IBT Staff Reporter

The U.S. manufacturing sector grew faster than expected in August, but private employers unexpectedly cut jobs, showing the economic recovery still faces headwinds.

Staff at Britain's BBC voted on Wednesday to strike in protest against the state-funded broadcaster's plans to reduce a large pension deficit by capping the growth of pensionable pay, unions said.

Burger King Holdings Inc is in advanced talks to sell itself to investment firm 3G Capital, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, boosting shares 15 percent.

Three bombs exploded at a Shi'ite procession in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding over 170, piling pressure on a government already overwhelmed by floods.

U.S. President Barack Obama vowed on Wednesday that a deadly Hamas attack in the West Bank is not going to stop us in the quest for Middle East peace as he opened a Washington summit to relaunch face-to-face Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

M&A talk among the travel, telecoms and mining sectors helped Britain's top shares to their biggest daily gain in almost two months on Wednesday, as strong manufacturing data from the U.S. and China boosted sentiment.

President Barack Obama is pushing Iraq's democracy out of the nest before it can fly and abandoning Iraqis while they are still at war, many Iraqis said on Wednesday after the end of U.S. combat operations.

Wall Street posted its best day in eight weeks on Wednesday as investor mood brightened after better-than-expected factory data from the United States and China.

Apple Inc unveiled a snazzier line of its iPod on Wednesday, with new designs for every model of the popular media device in hopes of kick-starting holiday sales.

Surging domestic demand helped manufacturing growth in China and Russia pick up speed in August, while U.S. manufacturing grew faster than expected, but data showed the recovery slowing in European factories.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Israel and the Palestinians on Wednesday ...

Auto sales in the United States and Europe slumped in August, reflecting the end of government subsidies that had propped up demand and underscoring uncertainty about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.

A team of international researchers have found that patients with a certain DNA variant affecting regulation of a particular brain chemical have a greater risk of developing migraines.

The re-release of Avatar, the sci-fi epic by acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron, is reported to be a flop at the US box office. Cameron's 3-D special edition of Avatar, which included an extra nine minutes of footage, failed to draw cinemagoers. The film pulled up merely $4 million.

India added Google and Skype to its electronic security crackdown on Wednesday and began accessing some of the traffic carried on its initial target, Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

The dreaded H1N1 virus or swine flu that took the form of pandemic last year around the globe has not mutated to a lethal form this year.

Three bombs exploded at a Shi'ite procession in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people and wounding over 100, piling pressure on a government already overwhelmed by floods.

Auto sales in the United States and Europe slumped in August, reflecting the end of government sales subsidies and underscoring uncertainty about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.

U.S. communications regulators said on Wednesday they are considering whether wireless devices should be subject to different Internet traffic rules than telephone and cable lines, in a potential victory for carriers.

The curtain raiser for the Venice Film Festival is the 41-year-old American director Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. A psychological thriller, it is set in the highly competitive Ballet world in New York. Aronofsky has won an award in the 3008 festival for the Mickey Rourke starrer The Wrestler.

Apple Inc has introduced a new version of Apple TV that allows audiences to rent series such as Glee and Modern Family for 99 cents, hoping to extend the popularity of its sleek devices to the living room.

Teenage singing star Justin Bieber wants to star in the remake the 1978 musical hit Grease along with Miley Cyrus and Susan Boyle. Susan Boyle is the singing sensation from the reality show UK's got Talent.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is committed to keeping the price of money low until the economic recovery strengthens, but should not do more to boost growth without fiscal and regulatory policies that support businesses, a top Fed official said on Wednesday.

Officials appeared to have made a policy decision not to bail out Lehman Brothers, the head of a panel investigating the financial crisis said on Wednesday, challenging the view of regulators that they had no legal authority to help.

The Federal Reserve should only embark upon further monetary easing if faced with a dangerous downward price spiral, otherwise it risks undermining its credibility, a top Fed official said on Wednesday.

Citigroup's private banking arm has set up a global unit to target family offices, organisations that manage the financial affairs of rich dynasties, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

A former hedge fund manager has been accused by a U.S. regulator of illegal insider trading in MedImmune Inc securities prior to the acquisition of the pharmaceutical company by Britain's AstraZeneca Plc.

Auto sales in the United States and Europe slumped in August, reflecting the end of government sales subsidies and underscoring uncertainty about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.

A manufacturing rebound in China and stronger-than-expected U.S. factory data spurred a jump in equity and commodity prices worldwide on Wednesday, helping start the month on a bright note after a gloomy August.