IBT Staff Reporter

The euro zone faces short-term price pressures which could linger, the European Central Bank said on Thursday, showing it is ready to raise interest rates if needed although it expects inflation should be contained.

A U.S. judge approved a $7.2 billion settlement on Thursday to pay former customers of the Madoff firm, the largest yet in the worldwide search for money lost in Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

SAP said software sales jumped by about a third in the fourth quarter, boosting operating margins and sending its shares higher despite uncertainty over U.S. litigation. Europe's biggest software maker said on Thursday it expected operating income of more than 3.9 billion euros ($1.98 billion) for 2010, which would push its operating margin to 31.5 percent from 27.4 percent in 2009, when not usin...

Jobless claims jumped to their highest level since October last week while food and energy costs lifted producer prices in December, pointing to headwinds for an economy that has shown fresh vigor.

The Dow industrials fell on Thursday, hurt by a slide in Merck shares, but the market was near 28-month highs as investors saw stocks' upward trend continuing despite disappointing jobless claims data.

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in November as exports climbed to the highest level in more than two years, government data showed on Thursday.

The U.S. economy should grow around 3 percent to 4 percent this year, a healthier clip than in 2010, but not enough to bring down unemployment as much as policymakers would like, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday.

U.S. regulators are putting together a possible antitrust challenge to Google Inc's planned $700 million acquisition of airline ticketing software company ITA Software, sources knowledgeable about the deal said on Thursday.

Russian prosecutors requested an inquiry into a telecom website that gives visitors a chance to shoot a cartoon likeness of President Dmitry Medvedev, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

The risk of deflation, a damaging downward spiral of falling prices and lower wages, has declined in recent months, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday.

The Kenyan shilling KES= edged up against the dollar on the back of higher coffee and tea prices at auctions this week, but signs of a drought in the country could limit the currency's gains, traders said on Thursday.

SAP said software sales jumped by about a third in the fourth quarter, boosting operating margins and sending its share higher, despite continued uncertainty over U.S. litigation.

The U.S. economy should grow around 3 percent to 4 percent this year, a healthier clip than 2010, but not enough to bring down unemployment as much as policymakers would like, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday.

China is providing a $350 million concessionary loan to build a multi-lane toll road linking Uganda's capital with the country's Entebbe airport, 54 km (34 miles) away, Ugandan officials said on Thursday.

South African blue-chip stocks booked another 2-1/2-year closing high on Thursday, rising 0.6 percent as shares of Anglo Platinum and other resource companies continued their recent run.

Ethiopia has penalised retailers and suppliers in the capital who raised the prices of consumer goods such as bread by amounts higher than caps set in January, authorities said on Thursday.

Oil prices at $100 a barrel would not harm the world economy and there is no need for OPEC to hold an emergency meeting or add supplies, Libya's top oil official said on Thursday.

Sales of mobile handsets in Russia are estimated to have risen by 25 percent in units last year, but the market value lagged as the average selling price declined, Russia's top mobile operator MTS said.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said it will take longer than expected to win approval of its bankruptcy reorganization plan as it tries to settle differences with creditors, who are owed well over $300 billion.

David Kernell, 23, the former University of Tennessee student convicted of hacking into Sarah Palin's e-mail account, has begun his term in a dormitory-like, unfenced federal prison, a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said on Thursday.

Anglo Platinum, the world's top producer of platinum, said on Thursday full-year profit likely rose as much as seven-fold, helped by higher metal prices.

The stockbroking arm of South Africa's Standard Bank is looking to boost its headcount, including equity analysts, following the end of a joint venture with Credit Suisse, senior executives said on Thursday.

Three Bulgarian helicopter crew members contracted to the U.N. World Food Programme were kidnapped in Darfur on Thursday, officials said, the latest in a wave of abductions hindering aid in Sudan's war-torn region.

The United Nations' human rights chief raised the alarm on Thursday over a suspected third mass grave in Ivory Coast, as tensions remained high in the main city Abidjan after deadly clashes between rival camps.

Clashes between political gangs rather than attacks on oil facilities are the greatest threat to Nigeria's Niger Delta ahead of April elections and the long-term security of its oil output depends on much more than who wins.

Marathon Oil Corp said on Thursday it would split off its refinery and pipeline operations into a stand-alone company, pushing its shares up nearly 11 percent in premarket trading.

Two popular apps will come together in a recent collaboration.

2010 has tied 2005 as the warmest year since people have been keeping records, according to data from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

BlackRock , the world's largest money manager, sees investors shifting their investments away from bonds to equities this year, a senior executive told Reuters on Thursday.