IBT Staff Reporter

CIT Group Inc's board was meeting Thursday to consider a restructuring plan for the struggling commercial lender, a source familiar with the matter said.

Talks between Canadian automotive group Magna (MGa.TO), General Motors and workers at German carmaker Opel were adjourned with no result on Thursday and will resume soon, a spokesman for Opel said.

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) are likely to outsell General Motors Co [GM.UL] in the U.S. market by 2015 -- when industry sales will finally return to levels last seen in 2000, according to an industry forecasting firm.

Ford Motor Co (F.N) said on Thursday its U.S. auto sales fell 5 percent in September from a year earlier as demand slumped off in part due to the end of the U.S. government's cash for clunkers incentive program.

Bank of America Corp CEO Kenneth Lewis announced he was retiring, after months of being dogged by a series of government investigations into the company's acquisition of Merrill Lynch last year that had become a major distraction for the biggest U.S. bank.

U.S. stocks dropped on Thursday after the latest jobs and manufacturing data extended a string of lackluster economic figures and raised concerns about the strength of the economic recovery.

China celebrated its wealth and rising might with a show of goose-stepping troops, gaudy floats and nuclear-capable missiles in Beijing on Thursday, 60 years after Mao Zedong proclaimed its embrace of communism.

The United States should provide information about top militants in Pakistan, a government minister said on Thursday, as Washington stepped up pressure on Islamabad to go after Taliban leaders.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has fined discount retailer Target Corp (TGT.N) $600,000 for allegedly violating a federal lead paint ban on toys.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the United Nations would deal a fatal blow to prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace if it endorsed a report critical of Israel's January war in Gaza.

U.S. farmers could grow enough corn to produce 25 billion gallons of ethanol in 2030, twice as much as this year's target of 12 billion gallons, said the leader of a U.S. corn group on Thursday.

Fiat SpA (FIA.MI) will rush the first all-new Chrysler model to the U.S. market by the end of 2011 and create a new Ram brand for its truck line under a revival plan for Chrysler that will be shown to the U.S. government this week, people involved in the discussions said.

FPL Group Inc's green-energy unit on Thursday said it agreed to buy three wind projects from Babcock & Brown Power for about $352 million.

The United States said it held the highest level direct talks with Iran in three decades on Thursday to try to put to rest Western suspicions Tehran is planning a nuclear bomb.

Cuban exiles, who had previously opposed a concert last month in Havana by Colombian singer Juanes, ended up mostly backing the event after Juanes spoke out in favor of uniting Cubans, a new poll showed.

Bruce Springsteen yelled Evenin', New Jersey! Nice to be in my back yard to the crowd at the Giants Stadium yesterday night for his opening concert.

Former INXS and Noiseworks singer Jon Stevens is being held in hospital after suffering complications following emergency open-heart surgery, his management company said on Thursday.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday declared that a global economic recovery has begun led by Asia, also cautioning that the strength of the rebound depended on a rebalancing of global growth.

Cisco has agreed to buy Norwegian videoconferencing company Tandberg for $3 billion in cash, its latest big bet that video will drive demand for its core data transmission gear.

Britain's High Court ordered its first injunction via Twitter on Thursday, saying the social website and micro-blogging service was the best way to reach an anonymous Tweeter who had been impersonating someone.

Britain's fraud office said on Thursday it aimed to prosecute Europe's biggest defense contractor, BAE Systems, for bribery, but lawyers said an out-of-court settlement remained the most likely outcome.

Manufacturers saw more new orders and production in September albeit at a slower rate than August, according the chair of the private Institute for Supply Management.

U.S. stocks fell further on Thursday as data showed the manufacturing sector grew in September at a slower pace than anticipated and weighed on investor sentiment.

Internet auction site eBay stopped a 10-year-old girl's attempt to auction off her moaning granny online.

In an ongoing attempt to compete with Google, Apple bought small mapping company Placebase over the summer in a deal that went unnoticed until this week

Pending sales of existing U.S. homes rose sharply in August, for a seventh consecutive month of gains, reaching the highest since March 2007, data from a real estate trade group showed on Thursday.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform an entire album from their back catalog each night of the five-night run at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in October, the group announced late Monday night.

A federal judge said Bank of America Corp may pursue a lawsuit accusing former Bear Stearns Cos managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin of lying in an attempt to prop up two failing hedge funds.

The once controversial Wolfgang's Vault, which has amassed the largest collection of licensed streaming live recordings on the Internet, is about to make a treasure trove of those concerts available for downloading.