IBT Staff Reporter

Chrysler Group said on Wednesday it would offer leases on its newest vehicles just over a year after sharply tighter credit markets and plunging vehicle values forced it to retreat from the market.

Actor Patrick Swayze made peace with the notion of dying from pancreatic cancer after initially finding his diagnosis a cruel joke, according to a memoir to be published later this month.

Fresh from a visit to Moscow, a gleeful Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pored over diagrams and charts showing his latest arms purchases.

Canada has decided against launching a review of the $1.13 billion sale of the wireless assets of bankrupt Nortel Networks to Sweden's Ericsson, Industry Minister Tony Clement said on Wednesday.

Dr. Wayne Carver's office released the autopsy results Wednesday of the 24-year-old Yale graduate student who was killed last Sunday.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $3 billion proposal on Wednesday to further spur research into advanced batteries and other technologies to power electric cars and other vehicles.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he would not make a swift decision on sending more U.S. forces to Afghanistan and set out broad goals for Kabul and neighboring Pakistan to rein in militants and corruption that critics dismissed as vague.

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba.com is to boost domestic market share by encouraging more users to sell products through its online auction site Taobao, China Daily reported on Tuesday.

CKE Restaurants Inc, parent of the Carl's Jr and Hardee's fast-food chains, posted a quarterly profit that was in line with market expectations but revenue missed estimates, sending its shares down 9 percent.

Dress Barn Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by tighter cost and inventory controls, but forecast full-year 2010 earnings below market expectations, sending its shares down 3 percent in after-market trade.

The NHS Direct (National Health Service) has published recently its swine flu symptoms checker.

Fisker Automotive Inc, a builder of luxury plug-in hybrids, aims to make a profit in 2011 when its first vehicle, called the Karma, is expected to hit annual sales of 15,000 units, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Tinseltown evening gowns are shimmering and flowing on New York fashion runways this week as many designers shed the stiff, formal styles of seasons past.

Chrysler Group said on Wednesday it would offer leases on its newest vehicles just over a year after sharply tighter credit markets and plunging vehicle values forced it to retreat from the market.

Exxon Mobil Corp's idled 115,000 barrel-per-day gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracker will likely be down for nearly two months for planned maintenance at its 562,500 bpd Baytown, Texas, refinery, traders said Wednesday.

South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) plans to produce a new model in India priced as low as $5,000 and targeting emerging countries, Japanese business daily Nikkei reported.

The number of Australians living with HIV has risen by almost 10,000 cases in the past decade and today there are more than 28,000 registered cases of the virus.

Banks, pension funds and other investment groups representing more than $13 trillion in assets called for a strong global agreement on climate policy on Wednesday, saying it would lead to a flood of investment into the low-carbon economy.

U.S. industrial production rose for a second straight month in August, reinforcing views the nation's recession had ended, while a spike in gasoline costs pushed consumer prices higher.

Iraqi journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi, who made headlines in December after tossing his shoes at the then U.S. president George W Bush on his farewell visit to Bagdad, was on Tuesday released from jail.

Drugmaker ImmunoGen Inc said it licensed its technology to develop anticancer drugs to Amgen Inc.

Unemployment in the United States will peak only in early 2011 because of a slow and painful recovery from the global economic crisis, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said on Wednesday.

Stocks rose for a third day on Wednesday, hitting fresh 2009 highs in a broad-based rally following economic data that suggested a stronger-than-anticipated global recovery.

General Electric Co shares crossed into positive territory for 2009 on Wednesday, in their third day of steady gains, helped by recent brokerage upgrades and easing investor concern about its finance arm.

Oracle Corp , the world's No. 3 software maker, posted lower-than-expected quarterly revenue that missed Wall Street projections, sending its shares down 2.4 percent.

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.

Jennifer Aniston showed some of her singing skills on the Ellen DeGeneres show Wednesday and admitted she was mortified for being asked to do it.

Financial crises and war have long fostered dramatic innovations in fashion, and today's times are no different, according to Nina Garcia, author of the new book The Style Strategy.

U.S. motor giant Ford (F.N) will definitely sell its Swedish car brand Volvo, its finance chief told Swedish news agency TT on Tuesday.