IBT Staff Reporter

Pictures of clowns are popping up all over Paris, but the joke is on you if you've ever mocked France's Internet entrepreneurs.

Thousands of Haitians at home and abroad are trying to get in touch with each other through a website set up after the devastating earthquake, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus bathed in waters considered sacred across large parts of India to mark the start of a religious festival on Thursday, with at least seven people killed in a stampede in the country's east.

Yemen declared open war on al Qaeda Thursday and warned its citizens against aiding the global militant group, but Islamist clerics threatened jihad if foreign military forces intervene.

Vacancy rates for apartments in New York City's borough of Manhattan, the largest U.S. apartment market, declined in 2009, as lower rents and better landlord incentives attracted tenants, according to a quarterly brokerage report.

Up to 200 international United Nations staff in Haiti, including peacekeepers, remain unaccounted for after its headquarters and other buildings collapsed in a devastating earthquake, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

A U.S. drone fired two missiles on Thursday at a compound in northwest Pakistan where Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was believed to have been, but his fate was not known, Pakistani officials said.

A senior U.S. envoy told the Palestinian president on Thursday that Washington is working hard to find a way to broker a resumption of peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said.

U.S. foreclosure actions shattered all records in 2009 and will do so again this year, with unemployment and wage cuts overcoming programs to remedy failing home loans, RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

U.S. consumers curbed their Christmas spending in December and more people filed claims for jobless benefits last week, casting fresh doubts on whether the economic recovery can last once government support fades.

Google Inc, involved in high-stakes brinkmanship with the Chinese government, might still seek ways to market other products in the country even if it quits its China search business.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Thursday Moscow will find alternative poultry import sources if the United States, Russia's top supplier, does not observe new safety rules.

The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance climbed more than expected last week but a measure of underlying trends moved steadily lower in a sign that labor markets are slowly improving.

President Barack Obama proposed a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee on Thursday to make big banks and other financial institutions repay taxpayer funds that helped bail them out during the financial crisis.

The risk that deteriorating government finances could push economies into full-fledged debt crises tops a list of threats facing the world in 2010, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

Lotte Group, which operates South Korea's second-largest retailer Lotte Shopping, said it was considering buying GS Retail's department store and discount store operations.

President Barack Obama is set to announce this morning a 'financial crisis responsibility fee' that may generate $90 to $120 billion dollars for tax payers over the next 10 years, the White House said late Wednesday, according to media reports.

President Barack Obama on Thursday will propose major U.S. financial firms pay a fee to protect taxpayers from up to $117 billion in losses on a bank bailout that has spurred fury at Wall Street excess.

Stocks edged higher on Thursday as optimism about forthcoming earnings from technology bellwether Intel Corp overcame doubts about the pace of economic recovery stirred by a drop in December U.S. retail sales.

Lithium-ion battery supplier A123 Systems said on Thursday that it had signed a deal to supply power packs for the Fisker Karma, a rechargeable luxury car being launched later this year.

Financial regulators, lulled into inaction by soaring bank and Wall Street profits, failed to protect Americans from the 2008 financial crisis, a senior U.S. official told an investigative panel on Thursday.

Williams-Sonoma Inc reported a 7.4 percent rise in holiday revenue, prompting the home goods retailer to forecast fourth-quarter results above market estimates.

In their first face-to-face talks on merging health bills in the Senate and House of Representatives, Democratic leaders worked through differences on how to pay for the overhaul, how to structure new insurance exchanges and a host of other issues.

The launch of the Google Nexus One was undoubtedly one of the most hyped phone releases so far this year. However, early reports of its first week of sales, show dismal results.

Most antidepressants -- including the commonly used Prozac and Zoloft -- work by increasing the amount of serotonin, a message-carrying brain chemical made deep in the middle of the brain by cells known as raphe neurons.

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Thursday after an unexpected drop in U.S. retail sales last month pointed to an uneven economic recovery.

A top U.S. bank regulator said on Thursday that watchdogs failed to control excesses in the financial system, letting record profits mask fundamental problems.

Venture capitalists were never very interested in the retail sector, but they are now taking a second look, focusing on a new generation of online retailers and the next wave of technology to help stores optimize how they run their businesses.

Traumatized Haitians slept out in parks and streets on Thursday, fearing aftershocks to the catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and government buildings and buried countless people.