IBT Staff Reporter

Carmakers in Europe's biggest auto show are displaying clean cars alongside powerful sportscars and gas-guzzling SUVs.

At a Senate hearing on his nomination to head the U.S. central bank, Ben Bernanke pledged to follow the risk-management path of his predecessor, Alan Greenspan: steering policy based not only on the most likely outcome, but on less-probable, but costly, scenarios as well.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he was late to see the storm gathering around U.S. mortgage lending practices and commended his successor Ben Bernanke's handling of the crisis, saying he would likely be responding in a similar fashion.

Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Thursday that it had lined up $12 billion of secured financing to help cope with a housing slowdown that has reduced loan demand and will lead to widespread layoffs.

Chinese shares have reached a dangerously high level because the market is failing to price risks properly, just as investors misjudged the value of U.S. subprime mortgages, an academic economist said on Thursday.

The dollar rebounded against the yen and euro on Thursday as investors resumed buying the U.S. currency after nearly a week of declines, although expectations of a cut in U.S. interest rates capped gains.

Oil rose to an all-time high of $80.20 on Thursday after Hurricane Humberto forced the closure of some U.S. Gulf refiners and stoked concerns of fuel shortages this winter.

The Nissan concept car Mixim turned heads at the Frankfurt International Motor Show -- a futuristic three-seater that looks more like a video game centre than a car and was designed with the help of teenagers who hate cars from around the world.

Yahoo Inc has begun publicly testing two Web services that are the fruit of intensive, one-day internal programming competitions the company has been hosting to foster employee innovation.

Japan's finance minister became the first to launch a bid to lead the country on Thursday as the ruling party scrambled to avoid a policy vacuum after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's shock resignation.

Apple Inc is calling a London news conference next Tuesday as speculation mounts that the consumer electronics guru will unveil long-awaited plans to bring its iconic iPhone cell phones to Europe.

The health of about 2 billion of the world's poor is being damaged because they lack access to clean energy, like electricity, and face exposure to smoke from open fires, scientists said on Thursday.

Indonesia's Sumatra island was hit by a series of aftershocks on Thursday after a powerful earthquake toppled hundreds of buildings, killing at least 10 people and burying many others.

Going back to "old fashioned banking may not be a bad thing", Chancellor Alistair Darling said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday.

Budget airline Ryanair said on Thursday it was ready to launch 80 routes to two Milan airports, stepping in as struggling Alitalia cuts back in Italy's industrial heartland.

Rupert Murdoch, the world's most high-profile media mogul, stopped by The Wall Street Journal newsroom on Wednesday for the first time since his News Corp. sealed a $5.6 billion (2.8 billion pound) deal to buy publisher Dow Jones & Co.

HSBC Holdings Plc has paid around $254 million for 10 percent of Bao Viet to become the sole foreign investor in Vietnam's largest insurance firm, officials from the Vietnamese company said on Thursday.

The Malaysia unit of Asia-focused lender Standard Chartered Bank Plc hopes to apply for an Islamic banking license in the country within a year, it said on Thursday.

Goldman Sachs and UBS cut their earnings forecasts and share target prices on Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Hynix Semiconductor Inc, underscoring a weakening outlook for the chip maker sector.

LG Electronics' shares surged 4 percent on Thursday, boosted in part by a U.S. court decision to stay an import ban on mobile phones containing Qualcomm chips, but analysts warned the impact would be limited.

The Bank of England made on Thursday its biggest concession yet to banks caught up in the credit crisis, giving them greater flexibility on how much cash they can borrow without penalty to manage daily cashflow.

First Horizon National Corp, the largest bank in Tennessee, said on Wednesday it plans to eliminate at least 1,500 jobs by the middle of next year as it slashes its mortgage sales force and closes branches.

State Bank of India, the country's biggest bank, plans to raise at least 100 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) in a share sale before the end of the year, Chairman O.P. Bhatt said on Wednesday.

Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Thursday its mortgage fundings slid 17 percent in August from a year earlier to $34 billion on the housing slowdown and credit tightening in the mortgage market.

Stock index futures rose on Thursday after an upgrade of General Motors Corp. sent shares of the auto maker higher. Trading was likely to be choppy before the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision next week and volume lower due to the Jewish New Year.

Singapore state investor Temasek has pulled out of the running to buy Nasdaq's 31 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange, the Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday.

Most Asian stocks rose on Thursday with energy stocks higher as oil held near a record peak above $80, while expectations of an U.S. rate cut next week pinned the dollar near an all-time low versus the euro.

European shares fell on Thursday, led by France's Alcatel-Lucent, which cut its full-year revenue forecasts, while record-high oil prices made oil and gas producers the top gainers in early trade.

Foreign companies that have poured billions of dollars into Chinese stocks are not looking to bail out, despite a decision by two major U.S. firms to cash in and realize huge profits from their investments.