IBT Staff Reporter

Twinkies and Wonder Bread maker Hostess Brands Inc filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than three years, after failing to reach an agreement with workers on pension and health benefits.

Italian market watchdog Consob is looking into two contradictory statements made by BlackRock Inc , the world's largest asset manager, over its stake in UniCredit SpA , a source close to Consob told Reuters on Wednesday.

Apple said on Wednesday it had bought Israel's Anobit, a maker of flash storage technology whose chips it already uses in gadgets such as the iPad.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Wednesday that Europe must recognize the way in which the Italian public had agreed to painful austerity measures to cut its debt.

Stock index futures dipped on Wednesday, a day after major indexes hit a five-month high, with pressure on the euro testing the recent view that the U.S. market was decoupling from Europe.

Dell Inc intends to launch its first consumer tablet computer in late 2012, marking its entry into a hotly contested and increasingly crowded arena that has already claimed arch-foe Hewlett Packard.

The abrupt exit of Jasjit Bhattal, the highest-ranking ex-Lehman executive at Nomura Holdings, marks a crucial juncture for Japan's top brokerage as it decides whether to replace him with an experienced global banker to foster expansion, or with an in-house local to focus on the home market.

The number of Internet users in China have crossed the half billion mark, reaching 505 million users at the end of November last year, the China Internet Network Information Center reported.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher opening on Wall Street with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.1 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures flat at 1020 GMT.

The abrupt exit of Jasjit Bhattal, the highest-ranking ex-Lehman executive at Nomura Holdings, marks a crucial juncture for Japan's top brokerage as it decides whether to replace him with an experienced global banker to foster expansion, or with an in-house local to focus on the home market.

Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd, owned by German automotive giant BMW AG , said its U.S. sales could overtake China this year, revving up the British company for record global revenue in 2012, its chief executive said.

A new EU fiscal treaty is set to include an escape clause that allows the suspension of a balanced-budget rule during a period of economic downturn or other exceptional event, according to a draft of the document obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher opening on Wall Street with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.1 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures flat at 1020 GMT.

U.S. wholesale baker Hostess Brands Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Manhattan on Wednesday, just months after emerging from a similar process last year, after failing to reach an agreement with workers on pension and health benefits.

Universal is has found another project for Bridesmaids director Paul Feig.

Lindsay Lohan might not have ended up playing XXX actress Linda Lovelace -- but she just might end up portraying another iconic screen presence.

Paramount Pictures has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the James Cameron-produced Cirque du Soleil 3D feature film, the studio announced Tuesday.

New Line has lined up Beth McCarthy Miller, best known for directing Saturday Night Live, to direct its Melissa McCarthy project, TheWrap has confirmed.

Filmmakers Woody Allen, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne and France's Michel Hazanavicius were nominated for Directors Guild film awards Monday -- a honor that is often a key indicator of Oscar success.

The New York state's financial regulator is probing several large banks, including Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc, on whether they overcharged customers on force-place insurance, a source familiar with the matter said.

Sony Corp's videogaming business, led by its just-launched handheld Vita, will prove pivotal in returning the company to profitability, Kazuo Hirai, the executive pegged to succeed Howard Stringer as president, said on Tuesday.

If the first week in January 2012 tells us anything about the investment year ahead, it's to be skeptical about black and white thinking.

Apple Inc, famous for giving CES the cold shoulder year after year, will field a larger presence at the world's largest trade show than many observers imagine.

Twitter lashed out at changes Google Inc unveiled for its search engine on Tuesday, describing the changes as bad for consumers and for Web publishers.

Intel announced multi-year pacts with Motorola Mobility and Lenovo to develop smartphones and tablets, and said the first Google Android phones using the top chipmaker's processors would go on sale this year.

China has detained four people and punished eight for a series of data breaches last month that severely undermined trust in the country's internet security, the official People's Daily reported on Wednesday.

T-Mobile USA is finalizing a new business plan which may include a sale of its wireless towers to help pay for a network upgrade as it looks to rebuild its business after its failed effort to sell itself to AT&T Inc, top executives of the Deutsche Telekom unit said.

Founders of private equity firm Carlyle Group have had a great payday as a result of the firm's record performance in 2011 and are set to gain even more as it prepares for an initial public offering, a regulatory filing on Tuesday showed.

Intel Corp and Motorola Mobility Inc have agreed to enter into a partnership in which the mobile phone maker would use Intel's Atom processors in its products.