IBT Staff Reporter

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed with U.S. President Barack Obama to coordinate on the future of Opel after General Motors'surprise decision to keep the unit, a German government spokesman said on Thursday.

Japan Airlines Corp, which is seeking a state bailout, said it would hold a briefing on changes to its route and flight frequency plans on Thursday at 2 a.m. EST.

Australian toll road operator Transurban Group rejected a $4.4 billion buyout approach from two Canadian pension funds on Thursday, but left the door open to a better offer, sending its shares up 20 percent.

CVS Caremark Corp posted a bigger-than-expected jump in quarterly profit on Thursday as consumers filled more prescriptions and said this year's profit should come in towards the higher end of its forecast.

U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday as business productivity grew at the fastest pace in six years and applications for jobless insurance fell to a 10-month low, and Cisco Systems Inc gave an extra boost to the market after posting upbeat results.

Canada's Agrium Inc sweetened its hostile bid for U.S. rival CF Industries to $4.52 billion, the latest twist in a three-way takeover battle, but the offer failed to impress CF's investors and the company's shares fell 8.4 percent.

An Italian judge sentenced 23 Americans to up to eight years in prison on Wednesday for the abduction of a Muslim cleric, in a symbolic condemnation of the CIA rendition flights used by the former U.S. government.

An experimental vaccine cured nearly half of women with pre-cancerous growths on their genitals, producing major improvement in nearly four out of five, researchers in the Netherlands reported on Wednesday.

It would be very hard for next year's elections in Myanmar to be legitimate without the involvement of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a senior United States official said on

The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday approved a Democratic climate change bill that would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

Women who smoke while pregnant risk having hyperactive preschoolers who can't pay attention, a large study from the UK hints.

Democrats in the House of Representatives scrambled on Wednesday to iron out lingering concerns over abortion in a healthcare reform bill that was headed to a close and potentially historic weekend debate.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher warned France's ambassador months before German's 1990 reunification of a domineering Chancellor Helmut Kohl who sees himself as the master, diplomatic notes revealed Thursday.

Russian military intelligence believes Georgia might again attack South Ossetia, the pro-Moscow region over which the two countries fought a war last year, a powerful spy chief said on Thursday

Nearly a third of Americans who die are in the hospital at the time and their last treatments cost the U.S. economy $20 billion, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he would not seek re-election in a vote planned for January, citing stalemate in peace talks with Israel, but Palestinian officials urged him to change his mind

The European Central Bank took its first step toward unwinding its extraordinary support measures for the euro zone economy on Thursday by signaling one-year loans to banks will not be repeated next year.

The United Nations said on Thursday it would evacuate hundreds of its international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks due to deteriorating security, a sharp blow for Western efforts to stabilize the country.

U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Steny Hoyer on Thursday said he expects the House to pass a sweeping healthcare overhaul on Saturday, but acknowledged that the vote would be close.

States and counties will be struggling to vaccinate people against the swine flu pandemic well into December and January -- long after the first peak of the virus in the United States, officials said on Wednesday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is offering its top 10 pre-order DVD movie titles at just $10 and free home delivery on its entire assortment of DVD and Blu-ray titles in another move to win holiday sales.

Eight more people have been arrested in connection with the Galleon insider-trading scandal, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Americans are more likely than people in 10 other countries to have trouble getting medical treatment because of insurance restrictions or cost, an international survey of primary care doctors released on Wednesday found.

Pop star Beyonce and hip hop artist Jay-Z will perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards on Thursday, being held in the German capital to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Wall Street was set for a higher open on Thursday as data showed a steep pickup in productivity and a decline in applications for jobless insurance.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were chosen as co-hosts of next year's Oscars to inject a fresh comedic twist into the ceremony while building on decades of tradition, new co-producer Adam Shankman said.

China should roughly halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to keep the world on a safe climate path, the head of the U.S. delegation at U.N. climate talks in Barcelona said on Thursday.

There isn't much that's fine in Everybody's Fine, an embarrassing misfire for Kirk Jones, who once gave us the exhilarating comedy Waking Ned Devine, and for Miramax, a storied company now reduced to little more than a film library.

Sundance Film Festival organizers on Wednesday unveiled plans for a one-night expansion of January's event to theaters in eight U.S. cities, hoping to encourage a discussion about the role art and cinema play in people's lives.