $182 million.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to win Brazil's support on Wednesday for more sanctions against Iran and said Tehran would not talk seriously about its nuclear program until the United Nations took new action.

Despite the twin challenges of a global recession and dwindling desktop PC sales, unit shipments of LCD monitors increased by 3.8 percent in 2009, a far better result than vendors expected in the dark days of January 2009, according to iSuppli Corp.

The top House Republican is attempting to open the way for voters to see debates about U.S. finances and a key report recommending fixes for the budget deficit ahead of November's elections.

Twitter plans to adopt Google's very successful Ad Model for its own website. Twitter will let advertisers sign up to have their ads show up as tiny 140-word posts when users search through Twitter or through other search engines that use its API.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc is raising the annual amount of stock and options that it gives board members who do not work for the company by 25 percent.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, an executive credited with bringing an urgency to the automaker's efforts to revamp its vehicle line-up and shake off negative consumer perceptions, will retire on May 1, General Motors Co said on Wednesday.

Buffalo's Statler Towers hotel was, at 18 stories, one of New York state's tallest building when it was erected in 1923. It now stands vacant and boarded up as a sore reminder of the city's long, losing quest to attract business, investment and residents.