IBT Staff Reporter

Jennifer Lyon, a contestant on Survivor: Palau in 2005, died at her home in Oregon Tuesday night after loosing a battle with breast cancer. According to People magazine, she was 37 and was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer that same year after placing fourth in the reality series.

Up to 200,000 Haitians in the United States when a devastating earthquake struck last week will be allowed to stay and work for up to 18 months to aid in their country's recovery, the U.S. government said on Wednesday.

Google Inc is expected to deliver stellar fourth-quarter results on Thursday, but investors will be seeking insight into a disagreement with China that has cast its future in the world's largest Internet market into doubt.

General Re Corp., a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK), has agreed to pay $92.2 million to settle investigations and claims that it allegedly entered into sham reinsurance contracts, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Wednesday.

U.S. regulators filed a lawsuit against Berkshire Hathaway Inc's General Re alleging the reinsurer used sham transactions to help manipulate American International Group Inc and Prudential Financial Inc's financial statements, according to documents filed in a New York federal court on Wednesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged lawmakers on Wednesday to coalesce around elements in healthcare reform that could be agreed and said the new Republican senator from Massachusetts should be seated before a vote on the bill.

Following a successful showing at this years Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, market researchers are predicting that over 15 million 3D television will be sold by 2013.

Companies that are delinquent on their taxes may no longer receive government contracts.

Warren Buffett said Kraft Foods Inc's proposed $19.6 billion acquisition of Cadbury Plc is a bad deal and questioned how Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld chose to pay for it.

President Barack Obama ordered a new crackdown Wednesday on federal contractors who don't pay their taxes.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc introduced a plan on Wednesday to offer authors and publishers a bigger cut of the discount books sold on its popular Kindle electronic reader.

Apple Inc is talking with Microsoft Corp about making it the default search engine provider for the iPhone, replacing Google Inc, BusinessWeek reported on Wednesday.

U.S. home starts unexpectedly fell last month as unusually cold weather hampered construction, but a jump in building permits to a 14-month high indicated the housing market recovery was intact.

Latin American wireless carrier NII Holdings Inc plans to bid for new frequencies to bolster its coverage in Mexico as it deploys 3G technology across the region to improve services and boost client base.

Sony Computer Entertainment announced Wednesday that it plans to roll out its new motion controller for the PlayStation 3 this fall.

Israel's largest traded defence contractor Elbit Systems said on Wednesday it had won a $15.6 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps.

Airbus parent EADS does not have adequate systems in place to monitor costs on its troubled A400M military plane project, buyer nations have been told, putting pressure on the planemaker ahead of crucial talks on Thursday.

Using Koranic verses and the call to prayer as mobile phone ringtones is inappropriate and violates the sanctity of the word of God, Egypt's highest religious legal authority, Mufti Ali Gomaa, said on Wednesday.

Wells Fargo & Co and U.S. Bancorp reported better-than-forecast quarterly earnings, helped by recent acquisitions, while larger rival Bank of America Corp got a boost from Merrill Lynch.

Wall Street suffered its worst slide of 2010 on Wednesday as investors worried that lending restrictions in China could hurt the global economic recovery, while a conservative outlook from IBM dented recent optimism about the technology sector.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants to expand its lawsuit in the widening Galleon hedge fund probe to add new charges against two defendants, Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam and former McKinsey & Co director Anil Kumar.

U.S. retail brokerages modestly boosted fourth-quarter profits as higher merger and recruiting expenses largely offset growing management fees and a market-fueled increase in client assets.

Oil prices fell toward $77 a barrel on Wednesday as the dollar strengthened and Wall Street slipped on worries about domestic bank results and bank lending curbs in China.

The dollar continued to rally in Wednesday mid-day trading New York time after Chinese authorities announced ahead of the Asian trading session that banks will slow lending for 2010.

General Electric Co is on track to report its eighth straight quarter of profit declines on Friday, with investors looking for evidence the largest U.S. conglomerate is stabilizing its hefty finance unit.

International rescue teams in Haiti have rescued a total of 121 people as of Wednesday, the United Nations said today according to AFP.

As investors and technology enthusiasts focus on Apple's anticipated unveiling of its tablet PC, new iPhone software and version tailored for Verizon may be also in the works.

U.S. stocks were having their worst day of 2010 on Wednesday as lending restrictions in China worried investors about the global economic recovery, while a conservative outlook from IBM weighed down technology shares.

Unemployment rates will likely peak in most U.S. cities in 2010, but it will be many more years before jobless rates hit their lows of the last decade, a report released by a U.S. mayors group shows.