IBT Staff Reporter

Private equity firm Quadrangle Group LLC settled its part of a long-running pay-to-pay probe involving the state's $129.4 billion pension fund, but the accord excludes co-founder Steve Rattner, who remains under scrutiny.

The project, which is unrivalled in scale, went underway in 2008 and is working to catalogue the genetic profiles of cancer cells collected from 25,000 people - 500 per targeted cancers.

Patients suffering from rare tumours can now be linked up with clinical trials and research following the launch of a new web site in Melbourne.

U.S. stocks were little changed on Thursday as an upbeat profit forecast from United Parcel Service pushed up transportation shares, offsetting concerns about a rise in weekly jobless claims.

Residents of the Tasmanian west coast mining town of Rosebery plan to sue the state's health and environment bodies, as well as mine operator MMG Australia over alleged exposure to toxic contaminates from mining activities.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has made clear it will not monetize federal budget deficits by printing money, a senior U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Thursday.

Public schools in NSW are being forced to heat classrooms with unflued gas heaters under the school building program, although health warnings that emissions from the heaters pose a risk to asthmatic children and can trigger respiratory problems.

U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed.

(Reuters) - British scientists have mastered a controversial technique using cloning technology to prevent some incurable inherited diseases by swapping DNA between two fertilized human eggs.

U.S. stocks edged higher on Thursday as a strong profit forecast from United Parcel Service Inc propelled transportation shares, offsetting worries that debt-plagued Greece was ready to use an emergency bailout package.

Prosecutors are examining whether Goldman Sachs Group director Rajat Gupta gave inside information about the Wall Street bank to Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, citing people close to the situation.

German authorities say they have targeted nine suspects, including former staff of Hewlett-Packard Co , in a probe into whether the world's top PC maker paid bribes to win business in Russia.

Charles Schwab Corp said on Thursday its quarterly profit dropped 45 percent, in line with its own worst-case-scenario forecast, as sluggish trading and low interest rates weighed on the largest U.S. discount brokerage.

(Reuters) - People living in countries with government-run healthcare systems like Sweden and Canada are far more confident than Americans that their families can get good, affordable care, according to a 22-nation survey released on Thursday.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless aid soared last week as the backlog from the Easter holiday was processed, adding to worries about the economic recovery, while U.S. industrial output rose less than expected in March.

Mazda Motor Corp said on Thursday it would recall 89,822 Mazda3/Axela compact cars in Japan and China to fix a problem with the oil hose, and a further 191,503 sold elsewhere could be subject to repairs.

Renault and Daimler have begun examining each other's books after signing a partnership deal last week, and are discussing cooperation on electric vehicles, Renault's COO said on Thursday.

Greece has not changed its plan to hold a U.S. roadshow for a dollar bond, a senior government official told Reuters on Thursday, denying earlier press reports.

Senior executives of Fujitsu Ltd have been sued by financial advisers who say the technology services company defamed them by implying they had a connection to organized crime.

U.S. home foreclosures actions spiked in March and set a quarterly record despite federal programs to combat the unrelenting pace that homeowners are defaulting on mortgages, RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Apache Corp said it will acquire smaller oil and natural gas explorer Mariner Energy Inc for $2.7 billion, in a bid to extend its operations into deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly soared last week as applications held back during the Easter holiday were processed, government data showed on Thursday.

The Fortune 500 largest U.S. companies slashed a record 821,000 jobs last year, even as their collective profit soared more than three-fold to $391 billion.

Jeffery Stone and his wife Janette Diller Stone, one-time operators of a now-defunct New York investment firm called Crescent Fund, are not on any government most wanted list. And they aren't exactly hiding, either. But the former Greenwich, Connecticut, residents owe U.S. regulators nearly a half-million dollars in fines and restitution for their part in a five-year-old penny stock manipulation ...

The world's top memory chipmaker, Samsung Electronics, said it will launch independent reviews in response to reports that toxic materials used in chip making may have caused cancer in some of its employees.

U.S. stock index futures dipped on Thursday as nagging concerns about Greece's debt woes undercut a solid quarterly earnings report and stronger forecast from economic bellwether United Parcel Service Inc.

Capital One Financial Corp's U.S. credit-card defaults rose in March in a sign that consumers may still be under stress.

Abruptly changing the structure of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would likely lower home prices and could threaten the fragile U.S. economic recovery.

U.S. stock index futures dipped on Thursday as nagging concerns about Greece's debt woes undercut a solid quarterly earnings report and outlook from economic bellwether United Parcel Service Inc.