IBT Staff Reporter

For Wesley Britton, signing up to have his irises scanned at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport was an easy decision.

Britain's FTSE 100 index closed sharply higher on Friday as fresh bid talk buoyed mortgage bank Alliance & Leicester, while the Midcap 250 index hit a fresh high led by brewer Greene King.

Top European Central Bank policymakers on Friday left open the possibility of a bigger than expected rate rise as the ECB's chief expressed dissatisfaction with inflation running above target.

Congratulations, graduates! You've made it through all the tests, the early morning classes and the professorial diatribes.

EBay Inc. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman on Thursday promised investors that faster growth and market share gains lay ahead, but left the company's near-term outlook unchanged as international sales growth slows and it steps up investments in new businesses.

Five companies received more than $1 billion in contracts to develop new and better influenza vaccines, and to make them on U.S. territory, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department said on Thursday.

Microsoft Corp.on Thursday said it struck a deal to enable its Windows Mobile operating system to work with Qualcomm Inc.'s mobile phone chips, a move seen helping it gain more headway in the wireless business.

Eye care company Bausch & Lomb Inc. , under pressure after government reports that its lens care products may be linked to a rare eye infection, could face a cash crunch because of a large debt buyback announced late Wednesday, a research analyst said on Thursday.

The world's attention is firmly turned toward Asia when it comes to widening imbalances in global trade and investment, soaring foreign-exchange reserves and the dollar's structural weakness.

Even at their best, derivatives don't guarantee profits. But cutting volatility is a desirable goal.Derivatives seem so mysterious and risky, it's hard to avoid the temptation to believe the rocket scientists who understand them are making a killing.

Ethanol stocks have soared, but an Archer Daniels Midland options strategy offers a hedge against a possible correction.

A bird flu vaccine being developed by San Diego-based Vical Incorporated protects mice and ferrets against the feared H5N1 avian influenza virus, the company said on Tuesday.

Intel Corp. said on Tuesday it plans to spend $1 billion to promote Internet use and computer training in developing countries, the latest move in the No. 1 chip maker's effort to break into new markets.

Verizon Communications Inc., one of the world's biggest telephone companies, said on Tuesday its quarterly earnings fell on merger costs but revenue rose due to strength in wireless.

If you're an eBay seller, you may be paying more than you have to in taxes because you haven't really focused on all that you can deduct.

Dubai unveiled plans for a $27 billion resort complex including the world's biggest hotel on Monday, the latest in a series of huge projects intended to establish the booming Gulf Emirate as a regional tourism hub.

It's a nightmare scenario: A hacker accesses e-mails in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission computers and splashes them across the Internet, revealing an inquiry into a company that shakes investor confidence before the probe is complete.

Connoisseurs have nothing but praise for Panama's tiny annual crop of gourmet coffee but they warn that farms where the best beans are grown could vanish as landowners sell to wealthy foreign retirees.

Do you think your house is your retirement nest egg? Think again, say some financial advisers.

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates told a ballroom full of U.S. newspaper editors he's developing onscreen reader software that will make reading news digitally a lot more like flipping through a paper.

AT&T Inc. is making headway at state and federal levels as it tries to go over the heads of local governments to enter the subscription television business to compete with cable TV, Chairman and Chief Executive Ed Whitacre said on Friday.

Nortel Networks Corp., one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment suppliers, on Friday said it had completed a revenue restatement that adjusted revenues by a total of $1.5 billion, and had filed its 2005 annual report.

General Motors Corp.'s chief executive saw his 2005 compensation almost halved from a year earlier, the company disclosed on Friday, on the same day he promised shareholders to turn around GM's North American operations and apologized for accounting errors.

South Korea has issued a warrant to arrest Chung Mong-koo, the chairman of Hyundai Motor group, on charges of misusing company funds, a senior prosecutor said on Friday.

After serving a rise in lending rates as an unexpected appetizer, will China dish up a speedier climb in the yuan as the main course of its monetary tightening?

Coffee futures may spike next year because of a looming shortage of green coffee beans caused by growing consumer demand coupled with an off year in Brazil's biennial crop cycle.

Raw material resources will determine country rankings in the world economic pecking order in years to come as strong demand and limited supplies ensure commodity prices hold their upward trajectory.

From mighty meatpacking plants to tiny taco stands, U.S. businesses are making plans to deal with Monday's nationwide pro-immigration boycott, which could keep millions of people away from their jobs.

The Nikkei average fell 1.29 percent on Friday as shares of Sony Corp. tumbled after it forecast a sharp profit decline in the current year and as a stronger yen raised concern of a drop in earnings at exporters such as Kyocera Corp.