IBT Staff Reporter

Oil prices fell toward $72 a barrel on Thursday after rising more than 5 percent this week as swollen U.S. distillate stocks such as diesel offset positive sentiment in other markets.

President Barack Obama has told east European states he was backing away from plans for an anti-missile shield there, in a move that may ease Russian-U.S. ties but fuel fears of resurgent Kremlin influence.

U.S. stock index futures rose slightly on Thursday, edging toward a fourth straight positive session, as investors awaited key data on the labor and housing markets.

Airlines are at last beginning to fill vacant business-class seats in a sign that a slump in cross-border trade is easing, an industry body said on Thursday.

An improving U.S. economy has exposed a widening rift at the Federal Reserve over how quickly to scale back the central bank's aid measures, a debate that will be front and center when policy-makers meet next week.

Oil prices hovered around $72.50 a barrel on Thursday after rising more than 5 percent this week as swollen U.S. distillate stocks such as diesel offset positive sentiment in other markets.

The Bank of Japan said it was slightly more optimistic about economic and financial conditions on Thursday, likely bringing it a step closer toward phasing out some of its measures to support corporate funding.

Oracle Corp's quarterly software sales came in sharply below expectations, dashing hopes that corporate technology spending is rebounding and sending its shares down 2.7 percent.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Thursday a stronger yen would push down prices in the near term but might support the economy in the longer run. Japan must look at the overall economy in gauging the impact of the yen's strengthening, Shirakawa told a news conference.

Global shares rallied on Thursday, pushing the benchmark world index to a fresh 11-month high, while the euro hit a one-year peak against the low-yielding dollar as investors put back risk trades due to economic optimism.

Asian stocks hit their highest level in 13 months on Thursday on signs the global economic recovery could be strengthening, while the dollar slid to a fresh one-year low as investor optimism eroded its safe haven appeal.

Indonesia's most-wanted Islamic militant, Noordin Mohammad Top, may have been killed in a shoot-out in Central Java, security and police sources said on Thursday.

An Australian man has been charged with sexually abusing his daughter for 30 years and fathering her four children, local media said Thursday.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted on Thursday as saying he does not view Iran as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, a view that would seem to depart from Israeli statements of the recent past.

Japan's new prime minister got some good news on his first full day in office on Thursday as the central bank said the struggling economy was showing signs of recovery from its worst recession since World War Two.

Asian stocks hit their highest level in 13 months on Thursday and the Australian dollar surged after U.S. economic data raised hopes that the global economic recovery was strengthening.

Oil was steady above $72 a barrel on Thursday, taking a breather after a rise of more than 2 percent a day earlier, following a larger-than-expected fall in U.S. crude oil inventories.

Google Inc and a group of authors and publishers are in talks with the U.S. Justice Department about possibly modifying an agreement struck last October to publish millions of books online, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Google Inc and a group of authors and publishers are in talks with the U.S. Justice Department about possibly modifying an agreement struck last October to publish millions of books online, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

The Australian Dollar opens sharply higher on Thursday at 0.8725 on greenback weakness and a continuation of the recent shift into high-yielding assets.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said on Wednesday that its endowment shrank 20.7 percent in its last fiscal year as its investments were badly battered by the financial crisis.

Oracle Corp's quarterly software sales came in sharply below expectations, dashing hopes that corporate technology spending is rebounding and sending its shares down 2.7 percent.

Ratcheting up pressure on the largest U.S. bank, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed five current or former Bank of America Corp directors to learn what they knew about Merrill Lynch & Co's problems as the companies prepared to merge.

Twitter is closing a round of funding that will value the company known for its 140-character, stream-of-consciousness blogs at $1 billion, technology news site TechCrunch reported on Wednesday.

Raymond Clark III, the lab technician taken into custody for the murder of Yale student Annie Le forced an ex girlfriend to have sex with him, the New Haven Independent reported today.

The government will have another month to seek an indictment against or reach a settlement with a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc programmer accused of stealing trade secrets.

EU antitrust regulators are in touch with Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc about their search engine deal, a source familiar with the situation said, with the talks seen more as exploratory than indicating any competition concerns.

The founders of Skype are suing its owner eBay Inc and the investor group that has agreed to buy the Internet telephone service, alleging theft of technology, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Paul McCartney topped a poll of Americans' favorite Beatles, but nearly a quarter of those surveyed said they didn't like the British rock group.