IBT Staff Reporter

Growing demand for smartphones running on Google's Android platform will help the smartphone market grow 58 percent this year and 35 percent next year, research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

A pair of white dwarf stars whirling around each other once every 39 minutes will merge and reignite as a helium-burning star in about 37 million years, astronomers said.

The European Central Bank is poised to raise interest rates from a record low 1.0 percent on Thursday and more is likely to follow but, fearful of heaping more pain on the euro zone's stragglers, it will give few clues about when the next move will come.

Motorola Xoom is not yet ready to supersede iPad2. After its launch on February 24, Deutsche Bank released a sales estimate of 100,000 units of Motorola Xoom compared to a huge number of 300,000 units of iPad2 sold on day one. The number is growing exponentially for iPad2.

Under the program, postgraduates enrolled in and qualified to complete a PhD program under a university can be employed with a partnering private enterprise during the project period.

Rooting out one dishonest investment banker amongst the hundreds who sign confidentiality agreements for a merger is virtually impossible despite the checks and balances banks put in place.

Singer and the first ever American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, has succeeded in garnering a much-needed popularity boost ahead of her new album release in September - all thanks to her impressive performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Brent crude dipped on Thursday in Asian trade after five straight days of gains, slipping below $122 a barrel on concern that rising prices will hurt demand from the world's top oil consumers the United States and China.

Profits at Samsung Electronics are set to rebound on a recovery in the memory chip market after operating profit fell to its lowest level in almost two years in the first quarter on tumbling flat screen and TV prices.

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca Plc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared its orphan drug vandetanib to treat advanced cases of a thyroid cancer.

UN atomic watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency has released the following update on the status of the earthquake-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan:

Technology giant Google has announced that the registrations for the annual Google Code Jam 2011 are open from Wednesday.

Britain's largest retail chain Mark and Spencer customers email addresses have been hacked and the company has sent warning messages to many online customers who have supplied the store with email addresses, various media outlet reported.

Toyota Motor USA Wednesday announced the one-millionth sale of the Toyota Prius, the world's first mass-produced hybrid gas-electric vehicle, in the United States.

Gold is the world's most stable asset and the best gauge of inflation. The National Inflation Association (NIA) says this brand new breakout in the price of gold leads us to believe that the Federal Reserve is getting ready to unleash QE3 at the end of June.

President Barack Obama and top lawmakers said progress was made in urgent budget talks late Wednesday and that negotiators would work through the night to try to avert a government shutdown.

Dish Network Corp won Blockbuster Inc in a bankruptcy auction for $320 million, further broadening its business beyond satellite TV and setting up a possible showdown with Netflix.

President Barack Obama and top lawmakers said progress was made in urgent budget talks on Wednesday night and that negotiators would work through the night to try to avert a government shutdown.

Samsung Electronics estimated its January-March operating profit at 2.9 trillion won ($2.7 billion), lower than the consensus forecast, in its first earnings update since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan last month.

Portugal's financial sector can expect some relief after the caretaker government decided to seek financial aid after months of what many economists said was a refusal to acknowledge economic reality.

Virgin Atlantic needs a partner to remain competitive, founder Richard Branson told Bloomberg in an interview published on Wednesday.

Global food prices measured by the U.N.'s food agency may have come off record highs in March after falls in grain prices, but supply concerns and soaring oil prices mean such a move could just be a pause before new peaks.

Oil prices will soar above $130 a barrel by late 2011, a new Reuters poll found, and one in five traders said they expected oil to hit $150 this year, levels some economists say could trigger recession.

President Barack Obama held an urgent round of budget talks with U.S. congressional leaders on Wednesday evening to try to avert a government shutdown.

Hewlett-Packard Co on Wednesday sued a former high-ranking executive who had left to join rival Oracle Corp to stop him from sharing hundreds of documents HP claims he stole from the company.

Telus Corp will begin building a next-generation wireless network in major Canadian cities in the second half of the year, the telecom company said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama asked U.S. congressional leaders from both parties to the White House on Wednesday for an urgent round of budget talks to avert a government shutdown.

Chemicals giant DuPont sued a California company on Wednesday, alleging it sold proprietary information on a lucrative line of specialty paint to Chinese rivals.

Bed Bath and Beyond Inc forecast earnings growth for the current year that would beat Wall Street estimates, following a holiday season that saw U.S. shoppers spend more on home goods, and its shares jumped 9 percent.