IBT Staff Reporter

British insurer Prudential plc is withdrawing from a $35.5 billion deal to buy American International Group Inc's Asian life insurance business AIA, paving the way for a potential listing of AIA.

Singapore Mercantile Exchange, a leading Asian multi-product commodity derivatives exchange, has announced that it will commence trading of the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude oil futures contract on its state-of-the-art electronic trading platform when it goes live in August this year.

World oil prices extended overnight losses in Asian trade Wednesday as the dollar moved up amid weak market trends. Light sweet crude for July delivery was seen trading at $72.04 a barrel at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while Brent crude was at $72.27 a barrel in London. Analysts said after the long holiday weekend, the market was focused on economic storm clouds in the Euro zone and China.

The euro edged up on Wednesday after hitting a four-year low against the dollar on jitters over the euro zone's debt crisis, while Asian stocks were broadly steady despite a dip on Wall Street.

Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Tuesday Foxconn, the global contract manufacturer that assembles the company's iPhones and iPads in China, is not a sweatshop.

The Bank of Japan may lend at least 1 trillion yen ($11 billion) to commercial banks under a new loan program to support industries with growth potential that was outlined last month, the Asahi newspaper said on Wednesday.

BP will seek to patch up its battered share price by reassuring investors the cost of cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is manageable and will not affect dividends, British media reported on Wednesday.

Prudential Plc said on Wednesday it is withdrawing from its effort to buy AIG's Asian life insurer, an expected move by the U.K. group after AIG turned down a $30.4 billion offer for the company.

Prudential Plc's bid for AIG's Asian life insurance unit was close to collapse on Tuesday after the two failed to negotiate a price cut, raising questions about the future of the British insurer and its chief executive.

(Reuters) - Cancer will kill more than 13.2 million people a year by 2030, almost double the number who died from the disease in 2008, the United Nations' cancer research agency said on Tuesday.

(Reuters) - Americans inhale more cancer-causing agents with their cigarettes, probably because of the tobacco blend, while smokers in Canada, Britain and Australia get less, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

The arrival of winter can also highlight the presence of a mild form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), when a person's mood turns gloomy along with the temperature and daylight hours.

Walt Disney Co expects retailers to sell $2.4 billion in Toy Story 3 merchandise this fiscal year, potentially the company's biggest licensing windfall from a single film.

Talks between British Airways Plc and officials from the Unite trade union were adjourned on Tuesday with no agreement reached to resolve a dispute with cabin crew staging the latest in a series of strikes.

THE Australian-made flu vaccine Fluvax, has been identified as being the most likely trigger of 59 convulsions in Western Australia and in about 20 cases elsewhere, including four in NSW and six in Victoria. All the babies, most of them under two years, recovered fully.

The Australian Dollar has opened lower this morning, continuing on from yesterday's weakness, which saw the AUD trade below 0.8400.

An Australian study has shown women who drink at least four cups of tea per day have a reduced risk of ovarian cancer.

Not much of anything worked for investors in May, including those known to be the savviest of the bunch.

Health experts warned that smokers could carry deadly bacteria which could pass on to their children.

Summers are filled with ice cream and picnics, swimming pools and festivals, and this year the festivals are bigger and more spectacular than ever before.

A higher than expected inflation gauge reading, solid New Home Sales and an increase in company operating profits all gave the Aussie dollar a boost in local trade yesterday as it recovered from an early morning dip to 0.8425 to push marginally above the 85 cent handle.

Canada has launched a probe into Google Inc as legal problems escalate surrounding the search engine's disclosure that it collected private data while taking photographs for its Street View product.

Four of five U.S. broadband users are unaware of the speed of their connections, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday.

Four of five U.S. broadband users are unaware of the speed of their connections, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday.

Citigroup Inc's CitiFinancial unit will shut 330 of its U.S. branches and cut between 500 and 600 jobs, in an effort to cut costs at the business and make it more attractive to potential buyers.

Stocks fell on Tuesday as energy shares slid after the latest failed attempt to halt the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. government announced a criminal probe into the disaster.

U.S. safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into the possibility that accelerator pedals could be entrapped by floormats in Ford Motor Co 2010 Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans.

It is said that on his retreat from Greece after his great military expedition there, King Xerxes boarded a Phoenician ship along with a number of his Persian troops. But a fearful storm came up, and the captain told Xerxes there was no hope unless the ship's load was substantially lightened.

The Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate on Tuesday, the first G7 industrialized economy to do so after the global recession, but said the European debt crisis made its next move highly unpredictable.