IBT Staff Reporter

While Asia's economy has recovered from the lows hit a year ago, a bumpy road is ahead, with companies needing to shed debt burdens and increase capital bases, according to Nomura's Asia Pacific investment banking head.

Cadbury Chief Executive Todd Stitzer noted that past deals in the industry have been agreed at higher multiples than that implied by the offer from Kraft, according to a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch note obtained by Reuters.

Large drug companies have inherent advantages -- including cash to conduct expensive drug studies and to assure survival when trials fail -- that will be increasingly important in coming years, senior executives of Wyeth and Merck and Co said on Tuesday.

A JPMorgan Chase & Co vehicle on Wednesday increased its cash offer for London-listed carbon offset aggregator EcoSecurities, garnering further support from shareholders.

The United States is still working toward an agreement with G20 partners to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, a top White House adviser said ahead of this week's G20 summit.

U.S. stocks were little changed in early trading on Wednesday as investors cooled their heels ahead of a Federal Reserve policy statement.

The most anticipated climate meeting in years will be held in the Danish capital in December. Out of those talks a broader climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol is expected to emerge.

Apparently healthy people with normal or even low cholesterol levels might benefit as much from taking statin drugs as people with high cholesterol, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Cancer is a bigger killer in developing countries than tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS combined and a tsunami of the disease threatens to overwhelm the nations worst equipped to cope, experts said Tuesday.

U.S. oil and gas exploration and production firm SandRidge Energy Inc has struck a deal to buy bankrupt rival, Crusader Energy Group, for $230 million, in a cash and stock deal that would give it additional acreage in the Anadarko and Permian basins.

Warner Chilcott Plc said privately held Leo Pharma would re-acquire the U.S. rights to its topical psoriasis treatments for about $1 billion, sending the specialty pharmaceutical company's shares up 4 percent.

Want to know if a doctor-in-training is stressed out or tired and about to make a big mistake? Just ask.

Apple and rapper Eminem may be headed for trial on Thursday if they are unable to resolve a lawsuit over whether the singer's songs could be used on the popular iTunes service.

U.S. mortgage applications jumped last week to their highest since late May as interest rates tumbled below 5 percent, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

Democrats pushed on Tuesday to make insurance reforms more affordable for workers and Republicans decried what they called a rush to judgment, as a key Senate panel began debate on a sweeping healthcare overhaul.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took its first steps to rein in the tobacco industry on Tuesday, implementing a ban on candy, clove and other flavored cigarettes.

Women with breast cancer lived significantly longer without their disease getting worse when treated with Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals' cancer pill Nexavar, researchers said on Wednesday.

Wall Street was set for a slightly higher open on Wednesday ahead of a Federal Reserve policy statement and following results by food company General Mills Inc, which beat profit estimates.

Al Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahri appeared on Wednesday in a new video marking the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, attacking Arab leaders and Barack Obama for their policies on Israel.

Scientists offered new hope in the fight against a difficult-to-treat skin cancer on Wednesday as an early-stage clinical trial showed an experimental drug dramatically shrank tumors.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks on track to win a second term and has a good chance of forming the center-right coalition that eluded her four years ago, the last polls released before Sunday's election indicated.

General Mills Inc posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by strong sales in the United States and lower commodity costs.

Fighting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu killed at least 12 people and wounded 17 others after Islamist insurgents attacked government forces and African Union (AU) peacekeepers, witnesses said on Wednesday.

The European Union unveiled its blueprint on Wednesday for an overhaul of the way banks and financial markets are policed, a central plank to new rules designed to prevent a repeat of the global economic crisis.

Working Mother magazine on Tuesday named the best U.S. companies for working mothers, citing those that have kept or expanded family-friendly programs and policies amid the pressures of recession.

When the National Day parade rolls down Beijing's streets next week, foreign observers will look beyond the goose-stepping soldiers for signs that China is developing a new missile able to threaten U.S. aircraft carriers.

More than a year and a half into America's worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, rising unemployment is pushing ever more homeowners in rural Ohio toward foreclosure.

Sarah Palin, accused during her 2008 U.S. vice presidential campaign of having a limited knowledge of foreign affairs, travelled to Hong Kong to push on Wednesday for stronger ties and trade with China.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to take note of an improving economy at the close of a meeting on Wednesday, while cautioning that high unemployment puts the recovery at risk.