IBT Staff Reporter

Brazil's huge offshore oil wealth has been called a lottery jackpot, and each of the industry's contracts is another winning ticket. But even with a lucky stub in hand, some companies risk going broke before they can claim their prize.

A comprehensive solution to the euro zone debt crisis is beyond the region's reach, rating agency Fitch said, warning that six of its economies including Italy and Spain could be hit with credit downgrades in the near future.

With two weeks left in the trading year, the euro zone debt crisis will remain the primary impediment to pushing the S&P 500 index into positive territory for 2011.

The downgrade of Belgium's credit rating by agency Moody's underlines the need to cut the budget deficit next year to 2.8 percent of GDP as agreed by the ruling coalition, Belgian Finance Minister Steven Vanackere said on Saturday.

Rick Santorum is struggling to convince Republicans that he is a viable all-around candidate and not just a stalwart social conservative. Here are his positions on a wide range of topics, from social issues to the economy to foreign policy.

A unique deal to protect part of the annual bonus pool at UBS Australia expires within weeks, say sources with direct knowledge of the matter, raising the prospect that the business may lose some top talent should it not be renewed.

A unique deal to protect part of the annual bonus pool at UBS Australia expires within weeks, say sources with direct knowledge of the matter, raising the prospect that the business may lose some top talent if it's not renewed.

Time Warner Cable Inc is set to provide the online offerings of pay-TV provider HBO in the next month, potentially putting more pressure on rival online services such as Netflix.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp, whose balance sheet took a massive hit after it admitted to a long-running accounting cover-up, told lenders its cash and deposits could run out in 2015, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

The most powerful group at Google Inc used to be known simply as The OC, short for operating committee. Now, it goes by a more telling name: L Team, short for Larry's Team.

A consortium of private equity group Silver Lake, software giant Microsoft Corp and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz are reworking their bid for a minority stake in Internet company Yahoo Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

A Canadian sports doctor who treated top athletes and admitted bringing illegal performance-enhancing drugs into the United States was sentenced on Friday to probation for his role in transporting drugs across the border.

To understand what ails BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd in the U.S. market, just ask eBay Inc Chief Executive John Donahoe.

Pop star Britney Spears is engaged to her boyfriend Jason Trawick, celebrity media outlets reported on Friday after the singer posted a message on Twitter about receiving the one gift for which she has longed.

Two of Canada's biggest labor unions are discussing a merger, Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) National President Ken Lewenza said in an interview on Friday.

A consortium of software giant Microsoft Corp., private-equity group Silver Lake, and venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz are reworking their bid for a minority stake in Internet company Yahoo Inc., a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Moody's threat to downgrade Ontario's debt rating will likely spur the Canadian province to take bolder moves to rein in its C$16 billion ($15.4 billion) deficit.

The credit rating agency Fitch has told euro zone countries it believes a comprehensive solution to their debt crisis is beyond reach, putting six euro zone economies including Italy on watch for potential downgrades in the near future.

World stocks were mixed and the euro was flat on Friday as worries about downgrades of weaker euro zone countries curbed risk appetite, pushing aside an improved outlook on the U.S. economy.

California's Stanford University, one of the top engineering schools in the United States, said on Friday it had dropped out of the bidding to build an applied sciences and engineering college campus in New York City.

Canada's National Energy Board said on Thursday that any company that wants to drill for oil and gas in Arctic waters will need to demonstrate it has the capacity to sink a relief well in the same drilling season to cope with possible well blowouts

A Manitoba judge rejected a request on Friday by former directors of the Canadian Wheat Board to suspend immediately a new law ending the board's grain marketing monopoly.

It might seem like corporate heresy but an increasing number of technology investors and experts are asking whether Research in Motion needs to ditch its BlackBerry handset business to survive.

Moody's on Friday cut Belgium's credit rating by two notches, saying the euro zone debt crisis increases funding risks for countries with high public debt burdens.

The International Trade Commission said on Friday it will revisit in part a decision by an ITC administrative law judge, who had found no violation by Apple of four HTC patents that include technologies for power management and phone dialing.

I remember when Christopher Hitchens first said that if you gave Jerry Falwell an enema you could bury him in a matchbox. The combination of pugnacity, imagery and wit in that single phrase was what made Hitchens the most formidable debater of our time. Having debated with him a number of times across the country, I was often on the lash end of that wit.

A months-long delay in Research in Motion's new BlackBerrys and a dreary quarterly report sent RIM shares tumbling again on Friday and pushed some analysts to sound the death knell for the mobile device that once defined the industry.

Christopher Hitchens, esteemed essayist, author and journalist, died on Thursday of complications from esophageal cancer. He was 62.

British-born journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died on Thursday at the age of 62.