IBT Staff Reporter

If you take antidepressants such as fluoxetine (marketed as Prozac) early in your pregnancy, you may be doubling the risk that your newborn will be born with a heart defect, according to a new study.

Early use of antivirals is effective in treating H1N1 flu and health authorities must be vigilant for signs of drug resistance, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

Kraft Foods Inc told employees it would use fiscal restraint in its pursuit of British confectioner Cadbury, and said its success as a company was not dependent on doing a deal.

The European Commission and officials from countries hosting Opel factories will discuss on Oct. 7 Germany's controversial plan to grant state aid for the ailing European carmaker.

The Group of 20 will become the forum for global economic management, giving rising powers such as China more clout, and roll out tougher rules on bank capital by the end of 2012, a draft communique said on Friday.

Allos Therapeutics said U.S. health regulators granted accelerated approval for its drug Folotyn to treat one of the most deadly and aggressive types of white blood cell cancers, sending its shares up 6 percent.

China's top video game operator, Shanda Games, priced its $1 billion U.S. IPO at the top of an indicative range, as firms globally make bold moves to capitalise on a spike in investor confidence.

Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes rose to their highest level in nearly a year in August, according to government data on Friday that indicated the housing market was gradually recovering from a three-year slump.

A U.S. Treasury Department watchdog will study decisions by General Motors Co [GM.UL] and Chrysler to cut more than 2,000 dealers, a key bailout watchdog said on Thursday.

Taiwan will not allow exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer to visit the island as proposed in December, an official said on Friday, a move likely to please rival China but upset anti-China factions at home.

Nearly one out of five U.S. drivers surveyed has read or sent a text message while behind the wheel, even though nearly all of the respondents in an AAA survey released on Friday considered such action unacceptable.

Homebuilder KB Home reported a deeper quarterly loss than Wall Street expected, and its chief executive warned he does not expect meaningful improvement in the U.S. housing market in the near future.

Boeing Co said Friday it is studying new draft bidding rules to decide which plane or planes to pit against the rival team of Northrop Grumman Corp and EADS's EADS.PA Airbus in a renewed $35 billion contest to supply refueling aircraft to the U.S. Air Force.

The Group of 20 is set to become the premier coordinating body on global economic issues, reflecting a new world economic order in which emerging market countries like China are much more relevant, according to a draft communique.

General Motors Co GM.UL could extend its offer of a 60-day, money-back guarantee for consumers when the marketing program expires at the end of November, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said on CNBC on Friday.

Electrical equipment maker AZZ Inc posted better-than-expected quarterly results, helped by growth at its electrical and industrial products segment, and raised its 2010 earnings outlook, sending its shares up as much as 8 percent.

Morgan Stanley is outrunning archrival Goldman Sachs as 2009's busiest adviser on mergers as optimism grows that the crippling effects of the financial crisis on dealmaking may be easing.

Canadian medical equipment maker Noveko International Inc's fourth-quarter loss widened, hurt by a goodwill impairment charge.

The Group of 20 will take on the role of caretakers of the global economy, giving rising powers such as China more clout, and roll out tougher rules on bank capital by the end of 2012, a draft communique said on Friday.

An experimental AIDS vaccine made from two failed products has protected people for the first time, reducing the rate of infection by about 30 percent, researchers said on Thursday.

Nycomed, the private equity-owned Swiss drugmaker, is looking at sweetening its bid for Solvay's drugs unit with the Belgian chemical and drug maker's board set to meet to decide on the unit's future.

Protesters smashed shop windows and threw rocks at police on Thursday as officers in riot gear used pepper gas and batons to disperse their march against capitalism at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.

Ford Motor Co (F.N) announced on Thursday plans to build a new $490-million flexible assembly plant in China, its third in the country, increasing annual production capacity by one-third to meet growing demand.

Allied Irish Banks would gain 2 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in cash by selling its stakes in two U.S. and Polish banks, but wants to keep its holding in Poland's BZ WBK BZWB.WA, a brokerage said on Friday.

A world where electric cars running on clean power is getting closer, corporate leaders said on Thursday, the day after an electric car battery maker raised much more than expected in an initial public offering.

Most Palestinians who want a state of their own would like to achieve it through a peace deal with Israel but there is still substantial support for the Islamist Hamas group which favors resistance, according to a new opinion poll.

Myanmar's detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will support U.S. plans to engage with the isolated nation but only if opposition groups are involved in any dialogue, her party said.

ING will sell its 51 percent stake in a wealth management joint venture to partner Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) for 1.1 billion euros ($1.6 billion) as the Dutch group slims down through asset sales.

U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western leaders accused Iran on Friday of building a secret nuclear fuel plant and demanded Tehran immediately halt what he called a direct challenge to the international community.