IBT Staff Reporter

Bank regulators closed three banks on Friday, bringing the number of failures so far this year to 72 as the weakened economy takes its toll on the financial services sector.

A small plane crashed into a tourist helicopter on Saturday causing both planes to plunge into the Hudson River and claiming the lives of all nine occupants.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had frequent conversations with Goldman Sachs Group Inc's chief executive during last fall's financial crisis, raising questions about his ties to his former firm, according to a New York Times report.

A sightseeing helicopter collided with a small plane on Saturday and both crashed into the Hudson River near lower Manhattan, police reported.

A tour helicopter collided with a small plane in midair and both crashed into the Hudson River near lower Manhattan, police reported Saturday.

Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in on Saturday as the first Hispanic, and the third woman, to sit on the United States Supreme Court bench.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in on Saturday as the first Hispanic associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

An Iranian court on Saturday charged a French woman, two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran and dozens of others with spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule.

A year after Russia defeated neighbor Georgia's military bid to retake a pro-Moscow region from rebels, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday the war had redrawn the map of the Caucasus for good.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and the founder of the Special Olympics, is hospitalized in critical but stable condition, the Shriver family said Friday.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Saturday ordered his ambassador back to Colombia a few days after withdrawing him amid a crisis over plans to increase the number of U.S. troops in the neighboring country.

President Barack Obama accused his critics on Saturday of resorting to outlandish rumors and misleading information aimed at derailing his efforts to overhaul the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system.

Chief executives of General Motors and autoparts maker Magna made some progress in Friday talks on the sale of GM's Opel unit, but key barriers remain, Opel's top labor leader and board member said on Saturday.

Telecommunications providers will not have to give the government sensitive revenue and Internet speed data for a program to map broadband use in U.S. homes and bring high-speed Internet service to more people.

Wall Street's rally could persist next week as investors' conviction grows that the U.S. economy is on track for a recovery. But retailers' results, CPI and other consumer data could cast a pall if shoppers fail to show signs of life.

A European Union official will tell antitrust regulators they failed to consider potentially exculpatory evidence in a ruling against chip maker Intel Corp, according to a source who had seen a confidential report.

Bank of America Corp on Friday revealed that its U.S. operations lost money in the second quarter as the quality of consumer and commercial loans deteriorated.

A new bidder has emerged to buy the 137-year-old Boston Globe from New York Times Co, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Braskem, Latin America's largest petrochemical company, plans to delay by as much as two years of investments worth $4.5 billion in Venezuela, the Valor Economico newspaper said, citing the company's vice president of international operations.

The Swedish government has received information on a possible pullout of investors backing a deal by luxury car maker Koenigsegg to buy Saab Automobile, and is making further checks, a government official said on Friday.

RHJ International SA, a Belgian investment firm, plans to sweeten its bid for General Motors Co's European unit to overcome German government opposition to its bid, The Wall Street Journal said on Friday.

China Mobile is reviving efforts to seek a listing in Shanghai after years of unsuccessful attempts, analysts and bankers said, sending the index heavyweight up as much as 4.3 percent intraday Friday.

BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, canceled plans to install a new president for the company's operations in China, the Beijing-based Beijing Times reported on Friday, the same day that the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) announced heavy regulation over resident representative offices of foreign firms.

China's auto sales surpassed the United States' again in July, jumping 63.57% over a year earlier to 1.09 million units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Friday.

Hong Kong's official foreign currency reserve assets has risen for five consecutive months to $218.1 billion in July, up $11.6 billion on June, the Monetary Authority said on Friday.

China Investment Corporation (CIC), the nation's sovereign wealth fund, reaped the benefits of investing cautiously during the global financial crisis after it reported a negative 2.1% return on its global portfolio for 2008, ChinaDaily reported on Friday.

General Motors Co plans to sell shares in an initial public offering before the one-year anniversary next July of its exit from bankruptcy, the carmaker said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

Bank of America Corp on Friday revealed that its U.S. operations lost money in the second quarter as the quality of consumer and commercial loans deteriorated.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally requested that Congress raise the $12.1 trillion statutory debt limit on Friday, saying that it could be breached as early as mid-October.