IBT Staff Reporter

Big banks will have to set aside more profits or even raise capital as protection against hard times from 2012 under tough new proposals from international regulators, released on Thursday.

General Mills Inc posted an increase in quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of higher-margin products like cereal, as well as falling commodity costs.

Bank of America Corp on Wednesday tapped insider Brian Moynihan as its next chief executive, ending months of speculation about who would succeed Kenneth Lewis to lead the largest U.S. bank.

Top Dubai officials were due in New York on Thursday in an effort to rebuild confidence in the Gulf emirate's finances while at home, developers got back to the business of ambitious construction and leisure projects.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's new chief executive Choi Geesung said the South Korean technology giant would cultivate new revenue sources in the infotainment and lifecare sectors and beef up its PC, appliance and camera businesses.

The Obama administration is to award $2 billion in grants and loans over the next 75 days as part of a plan to dramatically expand Americans' broadband Internet access and create tens of thousands of jobs.

Danish brewer Carlsberg said moves by Russian beer sellers to stock up before a tax hike takes effect next year will boost its 2009 operating profit by close to $60 million.

Development on Nakheel's The World islands, one of the assets the troubled state-linked developer may look to sell amid a debt crunch, is slated to begin within months, according to a newspaper report on Thursday. Nakheel's parent company, Dubai World has asked creditors for a standstill on $26 billion in debt, including $6 billion related to its property units, Nakheel and Limi...

Stock index futures fell on Thursday, indicating a weaker start for Wall Street. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were down 0.3 to 0.4 percent by 0944 GMT (4:55 a.m. EST).

The Beautiful Life, Ashton Kutcher's quickly canceled television drama about fashion models, could gain a second chance to find an audience -- this time on the Web.

National Australia Bank made a surprise trump bid for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings' Australian and New Zealand units on Thursday, in a cash deal that would value all of the target firm at around $12 billion.

Brian Moynihan was on Wednesday evening announced to replace Kenneth Lewis as head of the nation's largest bank.

Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry is in hospital in fighting life threatening injuries after falling off a pickup truck following a domestic dispute with his fiancée.

The U.S. Treasury delayed a plan to sell its $5 billion of Citigroup Inc shares after a stock offering by the bank attracted weak demand and priced at a much lower-than-expected $3.15 a share.

Fed sees openings; FTC Charges Intel; Microsoft's browser pledge

Global shipments of personal computers bounced back in the third quarter of 2009, a sign that information technology spending will pick up in the coming months, a research group reported on Wednesday.

Bailed-out U.S. insurer American International Group plans to file a prospectus for a multibillion-dollar IPO of its Asian life insurance unit before Christmas, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voiced growing optimism on the U.S. economy as job losses slow, but repeated a vow to keep interest rates unusually low for an extended period.

Entertainment mogul Simon Fuller, the creator of TV contest American Idol, on Wednesday announced a new, multimedia reality show distributed on the Internet, radio and social networking sites.

It's too soon for Americans to plan a Cuban vacation of beach, mambo and mojitos, but the U.S. travel industry is gearing up for a return to its largest Caribbean destination before Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

The Treasury delayed a plan to sell $5 billion of Citigroup Inc shares after a stock offering by the bank attracted weak demand and priced at a much lower-than-expected $3.15 a share.

The U.S. Treasury delayed a plan to sell $5 billion of Citigroup Inc shares after a stock offering by the bank attracted weak demand and priced at a much lower-than-expected $3.15 a share.

South Korea's frenetic capital lends itself to many things such as round-the-clock dining, soaking up the country's rich, tumultuous history, or watching cutting-edge technology in action.

Aria, the flagship casino-hotel of MGM Mirage's $8.5 billion CityCenter development, is set to open late on Wednesday, adding about 4,000 high-end rooms to the hotel glut on the Las Vegas Strip.

Rachelle YounglaiU.S. companies will have to disclose their compensation practices for all employees and their board members' qualifications under rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

While Avatar will be released later this week to thousands of movie theaters, with many of those showcasing the 3D technology made especially for the film, a small subset of movie aficionados seeking a more unique movie-going experience will be heading to Hollywood, California.

ABC News will air an interview with Andrew Young, a longtime friend and aide to former Sen. John Edwards who has written a book about Edwards' 2004 campaign and his extra marital affair with Rielle Hunter.

Citigroup Inc is selling shares at $3.15 apiece, far less than the $3.25 price at which the government bought them earlier this year, and the United States has decided not to sell shares, people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

Electronic download service Kobo Inc said its technology is the fastest way for U.S. bookseller Borders Group Inc to catch up to rivals in the burgeoning e-books market.