IBT Staff Reporter

The mayor of Amsterdam married five American-Dutch gay couples on Saturday in an implicit criticism of the lack of same-sex marriage in many U.S. states.

President Barack Obama warned on Saturday it would take many more months for the United States to get out of recession even after GDP figures showed the economy shrank only modestly in the second quarter.

DENVER - Downloadable music didn't kill the album cover. The CD did.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has released this week the final rules setting forth requirements and procedures for the Cash for Clunkers program under the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009.

HSBC's Bill Maldonado is a man who loves to mix science with art -- be that in running Halbis's hedge fund business, riding his high-power Ducati motorbike on a race track or piloting a light aircraft.

Michael Phelps of the U.S. let his swimming do the talking as he beat Milorad Cavic swimming for Serbia to win the Men's 100 Meter Butterfly at the World Championships in Rome.

Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co is preparing for an initial public offering for discount retailer Dollar General, a source said, and others are speculated to follow as it looks to take advantage of a recent rise in equity markets.

Las Vegas Sands, the world's largest casino firm, is seeking $400 million in short-term funding to help boost cash and restart construction of its stalled resort in Macau, local media reported on Saturday.

United Arab Emirates-based Dana Gas said on Saturday it had made two gas finds in Egypt with reserves totalling an estimated 76 billion cubic feet.

The downturn in the German car industry has bottomed out but it will take time before sales recover to the levels of recent years, the president of Germany's car industry association (VDA) said on Saturday.

South Africa's Communications Workers Union said scores of its members will strike for two days next week, in the latest industrial action to hit the country and pile pressure on President Jacob Zuma.

Kuwait Projects Co, the country's biggest investment company by assets, posted a second-quarter net profit decline of 56.5 percent, but said it was confident about progress for the rest of 2009.

The research arm of Dutch bancassurer ING has dropped coverage of about 60 major pan-European stocks after changes in research personnel, the company said.

While the latest report about the overall state of the economy shows the U.S. is doing better than expected, President Barack Obama said the real recovery will come when the number of jobless stops dropping.

The German state of Lower Saxony sees growing chances to wrest control in the merger of carmakers VW and Porsche from the Porsche and Piech families, a German magazine reported on Saturday.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier phoned GM's chief executive to underscore Germany's expectations for the sale of GM's Opel unit, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

A convoy of campaign workers for Afghan President Hamid Karzai was ambushed five times on Saturday, officials said, as Taliban insurgents step up efforts to disrupt the presidential election.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plunged into the depths of Lake Baikal aboard a mini-submersible on Saturday in a mission that adds a new dimension to his macho image.

North Korean authorities seized a South Korean fishing boat this week because the vessel illegally intruded into the North's territorial waters, Pyongyang's state media said on Saturday.

Honduras' de facto leader vowed on Friday that no country will push the small Central American nation around and pledged to resist international pressure to reinstate toppled President Manuel Zelaya.

Corazon Aquino of the Philippines, who ousted one of the 20th Century's most corrupt dictators to become a global icon of democracy, died on Saturday after a 16-month battle against colon cancer. She was 76.

The trials began on Saturday of 100 prominent moderates arrested shortly after Iran's disputed June presidential election and charged with trying to overthrow the clerical establishment, Iranian media reported.

Iran said on Saturday it had arrested three American tourists near the border with Iraq, the country's al-Alam television station reported.

Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co is preparing for an initial public offering for discount retailer Dollar General, a source said, and others are speculated to follow as it looks to take advantage of a recent rise in equity markets.

A China-based cyber attack on Saturday shut down online bookings for a leading Australian film festival, days before a controversial visit by a leading critic of Beijing, organizers said.

Yahoo Inc is considering developing new real-time search capabilities, even as it outsources its existing Internet search technology to Microsoft Corp.

Wall Street may have momentum on its side next week as the S&P 500 tries to puncture the 1,000 level, but the rally's staying power will depend on whether U.S. data and corporate earnings provide more signs of economic stabilization.

Amazon.com ate my homework.That's a legitimate excuse for one high-school student whose notes for a homework assignment vanished when the online retailer remotely deleted digital copies of George Orwell's 1984, off consumers' Kindle devices.

Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co is preparing up to six companies for initial public offerings in the next year, the Financial Times reported in its Saturday edition.