IBT Staff Reporter

Petrochemical firm Saudi Basic Industries Corp said on Saturday Chinese authorities have approved an equally-owned joint-venture plant with Sinopec.

Sanofi Aventis has recalled three cough mixtures for babies and children in France after traces of a toxic substance were discovered in a bottle, the French health authority said on its website on Saturday.

Discount retailer 99 Cents Only Stores expects that middle and upper income customers who helped boost its first-quarter sales will continue shopping there after the recession, the company's chief executive said on Friday.

Michael Jackson's father said on Friday he suspected foul play in the death of his pop star son, as lawyers disclosed talks aimed at settling guardianship of the singer's two children with his ex-wife.

The following is the full prepared statement of President Obama's speech in Accra, Ghana on July 11, 2009 as presented by the White House, according to the Associated Press.

Volkswagen has improved an offer to buy almost half of Porsche, a magazine reported on Saturday, a deal that would reverse an ambitious bid by the luxury carmaker for VW that unraveled in the crisis.

Actor Ryan Reynolds has been cast as the DC Universe's most popular Green Lantern, Hal Jordan in the live-action film.

Shuttle Endeavour is ready for liftoff for its latest mission to space on Saturday; however, forecasters are predicting a 60 percent chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms and electrical activity that could cause another delay.

Italy's Roberto Nocentini took the overall lead at the Tour de France by six seconds on Friday while Spain's Alberto Contador sprinted to second place in the last kilometers of the 7th stage, two seconds ahead of Lance Armstrong of the U.S.

Under normal circumstances, Goldman Sachs Group Inc might be afforded a moment of gloating as it struts toward what could be a banner earnings announcement just nine months after being roiled by Wall Street's worse crisis since the Great Depression.

North Korea's military is behind a series of cyber attacks against South Korean and U.S. websites that slowed or disabled access by saturating them with traffic this week, a South Korean news report said on Saturday.

The issue of reserve currencies and the reform of the international monetary regime will probably not take place at the Group Eight Summit (G8) with the so-called Group Five (G5) nations, despite the calls from China and other countries, according to industry experts.

A former lawyer was found guilty on Friday of a broad conspiracy in the fraud that caused the 2005 collapse of commodities broker Refco Finance Holdings LLC in a partial verdict by a jury whose deliberations became heated this week.

The Obama administration wants to give the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission broad powers to identify and ban compensation practices at investment brokers and advisers that interfere with their fiduciary duties to clients.

The biggest U.S. banks, including Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase and Citibank announced plans to stop exchanging the registered warrants for cash after Friday.

U.S. consumers' moods soured in early July on persistent worries about jobs, a survey showed on Friday, offering little hope their spending will help the sputtering economic recovery.

The British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp denied on Friday allegations its journalists had hacked into the phones of thousands of public figures, following days of damning headlines.

A new General Motors emerged from bankruptcy protection on Friday -- far more quickly than most industry watchers had expected -- as a leaner automaker pledging to win back American consumers and pay back taxpayers.

U.S. President Barack Obama warned Iran on Friday the world will not wait indefinitely for it to end its nuclear defiance, saying Tehran had until September to comply or else face consequences.

The U.S. Treasury said on Friday that State Street Corp. paid $60 million to buy back stock warrants, becoming the first of the largest U.S. banks to completely free itself from the government's financial bailout program.

California has enough cash available to pay its priority bill through September thanks to the IOUs it has been issuing, but it may not be able to make payments in October due to the state's budget crisis, the state controller's office said on Friday.

The G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, concluded on Friday.The U.S. Energy Department announced on Friday it will deploy funds of more than $589 million for energy efficiency and weatherization programs. Continental Automotive awarded for production of lithium-ion batteries.

Altria Group Inc said it will seek a further review of a federal jury verdict against it that threw out $24 million in tax refunds from investments in utilities and other assets.

The biggest U.S. banks, including Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase and Citibank announced plans to stop exchanging the registered warrants for cash after Friday.

Obama administration officials outlined comprehensive proposals to rein in the free-wheeling market in financial derivatives on Friday, which has been blamed for helping to create the global economic crisis, and proposed stronger investor protections.

JPMorgan Chase & Co , seeking to extricate itself from a federal bailout program, wants warrants held by the government to be sold at auction, after the Treasury Department demanded too high a price for the bank to buy them back.

A G8 summit made scant progress toward a new U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed in December with some nations back-pedaling on promises of new action even before the end of a meeting in Italy.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 fell on Friday, dropping for the fourth straight week, after Chevron Corp warned about its quarterly results and consumer confidence fell to it lowest level since March.

Average U.S. ethanol margins have risen for the fourth week running as prices for corn, the top raw material cost for distillers, have fallen more than $1 a bushel over the month, experts said.