IBT Staff Reporter

Bank of America Corp is close to exiting a loss-sharing deal with the Federal Reserve Board and U.S. Treasury that was designed to buttress against potential loan losses, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

With the jobless rate rising even as the recession eases its grip, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill this week to extend unemployment benefits for those who risk exhausting them.

Valero Energy Corp said a small fire was quickly extinguished on Monday morning at its 100,000 barrel per day (bpd) Three Rivers, Texas, refinery, which is currently shut for a planned overhaul.

Spain's biggest bank Santander could raise about 13.13 billion reais ($7.3 billion) by listing 16.2 percent of its Brazilian unit in the Latin American country's biggest ever initial public offering.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 index fell on Monday as a drop in oil and other commodity prices hurt energy and materials stocks.

Top British pop acts disagreed on Monday over how to tackle illegal file sharers, with singer Lily Allen challenging a new statement from a group of artists that includes Annie Lennox and Radiohead.

A measure of the U.S. economy's prospects scaled a 1-1/2-year high in August but a record rise in home loan defaults cast doubts on the durability of the apparent recovery from recession.

President Barack Obama's multitasking abilities will be tested this week as he juggles war, diplomacy and finance on a high-profile world stage along with the American public's top concern: the U.S. economy.

Apple has been long rumored to be working on an Apple Tablet PC - which the company has not confirmed or denied its existence and when it may be released - it now appears that Microsoft is hard at work on an Apple Tablet killer.

Not far from the heart of Paris, Shakespeare and Company juts out of the cobblestones, offering a brief refuge from the crowded art museums. Gummy fingers pluck through stacks of literature in the

We drove over 5,000 km through 5 European countries in our rental car - an Opel Astra - on our recent family holiday.

Gabrielle Coco Chanel didn't just make beautiful clothes, she also advanced women's rights, says actress Audrey Tautou, who portrays the pioneering French fashion designer in a new film about her early life.

For residents in the Midwest states, it can seem like there aren't many places to go aside from the big cities. Outside of Chicago, skyscrapers give way to strip malls and then it's just cornfields and cow pastures, right? Wrong.

A major exhibition on Renoir opening in Paris this week aims to bring a new perspective to the later works of the French master as his art evolved from the sun-dappled Impressionist style that made his name.

Canada is the second largest country in the world (by land area) and is visited by millions of people every year. They flock, en masse to the southeastern rim of the country, guidebooks in hand, and

Travelling is often about trying the unusual and attempting to experience the different culture of the country you are visiting. One of the best ways to do this is to try the foods the native people eat.

Shares of VeriChip Corp tripled after the company said it had been granted an exclusive license to two patents, which will help it to develop implantable virus detection systems in humans.

Web company AOL is a quarter of the way through discussions with parent Time Warner Inc about its capital structure ahead of its spinoff by year-end, Chief Executive Tim Armstrong said on Monday.

Applied Materials Inc said on Monday it plans to improve efficiency to cut the cost of producing solar panels below $1 per watt in three years and is on track to post profits at its environmental unit next year.

Bank of America Corp CEO Ken Lewis has survived troubled acquisitions, massive credit losses and two government bailouts, but experts question whether he can survive a series of investigations.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 index fell on Monday as a decline in oil and other commodity prices hurt energy and materials stocks.

Shares of government-controlled insurer American International Group Inc rose Monday on hopes that the terms of its government bailout may be eased.

Insurer American International Group Inc's once-desperate financial state has started to stabilize, a government agency said on Monday, as an influential lawmaker said he would look at easing the terms of the insurer's federal bailout once more.

Oil prices settled 3.2 percent lower on Monday as further signs of weak fuel demand raised expectations that prices may have raced ahead of the nascent economic recovery.

As the United States' power grid becomes more sophisticated, electricity rates will need to rise to reflect periods of intense energy use and to encourage consumers to change their electricity habits, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Monday.

Japan Airlines Corp's lenders may approach the Japanese government for a drastic overhaul of the struggling air carrier, including a move to separate its profitable operations from money-losing segments, the Nikkei business daily reported without citing sources.

The Afghan war will be lost unless more troops are sent to pursue a radically revised strategy, the top U.S. and NATO commander said in a confidential assessment that lays out stark choices for President Barack Obama.

An Italian orchestra mainly composed of migrants brings a multicultural version of Mozart's The Magic Flute to Rome on Wednesday to open the city's arts festival amid a debate over a crackdown on illegal migration.

Persuading Europe, the United States and China to accept International Monetary Fund advice on economic polices may be difficult, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday.