IBT Staff Reporter

Macy's Inc reported a higher quarterly profit and said it expects a continued upswing in sales and profits for the rest of 2011, reflecting the improving fortunes of middle-class shoppers, its core customers.

Crisis management experts say Sony has failed to pacify its users with an acceptable response to the PSN outage.

Two Swedes have been jailed for life in the Philippines for violating human trafficking laws by running a live Internet porn operation in a southern city that catered to foreigners.

The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in March, as exports leapt to a new record but imports rose nearly 5 percent as oil prices jumped, a U.S. government report showed on Wednesday.

Japan's government is planning to inject about $62 billion into a fund to help Tokyo Electric Power compensate victims of the crisis at its nuclear plant and save Asia's largest utility from financial ruin.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after a three-day rally as Disney results weighed on the Dow industrials and a slide in crude prices hurt energy stocks.

Anish Kapoor had dedicated his new monumental art piece 'Leviathan' to Chinese artist Ai Weiwie, who was is custody by Chinese authorities for unspecified crimes.

A gamut of releases at Google I/O conference shows that Google is attempting on one hand to plug existing loopholes in the Android platform, is adding new cloud-services to pre-empt Apple and is outlining its future vision in that it wants Android to become a multi-device OS.

The operator of Japan's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station said on Wednesday that it has sealed a fresh leak of radioactive water at the plant that it suspected was seeping into the ocean.

Gold rallied to one-week highs at $1526 per ounce in Wednesday morning trade - a gain of 4.3% from last Friday's low - before falling back as world stock markets also cut their rally. Silver has now regained a third of its losses since falling over 30% from a 31-year peak of $48.70 at the end of April.

With their PlayStation Network service out for nearly three weeks, gamers are starting to get angry.

As the Cannes Film Festival 2011 takes off, we take a look at some of the arrivals and history of the festival.

On the eighth week of season 12 of Dancing with the Stars rapper and movie star Romeo, known for his role in Karate Kid was voted off.

U.S. stocks were set to open little changed on Wednesday as investors sorted through company news to find reasons to lift the market further after three days of gains.

The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in March, as rising oil prices helped push imports nearly 5 percent higher while exports leapt to a new record, a U.S. government report showed on Wednesday.

The Washington Wizards' new uniforms unveiled Tuesday are a departure in color and design from the present - dominated by white and an aquamarine blue - to an image which harkens to the past. The uniforms resemble those of the Washington Bullets in the 1970s and 80s and their patriotic red, white and blue theme in line with the Capital's national focus.

Japan's biggest earthquake on record hit Toyota Motor's quarterly profits harder than expected, prompting renewed calls for the government to do more to support Toyota's pledge to keep building large numbers of cars in Japan.

Macy's Inc reported a higher quarterly profit as middle-class shoppers continued to increase their spending and the department store operator raised its profit and sales outlook for 2011, sending its shares up more than 4 percent.

The royal couple have landed in the Seychelles as their honeymoon destination.

A peahen, about 3 feet long with a green plume atop her head has escaped from the Bronx zoo.

Japan's trade minister said he was aiming for cabinet approval this week of a government-backed scheme to help Tokyo Electric Power pay for damages caused by the crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

HSBC's new boss is to cut back in retail banking and may sell its U.S. credit card arm in a bid to cut $3.5 billion in costs and revive flagging profits.

American International Group will sell 100 million shares and the U.S. Treasury will sell 200 million shares, as the bailed-out insurer begins its return to public control.

U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday on follow-through from three days of gains on Wall Street as growth in China showed signs of cooling.

China's industrial output growth eased much more than expected in April to suggest the world's second-biggest economy is cooling, reducing the need for further aggressive monetary policy tightening even as inflation remains stubbornly high.

Greece is nearing agreement for supplemental EU/IMF loans of 50 to 60 billion euros to cover its funding gap in 2012 and 2013 in exchange for bold privatizations, Greek newspapers reported on Wednesday.

Senior EU and IMF inspectors arrived in Athens on Wednesday to press Greece to shore up its finances, while workers walked off the job to protest against austerity-induced recession.

Apple has been awarded a patent for a dock connector for landscape or horizontal docking.

Applications for U.S. home mortgages surged last week at the fastest pace in two months as interest rates dropped for a fourth week in a row, an industry group said on Wednesday.