IBT Staff Reporter

European Union leaders meet on Thursday to try to agree the next steps in tackling a year-long debt crisis that has consumed Greece and Ireland and threatens to spread to Portugal and Spain.

Corning Inc has developed a clean, razor thin glass that is sturdy enough to withstand everyday scratches -- a dazzling breakthrough that has done little for its bottom line.

The groundwork is in place for a stable yuan because China's current account surplus is trending down and other currencies have been swirling about in choppy trade, an official newspaper said on Thursday.

The company introduces speech recognition to Android 2.2 phones, which can recognize the user's phone and understand their specific dialect.

A senior executive of China's top search engine, Baidu Inc, forecast its top-line and bottom-line growth rates to moderate over the next year, sending its shares down 6 percent on Wednesday.

Creditors of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, including hedge fund Paulson & Co, may file a competing reorganization plan for distributing the bank's assets, a person familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. sued BP and eight other defendants on Wednesday over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mex ico, seeking civil penalties under the Clean Water Act.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc bondholders filed a rival plan to parcel out the bank's estimated $58 billion in assets in the largest U.S. bankruptcy reorganization on record.

Google Inc's YouTube is in talks to buy Web show maker Next New Networks in what would be the video sharing site's first foray into content production, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

General Motors Co has bought back the government's holdings of GM preferred stock issued in the automaker's bailout for $2.1 billion, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

A class action suit against AT&T for back wages and damages, filed on behalf of some of its information technology workers, has picked up more plaintiffs.

(Following Justice Department correction, makes clear Lloyds was Transocean's insurer, not BP's, in paragraph 2)

A U.S. Border Patrol agent is dead, shot in a gun battle Tuesday night at the U.S.-Mexico border near Rio Rico, Arizona.

Twitter has raised $200 million of financing in a deal that values the microblogging company at $3.7 billion, less than a year after it began its first serious efforts to make money.

Web commerce company eBay Inc said on Wednesday it acquired Critical Path Software, a mobile software application developer, as the company further embraces selling via mobile.

Bank of America Corp on Wednesday said investors delayed a technical default on the bank over its mortgage servicing unit, allowing more time for talks about alleged contract violations.

Citigroup Inc will officially open a new, high-tech branch in New York City on Thursday, in an effort to woo more business from wealthy, urban customers.

Supporters of WikiLeaks who last week attacked the websites of MasterCard and Visa, say they are tweaking the software used for those assaults in a bid to create more powerful tools for possible future protests.

Starwood Hotels will oversee the investment of $5 billion to build 35 new Sheraton hotels by 2013 -- half of them in China, the company told Reuters.

Contentious Internet traffic rules facing a vote next week are likely to be adopted without radically veering from a proposal unveiled earlier in the month, telecommunications policy analysts said on Wednesday.

Bank of America Corp is in talks with a group of six investors to settle charges that it mishandled $16.5 billion in mortgages packaged into bonds, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

With American businesses holding nearly $2 trillion on their books, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that a meeting with corporate executives of 20 of the largest U.S. companies will help elicit a variety of ideas to grow the economy and boost jobs amid an anemic recovery.

The U.S. Senate passed the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 today by a vote of 81-19. It now goes to the House of representatives, which could take up the matter as early as today.

A deal that President Barack Obama struck with Republicans to extend tax cuts for nearly every working American and spur job growth sailed through the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

Despite the weak U.S. economy, this year could be the second most profitable for New York City's securities industry, and the average bonus may top last year's because so many bankers and brokers have been laid off.

The Obama administration on Wednesday launched a legal battle against BP Plc and its partners by suing them for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, which could cost the companies billions of dollars.

The value and number of U.S. bankruptcy claims traded in November both rose to the highest level in months with active interest in the Tronox Inc and Tribune Co bankruptcies, according to data released on Wednesday.

The Vietnam Veterans of America today filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Haven, CT, claiming that the Department of Defense has failed to comply with the law by not releasing records on Personality Disorder discharges.

Despite the weak national economy, this year could be the second most profitable year for New York City's securities industry and the average bonus may top last year's because so many bankers and brokers have been laid off, the state comptroller said in a report on Wednesday.