IBT Staff Reporter

Farm equipment maker Agco Corp has agreed to pay $20 million to settle charges it made inappropriate payments to the former Iraqi government under the United Nation's Oil-for-Food Program, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

Bank of America Corp's deal to sell part of its Columbia Management business for about $1 billion is a boost for its effort to unload unwanted assets and raise capital, but the low price suggests it is still facing a buyers' market.

Stocks fell on Wednesday after a surprising contraction in an index of Midwest business activity, but buying of technology bellwethers like Cisco Systems Inc at the end of a strong quarter limited losses.

Cyber criminals are increasingly focusing their attacks on the hundreds of millions of users of social networks and on loopholes in bank security systems, security software vendors said on Wednesday.

Belgian pharmaceutical group UCB raised 450 million euros ($659.9 million) from a six-year convertible bond offer on Wednesday to refinance debt, a figure that could rise to 500 million euros.

Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. mobile service, quietly stopped selling the Verizon Hub on Tuesday, just eight months after it launched the experimental device which combined a home telephone and Web applications.

Stocks fell on Wednesday after a surprising contraction in an index of Midwest business activity, but buying of technology bellwethers like Cisco Systems Inc at the end of a strong quarter limited losses.

One of the critical factors energy analysts focus on each fall, ahead of the rise in demand for heating fuels, is the pre-winter build-up of fuel inventories. This year, inventories are unusually high for all winter fuels, including distillates (which includes heating oil), natural gas, propane, and coal used for electricity generation.

In another sign that the economy is stabilizing, a closely watched private report tracking employment found nonfarm private employment fell by 254,000 from August to September 2009.

Oil prices surged more than 5 percent to settle above $70 a barrel on Wednesday, buoyed by a drop in U.S. gasoline inventories last week that hinted at rising demand in the world's largest energy consumer.

The Federal Reserve may need to begin to pull back its extensive support for the weak U.S. economy before it has healed enough to substantially lower the jobless rate and get factories working again, Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said on Wednesday.

After a very tough first three months of the year, U.S. economic output rebounded sharply in the April through June period, according to a third gross domestic product estimate released today.

Fast uptake of free-to-air mobile TV services in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe is breathing new life into the ailing mobile TV broadcasting market, chip firm Telegent Systems said.

Actress Jessica Biel, 27 and singer Justin Timberlake, 28 have split up after a relationship of three years, according to several reports from celebrity news websites, including US Magazine and Perezhilton.com.

Stocks slipped on Wednesday on news of a surprising contraction in an index of Midwest business activity, but losses were limited by a bounce in technology bellwethers like Cisco Systems Inc at the end of a strong quarter.

U.S. News & World Report released its picks in its October issue for the best affordable places to retire.

Rookie real estate agents generally are nervous about their first listing appointment, but there are some measures they can take to make it a good experience for themselves and their careers.

A study of 24 million credit files by national credit bureau Experian and consulting company Oliver Wyman has shown that home owners with high credit scores are 50 percent more likely to deliberately walk away from a mortgage than lower-scoring borrowers.

Defense contractor Force Protection Inc said it plans to reduce about 10 percent of its workforce of 1200 employees and contractors, and expects a related charge of about $2 million in the third quarter.

U.S. payroll employment will turn positive in the early months of 2010 but the jobless rate is still likely to hit 10 percent before the cutting spree ends, Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, said on Wednesday.

Google began the public testing of Google wave, with 100,000 people invited into the testing phase, each of which can invite up to five people to join in on the testing.

Yum Brands Inc, parent of the Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC chains, raised its quarterly dividend by 11 percent to 21 cents a share.

The greenback advanced against its major rivals in the Wednesday trading session, edging higher against the euro toward the 1.46-level, while pushing the pound sterling to beneath the 1.60-figure and briefly dragging the Swiss franc to a 3-week low at 1.0447. The catalyst for the dollar's gains was a sharply weaker than forecast report on Chicago PMI.

New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman told BusinessWeek magazine on Wednesday that he is one of the bidders for McGraw-Hill Companies Inc's money-losing entity.

Relief workers in American and Western Samoa on Thursday searched for survivors after a series of tsunamis smashed into the tiny Pacific islands, killing possibly more than 100 people and flattening villages.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said on Wednesday policymakers would raise rates well before consumer spending and business investment overheats, adding that obstacles to borrowing are likely to subdue the recovery for some time.

Windows is regaining some of its marketshare on Mac OS X, claims Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a recent interview with TechCrunch.

Clean technology has for the first time become the top category in U.S. venture capital investment, eclipsing biotech and software, as private money follows the government's lead, the Cleantech group reported.

Italy is ready to extend vehicle buying incentives to help the industry beyond the year end if necessary, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday, in response to lobbying from Fiat SpA (FIA.MI) and other carmakers.