IBT Staff Reporter

ConocoPhillips said it will expand its planned sales of older, higher-cost assets by as much as $10 billion over the next two years, with proceeds earmarked to buy back stock.

Stocks were near flat on Wednesday as unrest in the Middle East and North Africa kept investors cautious, but materials shares gained.

Here is a list of Elizabeth Taylor's top ten iconic films.

New financial regulatory reforms should help reduce the edge that large banks have over smaller ones because of their implicit support from government, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.

A federal judge has ruled that Steve Jobs can be deposed on Apple's decisions to block non-iTunes music files from the iPod and iTunes.

Though Apple's iPad has long held the price advantage, recent announcements from RIM and Samsung show that rival tablets are finally starting to close the tablet price gap.

Firefox 4 has surpassed seven million downloads in 24 hours.

The Gold Price rose sharply against all major currencies on Wednesday, touching near-two-week highs against the Dollar even as the US currency rose amid fresh European debt and budget concerns.

Tablet thinness factor, a new parameter to judge the tablets, was introduced by Apple earlier this month when it launched its ultra thin tablet iPad 2.

Legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor died Wednesday at the age of 79 in Los Angeles. Her death was caused by a condition she has called congestive heart failure.

Lady Gaga answered her fans' questions in an exclusive interview through Google Moderator, an application that allows participants to manage feedback.

Robots are helping plant workers monitor the area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plants.

TMZ is reporting that Blink 182's Mark Hoppus is auctioning off another hand written lyric sheet.

Chelsea will be on high alert after their former-temporary manager and current Turkey coach Guus Hiddink said that he would tender his resignation if Turkey failed to beat Austria and Belgium in upcoming Euro 2012 qualifying games.

Mel Gibson is putting his Spanish style Malibu estate on sale for $14.5 million.

Britain cut its economic growth forecast on Wednesday and said inflation would remain above target this year and next in a budget that stuck to ambitious deficit-busting goals.

New single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in February to hit a record low and prices were the lowest since December 2003, a government report showed on Wednesday, suggesting the housing market slide was deepening.

Shares of companies active in Wednesday's early trade are: Jabil Circuit, Cree, Adobe, Veeco Instruments, XOMA, Tata Communications, China Southern Airlines Co., Cintas, Global Industries and Northern Oil & Gas.

Apple Inc said it would roll out its newest iPad to 25 more markets this week, including France and the United Kingdom, but did not provide any hard figures for sales so far in the United States.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said it has started monitoring the seawater nearby and found elevated levels of radiation, but that there is as yet no cause for alarm.

Japan's largest banks are in talks to provide up to $25 billion in emergency loans to Tokyo Electric Power <9501.T> to shore up its finances and rebuild its power network following a disaster at one of its nuclear plants.

Ex-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed he will join an English club after his time at his current club Real Madrid despite describing the Spanish giants as the biggest club in the world.

In spite of the crippling sanctions and an arms embargo approved by the international community, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi continued to show resistance and the possible reason for such confidence could 144 tons of gold that he still controls.

General Mills Inc , maker of Cheerios cereal and Progresso soup, on Wednesday reported a higher quarterly profit, helped by a surge in international sales.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the union for Transportation Security Officers nationwide, on Wednesday called on TSA to immediately begin a nationwide radiation monitoring program and provide TSOs with dosimeters to measure radiation output at the checkpoints.

Wall Street was poised for a lower open on Wednesday as concerns over debt issues in the euro zone, Japan's nuclear crisis and violence in the Middle East and North Africa persisted.

RBC Capital Markets said the ultimate low in the U.S. equity markets might not have been reached, but a bottoming process has probably started. The brokerage said most of the technical indicators suggest that an intermediate-term low is near. Readings from sentiment, positioning and internal momentum indicators reveal much more damage under the hood than at the index level.

NBC News confirmed via Twitter that actress Elizabeth Taylor has passed away. She was 79 years old.

Nokia will start talks with staff at the end of April on substantial job cuts that follow its tie-up with Microsoft , the company said on Wednesday.