IBT Staff Reporter

In March building permits fell to a record low level and construction of new homes plummeted again following a February gain which raised hopes of recovery.

The world's top cell phone maker Nokia calmed jittery investors on Thursday when it said it saw signs of stabilizing demand in the tumbling handset market.

The Dow and the S&P 500 fell on Thursday as some investors doubted that banks would sustain strong first-quarter performance as unease about the economy's health persist.

Japan promised on Thursday to pledge up to $1 billion in aid for cash-strapped Pakistan at a donors conference as allies pressed the country for commitments to fight an Islamist insurgency and implement economic reforms.

China insisted on Thursday that six-party disarmament talks remain the way to defuse conflict over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, despite Pyongyang abandoning the process and expelling U.N. inspectors.

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Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra humbly urged the country's revered king on Thursday to help resolve Thailand's political rift, after a week in which two people died during anti-government protests.

Heather Whaling, a marketer from Florida, was recently planning a business trip to Long Beach, CA, and wondered if she should fly into Long Beach or LAX. She could have looked at blogs, checked out airport websites, or even called a travel agent.

A suicide bomber in army uniform detonated a vest packed with explosives at a military base in Iraq's western Anbar province Thursday, killing 16 people and wounding 50, the army and police said.

The big four auto makers in Brazil joined forces with the Sugar Cane Industry Association (Unica) on Wednesday in a campaign aimed at expanding the use of cane-based ethanol in flex-fuel vehicles.

The Obama administration on Wednesday named a former U.S. Justice Department official who was border czar during Bill Clinton's presidency to lead its efforts to crack down on drug-related violence along the U.S.-Mexican border.

India will hold a general election between April 16 and May 13, a mammoth process in which 714 million people will be able to cast their votes in the world's largest democracy.

From the snowbound Chinese border to holy Ganges cities, tens of millions of Indians began voting in a month-long election with signs that an unstable coalition may emerge in the middle of an economic slowdown.

About a dozen people died in a shootout in Mexico between soldiers and suspected drug traffickers ahead of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss the drug war, Mexican media reported on Thursday.

Nokia Siemens Networks said on Thursday the global telecoms equipment market would shrink faster than it expected, as it reported a fall to first-quarter loss.

General Growth Properties Inc, the second-largest U.S. mall owner, declared bankruptcy on Thursday in the biggest real estate failure in U.S. history.

In his second big trip abroad since becoming U.S. president, Barack Obama arrives in Mexico on Thursday to show support for the Mexican government's efforts to fight a devastating drug war and boost security along the U.S. border.

You know the American restaurant paradigm is shifting when communal benches become more desirable than leather banquettes.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week, government data on Thursday showed, but so-called continued claims rose to a fresh record as the recession bit.

Southwest Airlines reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as demand weakened in the recession and said it would offer voluntary employee buyouts in a bid to reduce costs, sending its shares down more than 11 percent.

The Verizon Hub, a new kind of home phone with some Web add-ons like weather and traffic reports, will soon come with an applications market, following a trend among cellphone makers such as Apple to open up to third-party apps.

Low cost carrier Southwest Airlines on Thursday reported a quarterly net loss on weaker demand amid economic recession that has resulted in a sharp drawdown of consumer spending and leisure travel.

The Dow and S&P 500 lost ground on Thursday as some investors fretted about the quality of bank earnings, which weighed on financial shares, and after a report that IBM was not interested in further negotiations with Sun Microsystems Inc.

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EBay Inc offered to buy South Korean online retailer Gmarket Inc for up to $1.2 billion, making it the leader in the world's sixth-largest e-commerce market.

Harley-Davidson Inc said on Thursday that quarterly earnings fell 37 percent, pulled down by costs from its recession-triggered restructuring as well as a tax change in its home state of Wisconsin.

Technology start-up OpenX launched an online ad marketplace for smaller Web publishers on Thursday designed to be an alternative to offerings from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL.

Stocks opened higher on Thursday as JPMorgan Chase & Co reassured some investors about the health of banks after it reported better-than-expected quarterly results and following several positive reports from the technology sector.

Harley-Davidson Inc reported stronger-than-expected earnings on Thursday, and reiterated its full-year shipment forecast, saying it was mildly encouraged by sales trends in the United States, its biggest market by far.