IBT Staff Reporter

China has created a state planning zone covering the country's biggest rare earth mines in a move to cut production of the vital rare mineral elements used for numerous high-tech goods, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday night.

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Thursday the Chinese yuan should be given a greater role within a restructured international monetary system.

Kraft Foods Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly sales on Thursday, helped by its acquisition of Cadbury.

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Thursday the Chinese yuan should be given a greater role within a restructured international monetary system.

Facebook may let its employees sell up to $1 billion of their shares to institutional investors at a price that values the company at about $60 billion, an influential industry blog reported.

Nokia's wisdom in picking outsider Stephen Elop to return it to its former glory will be tested on Friday when the new chief executive reveals his plans to transform the world's biggest cellphone maker.

There are clear signs of a new Internet bubble in corporate valuations, Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt said in an interview with a Swiss magazine on Thursday.

Daily deals website Groupon said on Thursday that Starbucks Corp Chief Executive Howard Schultz had joined its board of directors and that his venture capital firm had taken a stake in the company.

Pipeline company Kinder Morgan Inc sold more shares and priced them above the expected range, an underwriter said on Thursday, raising about $2.86 billion in the largest U.S. energy initial public offering since 1998.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other top U.S. regulators will appear before the Senate Banking Committee next week to discuss the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, the committee announced on Thursday.

Google Inc's YouTube is in talks to buy video producer Next New Networks, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

EBay Inc expects revenue at its PayPal unit to double by 2013 as it sought on Thursday to cast itself as a reinvented company and an innovator at the center of e-commerce.

Rep. Paul Ryan R-WI said on Thursday that reducing the U.S. national debt is a moral challenge.

Qualcomm Inc's dual-core chips are poised to appear in more than 20 new tablets made by smartphone and PC manufacturers rushing to win market share in the red-hot mobile market, a Qualcomm executive said.

The S&P and Nasdaq eked out gains in the final minutes of trading on Thursday as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he would delegate powers to the vice president, though he stopped short of resigning.

Expedia Inc, the largest online travel agency, posted a quarterly profit on stronger bookings, but the results were weaker than expected and its shares tumbled 10.5 percent.

Qualcomm Inc said on Thursday that its newest dual-core processor was designed to compete in the red-hot tablet market against Texas Instruments and smaller rival Nvidia, which has dominated design wins in early 2011.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc and Panera Bread Co reported quarterly results that outshone their peers as many restaurants continue to struggle during a slow U.S. economic recovery.

The U.S. January budget deficit widened to $49.80 billion, the second-largest deficit on record for the month, underscoring the sea of U.S. government red ink, official data showed on Thursday.

Facebook may let its employees sell up to $1 billion of their shares to institutional investors at a price that values the company at about $60 billion, an influential industry blog reported.

To tackle the increased threat of Google's Android operating system, Apple is planning a smaller, cheaper iPhone, Bloomberg reports

Deutsche Boerse AG's planned takeover of NYSE Euronext faces intense scrutiny from German regulators and European antitrust authorities, potentially imperiling the blockbuster exchange tie-up.

Firth played the role of the stuttering monarch King George VI in The King's Speech. This is the second consecutive year Firth won the award. He picked it up last year for his role in A Single Man.

Canadian patent licensing company Wi-LAN Inc plans to venture into software and internet patent licensing, even as it focuses on its strong wireless portfolio, Chief Executive Jim Skippen told Reuters.

Apple Inc is working on a smaller and less expensive version of the iPhone, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing sources.

EBay Inc said it expects revenue at its PayPal unit to double by 2013 as it sought on Thursday to cast itself as a reinvented company and an innovator at the center of e-commerce.

Tech giants are lining up to buy patents held by bankrupt telecommunications company Nortel Networks, but a formal auction has been delayed because nobody will pay the price the company's liquidators would like to see.

The U.S. Treasury will remain intensely focused on correcting China's substantially undervalued yuan despite a decision not to name Beijing a currency manipulator, a senior Treasury official said on Thursday.

Sprint Nextel Corp reported better-than-expected subscriber additions in the fourth quarter, adding customers for the first time in more than three years.