IBT Staff Reporter

Warren Buffett is again raising money for charity by auctioning a chance to dine with him, though it remains to be seen if the global recession keeps the winning bid below last year's record $2.11 million.

The operators of anonymous stock trading venues called 'dark pools' defended their existence on Friday, but conceded they could be more transparent after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned they posed emerging risks.

Bank of America Corp said on Friday retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks and retired Navy Adm. Joseph Prueher have resigned from its board, meaning more than a third of its board has stepped aside since late April.

U.S. states probing employee bonuses paid by American International Group Inc using taxpayer money plan to join federal investigators in the matter, while leaving open the possibility of pursuing the case themselves.

Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said in a published report on Friday it may stop making video games for Sony's PlayStation 3, the No. 3 console in the United States, due to high costs and poor sales.

An Iraqi IT expert has set up the country's first e-shopping website for trading anything from cars to game consoles, hoping to build a business that may one day cater for locals and foreign investors alike.

Salesforce.com Inc's outspoken chief executive took a few jabs at Microsoft Corp's lumbering efforts to build up its cloud computing services on Thursday, on a visit to the world's largest software company's home town.

Worldwide PC shipments took a major plunge in the first quarter of 2009, according to analysts figures released on Friday however, analysts said it's too early to know if the market has hit bottom.

A small group of General Motors Corp bondholders formally objected on Friday to the automaker's plans for a speedy sale of its assets in bankruptcy court, according to court documents.

Yahoo Inc said it will incur $22 million to $27 million in restructuring charges in the current quarter to account for previously announced layoffs of 5 percent of its staff.

Coda Automotive is looking to beat its competitors to the market by being the first in introducing a highway capable electric sedan in the United States market as soon as next year, according to a report.

German car maker Daimler is in advanced talks to buy a stake in sports car maker Porsche SE, German magazine manager magazin reported on Friday on its website, citing financial sources.

GlaxoSmithKline's chief executive acknowledged on Friday that overhauling its drug discovery machine had been traumatic but said turning back the clock on R&D was now delivering results.

Action News sports director Gary Papa, 54, died Friday, more than five years after suffering from prostate cancer.

California, which is struggling to close a $24.3 billion budget gap, faces the prospect of a multi-notch downgrade in its credit rating if the state's legislature fails to act quickly to produce a budget, Moody's Investors Service warned on Friday.

A congressional committee said on Friday it has served the Federal Reserve with a second subpoena for documents related to Bank of America Corp's purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Mozilla has uploaded a Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) in their FTP servers meaning it is live and available for download anytime.

U.S. financial markets entered a new era of good feelings in March on the back of sentiment surveys pointing to a rebound just around the corner, but hard economic data has yet to back it up.

Russia plans to release 30 percent more greenhouse gases by 2020 under an emissions target scheme announced on Friday by President Dmitry Medvedev.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill called cash-for-clunkers on Thursday which will provide cash vouchers of up to $4,500 to car owners who are willing to sell their old vehicles and trade them for new car or trucks with greater fuel efficiency.

JPMorgan Chase & Co said it expects to record a $1.1 billion charge in its second-quarter results after returning $25 billion in taxpayer funds to the U.S. government.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose on Friday as positive broker comments on Microsoft boosted technology shares, but the major averages lost ground for the week for the first time in five weeks.

In the month of May unemployment in the West toppled 10 percent for the first time as it reported an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent.

Ennis house - the mansion designed by US architect Frank Lloyd Wright that was used as a backdrop for movies like Blade Runner and TV show Buffy, the Vampire Slayer - has been put on the market for $15 million.

It was only a simple action - a small arm motion and the job would soon be finished. So why was I so afraid? From where was this apprehension coming? I reasoned with myself that thousands had gone before me and safely achieved this ambition.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose on Friday as positive broker comments on Microsoft boosted technology shares, but the major averages lost ground for the week for the first time in five weeks.

In the month of May unemployment in the West toppled 10 percent for the first time as it reported an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent.

Delinquencies on mortgages that underlie commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) rose by $1.63 billion in May, pushed up in part by the bankruptcy of General Growth Properties Inc (GGWPQ.PK), according to rating agency Realpoint.

The global economic renaissance will remain in grave peril until banks and investors quit mourning the end of a long-dead real estate boom and face up to losses inflicted by years of reckless lending and spending.