IBT Staff Reporter

The Tohoku quake off of coastal Japan that spawned a tsunami and wreaked havoc on land also triggered waves all the way up to the ionosphere, one of the highest layers of the atmosphere, creating ripples in electrically charged particles nearly 220 miles above Earth.

Fear returned to Wall Street on Wednesday, sending the S&P 500 to another 4 percent decline, triggered by worries that Europe's debt crisis could engulf French banks and spill onto the U.S. financial sector.

News Corp reported a lower quarterly profit on Wednesday as weaker box office and DVD sales offset a strong performance by its cable and television business.

A must-visit spot on every tourist's list of places to visit while in San Francisco is Twin Peaks.

European banks are relying more on the foreign exchange market to obtain dollar funding, as fewer investors are buying their U.S. short-term debt due to fears that the region's debt crisis could spin out of control.

Viacom Inc and Cablevision Systems Corp have resolved a dispute over the latter's alleged unauthorized streaming of Viacom programing on devices such as Apple Inc's iPad.

Consumer confidence fell sharply this month, touching its weakest level in over a year and signaling that recent volatility in financial markets has curbed the enthusiasm of higher-income shoppers, according to data released on Wednesday by Consumer Edge Research.

Jurors in Cleveland, Ohio, said that convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell should be sentenced to death Wednesday. Cuyahoga County Judge Dick Ambrose will read his ruling 9 a.m. Friday and can deny the recommendations and impose a garden-variety life sentence.

Groupon Inc's plans for an initial public offering have been dented by the stock market slump and new financial disclosures that suggest the daily deal company's business is slowing in North America, analysts said on Wednesday.

21-year-old Ryan Edward Dougherty, 26-year-old Dylan Dougherty Stanley and 29-year-old Lee Grace Dougherty, a.k.a. the "Dougherty Gang," were arrested Wednesday morning after a high-speed chase in Colorado.

Investors pulled the most money out of U.S. mutual funds in the week ended August 3 since the depths of the stock market collapse in March 2009, with net redemptions of $16.9 billion, data from the Investment Company Institute showed on Wednesday.

Verizon Communications' new high-speed fiber optic network will never make as much money as its old copper network, an executive said on Wednesday.

A Berlin security firm has cracked the encryption code for some mobile phones using the Internet, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday, citing the company's chief.

Cisco Systems Inc's quarterly revenue edged past Wall Street's expectations in a sign that IT spending held up despite warnings of a severe pullback, buoying its shares in extended trading.

Samsung's first Galaxy smartphone with Nvidia's dual-core processor officially debuted Wednesday. Dubbed the Samsung Galaxy R, the Android 2.3 Gingerbread device is powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2 dual-core processor. Though the same chipset can be found in the Galaxy Tab 10.1, this is the first Galaxy smartphone to feature Nvidia's processor.

California's latest monthly revenue report shows revenue weaker than expected even before the stock market, a key source of revenue for the state, began sliding in response to Standard & Poor's downgrade of U.S. debt, anxiety about Europe's finances and the risk of the U.S. economy slipping back into recession.

Rebecca Black, 14-year-old singer of "Friday", has quit school because of excessive bullying from peers. Her first single garnered more than 167 million YouTube views in the past six months, and had over 3.1 million "dislikes" from YouTube users. The comments on the video, which were mostly negative, were disabled in May 2011.

The Federal Reserve appears increasingly likely to embark on another round of monetary stimulus if the economy continues to lose momentum.

A baby mountain gorilla was saved from the hands of illegal smugglers on Sunday in Rwanda. On Sunday night, a female baby mountain gorilla was found in an African jail, curled up on a bed alongside poachers who attempted to smuggle her from the Democratic Republic of Congo into Rwanda, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Rwandan authorities said the poachers had bought it for $15,000.

The Treasury Department may be playing undertaker to the underwriter.

News Corp reported a higher quarterly profit on Wednesday, and its chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch said the media company's board wants him to remain CEO after a phone hacking scandal at its UK newspaper unit raised questions about his leadership.

Former Vice President Al Gore isn't a happy camper. He's frustrated that people doubt the theory of global warming.

Cisco Systems Inc's quarterly results edged past Wall Street's scaled-back expectations as IT spending held up despite fears of a severe pullback, buoying its shares in extended trading.

The Angry Birds will soon fly to your home and become your kids' pal. Rovio, the developer of the smash hit casual game Angry Birds, has signed a new licensing deal with SwaddleDesigns, which specializes in the manufacturing of baby products. This move comes after Rovio's foray into toys paid off.

NASA scientists were able to observe for the first time the powerful effects of an earthquake and tsunami combined, which broke off large icebergs a hemisphere away off the coast of Antarctica.

Cisco Systems Inc's quarterly results edged past Wall Street's scaled-back expectations as IT spending held up despite fears of a severe pullback, buoying its shares in extended trading.

Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on Wednesday he often regrets the bank's 2008 purchase of mortgage lender Countrywide, but the loan losses from that deal will not force the bank to issue new shares.

Scientists used gene therapy to successfully destroy cancer tumors in patients with advanced disease. University of Pennsylvania researchers engineered patient's own T-cells in order to target a molecule on the surface of leukemia cells.

Polygamist religious leader Warren Jeffs, 55, has 78 wives and nearly one third of them were 16 or younger when they married him. Jeffs, the leader of a radical polygamist sect of Mormonism known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS) was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison, with no chance of parole until he becomes 100 years old.