IBT Staff Reporter

Although the U.S. economy is expected return to growth later this year, there is a danger of a second recession if monetary easing and a weak dollar leads to increased inflation expectations, a report said on Wednesday.

Accounting giant KPMG was hit with a billion-dollar lawsuit on Wednesday over claims its grossly negligent audits helped trigger the collapse of a top subprime mortgage lender at the start of the U.S. housing crisis.

U.S. auto sales fell 37 percent in March, a smaller-than-expected drop that encouraged hope the world's largest car market is nearing a bottom after a freefall that has pulled the industry into a deepening crisis.

Thousands of protesters clogged the streets of London's financial district on Wednesday. Hundreds of them battled with riot police in a brief but brutal spasm of violence, ending with 23 of them were arrested.

Massachusetts' securities regulators sued Fairfield Greenwich Group, a major feeder fund for Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, accusing the hedge fund of lying to investors and not exercising enough diligence over investments that were worth billions of dollars.

Honda Motor Co. is to cut U.S production in the coming month and will reduce salaries due to economic downturn in auto sales drop.

Changes to General Motors Corp's contract with the United Auto Workers union could save the automaker $1.1 billion or more in hourly labor costs, GM said in a report to the U.S. Treasury released on Wednesday.

Verizon Wireless hopes to roughly halve the number of cellphone operating systems that it needs to support in the next few years to help improve the time it takes to bring new technologies to customers.

It's unclear how big a role the mobile division will play under CEO Carol Bartz as it has been difficult to monetize so far.

US President Barrack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev committed to launch negotiations on a new nuclear arms treaty to reduce nuclear warheads on Wednesday, issuing a broader cooperation pact across a wide range of policy areas.

U.S. regulators have reached the closing phase of stress tests to gauge the health of the nation's top banks, and are bracing for a battle to get those firms to accept tough appraisals.

Full-length TV shows will be shown now on BlackBerry devices as QuickPlay Media has announced it will offer a new TV download service for the smartphones via the newly released Research In Motion applications store.

US President Barack Obama said that all the participating countries at G20 summit should work together to tackle the global financial crisis and should recognize they had to forget their occasional differences on how to promote economic growth and trade.

Goldman Sachs analyst said Wednesday, Web-based software provider to sell Saleforce shares and VMware Inc to buy as the companies faces slowing IT spending.

Riot police staged baton charges to try to disperse several hundred protesters gathered around the Bank of England in the heart of London's financial center on Wednesday after a day of protest against the G20 summit.

Verizon Communications' video, Internet and wireless businesses are growing despite the recession's impact on its traditional phone business and its enterprise segment, Verizon's top executive said at the CTIA annual wireless technology showcase.

Stocks climbed on Wednesday as factory and home sales data raised hopes the economic downturn is moderating, sparking a broad advance.

A top Federal Reserve official said on Wednesday she expects the U.S. economy to stabilize this year and begin to recover in 2010.

U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co and Intel Corp , the world's largest chip maker, have scheduled a joint press conference for Thursday, and are expected to discuss an alliance in health care, according to a source with knowledge of the plans.

A British man has been accused of stabbing his partner to death after she kicked him out of their bedroom so she could spend the nights playing Grant Theft Auto on a Sony PlayStation console, instead of spending time with him.

The U.S. auto industry's March sales met or beat Wall Street's dismal expectations, sending a bit of light into a sector struggling to mimic the incentive-driven successes of their European rivals.

GMAC Financial Services said it will resume making car and truck loans to subprime borrowers and will lower inventory financing costs for cash-strapped auto dealers, part of a series of moves intended to spur sales at General Motors Corp .

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday launched a new range of server systems for small companies, scaling down its existing offerings to attack one of the fastest-growing segments of the business computing market.

There was no peering into anyone's soul, and there was no bonding over Colgate toothpaste.

General Motors Corp on Wednesday reported a 45 percent decline in auto sales for March in the U.S. market, but the drop was broadly within expectations for the struggling automaker.

Research In Motion has launched an online store selling entertainment, games, news and travel applications to BlackBerry users.

Demonstrators clashed with riot police and smashed the windows of a bank in London's financial center on Wednesday in protest against a system they said had robbed the poor to benefit the rich.

Research in Motion today launched its online applications catalog, dubbed App World in response to competitors like Apple and Google who already offer exclusive applications in the marketplace.

Apple's iPhone has emerged as a serious videogame platform, fulfilling the long-held promise of mobile phone gaming and positioning itself as a legitimate competitor to handheld consoles.