IBT Staff Reporter

Manny Ramirez, the Dodgers’ All-Star outfielder, was suspended by Major League Baseball for 50 games on Thursday for violating its performance-enhancing drug testing program, the Major League Baseball said.

Outbreaks of the new H1N1 swine flu continue to spread across the United States, with 896 confirmed cases and more to come, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

U.S. special envoy Scott Gration called on Sudan on Thursday to carry out credible elections, due next year, and pledged Washington's support for a referendum on southern independence set for 2011.

At least two-thirds of the $410 billion of U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities loans that mature from this year through 2018 are not likely to qualify for refinancing, according to a report by Deutsche Bank.

Pirates have fired small arms weapons at a U.S. Navy supply ship off the coast of Eastern Somalia, the first attack of this kind since last year's surge in pirate attacks, the U.S. Navy said on Thursday.

President Obama and Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston both have employed the same “commonsensical” idea, one that more businesses would do well to emulate if they want to get better business results, especially in these difficult times.

Oil prices closed at a near six-month high on Thursday amid simmering hopes for an economic recovery that could lift ailing world energy demand.

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it will buy computer game designer BigPark Inc for an undisclosed amount, as it pushes its strategy of producing exclusive games for its Xbox entertainment system.

The European Central Bank said it will buy up bonds for the first time and trimmed its main interest rate to a record low on Thursday in a bid to stem the euro zone's economic decline and shore up shaky markets.

NEW YORK, May 7 - Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N) floated a plan to spin off of its Madison Square Garden business, which includes its New York Knicks basketball team and Radio City Music Hall, and it posted a first-quarter profit.

The biggest regulatory changes since the 1930s are bearing down on the U.S. securities and investment industry and many firms are ill-prepared, says a new study by research firm TowerGroup .

Stocks slid on Thursday as investors booked profits in the hard-charging technology sector, while analyst downgrades hurt the telecom sector and a tepid response to a government bond auction undercut sentiment.

The greenback was mixed on the Thursday session, initially sharply lower against the euro before recovering by afternoon trading.

Natural gas spot prices rose this week at almost every market location, with increases generally ranging between 10 and 30 cents per million Btu (MMBtu).

The Pentagon said on Wednesday it was seeking a $1.2 billion funding cut in missile defense spending for fiscal 2010 and set its budget request for the Missile Defense Agency at $7.8 billion.

JPMorgan Chase & Co is looking at growth opportunities through government-assisted acquisitions of troubled institutions, despite the obstacle posed by deposit caps, said Oppenheimer and Co analysts, who met JPMorgan's chief financial officer earlier this week.

Clayton Homes, the largest manufacturer of modular homes in the U.S., officially introduced its i-house (or ihome) which is perhaps the most affordable option for a low-carbon lifestyle at the moment.

BRUSSELS, May 7 - The European Commission is set to rule next week that the world's largest chipmaker, Intel Corp (INTC.O), breached antitrust rules and will fine it and order changes to how it provides rebates, sources said on Thursday.

General Motors Corp said it burned through $10.2 billion in the first quarter as it relied on a federal bailout to ride out a sharp decline in global sales that overwhelmed its cost-cutting efforts.

This week, based on indicators of improving Chinese manufacturing activity, commodity and stock markets surged in the Pacific Rim.

General Electric Co said on Thursday it plans to invest $6 billion by 2015 to help its healthcare customers cut costs, in a push the biggest U.S. conglomerate is calling Healthymagination.

All of the top 19 U.S. banks undergoing stress tests to gauge their ability to outlast an even deeper recession are solvent, and the exam results should reassure markets that banks can continue lending, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday.

ST-Ericsson expects its current efforts to cut costs to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2010, according to Alain Dutheil, head of the venture of STMicroelectronics NV and Ericsson.

Chemicals maker DuPont Co said it would eliminate another 2,000 jobs as part of its cost-cutting plan as it tries to conserve cash and operate through the worst recession in decades.

Investors braced for the release of bank stress test results that will separate the weak from the strong and force some top banks to raise billions of dollars in capital.

Growing demand, cheaper financing and wider participation are expected to double the volume of asset-backed securities issuance in the upcoming round of the Federal Reserve's TALF program in June.

Dreaming of a tropical paradise to call your own? Several Australian islands off the Great Barrier Reef are on sale, and thanks to the global recession, they're cheaper than they used to be.

The detailed version of President Barack Obama's budget unveiled on Thursday maintains a $250 billion placeholder for additional financial rescue efforts should that money be needed, an administration official told Reuters.

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday after analyst downgrades hit the telecom sector and investors booked profits in technology stocks, with enthusiasm also fading over results from bank stress tests.