IBT Staff Reporter

NASA's MESSENGER has downloaded 1,500 closeup images of Mercury, the first ever to be produced of the planet closest to the Sun.

Users of Samsung laptops may be sending private information to Samsung without their knowledge, according to a report from Network World.

AT&T Inc's $39 billion (24 billion pounds) bid to buy Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA came under scrutiny from New York's attorney general, who said he was looking into whether it was anti-competitive.

The impact on the U.S. economy of the Japanese crisis is far greater than realized, a top trade group said on Wednesday.

Weeks after Rebecca Black released the song Friday, which got the internet buzzing about it being the worst song ever made, her name is still making rounds.

(Corrects spelling of name to read Neal in paragraph 3 quoting Neal Dietz)

Fund manager Raj Rajaratnam made $1 million in two minutes of frantic calls after receiving an inside tip about a big investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc at the height of the financial crisis, prosecutors said at the Galleon founder's insider trading trial.

Oil prices eased on Wednesday in choppy, thin trading, pressured by record high stockpiles at the Cushing delivery point for U.S. crude even as Libya and Middle East uncertainty supported oil, which remained on track to end the first-quarter up more than 10 percent.

(Corrects amount in first sentence to $1 million from millions)

Record labels such as Sony are not happy that Amazon is offering a cloud-based storage service for music.

In what was billed 'the mother of all clashes', India scrapped past old-rivals Pakistan in a see-saw semi-final encounter and will face Sri Lanka in the finals of the Cricket World Cup 2011.

An inveterate Federal Reserve advocate of tighter financial conditions on Wednesday renewed his call for higher benchmark interest rates and shrinking the Fed's balance sheet to pre-financial crisis levels.

House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday said President Barack Obama had not been able to answer a question about how long NATO would enforce a no fly zone over Libya if Col. Muammar Gaddafi did not leave the country.

Lady Gaga has a long list of successes to add to her resume: singer, dancer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and now she has one more - columnist.

Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie isn't convinced that tablets will stick around.

Tesla says the popular BBC show has spread a campaign of misinformation regarding its Roadster electric car.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, as a private employment report did little to shake up expectations for Friday's payrolls data while investors positioned themselves for the quarter's end.

The recent nuclear disaster in Japan has put a spotlight on measuring radiation dosage and the health effects, and how to diagnose thousands of people at a time.

Search giant Google Inc has settled with U.S. regulators investigating privacy problems that cropped up in its botched roll-out of social network Buzz, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.

Nintendo is unlikely to bringing the 3DS's portable technology to home consoles, the company says.

U.S. chief executives' view of the economy brightened in the first quarter, with more than half now ready to add jobs -- a critical step if the economy's recovery is to gain steam.

Warren Buffett's hunt for a large acquisition could lead to targets like Eaton , Illinois Tool Works or Cliffs Natural Resources , all of which seem to fit his recent preference for growth in industries outside of his core insurance unit.

U.S. securities regulators proposed new rules on Wednesday designed to restore lending discipline, and to bolster the independence of compensation committees at public companies and the consultants who serve them.

Shares of Cyberplex Inc fell as much as 11 percent on Wednesday, a day after it posted a quarterly loss that sparked fears about the profitability of its advertising business and its ability to meet its debt obligations.

Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen has accused his former business partner Bill Gates of plotting to dilute Allen's stake in the world's largest software company before he left in 1983, and tried to buy his share of the company on the cheap.

Medical student Ahmed Widaa was content to support Sudan's ruling party from the sidelines for years, until the uprisings in Tunisia and neighboring Egypt made him worry that Sudan could be next.

Google Inc will build a high-speed Internet network in Kansas City, Kansas, the first site selected by the company's project to spur development of a new generation of Web applications.

Google Inc will allow people to personally endorse search results and Web pages, an important step in its efforts to add social networking capabilities to its products amid increasing competition from Facebook.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc is not interested in a bidding war for U.S. drugmaker Cephalon Inc , and Chief Executive Michael Pearson said on Wednesday he was willing to walk away.