IBT Staff Reporter

South Africa's largest property and casualty insurer Santam Ltd expects underwriting margins to remain under pressure in the second half after a rise in high-value property fire claims hit first-half returns.

The White House budget update released on Tuesday still reflects a controversial Obama administration plan to combat global warming by auctioning all permits to emit greenhouse gases even though Congress has said it will give away a substantial portion to industry.

SAIC Motor Corp, China's biggest automaker, posted a 26.4 percent fall in first half earnings on provisions for its loss-making South Korean unit but was cautiously optimistic for the rest of the year as government policy initiatives bolstered automobile demand.

Oil pared early gains to drop below $72 a barrel on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session, as rising U.S. crude stockpiles and a dip in equity markets outweighed bullish economic data.

Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes rose for a fourth straight month in July to set their fastest pace since last September, while the inventory of unsold homes fell to the lowest level in 16 years, a government report showed on Wednesday.

R.E.M.'s

Cinematographer-turned-director Ericson Core has signed to direct

China Life Insurance Co, the country's top life insurer, said it is studying possible investments involving IPO candidates Agricultural Bank of China and AIA, aiming to improve its returns.

Sino Gold Mining Ltd will make an announcement on a potential takeover transaction, it said on Wednesday, amid market talk that Canada's Eldorado Gold Corp could be a bidder.

Martial arts champion and international movie star Jet Li is returning to Chinese film with a starring role in

Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp's 1,166-megawatt Wolf Creek 1 reactor in Kansas was at 92 percent power early Wednesday, up from 48 percent of capacity early Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in A power reactor status report.

Upscale home furnishings chain Williams-Sonoma Inc reported a surprise profit on cost-cutting and raised its full-year outlook as it expects tighter inventory control to boost margins in the back half.

Progress Energy Inc's (PGN.N) 838-megawatt Crystal River 3 nuclear power unit in Florida was at 17 percent power early Wednesday as it began to exit a recent outage, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power reactor status report.

Rising TV director Jason Winer is in negotiations to make his feature film debut on

You've heard about using marijuana and drugs derived from it to keep some of the side effects of toxic cancer chemotherapy in check. But what if smoking marijuana for 10 to 20 years could actually protect against certain tumors?

Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland and Mark Strong are sharpening their swords for director Kevin Macdonald's Roman epic

U.S. regulators are set to buttress their defenses this week against a slew of sick banks still facing closure and the risks to the dwindling fund that protects depositors.

India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN hope to finalize by mid-September a deal that could lead to a full merger, with the Indian firm adding another adviser and getting closer to lining up loans, three sources said.

Hedge funds and bank trading desks are hiring again after the downturn and have already snapped up some of the most talented managers dislodged while firms struggled in the credit crisis, industry insiders said.

Dutch bancassurer ING is expecting final bids for its Asian and Swiss private banking assets within the latter part of the next week, sources familiar with the sale said on Wednesday.

Tobacco use will kill 6 million people next year from cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a range of other ills, global cancer experts said in a report issued on Tuesday.

Snakes on a cane. Sound familiar? Perhaps, during commercial breaks on Fox, you've seen the flashes of a caduceus that uses a cane instead of a staff. You might have seen the symbol drawn with chalk on New York streets. Or even clicked through to the phrase's cryptic Web site.

Japan's NEC Electronics Corp and Renesas Technology may receive a $2.1 billion bailout from their parent companies to bring about the merger of the two loss-making chipmakers in a sector wracked by weak demand and prices, the Nikkei business daily said.

G20 finance ministers will discuss next week how to curb excessive bankers' pay but the group of leading nations is not expected to heed a French call to cap and tax bonuses, officials and analysts said.

The immediate crisis may be over but G20 policymakers meeting next week must still find a way to rebalance the global economy if the world is not to be doomed to repeat the past.

Snakes on a cane. Sound familiar?

A surge in demand for aircraft pushed new orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods up at their fastest pace in two years in July, the government said on Wednesday, hinting a modest economic recovery was taking shape.

Russia's top general said on Wednesday the military would search the Arctic Sea merchant ship for a possible secret cargo when it returns to Russia from a maritime odyssey that has made headlines around the world.

Senator Edward M. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, one of the most influential senators in the history of the U.S. died Tuesday night at age 77 after a battle with brain cancer.