IBT Staff Reporter

Easier European bank-to-bank lending rates and hopes a batch of U.S. data would confirm an improving economic picture, lifted world stocks and the euro on Thursday, but concerns that Europe's debt crisis could intensify kept a lid on the rises.

For those who couldn't quite make it to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise on Thursday's winter solstice, a new app could offer some consolation by offering a virtual tour around the mysterious stones.

Stock index futures rose on Thursday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its third straight day of gains as investors looked to a batch of economic data for signs the economy will continue to slowly improve.

Beijing criticized a decision by Europe's highest court to allow airlines to be charged for carbon emissions on flights to and from the European Union, with state media warning on Thursday it could spark a trade spat and the foreign ministry urging talks.

Stock index futures rose on Thursday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its third straight day of gains as investors awaited a batch of economic data for signs the economy was slowly improving.

China further tightened rules on microblogs on Thursday, requiring new authors on seven websites in southern Guangdong province to register their real names, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, in a move users decried as ineffective.

A German court rejected Apple's claims that Samsung Electronics' reworked tablet PC still looks like a copycat version of the iPad, in a preliminary assessment.

Financial stocks led a solid recovery on European share markets Thursday in thin trade and bank-to-bank lending rates fell, as signs grew that the nearly half a trillion euros banks borrowed from the region's central bank will ease funding strains.

The long-awaited launch of the iPhone 4S has helped Apple win market share in the United States and Britain, although it is losing ground in the rest of Europe, data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech showed on Thursday.

Financial stocks led European share markets higher on Thursday in thin trade, while the euro rose, on hopes the nearly half a trillion euros in three-year funds that banks have borrowed from the region's central bank will ease current funding strains.

European stocks and the euro rose on Thursday, recovering much of their losses a day earlier when banks borrowed nearly half a trillion euros in three-year funds from the region's central bank, with concerns about the health of Europe's financial system keeping gains in check.

Toyota Motor Corp forecast a 20 percent jump in global sales to a record 8.48 million vehicles next year as it claws back from this year's output losses caused by natural disasters in Japan and Thailand.

With House of Representatives Republicans under attack from friends and foes, Democrats held out for victory in a fight over extending a payroll tax cut for millions of workers that is set to expire at year's end.

Federal land managers said on Wednesday they have decided to scale back a disputed roundup of wild horses in Nevada next month and to postpone the planned castration of stallions as part of the operation.

Don't throw your wallet away yet.

It took seven months, but Research In Motion has finally delivered on a promise made by co-founder Mike Lazaridis. Angry Birds is available on RIM's PlayBook tablet.

Are you ready for more Trapped in the Closet?

Cargo traffic at the Port of Los Angeles was disrupted on Wednesday after longshoremen discovered a shipping container with the word bomb spray painted on it, a spokesman for the facility said.

It was a Cinderella story: a pig-rearing and vegetable-growing hamlet in China's eastern Jiangsu province that transformed itself into a village boasting millionaires and expensive cars, all through plywood, ingenuity and the Internet.

The son of Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas was sentenced on Wednesday to an additional 4 and a half years in prison for taking drugs while jailed on separate offenses of possessing and dealing narcotics.

A New York court has dismissed a lawsuit by a man dubbed the Flying Rabbi against TV network ABC and late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live over its use of the man's image in a parody involving basketball star LeBron James.

A federal judge on Wednesday upheld an order to extradite to Mexico a former producer for the TV show Survivor to face charges he killed his wife while on holiday in the resort town of Cancun.

China slammed Hollywood actor and Batman star Christian Bale Wednesday for creating news after he was roughed up by security guards as he attempted to visit a blind legal activist whose detention has sparked a domestic and international outcry.

When director David Fincher decided to make a film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Hollywood was abuzz with who might play the starring role of abused, vengeance-seeking computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.

The three finalists of TV contest The X Factor went back to their roots on Wednesday, each performing their first audition songs as they battled for votes and a $5 million recording contract.

Federal police in Brazil on Wednesday recommended the indictment of several Chevron and Transocean officials involved in an oil spill in early November for environmental crimes and withholding information in an investigation.

Tokyo Electric Power Co <9501.T> said on Thursday it will raise corporate customers' electricity rates in April and seek approval to hike household rates as soon as possible, as it struggles with hefty thermal fuel costs after the Fukushima crisis curbed its nuclear power output.

Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc will start tie-up talks next month with Taiwanese rival Nanya Technology Corp, with a view to a possible merger, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday.

An electronics company engineer who the U.S. government considers a one-man sperm bank has fathered an estimated 14 children through free donations of his semen that he advertises over the Internet.