IBT Staff Reporter

Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer quit on Thursday after his security blunder forced police to bring forward a major operation to thwart a suspected al Qaeda plot involving Pakistani nationals.

Japan's Sharp Corp and Pioneer Corp said they would set up a joint venture to merge their optical disc businesses, aiming to beef up one of their focus operations and take a leading position in the growing Blu-ray disc market.

Wells Fargo & Co said on Thursday it expects to report net income of about $3 billion for the first quarter.

A U.S. Navy destroyer arrived off Somalia on Thursday to apply pressure for the release of an American ship captain taken hostage in the first seizure of U.S. citizens by increasingly bold pirates.

A pending asset sale and a clean bill of health from its financial regulator has calmed fears Barclays will need to raise cash, and backed up the bank's pledge to emerge as a victor from the financial crisis.

South Korea's central bank kept interest rates steady for a second month in a row on Thursday and cited signs that the economy was regaining its footing, but said it may still cut rates further from their record lows.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Japan's third-largest bank, said it expects a full-year net loss of $3.9 billion and will sell shares to raise up to $8 billion, after being hit by losses on stock holdings and a deepening recession.

It has neither train station nor cinema, but this Bavarian town has not been bypassed by globalisation. Ambition and leverage have brought it to its deepest crisis since World War Two.

Stocks opened sharply higher on Thursday, sending the S&P 500 up more than 2 percent, as surprisingly upbeat preliminary quarterly results from Wells Fargo fueled hopes that stabilization may be returning in the banking sector.

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is buying iShares asset management business from Barclays for 3 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) in a deal that will be 70 percent funded by the British bank.

A $6 cardboard box that uses solar power to cook food, sterilize water and could help 3 billion poor people cut greenhouse gases, has won a $75,000 prize for ideas to fight global warming.

In good times and bad, Japanese never miss the opportunity to party under cherry trees during the brief period they bloom each spring.

Bookings for Tata Motors' Nano got off to a brisk start in Mumbai on Thursday, with a steady stream of prospective customers queuing up to be one of the first to own what is billed as the world's cheapest car.

Dutch ING plans to sell operations worth up to 8 billion euros ($10.6 billion) to reduce risk, focus its bank on Europe, and manage its banking and insurance separately, boosting its shares on Thursday.

Nintendo Co Ltd said sales of its Wii game console have lost some steam in Japan, but it aims to boost demand again by launching a new version of its blockbuster Wii Sports software in June.

President Barack Obama's eight-day overseas trip yielded success on a top goal: signaling to the world a new U.S. approach that breaks with the go it alone style of President George W. Bush.

Wells Fargo said the asset management unit Evergreen Investments which it inherited when it bought Wachovia Corp was not for sale, even as it scales back Wachovia's investment banking operation, the NY Post reported citing sources.

The downturn in the civil aerospace sector is expected to be more severe than previously estimated mainly due to a decline in world air traffic and global gross domestic product, said Goldman Sachs, which downgraded Rolls Royce Group by a notch to sell.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Thursday reported March same-store sales.

The Bank of England left interest rates unchanged at a record low of 0.5 percent on Thursday, and said it would take another two months to complete its 75 billion pound quantitative easing program.

The German government offered 1.39 euros per share on Thursday for stricken lender Hypo Real Estate , a move which sets the stage for the first nationalization of a German bank in the postwar era.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Thursday after Wells Fargo gave preliminary first-quarter results that were stronger than expected.

Wells Fargo said the asset management unit Evergreen Investments which it inherited when it bought Wachovia Corp was not for sale, even as it scales back Wachovia's investment banking operation, the NY Post reported citing sources.

Wells Fargo said the asset management unit Evergreen Investments which it inherited when it bought Wachovia Corp was not for sale, even as it scales back Wachovia's investment banking operation, the NY Post reported citing sources.

Shareholders and former creditors of Hynix Semiconductor have agreed to let the world's No.2 memory chip maker raise up to $519 million in a rights offer, knocking its shares down 8 percent before a late rally.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating license for Exelon Corp's (EXC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, the nation's oldest operating nuclear power reactor, the agency said in a statement.

Japan's ruling party unveiled on Thursday a $154 billion stimulus plan, around 3 percent of GDP, to battle a deepening recession but the prospect of record sales of government debt to pay for it spooked the bond market.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.5 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.5 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.4 percent at 4:37 a.m. EDT (0837 GMT).

Nintendo Co Ltd said sales of its Wii game console have lost some steam in Japan, but it aims to boost demand again by launching a new version of its blockbuster Wii Sports software in June.