IBT Staff Reporter

Rio Tinto Ltd's $15.2 billion rights offer, the fifth-biggest on record, generated strong demand from UK investors, putting the world's top iron ore miner back into growth mode after a debt-funded purchase of Alcan had brought it to its knees.

As the worldwide IT markets took a major plunge in the current downturn, markets for Green computers and servers will grow $190 billion in 2013, according to analyst.

Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment, the second largest music company in world, said on Wednesday it made a strategic investment in IODA, a digital distributor of independent music.

Layoffs for the month of June exceeded the expectations, China on Tuesday delayed implementation of a controversial rule that requires all manufacturers to install Internet filtering software, California state resorts to issuing IOU's after the governor and lawmakers failed to reach a budget agreement.

General Motors Corp has no choice but to sell its assets to a group led by the U.S. government if it is to survive, a lawyer for the bankrupt carmaker argued in bankruptcy court in Manhattan on Wednesday

The U.S. government will soon release $4 billion of loans and grants aimed at expanding broadband access to underserved areas across the United States, officials said on Wednesday.

Total U.S. new light vehicle sales in June were down 27.7 percent to 859,847, according to Autodata Corp, which compiled results released today by automakers. Ford Motor Corp fell the least with a 10.7 pct decline.

Internet servers like MySpace cannot be held liable when minors are sexually assaulted by people they first meet on a website, a California appeals court ruled in an opinion filed late on Tuesday.

Chinalco decided to participate in the $15.2-billion rights issue of global miner Rio Tinto with the financial support from the Agricultural Bank of China and China Development Bank, Caijing Magazine reported on Tuesday.

It was a strategic move to announce the discovery of a three-billion-ton iron ore deposit in Liaoning province, said an analyst who preferred not to be named, to help Chinese negotiators gain a bigger say at this year's iron ore price negotiations.

Mozilla has officially released the latest version of its Firefox browser bringing not only cutting-edge features, but new prospects of stripping away market share from rival browsers.

Auto seating supplier Lear Corp said on Wednesday it would file for Chapter 11 in a reorganization supported by key secured lenders and bondholders and had obtained $500 million in bankruptcy financing.

Xinhua, China's state news agency, said on Wednesday it had launched a trial run for an international English-language television news service as part of a drive to boost the country's image and global media influence.

The U.S. will give $408 million in federal funds to develop two new carbon capture and sequestration projects in coal fired power plants, Energy Sec. Steven Chu announced on Wednesday. The projects aim to achieve at least 90 percent carbon dioxide capture efficiency, Chu said.

A year-old website, inspired by the use of Twitter and Internet media reporting out of Iran, hopes to become the go-to forum for citizen journalists everywhere as traditional media pulls back.

U.S. auto sales tumbled 28 percent in June, the narrowest decline in nine months, as Ford Motor Co stole market share from its rivals.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported gasoline stockpiles rose by 2.3 million barrels last week, surpassing analysts' forecasts and showing the economic crisis has hit fuel demand hard. Distillate inventories jumped by 2.9 million barrels and crude stockpiles fell by 3.7 million barrels.

Two losing contenders in Iran's presidential election denounced the result on Wednesday in clear defiance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's next cabinet would be illegitimate.

Actor Karl Malden, who won an Oscar for his role in the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire, died Wednesday at age 97 as he slept in his Brentwood, Calif., home, his manager Bud Ross said according to Reuters.

Wind turbine prices have dropped 18 percent worldwide in late 2008 and 2009, affected by a decline in demand for the equipment and a decline in the cost of raw materials such as steel, consulting firm New Energy Finance reported on Monday.

The Obama administration on Wednesday expanded its foreclosure prevention efforts to help a greater number of underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages.

The main financial headlines for the day:

The Chinese government has backed away from mandating filtering software on all personal computers in China, in a move that averts a dangerous escalation in its censorship powers.

Global investment in clean energy and climate-friendly technologies leapt in the last three months but full-year levels won't recover until 2010 or 2011, analysts said on Wednesday.

Chinese steel mills offered their first meaningful compromise on iron ore prices on Wednesday, scrambling to salvage annual supply deals with global miners who kept silent one day after a deadline to agree terms.

Stocks rose on Wednesday, the start of the third quarter, as reassuring manufacturing data from China, Europe and the United States reinforced hopes that the world's economy is on the road to recovery.

India unexpectedly raised gasoline and diesel prices by as much as 10 percent on Wednesday, its first increase this year, passing some of oil's rally into an economy just beginning to find its feet amid a global recession.

China's sensor software rule delayed', not confirmed for how long - Facing strong resistance at home and abroad, China on Tuesday delayed implementation of a controversial rule that requires all manufacturers to install Internet filtering software on all new computers that are shipped and sold in China.

Auto seating supplier Lear Corp said on Wednesday it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a reorganization supported by key secured lenders and bondholders and that it had obtained $500 million in bankruptcy financing.