IBT Staff Reporter

Sony Corp will begin selling this month the cheapest digital book reader for the United States, heating up the competition with Amazon.com Inc in the small but fast-growing market for electronic readers

Google on Wednesday took another step in its Web video strategy by announcing it will acquire On2 Technologies, a creator of high-quality video compression technology in order to boost its YouTube site.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after data showed the economy's service sector contracted in July at a faster pace than June, heightening concerns about the strength of the recovery.

R&B singer Chris Brown will today be sentenced after he pleaded guilty in June for assaulting his former girlfriend Rihanna.

Oil fell toward $70 a barrel on Wednesday after U.S. government inventory data showed a build in crude stocks and weak economic data raised doubts about oil demand recovery in the world's largest energy consumer.

The U.S. service sector contracted in July at a faster pace than in June, adding to worries that any economic recovery may still be a long way off, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Who ever said China's loss of face over Chinalco's collapsed $19.5 billion Rio Tinto tie-up bid would curb the country's hunger for Australian natural resources?

The U.S. Marine Corps banned use of social web sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook on its networks, citing security risks, while the Pentagon also said it will consider implementing similar bans.

Merck & Co and Schering-Plough Corp will pay $41.5 million to settle class-action lawsuits over their shared cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia, the companies said on Wednesday.

Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd said it would buy TriStar Oil & Gas Ltd in a cash and stock deal worth about C$2.24 billion, to form PetroBakken Energy Ltd, a Bakken-focused light-oil producer.

U.S. private equity firm Platinum Equity won permission from European Union antitrust authorities on Wednesday to acquire control of bankrupt U.S. auto parts maker Delphi Corp.

Deutsche Bank is in talks to take a minority stake in Sal. Oppenheim that could eventually lead to a take over of the embattled private bank and herald further consolidation in Europe's wealth management industry.

The two American journalists that were held in North Korea since March and had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor arrived to the United States today meeting their families in a tearful encounter.

Maxis Communications, Malaysia's top mobile operator, has chosen Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and CIMB advise it on a planned $2 billion listing in Kuala Lumpur, two sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

American Idol judge and singer-dancer Paula Abdul will not remain in the show, Abdul and Fox confirmed in separate statements.

Google Inc said it would acquire On2 Technologies Inc, a maker of video compression technology, in a stock deal valued at about $106.5 million.

Kazakh and Chinese state oil firms' joint $3.3 billion acquisition of a Kazakh private upstream company has been delayed, Kazakhstan said on Wednesday without providing the timeframe or the reason for the delay.

Austrian energy group OMV is in talks to take control of Turkish fuel retailer Petrol Ofisi from embattled Dogan Holding as it tries to move into emerging markets, it said on Wednesday.

U.S. private employers shed 371,000 jobs in July, compared with a revised 463,000 drop in June, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

The United States can end the political crisis in Honduras in a few seconds and kick out politicians who led a coup in June, deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said on Tuesday.

Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, heroine of the 1986 people power movement, was laid to rest on Wednesday after an eight-hour funeral procession that had to inch its way past hundreds of thousands of mourners.

Three suspects in the murder of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya went on trial for a second time in Moscow Wednesday as supporters questioned the authorities' will and ability to solve the case.

The office of Lithuania's newly elected President Dalia Grybauskaite has a problem with someone else's virtual reality.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iran's president Wednesday in a ceremony boycotted by reformist leaders and parliamentarians and marred by street protests over his victory.

Two American journalists freed by North Korea from months of detention returned to U.S. soil early on Wednesday accompanied by former President Bill Clinton, who secured their release in a meeting with the hermit state's leader Kim Jong-il.

This week has had economic reports on housing and personal income, but the main focus of the week will be employment.

Adam Beach will star opposite

George Sodini is reportedly identified as the man who walked into the LA Fitness gym class in Pennsylvania on Tuesday evening, turned off the lights and started shooting.

The number of U.S. jobs lost in the private sector fell in July but firms increased planned layoffs, data on Wednesday showed, suggesting the labor market remained troubled even as the pace of job losses slowed.