IBT Staff Reporter

Crude oil prices hovered near unchanged on Wednesday in choppy, thin trading after slumping on data showing rising U.S. crude stockpiles even as Libya and Middle East uncertainty limited losses ahead of the close of first-quarter 2011.

American electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc said on Wednesday it is suing the BBC's hit motoring show Top Gear for allegedly faking a race between its electric sports car and a petrol-driven Lotus Elise.

Even after former McKinsey & Co global head Rajat Gupta retired in 2007, he used its New York office and had an executive assistant, email address and phone at the elite management consultancy.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday as investors positioned themselves for the quarter's end and the S&P 500 attempted to hold above a key technical level.

New York would welcome Barclays Plc if the bank decided to move its headquarters from Britain, the city's mayor said, in comments that suggested that the Big Apple might be courting the bank.

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.

Salesforce.com's $326 million purchase of privately held Radian6 will allow the cloud-based software maker help its clients track customer trends on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

American electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc said on Wednesday it is suing the BBC's hit motoring show Top Gear for allegedly faking a race between its electric sports car and a petrol-driven Lotus Elise.

A group of Lehman Brothers creditors, including the largest U.S. public pension fund and hedge fund Paulson & Co, has asked a bankruptcy judge to consider its reorganization plan for the bankrupt company at the same time that Lehman's own plan is up for consideration.

A few days ago, Billboard announced that they predict Chris Brown's latest album, F.A.M.E. would debut at the number one spot.

U.S. securities regulators proposed rules on Wednesday that would require publicly listed companies to have independent compensation committees and make key disclosures about their use of compensation consultants.

President Barack Obama told U.S. students on Wednesday that with rapid growth in China and India, global demand for energy will continue to increase and a solution for reducing U.S. dependence on imported oil would require long term solutions, setting out goals for reducing oil imports and boosting the use of alternative electricity sources decades from now.

U.S. private employers added more than 200,000 jobs in March while planned layoffs fell, underscoring expectations that momentum in the labor market will help underpin the economic recovery.

The tablet will get the functionally during a later update, according to a leaked Verizon FAQ,

U.S. chief executives' view of the economy brightened in the first quarter, with 92 percent expecting sales to rise over the next six months and more than half looking to add jobs, according to a survey.

Students, scientists come together to figure out the next step for Watson.

Radiation levels in the seawater near the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have spiked. That could mean either the reactor core has breached or the spent fuel is leaking radioactive contaminants.

Apple Inc's shares could rise further despite having risen 51 percent over the past one year as the company's Mac PCs, iPads and iPhones have plenty of room for growth, said brokerage Sterne Agee.

Research In Motion has reached a deal with Intellectual Ventures that will give the BlackBerry maker access to more than 30,000 patents held by the intellectual property company.

An apartment complex in Florida, which happens to be owned by New York Yankees star A-Rod, caught the media attention when its residents reportedly filed numerous complaints about safety code violations with the city officials last week.

A slideshow showcasing Gaddafi's sons and their varied engagements.

Oil fell on Wednesday, weighed down by swelling crude inventories in the United States, while President Barack Obama was expected to set an ambitious long-term goal to cut oil imports.

Barclays Plc is considering moving its headquarters out of London as the cost of holding more capital threatens to make it less attractive than rival financial centers, people familiar with the matter said.

Hours after Britney Spears announced the tour she was planning on co-headlining with Enrique Iglesias on Good Morning America, Iglesias announced he is backing away from it.

Family Dollar Stores Inc sees higher-than-expected yearly profit after more shoppers flocked to its stores for low-priced holiday items and groceries and spent a little bit more on average.

U.S. private employers added 201,000 jobs in March, while February's figure was revised down slightly, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

The leaf device effectively mimics the photosynthetic process that natural leaves use to convert sunlight and water into energy.

Shares of drugmaker Cephalon Inc surged more than 29 percent on Wednesday, above a $5.7 billion unsolicited buyout offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc , in a sign investors expect a higher bid.

Shares of companies active in Wednesday's early trade are: Cephalon, Nvidia, SMART Technologies, Clean Energy Fuels, Lindsay, Acxiom and Align Technology.