IBT Staff Reporter

The prepaid market has gone from a telecom darling to a precarious prospect in mere months as intensifying competition and signs of slowing growth at Leap Wireless suggest that the euphoria may have been premature.

Swiss dental implant maker Nobel Biocare beat forecasts with a 16 percent rise in second-quarter profit thanks to cost-cutting, raising hopes that the worst of the economic downturn was behind the group.

Russian leaders are stuck in their imperial past and seem to relish bullying and threatening their neighbors, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday, responding to a tirade from Moscow the previous day.

Hundreds of people were still missing on Wednesday in remote villages in southern Taiwan and disaster officials said they were uncertain how many might have been killed by mudslides triggered by Typhoon Morakot.

Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. home funding source, said on Wednesday it sold $3.0 billion in bills at lower interest rates, compared with sale of the same maturities than a week ago.

Oil reversed early losses on Wednesday rising toward $71 a barrel on equity markets, after falling to the lowest in August so far due to concerns about the strength of demand ahead of weekly U.S. inventory data.

Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc said on Wednesday it expects to report a 42 percent drop in third-quarter homebuilding revenue, but said net signed contracts increased in the quarter and said home buyers are less concerned about prices.

Starwood Property Trust Inc priced shares for $20 on Tuesday and twice boosted the number of shares offered in what is likely to emerge as the largest U.S. initial public stock offering of the year.

Emdeon Inc shares started trading for $17.75 in their debut on Wednesday following their initial public offering, and rose to as much as $18.24.

Brazilian technology services company Tivit has filed for a third attempt at an initial private offering on the Bovespa stock exchange, according to a securities filing published on Tuesday.

Police on Tuesday conducted a new raid of a Las Vegas medical facility in their ongoing probe into the death of Michael Jackson, this time searching a pharmacy for documents and computer records.

The speaker of Iran's parliament on Wednesday rejected as baseless an opposition leader's accusation that moderates had been raped in jail following their detention in unrest linked to June's disputed presidential poll.

American International Group, seeking to raise cash to repay around $180 billion in bail-out loans, has agreed to sell its Hong Kong consumer finance and India-based IT services units.

China said on Wednesday the world should respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty after the junta sent Aung San Suu Kyi back into detention, triggering Western outrage but only a measured response from its neighbors.

Fed at Crossroads; Breakthrough in Tax Case; Cooling Clunkers

Buyout funds including Permira and KKR have been told to submit their first bids by September 1 for Citigroup Inc's Bellsystem24, a leading Japanese telemarketer, in what might be the largest private equity deal in Japan this year, sources familiar with the process said on Wednesday.

Scailex Corp said on Wednesday it had signed a deal to buy Hutchison Telecommunications stake in Israeli mobile phone operator Partner Communications for $1.38 billion.

Beyonce and new-comer Lady Gaga will battle it out at this years MTV Video Music Awards - as both have been nominated in the top categories.

BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc , the world's largest miner, gave a guarded outlook for global commodity demand, sending a worrying signal for weaker rivals, after a slump in metals prices triggered its first profit decline in seven years.

China's state-run Sinochem Corp has agreed to buy British oil and gas explorer Emerald Energy Plc for about 532.1 million pounds ($878.2 million) in cash, the companies said on Wednesday.

U.S. coal giant Peabody Energy Corp. said Australia's planned carbon trade scheme would hurt investment in coal mines and could force mine closures as Australia's parliament prepares to vote down the scheme.

Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc said on Wednesday it expects to report a 42 percent drop in third-quarter homebuilding revenue, but said net signed contracts increased in the quarter.

The U.S. government and Swiss bank UBS AG have initialled agreements to settle their tax evasion dispute, a U.S. government attorney said on Wednesday, ending weeks of tough negotiations between the two sides.

U.S. consumer confidence rose in August, mirroring gains in the stock market, a survey released on Tuesday said.

Red hot auto sales under the U.S. government's cash for clunkers incentive began to cool as dealer inventories tightened and showroom traffic showed signs of leveling off from its frantic pace of a week ago.

Job-seeking in this 21st century recession may just have gone viral and mobile.

Macy's Inc posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday as it cut costs in the recession, but the department store operator's shares fell 2.2 percent in premarket trading as it offered a full-year earnings outlook that could miss Wall Street estimates.

Stock index futures edged up on Wednesday as investors shied away from big bets ahead of Federal Reserve statements on the state of the economy.

Children are using the Internet to watch YouTube videos, connect with friends on social network sites and look up sex and porn, according to a study of the top Web searches by youngsters.