IBT Staff Reporter

New Bank of England forecasts opened the door on Wednesday for interest rates to rise slowly in Britain but Governor Mervyn King warned against jumping to conclusions about when the central bank would pull the trigger.

EADS North America said it submitted a final proposal in the politically charged U.S. tanker competition against Boeing Co and that it lowered its price.

Borders Group Inc filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would close about one-third of its bookstores, after years of shriveling sales that made it impossible to manage its crushing debt load.

Google Inc launched a service to make it easy for publishers to sell digital versions of newspapers and magazines, undercutting a similar plan launched by Apple Inc, as both tech titans battle to dominate smartphones and tablet computers.

Orbitz Worldwide, an online travel agency, reported a wider quarterly loss, hurt by charges, and forecast first-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations, sending its shares down as much as 8 percent.

Cotillard will play the role of Talia al Ghul and Joseph Gordon-Levitt that of Roman Sionis, also known as Black Mask in the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises.

Core wholesale prices rose in January at their fastest rate in more than two years, raising some concerns about inflation, but economists said the recovery was too weak for a big spike in consumer prices.

Stocks rose to fresh 32-month highs on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 double the level it was two years ago as Dell earnings and deal announcements appealed to investors.

A major Chinese telcoms-network equipment maker said on Wednesday it will bid on patents related to next-generation wireless technology held by bankrupt Nortel Networks.

Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent is bullish about its prospects in the United States this year, after securing big contracts from major operators like Verizon and Sprint Nextel .

Google Inc launched a service to make it easy for publishers to sell digital versions of newspapers and magazines, undercutting a similar plan launched by Apple Inc as both tech titans battle to dominate smartphones and tablet computers.

Farm equipment maker Deere & Co reported a much higher-than-expected profit on Wednesday and raised its full-year forecast, as high food costs drove farm investment in new machinery, sending its shares to a record high in early trading.

Citing concerns over Window Phone 7's closed nature, Motorola VP Christy Wyatt said that the company had no plans to use Windows Phone 7

French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA clinched its long-sought deal for Genzyme Corp with a sweetened $20.1 billion cash offer, plus payments tied to the success of the U.S. biotech group's drugs.

Stocks rose on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected Dell earnings and a flurry of deal news, but concern about tensions between Israel and Iran gave investors reason to pause.

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday criticized the commission that investigated the 2007-2009 financial crisis for not producing a report that all of its members could endorse.

Airbus said on Wednesday it would carry out further studies to find out whether its suppliers could cope before committing to a further increase of its A320 jetliner production, which is the mainstay of its revenues.

Its name was once synonymous with home photography. Now, Eastman Kodak is struggling just to stay in the picture.

U.S. stocks were set to rise on Wednesday after estimate-beating results from Dell and a deal for Sanofi-Aventis to buy Genzyme for $20.1 billion in cash.

The BRIT Music Awards took place Feb. 15 at the O2 Arena in London. Performances included major artists such as Rihanna, Cee-Lo and Arcade Fire. Justin Bieber, who walked away from the Grammy Awards last week empty handed, was finally recognized in London.

Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent is bullish about its prospects in the United States this year, after securing big contracts at major operators like Verizon and Sprint Nextel .

U.S. housing starts rose more than expected in January to their highest rate in four months but permits for future home construction dropped sharply after hefty gains the prior month, according to a government report on Wednesday that showed the housing market still bouncing along the bottom.

One of Watson's collaborators, Eric Nyberg from Carnegie Mellon University, shares the robot's strengths, weaknesses and its future.

British chip designer ARM said its royalty revenues would be boosted by the speed of adoption of its newest multicore processors that are powering many of the smartphones unveiled in Barcelona.

Two Iranian warships planned to sail through the Suez canal en route to Syria on Wednesday, Israel said, calling it a provocation by the Islamic Republic.

An American jailed for shooting two Pakistanis is shielded by diplomatic immunity, a Pakistani official said Wednesday, but local courts are likely have the final say in a case that has ignited a bruising row between two strategic allies.

A defiant Silvio Berlusconi vowed on Wednesday to see out his term as Italian Prime Minister until 2013, saying he was unworried by an order to stand trial for abuse of power and paying for sex with an underage girl.

Protesters in Bahrain, emboldened by revolts that have toppled Arab rulers in Tunisia and Egypt, poured into the Gulf island kingdom's capital on Wednesday to mourn a demonstrator killed in clashes with security forces.

Anti-government protests inspired by popular revolts that toppled rulers in Tunisia and Egypt are gaining pace around the Middle East and North Africa despite political and economic concessions by nervous governments.