IBT Staff Reporter

Volkswagen's (VOWG.DE) Czech unit, Skoda Auto, is considering halting production for two days in October after demand fell following the end of a scrappage subsidy in Germany, a spokesman said on Thursday.

A Muslim, a Catholic and an agnostic composer have contributed music to an album featuring Pope Benedict singing and reciting prayers, which is due for release in November.

Rescue teams struggled on Thursday to reach scores of people trapped under debris and survivors pleaded for aid after a powerful quake hit the Indonesian city of Padang, possibly killing thousands.

Government funds propped up an ailing European auto industry in September, in contrast to an expected slump in sales in the United States after its cash for clunkers scheme ran out of money.

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

John C. Reilly is joining Ed Helms in the road-trip comedy Cedar Rapids.

Jessica Alba is becoming a Focker.

Contrary to how tabloids portray the actress, Megan Fox says she is really not wild and crazy and instead has a subdued life and rarely leaves her house.

U.S. stocks dipped more than 1 percent on Thursday after the latest jobs and manufacturing data sparked worries about the pace of economic recovery, with technology shares leading losses.

Rather than throwing that bag or hosepipe into the recycle bin, how about turning it into a belt or a shower curtain, joining a growing band of upcyclers?

Ameriprise Financial Inc's purchase of an asset management business from Bank of America Corp contains a key feature -- access to the bank's massive distribution system.

NextEra Energy Resources LLC, a subsidiary of FPL Group Inc (FPL.N), shut the 1,245-megawatt Seabrook nuclear power station in New Hampshire on Oct. 1 for a planned refueling and maintenance outage, a spokesman for the plant said.

The London Stock Exchange said it has entered into exclusive talks with low-cost trading platform Turquoise Trading Ltd., as rising competition forces trading houses to consolidate.

Nike Inc on Thursday denied it has an endorsement deal with Michael Vick more than two years after dumping the National Football League quarterback following his arrest for bankrolling a dog-fighting ring. Nike said it was only supplying gear for Vick as it does with many athletes. In such deals, Nike does not pay the athlete.

A Turkish student threw a shoe at International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Thursday as he made a speech to students in Istanbul ahead of the IMF's annual meeting.

More unemployed workers filed for temporary government insurance protection last week, with the total initial claims rising by 17,000 to 551,000, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

China's National Day military parade held no big surprises but there were tantalizing clues for experts assessing the modernization of the world's biggest fighting force.

The head of the Federal Reserve and a key U.S. lawmaker on Thursday backed away from a controversial provision of the Obama administration's financial regulation reform plan, saying new oversight by the Fed on systemic risk should be shared with other regulators.

Millions of people were battling on Thursday to cope with the aftermath of a typhoon that cut a destructive path through parts of Southeast Asia, killing 400, as an even stronger storm headed toward the Philippines.

Virtual economies set up in videogames as players trade items are being used as case studies to track and model real-world economies.

Rescuers pulled bodies from the mud and twisted rubble and fished bloated corpses from the South Pacific off Samoa Wednesday as the death toll from a series of tsunamis climbed further.

Sport and politics converge in a potent mix on Friday with the credibility of the U.S. President on the line as International Olympic Committee (IOC) members choose the venue for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

U.S. stocks fell further on Thursday, with major indexes down more than 1 percent, after data showed the manufacturing sector grew in September, but at a slower pace than anticipated.

Six world powers held talks with Iran on Thursday that U.S. officials said would need to convince them Tehran was prepared to show it was not hiding plans for a nuclear bomb.

Oil pared losses to trade above $70 a barrel after the biggest daily jump since April on the back of a hike in U.S. consumer spending and as tensions between Iran and the West lent support.

Louis Meeks, a burly 59-year-old alfalfa farmer, fills a metal trough with water from his well and watches an oily sheen form on the surface which gives off a faint odor of paint.

The head of the Federal Reserve adopted a new tone on Thursday over a key plank of the Obama administration's proposed plan for financial regulation reform, saying new oversight powers proposed for the U.S. central bank should be shared with other regulators.

David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia

STP Nuclear Operating Co's 1,280-megawatt Unit 1 at the South Texas nuclear power station in Texas shut by early Thursday from 92 percent early Wednesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.