IBT Staff Reporter

Hackers are bombarding the world's computer controlled energy sector, conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption.

Verizon Wireless blamed technical problems for an outage on its recently launched high-speed, 4G network, which prevented some U.S. customers from accessing the Internet for about 24 hours.

The following are remarks by EU leaders at a meeting of the conservative European People's Party in Marseille, southern France, ahead of an EU summit in Brussels.

Bank stocks led a sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday after the European Central Bank tempered hopes that policy-makers were priming a much anticipated financial bazooka to tackle Europe's raging debt crisis.

The White House unveiled a countdown clock this week, tick-tocking away the days, hours, minutes and seconds to a December 31 deadline for extending and expanding the payroll tax cut. It's a doomsday-style reminder that taxes will jump for an estimated 160 million Americans on January 1 if Congress doesn't act.

(Updates to clarify sentence in 8th paragraph)

(Updates to clarify sentence in 8th paragraph)

The New York legislature did on Thursday what Congress has been unwilling to do at the national level: it closed almost half of a $3.5 billion budget gap by raising taxes on millionaires and cutting taxes on the middle class, in a bill supported by both Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican.

Google Inc said it will invest $300 million in its Hong Kong data center, due to come online in early 2013 after the company broke ground on Thursday.

Ford Motor Co reinstated a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share on Thursday for the first time since the No. 2 U.S. automaker slid into a financial crisis five years ago.

Verizon Wireless suffered outages across the U.S. on its recently launched high-speed 4G network that have prevented some customers from accessing any Internet data.

Stocks fell on Thursday after remarks from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi tempered hopes policymakers were priming a much-anticipated financial bazooka to tackle Europe's raging debt crisis.

Europe's banks are being told to increase their capital by a total of 114.7 billion euros, more than predicted two months ago, to make them strong enough to withstand the euro zone debt crisis, two financial sources told Reuters on Thursday.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is stumping for Mitt Romney in Iowa, trying to boost Romney's campaign in the face of a surge by Newt Gingrich. He told Republicans in West Des Moines that Romney won't embarrass America and is the only Republican who can win.

McDonald's Corp reported a bigger-than-expected rise in November sales at established restaurants across the board, led by big gains in Japan, China and a strong showing in its top revenue market of Europe.

Britpop band Blur will receive an Outstanding Contribution to Music award at next year's BRITs, Britain's answer to the Grammys.

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a nine-month low last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting the labor market recovery was gaining momentum.

International Business Machines plans to buy analytics software provider DemandTec for about $440 million in cash.

The Japanese arm of Ernst & Young is setting up an external panel to probe its audit of Olympus Corp amid questions over whether it and prior auditor KPMG could have been tougher in checking the scandal-hit firm's accounts.

Sharp Corp said on Thursday it will likely sell more than 1 million large-screen TVs of 60-inches and above in North America in the year to March 31, and expects the burgeoning market to push sales higher next business year.

Iranian authorities blocked a website Wednesday hours after it was launched by the U.S. State Department to be a virtual embassy reaching out to people in the Islamic Republic.

He's wanted for contempt of court in Arizona. He is under investigation by Italian police over his connection with an international bond scandal exposed by Reuters in August and totaling at least $500 million. And he is named as a key player in one of the first criminal indictments following the collapse of Iceland's economy.

The U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act, sponsored by Reps. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Dave McKinley (R-WV), would prohibit federal grants or loans to U.S. based companies who move call center jobs outside of the country following enactment of the legislation.

The European Central Bank doused on Thursday hopes it will aggressively ramp up its bond-buying program and allow the euro zone to lend money to IMF so it can help fight the Eurozone debt crisis.

Rumors about the possible release date and features of Android's formidable rival, iPhone 5, have begun growing louder even as the popularity wave of iPhone 4S and its new feature Siri have begun dying down.

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a nine-month low last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting the labor market recovery was gaining momentum.

The European Central Bank acted to soften a looming recession and avert a credit crunch in the debt-plagued euro zone by cutting interest rates on Thursday as European Union leaders prepared for a crucial summit.

Stock index futures were little changed on Thursday after investors pushed up stocks for three straight sessions, betting leaders come up with a solution to Eurozone debt crisis at an upcoming summit.

The Japanese government may inject about $13 billion into Tokyo Electric Power Co <9501.T> as early as next summer in a de facto nationalization of the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, sources said on Thursday.