IBT Staff Reporter

Packing on the pounds may be an unintended consequence of the U.S. Food Stamp Program, according to research that shows that getting food stamps may help contribute to obesity, at least among women.

The global economic recovery has begun but sustaining it will require refocusing the United States toward exports and Asia toward imports, the International Monetary Fund's chief economist said.

The recession appears to be easing for U.S. hospitals, although close to a third of hospitals remain in the red, according to a study published on Wednesday.

German soprano Hildegard Behrens, best known for her roles in Wagner and Strauss operas, has died in a Tokyo hospital aged 72, an official at the Kanshinetsu Music Society Foundation in Japan said on Wednesday.

Sony Corp will launch a slimmer, cheaper version of its PlayStation 3 game console next month, hoping to jumpstart sales and win back market share from rivals Microsoft and Nintendo.

Tween vampire lovers could soon be descending on a city near you.

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it was up to national regulatory authorities to decide whether to extend the shelf life of the flu drug Tamiflu by two years, as recommended by Swiss drug maker Roche.

The United States economy is out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery, Warren Buffett wrote in an opinion column in the New York Times.

The Swiss and U.S. governments have signed an agreement involving giant Swiss bank UBS AG aimed at uncovering thousands of Americans who are suspected of evading U.S. taxes, a U.S. Justice Department official said on Wednesday.

Baby boomers, now well into middle age, are still turning on to illegal drugs, doubling the rates of illicit drug use for the older generation, according to U.S. government statistics released on Wednesday.

Promising IPOs, Official Tax Deal?; Opel Finals

Tobacco plants might yield a cheap and easy-to-administer vaccine against a pesky stomach virus called norovirus, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Want to tweet God?An Israeli university student has opened a Twitter site, twitter.com/thekotel, where prayers can be sent for placement in the crevices of Jerusalem's Western Wall, a Jewish holy site that faithful believe provides a direct line to the Almighty.

Chemicals in cannabis have been found to stop prostate cancer cells from growing in the laboratory, suggesting that cannabis-based medicines could one day help fight the disease, scientists said Wednesday.

The United States economy is out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery,, Warren Buffett wrote in an opinion column in the New York Times.

Investors, encouraged by a growing number of acquisitions and public floats in the past few months, are keeping a close eye on a coterie of promising startups in Silicon Valley.

Oil fell below $69 a barrel on Wednesday, at one stage losing more than $1, after a near 5 percent slump in Chinese shares sent doubts rippling through global markets about the strength of the world economic recovery.

With debate about healthcare reform raging across the Atlantic, Reuters asked a selection of expatriates what they thought of healthcare systems at home and abroad.

If only the economy were bouncing back as fast as banking compensation.

Police arrested three armed suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA Wednesday in a French ski resort after a wave of bombings in Spain which killed two people, Spanish and French authorities said.

Senior Southeast Asian officials are meeting in Jakarta to debate whether to call on Myanmar to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Indonesia said on Wednesday.

North Korea said on Wednesday leader Kim Jong-il had sent condolences on the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, the latest sign of a possible defrosting of relations between the rival Koreas.

As he continues to work on his own boxed set retrospective, Stephen Stills has mined past recordings for a pair of fall archival releases.

The hijackers of a cargo ship that disappeared off the coast of France threatened to blow it up if their ransom demands were not met, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will on Wednesday nominate a relative novice as oil minister and seek to bring women into the cabinet for the first time -- but he may face a hard fight to win approval from the conservative parliament.

U.S. President Barack Obama has started reaching out to some of Pakistan's most fervent Islamist and anti-American parties, including one that helped give rise to the Taliban, trying to improve Washington's image in the nuclear-armed state.

Deere & Co said on Wednesday its earnings in the latest quarter fell 27 percent as ongoing weakness in its construction and forestry equipment business offset strength in demand for its tractors and harvesters, especially in North America.

A series of explosions killed at least 75 people and wounded more than 300 in central Baghdad on Wednesday, the deadliest day in the Iraqi capital since U.S. troops withdrew from urban centers in June.