IBT Staff Reporter

Investments of $750 billion could create a Green New Deal to revive the world economy and protect the environment, perhaps aided by a tax on oil, the head of the U.N. environment agency said on Thursday.

Package delivery company FedEx Corp reported a 75 percent drop in profit due to the global recession, gave a low quarterly outlook and said it was taking fresh actions to cut costs.

The number of U.S. workers drawing state unemployment benefits scaled another record high early this month, government data showed on Thursday, highlighting the difficulties of getting new jobs as the economy battles a severe recession.

Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup have canceled orders for private jets for top executives in the wake of the financial crash and a public backlash over corporate perks, French planemaker Dassault Aviation said on Thursday.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday flashed back almost 50 years to a campaign code-named Operation Twist, as it announced the purchase of longer-dated Treasury securities to help end a deepening U.S. recession.

Pfizer Inc may have to shed some of its animal-health business so that it can gain antitrust clearance for its planned purchase of Wyeth , the Wall Street Journal cited a Pfizer executive as saying on Wednesday.

Citigroup Inc on Thursday said it may conduct a reverse stock split as part of an exchange offer that could give the U.S. government a 36 percent stake in the bank.

Oil jumped more than 6 percent to above $51 a barrel on Thursday after a move by the Federal Reserve to buy government bonds hit the dollar and revived expectations the U.S. economy could soon begin its recovery.

Package delivery company FedEx Corp reported a sharply lower quarterly profit due to the global economic downturn and said it was taking fresh actions to cut costs.

Stock futures signaled Wall Street would rise at the open on Thursday as rising oil prices boosted energy shares and sentiment was underpinned by optimism about the Federal Reserve's bid to lower borrowing costs.

Fedex Corp reported third quarter earnings on Thursday and said it expects further staff reductions.

USJ Co Ltd, the operator of a struggling Universal Studios theme park in Japan, said on Thursday it was being sold for $1.2 billion to a consortium led by Goldman Sachs.

From a pure antitrust perspective, China's basis for the rejection of Coca-Cola's $2.4 billion bid for Huiyuan Juice failed to stack up to international standards.

China Mobile missed forecasts with its slowest quarterly profit growth since 2005 and warned a deepening financial crisis will pressure subscriber growth as local competition gets tougher.

Stock futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Thursday following a strong rally overnight after the Federal Reserve surprised investors when it said it would buy long-term Treasury bonds for the first time in four decades.

Oil rose to $50 a barrel for the first time since January on Thursday after a move by the Federal Reserve to buy government bonds hit the dollar and revived hopes the U.S. economy could soon begin its recovery.

China's rejection of Coca-Cola's bid to buy the country's top juice maker, Huiyuan, marked no retreat from government policies welcoming foreign investment, the government said on Thursday.

World shares rose on Thursday as the U.S. Federal Reserve's surprise announcement it would start large-scale buying of government debt sparked optimism that the battered U.S. economy could soon begin to recover.

The role of the U.S. dollar as the key global currency will decline after the financial crisis, and its value may also weaken due to America's current account deficit, officials at some of Asia's top think tanks said.

The U.S. dollar steadied on Thursday after suffering its biggest daily plunge since 1985, while Asian government bonds rallied on a large-scale plan by the Federal Reserve to buy long-dated U.S. Treasuries, reviving a practice not used in decades.

Sony Ericsson is betting heavily on camera phones in the United States this year, hoping high-end photography will convince consumers to buy a new phone or replace digital cameras.

Specialty apparel retailer Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc said it faced significant risk of violating its consolidated secured leverage ratio as early as the first half of fiscal 2009.

Sony Corp is making available public domain books from Google Inc to users of its electronic book reader, Sony said on Wednesday, vastly increasing the amount of available content on the device.

Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley will in the next few weeks announce plans to authorize or repurpose shares so they can have enough stock to compensate employees, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Some top employees of American International Group Inc's Financial Products group have agreed to return retention bonuses after mounting public outrage over the $165 million payout, the Wall Street Journal said.

The U.S. dollar nursed big losses on Thursday and Asian government bonds rallied after the Federal Reserve vowed to buy long-dated U.S. Treasuries, reviving a practice not used in decades to revive an ailing economy.

Microsoft Corp is set to publicly launch Internet Explorer 8 early on Thursday, the latest version of its market-dominating Web browser.

A top investment officer at Pimco says it is unclear what the reasoning for the Federal Reserve’s surprise decision to buy up to $300 billion in Treasuries, according to Reuters.test

Japanese electronics firm Sony Corp said on Thursday it would freeze workers' salaries this year as the company tried to recover from a record loss, and its rivals may follow in the face of a global sales slump.