IBT Staff Reporter

Iconix Brand Group Inc slashed its 2009 view, hurt by the transition to a new licensee for one of its brands and dilution from its June share offer, sending its shares tumbling 23 percent.

China has made a proposal to buy 6 billion barrels of Nigeria's crude oil reserves and the West African country said on Wednesday it could sell stakes in its joint ventures with Western oil firms to help Beijing do so.

French food group Danone settled a legal row with China's top beverage producer Wahaha by selling out of their joint venture, as analysts speculated Danone is looking to the United States for a big acquisition.

More than 5,800 people were killed and 515,000 injured in U.S. car crashes last year tied to distracted driving, according to data released on Wednesday.

American Samoa tsunami videos are being made public online by witnesses showing the devastation left in the villages along the shoreline of the island.

Environmental software company Village Green Global Inc is joining the dash in the market to track carbon footprints, partnering with software giant Microsoft Corp to capture the business of cities and local governments.

Man Group, the world's largest listed hedge fund firm, said slowing outflows helped lift assets to an estimated $43.8 billion at end-September, at the top end of forecasts, boosting its shares.

The times they are a-changin', and Bob Dylan's surprise decision to release his first Christmas album next month now comes with a banking tie-in that would have been unimaginable during the singer's 1960s protest years.

U.S. holiday sales in 2009 will likely be almost flat with the anemic showing of a year ago, a new survey predicted, following in a line of cautious early forecasts for the period.

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Wednesday as an unexpected fall in business activity in the U.S. Midwest sparked worries about the pace of economic recovery.

Freddie Mac said on Wednesday it plans to sell about $1 billion of multifamily mortgage-backed securities next week and expects new issues at least quarterly.

The number of home foreclosures in process and delinquent mortgages rose during the second quarter, while home retention actions also rose, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday.

The U.S. economy contracted at slower pace than previously thought in the second quarter as improved consumer and business spending cushioned the impact of a record decline in inventories, according to a government report on Wednesday.

(Corrects age of Staley to 52 in paragraph 8 and corrects paragraph 13 to show Winters was in London, Black in New York)

Honduran police on Wednesday began evicting supporters of toppled President Manuel Zelaya from government office buildings where they had holed up for three months to protest his ouster in a military coup.

Vietnam's central provinces battled the biggest floods in decades on Wednesday caused by a powerful typhoon that swept into the country after wreaking havoc in the Philippines.

Repsol YPF's Bilbao Knutsen liquefied natural gas tanker is expected to arrive at the Canaport LNG terminal in New Brunswick from Trinidad on Oct. 5, according to AISLive ship tracker on Reuters.

Iran said on Wednesday it viewed talks with six world powers in Geneva as an opportunity and a test, while the United States weighed sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program if Thursday's meeting fails.

Toys R Us Inc said on Wednesday that it would hire about 35,000 seasonal workers for its U.S. stores as it prepares for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

China will celebrate 60 years of Communist Party rule on Thursday with a massive military parade passing by Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, where Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic on October 1, 1949.

In a black-and-white photo from Tiananmen Square in 1970, the four young faces are serious, the clothes drab and nearly identical, and a copy of chairman Mao Zedong's little red book is clutched in every hand.

U.S. antitrust regulators have approved Warner Chilcott Plc's purchase of Procter & Gamble Co's pharmaceuticals business, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.

The Chinese capital Beijing is under lockdown on the eve of a massive military parade to mark six decades of Communist Party rule, with gun-toting police manning street corners to ensure nothing spoils the event.

Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. home funding source, said on Wednesday it sold $2 billion of bills at rates unchanged from last week's rates for similar sizes and maturities.

A powerful earthquake struck off the city of Padang on Indonesia's Sumatra island on Wednesday, killing at least 21 people and trapping thousands under rubble, an official said.

A series of tsunamis smashed into the Pacific island nations of American and Western Samoa killing possibly more than 100 people, some washed out to sea, destroying villages and injuring hundreds, officials said on Wednesday.

Miss Singapore World, Ris Low, announced her resignation on Tuesday coming five days after news broke out that she was involved in credit card fraud.

U.S. food giant Kraft has until November 9 to say whether it will make an offer for British confectioner Cadbury or it must walk away for six months, Britain's Takeover Panel said on Wednesday.

U.S. mortgage applications fell last week despite the lowest loan rates in four months, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday, in another sign that housing will likely recover slowly from its three-year plunge.