UNITED STATES

Electronics retailer RadioShack Corp reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, bolstered by strong sales of its digital converter boxes, postpaid wireless and flat-panel televisions.

Apple Inc's quarterly profit soared past Wall Street expectations on strong sales of iPhones and iPods, underscoring the popularity of the company's relatively expensive products even in the midst of a weak economy.

Stocks staged a comeback across most of Asia on Thursday as a larger-than-expected profit from Korea's Hyundai fed optimism that the auto sector could be nearing a turnaround and tech shares found strength on the back of buoyant earnings from Apple .

If any of the big three U.S. automakers is forced to sell assets in a liquidation, their brands and patents may attract the most interest, while the manufacturing assets could be a tough sell.

Credit Suisse on Thursday posted a net profit of 2 billion Swiss francs ($1.71 billion) for the first quarter, twice as much as expected by analysts, and said it remained optimistic about its prospects.

U.S. online auctioneer eBay Inc won final approval from South Korea's antitrust watchdog for its planned acquisition of Gmarket Inc, subject to conditions such as a commission freeze for the next three years.

Japanese shares fell on Thursday as worries about the health of the global financial sector flared again after a larger-than-expected loss from Morgan Stanley and a report that top Japanese broker Nomura had also fallen deeply into the red.

President Barack Obama will weigh in on Thursday on the lending practices of U.S. credit card companies, an issue that has triggered an outcry from consumers hit with high fees and interest rates.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday its group-wide sales fell 27 percent to 1.767 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2009, keeping it ahead of Volkswagen AG as the world's top-selling carmaker.

Legislation to curb credit card fees and limit consumer penalties cleared a congressional panel on Wednesday, a day ahead of a meeting between industry executives and President Barack Obama at the White House.

General Electric Co expects its smart grid electricity monitoring business to grow to represent $3 billion to $4 billion in annual revenue over the next three to four years, the head of its Energy Infrastructure unit said on Wednesday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest U.S. retailer, said Wednesday it plans to nearly double the amount of solar power generated from rooftop panels on its California stores.

Gov. Phil Bredesen from Tennessee made a test-drive of Nissan's electric car on Wednesday at the automaker's headquarters in Franklin, a suburb in Nashville urging the construction of chargins stations.

The intelligence expert who prepared a still-secret study on cybersecurity for President Obama said on Wednesday the danger of attacks on U.S. computer networks cannot be fixed easily or quickly.

Political allies of the U.S. auto industry expressed serious concern on Wednesday to senior White House officials about possible carmaker bankruptcies with Chrysler LLC facing an April 30 deadline to cement an alliance to avert probable insolvency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has harshly criticized Pakistan's government for ceding more territory to Taliban, saying it has abdicated to the Taliban.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday the United States should explore more clean energy like wind and solar and less on oil.

The IMF said Tuesday the global economy recession is likely go deeper and will have a slow recovery to stabilization.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp said on Wednesday that MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe will not be renewing his contract and will step down from the chief executive post.

Three former brokers and three former day traders conspired to misuse company squawk boxes for insider trading, a U.S. jury ruled on Wednesday in the second trial in the case.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp may be courting a former top executive at social network Facebook to replace the chief executive and co-founder of its top rival MySpace, All Things Digital, a media and technology website, reported on Wednesday.