IBT Staff Reporter

President Barack Obama said police “acted stupidly” when the arrested black Harvard scholar outside his own home.

U.S. existing home sales notched their third monthly rise in June and prices hit the highest level since October, fueling hopes that the housing sector is finally on the mend and will help propel a broader economic recovery.

Solange Knowles, the younger sister of pop diva Beyonce Knowles went Wednesday for a haircut that has transformed her appearance, going from long to an army regulation cut.

President Barack Obama conceded on Thursday that Congress will not meet his August deadline for passing healthcare reform bills, but said he wanted lawmakers to keep on working on the issue.

Dozens of New Jersey politicians, officials and prominent rabbis were arrested on Thursday in a sweeping federal probe that uncovered political corruption, human organ sales and money laundering from New York to Israel, officials said.

The U.S. government has bought 195 million doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine for a possible autumn vaccination campaign, a U.S. federal official said Thursday.

Advisers to large bondholders of CIT Group Inc are pushing to allow the company to restructure its debt with a prepackaged bankruptcy option if later debt exchanges fail to attract enough creditors, a source close to the negotiations said on Thursday.

McDonald's Corp reported lower-than-expected June same-store sales on Thursday and its shares fell 4.9 percent after the top-performing restaurant chain only matched Wall Street's profit view.

President Barack Obama plunged his presidency into a charged racial debate and set off a firestorm in one of America's most liberal bastions by siding with a black Harvard scholar who accuses police of racism.

Stocks advanced on Thursday, sending the Dow industrials above the key 9,000 mark for the first time since January, as strong corporate profits and rebounding home sales spurred optimism about the economic recovery.

The Australian Dollar opens largely unchanged at 0.8160 after the domestic market's insipid reaction to yesterday's local inflation data which picked up in the June quarter by 0.5 per cent for a lower annualised reading of 1.5 per cent. With the CPI rate beneath the Reserve Bank's target range of 2-3 per cent, the door remains open for another interest rate cut should the need arise.

A Caltrain struck and killed a 63-year-old man in San Jose near Blossom Hill Station on Wednesday night, the eight fatality of this year.

Japanese electronics makers Sharp Corp and Sony Corp will likely finalize a deal by July-end to form a television LCD panel joint venture in Sakai, Mie Prefecture, the Nikkei business daily said without citing sources.

Three New Jersey mayors and several rabbis were arrested on Thursday in a sweeping federal investigation into political corruption that also uncovered human kidney sales and money laundering from Brooklyn to Israel, authorities said.

Yahoo Inc's third-quarter forecasts fell short of Wall Street expectations, sending shares 3.2 percent lower, as the Internet company announced plans to step up spending despite persistent weakness in the advertising market.

New York Times Co reported higher quarterly profit on cost cuts on Thursday, beating forecasts, but advertising revenue fell 30 percent and a recovery for U.S. newspaper publishers still looks a long way off.

Equity investors are too negative about the hedge fund industry, says Neptune's Jeremy Smith, who has recently bought shares in Man Group and expects more consolidation among traditional fund firms.

Ford Motor Co posted a $2.3 billion quarterly net profit, mainly due to gains from a $10 billion debt reduction plan, and said it was on track to at least break even in 2011, sending its shares up as much as 9.7 percent.

The chances that Canada's Research in Motion will enter a formal bid for the wireless assets of bankrupt Nortel Networks are slim as a bidding war develops for technology coveted by the world's leading telecom-equipment makers.

President Barack Obama's drive for healthcare reform suffered a setback on Thursday when Senate leaders said they would not be able to pass the measure before leaving for a monthlong August recess.

Oracle Corp, the world's No. 3 software maker, plans to buy privately held GoldenGate Software, beefing up its portfolio of technology that helps companies manipulate information in databases.

Ford Motor Co posted a $2.3 billion quarterly net profit, mainly due to gains from a $10 billion debt reduction plan, and said it was on track to at least break even in 2011, sending its shares up as much as 9.7 percent.

An Asian country with large, government-backed energy companies seeks growth through cross-border acquisitions. It's inexperienced in such deals however, and gets off to a shaky start.

The worldwide nanophotonic market is projected to reach $37.6 billion, to a CAGR record of 100.7 percent by 2014, according to a new research of Advance and Technology market on Thursday.

BBMG Corp, a leading building materials maker in China, on Thursday raised $768 million in a Hong Kong IPO at the top end of an indicated range, sources said, becoming one of the largest such deals this year and setting a positive tone for other big listings to follow.

Diversified U.S. manufacturer 3M Co handily beat Wall Street expectations, helped by strong demand for its respiratory masks that are being snapped up by people afraid of the swine flu.

EBay Inc's shares soared as much as 11 percent on Thursday, a day after the online auctioneer posted quarterly results that topped market expectations, leading at least nine analysts to raise their price targets.

A prominent black Harvard scholar arrested last week has triggered escalating national debates over racism.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel hoped to forge peace with the Palestinians, but sidestepped a controversy over Jewish settlement that has stalled a resumption of negotiations.