IBT Staff Reporter

Asian shares rose on Thursday while surprisingly strong Australian jobs data pushed the Aussie and New Zealand currencies to fresh 14-month peaks and gold hit another record as the U.S. dollar continued to struggle.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into allegations that International Business Machines abused its dominance of the mainframe business to squeeze rivals, said Computer and Communications Industry Association chairman Ed Black on Wednesday.

The top U.S. communications regulator praised recent moves by big wireless companies to open their networks and said he would work to overcome a looming shortage of airwaves used by the industry.

The arrest of a New Yorker for using Twitter to alert protesters to police movements at a meeting of world leaders in Pittsburgh last month would be deemed a human rights violation if it happened in Iran or China, rights activists charge.

Dell Inc plans to launch a smartphone with Google's Android mobile software on carrier AT&T's network, a source said, marking the PC maker's first foray into a cut-throat U.S. cellphone arena.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into allegations that International Business Machines abused its dominance of the mainframe business, said Computer and Communications Industry Association chairman Ed Black.

U.S. marketers and consumer advocates are preparing for battle over the rules governing online advertising tailored to individual browsing habits, often tracked and collected without notice or permission.

Text messaging can help smokers quit the habit, according to an international study.

Electronics manufacturer Foxconn is building Apple's eagerly anticipated Tablet device, according to a report on the DigiTimes Web site.

GM on Track; Alcoa's Surprise; Regulator Pleased

General Electric Co and Britain's Rolls Royce Group PLC said on Wednesday they have halted tests on an alternate engine for the F-35 fighter jet after damage was found to some turbine blades, and no timetable was given for the tests to resume.

Radiohead's lead singer Thom York put a band together for fun - as he said - and performed on October 4 and 5 at the Los Angeles Orpheum Theatre.

Alcoa Inc posted a surprise profit on Wednesday through cost cutting and higher aluminum prices after three consecutive quarterly losses, sending its stock 6 percent higher.

Why is google a barcode today? Today is the 57th anniversary of the bar code patent. In honor of the bar code, Google is featuring those familiar black and white bars on its homepage as its doodle instead of its usual logo.

General Motors Co is on track to complete a wrenching cost-cutting but faces risks from an uncertain U.S. economy and rising unemployment as it tries to win back consumers, the automaker said on Wednesday.

General Electric Co and Britain's Rolls Royce Group PLC said on Wednesday they have halted tests on an alternate engine for the F-35 fighter jet after damage was found to some turbine blades, and no timetable was given for the tests to resume.

At the CTIA conference in San Diego on Wednesday, Samsung and Sprint unveiled the Samsung Moment, a touchscreen handset that has an Android-based operating system.

The world's biggest truckmaker, Daimler AG , is seeing evidence the U.S. truck market has bottomed, but it remains cautious about the pace of any recovery, the head of Daimler's truck division said on Wednesday.

New details for Kevin Jonas' bachelor party are being disclosed by his two brothers Joe and Nick who are planning it.

After David Letterman confessed of having sexual relationships with women from the Late Show staff and mixed jokes with apologies to his wife on air, the problems seem just not to be over.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is likely to try a handful of big men behind Kenya's post-election crisis which will send a powerful message to the rest of Africa, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said on Wednesday.

BY Gabriel MadwayDell Inc plans to launch a smartphone with Google's Android mobile software on carrier AT&T's network as soon as early 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported, marking the PC maker's first foray into a cut-throat U.S. cellphone arena.

A U.S. District Court dismissed a lawsuit of former employees of Washington Mutual against JPMorgan Chase & Co to recover their retirement account losses after the collapse of the thrift.

A huge subsea quake struck the southwest Pacific on Thursday, local time, prompting a tsunami warning for island nations only a week after a deadly wave swept over the Samoa islands, killing around 150 people.

Manitoba Telecom Services its revenue and cash flow outlook for the year on Wednesday, saying its long distance business and enterprise unit were hurt by the recession and the slow pace of economic recovery.

Marathon Oil Corp on Wednesday said its third-quarter oil and gas production will be lower than the previous quarter, but at the high end of its expectations.

Bank of America Corp should look for a new chief executive outside of the company, a shareholder that has criticized the current management in the past said on Wednesday.

Hype about the swine flu vaccines, pent-up demand for cash and a push by major drugmakers to boost their flagging research pipelines has helped lift biotechnology fund-raising 36 percent so far this year.

Verisk Analytics Inc, an insurance services firm partly owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, soared in its first day of trading on Wednesday, and stirred hopes that the appetite for such offerings is warming.