IBT Staff Reporter

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is still learning about the Russian market, a country it sees as underserved by retailers, a top Walmart International officer said on Thursday.

Fitch Ratings downgraded BP , becoming the first agency to cut the oil major's credit rating and reversing its initial view that the financial impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on BP would be limited.

The U.S. economy is almost strong enough to allow the Federal Reserve to begin thinking about raising interest rates, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said on Thursday.

* May comparable sales up 9 pct vs ests of 9.7 pct

May brought lackluster sales results for U.S. retailers, with discount chains turning in the strongest performance, as consumers again showed their cautious side in a seasonally weak period for spending.

The U.S. economy is almost strong enough to allow the Federal Reserve to begin raising interest rates, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said on Thursday.

U.S. investment bank JP Morgan Securities Ltd has been fined a record 33.32 million pounds ($49.12 million) in Britain for failing to protect billions of dollars of client money over almost seven years.

The Swiss parliament's upper house on Thursday backed a Swiss-U.S. tax deal that averted the risk of crippling legal action against UBS but punched a hole in the country's treasured bank secrecy.

Low doses of GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia combined with metformin can prevent diabetes without causing the most common side-effects, Canadian doctors reported on Wednesday.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher opening on Thursday as two reports on the labor market reinforced optimism that Friday's monthly payrolls data would be strong.

Caffeine addiction is such a downer that regular coffee drinkers may get no real pick-me-up from their morning cup, according to a study by British scientists.

Ibrahim Issa, a jovial Syrian taxi-driver who wears a blue robe over an ample belly, has nine children from two wives. He plans to marry a third wife soon.

May brought mixed sales results for retailers, with early reports on Thursday suggesting an erratic recovery in consumer spending during a seasonally weaker period of shopping.

Children who eat three or more burgers a week may be at a higher risk of asthma and wheezing, but a healthy diet rich in fruit and fish seems to stave off the risk, according to a large international study.

Private employers added 55,000 jobs in May, compared with an upwardly revised gain of 65,000 in April, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Thursday.

A gauge of online demand for labor in the United States rose in May for the fourth straight month to the highest level since November 2008, a private research group said on Thursday.

Isolated for decades behind Asia's bamboo curtain, communist Laos will soon take a great leap into the global capitalist marketplace with the launch of a stock exchange to fuel a quiet mining and hydro-power boom.

The H1N1 pandemic is not yet over although its most intense activity has passed in many parts of the world, the World Health Organization said on Thursday after a review of the flu outbreak by independent experts.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher opening on Thursday on hopes that an upcoming report on the labor market will show improvement in the economy.

Nokia Oyj unveiled on Thursday four new cheap phone models, and a first bicycle charger from the world's top cellphone maker, aiming to protect its dominant market share on emerging markets.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher opening on Thursday on hopes that an upcoming report on the labor market will show improvement in the economy.

In an attempt to soothe public anger at the wealth of giant energy companies operating in Xinjiang, China has imposed a tax on oil and gas production in its Northwestern Province. The 5 percent tax in oil-rich Xinjiang, imposed Tuesday, is part of a development plan for the desert region, where ethnic tensions exploded into rioting last July that killed nearly 200 people. Earlier, Chinese president Hu Jintao said increased revenue from the resource tax should be focused on improving local people...

In the last few months, speculation has been rife in bullion markets around the world that China will be buying the gold that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is disposing of these days. But is China buying the IMF gold? It looks, despite the hype about Chinese plans to amass gold reserves in place of the US dollar, the dragon country is not in a mood to buy gold from IMF.

French-inspired plans to create an economic government for the euro zone took a step forward on Wednesday when European Council President Herman Van Rompuy threw his weight behind the idea.

British oil giant BP will speak with analysts on Friday, a spokeswoman for the company said after analysts pointed to a planned conference call as one possible reason for a spike in its battered shares.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters Life!) - Dutch cyclists chatting on the mobile phones are an ubiquitous site in the bike-friendly city of Amsterdam and soon they will be able to charge their mobiles with bike power.

U.S. mortgage rates stayed at or near record lows in the past week, with the 30-year fixed rate 1/2 percentage point lower than a year ago, home funding company Freddie Mac said on Thursday.

Good morning dear traders, EURUSD was not my favourite currency yesterday. My trading in EURUSD and Cable was rather exhausting in the morning. Further, I finished a good shorting chance in GBPUSD with a too tight stopp-loss. But I´m learning out of my mistakes.

The world's top nations will back general principles rather than a specific tax to make banks pay for their own bailouts in future, finance ministers and diplomats said on Thursday.