IBT Staff Reporter

Film director Roman Polanski, arrested earlier this week in Switzerland, saw support weaken on Wednesday for his effort to evade sentencing in the United States in the rape of a 13-year-old girl three decades ago.

American TV viewers are seeing more gay, lesbian and transgender characters on their screens and story lines are better reflecting current issues in the gay community, according to a survey set for release on Thursday.

Citigroup said on Thursday it has reached an agreement with a private banking client that had sued the bank for losing millions of dollars in foreign exchange and bond trades.

The explosion of ways people watch television is confounding the media industry, which has relied for decades on the Nielsen ratings but now must adapt to the realities of the Internet and on-demand video.

Paul McCartney's recent three-night concert stand in New York City -- during which the rock legend delved into his Beatles, Wings and solo catalogs and brought Billy Joel to the stage -- is coming to CD and DVD.

Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co closed a long-awaited deal on Thursday to buy its Amsterdam-quoted fund, becoming a Euronext- listed company and completing the first step toward an expected move to the New York Stock Exchange.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday, with investors consolidating gains after a strong quarter, and as a raft of economic data was due that could offer clues about the tone of economic recovery.

A British government minister asked California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to shut down a U.S. website that allows men to rate prostitutes, including many working in London.

The European Union launched a free satellite navigation network on Thursday that could help pilots, drivers and blind people by fine-tuning the accuracy of the U.S. global positioning system to around 2 meters.

The explosion of ways people watch television is confounding the media industry, which has relied for decades on the Nielsen ratings but now must adapt to the realities of the Internet and on-demand video.

Unemployment in the 16-country euro zone rose to a more than 10-year high of 9.6 percent in August and economists warned it will likely worsen further, hurting the prospects for a strong economic recovery.

A dearth of new products, new technologies and fresh commitments by governments scrambling to protect their populations from pandemic threats have lured U.S. drugmakers back into the flu vaccine business.

Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in September, showing further signs that the labor market is improving. Planned job cuts announced by U.S. employers fell to 66,404 last month, down 13 percent from 76,456 in August, according to a report released on Thursday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday as investors awaited a raft of data, including manufacturing and jobless, that could provide clues on the strength of an economic recovery. The data due out will also include pending home sales, personal income and consumption, and may offer fresh evidence on the strength of the U.S. recovery, ahead of Friday's non-farm payrolls.

Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in September, showing further signs that the labor market is improving. Planned job cuts announced by U.S. employers fell to 66,404 last month, down 13 percent from 76,456 in August, according to a report released on Wednesday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday as investors awaited a raft of data, including manufacturing and jobless, that could provide clues on the strength of an economic recovery.

Weakness from commodity stocks and banks outweighed gains in insurers by midsession Thursday, leaving European shares 0.3 percent weaker as nervousness about the global economy resurfaced.

Britain's top shares fell 0.7 percent by mid-session on Thursday, as weak banks, miners and energy stocks dragged the index lower, outweighing strength in life insurers.

Cisco has agreed to buy Norwegian videoconferencing company Tandberg for $3 billion, the latest in a series of bets taken on using video to drive demand for its core data transmission gear.

Prosecutors will unveil the result of its long running investigation into allegations of corruption and bribery at defense giant BAE Systems later on Thursday.

* U.S. stock index futures point to a flat to weaker start for Wall Street on Thursday, with the Nasdaq Composite futures NDc1 down 0.3 percent after Cisco System (CSCO.O) offered to buy Norwegian Tandberg for $3 billion in cash.

Oil fell below $70 on Thursday, pulling back after the biggest daily jump since April as ballooning distillate stocks doused positive sentiment and revived the view that oil prices may have run ahead of demand.

If struggling U.S. commercial lender CIT Group Inc were to collapse it would be a drastic mistake as the small businesses that rely on it would have few alternate sources of funding, turnaround experts said at the Reuters Restructuring Summit this week.

Manufacturing activity surged across Asia in September as demand picked up, although plans by Japanese manufacturers for record cuts in capital spending cast doubts on the strength of a recovery in the industrialized world.

Oil eased toward $70 on Thursday, pulling back after the sharpest daily jump since April as ballooning distillate stocks doused positive sentiment and revived the view that oil prices may have run ahead of demand.

Stock futures pointed to a flat to weaker start for Wall Street on Thursday, with the Nasdaq Composite futures down 0.3 percent after Cisco System offered to buy Norwegian Tandberg for $3 billion in cash.

Japan's Toshiba Corp said on Thursday it has taken over Fujitsu Ltd's loss-making hard drive business as it seeks to eke out growth in notebook PC hard drives in a market dominated by bigger rivals.

World stocks kicked off October on a steady note on Thursday as caution over the state of U.S. recovery tempered anticipation that the global economy would gather momentum in the final three months of 2009.

UBS has redeployed two managing directors to strengthen its team catering to Asia's super-rich.