UNITED STATES

The number of U.S. workers filing for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but another big gain in productivity in the fourth quarter offered hope that companies were closer to adding to payrolls.

The Dow briefly fell below the crucial 10,000 mark on Thursday as stocks suffered their worst losses in more than nine months.

Cyber attackers -- the ones who break into computers, steal identities, and empty other people's bank accounts -- are hiring.

Ten missionaries from the U.S. who tried to take 33 children out of Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake, were charged Thursday with kidnapping children and criminal association.

Top U.S. retail chains ended their fiscal year with better-than-expected January sales, but the current first quarter could be tougher if consumers overspent during the holiday season.

Not all the derivative contracts American International Group Inc wrote on complex securities backed by now-toxic mortgages have ended up being a disaster.

Oil prices plunged 5 percent on Thursday, the steepest one-day drop since July, as rising U.S. unemployment claims and fear that debt-laden European economies may falter prompted a commodities sell-off.

Wall Street fell 2 percent on Thursday as escalating sovereign debt problems in Europe and a surprise rise in U.S. jobless claims sparked concerns about the health of the global economy.

Toyota will recall about 270,000 Prius hybrid cars in Japan and the United States, Nikkei reported.

Standard & Poor's on Thursday stripped Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc of its top AAA rating, saying its acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe will hurt liquidity and capital adequacy.

The S&P 500 is dropping at a slower rate in afternoon trading after getting hammered in the morning session, although it is still on pace to post its worst trading session in 2010.

A Credit Suisse analyst downgraded Verizon on Thursday, saying he no longer believes rival AT&T Inc. will lose its exclusive deal to offer Apple's iPhone before 2011.

In the latest blow to Toyota Motor Corp, U.S. safety regulators opened a formal probe on Thursday into problems with the brakes of the Prius, the world's top-selling hybrid and a vehicle that has powered the automaker's reputation for fuel-efficiency.

U.S. safety regulators opened a formal investigation on Thursday into consumer complaints about braking on 2010 Toyota Motor Corp Prius hybrids.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday the security situation remained serious but was no longer deteriorating, offering a more upbeat assessment than other U.S. military and intelligence officials.

Toyota Motor Corp expects costs and lost sales from its massive safety recall to total $2 billion by the end of March, keeping it in the red for the year despite its strongest profit in six quarters.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it has no plans to suspend sales of its popular Prius hybrid in the United States while it makes adjustments to the vehicle's brake system to address consumer complaints about insufficient braking.

The cooperation of two former hedge fund managers in a 2007 insider trading case led to the arrest of seven traders and lawyers last November in the wide-ranging Galleon prosecutions, a U.S. prosecutor said on Thursday.

Oil prices plunged more than 5 percent on Thursday in their steepest one-day drop since July, after a rise in U.S. jobless claims and spreading concern over Europe's economic health drove investors to sell commodities and seek less risky assets.

New York's attorney general charged Bank of America Corp , former Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis and former Chief Financial Officer Joe Price with fraud for allegedly misleading shareholders about the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Toyota Motor Corp plans to recall an estimated 270,000 units of its new-generation Prius hybrid in the United States and Japan to fix a brake problem, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday.