IBT Staff Reporter

News, details on corporate bond issues in the European markets on Wednesday:

Taiwan has relaxed rules for Chinese media, long regarded as spy organizations for the Communist government, as relations warm between the two long-time political rivals, officials said on Wednesday.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will press for more access for American companies in China's clean energy sector, an area where Washington feels it can make inroads on its enormous trade imbalance with China.

These are heady days for the medical tourism industry. With U.S. healthcare prices spiraling upward, more and more insurers and individuals are looking abroad for treatment. By some estimates, 650,000 Americans will check into foreign hospitals from Mexico to Thailand this year.

Wall Street was poised for a lower open on Wednesday after disappointing results from overseas bellwethers, while investors questioned how much further the market's seven-month rally had to run.

Top officials from Magna and Opel expressed confidence on Wednesday that General Motors will go through with selling its European arm to Canada's Magna despite a second chance to review the deal.

Chinese President Hu Jintao told a senior North Korean official on Wednesday that ties between the two nations have reached a new level of goodwill, avoiding direct mention of the North's nuclear dispute in his public praise.

Asian cities are likely to beat Australia in the race to become a carbon-trading hub, despite Australian plans to set up the region's first cap-and-trade market, industry experts said on Wednesday.

Michael Jackson's This Is It premiered to a star-filled crowd including Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez and four of the singer's brothers on Tuesday, winning early praise from critics and showing fans that the King of Pop could still entertain.

The United States does not expect to reach an agreement on climate change with China during President Barack Obama's visit to Beijing next month, the country's senior climate change envoy said on Wednesday.

Taliban militants killed six U.N. foreign staff in an assault on an international guest-house in Kabul on Wednesday, deepening concerns about security for a presidential election run-off due in 10 days.

A car bomb ripped through a crowded market killing 87 people in Pakistan's city of Peshawar on Wednesday, just hours after Washington's top diplomat arrived pledging a fresh start in sometimes strained relations.

Iran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency will present Tehran's position on a draft nuclear fuel deal in Vienna on Thursday, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported on Wednesday.

A healthcare reform bill with a government-run insurance option faced an uncertain future in the Senate on Tuesday, with many centrist Democrats uncommitted and Senator Joe Lieberman strongly opposed.

The German parliament formally elected Angela Merkel to a second term as chancellor on Wednesday, although by a smaller margin than expected, paving the way for her center-right coalition to take office later in the day.

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose 1 percent in September, meeting Wall Street expectations, Commerce Department data showed on Wednesday.

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose 1 percent in September, Commerce Department data showed on Wednesday, suggesting that the economy's wobbling recovery from recession may be steadying.

Drugmaker SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would cut about 17 percent of its U.S.-based jobs, mostly in research and development, following its decision to drop the development of its cancer drug earlier this month.

Consumer Confidence in US unexpectedly fell in October on job concerns.

A European Union counter-piracy force arrested seven suspected pirates after a French fishing boat was attacked in the Indian Ocean, it said Wednesday.

HSBC Holdings and Bank of Communications (BoCom) plan to transfer their joint credit card activities in China into a new company to tap into expected strong growth in the world's most populous country.

President Barack Obama will say on Wednesday there is still too much waste in U.S. defense spending, despite a number of costly projects being terminated in the 2010 defense authorization bill.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday promising a new page in relations and several civilian investment deals.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, pledging a fresh start in relations with an increasingly embattled and skeptical partner in the struggle against Islamic militancy.

U.S. home loan demand slid for the third straight week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday, with purchase applications the weakest since mid-May and refinancing requests at a two-month low.

Ford named a consortium led by China's Zhejiang Geely Group Holding Co. as preferred bidder for its loss-making Swedish unit, Volvo Car Corp., but said more detailed talks were needed before any final agreement.

U.S. mortgage defaults ebbed in some hard-hit cities in the third quarter, but unemployment created new trouble spots as foreclosures set a record in the quarter, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Wednesday.

European shares hit a three-week low on Wednesday as banks came under pressure following results from Banco Santander (SAN.MC), while earnings by BG Group (BG.L) weighed on energy stocks.

Britain's leading shares were 1.8 percent lower around midday on Wednesday, with falls by heavyweight oils, miners and banks dragging the FTSE 100 .FTSE index to a three-week low.