IBT Staff Reporter

The United States committed $2.7 billion on Wednesday to help fight HIV infection in Kenya where more than a million people are living with the disease.

Azerbaijan's crude oil production rose by 13.5 percent in January-November year-on-year to 46.36 million tonnes, thanks to rising output from the BP-led AIOC group, the State Statistics Committee said on Wednesday.

Significantly more Americans are nearsighted today than in the early 1970s, a report released today indicates.

The advent of antibody testing to diagnose celiac disease has led to a substantial increase in the number of cases detected among children, a new study suggests.

The Obama administration said on Tuesday it will move some Guantanamo Bay detainees to an Illinois prison and hold U.S. military commission trials there in plans immediately criticized as risky by Republicans.

European leaders are courting some African, Asian and Latin American nations to counter the clout of China and the United States at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, French officials said.

Southwest Airlines Co topped the list of the 50 best U.S. places to work, based upon employee opinions, according to research released on Wednesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il amid efforts by the United States to persuade Pyongyang to return to nuclear disarmament talks.

A majority of job-seekers in the finance sector would consider taking a pay cut since their job searches are taking longer than initially expected, according to a survey by an online career management company.

Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island and Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer will have their world premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

The Kyoto Protocol which binds nearly 40 rich nations to limit carbon emissions is in intensive care and global negotiations to extend the pact have stalled, Environment Minister Jairam Rameshsaid on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve is expected to stick to its highly accommodative monetary policy when it wraps up a two-day meeting on Wednesday, with high unemployment constraining enthusiasm about an improving economy.

Oscar winner Nicole Kidman dodged British reporter Andrew Marr's question about her former husband's religion, Scientology in an interview on a BBC show.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who helped steer the U.S. economy through its darkest days since the Great Depression, was named Time magazine's 2009 Person of the Year on Wednesday.

The landlord and tenants of a vast New York City apartment complex have reached an interim rental agreement for 4,000 apartments hit with illegal rent increases, attorneys for the two sides said on Monday.

U.S. mortgage applications nudged higher last week, marking a third straight weekly rise, driven by a slight uptick in demand for home refinancing loans, an industry group reported on Wednesday.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on Wednesday extended until further notice the tenure of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority, PLO officials told Reuters.

Wall Street was set to rise at the open on Wednesday after data showed consumer prices did not overheat in November, quelling inflation worries ahead of a statement from the Federal Reserve that will be scrutinized for clues on the state of the world's largest economy.

Detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was briefly allowed out of her home on Wednesday by the military government to meet senior members of her party and one said they had agreed to changes in the party leadership.

Italian police have arrested a 26-year-old man who tried to reach the hospital room of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is recovering from an attack on Sunday that left him with a fractured nose and broken teeth.

The Chinese government's latest campaign against pornography on the Internet and through mobile WAP sites will continue through May next year, with an emphasis on breaking the business that support the sites, the Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

New housing starts rose but were lower than expected in November as construction activity for single family dwellings increased only marginally, a government report showed on Wednesday.

World leaders took the stage at the largest ever climate talks on Wednesday as ministers scrambled to rescue troubled negotiations on a pact to avoid dangerous global warming.

A senior Iranian oil official said on Wednesday a move by U.S. lawmakers to target the Islamic Republic with fuel sanctions would not cause any problems because Tehran had many suppliers.

Danish police detained 230 people on Wednesday as protesters stormed barricades around a global climate summit and a handful briefly broke through, witnesses and a police spokesman said.

Australia's central bank raised interest rates for a record third successive month earlier in December, pulling further back from emergency lows as the economy gallops ahead of its peers in the developed world.

European shares extended gains in morning trade on Wednesday, with banks taking the lead after sources said global regulators plan to give banks a grace period before they have to implement new, stronger capital rules.

Factory Push for White House; Fed's Market Impact; Citi's Tax Boon

Global equities edged higher on Wednesday, led by banks after a report that global banking regulators are eyeing delaying the implementation of new capital rules, while gold and crude prices were also in demand.